Holiday display war madness
23 December 2008 by Stardust
Things are getting rather crazy in Olympia, Washington where all kinds of people are jumping on the bandwagon to have their various beliefs displayed at the state capitol. Then there are those who come to protest against each others’ displays. Wouldn’t it be easier just to keep church and state separate like it is supposed to be? They have now even approved a Fesitvus pole that was made famous in the television series, “Seinfeld”.
This all seems like an episode from Seinfeld itself. Read on. . .
Coming to Capitol: ‘Festivus’ display
OLYMPIA, Wash. – State officials, besieged by requests for more seasonal displays at the state Capitol, have approved several more – including a “Festivus” display honoring a faux holiday popularized by TV comedian Jerry Seinfeld.
The new display requests come on top of an anti-religion placard, a Christmas tree and a Christian nativity scene erected earlier this week and a pro-religion sign added Friday.
The state General Administration, which runs the state Capitol building, have OK’d four of the requests so far:
- On Saturday, Dec. 6: A balloon nativity shelter from a private citizen.
- On Sunday, Dec. 7: A demonstration by a group called “Private Citizens of Federal Way” against the atheistic sign will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. on the front steps.
- On Monday, Dec 8: A display will go up in the capitol from the Washington Values Alliance.
- On Wednesday, Dec 10: A Festivus display from a private citizen.
According to the online reference Wikipedia, Festivus is an annual holiday invented by writer Dan O’Keefe and introduced into popular culture by his son Daniel, a scriptwriter for the TV show Seinfeld.
Most people now celebrate the holiday on Dec. 23, as depicted on the December 18, 1997, Seinfeld episode “The Strike.”
The holiday includes novel practices such as the “Airing of Grievances”, in which each person tells everyone else all the ways they have disappointed him or her over the past year.
23 December 2008, on 2:55 pm
So let me get this straight…
A freakin’ FESTIVUS POLE goes up and the yahoos STILL don’t get it?
Ah, Bartleby! Ah, humanity!
23 December 2008, on 2:59 pm
David, it is quite unbelievable, isn’t it? You could smack them over the head a hundred times and they still won’t get it. This might be what the governor there is trying to convey but she is obviously over-estimating the intelligence of much of the state of Washington’s gawd-believing population.
23 December 2008, on 3:40 pm
Happy Festivus, everyone!
It’s time for the airing of the grievances….
23 December 2008, on 4:02 pm
“Wouldn’t it be easier just to keep church and state separate like it is supposed to be?”
[Some random, "faux", brainwashed, fanatical religious believer...on a ladder...
adjusting tree top angel ornament]:
WHAT???? WTF (Festivus)!!!
“Easier?…EASIER???…(Hrrmpf)…Now wait just a Gob blessed minute!!!
THAT idea…aside from any possible inkling of so-called R…R…R…(face slap) Rational considerations…would be TOTALLY against the all important and dogmatically traditional….and Holy Babblicly based…’Xtian Work Ethic’.
We all must work, work, work…and work exceedingly HARD…and unceasingly…at faithfully maintaining our mindlessly addicted, collective insanity!
After all…It ain’t easy being totally insane!…
Henya, Henya!” (chews on stale piece of 10 year old Holiday fruitcake)”
23 December 2008, on 4:55 pm
Does anyone actually eat fruitcake?
23 December 2008, on 5:13 pm
Troll in the archives if you want to tell wish vwatson and Happy festivus
23 December 2008, on 5:28 pm
Xmas time is like an extended april fools for religious tw*ts.
I’m a fan of Zappadan myself. It’s over already but it’s never too late for another carol!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ubBw3dE8Wc
23 December 2008, on 5:34 pm
The Phelps’ want to put up a sign that says Santa Claus will send you to Hell.
23 December 2008, on 5:52 pm
AUM, Is santa moonlighting now? I thought there was a ferryman who did that sort of thing.. No wait… wrong mythology. It’s hard keeping all those afterlife fairy tales straight.
23 December 2008, on 6:31 pm
^ “Does anyone actually eat fruitcake?”
Well, my dear Stardust…
I know it’s a favorite joke, particularly for the “Boomer” Generation; but yes…some of us (older?) earthlings actually like it. Of course…just like humans…not all fruitcakes are equal!…?
Of course, in my old age, I’ve come to the (albeit un-Scientific) conclusion that we humans ARE a bunch of “Fruitcakes”.
A conclusion which inevitably brings me to the rhetorical question…
Should “Eat Me!” be the new Mantra of the “ChuckA’s Tribal Fruitcake Mythology”?
Joseph Campbell considered all mythologies to be a sort of “Software for living ones life”
So I guess mine would be the “Fruitcake Way of Life” Software.
Yeah…I know…Lame!…
or is it Lime?
23 December 2008, on 7:44 pm
^ ^ RE Star’s referenced “Troll in the archives” …
Do any of these fundie morons EVER think for themselves. They’re ALL completely hung up on the unjustly cruel and Tyrannical, “Kindergarten Cosmology” of carrot and stick…heaven and hell…bullshit. Absolutely nothing original EVER emanates from their brains.
And they, seriously, DON’T know their Buybull and its true history.
Having emerged from the RCC brand of common childhood indoctrinational brainwashing, I can understand why, of course.
I’m convinced that the real hard-core “Fundies” sprinkled amongst the more moderate (albeit enabler) believers, are extremely nasty people at heart; and it’s somewhat scary to think of just how vicious they’d REALLY be if they weren’t inhibited by the threat of the insidious “Eternal Damnation” that they inevitably, and incessantly, blab on about.
To my mind, and I think, to many other atheists…ALL religions, but in particular, the Abrahamic religions are nothing more than purposely madeup, inherently Fascist, mythologically based, Tyrannies aimed at completely controlling the minds of the masses.
Again, to use Joseph Campbell’s phrase…”The Power of Myth” is truly, mind numbingly, amazing in its resistance to all that’s in any way Rational, and Scientific.
It’s really no wonder that we skeptical atheists are the most hated. Face it…We’re the greatest threat to their totally delusional and essentially…mentally ill…way of life!
“When will they EVER learn?”
Probably, I’m guessing…never?
23 December 2008, on 8:43 pm
Ourlady, they even sang it in song, to the tune of Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, you can hear it on the most recent episode of the Atheist Experience.
One of the lines is “He’ll rape you like a priest.”
Hopefully this will get a ton of people in a tiff and force the state to stop allowing displays at all. That’s really all they can do, since if they don’t allow this display, the Phelps have a pretty good anti-free speech case.
23 December 2008, on 9:48 pm
He’ll rape you like a priest, thats frickin classic, seems that the religious fucktards are raping everyone though, I was alarmed about the state of the US sanity but these past couple of weeks I’ve seen that it’s truly gone whacko, Festinger would have a field day with all the subjects he could study now, that a TV program could exercise such sway over a populous is simply mind bending, for fuck sake it’s a tv program leave it at that, the da vinci code the phillistine prophesy’s{LOL} what next bill and ben the flower pot men, everyone there seems to be obsessed with their own agenda, the only sanity I see is from the postings here thankfully you restore my belief that the US does indeed have sane people , instead of the bullshit about airing grievances why don’t you have something positive like WHY you are a valuable person How can I help you , maybe I’m being naive and the US is so full of greivances theres no hope, it just seems like everyone spends all their time bitching on, fight fight fight, it’s like watching a bunch of small kids who are tired and hungry, again I am sorry if I offend but in all honesty it’s fucking pathetic.
24 December 2008, on 1:12 am
Just so’s you let me know when it is time for “The Feats of Strength” That is my favorite part.
24 December 2008, on 11:49 am
And a Festivus for the rest of us! That is too funny-a Festivus display at the capitol! HAR!
I must admit, the balloon nativity has my curiosity piqued, though. Is it twisty, shaped balloons, or printed mylar balloons? Or is baby jeebus strapped in a lounge chair and going to take off with a bunch of helium balloons? I vote for the last option. Quick everyone! Man your BB guns! But careful, you could shoot your eye out!
25 December 2008, on 12:08 pm
Al those comments are very funny and i had a good laugh. I have to mension what i did read on this side and he said Religion is such an enemy to the intellect, it must be hell to be a Christian with a high school diploma.
Call me Theo Because Theodorus means a gift of God ha-ha- ha
25 December 2008, on 12:39 pm
^^Wow, Theodorus must have been hitting the eggnog a wee bit too much!
25 December 2008, on 7:54 pm
I am thoroughly enjoying the furor. And the more that get involved, the more I laugh.
25 December 2008, on 9:12 pm
Stardust and ChuckA and all Illinoisians
You do know that there is a Festivus pole in your state captol, right?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/25/festivus-pole-on-display_n_153501.html
This is getting funnier and funnier. Som high school kid put it up.
25 December 2008, on 10:37 pm
Wow, my local gentleman’s club is REALLY in the Festivus spirit, what with the multiple poles and all. And some of those girls? They’ve got the feats of strength down pat.
26 December 2008, on 12:58 am
Wow, Jimmer…
I had absolutely NO idea such merriment was occuring in Illinois.
(sips on alcohol-free coffee)
Aren’t the Holidays wonderful? (snark!)
Meanwhile…
“Man in Santa suit kills at least eight at Covina party, police say”
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-santa-shooting26-2008dec26,0,6505439.story?track=rss
Certainly, not really intending to make light of such a tragedy; but, the following excerpt from the story seems, I think, totally UN-surprising to all of us, as atheists…
“Pardo was, by many accounts, an unassuming, religious man, who tended to his garden and served regularly as an usher at evening Mass at Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in Montrose.”
26 December 2008, on 1:43 am
Stardust and ChuckA and all Illinoisians
You do know that there is a Festivus pole in your state captol, right?
Whoa, how did I miss that one? Fucking awesome!