Bush cites 'message of hope'

[Rose Siding]

ASSOCIATED PRESS
President Bush's Christmas 2004 message:

For 2,000 years, Christmas has proclaimed a message of hope: the patient hope of men and women across centuries who listened to the words of prophets and lived in joyful expectation; the hope of Mary, who welcomed God's plan with great faith; and the hope of wise men, who set out on a long journey guided only by a slender promise traced in the stars.

Christmas reminds us that the grandest purposes of God can be found in the humblest places. And it gives us hope that all the love and gifts that come to us in this life are the signs and symbols of an even greater love and gift that came on a holy night.

The Christmas season fills our hearts with gratitude for the many blessings in our lives. With those blessings comes a responsibility to reach out to others. Many of our fellow Americans still suffer from the effects of illness or poverty. Others fight cruel addictions, cope with division in their families, or grieve the loss of a loved one.
...
By bringing liberty to the oppressed, our troops are defending the freedom and security of us all. They and their families are making many sacrifices for our nation, and all Americans are deeply grateful.

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20041224-094126-7713r.htm

Brother Bush's special traslation tells him that "Mary welcomed God's plan", and that Christmas has been celebrated for 2000 years. It's probably just the voices in his head that invite allusions to what is happening in Iraq as "bringing liberty".

[Khephra]

1. I guess he's also forgotten all the years

that Christians weren't able to celebrate Christmas because the Church leaders were trying to outlaw it too?

snip..................

There has always been some sense of complexity in the celebration of Christmas. So much so that in days of old the church attempted to have Christmas banned. It was in England during the tenure of Oliver Cromwell. His Puritan Party passed legislation outlawing Christmas. In England there would be no more lavish and raucous celebration, no more commercial exploitation, there would be no more Christmas, period.

But the people were outraged. There was rioting in the streets. Secret Christmas celebrations broke out all over England. But Cromwell retaliated. Parliament decreed penalties of imprisonment for anyone caught celebrating the holiday. Each year, by order of Parliament, town criers went through the streets a few days before Christmas, reminding people that "Christmas and all other superstitious festivals" should not be observed, businesses should remain open. There were to be no displays of Christmas decorations. During the year 1647 popular riots broke out in various places demanding the legalization of Christmas. But the puritan government stood firm and proceeded to break up Christmas celebrations by force of arms. People were arrested and in many instances jailed. The Puritans seemed surprised by the strength of popular resistance to their anti-Christmas policies, but they would not alter their policies or compromise their principles. They simply went down to defeat in the next elections. The Puritans were thrown out of power -- and Christmas was back on the march.

In cold New England, the zeal of the Puritans persisted long after it had faded away in England. The holiday remained outlawed in Massachusetts until the second half of the nineteenth century.

While we think of Christmas as something we've been doing since time immemorial, our present practices are virtual novelties. It was not until immigrants from Ireland and from the continent began arriving in great numbers that Christmas in America began to flourish. The Germans brought their Christmas tree. The Irish placed lights in their windows. Catholic immigrants from Eastern Europe brought their native carols as well as the radical idea of staying home from work on Christmas Day! Very soon their neighbors, charmed by these unfamiliar, but appealing innovations, followed the pattern set by the new immigrant groups and invented new customs of their own.

http://christianity.about.com/od/christmas/a/outlawxmas.htm

You gotta love that Puritan stock. Never content with restricting their own enjoyment of life, they had to go out and restrict the enjoyment of others.

And their children are traditionalists in this regard.

[TahitiNut]

8. Good catch, kef.

The historical revisionism of the regime is a cancer in this nation. Christ's Mass was a relatively ordinary holy day for most of the last 2,000 years, with the preeminence of Easter/Passover far more in keeping with the themes of the Church.

[Khephra]

9. Thanks TahitNut!

I'm constantly amazed by just how little the Fundies know about their own faith.

:crazy:

Can you believe that Bush has the nerve to call others revisionists when he can't even get last week's history right? You'd think his brain would have burned out because of all the lies he has to keep straight.

[TahitiNut]

12. The brain would only burn out if it had moral circuitry of some kind.

Absolutely everything that comes out of the mouths of this regime is mythical crap that feeds their faith-based sycophants. Absolutely every constituency of this cabal is some set of people who've subverted any kind of empirical reasoning process with some visceral, mindless delusion. Whether it be bigotry, self-righteousness, jingoism, or Voodoo economics, the people who support this regime have some article of "faith" that transcends reason and morality. They've apparently built up a huge immunity (fallacious reasoning) to any kind of contrary learning, engaging in mental masturbation, verbal regurgitation, and mindless recitation of mantras. Such entrenched ignorance is a blight on our body politic.

[opihimoimoi]

2. He is SO full of shit its comi ng out of his ears.

[MuseRider]

3. I suppose since it

is coming out his ears it is too much to ask that is stop coming out of his mouth.

[leftchick]

5. as well as his mouth...

:puke: on your effing message idiotface*

[NYC]

4. No message of PEACE?

Peace on earth, goodwill toward men? I guess he didn't mention that.

I like the comment of the person who posted above me. Wish it were true.

[NYC]

6. They are going to name a giant cemetery

in Iraq "LIBERTY CEMETERY".

...By bringing liberty to the oppressed, our troops are defending the freedom and security of us all. They and their families are making many sacrifices for our nation, and all Americans are deeply grateful...

[TahitiNut]

7. A "responsibility to reach out to others" with bombs and bullets.

Embedded in that rhetoric is the notion that the wealthy are "blessed" due to some greater virtuosity and those less well-off who sacrifice are seeking that state of blessedness. The evangelical theme of "reaching out to others" is patronizing and condescending. This narcissistic bag of shit is disgusting.

[Deja Q]

11. Man. He says nice things but does the exact opposite. How come

59 million voters didn't notice? :shrug:

* cuts fed funding. How is that reaching out to others when his corporate buddies also cut jobs so their execs can keep their overbloated salaries? Not to mention states that can't up the taxes.

The US is not ran by people who believe in blessing.

I am sick of the hypocrisy that is the basis for our nation's new political system: Hypocracy.

[bitchkitty]

10. War is peace. n/t

[NJCher]

13. my message of hope to george bush

Stop with the liberty/oppression crap already. My only hope is for your sleazy, lying, thieving a$$ to get thrown out of the White House as soon as humanly possible.

Now go get dressed in your Superfly coat and girley-girl cowboy boots and amuse us today. Give us something for our money.


Cher

[The Zanti Regent]

14. message of hope from a worhtless dope

who MURDERED MY ONLY CHILD!

F YOU BUSH

F YOU AND YOUR WHOLE WORTHLESS FAMILY!

[Chicago Democrat]

15. I 'hope' you stop starting wars, asshole!

[alexisfree]

16. Compasionate for everyone who is white..

[durablend]

17. And has three yachts!

Everyone else can go fcuk themselves.

:puke: