It's that time again!Follow

Maybe they want to get married in a specific church because it's pretty? I dunno.

Last week I got into an argument with a co-worker about the whole Christmas vs. Holidays thing. One of our regulars came in and wished us a Merry Christmas. After she left I jokingly said that next time she came in I'd wish her a Happy Yule (seeing as how I'm Wiccan). Then my co-worker asked what Yule was and I explained to her that it was a celebration of the winter solstice that many pagans celebrated. She just about threw a hissy fit right then and there. Started going off on why do people who don't celebrate Christmas buy each other presents or celebrate the holiday in any way, and a bunch of other crazy crap that didn't even make sense. Luckily there were three of us that day, and our third co-worker stepped in and basically told us both to shut up. I think it must have been my use of the word pagan that set her off, but I don't know. She's not very bright. This is the same girl that thought that Asia and Europe were countries and asked me where Irish people come from. I **** you not.

That's how it is here in the US, yeah. Who knows, maybe they're more lax about that over in Denmark. Personally I don't know why anyone would want to get married in a place that is only doing it because they're legally required. I would think the negative auras in a wedding like that would just be rampant. When I get married I want people to be happy about it!

I think churches here are pretty lax about that, mostly because only about 30-40% of our country is actually religious so the majority doesn't belong to any church.

You would think so, but somehow we always stay interested in these things.

Guess I should have read this for the lulz first. Keep pretending that it's just about what's being fought over today.


It's funny because I was thinking about differences between liberal and conservative political methodology, and something I've sorta known all along but hadn't really verbalized occurred to me. Liberals are directionally oriented, while conservatives are positionally oriented. What I mean by this is that conservatives tend to pick a position where they think some issue should be based on their own principles and ideals. Liberals tend to pick a direction on an issue based on their own principles and ideals. So, for example, a liberal might be for more social spending and less military spending, while a conservative will instead pick an amount that he thinks we should spend on social stuff and military stuff.

This often leads to massive misunderstanding between the two groups. A conservative might be more than willing to cut some unnecessary or wasteful military spending (because he believes we should spend "enough" money, but not more), which the liberal interprets as agreement but then becomes upset when he refuses to cut spending even more. Similarly, a conservative might be fine with a certain amount of social spending, which again confuses the liberal when he wants to spend more but is opposed. But that, while sometimes amusing, isn't so much of a problem.

The real problem is that liberals don't have an end point. But it is an inherent problem when you argue "for" something or "against" something. You don't stop being for that thing once you've removed the things hindering it, but will continue to be for it while arguing for additional benefits. Conservatives tend to place the point we should be at the point at which a group is neither unduly hurt or helped. Obviously, where they perceive that to be can change over time, but the changes are always based on the "position" they think that point should be. But liberals will keep pushing on past that point in whatever direction they've picked. So if you are for women, you'll push past eliminating discrimination in the workplace and right on to requiring other people to pay for their birth control. If you are against smoking, you'll go right past people smoking in the workplace, then on to smoking in planes, to smoking in restaurants, to smoking in bars, to smoking in parks, and even in people's own homes. The examples of this kind of thing are numerous.

What's ironic though, is that many liberals don't seem to realize this. They insist that they just want to achieve the current thing. But once that thing is achieved, they will not stop there, but will move on to the next thing. Liberals actively pursue a slippery slope, but are often the first to deny it, and denounce as absurd any conservative who dares to point it out.



Dunno. Just something I've been thinking about lately, and this particular bit reminded me of it.

Edited, Dec 19th 2012 4:40pm by gbaji

I was responding to Pigtails and Mazra who both expressed opinions on SSM being performed by clergy. When you can show me the laws requiring clergy to perform weddings between any other group they don't want to perform for, you just let me know.

But it's swell that you typed all that in response to... nothing. Good for you!

Edited, Dec 20th 2012 8:12am by Jophiel

...and that's why we have you, luv.

Keep on showing us the truth.

Christmas Eve isn't typically a day places close. Close early maybe, but usually not closed outright.


Happy Holidays Alma.

It wasn't closing for Christmas Eve, it was closing because it was a Monday and it's always closed for Mondays. Hence the reason why I said the sign was stupid since it was essentially only closing for Christmas.

Happy Holidays to you too.

Yes, The Navy Federal Credit Union, the commissary on post and my barbershop (in TN) work on Saturdays and get off Sundays and Mondays.

It's both. As someone who is Wiccan, I don't get offended if someone wishes me a merry Christmas, but I vastly prefer to say Happy Holidays to people because then I don't have to worry about the off chance of offending them, AND I am equally representing all holidays. I could just as easily say Happy Yule, but then people look at me funny.

Where did this happen?