Showing posts with label Kwanzaa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kwanzaa. Show all posts

Monday, November 30, 2009

Letter home from the Culture Wars

Dear Friends, Family, Advertisers, and Whacked out Religious Morons:

After a couple years of wallowing in the stinking mud of your propaganda-fueled culture wars, I'm writing to let you know how sick and tired I am of this stupid war. Setting aside the absurdity of the strongest and most well armed sides (Christians) and their pimps and whores in the media claiming victimhood, I want to point out the obvious that has escaped most of your puny little pea-brains--there are other people in this world besides you selfish fucks.

There are Jews who do not go around claiming a war on Hannukah even though many of them have died throughout the centuries as a result of you claiming you had God on your side as you slaughtered them in your Crusades and in your death camps. There are no Hannukah displays in public buildings, in shopping malls, in schools, and on the media. There are no days off to "celebrate" their holidays the way there are multiple ones to celebrate yours. In fact, many Jews throughout the years have kindly offered to work on your holidays so you can spend time with your families. How many Christians have returned the favor by working on Jewish holidays so they can spend time with their families?

How many of you self-righteous smug assholes have even considered that other groups celebrate something other than your holidays? How many of you know anything about Kwanzaa, much less make room for it in your public displays of forced belief? Do you even care that it is about families spending time together as you define which days off others will be forced to accept so you can spend time with your own families? Do you even care that sanctioned and heavily advertised shopping days have overshadowed the reverence of this holiday for African-Americans because you are so selfish you can't see beyond your own religious beliefs and practices?

In the most stunning and horrible example from behind the lines of the culture wars, let me remind you of how you've lumped all of Islam into one convenient terror group you can persecute and punish for the crimes of the few. Do you even know or care that the Muslim New Year occurs in the month of December this year? Would you even allow a reminder or display of this holiday in the crowded mess that you call your own celebration, or are you so brainwashed by your media masters that you don't feel they have a right to what you claim is everyone's right to celebrate their spiritual, religious and cultural beliefs. My guess is that you'd probably raise holy hell if Muslims dared to put their display next to yours.

How typically Christian of you to ignore your history of religious violence because it conveniently interferes with your need to hate. How many Muslims did you kill in your Crusades? How many Jews did you kill in your need to forcefully spread your Christian faith to those who already had a religion but unfortunately it wasn't the one you practiced? How many of your white, Christian killers have you pretended didn't exist because it interfered with your twisted biblical bigotry? How many Timothy McVeighs are hiding in your closets just waiting to bomb another Federal Building to kill more innocent people for Jesus? How many Gays and Lesbians have you persecuted in your need to spread your sick version of Christian love and bigotry all across the globe?

Do you even care in your rampant bulldozing of other's beliefs that there are many Hindus, many Buddhists, many Pantheists, many Pagans, many others whose spiritual beliefs are just as valid as your own and worthy of the same respect you demand? How many of their holidays are you even aware exist? How many of you  are willing to allow them to put their displays next to yours during the month of December?

And finally, how many of you so-called tolerant asshats are willing to allow a large portion of the world to not believe in any deity? How many Atheist displays would you be willing to allow alongside your mangers and Jesus trees? How many Festivus poles do you think belong on the same public property your private religious symbols increasingly occupy now?

Until other religious and non-religious beliefs have equal status in public buildings, paid days off, and other religion-centric celebrations, you need to shut the fuck up about this stupid and non-existent war on Christmas. The only war is the war against ignorance and so far your side is heavily represented on the ignorance front so acting like victims who are in danger of losing something only makes you look even more like the hypocrites you truly are in the eyes of the world. But if History is any example, you'll just go on a killing spree in the hope of wiping out everyone who doesn't interpret a bunch of words in a book through your own hateful filters. That's just so fucking godlike, isn't it? Jesus would be so proud.




War On Xmas Veteran shirt
War On Xmas Veteran by godless_heathen
Shop for a tshirt on Zazzle

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Friday, November 17, 2006

The Darkness and Light of Winter Holidays

At the risk of sounding like Scrooge, most of the time I find myself saying "Bah Humbug" to Christmas. It's not a holiday I celebrate. I am not a Christian. I don't believe in Jesus. I give gifts all year round because I like giving, not because I'm expected to come up with something just because everyone else is. Having my own shop makes gift-giving a lot more fun because if I don't see something I like, I just make something I do like. I really enjoy how my friends and family look forward to my gifts now because they know I made them. That's how gifting should be; it shouldn't be this cringing feeling of what am I going to do with this piece of crap from Auntie Weirdo every year.


For those same reasons, I've made my own cards for several years. Usually I make just a small amount and they are handpainted, individually created little works of art for those near and dear to me. I send Winter Solstice cards to the Pagans and Witches, live Turkeys grazing happily for the non-carnivores in my life, lots of images of candles and light for Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Solstice, and even Christmas because light is special during the darkest time of the year.



As an informative aside, that's why major holidays during this time celebrate with light. Anyone who has ever lived in a far northern climate like I do knows that light is precious this time of year. Those delightful 10 pm summer sunsets are now replaced with the gray turning dark around 4:30 and regaining its gray hue sometime around 8 or 8:30 am. It's still early...wait until next month when we have about 8 hours of light, if you can call it light when it is mixed with wind, sideways driving rain, and that perpetual grayness of late fall, early winter. Candles and light are big this time of year and necessary. Even warm, desert climates acknowledge the shorter days of winter, the lack of light, and create art for their holidays that is filled with candles and colored bulbs and bright colors.


To acknowledge both this upcoming season of light festivals, I've taken several of my most favorite artwork cards, recreated them for the digital world and turned them into cards in my store.

And besides the need for light, I've also kept in mind the non-carnivores for this upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. This is the card I just sent out for Thanksgiving


It was inspired by a dear friend who told me that most people never see a live turkey or even know what beautiful birds they are in "real life." So I made this card for her and I have to agree, they are lovely birds. I thank her for opening my eyes to their beauty and I hope you share it with others in your own lives.

Here's the link to the card if you want to buy some. There's currently a 25 percent off sale that goes through the 19th, so you'd have to hurry: Wild Turkeys You get six with envelopes for 11.25 with the discount, which is a great price for special holiday cards! I will leave them at the special price of 15.00 through the holidays as I feel that is both affordable and also reflects the time I spent to make them unique.

This card and most of the alternative offerings is from My Holiday Store, a shop that is separate from Ursine Logic. I started it so I would have a place to buy alternative holiday items and non-religious Christmas cards and gifts. Although most of the items in Ursine Logic are not exactly mainstream and make great gifts, I wanted a special store to acknowledge there are more ways to celebrate Winter than with Christmas.

May you enjoy my offerings and send them to many of your friends who will hopefully enjoy them as well.
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