First Shot Fired In War on Christmas
And a very Merry Christmas to you, too, Phoenix.
A Salvation Army bell ringer in Phoenix appears to be first casualty in the War on Christmas.
Kristina Vindiola says a woman hit her outside the Wal-Mart on 91st Avenue and Thomas Road after she said “Happy Holidays.”
“The lady looked at me,” said Vindiola. “I thought she was going to put money in the kettle. She came up to me and said, ‘Do you believe in God?’ And she says, ‘You’re supposed to say Merry Christmas,’ and that’s when she hit me.”
She was going to slap the devil right out of that Holiday crap.
You know, I’ve often wondered what kind of pressure came about to cause these folks to change their hotel chain name to Holiday.
Think we can get the religious right to go protest them not calling it the Christmas Inn?
Or at least start the rumor that it used to be the Christmas Inn and see how long it takes Fox News to headline the story.
Thanks to TexasTrailerParkTrash for the heads up.
Saturday or Sunday there was a great guest editorial on the so-called War on Christmas in the Austin Statesman.I don’t mean the one by Matt Mackowiak, but by Stanford. Good food for thought.
1War on Christmas leads to Assault on Salvation Army? Dammit it’s too early to start drinking!
2Aggieland , no it ain’t! Thats pretty obvious from what I am seeing wherever I go.
3I know this is off the subject, but the conjunction of Holiday Inn and lawsuit sparked a memory. There is an old KOA campground off I-20 in Waskom, TX that operated under the name ‘Holiday Out’ for many years. They used the same color scheme as Holiday Inn, and possibly the same font style. Then one day that sign disappeared. I’ve always wondered if that was the result of a lawsuit.
4Aggieland … Honey, it’s 5 o’clock somewhere … salute the cocktail hour! Or, put a dash of whatever into your morning coffee and call it “cream.” LOL
5The mentality and meanness of folks just makes me want to smack the stupid out of them … but to do that, one would have to beat them to a bloody pulp and that simply is not part of my character so all I can do is say I’d like to do that!!
I’m with Marcia. It’s never the wrong time. It might be the wrong reason, but it’s never the wrong time.
Personally, for this time of year, I like a dollop of peppermint schnapps in my hot chocolate. Makes it taste like Thin Mints Girl Scout cookies!
6Now there’s a Kristian full of Christmas Spirit!
7Just not full of Christian kindness. Here’s somebody standing out in the elements trying to collect for the poor and she gets womped for it. I’ll take a swig of whatever spirit Aggieland and Marcia are having. Gawd A-mighty!
Now Sistah SusanF I know you work with (or have!) the State of Texas’ finest at the DPS and they take a pretty dim view of people that drive as much as I do swigging anything even faintly alcoholic. I shall just have to suffer in sober shrillness, cause silence is completely out of the question! 😀
And sing James Taylor under my breath (see next post – my favorite Christmas song!! For years!!)
8What we COULD do is go stand beside the bell ringers who stand out in the cold and raise money for the folks who show up at Salvation Army, needing food and clothing and a safe place to stay, the everlasting plight of poor folks. I cannot imagine anyone slugging someone for doing that. It is so sad. We have a chance here to spread some love and kindness out into the world where folks have gotten so mean.
9They can’t call it “Christmas Inn” because it would perpetually be on “no vacancy” status.
10All the local tv stations in Abilene have run stories the past few days, over and over, from the West Texas Food Bank, which is the central clearing house for all the churches around town who run their own food banks. Apparently this is the lowest they’ve been at the central clearinghouse in memory… which is the same thing all the church-run organizations are talking about. This is AFTER all the “biggies” in town have done their highly publicized can drives with the 3 major affiliate tv stations broadcasting live from their locations all day long. Think it might have to do with the food stamp cuts that became effective Nov 1? Nah… couldn’t be. Just wait until the unemployment benefits end at the end of the year. Now those hapless Khristians are attacking bell ringers, too? Grrrr…… Marge Wood, I’m glad you can continue to spread love and kindness, I’d like to take a whole lot of those two-faced a-holes down to the ground and beat them about their head and ankles with an ugly-stick. Bloody Mary, anyone?
11Not to be a dog in the manger,but since dumb bass dubya decided the Salvation Army should be allowed to discriminate in hiring practices,they have gotten nothing from me. And they never will.
12Dear Aggieland Liz, I actually got to drink on company time just before Thanksgiving. I was a volunteer practice dummy for the recruits to practice Field Sobriety Testing on. Fortunately, I was slated to be one of the “moderate” drunks. As it was, they got me more inebriated than I wanted to be. I only took 3 of the 4 drinks assigned to me and blew 0.073, under the legal limit, but WELL past the point where I would have been willing to drive. It seems I habitually cut off my own driving privileges about 0.04, half legal drunk.
Then we spent the afternoon getting “drunk tested” by the trooper recruits. It was fun.
I will say I was drinking my doctored hot chocolate at home, not at work. I don’t bring alcohol on campus. That’s a serious no-no. I haven’t investigated doing it with peppermint flavoring yet, so it would be non-alcoholic.
13If you’re not driving, try some Bailey’s Irish Cream in your cocoa. Sure makes something to look forward to if you’re shoveling snow.
And may all these “Merry ******* Christmas Or Else” fools get coal in their stockings. And I mean little bitty painful bits of coal in stockings that they wear while they’re walking around. Another wing of the “God looks like me, not like you” bunch.
14I don’t recall the precise details but my late father, a combat engineer veteran of the southwest Pacific campaign, of the War to make the World safe for Democracy intensely disliked either the Salvation Army or the Red Cross because one charged for their donuts while the other didn’t. I’d think assaulting a Salvation Army worker might get you smacked upside the head with a kettle.At least it ought to.
15Oooh, sounds good. And a Merry Christmas to you, too. And my friend with MS who got her food stamps seriously cut just now got her social security and disability denied so she’s looking for work. Ain’t they great. Grrrr. I’m going to go take a nap before i say something ugly.
16I feel sorry for the people who are apparently so insecure in their faith that they must consistently be reminded by strangers to have a merry Christian holiday.
17donquijoterocket it was the Red Cross who charged. Per my grandfather, they also didn’t like to serve those returning from the trenches, because they were dirty. He still refuses to give anything to the Red Cross, except blood. After giving gallons, he was really upset when he reached an age where he can’t donate blood. Although not a religious man, he does his giving to the Salvation Army.
Marge Wood it is my understanding that it is too common for social security disability to be denied 2-3 times, before it is approved. Would suggest locating a legal aid attorney to file for your friend, as even bureaucrats are moved by a letter on legal stationery. Best wishes to your friend and our hopes that Congress returns to pass a farm bill that increases the SNAP portion.
Blood, the gift of life. We encourage everyone who can to donate for the season and whenever they possibly can.
18There are attorneys that specialize in SS disability claims. They do not get anything if you lose your claim. They get about a third of any back disability you collect. I filed four times before I collected. Nephew with MS and Brother with back problems similar to mine collected on first try.
19I’m still angry at Christmas for invading my Winter Solstice celebration back in the 4th century.
20All I can think is that there are a whole lot of scared people out there, and the Faux News created War is just making things worse. In the spirit of Christmas let’s hope for a little Peace on Earth and Good Will towards Mankind, that is if you’re Christian.
21I’ve heard bad things about both Red Cross and Salvation Army, though to be fair the stories are at least WWII vintage. (Someone in the Army hospital with my dad asked a RC worker if they could get his radio fixed, and they did, but it came back with a “Property of the Red Cross” plaque glued onto it. And a friend’s father during WWI gave the local SA a substantial donation which he took back when told that it would be spent on a new silver trumpet, not the homeless.)
22I think we could agree to spread peace and goodwill (and random acts of kindness!) at ANY season, and of ANY affiliation! It’s like the food pantries all remind us: there are people hungry all year round, not just during the holidays – and many of them are hungry for a little kindness, too!
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