December 21, 2010
So Nina Totenberg Thought She Was Saying a Nine-Letter Word
... when she said this?
And I was at -- forgive the expression -- a Christmas party at the Department of Justice and ...
Interestingly, her comment did not make the final version of the weekend's Inside Washington broadcasted by NPR. It's not clear, though, whether this edit was made simply for the sake of time constraints or because NPR didn't want to have to repeatedly say, "Forgive the expression of our correspondent" after the show aired.
If anyone comes across a context or explanation for this remark, please link to it.
In the absence of such exposition, count this atheist as annoyed and staving off a sense of offense at this remark, both for the sake of the holiday itself and at the double standard demonstrated by Ms. Totenberg.
There is a video of it posted to the net. IIRC, it is short, but provides some context.
Posted by: Warrington Faust at December 21, 2010 9:17 PMFar be it from me to defend Nina T, but having seen the clip a few times I think she may actually have been poking fun at those who take such great pains to avoid saying "Merry Christmas."
In the spirit of the season, I'm prepared to indulge a presumption in her favor on this one . . .
Posted by: brassband at December 21, 2010 9:48 PMI agree with Brassband-I think she was making fun of this insane political correctness.
Posted by: joe bernstein at December 21, 2010 10:17 PMWell, it's that time of year again. The mother of all manufactured controversies. It's the War on Christmas!
Once again, Christians are lashing out at secularists and the non-religious under the pretence that Christmas is under attack.
The Fox News host Bill O'Reilly claimed the posters were designed only "to offend people who enjoy Christmas" Not mentioning the fact that his OWN website is offering "Holiday gifts" for sale" .All over priced of course !
Posted by: Sammy at December 21, 2010 10:19 PMI keep Christmas in my own way, and pay no attention to any of the caterwauling. It makes for an enjoyable season.
Posted by: michael at December 21, 2010 10:53 PMIf we are not celebrating Christmas, what is this "holiday" we are celebrating? If it has no meaning, why not eliminatethe "holiday"?
Posted by: Warrington Faust at December 21, 2010 11:40 PM Just O'Reilly being O'Reilly.
Happy Ramadan, Billo. And Crazy Kwanzaa, Juan Williams.
Kwanza is a "holiday"invented by a bigoted Black professor named Ron Karenga who ran a radical violent group called US in the 60's.The letters stood for "United Slaves".
Karenga's followers were co-opted by the FBI during COINTELPRO and were incited to murder some rival Black Panthers on a California college campus,one of whom was named Alprentice Carter.Anyone can look this stuff up-it's all there.
So now we have postage stamps celebrating a "holiday"started by a murderous hoodlum.
The Black people from the in law side of my son's family are frankly puzzled by the whole Kwanza deal and think it's kind of silly.At least that was the response when I brought it up.They,like most everyone else,celebrates Christmas.
People who are offended by Christmas need to get a life.There is no Constitutional right not to be offended.
Nina Totenberg is one of the high priestesses of the Marx/Gramsci cult of
"political correctness". There is no way she would be making fun of it.
Warrington the holiday that I celebrate around this time of year is channukah and of course happy New Year. I don't get ofended when wished a Merry Christmas but all of my holiday cards have always said Happy Holidays
Posted by: triplerichard at December 22, 2010 1:30 PMTriplerichard,
No disrespect intended, but my Jewish friends tell me that Channukah has been signficantly elevated in recent generations by the influence of Christmas. That would include Channukah bushes, cards and gift giving.
Doesn't trouble me, the "Holiday" is still unashamedly tied to a cause for religious celebration and is not just a retail event. (I suppose that Channukah has only a slim connection to Jewish theology)
I cannot bring myself to celebrate "Black Friday", "Cyber Monday"
or "Stomping Saturday". I think "Stomping Saturday" is a new addition to the "Holiday" this year.
I am tired of radio ads that encourage me to "show my affection" through interest free financing.
Posted by: Warrington Faust at December 22, 2010 5:02 PM"Nina Totenberg is one of the high priestesses of the Marx/Gramsci cult of
"political correctness". There is no way she would be making fun of it."
Really?!
The only people I know who actually care about political correctness are Woman's Studies majors and unemployed hardcore socialist activists (there's plenty of cross-over between those two groups). Most people on the left hate the overly-P.C. direction things have gone, too.
NPR isn't so bad. There's a lot of juicy tidbits, like the two episodes of their Planet Money podcast when they had a -real- socialist and a -real- libertarian both bash Obama's policies. Or when they did a critique of NGOs in Haiti forcing business owners to give their land up to cooperatives in order to get help.
Posted by: mangeek at December 22, 2010 5:22 PMWarrington-the Jewish religion has more holidays than Carter has liver pills.
I have no clue what some of them are about.
No wonder the last time I was at a Jewish service other than a funeral was in Vietnam.
Just taking a little space here to post a pet peeve. With the air full of "Christmas Music", I don't like the exclusion of what I suppose are Christmas Hymns. Without regard to religious content, I enjoy the Christmas music of the German masters, Silent Night, Oh come all ye faithful, Hark! The herald angels sing. While not my absolute favorite music, I do prefer it to "Rockin' around the Christmas tree".
I suppose Christmas music can be offensive on several levels. Consider "Strike the harp and we'll all be merry", or "Don we now our gay apparel".
Posted by: Warrington Faust at December 23, 2010 8:16 AM