It’s Christmas Eve, and Santa’s already making his trek around the world. Now you can stalk Kris Kringle with NORAD’s Santa Tracker.
Merry Christmas!
The best thing SNL has created lately: The Chronic-WHAT-cles of Narnia
The guys from The Lonely Island, three guys who have been making doing sketch comedy and using Creative Commons licensing, joined the SNL crew this season and have been making some clever contributions, including this message from the United Lettuce Growers Association.
Break out the goofy hats and confetti, The New Vernacular is one year old today! I started out with a little dinky blog on Blogger (a service I highly recommend to anyone wanting to start a blog) and wasted countless hours messing around with html code and templates, searching endlessly for a three-column layout that would suit my needs. I finally broke down in September, purchased some web space, and started thenewvernacular.com using WordPress (a service I highly recommend for anyone looking to blog more than a couple times a month). Considering the success and fun I’ve had writing here, it looks like I’ll be continuing for the forseeable future.
Here’s a look back at the best of TNV from the past 12 months:
The Bush Administration’s plan for fighting terrorists: superheroes
Eliminate Chapter 220? Bad idea
How is Milwaukee’s school voucher experiment working out?
What’s up with the gas tax holiday?
In another one of his insightful discussions of the “War on Christmas”, Bill O’Reilly slams Madison for no apparent reason. The discussison in which this comment was made didn’t even have anything to do with Wisconsin.
O’REILLY: Now, this is a conservative city, Richmond. I mean, this is not Madison, Wisconsin, where you expect those people to be communing with Satan up there in the Madison, Wisconsin, media.
O’Reilly’s talking about how horrible it is that people get offended by terms such as “Happy Holidays” and “Season’s Greetings” and he goes on bashing the city I live in for no reason whatsoever. Talk about vindictive.
If you ever did before (and I can’t imagine why anyone would), I don’t see how you could take Bill O’Reilly seriously after the last couple weeks.
On a slightly related note, the Badger Herald has an editorial that should end the Capitol Christmas Tree debate once and for all. Tsk, tsk… Those legislators have better things to do… like allow me to carry concealed gun and ban gay marriage.
It’s exam season, so posting will likely be sparse for the next couple weeks. Here’s some del.icio.us linkage in the meantime:
Wisconsin State Journal: WIBA sells name of its newsroom to a business
Comprimising journalistic integrity or harmless capitalism?
Senator Russ Feingold at TPMcafe.com: Fixing The Patriot Act — Fighting Terrorism While Protecting Our Freedoms
Lifehacker.com: Download of the Day: Yahoo! Widget Engine 3.0
Wired News: The Firefox Hacks You Must Have
The Motley Fool: Yahoo! aquired del.icio.us
According the Jessica McBride, 46 legislators took a break from passing the first amendment to the Wisconsin contsitution that limits civil rights to sign this letter to Governor Doyle.
Dear Gov. Doyle:
We are urging you to rename the “Holiday Tree” that stands in the Capitol Rotunda the “Wisconsin State Christmas Tree.” On Friday, hundreds of celebrants of all ages joined together in the time-honored tradition of lighting the Capitol’s symbol of Christmas. On Sunday, hundreds more gathered around that tree, and participated in the 83rd annual “Capitol Christmas pageant.”
The custom of lighting a tree for Christmas began in the early 16th century and we believe the name of Wisconsin’s tree should reflect that custom. The “National Christmas Tree” in Washington DC has held its name since the tradition began in 1923. Every president since Calvin Coolidge has lit the Tree as a celebration of the Christmas spirit. Last week, the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives recommended that the tall decorated evergreen tree that sits on the U.S. Capitol grounds should be renamed the Capitol Christmas Tree.
In recent years, the Wisconsin “State Holiday Tree” was renamed and it is time to change it back. Wisconsin should follow the lead of our national officials and restore “Christmas” to one of the great symbols of Christmas. We ask for your support in renaming the tall decorated evergreen tree in the Capitol Rotunda the “Wisconsin State Christmas Tree.” Thank you for your consideration.
Question #1: Where’d this letter come from? What’s the source. I’m sure it’s legit, but why not tell us where you got it?
Question #2: Why wasn’t this letter sent last year? Or the year before? Or the year before that? Why the big fuss over “holiday” vs. “Christmas” this year? Could it be that someone’s been watching Mr. O’Reilly?
This week’s Carnival of the Badger is up at Subject to Change.
Some highlights (other than TNV, of course):
Belle at Leaning Blue cites her first amendment rights as the reason she can post blogs like this.
Folkbum’s Rambles and Rants questions the effectiveness of voter ID. Is anyone reading yet, Jay?
We’ve finally found the man behind the war on Christmas. It’s the one and only Jon Stewart. …at least it is if a six-second joke made over twelve months ago constitutes a war (it apparently does in the no-spin zone).
Currently playing on i-tunes: Angels We Have Heard on High - Mannheim Steamroller
Jake Herrera at the Daily Cardinal takes the sarcastic approach.
Mike Skelly of the Badger Herald brings Jerry Falwell into the discussion.
JohnnyCougar over at Truth > Lies sends an open letter to Bill O’Reilly:
Do you think Jesus would boycott a store because it didn’t say “Merry Christmas?” Do you think Jesus would even care? He would not waste His time with trivialities such as those you are engaging in. He would be spreading His word of Peace, Love, and Understanding. I doubt you, Bill O’Reilly, have the courage to show anybody love. All I ever hear coming out of your mouth is hate and complaints. Jesus cared about selflessness, not ratings. Jesus cared about the spiritual health of others, not the economic health of shopping centers. Jesus believed that faith resided inside your heart, not on a sign outside Wal Mart. The one time Jesus got mad was at the money changers in the Temple. Well you, sir, are a money changer in the temple. You are turning Jesus’ birthday into a political opportunity. You are making an issue out of this for ratings. And you mock Him by making His birthday an economic issue over a triviality. And you mock my ancestors and the founders of this country everytime you try to bring religion into politics and government.
It’s unbelievable. Some people actually have the audacity to demean the most important Christian holiday by using the phrase “Happy Holiday” instead of “Merry Christmas”. When I receive cards in the mail this time of year, I expect them to say what they mean: “Merry Christmas”. Forget people of other religions, it’s not their holiday, they don’t need to be included… in greeting cards or advertising or capitalism or anything else that has to do with this time of year. December belongs to those who celebrate Christmas… and it needs to stay that way.
Milwaukee blogger Jessica McBride of McBride’s Media Matters is on the case. She astutely observed that Governor Jim Doyle called the large evergreen that sits in the Capitol rotunda a “holiday tree” instead of a “Christmas tree”. Forget that Tommy Thompson and Scott McCallum did the same thing! That’s not the point.
McBride articulates the reasoning better than I can:
From “Arnold, where are you when we need you? Doyle Renames Christmas“
Can’t we just call a Christmas Tree a Christmas Tree? In order to be sensitive to people of different faiths, let’s put up other things to represent their beliefs too. But why can’t Christians be represented too? Let’s leave the Christmas trees be.
***short break from sarcasm***
I actually do agree with the argument that an evergreen tree covered in ornaments in December should be called a Christmas tree in a situation when it is obviously is such. It’s insulting to people’s intelligence and beliefs to do otherwise. That being said, I respect the desire to be inclusive, and on no terms do I think that either title is significant enough to make a fuss about. Especially not in four different blog posts, as McBride has done. We’ve all got our own beliefs… just make sure you take the time to respect others. Done and done.
***and we’re back***
It looks like McBride has gotten a classy new photo on her site and is sticking with her extremely professional-looking blogger layout.
And she’s working on a mystery novel, set in Milwaukee. It sounds great so far.
Thankfully, noble patriot Bill O’Reilly is leading the charge nationally with his “Christmas Under Siege” campaign.
From BillOReilly.com:
The Yule-tide has turned and the anti-Christmas forces are retreating all over the USA. In Wichita, Kansas it used to be called a ‘community’ tree. Now it’s called a Christmas tree thanks to the city council. In Deerfield, New Hampshire the cops and firefighters say they are putting up a Nativity scene, and you can talk to them if you don’t like it. Walgreen’s now says it made a mistake banning ‘Merry Christmas’ from its advertising and next year Christmas will be back. Lowe’s home improvement centers now say they are selling Christmas trees, not holiday trees. And the biggest victory of all–Macy’s. Last year it would not advertise using Christmas but this year it will.
As I said in my newspaper column this week, three wise men showed up to honor the baby Jesus way back when. And if corporate executives are not wise enough to emulate that, well, those of us who respect Christmas might look elsewhere. Talking points is proud to be a part of the pro-Christmas movement and things are moving our way. But eternal vigilance is the price of freedom and over the next three weeks we will be vigilant on this subject, believe me.
Only you can save Christmas from utter destruction and moral decay this year. Avoid the phrases “season’s greetings” and “happy holidays” at all costs, for they demean everything the season is about. Christians in America are being discriminated against, and it’s not right.
It’s blasphemy that Adam Cohen (hmmm, he could be Jewish) of the New York Times would write an op-ed pointing out the hypocracy of a movement meant to save Christmas. The NYT is all lies anyway:
Excerpt from Cohen’s article “This Season’s War Cry: Commercialize Christmas, or Else”:
Religious conservatives have a cause this holiday season: the commercialization of Christmas. They’re for it.
The American Family Association is leading a boycott of Target for not using the words “Merry Christmas” in its advertising. (Target denies it has an anti-Merry-Christmas policy.) The Catholic League boycotted Wal-Mart in part over the way its Web site treated searches for “Christmas.” Bill O’Reilly, the Fox anchor who last year started a “Christmas Under Siege” campaign, has a chart on his Web site of stores that use the phrase “Happy Holidays,” along with a poll that asks, “Will you shop at stores that do not say ‘Merry Christmas’?”
This campaign - which is being hyped on Fox and conservative talk radio - is an odd one. Christmas remains ubiquitous, and with its celebrators in control of the White House, Congress, the Supreme Court and every state supreme court and legislature, it hardly lacks for powerful supporters. There is also something perverse, when Christians are being jailed for discussing the Bible in Saudi Arabia and slaughtered in Sudan, about spending so much energy on stores that sell “holiday trees.”
What is less obvious, though, is that Christmas’s self-proclaimed defenders are rewriting the holiday’s history. They claim that the “traditional” American Christmas is under attack by what John Gibson, another Fox anchor, calls “professional atheists” and “Christian haters.” But America has a complicated history with Christmas, going back to the Puritans, who despised it. What the boycotters are doing is not defending America’s Christmas traditions, but creating a new version of the holiday that fits a political agenda.
The Puritans considered Christmas un-Christian, and hoped to keep it out of America. They could not find Dec. 25 in the Bible, their sole source of religious guidance, and insisted that the date derived from Saturnalia, the Roman heathens’ wintertime celebration. On their first Dec. 25 in the New World, in 1620, the Puritans worked on building projects and ostentatiously ignored the holiday. From 1659 to 1681 Massachusetts went further, making celebrating Christmas “by forbearing of labor, feasting or in any other way” a crime.
NYT: This Season’s War Cry: Commercialize Christmas, or Else
McBride: Arnold, where are you when we need you? Doyle Renames Christmas
O’Reilly: General Ass-backwards Craziness
Thanks to Jessica McBride for the picture, I snagged it from her site.
***My apolgies for the extreme sarcasm, but wow… is this really happening?***
Update: Journal Sentinel: A crusade over Christmas - Christian group slams secularization; others call issue ‘manufactured’
Remember when The New Vernacular won MKEonline.com’s Blog of the Week contest back in October? Well, I’m now in the semi-finals for Blog of the Year and I need all the help I can get. Luckily I’m not up against Xoff or Folkbum.
update: One of the other blogs I’m up against, Haverchuk, called me a sarcastic dude. It’s true. His blog is mostly about food… I’m definitely a fan.
update: I didn’t win, but Know what I mean? did.
President Bush spoke Wednesday about about the “National Strategy for Victory in Iraq“, a plan for reducing troop levels (without a set time-table) and eventual pull-out from Iraq (definitely without a time-table). Bush also criticized those who have been calling for a time-table to remove troops from Iraq:
“Many advocating an artificial timetable for withdrawing our troops are sincere, but I believe they’re sincerely wrong,” Bush said. “Pulling our troops out before they’ve achieved their purpose is not a plan for victory.”
That really depends on how you define victory. The National Strategy for Victory in Iraq (from the White House web site) defines victory in stages:
Victory in Iraq is Defined in Stages
- Short term, Iraq is making steady progress in fighting terrorists, meeting political milestones, building democratic institutions, and standing up security forces.
- Medium term, Iraq is in the lead defeating terrorists and providing its own security, with a fully constitutional government in place, and on its way to achieving its economic potential.
- Longer term, Iraq is peaceful, united, stable, and secure, well integrated into the international community, and a full partner in the global war on terrorism.
I believe that it took over over 75 years for the U.S. to become peaceful, united, and stable since its governmental structure was created (revolution to civil war). Whether we’re well integrated into the international community is still debatable. It may be a while before we hit the “victory” mark.
I’m all for a time-table of pulling out troops, granted that the time-table is approved by military officials and it’s flexible, in case the situation changes. Really, it should be more of a goal than a mandate. I obviously don’t have the military expertise or education to say whether removing troops would cause a haven for terrorism or not (and neither do most of us), which is why I think it’s important not to advocate ending the war simply to bring troops home safely (although that’s extremely important. At least Bush is now mentioning bringing more troops home; it’s a good start.
What really bothers me is people who say that talking about bringing our troops home is simply a “cut and run” strategy.
Some interesting takes on the “new strategy” from around the web:
Slate.com: The Good News—Bush Finally Has a Plan, The bad news—it’s an ill-defined muddle
Wonkette: The President’s Evolving Vision
Washington Post: An Offering of Detail But No New Substance
New York Times: Bush Gives Plan for Iraq Victory and Withdrawal
Some more analysis on the “death of newspapers” discussion (just not from me).
From Charles M. Madigan of the Chicago Tribune:
The assumption that newspapers are “dying” is just crazy.
In the first place, they are the staging areas for the people who actually collect all the news. Most of media, including the legion of bloggers, feed on what newspapers present. They love reacting to it, but they would be clueless, in many cases, if they had to report and present it.
Newspapers also remain the strongest summary tools we have.
I spend all day reading news on the Internet. And every morning, I grab the Chicago Tribune and the New York Times to fill in the many gaps. I have both immediate news and solid context. I am informed. You might disagree strongly with what I think about it, which is what writing a column is all about, but that’s OK.
From Jennifer Saba of EditorandPublisher.com:
For years, publishers have relied — often to their detriment — upon the metric of paid circulation. But circulation for the core product has been on a long, steady decline, causing some to suggest that print is on its way out.
The industry has touted the notion of readership — a metric that takes into account how many people read the paper whether they buy it or not — for years, but has often taken halfhearted steps toward giving it true legitimacy.
Then there’s the confounding, if promising, online angle. If you count Web traffic, newspapers are actually more popular than ever.
Many readers feel they no longer want to get their hands dirty reading the newspaper, but they are still viewing them online. But this raises the question, how many are uniques, and how many are duplicate readers who also check out the print edition?
Because of the opportunities afforded by a growing online audience, as well as a push to restore credibility to print circulation numbers following last year’s circ scandals, efforts to exploit new methods of measurement are being encouraged. Not only is the industry emphasizing readership, but also total audience, which takes Web readers into account.
But… I’m not paying (nor will I ever) to read the on-line edition. Oh, and I ignore most of your ads.
Chicago Tribune: Some things about `old media’ never change
Editor and Publisher: Dispelling the Myth of Readership Decline
hat tip to Romenesko
Later today, the Milwaukee Brewers will be unveiling new Sunday home uniforms that feature the beloved glove logo that graced Brew Crew gear from 1978-1993. The decision for the resurrection of the classic emblem (the letters M and B hidden in the shape of a baseball glove) was prompted by feedback from fans who have been sporting the old colors in recent seasons.
Not so random fact: The logo was created in 1977 by UW-Eau Claire art student Tom Meindel.
From MLB.com:
“We’re trying to marry the old with the new,” owner Mark Attanasio said at the end of the regular season, while the Brewers were still in the process of designing the new look.
The event will also mark the beginning of the team’s season ticket campaign, and sales staff will man the phones during the broadcast. Select incoming calls will be fielded by Brewers alumni and others participating in the evening’s activities.
Three hundred invited guests are expected to be in attendance at the event and will be invited to ask questions during the evening’s panel sessions. Because of limited space in the .300 Club, the event is not open to the public.
Of course, The Kid will be there too.
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