This is not the behavior of people with genuine confidence in what they claim to believe. They have bought into a mythology they find appealing, and have evidently convinced themselves they have every right to display that myth on public property, owned by everyone. I'm sure there is no shortage of private property where they could put this display up, so why do they feel the need to force it onto the fire station's lawn? One of the things I like least about the Christmas season is the way it demands everyone's participation. Conservative Christians speak of a war on Christmans, but there is a war being waged here it is against the people who only want to be left alone.
Meanwhile, a display featuring Baphomet gets vandalized and destroyed beyond repair elsewhere in Iowa. They got the culprit (a kkkonservative kkkhristian two-time loser representing the "Party of Law and Order") but the damage is done.
Can you imagine what would happen if someone...anyone...should ironically set fire to that Nativity display in front of a fire station? There would be screams and howls for blood.
Yeah, "law and order" indeed. Meaning "laws for thee, on orders from me." They want all the protections of the law for themselves, with none of its restrictions, while everyone else gets all the restrictions but none of the protections.
I remember Trump at a rally in 2018 telling Greg Gianforte (the guy who "body slammed" reporter Ben Jacobs without any provocation whatsoever) that he did nothing wrong.
Naw, Trump has him beat, practically every rally trump held leading up to the 2016 election he announced he would pay for legal fees for anyone who beat up the protesters that got inside. Of course, when one guy did hit a person in custody being escorted from the premises in handcuffs, Trump denied ever saying anything of the sort (pay for legal fees for punching people).
He says he will pay, anyone with half a brain knows he won’t. Of course, his supporters donated their half brains to him very early on, they don’t have any left to see his obvious graft and lies.
And by "someone...anyone" I wasn't referring to myself or even atheists. Remember Michael Tate Reed, the guy who destroyed a 1O Commandments monument at the Arkansas Capitol? He's a Christian.
Take out your bibles and turn to Romans, Chapter 13, Verses 1 through 5. What does it say? That's right. It tells believers to not only obey all earthly laws and authorities, it tells them exactly why.
Now what part of that scripture is unclear to you?
That's silly ol' Weak Hippy Jesus with his "love everyone" and "tolerate differences" and "turn the other cheek" and that kinda stuff! Well, that mighta been good enough back in the day when we ran everything anyway, but now we've gotta fight back!
I follow Big Manly Jesus! He's mad as hell and he ain't gonna take it no more! If you want to inherit the world, you can't be meek - everyone knows that!
Interesting, since it's a tactic for "pro-lifers," many of whom are Christian, to deliberately "go limp" with their bodies when the police come to arrest them for blocking abortion clinics (i.e., a form of resisting arrest).
Congratulations to the town of Toledo, Iowa for doing the 𝘢𝘣𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘵𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘮𝘶𝘮 necessary to comply with the First Amendment. Although an argument can be made that Santa is just some additional Christian symbolism. There is a reason he's called Saint Nicholas.
Yes and no. Saint Nicholas is celebrated on 6th December, not on 25th. My boardschool celebrated both, gifts on 6th December, a Chrismas feast just before the holidays.
Most people in the US (especially in far right evangelical spaces) are unaware of this, and conflate everything even tangentially connected was an integral part of the holiday.
Catholics pissed on every symbol of the solstice with some Jesus juice. Every single tradition, even those obviously stolen from the pre-Christian celebrations, supposedly symbolizes something about the Christian origin story.
I firmly say Santa belongs to Coca-Cola not Christians.
Yes I am going to go out on a limb here and say that they didn't even realize that Santa can be seen as a symbol of anything aside from Christianity. To them it's definitely not a non-religious symbol, it's just a symbol of Christmas. I'd be pissed if I were an atheist in Iowa and they put up a Santa next to a nativity display to make it "less religious". A menorah? Ok. That I could accept as good faith. Santa? No, I think they were doubling down.
The people of Toledo, at least a vocal group of people in Toledo, demanded the government break the law and trample the constitution. Once the display moved to private property, the city was in compliance, nothing more needed to be done. The nativity was prominently displayed, folks could see it by going the same route they did when it was at the fire station, and there’s no constitutional entanglement. But no. That wasn’t what this nativity display is for. It is for telling the citizens to confirm or else, it is for telling the world that Toledo is Christian only and no one else is welcome. Perhaps, if you have a menorah on your lawn the fire department won’t help if there’s a fire. Or if you don’t decorate your house, traffic is a little too bad for the ambulance to get to you on time. Well, maybe that is hyperbolic, but the display needs to be on government property for the mayor and the poorly educated and behaved Christian’s in the town to be happy. It’s not good enough to have their displays on the church lawns, or their own property, they need to have it where it doesn’t belong. And of course, it’s always the folks who bring the issue to the Christian’s attention that are the problem. I wish is could commit crimes and get everyone I know to show up at court and screech and holler so I don’t have to face consequences. What a fantastic way to operate a government.
This is such a terrible miscarriage of justice (didn’t mean to pun). I know that cruelty is the point but this goes far beyond that. Sadism comes to mind.
Except they're trying to make birth control illegal as well aren't they? And as one of the late great Spike Milligan's characters once said " Tha'll never stop fookin' in Bradford".
Don't get pregnant in the United States. Have your tubes tied, your uterus removed, or whatever you need to do, but do not get pregnant in the United States. Save your own life and adopt.
The reckoning for the fall of Roe is in progress. Be careful out there.
And now Coca-Cola is recalling 2,000 cases of the stuff because they may be contaminated with what's being referred to as "foreign material." It includes Diet Coke, Sprite and Fanta Orange,
So glad I don't drink Coke. Root beer, cream soda or sarsparilla for me. Maybe 7UP and ginger beer, too.
Same. The only soda I would drink on occasion was orange like Fanta. I was the kid who, at birthday parties, would always ask for milk. Mothers loved me. :D
"Fanta was created during World War II in Nazi Germany by the German Coca-Cola (GmbH) bottling company. Because of the war, there was no shipping between Nazi Germany and the United States. Therefore, the German bottling plant could no longer get Coca-Cola syrup."
I heard this a long while back and never touched Fanta again. Coke, too.
So ... Toledo, Iowa seems to think they can be scofflaws in the face of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, and The Catholic League wants to dare the Freedom From Religion Foundation to sue them. About all I can think of in rebuttal to that pair of fatuous statement is: 𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗜𝗞𝗘 𝗧𝗪𝗢! It has been my observation that those who don't take the concept of State / Church separation seriously tend to learn the hard way that the FFRF and other such organizations DO, and are willing to take legal and effective action to support their seriousness. I'll say it again:
If someone was 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 feeling feisty, they'd make a Krampus to add to the display, complete with a sack full of terrified children being dragged away to their doom.
Then, just let the local Christians trip all over themselves trying to articulate why a 𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 set of Christians' Christmas tradition doesn't belong with 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 Christmas traditions.
Jesus condemns men, women and children to eternal torment simply for not believing in him or refusing to enslave themselves to him. Santa merely leaves lumps of coal in one's fireplace stocking for bad behavior (or sics Krampus on unruly children). Jesus offers empty promises. Santa leaves physical gifts.
For shits and giggles, somebody please put up a Muslim display next to it blowing up the infidel Jesus and his silly Nativity scene for daring to blasphemy Allah.
Conservative always inventing “solutions” to problems that don’t exist. It goes hand in hand with the alternative reality they live in. Which is why they’re blind to the problems that DO exist.
Saw this story on the Interwebz yesterday. Boy, when it comes to money the RCC sure punishes its own harshly. Would the same could be said for other crimes they commit.
Please please 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 can TST donate a holiday display to the fire department?
The hand holding the apple twined by the snake, please. Not that ugly thing from the Iowa capitol.
I also like the slogan with the former 'Knowledge is the greatest gift.'
That's my favorite.
Make it of cheap plywood and make at least half a dozen for when somebody runs it over.
We've reached the point where I'd honestly like to see someone ask to put up something involving the Hogfather.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0765458/
This is not the behavior of people with genuine confidence in what they claim to believe. They have bought into a mythology they find appealing, and have evidently convinced themselves they have every right to display that myth on public property, owned by everyone. I'm sure there is no shortage of private property where they could put this display up, so why do they feel the need to force it onto the fire station's lawn? One of the things I like least about the Christmas season is the way it demands everyone's participation. Conservative Christians speak of a war on Christmans, but there is a war being waged here it is against the people who only want to be left alone.
I belong to the, "I just want to be left alone" group. I'm thankful for my large music collection this time of year. Not a Christmas tune in it.
I don't set foot in retail stores from Halloween through New Years, and I never have to hear x-mas music.
The only stores I will go in are grocery stores as a matter of necessity.
Walmart+ delivers
Allow me to recommend Robert Earl Keen’s “Merry Christmas From the Family”.
Unless you just can’t stand country music, you won’t be sorry.
Forgot the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P37xPiRz1sg
I haven't watched the Super Bowl in years. Dallas here btw.
Meanwhile, a display featuring Baphomet gets vandalized and destroyed beyond repair elsewhere in Iowa. They got the culprit (a kkkonservative kkkhristian two-time loser representing the "Party of Law and Order") but the damage is done.
Can you imagine what would happen if someone...anyone...should ironically set fire to that Nativity display in front of a fire station? There would be screams and howls for blood.
On Twitter, you've even got Ron DeSchmuckis pledging financial support to the crazy Christian who vandalized the Satanic altar.
A major-party presidential candidate publicly endorsing an a act of vandalism? That has to be some weird "first."
Ron DeFuhrer, Florida Man.
Just goes to show you how all the "law and order" posturing coming from Republicans is just that...posturing.
Yeah, "law and order" indeed. Meaning "laws for thee, on orders from me." They want all the protections of the law for themselves, with none of its restrictions, while everyone else gets all the restrictions but none of the protections.
Anarchists who want police protection from their slaves.
Trump is the ultimate symbol of his lawless, disorderly party.
I remember Trump at a rally in 2018 telling Greg Gianforte (the guy who "body slammed" reporter Ben Jacobs without any provocation whatsoever) that he did nothing wrong.
Naw, Trump has him beat, practically every rally trump held leading up to the 2016 election he announced he would pay for legal fees for anyone who beat up the protesters that got inside. Of course, when one guy did hit a person in custody being escorted from the premises in handcuffs, Trump denied ever saying anything of the sort (pay for legal fees for punching people).
Trump pay? That's funny right there.
He says he will pay, anyone with half a brain knows he won’t. Of course, his supporters donated their half brains to him very early on, they don’t have any left to see his obvious graft and lies.
Well, he probably thought "Wow, if I got arrested like that, I'd totally get a lawyer - and I'd probably at least promise to pay them, too!"
It's as close to either empathy or responsibility he can get these days.
I love the irony but wouldn’t condone the destruction — as I know you wouldn’t either.
'Course not. I'm not a Christian, after all. :)
And by "someone...anyone" I wasn't referring to myself or even atheists. Remember Michael Tate Reed, the guy who destroyed a 1O Commandments monument at the Arkansas Capitol? He's a Christian.
Yup, I knew exactly what you meant.
To the Christians of Toledo, Iowa...
Take out your bibles and turn to Romans, Chapter 13, Verses 1 through 5. What does it say? That's right. It tells believers to not only obey all earthly laws and authorities, it tells them exactly why.
Now what part of that scripture is unclear to you?
Hah!
That's silly ol' Weak Hippy Jesus with his "love everyone" and "tolerate differences" and "turn the other cheek" and that kinda stuff! Well, that mighta been good enough back in the day when we ran everything anyway, but now we've gotta fight back!
I follow Big Manly Jesus! He's mad as hell and he ain't gonna take it no more! If you want to inherit the world, you can't be meek - everyone knows that!
Momma didn't raise no fool!
Interesting, since it's a tactic for "pro-lifers," many of whom are Christian, to deliberately "go limp" with their bodies when the police come to arrest them for blocking abortion clinics (i.e., a form of resisting arrest).
But but Krischun Nayshun! That's about all they've got.
All of it.
Congratulations to the town of Toledo, Iowa for doing the 𝘢𝘣𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘵𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘮𝘶𝘮 necessary to comply with the First Amendment. Although an argument can be made that Santa is just some additional Christian symbolism. There is a reason he's called Saint Nicholas.
Yes and no. Saint Nicholas is celebrated on 6th December, not on 25th. My boardschool celebrated both, gifts on 6th December, a Chrismas feast just before the holidays.
Most people in the US (especially in far right evangelical spaces) are unaware of this, and conflate everything even tangentially connected was an integral part of the holiday.
Catholics pissed on every symbol of the solstice with some Jesus juice. Every single tradition, even those obviously stolen from the pre-Christian celebrations, supposedly symbolizes something about the Christian origin story.
I firmly say Santa belongs to Coca-Cola not Christians.
😝
https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/a-pictorial-history-of-santa-claus/
Many don't realize that Jesus and Santa were once mortal enemies.
https://vimeo.com/149917416
Of course they do. Santa = Satan.
Yes I am going to go out on a limb here and say that they didn't even realize that Santa can be seen as a symbol of anything aside from Christianity. To them it's definitely not a non-religious symbol, it's just a symbol of Christmas. I'd be pissed if I were an atheist in Iowa and they put up a Santa next to a nativity display to make it "less religious". A menorah? Ok. That I could accept as good faith. Santa? No, I think they were doubling down.
The people of Toledo, at least a vocal group of people in Toledo, demanded the government break the law and trample the constitution. Once the display moved to private property, the city was in compliance, nothing more needed to be done. The nativity was prominently displayed, folks could see it by going the same route they did when it was at the fire station, and there’s no constitutional entanglement. But no. That wasn’t what this nativity display is for. It is for telling the citizens to confirm or else, it is for telling the world that Toledo is Christian only and no one else is welcome. Perhaps, if you have a menorah on your lawn the fire department won’t help if there’s a fire. Or if you don’t decorate your house, traffic is a little too bad for the ambulance to get to you on time. Well, maybe that is hyperbolic, but the display needs to be on government property for the mayor and the poorly educated and behaved Christian’s in the town to be happy. It’s not good enough to have their displays on the church lawns, or their own property, they need to have it where it doesn’t belong. And of course, it’s always the folks who bring the issue to the Christian’s attention that are the problem. I wish is could commit crimes and get everyone I know to show up at court and screech and holler so I don’t have to face consequences. What a fantastic way to operate a government.
OT- The atrocious but inevitable result of abortion bans... women getting prosecuted for miscarriages: https://apnews.com/article/ohio-miscarriage-prosecution-brittany-watts-b8090abfb5994b8a23457b80cf3f27ce
Welcome to Gilead.
That is why even Republican voters in Florida are signing petitions to secure abortion rights.
I've already signed it, but here, it would have to get 60% of the vote to pass.
This is such a terrible miscarriage of justice (didn’t mean to pun). I know that cruelty is the point but this goes far beyond that. Sadism comes to mind.
This was happening even before Roe was overturned.
I should add, mostly to black women.
Except they're trying to make birth control illegal as well aren't they? And as one of the late great Spike Milligan's characters once said " Tha'll never stop fookin' in Bradford".
Sex toys can't get you pregnant.
But variety is the spice of life. :)
My reaction to the cruelty of this abominable injustice, as always...
https://imgur.com/a/xy6S9
double check your link. Got a 404.
Fixed it. Refresh and try.
Don't get pregnant in the United States. Have your tubes tied, your uterus removed, or whatever you need to do, but do not get pregnant in the United States. Save your own life and adopt.
The reckoning for the fall of Roe is in progress. Be careful out there.
As I said below, when repuklicans solve problems that don't exist, they create problems that didn't exist previously.
You should look at the price of Diet Pepsi. Eggs are cheap.
One of the nurses who take care of my wound told me to drink Coca when my sugar level is low 🤮
What didn't he understand when I said I don't like things too sweet ?
And now Coca-Cola is recalling 2,000 cases of the stuff because they may be contaminated with what's being referred to as "foreign material." It includes Diet Coke, Sprite and Fanta Orange,
So glad I don't drink Coke. Root beer, cream soda or sarsparilla for me. Maybe 7UP and ginger beer, too.
Same. The only soda I would drink on occasion was orange like Fanta. I was the kid who, at birthday parties, would always ask for milk. Mothers loved me. :D
From the wikipage on Fanta...
"Fanta was created during World War II in Nazi Germany by the German Coca-Cola (GmbH) bottling company. Because of the war, there was no shipping between Nazi Germany and the United States. Therefore, the German bottling plant could no longer get Coca-Cola syrup."
I heard this a long while back and never touched Fanta again. Coke, too.
Me too. I still don't like soft drinks.
Sarsaparilla? Okay Hoppy.
😇
Ha! If you two people actually got that reference – you're showing your age.
The only soda I tolerate is Schweppes tonic and the last time I drank some was before the pandemic.
I tried Schweppes Tonic. Once was enough. Bitter, bubbly water.
Coke is nectar of the gods. 🤤
I thought that was Yoo-Hoo. 😎
Nope, sorry.
https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse1.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOIP.p_FPGzQJelqEaKT6MS20jQAAAA%26pid%3DApi&f=1&ipt=cca3326032c676f331ba3eddd9e35cda9bde3c19bcdd59d84a7e5ad0c42c2a3d&ipo=images
I had it once. Don't remember the bitter aftertaste.
So ... Toledo, Iowa seems to think they can be scofflaws in the face of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, and The Catholic League wants to dare the Freedom From Religion Foundation to sue them. About all I can think of in rebuttal to that pair of fatuous statement is: 𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗜𝗞𝗘 𝗧𝗪𝗢! It has been my observation that those who don't take the concept of State / Church separation seriously tend to learn the hard way that the FFRF and other such organizations DO, and are willing to take legal and effective action to support their seriousness. I'll say it again:
𝐼𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑢𝑝𝑖𝑑, 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑏𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑙𝑦 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑏𝑒𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑠𝑡𝑢𝑝𝑖𝑑 … 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑎𝑏 𝑚𝑎𝑦 𝑏𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑦 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑤𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑡.
Good thing they didn't try to install this one. Hilarity would have ensued...
https://imgflip.com/i/1gicvn
Frankly, whenever I see Santa and Jesus together, I always think of their battle on "South Park."
Wait, wait, just a second. Now we've got to think here. Now let's see. What would Brian Boitano do?
How about a Triple Salchow?
Two Salchows and a triple Lutz...While wearing a blindfold.
I bet he'd kick an ass or two...
https://youtu.be/sNJmfuEWR8w?si=nMWA5IROcnYjgzEU
What's wrong with that? Santa is just offering baby Jesus a very large piece of white chocolate in the form of a pillow. *smiles*
A Mike Lindell Pillow.
If someone was 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 feeling feisty, they'd make a Krampus to add to the display, complete with a sack full of terrified children being dragged away to their doom.
Then, just let the local Christians trip all over themselves trying to articulate why a 𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 set of Christians' Christmas tradition doesn't belong with 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 Christmas traditions.
Santa made it all better.
He's certainly more fun to be around than that stick-in-the-mud JC and his dickhead dad.
Bildo got involved in this? What, did he run out of child molesters to defend?
Here's the 411 on Bill Donohue and his 'league'...
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Bill_Donohue
Also...
http://americanloons.blogspot.com/2010/11/109-bill-william-donohue.html
Well, there's only so many people left who can receive a fax.
William Donohue is the Archer Bunker of Catholic apologetics.
Carroll O'Connor said he was always careful to never play the character of Archie as a hero; that he should always be played as a buffoon. A loser.
Bildo's not playing. He really is a buffoon/loser.
"Archie"
Jesus v. Santa...Jesus v. Santa...
Jesus condemns men, women and children to eternal torment simply for not believing in him or refusing to enslave themselves to him. Santa merely leaves lumps of coal in one's fireplace stocking for bad behavior (or sics Krampus on unruly children). Jesus offers empty promises. Santa leaves physical gifts.
Winner: Santa
For shits and giggles, somebody please put up a Muslim display next to it blowing up the infidel Jesus and his silly Nativity scene for daring to blasphemy Allah.
Allah-Aint-So-Akbar-No-More!
Never was.
Conservative always inventing “solutions” to problems that don’t exist. It goes hand in hand with the alternative reality they live in. Which is why they’re blind to the problems that DO exist.
"Conservative solutions" to problems that don't exist cause problems that didn't exist before.
OT: Cardinal found guilty of embezzlement in Vatican ‘trial of the century’ https://wapo.st/4706Ivy
Saw this story on the Interwebz yesterday. Boy, when it comes to money the RCC sure punishes its own harshly. Would the same could be said for other crimes they commit.
Cardinal sin.
Right?! They’re all worse than the moneychangers “den of thieves”