Curtis Dahlgren
My first annual solstice-letter: Have a nice whatever!
By Curtis Dahlgren
"Are we doing a good enough job teaching our children what America is and what she represents in the long history of the world? Younger parents aren't sure that an unambivalent appreciation of America is the right thing to teach modern children . . We've got to do a better job of getting across that America is Freedom . . And freedom is special and rare." – Pres. Reagan's farewell address
2006 – SUCH A YEAR! I DON'T EVEN WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT. Even TIME magazine had a hard time defining it. They voted "all of you" the man/person-of-the-year. The media have been cheering for Muslim "insurgents" all year, but they chickened out on naming them the man/person-of-the-year.
When the news media proclaim a "moral equivalency" between those "insurgents" who target the maximum number of innocent civilians and those who try to do the opposite in response, I suppose that a generic "man-of-the-year" is not surprising news.
After all, schools choose the student-of-the-month by drawing names from a hat. Employers probably have a quota system for choosing employee-of-the-week. But the mainstream media have no such "impartial" systems for choosing the villain-of-the-day for the evening news (it's always America and the state of Israel). Britain is usually exempted because the Brits are appropriately divided on the issues and are moving toward a more secular culture sympathetic to extreme radical Islam (now how's that for consistency of logic?)!
Personally, I think Dick Cheney should be the man-of-the-decade for becoming the first man to shoot a lawyer without getting arrested or sued. Or how about "The illegal alien" as man-of -the-year? TIME magazine could have been more philosophically consistent if they had simply republished the chimp from its October 9, 06 issue – "the chimp who made us human"! If that tale is true, he's "the Man-for-all-seasons and for All Eternity"!
But enough of that. I want to get down to the serious business of my year-end letter to my friends, neighbors, and relatives – ALL OF YOU – so:
Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.
I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the generally accepted calendar year 2007, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great (not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere) without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith, or sexual preference(s) of the wishee.
[Excepting of course, if you are a woman, a minority member, or other victim of American imperialism. In that case, you should multiply this wish by a factor of 1.759331. If the wish comes true, perhaps you will be in a "happier" place next year.]
By accepting these greetings you are accepting these terms. This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original intent. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for himself or others, and is void where prohibited by law and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher. Wishees are likewise expected to exercise mature reader discretion. Satire is not intended to be taken literally (unless you want to, of course).
This greeting may be copied only in its entirely. Any personal misuses of the descriptions and accounts of this greeting without express permission are, well – DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT, OKAY?
CONCLUSION
Some of you may recognize part of the above greeting as similar to one that came in over the transom on the Internet. Any resemblance to that letter may be purely coincidental, but let's get serious:
ABRAHAM LINCOLN SAID:
"We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself and the product of his labor; while with others, the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men's labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name – liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names- liberty and tyranny."
My "wish" for [2016] is that the Mainstream media would get its story straight, and that the educational Establishment would cut the brainwashing crap.
The closing quotation is from Alexis de Tocqueville: "In politics shared hatreds are almost always the basis of friendships."
The glaring friendship of American academics and media with the Taliban/Al Quaida/Palestinian axis is explainable by no other means than this:
Their commonly hated enemy is simply our Judeo-Christian Heritage!
© Curtis Dahlgren
December 21, 2015
"Are we doing a good enough job teaching our children what America is and what she represents in the long history of the world? Younger parents aren't sure that an unambivalent appreciation of America is the right thing to teach modern children . . We've got to do a better job of getting across that America is Freedom . . And freedom is special and rare." – Pres. Reagan's farewell address
2006 – SUCH A YEAR! I DON'T EVEN WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT. Even TIME magazine had a hard time defining it. They voted "all of you" the man/person-of-the-year. The media have been cheering for Muslim "insurgents" all year, but they chickened out on naming them the man/person-of-the-year.
When the news media proclaim a "moral equivalency" between those "insurgents" who target the maximum number of innocent civilians and those who try to do the opposite in response, I suppose that a generic "man-of-the-year" is not surprising news.
After all, schools choose the student-of-the-month by drawing names from a hat. Employers probably have a quota system for choosing employee-of-the-week. But the mainstream media have no such "impartial" systems for choosing the villain-of-the-day for the evening news (it's always America and the state of Israel). Britain is usually exempted because the Brits are appropriately divided on the issues and are moving toward a more secular culture sympathetic to extreme radical Islam (now how's that for consistency of logic?)!
Personally, I think Dick Cheney should be the man-of-the-decade for becoming the first man to shoot a lawyer without getting arrested or sued. Or how about "The illegal alien" as man-of -the-year? TIME magazine could have been more philosophically consistent if they had simply republished the chimp from its October 9, 06 issue – "the chimp who made us human"! If that tale is true, he's "the Man-for-all-seasons and for All Eternity"!
But enough of that. I want to get down to the serious business of my year-end letter to my friends, neighbors, and relatives – ALL OF YOU – so:
Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.
I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the generally accepted calendar year 2007, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great (not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere) without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith, or sexual preference(s) of the wishee.
[Excepting of course, if you are a woman, a minority member, or other victim of American imperialism. In that case, you should multiply this wish by a factor of 1.759331. If the wish comes true, perhaps you will be in a "happier" place next year.]
By accepting these greetings you are accepting these terms. This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original intent. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for himself or others, and is void where prohibited by law and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher. Wishees are likewise expected to exercise mature reader discretion. Satire is not intended to be taken literally (unless you want to, of course).
This greeting may be copied only in its entirely. Any personal misuses of the descriptions and accounts of this greeting without express permission are, well – DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT, OKAY?
CONCLUSION
Some of you may recognize part of the above greeting as similar to one that came in over the transom on the Internet. Any resemblance to that letter may be purely coincidental, but let's get serious:
ABRAHAM LINCOLN SAID:
"We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself and the product of his labor; while with others, the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men's labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name – liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names- liberty and tyranny."
My "wish" for [2016] is that the Mainstream media would get its story straight, and that the educational Establishment would cut the brainwashing crap.
The closing quotation is from Alexis de Tocqueville: "In politics shared hatreds are almost always the basis of friendships."
The glaring friendship of American academics and media with the Taliban/Al Quaida/Palestinian axis is explainable by no other means than this:
Their commonly hated enemy is simply our Judeo-Christian Heritage!
© Curtis Dahlgren
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
