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War on Christmas footnote
I should add to my reflections here and here: This talk of a “war on Christmas” in the U.S. trivializes the all-too-real oppression of Christians in such places as Burma, China and North Korea. No one is preventing Christians in the U.S. from worshipping as they please. This country, I might add, is being (mis)governed by a born-again Christian. Likewise,
End-of-year music notes
–Records that didn’t make my 2005 end-of-year list and probably should have:Bill Frisell, East/West (Nonesuch)Vijay Iyer, Reimagining (Savoy Jazz)Miguel Zenon, Jibaro (Marsalis Music)John O’Gallagher, Line of Sight (Fresh Sound New Talent) –Four new albums that make use of strings in bristling, avant-garde ways:Assif Tsahar, Solitude (Hopscotch Records)David Murray, Waltz Again (Justin Time)Michel Lambert, Le Passant (rant)Taylor Ho Bynum, Other Stories
And again
My respondent Pat, from the comments: Obviously, you choose what you want to do. However, I would suggest that you reprioritize your time and energy on your blog and devote a far greater percentage of your time and energy to mobilizing people against the primary cause of the current violence, US occupation, and less of it to obsessing with the
More on the “war on Christmas”
Michelle Goldberg of Salon was on NPR this morning discussing the so-called war on Christmas, the Christian right’s current propaganda cudgel. You have to jump through Salon‘s hoops to read her piece, but it’s worth it. She traces the history of this campaign to Henry Ford and the John Birch Society. In light of this, the words of Fox News’s
A. Roy, continued…
My respondent replies to the previous post: [A. Roy] insists on simultaneously condemning the US and British state terrorism of war and occupation that leads to this violent Iraqi resistance. Condemning terrorism is not enough. One must also address its root causes. My point is that some “root causes” always seem to get left out, like the fascist character of
“War on Christmas”
Christmas time again, which means time for another round of war on secularism and multiculturalism from the right. Yes, it’s “war on Christmas” in the U.S. according to Bill O’Reilly and other shouting heads. Marc Cooper nails it as usual, calling this “one of the most bogus, bullshit, cynical, manufactured, crybaby campaigns that recent history has seen – Christian Conservatives
Items of interest, continued…
— Go here to read my review of Wadada Leo Smith’s 12/3 show in Philadelphia. — I was planning to write something about “My Humps,” the god-awful song by the Black Eyed Peas that continues to eat away at my brain. Hua Hsu of Slate took the words right out of my mouth. The song “veers toward evil,” according to
The trouble with A. Roy
A respondent has prompted me to reconsider my criticism of antiwar activist Arundhati Roy in light of her remarks upon winning the Sydney Peace Prize in Nov. ’04. Roy’s advocacy of “non-violent resistance” to the occupation of Iraq is indeed to be noted. In her acceptance speech she ventured this description of post-Saddam Iraq: Prisons have been privatized. Torture has