Thursday, December 09, 2004

CSPI: Snuff out tasty food: "This week Hardee's introduced its Monster ThickBurger, which the company calls a "monument to decadence." Ever on the look-out for decadent foods to condemn, the nutrition Nazis at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) immediately added the ThickBurger to its long list of "food porn." In fact, Hardee's has CSPI Executive Director Michael Jacobson so hot and bothered that he deemed the burger the "fast-food equivalent of a snuff film." That's right, a snuff film. This is hardly the first time Jacobson has delved into the moribund. Last year he warned ice cream eaters: "Just know that you're going to kill yourself." Trying to resuscitate the media magic of CSPI's infamous claim that Fettuccine Alfredo is a "heart attack on a plate," Jacobson told NBC Nightly News: "This is a heart attack in a bun." Also appearing on the Nightly News, Hardee's head honcho noted: "If you're the romaine lettuce, raspberry vinaigrette crowd, this is not your burger." But for Jacobson, it's not enough to belong to that crowd. He wants everyone in the crowd, whether we like it or not.



A militant Merry Christmas

"I'm not sure when I noticed that "Merry Christmas" had been supplanted by "Happy Holidays." I thought this generic term was rather strange, considering that Hannukah is a minor Jewish holiday and Kwanzaa has less of a historic basis than Middle Earth or "Star Trek," but I simply filed it away for future reference. Two years ago, though, I noticed something that struck me as bordering on the ominous. People I did not know, namely salesclerks, were starting to correct me when I wished them a Merry Christmas. "Don't you mean Happy Holidays?" I was asked. "No, actually, I don't," I replied. "I am buying these gifts and having them wrapped here at your store, which is decorated with an overtly Christmas theme, because Dec. 25 is fast approaching. "I am not buying them because of oil magically reappearing in a Jewish lamp. I am not buying them because Kwanzaa Timmy is coming to town with his maize and his copy of the "Communist Manifesto." I am buying them because it is Christmas time."

Since then, I have become militant about any generic reference to "the holidays" or even worse, "the season". The season of what? "Have a good season" is something you tell an athlete, not a fellow celebrant of Jesus Christ's birth. Now, I have no quibble with those who harbor doubts that the Prince of Peace was, in fact, laid in a manger 2,000 years ago. Believe or don't believe, that's totally up to you. If God is content to let you decide, then who am I to tell you what to think? But if the fact that Christians celebrate the birth of their savior bothers you so much, then for the love of all that is collectively approved and societally consensual, don't celebrate it! Forget the carols, the gift-giving, the candlelight services. Forget "Silver Bells" and "Silent Night" and the stockings hung with care.

Christians, it is time to realize that the gloves are off and the gauntlet has been thrown down. The TV shows of our childhood have come to life and the Christmas grinches are real. The separation of Church and State has invaded our department stores and both Santa and the little baby Jesus are under attack. The secular elite seeks to establish its atheist apartheid, and now that Christianity has been eradicated from the government schools, it has the most popular symbol of Western Christianity firmly in its sights......

(From Vox Day)

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