Another Birther Conspiracy

1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to his own town to register. 4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in … [Read more...]

Jesus Was a Pisces

It is, once again, that magical time of the year when we celebrate the birth of many people's Lord and Savior on the wrong day. And it's a date that's not just a little wrong, it's off by miles. If you have actually read the Bible and have the ability to Google information about weather in North Africa / Middle East you will note that the shepherds, their sheep and so on would have been safely away in their homes in December since it's winter there too. Granted it's milder than here, but it's still winter. If you have access to a globe, stick your finger on Chicago and then drag it east. You'll discover that Bethlehem isn't that far south of … [Read more...]

Happy Holidays (if you’re into that sort of thing)

House music was invented in Chicago. Just another bit of trivia to make you proud.

As smarter minds than mine have noticed, if there's a war on Christmas, Christmas is winning. And some people are pretty darn angry about it. I actually had a lady growl a "Merry Christmas" at me and when I returned the greeting she looked stunned. She was really trying to start a fight over that phrase. That, ladies and gentleman, is a sad little mind. So let's move on. My pal Marion Enstrom sent me a link that is a nice summation of stuff you should know about Christmas. The one thing it glosses over I already covered so you won't be missing useful knowledge. As you know one great tradition is caroling. Also known as wassailing. The history … [Read more...]

Does the Pope Hate Christmas?

Hot Mac Girls Hot Sexy Christmas Babes-6251

"If you read it on the Internet it must be true." - Aristotle. Look, I understand that many people are stupid. It is one of the reasons I have so much material to choose from each day when I write this blog. How much stuff do I get? I'll put it this way, a young lady who took to Facebook to demand that gay people stop having gay children didn't even get a link from me. Nor will she now. Granted that's a glorious level of stupid, but not stupid enough to get a mention here. Although I did ponder, briefly, about how useless a modern education truly is. Certainly they have lowered the bar in the basic knowledge of biology. I will admit that I, … [Read more...]

On The Lighter Side of Christmas

I received a lovely email yesterday from a regular reader. She said some very nice things about me and life in general and then got to the point. The point was that, as informative as this week's articles have been about the holidays, I was "depressing the (expletive deleted) out of (her)." I guess I can see that. The history of Christmas is one of political compromise, violence and drunken debauchery. Not exactly the first thoughts that spring to mind when you think about ways to celebrate the birth of the Son of God. More likely a way to celebrate a frat party in honor of Biff's trust fund. But it is what it is. Denying history doesn't make … [Read more...]

The Christmas Effect

Before we begin I'd like to take a moment to wish all of our Jewish readers a Happy Hanukkah. Their festival of eight crazy nights started last night. In all honesty if you asked the average non-Jew what they know about Hanukkah you'd probably get an answer like "it's that thing that Adam Sandler sings about." If you got any response at all, that is. To be honest it is only in recent years that Hanukkah has taken on any significance whatsoever. Until recently Hanukkah held the same import for Jews as National Doorknob Day does for W.A.S.P.s and The Festival of Three Yaks does in Lower Mongolia. "Hey, wait a minute blogger dufus, the subject … [Read more...]

The Gift of Santa

Yesterday I took a stroll down memory lane to bring everyone up to date on the history of wassailing. If you need a short answer just remove the "w" from the word and you're left with "assail," which is a form of "assault" which describes the tradition nicely. As you may have figured out Christmas wasn't always a time of sweetness and nice. The original holiday was glommed onto a pagan holiday, Saturnalia to be specific, to try and convert pagans to Christianity. Despite all the TV specials and holiday decorations you will cite in your emails to me, this was not as successful as it seems. For the first part, the Christmas celebration - from … [Read more...]

Sing a Little Holiday Song

I promised my co-host Ryan Gatenby that, when we did our Christmas special this coming Friday at 9:10 AM on WBIG 1280 AM, I would have uplifting stuff to discuss. Or, if not uplifting, at least not patently offensive. To get things started in the right direction, I'm going to re-post an article I wrote way back on November 20 of last year. This was months before I was allowed anywhere near the radio show so it will all be new to the listeners. And, since last November we have added a ton of readers, my guess it will be new to most of you as well. Ladies and gentlemen, the history of wassailing. ****************** In keeping with my, … [Read more...]

A Happy Holiday Blog

When I was about four years old and Santa was more real than anything else in my world, I went to a shopping center (there were no malls back then) to see Santa. I was one kid away from getting to sit on Santa's lap when the kid already there started giving Santa grief. After a few moments of playful bantering Saint Nick had had enough and let fly with "Do not f**k with my jolly, you little brat." That was when I discovered how certain kids got on the naughty list. It was also the exact same moment that I realized that Santa's a pretty big dude and I didn't want to mess with him. But, not once during the episode did it ever occur to me that … [Read more...]

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Crystalnacht

You may have heard a silly rumor that the Allied forces won World War II and defeated fascism. You may even have relatives who fought in that war. Unfortunately, one quick look out of the window and you'll find that claims for victory might have been a touch premature. I had recently written about a game on Facebook called Left Behind: Eternal Forces. It was immediately pointed out by several astute readers that the article I had referenced, and am referencing here, was five years old and that the game had been banned. That is what's known as half-right. The article is, indeed, five years old. And it did result in the game being banned. Kind … [Read more...]