The War On Christmas Begins Today

The War On Christmas Begins Today

It's may be the end of September, but it doesn't seem to be too early to begin the war on Christmas that Christians love to claim is something Atheist or anyone else who doesn't believe in the silly concept that baby Jesus was born in a desert during winter on that CHRISTmas morning. A holiday I've got problems with it? let me tell you, all of them. Every single last one of them. But a war on one specific one? Nah, that's small fries.

As you will find out in this news piece, they're already claiming that the war on Christmas is on and the battleground is the state where the Alamo had it's last stand.. Texas

Proposal would delete 'Christmas' from 6th grade lesson

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - A proposal for new social studies curriculum in Texas public schools removes a mention of Christmas in a sixth-grade lesson, replacing it with a Hindu religious festival, a change that's riled conservatives who say it's another battle in the "war" against the Christian holiday.

"It's outrageous that the war on Christmas continues in our state and in our nation," said Jonathan Saenz, a lobbyist for the conservative Free Market Foundation. "This effort to mislead students about current society is shameful and must be stopped."

The draft proposal being considered by the State Board of Education won't be formally adopted until next May for the 2011-2012 school year. The standards will remain in place for the next decade, dictating what is taught in government, history and other social studies classes in elementary and secondary schools. The standards also will be used to develop state tests and by textbook publishers who develop material for the nation based on their largest market, Texas.

The standards currently instruct sixth-grade students to be able to explain the significance of religious holidays such as the Christian holidays of Christmas and Easter, the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and the Jewish holidays of Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah. The proposal, which is set to be debated during a hearing next week, removes the words Christmas and Rosh Hashanah. Diwali, a Hindu festival, is added.

How dare we try to get students to learn a little bit about religious festivals from cultures other than their own at the expense of giving them the trivially simple assignment of explaining the significance of something from their own culture! How dare we do that!

I wish I could sign up for an actual war on Christmas and other corporate consumerist 'Christian' Holidays. While my girlfriend may not like it, I still don't dig Valentine's Day and Easter? Fuck that Holiday. I'm going to be celebrating a Birthday around Easter. No time for a stupid bunny to steal that thunder.

To be honest, we wouldn't have to start the war on Christmas so early if they wouldn't start Christmas so early. It's not even Halloween and I'm seeing some places pop up with festive cheerful things already.



How the hell could they claim persecution? As a member of the world's largest religion, how can you feel your rights are being trodden upon? I'm curious as to what history these Christians are referring to that makes Christmas their holiday? It's just the standard winter festival, only they attached the birth of Jesus to it, which never made sense because a kid born in the desert just sounds like one frozen dead baby. It's pretty clear that it's the same date as the Roman winter festival

Christians only really started getting heavy recently, just over the last 100 years-plus, basically since Dickens. I guess the whole Ghost thing got to him. In the early colonial days, celebrating Christmas was still illegal in some parts of the BUILT ON CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES U.S., because people would get shitfaced and start tearing shit up. And I don't mean their gift wrapping..

What's funny is this is more or less how it's always been and exactly what happened in the late 19th Century. Christmas had always been secondary to East in the Christian calendar and mostly a holiday to get drunk and party hard. Then in the late 18oo's, the "reason for the season" stuff started, but it was completely different from how it is now.



For proof of this, just look at the most famous example of literature from the era, Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. A novel which specifically denounces capitalism and has its protagonist redeem himself by becoming a socialist. I think it's a pretty big slap to the face that there's such a commercial holiday to it now.

Why would they teach Christmas in a history course anyway? High school English classes aren't teaching the bible, although it is an important literary work to the religious type. That has to be some war against Christians as well, right? The bible is the most god awful novel around. They might as well teach John Grisham novels in school.

This is all just another problem caused by trying to create a universal public education system instead of letting parents choose where to send their kids. Oh wait, the universal health care debate isn't this blog.. Sorry, it sort of melts altogether with me.



If I were president, my first act would be to bomb all walmarts with cruise missiles at 6:15AM, Friday after thanksgiving. This would solve so many problems. Such as killing poor people that partake in consumerist holidays when they clearly can't afford them.

I'm only going to be buying my relatives charity donations for Christmas and only asking for books anyway. I'll more than likely be wearing a Dawkins shirt for the entire season for shits and giggles.



Don't even tell me it's a reason for family togetherness. That's the part I hate most about Christmas. It sucks having your family guilt trip you into driving or flying hundreds of miles to see them for a few days when you'd be much happier relaxing at home or going somewhere with someone whose company you actually enjoy and do something fun while everyone else is stuck with their family.

How about if you really cared about your family you just have the same togetherness the rest of the year without having to rely on a commercialized Holiday one day out of the year just so you could check "made awkward small talk with blood relatives" off your list.



One would wonder, if you want to wage war on Christmas, what would be the first step?
1. Kill God
2. ?
3. Did you kill God yet?

Let me tell you what the calendar looks like for that time of year;

Liberal atheist agenda for 12/25

09:00am-War on Christmas
11:00am-War on Kwanzaa
12:30am-Lunch with Janice
01:30pm-War on Chanukkah

It's not like I'm sending Christmas an unending rain of mortar fire, exploding tree shrapnel and manger scene fragments everywhere hitting civilians with cheer. You don't see me slapping some economic sanctions on Christmas first in an attempt to work something out.



I have to say, most Holidays celebrated in America are boring as fuck. Shit like Dia De Los Muertos and Holi are way cooler than anything we celebrate. Arbor day? Flag day? What a bunch of loser holidays. Dia De Los Muertos: awesome bread, sugar skulls, serious reflection on life and death. Halloween: Free candy to keep our children fat and 'sexy' costumes as an excuse to dress like a slut. Seriously, dress like a slut everyday, I will be the first to tell you that I wont mind. Fuck halloween, Dia De Los Muertos owns

But I guess the American economy would be decimated without Christmas, so a war on Christmas is a WAR ON AMERICA! That's right you non-Christmas celebrating heathens, you're terrorist of the worse kind. All of you!

Holidays are just the government telling you when you can go on a three day bender. I shouldn't have to get permission from big brother to get shit faced for three days. So fuck it, let the war begin. I'm ready to practice a scorched earth sort of strategy. Ho ho Fuckin' Ho!

Making A Game Out Of War

Making A Game Out Of War

I used to work a start up computer cafe. It was a sort of project between high school friends and well, it failed terribly. What I came out of that with was getting bored with video games that leaves me not addicted to playing much of anything. It's like catching your son smoking and then making him smoke the whole pack at a time. That sort of too much to ever care about it. Day in and day out I would play video games.

Most of these games were war simulators. Counter Strike and Battlefield 1942. Both were just online multiplayer games that gave you guns and told you to shoot the enemy before you see the whites of their pixels. Much the same, the US army went ahead and did their own service/video game called America's Army. It was nothing more than army propaganda and recruitment tools.

So the question we should be asking is how soon is too soon? I'll be the first one to admit that after 9/11, I was all for not giving a shit if it was "too soon" to try to make a joke in order to deal with the pain.


But as Gilbert Gottfried pointed out, we need to move on with it. So the question with this is why I'm not entirely on the fence here with this move to make a video game out of a modern combat theater piece that is only a few years old.

With that all said and done, it looks like War isn't hell anymore, It seems like War is simply a game

There have been books, movies, poetry and even rap songs coming out of the war in Iraq. Now, there's going to be a video game, one based on the November 2004 battle in the Iraqi town of Fallouja that left dead 38 U.S. troops and an estimated 1,200 insurgents

I'm not exactly sure how I feel about that. On one hand doe we need to play a war campaign for a war that we have troops currently stuck in? Isn't this sort of giving the enemy an insight on what our troops are geared with or what their formation is during a battle?

Hell, the Vets of that battle are more than likely still doing a tour or two there. It seems really odd to be able to play a battle they risked their ass in before they get home and play it themselves on their xbox. Also demeans the risk they took when you're just running and gunning when they actually risked their ass and shit their pants because of the battle.

It also takes war flash backs to a new meaning when you not only see/relive a battle in your mind, let alone all your draft dodging buddies decide to play a multiplayer campaign of it on their PS3....



We shouldn't be desensitizing war like this. Part of that hippie in me just thinks that the easier you make killing someone, the worse our society will be. I know I stopped giving a shit about grand theft after GTA: Vice City. I also busted out my 80's music... But even they waited a good 20 years before touching on the 80's. Any time before that would have been way too soon to remember the 80's again.

I'm just as wrong for playing a lot of WWII shooter games but this seems like poor taste, or at the very least it seems like something that is way too soon considering this battle just happened a few years ago. How would we feel if them terrorist decided to create a "Fly plane into building" flight sim and released it in this sort of high profile situation a couple of weeks after 9/11? We'll never be forgetting that, thems for sure.

Finger Play: Fall Video Game Release Guide

Welcome to the most hectic time of the year for video game releases, when many of the most anticipated titles begin their Russia vs. Georgia vs. Alaska-like war for holiday season shelf space. This year has so many big names on the way that it can be easy to lose one or two in the shuffle, so keep this guide bookmarked in case things get confusing and get your gamefly ready.

About: A platformer for the YouTube / Twitter / 9/11 era, Little Big Planet gives you the ability to tell yourself you matter by creating levels and sharing them with the world. There is absolutely no chance that people will get tired of playing random levels without any real sense of progression or context within a larger story.

Why It's Anticipated: People can't get enough user-generated viral cloud computing welcome to the social.

About: After draining all the fun out of the Elder Scrolls series with Oblivion, Bethesda is ready to unleash their "mannequins and lots o' terrain" brand of game design on the classic Fallout franchise. The game promises to have over thirty billion endings and at least three voice actors.

Why It's Anticipated: Although Oblivion had its faults, Bethesda has the potential to knock this game out of the park. This would bring about a mass suicide of the Fallout zealots, whose whining has become synonymous with (and therefore ruined) the series they've been trying to protect. Pretty much everyone in their right mind is hoping this happens.

About: First person parkour in an Orwellian city that exhibits its oppression by being very clean and pleasant.

Why It's Anticipated: First, the main character is an Asian Girl. That was enough to propel the sales of Oni, the original "run through a hallway" simulator that inspired Too Human.

Most importantly, this is the first video game that promises to deliver a true first person experience. Momentum plays a role in your movement, and you'll be able to see your character's arms and legs as she performs athletic feats. Almost 60% of gamers believe in Newton's laws of physics and have at least one appendage, so the target audience is huge.

About: World of Warcraft: The Snow Levels. Next expansion: Lava World! Remember that God-like boss that you spent months gearing up to kill in Burning Crusade? Now there's an even bigger God-like boss, and he needs killin'!

Why It's Anticipated: People are sort of dumb.

About: A horror game in the vain of Alien and Event Horizon and Sunshine and System Shock, but in space.

Why It's Anticipated: Although hard sci-fi is probably the genre that best lends itself to video games, there are far less titles that fit into the category than you'd think. Nerds like me don't have much to look forward to besides Dead Space and the possibility of Leisure Suit Larry: Hunt For The Black Hole - Black Hole Is A Metaphor For Vagina.

About: FUCK YEAH! *heavy metal music, blood spurts, the camera pans across a bombed-out building which is made entirely of skulls*

Why It's Anticipated: A few months ago, I was going to make a Gears Of War parody game for Video Game Article. Wielding the chainsaw gun, players were going to fight such enemies as logs, pieces of paper, and ice blocks that could only be passed after being carved into swans. Thanks to the legal team that defends the Gears Of War brand, this game never came about. The world is anxious to see of Epic can recover after such a horrible mistake.

About: World War 2 has been done a billion times. How can we make a war game that's different from anything you've ever played? Add aliens! Let's make that shit even more unique by presuming that everyone will want a sequel before we start working on the first game!

Why It's Anticipated: People want to make sure that playing an FPS with the Playstation 2's controller is as awkward and unpleasant as they remember.

About: The follow-up to 2003's overhyped (but still fun) action RPG. Aside from a few flowery quotes about the main character's dog being a window into the soul of storytelling, Peter Molyneux has pretty much contained his urge to talk the game up this time around.

Why It's Anticipated: Video game fans are frothing at the mouth to finally play a game where your actions determine whether you're good or - get this - evil.

Ubersoldier 2: The End Of Hitler
I'm just as surprised to learn that there was a first Ubersoldier as I am to learn that Hitler is dead. 5/10

Lego Batman
Has just as much of a reason to exist as Army Men: Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but the Army Men series knew it had worn out its welcome before that could get made so we can't compare the two much farther. 6/10

Warriors Orochi 2
This is the 22nd iteration of Dynasty Warriors (yes, really) in just over ten years with no noticable changes, which puts the Lego series right on track. 3/10

Pure
But I thought it was impossible to make a next-gen racing game that doesn't require microtransactions to give players more than six tracks and one environment. 8/10