Musings, random and otherwise

Jewish World Review ^ | Dec. 28, 2009 | Jeff Jacoby

[rhema]

Jewish songwriters have created some of the most enduringly popular songs of the season — Irving Berlin's "White Christmas," of course, but also "The Christmas Song," "Silver Bells," and "I'll Be Home For Christmas," among others. Some people might view that as a heartening, only-in-America expression of interfaith goodwill and warmth. But not Garrison Keillor:

"All those lousy holiday songs by Jewish guys that trash up the malls every year, Rudolph and the chestnuts and the rest of that dreck," he fumed in a recent column for the Baltimore Sun. "Christmas is a Christian holiday — if you're not in the club, then buzz off." His piece bore the sour headline: "Nonbelievers, please leave Christmas alone."

Remember the days when Keillor was endearing and witty? It's a shame to see him grown so cranky and intolerant. What kind of grinch thinks "White Christmas" is "dreck?"

Well, here's hoping that all the songs written by those "Jewish guys" didn't put too big a damper on Keillor's Christmas this year. And let's hope no one ruined it entirely by letting him know that the Jewish connection to Christmas didn't start with Irving Berlin.

A liberal friend, conventionally "green," once asked me how a scientific issue like global warming had become a battleground in the culture war. I replied that the left had made it one by treating climate change as an imperative for sweeping ideological change. Climate alarmists insist that the earth is doomed unless we radically change the way we live by reducing freedom, limiting choices, and aggrandizing government. The struggle is not about the science of global warming, in other words; it's about the theology of global warming — a theology that commands us, in Al Gore's formulation, to "make the rescue of the environment the central organizing principle for

[left that other site]

Every year, the nicest, most personal and loving Christmas presents I get are from my Jewish students. Go figure.

[john drake]

I didn’t know old Garrison was even a Christian; you could have fooled me. He always struck me as an agnostic at best. He is becoming more curmudgeonly as he ages. As for old Jewish guys writing Christmas songs, well, I find it amusing given the Holy Family were Jews, but then again, I’m just saying.....

[wizr]

We all do God’s work, whether we believe in Him or not. Even heathens do jobs God has prepared for them, such as the mess we Americans are experiencing now.

He will bring us to our knees, one way or another.

That said, I have wonderful Jewish friends. They are my brothers and sisters. They are of God and we are His family. God is the Father to all of us, and we are His children.

None of us is perfect, so we should not judge others, in my humble opinion.

[DNME]

I’m sure Keillor realizes that “dreck” is a Hebrew word?

[Cyber Liberty]

Remember the days when Keillor was endearing and witty?

No.

[steelyourfaith]

A liberal friend, conventionally "green," once asked me how a scientific issue like global warming had become a battleground in the culture war. I replied that the left had made it one by treating climate change as an imperative for sweeping ideological change. Climate alarmists insist that the earth is doomed unless we radically change the way we live by reducing freedom, limiting choices, and aggrandizing government. The struggle is not about the science of global warming, in other words; it's about the theology of global warming — a theology that commands us, in Al Gore's formulation, to "make the rescue of the environment the central organizing principle for civilization."

This religious aspect of climate alarmism, which many conservatives and libertarians grasp intuitively, is not often acknowledged openly by its adherents. But now and then it is stated with unabashed directness, as with this headline in the Guardian, an influential London daily, during the recent Copenhagen conference: "This is bigger than climate change. It is a battle to redefine humanity." Precisely.

 

Beam me to Planet Gore !