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MARK STEYN: 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer had a very shiny nose,'
The Daily Telegraph ^ | December 14, 2002 | Mark Steyn

Posted on 12/13/2002 5:11:39 PM PST by MadIvan

'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer had a very shiny nose,' Pinter continued. 'You know why that is? Depleted uranium'

Youngsters at a Christmas carol service were devastated this week after the vicar told them Santa Claus was dead and his reindeer had been vaporised shortly after take-off.

Preaching at the church of St George of the Galloways, the Reverend Harold Pinter informed his young flock that the real Santa had been assassinated on Christmas Eve 1977 by the Shah's secret police, using Washington-supplied cruise missiles and that the present "Santa" was a CIA stooge with an obvious false beard.

Children as young as two covered their ears and ran screaming from the church as the vicar explained at length how the "holidays" were now just a front for US foreign policy.

"George W Bush says he's dreaming of a white Christmas," sneered Mr Pinter. "But for the rest of us it's a nightmare. I wake up feeling like a man trapped in a snowy knick-knack with his face pressed up against the glass howling, 'Let me out of here', only to be buried under another ton of artificial flakes."

While parents glanced nervously at each other, the vicar continued with his homily. " 'If you are not with us, you're against us,' declares Bush. He says he's making a list, checking it twice, gonna find out who's naughty or nice. Quite right. Look in the mirror, chum. Which side of the list do you belong on? It's George Bush in all his festive hysterical ignorance who loads up his weapons of mass distraction and insists on dropping them down every chimney in the world. Come on, it's lovely weather for a slay ride together with you, chum."

Although many toddlers had to be escorted from the church, older boys and girls shrugged off the vicar's horrific catalogue of seasonal gore. "He does this sermon every Christmas," said Cameron, the eight-year-old son of television favourite Ulrika Jonsson. "And most months in between, too. The best bit is when he describes how the Easter Bunny had his throat cut on the orders of Don Rumsfeld in 1983 and that he's now just Ferdinand Marcos in a protective rabbit suit."

"You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen?" Mr Pinter asked rhetorically. "Forgotten. No longer referred to. Millions of dead reindeer slaughtered, their blood streaking the ice all around Santa's Workshop. Never mentioned. Millions of elves born without genitals. But you never hear about them.

"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer had a very shiny nose," he continued, "and, if you ever saw it, you would even say it glows. You know why that is? Depleted uranium. Oh, yes, don't worry, he can still guide your sleigh tonight. It's not hard to follow a reindeer whose rectum is leaking radioactive blood across the sky, is it?"

"I think I'll just pop out for a cup of tea in the church hall," said Ulrika, squeezing along the pew. "See if the trauma counsellors have arrived yet."

"But people don't forget," roared Mr Pinter. "The seven Iraqi children not yet killed by America and Britain jumping up and down in the street shouting, 'Death to the Great Santa', they don't forget. They don't forget the torture and mutilation of the Tooth Fairy. When they wake up one morning and find Frosty the Snowman standing in the front garden, they know it's Dick Cheney, watching them. Things like that don't just happen in Holland Park."

A faraway look came into Mr Pinter's eyes. "Santa Nista. Now there was a Santa. The people's Santa. He came to tea at the vicarage with Antonia and me. He wore military fatigues, not blood-soaked red so your big saggy American arse looks like the world's most genetically modified tomato."

Then, in a passage that stunned even hardened primary schoolchildren, the vicar savaged the man he called "Washington's lickspittle", Bob the Builder.

"Can you fix it?" he cried. "Better believe they've fixed it, chum. Everybody's talking about a poison gas attack on the Underground, but nobody mentions Scoop and Bob have been digging up the road in front of Mrs Potts's. If there is a gas attack, millions of you children will die agonising deaths. Ho-ho-bloody-ho. Needless to say, Bob the Builder does not travel on the Underground himself. Oh, no, he's up on top riding around with Wendy in Muck the Bulldozer, like Ariel Sharon about to level Jenin."

At that point, Mr Pinter gave his traditional performance of Silent Night, in which he stands perfectly still with an enigmatic look for three minutes while from the wings come faraway shrieks of political prisoners being tortured.

Afterwards, the vicar agreed he'd made a catastrophic error of judgment. "I didn't realise there were so many young children present," he said. "Otherwise I'd have launched a blistering attack on the Teletubbies. The one with the aerial is a Pentagon mole. And why are they wearing decontamination suits?"

Just then, his lovely wife, Antonia, arrived to say that The Daily Telegraph had rung and that they'd like to reprint his sermon. "That Right-wing Condi Rice fishwrap?" he scoffed. "If I appear in there, people will just write it off as a pathetic CIA psy-ops dirty trick to discredit the anti-Bush movement by making it look ridiculous. You don't think I'm that gullible, do you?"


TOPICS: Canada; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; US: District of Columbia; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: bush; iraq; marksteynlist; pinter; steyn
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Harold Pinter is one of our leading fools - as Mark Steyn ably demonstrates. ;)

Regards, Ivan


1 posted on 12/13/2002 5:11:39 PM PST by MadIvan
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To: Delmarksman; Sparta; Toirdhealbheach Beucail; TopQuark; TexKat; Iowa Granny; vbmoneyspender; ...
Bump!
2 posted on 12/13/2002 5:12:02 PM PST by MadIvan
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To: scholar; Bullish; Pokey78
Ping
3 posted on 12/13/2002 5:13:51 PM PST by knighthawk
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To: aculeus; general_re; hellinahandcart
Pinteresque ping.
4 posted on 12/13/2002 5:15:28 PM PST by dighton
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To: MadIvan
This is a joke, right?
5 posted on 12/13/2002 5:16:52 PM PST by Mercat
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To: MadIvan
I can so see and hear, in my mind, John Cleese up there ranting and raving. Steyn strikes again!

}:-)4

6 posted on 12/13/2002 5:19:15 PM PST by Moose4
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To: Mercat
Maybe a reference to this?
7 posted on 12/13/2002 5:21:46 PM PST by Cyber Liberty
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To: Howlin; riley1992; Miss Marple; deport; Dane; sinkspur; steve; kattracks; JohnHuang2; ...
Pinging the Steyn list.
8 posted on 12/13/2002 5:24:42 PM PST by Pokey78
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To: dighton
"'Death to the Great Santa'"...bwaaaaaaaaa...:D
9 posted on 12/13/2002 5:44:47 PM PST by hellinahandcart
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To: MadIvan
This is the most effective satire I've read on any topic in years. Steyn's stature just keeps on growing.
10 posted on 12/13/2002 5:51:30 PM PST by mrustow
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To: MadIvan
The CIA has it right: the purple dinosaur is a commie and Tinky Winky must die!

But you know this story's a fake - there aren't seven Iraqi children left after our sanctions have starved all 350,247,362 of 'em. And their little dog Toto too...

11 posted on 12/13/2002 5:54:08 PM PST by Billthedrill
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To: Mercat
This is a joke, right?

Right, but Steyn is also satirizing an actual sermon given a few days ago where the vicar did tell kids there is no Santa Claus.

Most C of E clergy are truly wacky today.

12 posted on 12/13/2002 6:06:06 PM PST by Martin Tell
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To: MadIvan
Dont you just hate it when a pathetic liberal tries to grandstand in order to get a VRCW Committee position? ;^)

Somebody should tell that fool that even though we are working in the Zietgeist stuff, seniority stands, and all current chairmen and structures remain unchanged.

BTW,Does Mark Steyn have an older brother?

13 posted on 12/13/2002 6:13:59 PM PST by sarasmom
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To: Pokey78
Thanks for the ping!
14 posted on 12/13/2002 6:18:06 PM PST by mrustow
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To: MadIvan; dighton; general_re; Orual; hellinahandcart
Just then, his lovely wife, Antonia ...

Advice: Read the wife -- Antonia Fraser writes good history -- ignore Pintersqueak,

15 posted on 12/13/2002 6:18:19 PM PST by aculeus
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To: MadIvan; dighton; Orual; general_re; hellinahandcart
Just then, his lovely wife, Antonia, arrived to say that The Daily Telegraph had rung and that they'd like to reprint his sermon. "That Right-wing Condi Rice fishwrap?" he scoffed. "If I appear in there, people will just write it off as a pathetic CIA psy-ops dirty trick to discredit the anti-Bush movement by making it look ridiculous. You don't think I'm that gullible, do you?"

Of course Pinter's worst attack on Bush was published in the ET just this week.

16 posted on 12/13/2002 6:22:04 PM PST by aculeus
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To: aculeus
Antonia Fraser writes good history -- ignore Pintersqueak.

I agree, having read -- oh, very well, skimmed -- Mary Queen of Scots, The Wives of Henry VIII, and The Warrior Queens.

17 posted on 12/13/2002 6:33:44 PM PST by dighton
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To: MadIvan
The best bit is when he describes how the Easter Bunny had his throat cut on the orders of Don Rumsfeld in 1983 and that he's now just Ferdinand Marcos in a protective rabbit suit.

ROTFLMAO!

18 posted on 12/13/2002 6:34:45 PM PST by 6ppc
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To: MadIvan
Great stuff! I'm not too familiar with Pinter, but this same spiel could have been ficticiously attributed to any number of equally dumbass Americans.
19 posted on 12/13/2002 6:51:06 PM PST by dead
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To: Mercat
Yes, Steyn does a lot of satire. He's making fun of a vicar who told children there was no Santa, and an idiot columnist named Harold Pinter.
20 posted on 12/13/2002 6:54:52 PM PST by xm177e2
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