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12-14-2004, 04:39 PM
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#1 | |
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Dead
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: on the floor, under the table, just to your left, your other left
Posts: 1,486
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Do you hate Christmas? (offencive)
Recently I've been dissilusioned about christmas. I realized that Christmas has turned into a consumer nightmare and all we celebrate is the takeover of Capitalism. Jesus has turned into a con to sell more stuff.
PLEASE NOTE! I mean no disrespect to any religion, I just want to alert you that Capitalism has taken over churches. (See "Puzzling Evidence" by Talking Heads) Anyway, in light of this sad realization, I wrote a little song. Quote:
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How to Survive the Sillmarillion I thought that Alcohol was just for those with nothing else to do. I thought that drinking just to get drunk was a waste of precious booze. But now I know that there's a time and there's a place where I can choose To walk the fine line between self control and self abuse. "Lacerations make complications, but welts go away in a day." |
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12-14-2004, 04:46 PM
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#2 |
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Entmoot Attorney-General,
Equilibrating the Scales of Justice, Administrator ♎ 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Posts: 3,891
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That's nothing that has happened overnight. Christmas has been very commercial as long as I can remember. And frankly I don't mind, I've never experienced any other kind of Christmas.
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An unwritten post is a delightful universe of infinite possibilities. Set down one word, however, and it immediately becomes earthbound. Set down one sentence and it’s halfway to being just like every other bloody entry that’s ever been written. ☻ |
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12-14-2004, 04:47 PM
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#3 |
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Advocatus Diaboli
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Reality
Posts: 3,767
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wasn't jesus upset about the marketplace setup in the temple?
maybe the idea isn't so new after all 
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Your reality, sir, is lies and balderdash and I'm delighted to say that I have no grasp of it whatsoever. |
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12-14-2004, 05:57 PM
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#4 |
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Elf Lord
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: sikeston, MO, usa, earth, sol
Posts: 3,114
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Tom Lehrer commented on this in the late 1950's and early 1960's in America with his own Christmas song:
Hark the Herald Tribune sings Advertising wondrous things... Angels we have heard on high, Telling us to go out and BUY!... God rest ye merry, merchantmen, May you make the Yuletide PAY!... I shall attempt to locate the lyrics in their entirety. But one really must hear this former Harvard mathematics professor skewering not only Christmas but even the Periodic Table to fully appreciate his scathing social and political criticisms. A perfect gift for those who need some jollification in their bleak and drab little lives as he used to opine  !Yes, brownjenkins, you are correct on both the Jesus citation and the concept that commercialization has run amok! But, so it was with the Saturnalia in Rome - which gave Christians cover for Nativity celebrations while still persecuted until Constantine 316 AD. If the EU continues its anti-Christian course, who knows, commercialization may yet prove a boon as cover for Christians!
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Inked "Aslan is not a tame lion." CSL/LWW "The new school [acts] as if it required...courage to say a blasphemy. There is only one thing that requires real courage to say, and that is a truism." GK Chesterton "And there is always the danger of allowing people to suppose that our modern times are so wholly unlike any other times that the fundamental facts about man's nature have wholly changed with changing circumstances." Dorothy L. Sayers, 1 Sept. 1941 |
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12-14-2004, 06:16 PM
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#5 | ||
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Co-President of Entmoot
Super Moderator 
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Canada
Posts: 8,397
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I love Tom Lehrer!! There's antimony...
 The commercialization can get really annoying, but it's not bad in Sweden, so yay!! I have developped a fairly reasonable irritating Christmas jingle screen that works on all hoaky Christmas things. My family has a lot of great traditions around Christmas, which helps me focus on what's really important. Like sending them all nice Christmas cards. *looks guiltily at desk*
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"I can add some more, if you'd like it. Calling your Chief Names, Wishing to Punch his Pimply Face, and Thinking you Shirriffs look a lot of Tom-fools." - Sam Gamgee, p. 340, Return of the King Quote:
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12-14-2004, 07:10 PM
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#6 |
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Word Santa Claus
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 2,922
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Ah, that Tom Lehrer song is so great. I think the part in question is:
It doesn't matter how sincere it is, Nor how heart felt the spirit, Sentiment will not endear it, What's important is the price. Hark, the Herald Tribune sings, Advertising wondrous things. God rest ye merry merchants, May ye make the Yuletide pay. Angels we have heard on high, Tell us to go out and buy! So, let the raucous sleighbells jingle, Hail our dear old friend Kris Kringle, Driving his reindeer across the sky. Don't stand underneath when they fly by. And that is hardly a new thing even at his time. As brownjenkins point out, it seems to predate the Crucifixion. And I'm sure the pious Romans before that complained about commercialized Saturnalias or something, and so on and soforth...
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Sufficient to have stood, yet free to fall. |
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12-14-2004, 09:42 PM
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#7 |
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Quasi Evil
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Maryland, US
Posts: 4,634
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"People's political beliefs don't stem from the factual information they've acquired. Far more the facts people choose to believe are the product of their political beliefs." "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." |
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12-15-2004, 12:07 AM
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#8 |
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Elf Lord
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: sikeston, MO, usa, earth, sol
Posts: 3,114
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IR,
...and you accuse me of being slow on the uptake!....Watch out brownjenkins, IR's out to get ya!
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Inked "Aslan is not a tame lion." CSL/LWW "The new school [acts] as if it required...courage to say a blasphemy. There is only one thing that requires real courage to say, and that is a truism." GK Chesterton "And there is always the danger of allowing people to suppose that our modern times are so wholly unlike any other times that the fundamental facts about man's nature have wholly changed with changing circumstances." Dorothy L. Sayers, 1 Sept. 1941 |
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12-15-2004, 03:41 AM
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#9 | |
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The Insufferable
Join Date: Aug 2001
Posts: 3,333
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Quote:
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Disgraced he may be, yet is not dethroned, and keeps the rags of lordship once he owned |
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12-15-2004, 10:41 AM
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#10 |
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Elf Lord
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: sikeston, MO, usa, earth, sol
Posts: 3,114
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Now, now, Wayfarer, you know that a Roman had as many options for the celebratory events of the winter solstice as one could choose! Just because you like Mithraism best is no need to forget all the others. Just think, a single sip of wine to each available god/goddess/entity in the pantheon would pretty much keep you sipping and rocking and rolling (literally) for pretty much a fortnight or two, eh?
 The question is would that be pious or emesis by its conclusion ?
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Inked "Aslan is not a tame lion." CSL/LWW "The new school [acts] as if it required...courage to say a blasphemy. There is only one thing that requires real courage to say, and that is a truism." GK Chesterton "And there is always the danger of allowing people to suppose that our modern times are so wholly unlike any other times that the fundamental facts about man's nature have wholly changed with changing circumstances." Dorothy L. Sayers, 1 Sept. 1941 Last edited by inked : 12-15-2004 at 10:42 AM. |
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12-15-2004, 10:50 AM
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#11 |
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Elf Lord
Join Date: Aug 2002
Posts: 516
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It's commercial and a celebration of consumerism because people like it that way. No one is forcing anyone to buy into that aspect of it. Don't like it? Then you can make the decision to stop. I haven't bought a Christmas card or gift in years. I decorate my home, enjoy the season, and the company of friends without setting foot into a shopping mall. It can be done.
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12-15-2004, 11:02 AM
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#12 |
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Death of Mooters and [Entmoot] Internal Affairs
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Oslo, Norway
Posts: 2,870
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Yeah yeah, sure you all love Lehrer. So many of you posted in my Tom Lehrer-thread and all.
(Admittedly over a year old, but still.)About commercialization, my only problem with it is that they start the whole thing so early (saw christmas-stuff in october, sort of killed the spirit)
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Fëanor - Innocence incarnated Still, Aikanáro 'till the Last battle. Last edited by Falagar : 12-15-2004 at 11:04 AM. |
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12-15-2004, 12:05 PM
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#13 |
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Elf Lord
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: sikeston, MO, usa, earth, sol
Posts: 3,114
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in the spirit of this thread:
A Christmas Carol One very familiar type of song is the Christmas carol, although it is perhaps a bit out of season at this time. However, I am informed by my disk jockey friends, of whom I have none, that in order to get a song popular by Christmas time you have to start plugging it well in advance, so here it goes. It's always seemed to me, after all, that Christmas, with its spirit of giving, offers us all a wonderful opportunity each year to reflect on what we all most sincerely and deeply believe in - I refer, of course, to money. And yet, none of the Christmas carols that you hear on the radio, or in the street, even attempts to capture the true spirit of Christmas as we celebrate it in the United States, that is to say the commercial spirit. So I should like to offer the following Christmas carol for next year as being perhaps a bit more appropriate. Christmas time is here, by golly, Disapproval would be folly. Deck the halls with hunks of holly, Fill the cup and don't say when. Kill the turkeys, ducks and chickens, Mix the punch, drag out the Dickens. Even though the prospect sickens, Brother, here we go again. On Christmas Day you can't get sore, Your fellow man you must adore. There's time to rob him all the more The other three hundred and sixty-four. Relations, sparing no expense, 'll Send some useless old utensil, Or a matching pen and pencil. ("Just the thing I need, how nice!") It doesn't matter how sincere it is, Nor how heart felt the spirit, Sentiment will not endear it, What's important is the price. Hark, the Herald Tribune sings, Advertising wondrous things. God rest ye merry merchants, May ye make the Yuletide pay. Angels we have heard on high, Tell us to go out and buy! So, let the raucous sleighbells jingle, Hail our dear old friend Kris Kringle, Driving his reindeer across the sky. Don't stand underneath when they fly by.  Bless you, Falagar for I did not know this site existed, and NOW I DO!! O fraptuous joy and celebration... the best Christmas prsent!!! 
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Inked "Aslan is not a tame lion." CSL/LWW "The new school [acts] as if it required...courage to say a blasphemy. There is only one thing that requires real courage to say, and that is a truism." GK Chesterton "And there is always the danger of allowing people to suppose that our modern times are so wholly unlike any other times that the fundamental facts about man's nature have wholly changed with changing circumstances." Dorothy L. Sayers, 1 Sept. 1941 Last edited by inked : 12-15-2004 at 12:09 PM. |
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12-15-2004, 01:14 PM
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#14 |
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The Lovely Hobbit-Lass
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Bounded in a nut-shell
Posts: 1,593
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I like the songs. Yeah, Christmas has me realizing it's all a big scam every year when I look in my purse and hope I'll have enough to buy Christmas presents. And allllllll those stamps for Christmas cards we send to 'friends and relations' who couldn't care less, it seems, whether or not I exist the other 364 days of the year. And, of course, when I watch Miracle on 34th Street and whatshisname reminds me that "There's a lotta bad -isms in the world and 'comoyshial'-ism's one a-the 'woyst'."
It really bugs me that Christmas has to be one big spend-it-all-and-spend-it-fast fest. It irks me that you're measured as to how much you spend on others, or the poor, or how tall your Christmas tree is or whether or not you put up decorations in the front lawn- and yet hardly ANYBODY actually wishes you a Merry Christmas. You say it to some people and they look at you like you've got lobsters crawling out of your ears. The season to be jolly has everyone running frantically to buy everyone every must-have piece of crap out there. If you don't give your kids the best Christmas they've ever had every year, they'll grow up to write books about you. If you don't send Aunt Agatha a card, she might disown you. If you don't make care baskets for homeless people you're Ebenezer Scrooge. And yet nobody has a problem humbugging their way through the malls like it's the devil's birthday we're celebrating. Yeah, I get disillusioned by 'the most wonderful time of the year' a lot.
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It's New Years Day, just like the day before; Same old skies of grey, same empty bottles on the floor. Another year's gone by, and I was thinking once again, How can I take this losing hand and somehow win? Just give me One Good Year To get my feet back on the ground. I've been chasing grace; Grace ain't so easily found One bad hand can devil a man, chase him and carry him down. I've got to get out of here, just give me One Good Year! |
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12-15-2004, 01:20 PM
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#15 |
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Elf Lord
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: sikeston, MO, usa, earth, sol
Posts: 3,114
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Yes, Rosie,
but I can't help but notice that you have the Athanasian reason for Christ's mass in your sig! REJOICE!
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Inked "Aslan is not a tame lion." CSL/LWW "The new school [acts] as if it required...courage to say a blasphemy. There is only one thing that requires real courage to say, and that is a truism." GK Chesterton "And there is always the danger of allowing people to suppose that our modern times are so wholly unlike any other times that the fundamental facts about man's nature have wholly changed with changing circumstances." Dorothy L. Sayers, 1 Sept. 1941 |
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12-15-2004, 01:33 PM
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#16 |
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The Lovely Hobbit-Lass
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Bounded in a nut-shell
Posts: 1,593
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Oh, sorry, I didn't want to spoil our hating up the commercialized Christmas with any sentiments stating otherwise. I'll ammend:
My disgust with the make-a-buck-inalia is limited. It is not all-encompassing, and wears off quite effectively when I sit down with 'faithful friends who are dear to us' and have myself a merry little Christmas watching Charlie Brown or Bing Crosby. I'm glad that someone thought up the idea of inserting turkey dinners into this crazed season. Although we may have to spend a lot of money trying to prove it, it is nice to have people to love, and who love you back. And most of all, I'm glad we have this season to celebrate Christ coming to earth. I'm thankful He's not a helpless baby in a feeding trough anymore, but that He went through it- all the way from the manger to Calvary- for my sake and yours, and rose to everlasting life again as a living savior and a constant friend. We sing 'joyful and triumphant' for a reason! And that makes me smile, even when my wallet's light and my feet are sore and I locked my keys and cell-phone in my car- which happens to be parked about a million miles from the nearest pay-phone.
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It's New Years Day, just like the day before; Same old skies of grey, same empty bottles on the floor. Another year's gone by, and I was thinking once again, How can I take this losing hand and somehow win? Just give me One Good Year To get my feet back on the ground. I've been chasing grace; Grace ain't so easily found One bad hand can devil a man, chase him and carry him down. I've got to get out of here, just give me One Good Year! |
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12-15-2004, 01:59 PM
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#17 |
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Lady of Letters
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Either Oxford or Kent, England
Posts: 2,476
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I agree Rosie - you put that very well
I don't think Christmas is that commercial, unless you want it to be. I like giving people presents and choosing what they'll (hopefully) like. Apart from that though, for me Christmas consists of going to church and being with family. Nothing commercial about it. Also, I like the Dickensian Christmas
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And all the time the waves, the waves, the waves Chase, intersect and flatten on the sand As they have done for centuries, as they will For centuries to come, when not a soul Is left to picnic on the blazing rocks, When England is not England, when mankind Has blown himself to pieces. Still the sea, Consolingly disastrous, will return While the strange starfish, hugely magnified, Waits in the jewelled basin of a pool. Last edited by sun-star : 12-15-2004 at 02:10 PM. |
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12-18-2004, 04:07 PM
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#18 |
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Dead
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: on the floor, under the table, just to your left, your other left
Posts: 1,486
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I love Tom Lehrer and that is where I think I got the idea for the song.
Yes, I always buy in to the capitalist way, but sometimes I get frustrated and write a song/poem about how worthless it all is. It just makes me want to have Religion every year, and all I can come up with is Capitalism. I want Faith, I want something to Believe, I want something to Celebrate that is meaningful. That is what is on my Christmas list. And now we are bringing up our children with Capitalism instead of Christmas, Half-off sales instead of Hanakuah, Credit Cards instead of Christmas cards, and it really puts off an optomistic existentialist. And my FAMILY is so HYPOCRITICAL about it all. My aunt has a rich boyfriend so they are always trying to give us nice stuff and my mother scorns her EXCESSIVELY, and then plays the "I must do better game" and buys all she can. aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh..... It is depressing sometimes, but golly gee wiz and by all my elf blood, I AM IN THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT! I just gave away three ten pound bags of random stuff at school for The Politically Correct Holiday of Your Choice and I certianly have gifts for all of my family members. All hail the evil empire!
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How to Survive the Sillmarillion I thought that Alcohol was just for those with nothing else to do. I thought that drinking just to get drunk was a waste of precious booze. But now I know that there's a time and there's a place where I can choose To walk the fine line between self control and self abuse. "Lacerations make complications, but welts go away in a day." |
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12-18-2004, 10:05 PM
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#19 |
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The Intermittent One
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: here and there
Posts: 4,671
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i don't hate christmas,
i just hate the mass consumerism, commercialism and capitalism that is attached to the time of year now. |
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12-19-2004, 01:21 AM
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#20 |
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Dead
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: on the floor, under the table, just to your left, your other left
Posts: 1,486
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I feel so ignorant!
Why can't joy and goodwill come out of something as evil as commercialized movies? Why the very basis of Santa Claus is based on want, which turns into greed, which holds up our society. And it makes so many people happy! (And some sad. Aye, there's the rub. (sorry bout the quote. Too much Hamlet taking it's toll.)) Anyway, I just watched Elf. For a stupid movie, it was touching. Everyone, there IS something to belive in! PRESENTS!
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How to Survive the Sillmarillion I thought that Alcohol was just for those with nothing else to do. I thought that drinking just to get drunk was a waste of precious booze. But now I know that there's a time and there's a place where I can choose To walk the fine line between self control and self abuse. "Lacerations make complications, but welts go away in a day." |
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