Author: R J Adams

The US ‘War on Christmas’ is rumbling on for yet another year. As in bygone Christmases it’s fueled largely by the media, as though they haven’t enough bad news to bring us in this so-called ‘festive season’, without resorting to the defamation of a great human festival.

Perhaps if everyone accepted that Christmas, despite its name, is not a uniquely religious festival, there’d be less enthusiasm for ditching it in favor of ‘Happy Holidays’.

Ugh! Happy Holidays. How dreadfully ‘American’.

Christmas (December 25th) was a date purloined by early Christians to celebrate the unknown birthdate of Jesus. Prior to that it was a pagan festival.

As a consequence, in nations with large Christian populations, the date has gradually become regarded as an entirely Christian festival. That’s fine, but it’s still perfectly in order for non-Christians, pagans, and atheists to celebrate Christmas in their own way, and for their own reasons.

For the writer, Christmas is the most special time of year. It has nothing whatever to do with a divinity I choose not to believe in. The magic of Christmas stems from childhood, when Christmas ‘Peace and Goodwill’ abounded throughout the world. Even in the Great War, we were told, Christmas Day was respected as a truce, and enemies put up their weapons and played football together.^[1] Whether more than a grain of truth existed within that story is debatable, but it gave hope that what might be achieved on one day of the year could eventually become the norm on the other three hundred and sixty-four.

It has yet to happen, of course. Indeed, we seem to have moved rapidly in the opposite direction. Materialism abounds, ‘Love thy neighbor’ relates only to wife swapping with the couple next door, and in America, at least, there’ll be more shops open on Christmas Day than are closed.

This year will celebrate my sixty-fifth Christmas. I haven’t enjoyed them all equally, but they have all been special to me. No matter where I am, or who I am with, the magic of Christmas refuses to go away. Why? Because the true meaning of Christmas can’t be found at the office party or in the shopping mall. It’s carried in the heart. I discovered many years ago that magic doesn’t emanate from a god, or from a wizard. It comes from within.

We manufacture our own magic. The magic of Christmas is no exception. If we have it in our hearts, then it matters not whether we are Christian, Muslim, Jew, or atheist. The magic of Christmas can be just as wonderful for all.

I hope all Sparrow Chat readers will enjoy that magic this Christmas.

A Very Magical Christmas To You.

^{[1] “The Christmas Truce” FirstWorldWar.com}

Filed under: Merry Christmas

Pay a visit to the ‘100-Acre Wood House’ and savor some more titbits of rural life on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. It’s only a ‘click’ away.

The 100-Acre Wood House

Winter comes early on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. This year, ‘early’ meant November 9th! The snow started on Wednesday morning and continued all day. In the space of three hours nature transformed the landscape…

Read more…

For the bureaucrat, the world is a mere object to be manipulated by him. ~ Karl Marx

The US media really loves to hype up a non-story and milk it for all it’s worth. Take the latest sordid little escapade to hit the headlines this week – some guy working as a college football coach is caught touching up little boys in the showers and NBC Nightly News runs with it for five nights in a row as its main story.

Not content with over-reporting the story, NBC arranged a lengthy interview with Jerry Sandusky (the accused coach), asked him leading questions, then broadcast it to the nation.

In the once-Socialist country of my birth, such an act would be considered sub judice and any person or organization attempting NBC’s little stunt would be held in contempt of court, and heavily fined or imprisoned.

Not so in America, where the “First Amendment” takes precedence over justice.

Proving Sandusky guilty or innocent should never be the responsibility of the media. Today, the big corporations who own the TV companies use them as instruments of propaganda; a means to sway the populace to their view. Focusing on stories like this one allows Americans the opportunity to ‘tut-tut’ and express their righteous indignation (which they possess in abundance), while more vital and disturbing news issues are swept under the corporate media carpet.

Many of us have lived our lives in awe of the great naturalist and wildlife presenter, Sir David Attenborough. In his native Britain he is almost an institution.

Now eighty-five years of age, his latest epic series, “Frozen Planet”, is presently being screened on British television. It runs for seven episodes, and records the seasonal changes for animals and fish in both the Arctic and the Antarctic continent.

Despite his advanced years, Sir David was keen to make the series. He saw it as a historic record of an area of the planet that was rapidly changing. He knows, like many scientists, that the ice sheets and the life they support may well be gone in another fifty to one hundred years.

The last episode, “On Thin Ice”, deals extensively with the effects of global climate change. The Discovery Channel is screening the series in the US, but it will be exercising censorship and not broadcasting the last episode. It’s excuse: “scheduling issues”.

How can the Discovery Channel possibly have “scheduling issues” when ninety percent of its programs are repeats, and repeats of repeats?

Britain’s newspaper, the Daily Mail, suggests another reason:

An episode of the BBC’s Frozen Planet documentary series that looks at climate change has been scrapped in the U.S., where many are hostile to the idea of global warming.

British viewers will see all seven episodes of the multi-million-pound nature series throughout the Autumn.

But U.S. audiences will not be shown the last episode, which looks at the threat posed by man to the natural world.

It is feared a show that preaches global warming could upset viewers in the U.S., where around half of people do not believe in climate change…In the U.S., Frozen Planet is being aired by Discovery. They were involved in the joint-production of the series. Yet they are still refusing to accommodate Frozen Planet in its entirety…The timing of a one-sided global warming programme could be particularly sensitive in the U.S., where climate change is an issue in the presidential race.

GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry accuses climate scientists of lying for money.

A poll earlier this year found that the majority of Americans believe that if climate change does exist, it is not caused by humans.

Fifty-three per cent of Republicans say there is no evidence of climate change, while the number is far higher among Tea Party supporters, with 70 per cent saying the theory is ‘junk science’ pushed by groups with a vested interest.”^[1]

The Daily Mail has got it partly right.

The truth is that corporations have spent millions of dollars convincing the US public that climate change is not happening. They’ve used their media outlets, like NBC, to great effect. They’re not going to have all their hard work undermined by some trumped-up British knight who just happens to know what he’s talking about, and can voice it very persuasively.

Consequently, US viewers will be allowed to view images of cute creatures doing their thing, for six episodes. They will be deliberately prevented from hearing and seeing what will happen to those same creatures, and many others elsewhere on the planet before the end of this century, as climate changes destroys their habitat, because those who own and manipulate the Discovery Channel don’t wish them to know.

Apparently, the First Amendment doesn’t cover, ‘Freedom to See and Hear’.

^{[1] “Climate change episode of Frozen Planet won’t be shown in the U.S. as viewers don’t believe in global warming” Daily Mail, November 15th 2011}

Filed under: Brainwashing