Southern Poverty Law Center Designates #Christmas As A Sign Of Far-Right Extremism On Its “Hate Tracker”

The hard-left Southern Poverty Law Center is at it again, this time going as far as to designate anyone that used the hashtag #Christmas over the holidays as a possible right-wing extremist.

That’s right, according to the SPLC and its “hate tracker”, those that used #MerryChristmas, #ChristmasEve, #Christmas, and #Jesus represented a range of extremists “from ‘conspiratorial fringes of mainstream conservatism to outright white supremacists.”

Breitbart reports:

The hate tracker notes that #Christmas is the second highest trending hashtag it tracked on Christmas Eve, with @whitehouse and @potus being among the four top Twitter handles mentioned with the hashtag.

For #MerryChristmas, the U.S. Marine Corps’ band at @marineband was one of the top mentioned, according to the hate tracker on Christmas Eve. One of the SPLC’s “top image” associated with #MerryChristmas is a photoshopped picture of marines hoisting a Christmas tree, instead of a flag, as depicted in the famous Iwo Jima picture.

The SPLC includes disclaimers, however, such as that the accounts “are not necessarily part of the far-right population of accounts we monitor.” It also claims these “extremists” also participate in many “conversations and topics that are popular among more ‘mainstream’ communities.”

So there you have it. In the sick minds of the liberals who run the SPLC, U.S. Marines celebrating Christmas could be a sign of white supremacist.

In the past the SPLC has done everything in its power to label legitimate Americans as racists while soliciting donations from scared liberals who truly believe that there is a right-wing extremist around every corner.

From listing alternative news outlets as anti-government groups to now apparently attacking the very idea of saying Merry Christmas, the Southern Poverty Law Center is the perfect example of liberal insanity on steroids.

Topless Feminist Tries To Steal Jesus From Vatican Nativity Scene, Gets Trounced By Guard

Authored by Will Racke via The Daily Caller,

A member of a radical feminist group attempted to steal a statue of the baby Jesus from the Vatican’s nativity scene on Christmas day but was intercepted by police as she grabbed it.

A Reuters photographer happened to witness the incident as the topless woman, shouting “God is woman,” climbed over a guard rail and scrambled up to the scene in a brazen attempt to take the statue of Jesus from its crib.

The photographer, Alessandro Bianchi, snapped a picture showing a Vatican gendarme closing in on the woman, who also had the slogan scrawled across her bare back.

A Vatican gendarme attempts to block a topless activist of women’s rights group Femen, who tries to reach the Nativity scene in Saint Peter’s square in the Vatican December 25, 2017. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi

On its website, the Ukranian-French radical feminist group FEMEN identified the would-be thief as Alisa Vinogradova and described her as a “sextremist.”

The group says its goal is “complete victory over patriarchy.”

In a statement released Monday, FEMEN said Vinogradova’s stunt was a protest against the Vatican’s stance on abortion and contraception.

“The FEMEN act was directed against the Vatican’s infringement of the rights of women to their own bodies,” the group stated.

 

“In particular, against the policy of the ‘Holy See’ associated with the promotion of the ban on abortion and ‘sacred condemnation’ of contraception.”

The incident occurred about two hours before Pope Francis delivered his Christmas message to 50,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square, reports Reuters.

FEMEN staged a similar protest in 2014, when a member successfully snatched the statue of Jesus from its crib.

Paul Craig Roberts" Christmas Column 2017: The Greatest Gift Of All

Authored by Paul Craig Roberts,

Dear Donors, thank you for your support in 2017. Although you have kept me working yet another year, I find it encouraging that there are some Americans who can think independently and who want to know. As Margaret Mead said, it only takes a few determined people to change the world. Perhaps some of you will be those people.

 

My traditional Christmas column goes back to sometime in the 1990s when I was a newspaper columnist. It has been widely reprinted at home and abroad. Every year two or three readers write to educate me that religion is the source of wars and persecutions. These readers confuse religion with mankind’s abuse of institutions, religious or otherwise. The United States has democratic institutions and legal institutions to protect civil liberties. Nevertheless, we now have a police state. Shall I argue that democracy and civil liberty are the causes of police states?

Some readers also are confused about hypocrisy. There is a vast difference between proclaiming moral principles that one might fail to live up to and proclaiming immoral principles that are all too easy to keep.

 

Liberty is a human achievement. We have it, or had it, because those who believed in it fought to achieve it. As I explain in my Christmas column, people were able to fight for liberty because Christianity empowered the individual.

 

The other cornerstone of our culture is the Constitution. Indeed, the United States is the Constitution. Without the Constitution, the United States is a different country, and Americans a different people. This is why assaults on the Constitution by the regimes in Washington are assaults on America that are far worse than any assaults by terrorists. There is not much that we can do about these assaults, but we should not through ignorance enable the assaults or believe the government’s claim that safety requires the curtailment of civil liberty.

 

In a spirit of goodwill, I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a successful New Year.

 

Paul Craig Roberts

The Greatest Gift For All

Christmas is a time of traditions. If you have found time in the rush before Christmas to decorate a tree, you are sharing in a relatively new tradition. Although the Christmas tree has ancient roots, at the beginning of the 20th century only 1 in 5 American families put up a tree. It was 1920 before the Christmas tree became the hallmark of the season. Calvin Coolidge was the first President to light a national Christmas tree on the White House lawn.

Gifts are another shared custom. This tradition comes from the wise men or three kings who brought gifts to baby Jesus. When I was a kid, gifts were more modest than they are now, but even then people were complaining about the commercialization of Christmas. We have grown accustomed to the commercialization. Christmas sales are the backbone of many businesses. Gift giving causes us to remember others and to take time from our harried lives to give them thought.

The decorations and gifts of Christmas are one of our connections to a Christian culture that has held Western civilization together for 2,000 years.

In our culture the individual counts. This permits an individual person to put his or her foot down, to take a stand on principle, to become a reformer and to take on injustice.

This empowerment of the individual is unique to Western civilization. It has made the individual a citizen equal in rights to all other citizens, protected from tyrannical government by the rule of law and free speech. These achievements are the products of centuries of struggle, but they all flow from the teaching that God so values the individual’s soul that he sent his son to die so we might live. By so elevating the individual, Christianity gave him a voice.

Formerly only those with power had a voice. But in Western civilization people with integrity have a voice. So do people with a sense of justice, of honor, of duty, of fair play. Reformers can reform, investors can invest, and entrepreneurs can create commercial enterprises, new products and new occupations.

The result was a land of opportunity. The United States attracted immigrants who shared our values and reflected them in their own lives. Our culture was absorbed by a diverse people who became one.

In recent decades we have lost sight of the historic achievement that empowered the individual. The religious, legal and political roots of this great achievement are no longer reverently taught in high schools, colleges and universities or respected by our government. The voices that reach us through the millennia and connect us to our culture are being silenced by “Identity Politics,” “political correctness” and “the war on terror.” Prayer has been driven from schools and Christian religious symbols from public life. Constitutional protections have been diminished by hegemonic political ambitions. Indefinite detention, torture, and murder are now acknowledged practices of the United States government. The historic achievement of due process has been rolled back. Tyranny has re-emerged.

Diversity at home and hegemony abroad are consuming values and are dismantling the culture and the rule of law. There is plenty of room for cultural diversity in the world, but not within a single country. A Tower of Babel has no culture. A person cannot be a Christian one day, a pagan the next and a Muslim the day after. A hodgepodge of cultural and religious values provides no basis for law – except the raw power of the pre-Christian past.

All Americans have a huge stake in Christianity. Whether or not we are individually believers in Christ, we are beneficiaries of the moral doctrine that has curbed power and protected the weak.

Power is the horse ridden by evil. In the 20th century the horse was ridden hard, and the 21st century shows an increase in pace. Millions of people were exterminated in the 20th century by National Socialists in Germany and by Soviet and Chinese communists simply because they were members of a race or class that had been demonized by intellectuals and political authority. In the beginning years of the 21st century, hundreds of thousands of Muslims in seven countries have been murdered and millions displaced in order to extend Washington’s hegemony.

Power that is secularized and cut free of civilizing traditions is not limited by moral and religious scruples. V.I. Lenin made this clear when he defined the meaning of his dictatorship as “unlimited power, resting directly on force, not limited by anything.” Washington’s drive for hegemony over US citizens and the rest of the world is based entirely on the exercise of force and is resurrecting unaccountable power.

Christianity’s emphasis on the worth of the individual makes such power as Lenin claimed, and Washington now claims, unthinkable. Be we religious or be we not, our celebration of Christ’s birthday celebrates a religion that made us masters of our souls and of our political life on Earth. Such a religion as this is worth holding on to even by atheists.

As we enter into 2018, Western civilization, the product of thousands of years of striving, is in decline. Degeneracy is everywhere before our eyes. As the West sinks into tyranny, will Western peoples defend their liberty and their souls, or will they sink into the tyranny, which again has raised its ugly and all devouring head?

What"s The Greatest Christmas Movie Of All Time?

The news cycle this year was so hectic – particularly around the holidays – that Americans were apparently too overwhelmed to engage in that perennial holiday pastime: Arguing over which Christmas movie is the best Christmas movie.

Luckily, Axios teamed up with SurveyMonkey to create this (unscientific) poll of people’s Christmas movie preferences, broken down by gender. A Christmas Story nabbed the top spot for both genders.

A few bona fide Christmas classics were notably absent from the results: Love Actually, Scrooged, National Lampoon’s Christmas and the Nightmare Before Christmas, to name a few.

 

Is Christmas Inefficient?

Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Mises Institute,

After hundreds of years of attacks on Christmas, economists have finally gotten into the act.

Yale University’s Joel Waldfogel, writing in the American Economic Review, condemns what he calls “The Deadweight Loss of Christmas.” Once you cut through the calculus and graphs, his conclusion is clear: though Christmas generates a $50 billion gift-giving industry, a tenth to a third of that is sheer loss. Why? Because the recipient doesn’t always get what he wants. Given the chance, the recipient would have purchased something else.

All of this follows directly from his underlying theory. In neoclassical economics, the consumer is best off when he chooses, within his means, the highest-rank good or service on his “utility” scale. If he can afford a steak, and he has to settle for a hot dog because the restaurant is out of t-bone, he experiences dead-weight loss. It’s even worse if he has to pay the price of steak and gets a wiener instead.

So it is with gifts. They generate a net loss, this theory says, unless the recipient would have otherwise purchased, with his own cash, precisely what he unwraps. Of course, this is rarely the case. To provide empirical meat to his theory, Professor Waldfogel interviewed students. The students received an average of $438 in gifts, for which these kids reported they would have paid only $313 if they had done the shopping themselves. The gap narrows when the gift is from a friend, and widens when it’s from the family.

Imagine Mr. Waldfogel attending your next Christmas gathering. Aunt Janie gives her nephews soap-on-a-rope, and they all praise her for her generosity and thoughtfulness. The economist then prods the youngsters to ‘fess up that soap-on-a-rope isn’t so great after all, and with the $9.95, they would have bought the newest Spice Girls tape. He declares the gathering a waste and encourages the party to break up in the interest of everyone’s economic welfare.

Professor Waldfogel proposes that we could eliminate these losses, which could be as high as $13 billion per year, by giving money instead of gifts, and letting the recipient spend it as he chooses. But then why not take matters one step further? What is the point of all this shuffling around of cash in the first place? According to neoclassical theory, it would be far better if everyone just clung to his own bank account and spent his own money as he saw fit. Indeed, we’d all be better off economically if Christmas were merely abolished—heck, maybe the Congress should do it—until such time as we all have perfect knowledge of each other’s preferences and are willing to act on them.

Far from being one man’s opinion, this thesis is becoming a classic “extra credit” question on microeconomics tests. Waldfogel is only distinguished for having formalized the model and tested it against his own students’ experience. The conclusion allows economists to presume they are smarter than the mass of the buying public, which persists in the irrational habit of buying things for each other instead of sending money or, even better, just spending it on themselves.

So, what’s wrong with the theory? Plenty. It equates personal utility with dollars spent, the classic conflation of value and price. In fact, a gift is a special kind of good with its own value. For example, we value the soap from the Aunt precisely because of its tie-in with familial affection. Even if the recipient would never have bought it, his personal utility is enhanced by the knowledge that his extended family is thinking about him and cares enough to give.

The source matters. If soap were given by a classmate who complains that you are odoriferously challenged, the “gift” is an insult in disguise. It has negative value. “Rich gifts wax poor when the givers prove unkind,” writes Shakespeare, who seemed to have a more complete view of economics than Professor Waldfogel. Neither is the person who receives a gift purchased under duress likely to be grateful. People on long-term welfare, for example, tend to think of taxpayers as suckers.

A comment later published in the same journal picked up on this. The authors (one from Harvard, one from the University of Miami) also did an empirical test. They used a different method (asking students about prices of specific gifts, not whole bundles), a larger sample of students (209 instead of 78), and asked more detailed questions. The results were the opposite of Waldfogel’s. The authors showed that more than half valued the gift above its retail price, suggesting that Christmas giving actually represents a gain in social welfare.

Moreover, these authors found that gifts asked for were less valued than gifts that were not. This fits with experience: we’re pleased to get what we want, but especially appreciative when we like something we had not expected. Indeed, good gift shoppers think about this ahead of time. They buy someone a tie he would never buy for himself. They buy items the receiver might be too modest or frugal to purchase himself, even if he had the resources.

Some items are just gifts and nothing more: fancy soaps, paisley boxer shorts, blankets with school logos, coffee cups printed with witty slogans, and the like. That’s why there can be such things as “gift shops” as distinguished from regular stores. Gifts have a different value because they are altogether different goods. They embody not only themselves but also their meaning. Imagine if someone came to dinner, and instead of bringing a bottle of wine, gave you $15 and told you to spend it on anything you wanted. It’s just not the same.

For his part, Waldfogel responds by accusing the authors of biasing their results. The very nature of their survey questions encouraged students to report “sentimental value” instead of pure “material value.” Going back to the drawing board, and correcting for this and other supposed errors, Waldfogel surveyed another group of students—455 this time—and still found a dead-weight loss, less than before, but a substantial one nonetheless. Christmas is inefficient: that’s his story and he’s sticking to it.

Of course there is no way to decouple one kind of value from another kind of value, since all economic value is ultimately subjective. Surveys can’t reveal what people value; only action in the marketplace does that. What’s deeply odd about this wrangling is that everyone seems to agree that only the value to the recipient should matter. That leaves out the really crucial point of gift giving: that it benefits the giver as well as the receiver.

People feel good in being generous, especially towards family and friends. Giving is an act of charity and liberality, virtues people practice because they’re good for the soul. And even if they aren’t, economists should follow the rule of “demonstrated preference”: if a person gives a gift, it is because he preferred giving the gift to keeping his own money. The action is “utility enhancing” on its own terms. Why? Because it, as opposed to something else, took place. Value is revealed in the preferences people demonstrate voluntarily. A well-chosen gift also reveals something about ourselves: we care enough to make our affections known in a personal way.

Again, the problem of the welfare state presents itself. In its form of “charity,” people do not give voluntarily. So resistant are people to dumping billions of dollars on millions of freeloaders, that the government has to threaten them with fines and jail terms (that’s what taxation is) to get them to fork over this “gift.” No one demonstrates a preference for the welfare state (voting doesn’t count since people are not using their own resources to purchase the services for which they vote). This degree of redistribution has to be imposed. Taxation, in contrast to Christmas, is a clear example of a utility-reducing activity.

But economists of the neoclassical school have rarely bothered with such distinctions. Their theories leave little room for reflection on property rights, individual choice, and the distinction between market exchange and forced redistribution. For them, a mathematically determined standard of efficiency is the only test that matters. Not even an absurd conclusion—for instance, that giving gifts is inefficient—causes them to rethink their core theory.

Economists are hardly alone in this. Skeptics and opponents of the market economy have long had a beef with the idea of giving and charity, especially as it occurs at Christmas.

Perhaps the socialists have long understood something about Christmas that others, even advocates of the market, have overlooked. In the institution of the gift, we find a strong rationale for the establishment and protection of private property and the capitalist economy. In order to give, we must first produce, acquire, own.

G.K. Chesterton, a great defender of Christmas against English Puritans who regarded it as corrupt and pagan, observed that collective ownership would mean the end of voluntary giving. Moreover, he clarified, “giving is not the same as sharing: giving is the opposite of sharing. Sharing is based on the idea that there is no property, or at least no personal property. But giving a thing to another man is as much based on personal property as keeping it to yourself.”

And contrary to the complaints of materialism at Christmas, meaningful gifts can be as elaborate as gold, frankincense, and myrrh, or as humble as two fish and five loaves.

It’s no wonder, then, that history’s dreariest socialists have denounced Christmas. The economic core of its gift giving centers on private property, while its ethical core belies the claim that private property institutionalizes greed.

“There is the greatest pleasure in doing a kindness or service to friends or guests or companions,” wrote Aristotle in The Politics, “which can only be rendered when a man has private property. These advantages are lost by excessive unification of the state…. No one, when men have all things in common, will any longer set an example of liberality or do any liberal action; for liberality consists in the use which is made of property.”

As for intellectuals—economists no less—who have failed to understand this simple truth, it’s staggering to think of the dead-weight loss their ideas have imposed on society.

Christmas In Venezuela: What It"s Like After Socialism Destroys Your Country

Authored by Daisy Luther via The Organic Prepper blog,

The situation in Venezuela is grim and not getting any better.

A socialist government has destroyed what used to be one of the healthiest economies in the world and turned it into something for which few were prepared. As we get ready for the holidays here in America, with our usual spending frenzies and feasts, Christmas in Venezuela is looking a lot different than it did a mere decade ago. Maybe some of the young people who think socialism is the answer to all our societal woes will read this and realize that this form of government doesn’t work – it destroys all hope.

Last week, I got an email from a prepper named J.G. Martinez D, or Jose. He offered to send me some on-the-ground articles for as long as the internet is up and running. I thought, given the season, that it would be interesting to follow up the interview with Selco regarding his SHTF Christmas with an interview about Christmas in Venezuela. Jose is one of the few people in Venezuela who was a prepper before this collapse happened so his perspective is quite valuable.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

I am an upper middle class, professional former worker of the oil state company, in my 40s. A Bachelor’s degree from one of the best national Universities. I have a small 4 members family, plus two cats and a dog. An old but in good shape SUV, a good 150 square meters house in a nice neighborhood, in a small but (formerly) prosperous city with two middle size malls. Everything in the period 2004-2012 was just fine. After that period, the economy started a declining trend that has been increasing faster each week.

Being a prepper, and having experienced two major similar crisis in my lifetime (civil turmoil 1989, and Caracas coup d’état in 1992), inspired me to find a second (and even a third) income source and some months’ worth of food at home. I started to write for a Forex blog, and earning some extra cash for preppings: a genset, (now used twice weekly because of the power cuts) additional freezers, a CNC machine for a home-based small business, and some professional audio equipment for voice over and podcast broadcasting, another economical activity that I enjoy, after my career in the oil company stopped. A water tank with a concrete base (the power cuts stop the water supply pumping system), and reinforced bars for the windows, enclosing the patio for security, and some other improvements.

This has allowed my family to deal with most of the terrible situation in Venezuela. I am now outside the country, planning for the exile of my family. I know things are going to get a lot worse before they start to get better, and don´t want them there once the shooting begins.

Tell me a little bit about the traditions in Venezuela. What was Christmas like before the economic collapse?

Christmas in Venezuela was one of the most popular times of the year, after school holidays. A lot of people, mostly in the big cities, went to the beach to enjoy those free days. Venezuelans are very family-oriented people. For us, Christmas is a season for being with family even in the entire year we have not been able to visit them. There was an exodus from one side of the country to the other one, people traveling in all directions to gather with their beloved ones, mainly from the big cities to the province states.

Since December 1^st, shops, coffees, restaurants, houses, entire subdivisions and streets, government offices, schools, and all kind of business were decorated and the traditional “Nacimientos” or representations of baby Jesus birth in the crib, with Saint Joseph, virgin Maria, and the three wizard kings. There were contests with the most elaborated Nacimiento would be the winner. And the traditional living Nacimiento.

The general environment was a happy one, one of hope and confidence in the future. One of our Christmas carols, called “gaita” totally unrelated to the western anglophone ones, are played with drums and all kind of instruments, and for the untrained ears, it could sound something like merengue. It has been a totally pleasant surprise for the foreigners to come to a church for the services and find people dancing and singing traditional songs. Lights and all kind of ornaments hanged from doors, walls, windows and every imaginable place.

Malls were full with people buying all kind of presents, and temporary employment was a permanent need for the merchants since the first day of December.  All kind of toys and kid’s articles were sold even in the streets, for the baby Jesus birth night.

Many people piled up their mattresses, pots, and pans in the family car, heading for wonderful vacation destinations like Isla Margarita, with lots of beautiful beaches, or the mountains in Merida, in Los Andes. Another tradition is buying new clothing and or shoes (“estrenos”) for the 24, 25, and 31 December evening, to dress up in dinner while the children played with their new toys, and receiving the new year with the best new clothing to ask for prosperity.

How have the traditions you described above changed now that there is very little money?

Without money, and cash scarcity, traveling is very hard. Many people have restricted their family gatherings. Prices of bus tickets are very high for the common person, and airplane tickets are a joke. 75% of the national flights fleet is on hold because of lack of maintenance.

I have not known of anyone with kids in the last 4 years that could buy a new attire for themselves to use on the 24 and 31 December nights. Most of the available money is for 24/31 December dinner, or kid’s toys, if any.

Many kids these years have received a very simple toy, instead of those most expensive and fancy ones. And many others have not been able to receive any toy at all. They have seen people looking inside the garbage bags for food, and despite their age they seem to understand what is happening and don’t ask for expensive toys to baby Jesus, leaving the parents to relieve some pressure and get them whatever they can.

However, the hard part is that many kids were used to going to visit their grandparents, and nowadays this kind of family trips are just not possible. There is no cash, collapsed transportation, no parts for the family cars. You get the picture.

What was your traditional Christmas dinner before?

Our family Christmas dinner includes roasted pork leg, with olives and capers; a special loaf of bread (“pan de jamon”) with lots of olives, ham, bacon, and capers inside, and hen salad, with potatoes, carrots, mayonnaise, petit pois, the very unique and traditional “Hallaca”. This is sort of an envelope with banana leaves, filled up with a tasty mixture: beef and pork stew, olives, boiled eggs (recipe varies with the region, East, Center, West, and/or the origin of the family), surrounded by a mass elaborated with the corn flour, the same we use for the arepas. It was common to cook about 150 or 200 hallacas for a 4-person family.

For bigger families, everyone collaborated with money and the hallacas-making was a team labor, with over 10 people or more, and the result was 1200 or 1500 hallacas. A family of four, like us, with 100 hallacas, a roasted leg, and a huge bowl of hen salad in our extra freezer, we would eat hallacas and Christmas food until middle January!

Normally, since my childhood, in our table on Christmas Eve, there were grapes, apples, dried fruits, raisins, nuts, and even hazelnuts. Most of these were imported (we only grow grapes in some places), but there were plenty of all this in the middle class tables the Christmas and New Year eve. For dessert, a sweet called “dulce de lechoza”, made with slices of green papaya, boiled with lots of sugar and clove, served with a slice of Christmas cake, a cake with raisins, chocolate, dried fruits and some rum, called “Torta negra” or Black Cake. There is a very traditional punch, mainly for ladies, called “Ponche Crema”, with a secret recipe invented 140 years ago by Eliodoro Gonzalez, a chemist from Caracas.

Of course, most of the people could afford a whisky bottle. Most of the time we had some cider for the New Years Eve toast to receive the incoming year; people who could afford it bought champagne.

Before, it was common for someone who was shopping or just passing by, to go to wish a merry Christmas to a friend and receive a plastic bag with 6 or 8 hallacas “so you can taste them”, and some “Dulce de lechoza” or Torta Negra.

What are families eating for Christmas dinner now?

Nowadays, families are mostly eating beans and lentils, whenever they can be found, and white rice, sometimes hard to find. Middle class made an extra effort for at least one hallaca for each member of the family at the Christmas dinner eve, and mostly bought to people who makes a temporary business by preparing, cooking and selling hallacas. Those who can afford to make hallacas at home are not too many, and people does not give away hallacas to friends and family so often. The most easy meal for Christmas dinner seems to be just the hen salad. There are no wheat flour at fair prices for ham bread or cake, nor olives or other ingredients at affordable prices. Instead of a complete pork leg, some people just buy (if they can find it)some pork meat and roast it in the oven, just for Christmas Eve.

Fortunately last year we had bought a lot of staples for hallacas and other things for the dinner in August, like a small frozen pork leg and flour, and we were able to deal not just the high prices, but the scarcity as well. Our Christmas dinner was a very normal one, a little bit sad, as you may suppose. A lot of neighbors have left the country, and their houses were empty and silent. The subdivision main street once filled with kids in bicycles, dogs and people with babies, now looks like a ghost town.

What kind of gifts are people giving this year? How are they acquiring them?

Pricing of the toys, after 18 years of currency control exchange, makes them extremely hard to afford. Families with many children just don’t buy toys, or new clothing. All the money goes for feeding needs, if some staples can be found somewhere.

Old toys, in good shape, are sold in garage sales, mainly from struggling middle class people, but that was the last two years…because the middle class is running away from the country. People who can’t afford to buy new toys just trade work hours, or buy used cheaper toys. With a pair of shoes costing several minimum wages, many people is not buying anything else but basic staples. Other people who really wants to give something are using as gifts previously used items. There is not enough money in people’s hands.

Prepping allowed us to get the toys for our child early, in September, so we are not with the last minute rush.

How are children dealing with the changes during the holiday season? Is it easier or more difficult for them than the adults?

Many children are pretty aware of the situation. Middle class kids have noticed the people roaming in the streets and ripping the garbage bags looking for something to eat, and asking for bread, money or something outside bakeries, malls and supermarkets.

They have come to understand, the hard way, that everyone is having a rough time, and they are lucky to have a good house, that their relatives (mostly) still have a car they can use (many of middle class families cars are awaiting for non-affordable spare parts like tires, batteries or others).

This said, children know that anything Baby Jesus or Santa could bring along is a plus. It is touching to read that in their letters, they have asked for toys as well for the poor children. They see their parent’s faces arriving at home with a couple of grocery bags, and hear the adults conversations about the crisis. It is has been very hard for many of them. I have known by mouth of a psychologist friend of us that his little patients (he works mainly with children) are having nightmares and night terrors associated to what they see on the streets. Everyone is having a hard time.

What are some of the creative solutions that people are coming up with to make the holidays special?

People are trying to deal with the situation by means of making clear to the kids that what is important is being healthy, and that the family is all together, for instance. But the most needy are having a harsh time.

Some people has risen chickens for Christmas dinner, in whatever space they had available, but with the danger to be robbed. Other people puts together whatever cash they can find, scarce as well, and buy in bakeries all the ham bread and other stuff, to resell in the streets.

They generate scarcity in the bakeries, and inflate the prices to awesome levels. I have known that in coastal towns like those all around Margarita Island, they are using fish in the Hallacas, instead of beef and pork, for example. And instead of hen salad, sardines salad. My wife is using some sugar substitutes, as a traditional cane juice.

Are politics/government affecting the holidays in any way? Are they providing any type of relief or treats for families? Are they offering any suggestions to make this time of year more special?

Sure, they are trying to wash their nasty face with handouts. The relief, or treats was a Christmas bonus for those holding that carnet imposed by the Government to their supposed followers, and it was not even for all of the carnet holders neither.

They openly offered pork legs, toys and other goodies at low prices for those who vote for the Socialist Party. Of course this was all lies. The goodies are for the NGs, for the riot police, and the military who suffocated the recent demonstrations with over 130 persons killed.

Do you have any stories you could share of post-collapse Christmas in Venezuela?

The worst of the collapse has not been seen yet. But it is quite remarkable to notice that in other countries, the rush for electronic appliances sales generate turmoil in the stores, meanwhile in Venezuela it is the access to basic staples.

My wife was casually in a small supermarket a few days ago, when unexpectedly a couple of employees started nervously to stack powdered milk in the shelves. This is one of the most precious staples in Venezuela, much more than the liquid milk, for reasons known only to Venezuelans, and that I myself can´t explain despite being a Venezuelan. Maybe the low price, and that it can be stashed for a long time.

So there were some soldiers custodying the supermarket, and ask the people to make a line. Suddenly, a large amount of people invaded the supermarket, and pushed aside the two employees, who fell to the ground under the avalanche of people. My wife took the kid to her side, just on time so the horde would not push him and knock him to the ground and step on him. My wife, terrified with that scene, once she was able to move around to get if she could get a package, stood next to a soldier. My kid look at the soldier and, innocently asked with his little voice if he could get him some milk for his cereal. The soldier look down on the kid, and just patted his little head, with a knot in his throat, looking at my wife with a sense of impotence.

Would you be prepared?

The stories of Christmas in Venezuela should be eye-opening to anyone who is trying to get prepared for a long-term event.

The way that life has changed there is stark, dramatic, and something that could happen in any country in which the government turns to socialism. Would you be prepared for life in a collapse situation? Would you be able to provide special things for those you love to make the holidays a little bit happier?

Is “christmas” Christian? – UPDATED – (VIDEO)

“Your CREATOR says: Do not imitate the ways of the pagans . . .

They cut down a tree and decorate it with silver and gold.”

(Jeremiah 10:2-4)

Thinking of “christmas” brings a lot of memories of eating, drinking, and material reward, yet to be quite honest, none of these remembrances of bliss and debauchery has to do with the birth of the Savior of the World.  The reason is simple.  “christmas” is not about Christ, and never has been.  It is a menagerie of ancient pagan customs that have been forcibly labeled as such, like the hammering of a square heathen peg into the round opening of a righteous church door.

If I put a swastika on a cross while I praise the Messiah,

does that make the swastika symbol Christian?

 “Come out from the unbelievers and be separate,

Says THE ETERNAL,

And do not touch pagan things . . .

Then I will receive you.”

(2nd Corinthians 6:17)

The Truth is in the Word.

Look at the word itself . . . “christmass“.  “Mass” means funeral or death, not birth.  Right from the start there is a lie.  Who is the Father of lies? . . . Satan.  The day is a celebration of Christ’s death not birth.  Who would be reveling in Christ’s death on the cross? . . . Satan and his followers . . . even though, unbeknownst to them at the time, Christ’s death was to be their later eternal undoing.  What people are unwittingly saying in the greeting “merry christmas” is “Happy Creator’s Death!“

“If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.

Yet, there is another who bears witness of me.”

(Two Witnesses, Father and Son, Together in One)

(John 5:31-32)

The above quote from the Messiah was in debate whether or not His testimony alone was worthy of acceptance as Truth, as the Divine Law states, “two or more witnesses” is required.  (Deuteronomy 17:6)

“Those on earth rejoicing at the Two Witnesses death,

making merry, and sending gifts to one another.”

(Revelation 11:10)

Many devout theologians of the book of Revelation agree that the “Two Witnesses” spoken of here (while they may also be proven later to be literal in the last days) are preeminently figurative, that of the Creator and the Son, or the Old and New Testament.  If the latter, and Christ is The Word (both old and new testament), then the “Two Witnesses” is also therefore a reference to Christ Himself.  Can you think of any other day of celebration best known universally for gift giving . . . and that because of a death (mass) of a righteous prophet other than “Christ-Mass” ?

If “christmas” were really about the Messiah, malls would have an actor dressed like Christ in the middle of them instead of “Santa Clause”.  There would be sheep instead of elves.  Children would sit on the Messiah’s lap and tell Christ what they wanted.  The beloved Savior would be at the end of the “Thanksgiving Day” parade, walking with a staff and lambs (representing the Word and the children of the Creator), instead of “Santa Clause” riding in a sleigh with presents (representing the competing allure of material self-gratification).  Who is “Santa Clause” anyway?  You guessed it.  The Savior’s competition and nemesis.  Who else?  Satan himself.

“Santa” riding a sleigh in the sky originated from the pagan god “Saturn” (the Death Angel; the Devil), celebrated for thousands of years as “Saturnalia“, a gift giving holiday at the end of December, which the Church of Rome “christianized” as “christ-mass“.  The pagan death-god Saturn also rode a chariot in the sky, had a long white beard, and was often depicted with a child on his lap . . . to eat them for dinner!  Scandinavians later adapted Saturn into “Odin” (Lucifer), the bearded god of war, death, intoxication, and seduction.  The Europeans adapted “Odin” into “Robin the Hobgoblin” (or Satan), who announced his dreaded arrival with the warning laugh of “Ho! Ho! Ho!”

(Old bearded Saturn-Satan-Santa Eating a baby)

Incredible isn’t it!  We willingly put (sacrifice) our children on the lap of Satan, bring pagan idols (trees), decorated with silver and gold, into our homes and church altars, where they become the center of attention and festivities . . . just like the pagans did 4000 years ago . . . and on the very same day . . . all the while we have the audacity to call it “christian“!

“When the Eternal your Creator drives out from before you the pagan nations which you go to possess, and you replace them and live in their land, beware that you do not follow or imitate their pagan customs or ways of worship, inquiring ‘How did they worship their false gods?  We will worship the true Creator likewise.’  You shall not worship the Eternal your Creator the same way the pagans worship their false deities.“

 (Deuteronomy 12:29-31)

If I asked my spouse if it would be okay with them to celebrate our anniversary on the same calendar day as my previous spouses’ anniversary, because I was accustomed to celebrating it on that day, what do you think their reaction would be?  Do we not realize that the same jealous feelings are felt by our heavenly Father and His Son?

“You have let go of the commands of The Creator . . .

So that you may take hold of your (pagan) traditions.“

(Mark 7:8)

To those who see the Truth in theses words of the Messiah to the degree to which they keep the Seventh Day Sabbath instead of the one instituted nearly four hundred years later by the Church of Rome, repeatedly saying from the altar of the Highest in a Sabbath keeping church during the last month of the year, “We know that Christ was not born in December, yet we are going to act like it anyway“, is no different than saying, “We know that the Sabbath is Saturday, yet we are going to worship on Sunday anyway.“

If we claim we are compromising with the world’s pagan customs in order to win people over to Christ, we will simply win over compromising people, and such will fill the church.  On the other hand, if we take an unpopular stand against the world’s pagan customs to righteously honor the Son with all possible purity, then will we likewise win over uncompromising people who are willing to take an unpopular stand against the world for the integrity of the Son, and this kind of believer will fill the Creator’s church.  Which of the two types of people would the Son prefer in His Church?

“Do not love the world or the things in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

(1st John 2:15)

The world’s revelrous, debaucherous, materialistic, and pagan “christmas” directly competes for focus with the Messiah, it does not enhance it.  As such, “christmas” brings a big smile to Satan’s face, and a sorrowful tear to the crucified Savior’s eye.  The Savior of the world was not born to instigate a commercial enterprise, nor to promote additional worldly debauchery, materialism, drunkenness, and competitive violence.

(“Black Friday”, the beginning of the “christmas” season) 

I was in Wal-mart last spring at “easter-time”.  I noticed symbols (idols) of rabbits and eggs everywhere, yet I did not see a single representation of the Messiah.  “Easter”, I discovered, was originally “Ishtar”, the pagan celebration of springtime sex, hence rabbits and eggs.  Get it?  What amazed me is that this tradition is more than 4000 years old (traced specifically to the fallen Nimrod, great-grandson of Noah; the conduit through which nearly all worldwide pagan “holiday” rituals began), and here we are doing the exact same thing, with bunnies and eggs, on the exact same day, 4000 years later!  Wow!  Nothing has changed in 4000 years!  The exact same pagan tradition has been passed on from parent to child all this time, only now we try to claim the exact same pagan rituals as “christian”.

Nimrod, after he died, was immediately deified by the pagans and worshiped as “Baal” (the “sun-god”), the number one direct competitor in the Old Testament for the affection and worship of the true Creator.  Nimrod’s wife Semiramis (also known as “Ashtoreth“), was the number two Old Testament competitor for the Father’s true worshipers.  After she died, she too was  deified, allegedly reborn at sunrise on the spring solstice out of a red egg laid by a menstruating rabbit .  Her reborn name was “Ishtar” (Easter).  To commemorate this, the pagans held a sunrise worship service at the beginning of spring (birth) and painted eggs red, from the blood they attained from the babies they had just sacrificed in their pagan ritual.  When we tell our children to paint their “easter” eggs, this IS where the “tradition” (pagan ritual) comes from.

“Cupid” was the nickname of Nimrod’s son Tammuz, who had sex with his mother Semiramis in another pagan ritual.  When you celebrate “St. Valentines Day” of alleged “romance”, it is that of incest between a mother and a son.  When Tammuz (Cupid) died prematurely, in the prime of life, this was commemorated for thousands of years on December 25th as a funeral mass (messiah–mass), at the beginning of winter (or death), by cutting down a tree, in its prime of life, making it an idol, and then decorating it with silver, gold, and lit candles, created from the fat of children sacrificed on their pagan alter.  This “holiday” later turned into “Saturnalia” which turned into “christmas“.

“Your CREATOR says: Do not imitate the ways of the pagans . . .

They cut down a tree and decorate it with silver and gold.”

(Jeremiah 10:2-4)

“The children of Israel did evil in the sight of  THE CREATOR . . .

They forsook the Father . . .

who had saved them from the pagans and their ways . . .

From BAAL and ASHTORETH.“

(Judges 2:11-13)

December 25^th is really the “Tammuz-mass” for the death of the son of Baal (the notorious, blood thirsty pagan god), not for the birth of the Divine Creator’s Son, the Messiah from Nazareth, whom all scholars agree was born in the fall, not the winter, during the Feast of Tabernacles.  Toward the end of the third century, when the Church of Rome wished to increase their attendance rolls (and thereby collections), they simply claimed to convert millions of pagans by sprinkling them in crowds of tens of thousands with “holy water”, never teaching them individually the Father’s true commandments, nor genuinely converting them by their proven repentance and baptism, all of which the new testament scriptures repeatedly insist upon for true conversion.

To graft these millions of pagans into the now fallen church, which quickly became a global financial and political enterprise, the corrupt church leaders adapted nearly all of their newly unconverted parishioner’s pagan rituals into the church as new “holidays” to compromisingly pacify them with pagan familiarity.  To claim that December 25^this what was spoken of in scripture as “Today in the town a David a Savior is born” (Luke 2:11) is comically blasphemous . . . if there is such a thing.

“Christmas”, “Easter”, “St. Valentine’s Day”, “St. Patrick’s Day”, “Halloween” . . . all came about after the Church of Rome became paganized in the third century.  None of these “holidays” were ever celebrated by the apostles, or the Savior, or any of their followers for the first three hundred years of the Savior’s church.  Why?  Because they knew better.  They knew they were 100% pagan rituals.  Do we now know better than the apostles did who personally walked with Christ?

“Christmas”, in fact, was outlawed numerous times in the past by Creator-fearing devout Christian governments, leaders like Oliver Cromwell, and the earliest Christian reformers, specifically because of its pagan origins and debaucherous customs of which we now study.  Not only was “christmas” outlawed by the Christian reformers in Europe, it was adamantly outlawed by the first Christian immigrant reformers in America as well, due to its lascivious revelry and rampant violence, just as there is today.  What a victory for Satan that we have since forgotten to shun this pagan enterprise as unholy!

Charles Spurgen, one of the most highly acclaimed pastors of all time by all denominations, said on December 24, 1871:

“We do not believe in ‘christmas’, rather we abhor it!

It is unscriptural and superstitious.

It’s authority is undivine.“

My wife is from a devout Christian “sister” church of the same denomination as the church we attend here in America, yet from one on an island nation that refuses to bring these ancient pagan idols into the Holy Sanctuary for these very reasons. Her congregation, being on a small isolated island, has had little outside influence to hinder the purity of the initial church planting more than a hundred years ago.  Here in America, because we all grew up in the middle of a most compromising nation, compromise became commonplace in the church.  So subtly and gradually have we become accustomed to compromise, that we don’t even perceive it anymore.  Here pagan “christmas trees” have appeared on the very sanctuary stage (altar) itself. Why, if they are undeniably, originally idols of Tammuz, son of Baal?

Even if a church were to not bring in pagan trees and wreaths, yet still falsely focused December’s attention on the birth of the Messiah as the rest of the lost world does, all the while knowing that the Savior was born in the fall during the Feast of Tabernacles and that the December dates are of pagan origin, they are still giving in to the ways of the pagan world, trying to make something unholy, holy, trying to please men rather than the Creator of men who said, “Do not worship Me as the pagans do.”

If I were a goat farmer who wore a shirt with a goat head in the middle of a pentagram, innocently thinking I was promoting my industry, and then someone pointed out to me that the very same symbol was used for devil worship, should I continue to wear it once I knew better saying, “Well . . . It doesn’t mean that to me” ?  The question should be, “What does it mean to The Creator?” Remember, the Eternal Father was there, and He does remember, even if we don’t.  He personally looked down upon the Baal child sacrifices.  He saw firsthand the child blood painted “Ishtar/easter”eggs.  He witnessed Himself the incestuous Tammuz-tree tradition, the very day it started.  We may not see the pagan connections in these things, nor care even if we do, yet I assure you He does!  Do we not think the Creator finds it odd to bring in these very same pagan rituals or symbols (idols) into His church . . . into His sanctuary . . . on the very same pagan calendar days . . . all the while calling it the worship of Him?

Are we more interested in pleasing traditions of people . . .

Or maintaining the purity One who Created us?

“The Creator forgave past sins of ignorance . . .

Yet now, in better knowledge, He commands us to repent.”

(Acts 17:30)

As you will see from the references at the end of this article, “Santa Clause”, the “christmas tree”, wreaths, holly, poinsettias, and many other “christmas” symbols (idols) come directly from pagan fertility rituals for the worship of false gods, which directly compete for, not compliment, our Creator’s and Savior’s attention, servitude, and affection, just as they do today.  It might be a different matter if the symbols were simply secular historically (non-religious) in their origin (like a turkey at “Thanksgiving”), yet because they are direct representations of identical ancient forms of pagan religious worship rituals of false gods, I think it is a much more serious matter than we may first believe, especially as we are doing the exact same rituals on the exact same days in a religious endeavor.

If we claim “christianity” as our title, then no doubt we see the world as a “fallen” place.  What makes it fallen?  The breaking of the Creator’s laws.  What are the most fundamental of the Creator’s laws?  The Ten Commandments.  What are the most fundamental of these commandments?  #1 “Have no other gods before me.”  #2 “Do not use idols.” . . . Hummm? . . . All the other commandments are being broken in the world today, so why not these? . . . Or have we perhaps forgotten the first two, mistakenly thinking they are somehow antiquated, not realizing that we are still breaking them today?

“You shall DESTROY what is pagan . . .

For I am JEALOUS for my creation’s affections.”

(Exodus 34:13-14)

If my spouse is jealous because I spend a lot of time talking to an attractive co-worker and I think they are overreacting, should I continue my behavior anyway, or rather care about what my beloved thinks and alter my actions accordingly?

Would I want at my wedding party even one old lover as a guest (or a picture/idol thereof), there to be seen by my new devout spouse?

There is a bar in my hometown that is well known for every form of sexual immorality, and they have the best “christmas” decorations in town!  This should tell us something about whether or not the holiday is really about the Righteous Creator or not.

In Exodus 32:1-8, when Moses left Aaron in charge of the Israeli community, which had just left Egypt, he fashioned a calf out of gold (the religious tradition of the Egyptians) and then said that the Hebrews were to worship the True Creator in this same pagan way.  He was obviously proven wrong.  When Moses returned, he said that the pagans among them had caused them to pervert the Holy Way in which they used to worship the Creator, rebuking them to never, ever again worship the Eternal Father with pagan customs.

“If your brother is grieved because of your food . . .

(or pagan holidays)

You are no longer being loving . . .

It is good to abstain from meat or wine . . .

(or pagan holidays)

Or ANYTHING . . .

If they cause your brother to be grieved.”

(Romans 14: 15 & 21)

We are commanded not to offend our Christian brother, even if we are not offended by the matter itself.  A wine drinker (hopefully) can go one meal without drinking wine to suit a recovering alcoholic at the table.  A meat eater should be able to eat vegetables for one meal to please a vegetarian host.  A true Christian should be able to live through the month of December without bringing “christmas” decorations into the church which offends those who realize that they are of pagan idol origin.  After all, the Church of Rome has “christmas” trees and decorations throughout their churches, as do abominable sexually deviant nightclubs.  Do we really want to follow their example?

I can not think of one person who would not attend my church in December if the pagan symbols and seasonal rituals were not brought in, yet I can think of several people who are now not attending because the pagan symbols and rituals are inside of the church.

Seeing how “christmas” is supposed to honor the Father and the Son, yet instead has been taken over by the specific symbols (idols) and customs (rituals) of ancient paganism, the exact same ones which were used to worship false gods on the very same day, shouldn’t I avoid them and the “holidays” associated with them to worship the Creator in purity?

“You shall not worship the Eternal your Creator

the same way the pagans worship their false deities.“

 (Deuteronomy 12:31)

The Father is holy.  What is “holiness”?  Purity.  Would I want to drink a glass of orange juice with only one percent gasoline?  If not, then why would I want to bring in even one percent paganism into The Creator’s Holy Church?  In His book, any impurity, even one percent, makes something holy, unholy.  Do I love and protect myself more than the Creator’s Church?

The paganism in “christmas” today, with its pre-Christ silver and gold decorated tree idols, celebrated gleefully and universally by unrepentant, violent, rebellious, and lascivious openly non-christian revelers, should be enough proof that “christmas” is not Divine.  Saturn, Tammuz, and Baal, and their abominable self-indulgent way of life, are still being honored, in the very same way and on the very same day!

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Do you want to be an accomplice to that?

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–Brother Bart-

Donate

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 References

“christmas” Origin – Short Film

“christmas tree” Origin – Article

“christmas” Origin – Article

“black friday” – Article

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The post Is “christmas” Christian? – UPDATED – (VIDEO) appeared first on The Sleuth Journal.

"Chrislam" - Europe Folds To The Islamization Of Christmas

Authored by Soeren Kern via The Gatestone Institute,

The re-theologizing of Christmas is based on the false premise that the Jesus of the Bible is the Jesus (Isa) of the Koran. This religious fusion, sometimes referred to as "Chrislam," is gaining ground in a West that has become biblically illiterate.

• A school in Lüneburg postponed a Christmas party after a Muslim student complained that the singing of Christmas carols during school was incompatible with Islam. Alexander Gauland, the leader of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD), said the school"s action was "an unbearable, involuntary submission to Islam" and amounted to a "cowardly injustice" toward non-Muslim children.


• "The word "Christmas," a symbol of our faith and our culture, does not discriminate against anyone. Striking the emblems of Christmas does not guarantee anyone"s respect, does not produce a welcoming and inclusive school and society, but fosters intolerance towards our culture, our customs, our laws and our traditions. We firmly believe that our traditions must be respected." — Milan politician Samuele Piscina.

This year"s Christmas season has been marked by Islam-related controversies in nearly every European country. Most of the conflicts have been generated by Europe"s multicultural political and religious elites, who are bending over backwards to secularize Christmas, ostensibly to ensure that Muslims will not be offended by the Christian festival.

Many traditional Christmas markets have been renamed — Amsterdam Winter Parade, Brussels Winter Pleasures, Kreuzberger Wintermarkt, London Winterville, Munich Winter Festival — to project a multicultural veneer of secular tolerance.

More troubling are the growing efforts to Islamize Christmas. The re-theologizing of Christmas is based on the false premise that the Jesus of the Bible is the Jesus (Isa) of the Koran. This religious fusion, sometimes referred to as "Chrislam," is gaining ground in a West that has become biblically illiterate.

In Britain, for instance, the All Saints Church in Kingston upon Thames recently held a joint birthday celebration for Jesus and Mohammed. The "Milad, Advent and Christmas Celebration" on December 3 was aimed at "marking the birthday of Prophet Mohammed and looking forward to the birthday of Jesus." The hour-long service included time for Islamic prayer and was followed by the cutting of a birthday cake.

The prominent Christian blog "Archbishop Cranmer" rebuked the church for its lack of discernment:

"Note how this event is "Marking the birthday of Prophet Mohammed," but not looking forward to the birthday of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Mohammed gets his prophethood, while Jesus gets neither his prophethood nor his priesthood; neither his kingship nor his messiahship. It"s the exalted Prophet Mohammed along with plain old Jesus, because to have added any of his claims to divinity would, of course, have alienated many Muslims (if they hadn"t already been alienated by the haram [forbidden by Islam] celebration), which wouldn"t have been very interfaith or sensitively missional, would it?"

The blog added that exalting Mohammed in churches effectively proclaims that Mohammed is greater than Jesus:

"Every time a church accords Mohammed the epithet "Prophet," they are rejecting the crucifixion, denying the resurrection of Christ, and refuting that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, for Mohammed denied all of these foundational tenets of the Christian faith."

Previously, a passage from the Koran denying that Jesus is the Son of God was read during a service at a Scottish Episcopal Church in Glasgow on Epiphany, a festival commemorating the incarnation of God in the person of Jesus Christ. One of the Queen"s chaplains, Gavin Ashenden, referred to the Koran reading as "blasphemy." He added that "there are other and considerably better ways to build "bridges of understanding"" with Muslims.

In London, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims, a parliamentary group composed of members of both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, issued a report, "A Very Merry Muslim Christmas," aimed at drawing attention to the "humanity" of Muslims during Christmas. The report states:

"Too often, Muslim charities come to our attention because of negative media coverage... What we hear even less about is the "Muslim Merry Christmas." The soup kitchens, the food banks, the Christmas dinners, the New Year clean-up — work Muslim charities will be busy doing during the Christmas period."

In Scotland, the regional government was accused of "undermining" Britain"s Christian heritage by promoting "winter festivals" for ethnic minorities while ignoring Christmas. Scotland"s International Development Minister, Alasdair Allan, pledged nearly £400,000 ($535,000) to fund 23 events during the winter months. He described them as "key dates in our national calendar" and said the "exciting and diverse" program would help Scots "celebrate everything great about our wonderful country during the winter months." None of the events, however, has any connection to Christmas. A spokesman for the Catholic Church in Scotland said:

"It is deeply disappointing that the Scottish Government has chosen not to recognize the religious reality of Christmas in its Winter Festival events. Over half of the population stated their religion as Christian in the last census. Catholics, and other Christians, may quite rightly wonder why this publicly-funded Festival does not include any events designed to help Scots celebrate the birth of Christ which is undoubtedly the most significant celebration in the winter months."

Gordon Macdonald, of Christian charity CARE, added:

"It is part of the general secularization that has been taking place within the Scottish Government for a number of years where our Christian heritage and value system has been undermined as a direct result of government policy."

In Denmark, a primary school in Graested cancelled a traditional church service marking the beginning of Christmas in order not to offend Muslim pupils. Some parents accused the school of having double-standards: it recently held an event called "Syria Week" in which children immersed themselves in Middle Eastern culture. Ignoring parents, the school board sided with the school:

"The board backs the school"s decision to create new traditions [emphasis added] that involve children and young people."

Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, who attended the school as a child, said the decision should be reversed. Health Minister Ellen Trane Norby added:

"Danish primary schools have a duty to spread education — and teaching the cultural values and knowledge connected to Christmas is an essential part of that."

In France, the annual Christmas market in the Croix-Rousse district of Lyon was cancelled because of exorbitant security costs associated with protecting the event from Islamic terror. The city"s annual festival of lights did go ahead this year. The military governor of Lyon, General Pierre Chavancy, said that, because of the "sensitivity" of the event, 1,500 soldiers and police, backed up by dogs, river brigades and mine-clearers, would be deployed to provide security.

In neighboring Belgium, the head of the Red Cross in Liège, André Rouffart, ordered all 28 offices in the city to remove crucifixes to affirm the organization"s secular identity. Critics said the decision was part of a broader effort to "modify certain terminologies" and to "break with our traditions and our roots" in order to appease Muslims. "We once said Christmas holidays, now we say winter holidays," said a local Red Cross volunteer. "The Christmas market in Brussels has been renamed "Winter Pleasures." Let things remain as they are."

In Germany, a school in Lüneburg postponed a Christmas party after a Muslim student complained that the singing of Christmas carols during school was incompatible with Islam. The school"s decision to reschedule the event as a non-compulsory after-school activity generated "a flood of hate mail and even threats against school management and school board," according to Focus. In an effort to appease angry parents, Headmaster Friedrich Suhr said that "non-Christian" Christmas songs such as "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" would not be banned. Alexander Gauland, the leader of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD), said the school"s action was "an unbearable, involuntary submission to Islam" and amounted to a "cowardly injustice" toward non-Muslim children.

In Munich, ads for a multicultural "winter market" depicted a snowman covered in a burqa. The chairman of the AfD in Bavaria, Petr Bystron, noted the irony: "A burqa snowman as a tolerance symbol?" In Halle, the Christmas market was renamed "Wintermarket."

In Berlin, the traditional Christmas market was protected by walls of concrete barriers to prevent a repeat of last year"s jihadist attack in which 12 people were killed and more than 50 injured. In Stuttgart, a 53-year-old man was arrested at the Christmas market after he claimed to carrying a bomb in his backpack. In Potsdam, the Christmas market was closed after a nearby pharmacy received a letter bomb. In Bonn, the Christmas market was evacuated due to a bomb threat.

In Italy, a school in Milan removed references to Christmas at a party and renamed the holiday as "The Great Festival of Happy Holidays." Writing on Facebook, local politician Samuele Piscina accused the school of implementing "a politically correct leftist policy" that deprives Italian children the joy of Christmas:

"After the nativity scenes and the crucifixes, now even Christmas parties are hindered in schools. The word "Christmas," a symbol of our faith and our culture, does not discriminate against anyone. Striking the emblems of Christmas does not guarantee anyone"s respect, does not produce a welcoming and inclusive school and society, but fosters intolerance towards our culture, our customs, our laws and our traditions. We firmly believe that our traditions must be respected."

In Bolzano, a cardboard Christmas tree was ordered to be removed from the town hall because "it could have offended the sensibilities" of Muslims. A local politician, Alessandro Urzì, expressed outrage at the decision: "The bureaucratic rigor with which the tree was removed to avoid the risk of annoying someone reflects the barbarization of the cultural climate."

In Norway, a primary school in Skien announced that its Christmas festivities this year would include not only the usual reading by pupils of verses from the Bible but also two verses from the Koran which refer to Jesus. The inimitable Bruce Bawer explained the implications:

"Stigeråsen School"s Christmas plans provide yet another example of dhimmitude: craven European submission to Islam. This year, there might be a couple of Koran verses in a Christmas show; next year, a yuletide event at which both religions are celebrated on an even footing; and not too many years after that, perhaps, a children"s celebration at which there is no cross and no Christmas tree, only prayer rugs, benedictions in Arabic, and hijabs for the girls."

In Spain, the Madrid City Council replaced Christmas festivities in the capital with a neo-Pagan "International Fair of the Cultures." According to Madrid Mayor Manuela Carmena, a former member of Spain"s Communist Party, the express purpose of the month-long event is to de-Christianize Christmas to make it more inclusive:

"We all know that Christmas is a festival of religious origin, but it is also a celebration of humanity, solidarity. Therefore, the Madrid City Council wants to do everything possible so that everyone who is in this city, from wherever they may be, can enjoy Christmas."

Breaking with tradition, the Madrid city hall also refused to place a nativity scene at the Puerta de Alcalá, one of the city"s most iconic monuments. Local politician José Luis Martínez-Almeida accused Carmena of "enthusiastically collaborating in the celebration of Ramadan" but "trying to hide all the Christian symbols of Christmas." He added: "We want to reclaim our cultural and religious roots."