I had not been aware there was a Secular War against Saint Patrick's Day. Must have busy or something and missed it. Or so I learn from News Bustards. Here's the story in the original stupid:
Faith and begorrah, is nothing sacred?
Fuck you. Sorry, the story has not really started yet. But when I read a sentence like "Faith and begorrah, is nothing sacred," I say, "Fuck you." It's a reflex.
Some folks are trying to transform the name of Tuesday's holiday from St. Patrick's Day to "Shamrock Day."
Card shops have banners proclaiming the occasion; the Disney Channel is using the term; and some places in this country have changed the name of their community celebrations of Celtic heritage to the "nonoffending" terminology.
And that offends some folks.
"Some folks"...? "Card shops"...? "The Disney Channel"...? "Some Places"...? Who? Where? No specific card shops advertising "Shamrock Day" are mentioned in the article, and I haven't seen any, though perhaps I only hang out in the more disreputable card shops. As for Disney, well there's this, which is a shame, as whenever I think of St Patrick, I think "cartoon mice need to show him more respect." So, WTF? Let us Explore Further.
"I'm afraid I could use all kinds of expressions that wouldn't be principled to describe this trend," said Monsignor Mark Deering, 88, senior-most Catholic cleric in these parts.
Deering, retired pastor of
St. Louis Catholic Church of Waco, came here from Ireland in 1953 as a
freshly minted missionary priest and never left. "I don’t think that would ever be a success to call it Shamrock Day," he said. People the world over, of every culture and race, enjoy being Irish
for the day, he added. And he said he's heard no one take great umbrage
before at having a Christian saint's name attached to the day of
merriment. "In fact, in New York City, when the parade comes down Fifth Avenue,
the Jews take more joy in it than almost anyone," Deering said.
Fascinating. But stupid. First, it's not been established that there is any sort of a "trend" at all. That there is a movement to change "St. Patrick's Day" to "Shamrock Day" sounds like a bunch of horseshit, frankly (I'm not principled in my expressions). Second, Father Deering sounds like a nice enough fellow, but the reason he's never heard anyone take umbrage before at this "trend," is that never before has an idiot from a Fucking Waco, Fucking Texas, newspaper invented one. Third, Father Deering may be a lovely man, but if your career trajectory takes you from Fucking Carlow to Fucking Waco, Texas, I submit that you are perhaps not especially competent to comment on the sociology of how New York City Jews respond to St Patrick's Day. I myself concede that I am ignorant of the professional literature in this area, but from personal experience, I am going to say that Father Deering is "talking out his ass." (Sorry for the academic "mumbo-jumbo.") But let's get back to the evidence that there truly exists a secular humanist plot to call St. Patrick's Day "Shamrock Day."
The organizers of
Shamrock Day celebrations, such as the Habitot Children's Museum in
California, cite the need for "cultural diversity to our audience
without broaching religious boundaries." "A number of modern-day celebrations have their origins in religious
holidays but have become broadly celebrated by everyone. Halloween and
Mardi Gras are prime examples," the Habitot spokeswoman said, as
reported on CustosFidei.blogspot.com on March 14, 2007.
Journalism! A link to Custos Fidei (in English, "Kevin Federline"). Well, that's I suppose rock-solid. (The best part about this site -- and, as usual, our promise to you, dear readers, is "we shit you not" -- is that the CF blog does not offer "hat tips" but "biretta tips." Honestly.) CF enjoys collecting links of the sort you'd expect a goofball conservative Catholic Texas site to admire (representative sample: "From Skinhead to Catholic"). Anyway, this is basically their hard evidence about the Insidious Plot to Destroy Saint Patrick:
"A number of modern day celebrations have their origins in religious holidays, but have become broadly celebrated by everyone. Halloween and Mardi Gras are prime examples, and to a large extent, so is St. Patrick's Day, though certainly for many Catholics it is a true holiday (holy day) with religious significance.
"What we have tried to do at Habitot is focus on the non-religious elements of prominent celebrations with broad cultural meaning that everyone can learn from and appreciate, and avoid all particularly religious holidays like Christmas, Hanukkah, Easter or Ramadan as well as references to the religious origins of holidays. Norooz is a spring festival, not a religious one, for example.
"I'd like to invite you to join our *"Community Connections" *advisory..." etc.
Here is a link to what these evil bastards had planned for St. Patrick's Day. And here's a link to the Habitot Children's Center.
And that's it. A children's museum in Berkeley doing something pretty damn innocuous inspired... this. (Note the StormFront link. Classy.) And here are some of the quotes from the comments at the story on the Waco paper that legitimized this shit:
Are there no real Americans left anymore? I'd be happy to throw the first punch.
St Patrick is the Patron Saint of Ireland and to Irish Catholic Americans this is an insult. The Anti Christian left continues to attack Thanksgiving to turkeyday and Christmas to Holiday Tree. I can hear the roars from the hypocrits if Dr. Martin Luther King Day was watermelon day hugh? Horrible isn't it. This rage is just a tenth of the rage I have against the un-christian
left that I have to ask GOD for forgiveness for everyday. I pray GOD takes the enemies of the Church to task . WE shall wipe the dust from our feet and turn our back upon them.
I'm insulted to my very core. I dare these idiots to step up in the face of an Irishman and tell him they changing an Irish holiday.
GOD BLESS AMERICA LAND OF THE FREE! SO THEY SAY. IF IT WAS LAND OF THE FREE THEN WHY ARE WE HAVING EVERYTHING TAKEN AWAY FROM US WHEN IT COMES TO RIGHTS, HOLIDAYS AND RELIGIONS. YET THESE FOREIGNERS COME HERE GET BETTER TREATMENT THEN US CITIZENS DO. MAKE A STINK AND GET OUR HOLIDAYS RENAMED. COMPLAIN ABOUT THE WORD GOD BEING USED IN SCHOOLS AND SUCH SO THERE GOES EVERYTHING WITH THE WORD GOD OUT TO PASTURE NOW. I THINK IF YOU COME TO THIS COUNTRY YOU SHOULD ADAPT TO THE LAWS OF THE FOREFATHERS LONG BEFORE YOU GOT HERE AND THAT WE AMERICANS HAVE BEEN LIVING BY FOR AS LONG AS HISTORY. AS I'VE SAID BEFORE IF YOU FOREINGERS DON'T LIKE IT THEN GO BACK WHERE YOU CAME FROM.
Which is nutpicking, but not by much (and given the history of Irish immigration to the US, the last one is kind of piquant). And it's not unfair, either, since my overall thesis, such as it is, is that the Waco "reporter" -- Terri Jo Ryan -- is bahaving far more dangerously than, say, the people who run the fucking children's museum.
And this would be trivial! But the idiots biting on this neat bit of bullshit? Ron Dreher (who suggests we "git a rope," which I'd turn around to "rope a git"); the Washington Times; this imbecile (he confirmed the "trend" by running a Google search, and, yes, we shit you not); and... it just goes downhill from there.
Amazing. And some people thought they had St. Patrick's Day bitching rights...