Its finally time for my second post. Couldn’t let Ulysses have all the fun!!!

And straightway music and singing beguile the immortals. All the Muses together, voice answering heavenly voice, Hymn the undying gifts of the gods and the sufferings of men, Who, enduring so much at the hands of the gods everlasting, Live heedless and helpless, unable to find for themselves Either a cure for death or a bulwark against old age. –Homeric Hymn to Apollo 3.188-192

This past few days one of the major news story seems to about cartoons. You wouldn’t figure out how much some damage some cartoons can cause. I have seen some tasteless cartoons but this seems to have really caused a nuclear explosion. Though this doesn’t seem to be an instant explosion but a slow reacting one as the timeline suggests.

For those of you who have been out of this world for the last few days, this is all about cartoons of the Islamic Prophet Mohammed that appeared in some Danish dailies. I was going to link to a different site, but apparently the guy decided to take it off ’cause of quite a number of threats he received (As a side note, if somebody needs a death treat it is this person) And for those of you who don’t know, a portrait of the prophet is a sacrilege to a Muslim (I know because my friend dates one).

It would have gone below the radar(who cares about the Danes!) had not a Norwegian paper reprinted it. And from being a news article it became a fight between religious sensitivity and the freedom of expression, ultimately turning into a Arab world versus the west.

Freedom of expression, like any freedom is not absolute in its boundaries. I have been mad by a lot of things that have been done using it. Some thing that really pissed me off was the
last temptation of Christ. I was so mad at the director who decided to make it and all the people who were involved in it, and I cheered when it bombed at the box office. But one day as I was discussing with some friends about some of the difficulties faced by Christians in some communist and middle eastern countries, it just dawned on me just how one sided I had been. Sure enough I was mad at the people but then that is democracy for good or for bad.

If I were to declare war on all people who did not hold my belief (Just like the church did in the middle ages), I have no reason to live in a democracy, might as well as live in a theocracy. Being born in this culture, I am more predisposed to be take it in its stride than somebody from a totally different belief system. I am also less likely to be militant about my religious believes than somebody from the east (Most of us just worship money!), and that is when it gets out of hand.

This controversy is as much about the freedom of expression as it is about plain common sense. I am all for freedom, but isn’t there something called overkill? The media is as much to blame for this as anybody else in this. The other thing that really is funny to me is how people in so many different places of the world have taken it upon themselves to show their anger even though they had more pressing and important matters at hand.

Looks like the European papers are not taking it lying down (They don’t care able their circulation in the middle east) atleast for now. They maybe stoking the fire or getting their revenge for restrictions that the church put on them during the middle ages. Maybe its time that the religiously convicted lived with the fact that they can’t just kill the detractors.

So what is my take on this … just get on with life and live your own faith, without forcing somebody else to live yours!! If I wanted to issue fatwas then I have a long list in my hand, unfortunately so do the people that I want to issue those fatwas against.

I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend, to the death, your right to say it. –Voltaire

For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:5-7

And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.
Luke 1:34-36

Its hard to answer what Christmas means to me. On the face of it, it’s more like a religious festival where I come from and a entertainment industry where I am at now. December 23rd and 24th happen to be the highest grossing days in the US, a phenomenon catching up now in India.

Its funny what blatant commercialism can do to anything. Just like the phenomenon called Valentine’s day … come to think of it I guess most of the media made holidays!!

To add some spice into the proceedings, its always good to put in some left verus right politicisation of the topic at hand. Taking political correctness to a new level, the liberal left decided to replace ‘merry Christmas’ with ‘happy holidays’. I am yet to figure out the political wrongness of ‘merry Christmas’!! Would it be wrong for people to wish me happy birthday just because my neighbour doesn’t celebrate my birthday?? The Christian right was not far behind, they called for a boycott of any store that followed the left’s ‘liberal theology’. And now we know how wars start!

What more can I say … and now on to some fun quotes

“Christmas is a time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell the government what they want and their kids pay for it.” Richard Lamm

“How many observe Christ’s birthday! How few, his precepts! O! ’tis easier to keep holidays than commandments.” Benjamin Franklin

“From a commercial point of view, if Christmas did not exist it would be necessary to invent it.”

“In the old days, it was not called the Holiday Season; the Christians called it ‘Christmas’ and went to church; the Jews called it ‘Hanukka’ and went to synagogue; the atheists went to parties and drank. People passing each other on the street would say ‘Merry Christmas!’ or ‘Happy Hanukka!’ or (to the atheists) ‘Look out for the wall!'”