home

Christmas Eve Open Thread

By Jeralyn, Section Blog Related
Posted on Sat Dec 24, 2011 at 08:18:28 PM EST
Tags: Christmas Eve (all tags)
Share This: Digg! StumbleUpon del.icio.us reddit reddit

Christmas Eve has arrived. This year at the TL house, we're celebrating with dinner and movies. "Love Actually" is my favorite for this time of year, even though I've probably seen it 10 times.

Whether you're cooking, watching movies, relaxing or celebrating with friends and family, we wish you a Very Happy Holiday Eve.

< Getting in the Mood for Christmas | Anonymous Denies Hacking Stratfor >

  • The Online Magazine with Liberal coverage of crime-related political and injustice news

  • Contribute To TalkLeft


    • Display: Sort:
    Christmas Eve Open Thread | 22 comments (22 topical)

    Readers Must Login or Create an Account to Comment

    Sad news from Houston (5.00 / 2) (#1)
    by Peter G on Sat Dec 24, 2011 at 08:48:18 PM EST
    John Lawrence, who allowed his sodomy prosecution to be carried to the Supreme Court in 2003 by Lambda Legal Defense Fund, rather than accept a $200 fine, and thus became a civil rights pioneer and hero, died about a month ago at age 68, according to an obit in the NYT.

    As the majority opinion explains, (5.00 / 1) (#5)
    by andgarden on Sat Dec 24, 2011 at 11:38:05 PM EST
    it wasn't just a fine:

    The petitioners will bear on their record the history of their criminal convictions. Just this Term we rejected various challenges to state laws requiring the registration of sex offenders. . . . We are advised that if Texas convicted an adult for private, consensual homosexual conduct under the statute here in question the convicted person would come within the registration laws of a least four States were he or she to be subject to their jurisdiction.

    Thanks for letting us know. RIP.

    Parent

    Other interesting information about Lawrence (5.00 / 2) (#15)
    by Peter G on Sun Dec 25, 2011 at 04:07:35 PM EST
    from the obit, that I hadn't heard before, and of particular interest to TL readers:  As the Supreme Court opinion states, based on police testimony at the trial, police entered Lawrence's apartment, without a warrant, in "emergency" response to a false, anonymous report of a shooting. (Probable homophobic and/or racist neighbor harassment, if you ask me.  Lawrence's housemate, Tryon Garner (since also deceased), was African-American; Lawrence was white.) According to a forthcoming scholarly book on the case, Lawrence and Garner were not even sex partners, and were not actually caught in bed, in the act, as police testified.  Rather, according to Lawrence himself, they were seated in the apartment, some 15 feet apart, when police entered, and were entirely falsely accused.  Again, an example of how anti-gay bias and laws open individuals to police and civilian harassment with little recourse.  Ironically, the attempt to harass Garner and Lawrence, if indeed that's what it was, backfired big-time -- leading to the invalidation of all the nation's anti-sodomy laws, and to judicial recognition at the highest level of gay people's equal right to respect for their personal dignity and privacy.  The incident thus contributed if not led indirectly but inevitably, in less then ten years, to the growing acceptance of gay marriage, to the addition of sexual identity as a protected category in many local anti-discrimination and hate-crimes laws, and to the end of "don't ask, don't tell," for example.

    Parent
    Legend has it that at midnight (5.00 / 4) (#2)
    by desertswine on Sat Dec 24, 2011 at 09:14:07 PM EST
    on Christmas Eve, the animals can talk.  

    But its been my experience that all they do is complain about the quality of the food. At least that's all my cats talk about.

    I think they can always talk (5.00 / 1) (#16)
    by Edger on Sun Dec 25, 2011 at 04:32:26 PM EST
    but they know better. They know we'd make them get jobs and pay taxes and bills and try to convince them to believe the TV or politicians.

    So, being far smarter than humans - getting free room and board from us after all, while hypnotizing us into thinking it's all our idea - they keep their silence whenever humans are within hearing range.

    You can tell by the look in their eyes... ;-)

    Parent

    Now THAT is a (5.00 / 1) (#18)
    by sj on Sun Dec 25, 2011 at 07:13:13 PM EST
    beautiful kitty.

    Parent
    Yeah... (none / 0) (#19)
    by Edger on Sun Dec 25, 2011 at 08:53:51 PM EST
    She owns me ;-)

    Parent
    I believe this is true (5.00 / 1) (#21)
    by CoralGables on Sun Dec 25, 2011 at 09:02:46 PM EST
    Walking home from work last night a Great Horned Owl kept asking for my name. Just wouldn't stop asking who.

    Parent
    Merry Christmas (5.00 / 4) (#3)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sat Dec 24, 2011 at 11:14:58 PM EST
    Happy Holidays and a healthy and prosperous New Year.

    "God bless you one and all!"

    Some Christmas wishes.. (none / 0) (#13)
    by jondee on Sun Dec 25, 2011 at 02:03:14 PM EST
    that people start seeing "money is speech" for the self-serving, dastardly, un-democratic lie that is; that the revolving door, (including the 200k a pop speaker circuit) is permanently welded shut; that people start realizing that a 'consultant' is yes man with a Phd..

    Without a knowledge of how to separate the wheat from the chaff, the shibboleth "freedom" has no meaning whatsoever -- in this country or anywhere else.

    And more light, love, and beauty to you all.

    Parent

    Jondee (5.00 / 1) (#14)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sun Dec 25, 2011 at 02:45:37 PM EST
    I regret you are incapable of accepting a heartfelt nice comment.

    Parent
    Don't take everything (none / 0) (#17)
    by jondee on Sun Dec 25, 2011 at 04:49:02 PM EST
    I say as a personal attack on you and you'll be a lot better off, Jim.

    And Happy Holidays to you and all the good folks at Heritage and Fox News.

    Parent

    Jondee (5.00 / 3) (#20)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sun Dec 25, 2011 at 08:54:14 PM EST
    When you respond directly to a comment I made it is obviously personal.

    Why you would choose to respond in such a way to a simple best wishes comment is beyond me.

    Parent

    It's been obvious for awhile now (none / 0) (#22)
    by jondee on Tue Dec 27, 2011 at 12:11:50 PM EST
    that many things are beyond you..

    Like the difference between a juxtaposition and a "personal" attack.

    Parent

    If the weather is bad in Miami next week, (5.00 / 1) (#4)
    by andgarden on Sat Dec 24, 2011 at 11:34:13 PM EST
    it's my fault. I've brought the cold there in Januaries past. . .

    Fingers crossed, it looks pretty good!

    Love Actually (5.00 / 2) (#6)
    by robert72 on Sun Dec 25, 2011 at 01:06:29 AM EST
    isn't a great film, but was memorable because of Hugh Grant dancing down the staircase at 10 Downing Street - and his put-down of the US Ambassado ..... Oh - and that stupid song, and Colin Firth, and Liam Neelson. Maybe it wasn't so bad after all.

    My Xmas present to all of you (5.00 / 2) (#8)
    by NYShooter on Sun Dec 25, 2011 at 10:18:23 AM EST
    Here it is:

    Whatever you do today, if you haven't already made the fatal mistake of tuning in "Meet The Press," DO NOT TOUCH THAT DIAL. Do not watch it, do not watch the rerun, and do not tune in You Tube to see it. If you do, you will die. You will either burst out in spontaneous self immolation, or you will succumb to the irresistible urge to run out and buy a box of 50 high caliber bullets, and after placing the muzzle to your temple pull the trigger so fast that all 50 rounds will be expended before you drop in a glorious sense of relief at not having to witness what has happened to our species. Thousands of years of evolution, followed by a couple of years of reverse evolution.

    Reverse evolution won.

    So, my advise to you is this: Go get a piece of glass and darken it with some burnt charcoal. Do not read what I am about to say
    With unprotected eyes. Burnt corneas leading to certain blindness would absolutely result. And, after reading my words as quickly as possible, drink, no, gulp a quart of your favorite 86, or better, proof whiskey so as to forget what you've read as soon as possible. If you take these precautions, exactly as I've laid them out, there is a possibility that the damage/destruction to your cranial matter might be limited to only moderate-to-severe mutation.

    So, without further adieu, here we go:

    The show starts......"Tom Friedman" says, "everybody is angry, The Tea party hates the Government, and Occupy Wall Street hates Capitalism." Immediately, Kathleen Parker chirps in, "Exactly! What we're seeing is two sides of the same coin."

    No, really, they actually said that. I wouldn't kid you.
    So, that's it, now run, drink, escape any way you can. Civilization has ended.

    Merry Xmas.

    Ho, ho

    Tom and Kathleen (5.00 / 2) (#12)
    by jondee on Sun Dec 25, 2011 at 12:39:47 PM EST
    know a repeatable, easy-to-remember, superficial, reality gloss when they hear one..

    "Exactly Tom..!"

    What? Friedman marries a hundred million (or whatever it was) and now he thinks HE'S a real, live, "golden straitjacket" applying capitalist?

    Parent

    Are you PR'ing now (none / 0) (#9)
    by Edger on Sun Dec 25, 2011 at 10:30:19 AM EST
    for Meet The Press?

    Ho ho ho... ;-)

    Parent

    Hmm, didn't think of that (5.00 / 1) (#10)
    by NYShooter on Sun Dec 25, 2011 at 11:28:41 AM EST
    don't know about MTP, but, like the question, "is there a God?" Who, other than maybe our Christine, reads Tom Friedman?

    But, speaking about P.R. Friedman's publisher should enclose a little helium filled balloon with each book, and the inscription V-"Moron below"-V

    Parent

    Friedman's publisher (none / 0) (#11)
    by Edger on Sun Dec 25, 2011 at 11:37:17 AM EST
    could include a razor blade with each of his books....

    Parent
    Bah humbug :-) (none / 0) (#7)
    by Edger on Sun Dec 25, 2011 at 07:58:27 AM EST
    ...what the hell. Pass a cookie and another glass of nog and go easy on the nutmeg and heavy on the brandy, because this warm comforting holly jolly Xmas spirit needs be relit. And to honor all you brave and steadfast consumers setting new records in your patriotic quest to sink heavily into debt to honor the birth of that Jewish hippie kid; we hope to rectify the sins of omission perpetrated by the corpulent bearded one in the scarlet suit by offering up to the most deserving of us - this annual scathingly incisive yet always trenchant, WILL DURST'S 2011 XMA$ GIFT WI$H LI$T.

    For Newt Gingrich: who admits he says anything that flies into his head: a tiny rabid West African Hummingbird.

    For Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker: the AFL-CIO's Organizer of the Year Award.
    [snip]
    For President Obama: a continuing series of ill-timed principled stands by the Republican

    More and better at the link...
    Will Dur$t'$ 2011 Xma$ Gift Wi$h Li$t
    Christmas Eve Open Thread | 22 comments (22 topical)

    Readers Must Login or Create an Account to Comment