Regarding Justin's Mac character being arrogant...
Justin's portrayal is usually pretty neutral and flat with respect to those qualities. He's simply reporting accurate information. Do you think your dictionary is arrogant because it has the exact definition for every word you ever find in it? Is your copy of iTunes arrogant because it has all the precise info on all of your favorite music, including numbers of times played, frequency of playback, etc?
I agree.
It's one thing to say, "Tough ****, PC. I'm just better." It's another to say, in an almost apologetic tone, "114,000 viruses for PCs, not Macs."
Some people can take anything as arrogance...
Regarding the reference to holidays; and of their general celebration...
Why don't you atheists and non-Christian followers grow a pair already? You want us to respect the fact that you walk the Earth, too, and don't share our religious beliefs, so how about you do the same, ok? And for the record, this country was founded by white, anglo-saxon men who were all of some Christian faith. It wasn't founded by pagans, or Muslims, or Taoists or Shintoists or Buddhists or Atheists or anyone else. It was "God-fearing" Christian men who thought it best to write a document (the Constitution) wherein the rights of each individual person to believe as they wished should not be abrogated by the Government. However, we're referring to society here, not the U.S. Government.
Well, not quite.
Excuse me, I'm an Atheist and I'm not even American, I celebrate Christmas not because of religion but because of the family union that it represents and generates and that keeps getting harder to mantain, I am an atheist and I don't hate Jesus Christ, I respect his name, was probably one of the greatest people who lived, I just don't believe in god, that's all.
However, your country was founded by (and this is the part where you forgot some elements) ensalvering, native american killers, catholic (not christian) whites. Catholicism that made the inquisition so no one else could have their religion so don't talk about being opressed and disrespecting other people's rights because that's what's being done for centuries in the name of Christ, even he had no ideia of how people would distort his words to do so much harm. Of course that I agree with you when you say people should **** sometimes, Christmas represents a happy time and whatever, people shouldn't remove the word from everything, that's just stupid and I'm sure a lot of people from other religions have no problem with that so let's not generalize. There's nothing wrong in having different beliefs but believe me, Catholics have a lot of stains in their history.
Ah, just one more thing, the constitution was wrote after decades of slavery, when the black people finally started stepping up, forcing the whites to give them some rights. Otherwise, we would still have slavery.
Well, no, that's not right either.
The U.S. was founded by people of many beliefs, most of whom were Christian, but not in exclusion of other beliefs, including atheism.
[ASIDE]
BTW, this is one of my pet peeves, Catholics
are Christians. And Catholics
are not the only branch of Christianity that have stains in their history, let alone the only religion (including atheism). The fact that there are stains in the history has more to do with being human than being one religion or another. So, let the religion with no stains throw the first stone.
[/ASIDE]
As for when the Constitution was written, it had nothing to do with the slaves. The original Constitution included mention of slavery, in fact.
Beyond that, you're more or less on the mark. The country was founded by slave owners, native american killers, etc. But, like religions, every country on Earth has stains in the past. So, let's talk about the present.
We have entered into an age where tolerance and acceptance have become a mask for intolerance. Let me relate a story that demonstrates this.
My mother was a principal at an elementary school. One year, as her school was preparing for the annual Christmas pageant, a parent came in to complain. It seemed that this family was Jewish, and the parent felt that there should be an equal number of Hanukah songs as there were Christmas songs. My mother made an effort to be accommodating, despite the fact that the demographics of the school were about 80% Christian and 20% other. Well, as this developed, another of the "other" families got involved, this time an atheist. This parent insisted that there had to be no mention of anything religious, or he would go to the school board. The entire issue became such an inflamed topic that my mother was backed into a corner and had only one real option. She canceled the celebration altogether.
This is an example of the kind of "tolerance" that we're practicing today. "I'm different from you so you have to accommodate me!" I read about someone in my graduate school who made a public invitation to a Thanks Giving party to the entire department. One person showed up and became offended by the fact that this person had a plaque on the wall that said "As for me and my house, we shall serve the Lord", saying that such things shouldn't be displayed at an open, public gathering, even though it was in this person's private home!
It is a level of militancy in tolerance that I find offensive. I want it to be okay for me to say "Merry Christmas" to people. Tolerance and acceptance is, for the people that I say that to, to take it for what it is, a gesture of good wishes, and not to be offended by it. Just as if someone wished me a happy Kwanzaa, I'll take it the same way, even though I don't celebrate Kwanzaa. On the other hand, I'll wish my Jewish friends "Happy Hanukah", because I know that has more meaning for them. And they wish me "Merry Christmas".
And considering where we are, we really should celebrate January 24th, as it is the day the Mac was released in 1984. You know, I'm going to mark that one down on my calendar and celebrate it. Would anyone here like to propose some suggestions on how that observance (one which is culturally and technologically significant, btw) might be held or handled? I'm serious about this, and am open to any positive, constructive suggestions from anyone without regard to age, race, gender, national origin, or religion. Terrorists and other agents of chaos are, of course, excluded.
Hmm...
How about this (sung to the tune of "Oh Christmas Tree"):
Oh, Macintosh, oh Macintosh!
Think differently, forever!
Oh, Macintosh, oh Macintosh!
Don't stop being so clever!
With great designs, and OS X,
I'll sing your praises over again...
