With the holidays fast approaching, I thought it appropriate to offer my annual and simple sentiment of the season to those on this wonderful forum. However, in these days of ever so sensitive feelings, I felt it necessary to be sure that no one is offended. With this in mind, here, with the able assistance of the legal profession, the U.S. Supreme Court, plus consultation with the Worldwide Thought Police, is a politically correct holiday greeting for your enjoyment.

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non addictive, gender neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular practices of your choice and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all; and a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year of 2006, but now without due respect to the calendars of the choice of other cultures, and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith, choice of computer platform, or sexual preferences of the wishee.

By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms. This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration of the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others, and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole desecration of the wisher.

The wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year, or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to the replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole desecration of the wisher.

Merry Christmas Everyone

Gary

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Travlin' Easy

[This message has been edited by travlin'easy (edited 12-13-2005).]

Gary:

I'll sign and fax a copy to you ASAP!!

Merry Christmas to you and everyone on the forum as well.

Waytago, Gary... too cool!

Glenn

MERRY CHRISTMAS to you Gary, and to all of the SynthZone members!

A Musical Christmas Gift

Dave McMahan

[This message has been edited by WDMcM (edited 12-13-2005).]

Love it......
Feliz Navidad !! Gary.....

Ho Ho Ho....MERRY CHRISTMAS to all.....
you can check this out.... http://www.toonedin.com/movies/WhiteTrashXmas.html

TR

FELIZ NATAL!!! Gary...

Marry Christmas to all...

Armando

Gary:

I find this in poor taste (can't be eaten)and a insult to my religion,( 1st church of whaas happ'n now) furthermore it does not go along with my political beliefs (Bush supporter). It also makes fun of respected peers (lawyers) and with my limited mental capacity (Can't understand symantics) I decline signing.

Love it Gary...MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU AND CAROL

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL SYNTHZONERS...Pose

Ho-ho-ho,
Santa's got to go,
got to deliver the presents to the children you know!

As funny as this is, you can't help but see the serious side to it as well The way things are today it seems (EVERYTHING) needs to be followed by a legal disclaimer.

I thought it was very funny Merry Christmas to all forum members (or not so merry Christmas) to members who don't celebrate this holiday, for all reasons mentioned in the above contract.

Regards,
Squeak

[This message has been edited by squeak_D (edited 12-13-2005).]

Yep,
Ìerry Christmas to all of you.
ÊáëÜ ×ñéóôïýãåííá óå üëïõò óáò.

i hope the third line ends up in Greek and not in some other unintelligible signs.
Theodore

Greek to me...pose

Merry Christmas to all on this fun little blog....

Alright...don't nobody move....who took my eggnog??

Hi Gary!

I enjoyed your satire. I agree with you 100% on this issue that our political correctness has gone overboard. Lets take a look from top.

It is a fact that Christianity is the dominant religion in the world with 2.1 billion people following this faith out of a world population of 6.5 billion. The next major religion is Islam with 1.3 billion followers. Here is the worldwide breakup of the top six groups:

World Population = 6.5 billion

Christianity = 2.1 billion
Islam = 1.3 billion
Non-religious = 1.1 billion
Hinduism = 900 million
Chinese = 394 million
Buddhism = 376 million

USA is predominantly a Christian nation with 76.5% adhering to this faith. Here are the top five groups in the United States:

US Population = 295 million

Christianity = 76.5%
Non-religious = 14.1%
Judaism = 1.3%
Islam = 0.5%
Buddhism = 0.5%

Let's examine these statistics and analyze who is going to take offence of the phrase Merry Christmas. Not the 76.5% who are Christians, not the 14.1% who are non-religious - that alone takes into account 90.6% of the population.

So why is an overwhelming section of our society being gradually denuded of its cultural heritage and roots? Why cannot the Christians be allowed to celebrate Christmas in its full glory? I am alarmed when I hear school boards eliminating certain songs because they are religious - you can only sing songs like Rudolph the Reindeer. Why cannot a Christian proudly greet someone with a Merry Christmas? Is this something to be ashamed of?

If someone within the remaining tiny fraction of 9.4% feels offended, then I say they are the ones who are close-minded and perhaps need to widen their worldview.

As individuals, we should all celebrate our cultural differences, traditions, languages, customs and faiths. This is just as important as recognizing our similarities as a part of our greater global family. We should never forget our roots.

When we lose our identity with politically correct terms like Happy Holidays, we begin to morph ourselves into a zombie like homogeneous mass - we lose the vibrancy and sparkle - the spice of life.

As a non-religious person myself, representing 14.1% of the population, I used to care less about Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas. Either term was fine. However, this year I have decided to take a different stand. The political correctness has gone too far. I want to see Christmas celebrated in full tradition, I want to participate in all the festivities and I fully support the majority in preserving a rich heritage that has survived 2000 years.

Merry Christmas Everyone.

Tapas

QUOTE:
"So why is an overwhelming section of our society being gradually denuded of its cultural heritage and roots? Why cannot the Christians be allowed to celebrate Christmas in its full glory? I am alarmed when I hear school boards eliminating certain songs because they are religious - you can only sing songs like Rudolph the Reindeer. Why cannot a Christian proudly greet someone with a Merry Christmas? Is this something to be ashamed of?"

Because we don't speak up!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS, ALL ...

t.

Merry Chistmas to all of you, or, as we say in Sweden : God Jul!

Gary,
That's FUN. I enjoyed your satire.
George

Enjoy the next days as much as you can (and the rest of your life too...)

Theo, ti kanis?

Tapas,
I agree with everything you said.

Andrea,
eimai poli kala, euharisto. My wife takes lessons in the Italian language, got some pre-pre-pre-pre certificate last summer in Scuola Italiana di Athene or something, I think it is called Celli Uno. My knowledge on Italian is probably restricted to FIAT, Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Lamborghini, Ferrari etc Toys for boys

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Theo,
that's not bad at all for a start!
I did study ancient greek in high school, but that doesn't help much in today's Greece! I was in Athens in September and found it greatly changed after the Olympic Games; I really enjoyed my stay.
Ciao!

Andrea
(a greek name, after all... )

Tapas, while I agree with the sentiment that there is nothing wrong with calling a holiday by it's name, I'm always a little leary of using (hard to verify) statistics to justify it (or anything else of a socially or politically sensitive nature). For instance, in your "World" statistics, when exactly did "Chinese" become a religion? Maybe those 1 Billion + need to go into another category????? Anyhoo, Merry Christmas to all who celebrate that holiday and Happy Holidays to the rest (whatever their number).

Peace,

chas

Andrea,
in Athens in september? You should have notified me.
Anyway, next time, do it. It would be a pleasure to meet you.
Theodore

P.S. You probably know better Ancient greek than me...ROFL

Gary,

Very funny! I always love humor that has that hint of truth to it. I also want to congratulate you on your use of excellent grammar. Your writings are always a pleasure to read. Merry Christmas Gary to you and your family.

Tom

Tapas, well said. I couldn't do a better job myself

well, I want to wish everyone a...

VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!

... and a HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!




ccdmax

MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone! This is a wonderful group of musicians!

notenut

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE
MIKE