Amazing PSA from the 'Fat Pastor'!

Yes, this is an actual CHRISTIAN pastor. Extremely intelligent. Amazing speech. Couldn't have said this better myself. Love it! -- P.S. Read it, the whole thing.

SouthernLiberalHippieWoman

Happy Holiday from the Fat Pastor: 

A few weeks ago I read a letter to the editor which basically said that anyone who says, “Happy Holidays,” is a P.C., Christmas-hating, God-ridiculing, Communist. Okay, so those weren’t his exact words, but he was clear that he was not a fan of the alliterative greeting.

I really do not understand why people do not like the greeting “Happy Holidays.” I too celebrate Christmas, but if I want to say, “Happy Holidays,” does that make me less Christian? Is saying “Merry Christmas,” really the badge of true Christianity? When someone says “Merry Christmas,” are they then keeping the day holy? 

The only reason most people care about whether or not you say “HH” or “MC” is because Bill O’Reilly made it a big deal. Before he claimed that there is a “war on Christmas,” no one noticed said war. “Seasons Greetings,” and “Happy Holidays” have been accepted greetings for years. There is an old Christmas song, “Happy Holidays,” that no one seemed to mind. The word holiday is a contraction of the words holy day, so in effect, we are saying “Happy Holy Days,” thus keeping Christmas holy. 

Plus, this is simply the time of year when there are a lot of holy days. Beginning with Thanksgiving, then Christmas, and New Years, this is considered the holiday season. I’m not sure why acknowledging a coincidence of our calendar is somehow seen as “attacking Christmas.” Another holy day in this season is Hanukkah. Hanukkah is actually a minor feast day in the Jewish tradition, but has been co-opted for commercial reasons. Much like Christmas was. 

For many centuries Christmas was not a holiday. Two of the four Biblical Gospels give no account of Jesus’ birth, and Matthew and Luke have almost no references back to the birth stories once they are over. The birth stories were not a big deal to early Christians. Christmas only became a holiday as a way to appease pagans in the Roman empire. It is little more than a co-opted winter festival.

 But today it has become an important holiday. Not only in our religion, but more so in our culture and economy. Many retailers depend on the holiday season to survive. And mind you, not everyone buying a bunch of crap at Christmas time is Christian. For the most part, Christmas has become a cultural holiday – driven by economic need much more than religious fervor. 

So when people get angry when someone says “Happy Holidays,” I get angry that they are angry. If you want to keep Christ in Christmas, worry about things more important than the signs and decorations at JC Penney. You think Christmas should be about Christ? Then take up your cross and follow Jesus – not into department stores, but into the prisons, the hospitals, among the poor and the outcast. You get angry when someone doesn’t say “Christmas?” Try getting angry over Christ’s children dying of malnutrition or AIDS. Try getting angry over the fact that the Christmas chocolate you love so much was kept cheap on the back of the working poor. Try getting angry over the fact that Christians are keeping people out of churches with their closed minds and closed doors. 

You want to keep Christ in Christmas? Try putting Christ in your life first. Then we’ll talk about how to greet each other. And if you want a truly Christian greeting, one that makes no mistake whether or not you follow the Christ child, try, “the peace of Christ be with you.” You brood of vipers. You hypocrites. Try getting upset over something that matters. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

I'm surrounded by idiots. Or.. I used to be.

Christmas is a Christian Holiday (Holy Day)! We are a Christian Nation that allows all people to practice whatever religion they wish. We put it in our Constitution and our Bill of Rights as "Freedom of Religion". Only a Christian Nation would do this. Now, that I've succeeded in pissing some people off, let me conclude by saying: "Take your Happy Holiday greetings and shove 'em up your ass

I just saw a so-called 'friend' (now ex-friend) of mine post this. Obviously it's to piss people off and that's fine. Immature people always feel they need the final word, and I'm sure she feels superior because she all of a sudden grew some ovaries and posted it. Bravo. 

Here's my problem with this "status" (and again, it's a 'copy & paste' status and we all know how much I loathe those).... 

1) We are a Christian Nation that allows all people to practice whatever religion they wish.

A) Ummm, since when are we a Christian Nation? How about Never O'Clock, don't act like an idiot.. do your history. Also, Christianity does not OWN everyone else. We're free to do whatever the hell we want, we don't need them to ALLOW the rest of us to do anything. Get over yourself. Also...look in the mirror.

2) We put it in our Constitution and our Bill of Rights as "Freedom of Religion". Only a Christian Nation would do this.

A) Only a *Christian* nation would promote freedom and choice? Since when? The Inquisition? The Crusades? The war they've been waging on Islam (Muslim) the last ten years? Oh yea... SUPER tolerant these people. 

THIS is WHY I have such a conviction against *most* Christian people. Everyone else makes mistakes, except them. Even when the rest of us are being cordial to them, we're STILL WRONG. Give me a break. I don't think I have to break out the tons of cult leaders who are Christian. How about the child abuse that has and is occuring in CHRISTIAN churches? How about the fact that they murdered and tortured MILLIONS of people just because they wouldn't convert? And, even in our modern day, they are STILL a bunch of a-holes hell bent on having power over everything and everyone. Not this girl. Not this girl's husband and children. I have a brain and a heart. People who pass around statuses like this are ignorant of many things, and I find it especially sad that I know so many of them personally. You don't have to say 'Happy Holidays' to me, I don't give two rats what greeting you use at that time of year. I really don't. I just ask for respect, which you will have in return. My friends and family who are Christian (and also possess intelligence) KNOW that I would never intentionally seek to hurt anyone, therefore when I get on my soapbox they know to either overlook me and/or have an intelligent discussion with me. It's the ignorant Christians that chap me (or ignorant people in GENERAL). They are also the ones who are racist, anti-choice, tyranical, anti-gay/lesbian/transgender, etc. I simply cannot be friends with people like this. It goes against everything I believe in. I will ALWAYS stand up for what I believe and what is right... no matter if I'm standing alone or not. 

Movie reviews.

This particular post is reserved for movie reviews. There are some I've seen, some I haven't. I usually have to wait longer than usual to see most movies, seeing as we live in Europe. Alright. Let's get this ball a-rollin'!

- Thor: Fantastic! My husband didn't enjoy it much, he thought there were too many 'special effects'. I, however, really dug it.

- Green Lantern: (Haven't seen it yet, I'll come back and edit when I have.)

- Monsters: I was just NOT feeling this movie. It didn't even get me on suspense. Meh. I can use one sentence to describe this one: Two octopuses have sex. Yep.

- Battle Los Angeles: I, also, was not feeling this movie much. I'm not sure why but I think it has to do with the fact that alien-take-over has been done to DEATH. It was like I was watching nothing but two hours of explosions. Eh.

- Captain America: (Looks awesome, but I haven't seen it yet, either.)

- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt 1: AMAZING! Of course, I am biased because I have all of the books, have read them a billion times and I'm a HUGE HUGE fan. I do, however, think they could have included more information. They left so many things out, that would have explained certain things. Needless to say, I had to explain everything to my husband after we watched the movie.. and he was all.. "Ohhhhhhhhh!".. haha

- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt 2: (Only a few more days!!!!!!! LOL)

- Batman/The Dark Knight Rises: (This. Movie. Will. Rock.)

- Iron Man/ Iron Man 2: Really dug these movies! I thought they were nicely done, and Mr. Downey does a great job.

- Sherlock Holmes: Again, Mr. Downey was perfect for this part, imo. LOVED this movie and I absolutely cannot wait for the second one.


For now, that's about it. As I said before, I'll come back and list more movies, with reviews. Stay tuned!

Big heart.

I'd love to take away all of the pain, in all of the world, and it kills me that I can't.


Child abuse/neglect.
This war on women and children.
War.
Sexual trafficking/slavery.
Animal abuse/neglect.
Homeless adults/children/families.
World hunger.

I could list things for days.I try to donate at least something to each cause (small amounts of money, time, etc.) but is anything ever enough? There are still children being abused. There are still millions of children being neglected and abandoned. There is still this global war on women. Everything I despise still happens no matter how much we all try. It makes me feel pretty helpless. I can't be the only one who has such a big heart, that I feel the need to change the world. Seeing all of the hate for our fellow man just makes it worse. We see a family getting kicked out of their home and we think.."They must deserve it." I am almost ashamed to call myself human these days. We need a wake-up call. Unite and find peace. Through peace we can finally start to make differences in these horrendous issues. We need a revolution.

There will be sighs.

WARNING: This WILL most certainly contain a beautiful tapestry of profanity, or at least, a small amount.


*SIGH*

The beginnings of 'The Pissing Contest 2011' got it's start the other day. During a conversation I was having on children. First of all, let me explain what a 'pissing contest' is for those of you who may not know. It's basically the same as dudes comparing penises and saying.."HEY! MINE'S BIGGER! -other dude - "NU-UH, MINE IS!".. except 'pissing contest' is a more general term. In this particular situation, it's a pissing contest between women, and who has a more challenging life: civilians or military.

I know, I know, I KNOW. I've done this blog before. Or, at least, it seems like I have. Actually, it seems more like I've tried to explain the challenges we military families must go through to have a semi-normal life, whereas, 'civilian' families have to work hard, too..BUT they don't have to worry about deployments, raising their children mostly alone or their spouses DYING. Now, don't get me wrong, please. I'm not discounting dangerous civilian jobs. There are plenty of them. Police Officers and Fire Fighters are just a couple of good examples. I relate so much to those families, because I know what it's like to wonder if you're husband will come home alive. But, if you're spouse has a relatively normal job, I'm wondering how you think it's justifiable that you and I have the same life. *SIGH* Say whaaa? I'm not going to go into what a soldier does, because I'm sure everyone already knows. Those of you who do not know, should be ashamed of yourself. Now, if we compare your spouse working say.. 12 hour days to my husband working say.. 72 hour days. I'm not math magician, but I'm thinking 72 is greater than 12. Also, my husband can get called away at ANY GIVEN MOMENT. He can be gone for days, weeks, months and/or years. Your spouse goes to work, comes home. He can sleep in his own bed at night, have three delicious hearty meals a day and chose to ignore you and his children when he gets home in the evening/night. A soldier will literally give his life for such small pleasures. When my husband and I found we were expecting our daughter (FINALLY), we were beyond happy. We were so beyond happy that happy couldn't even touch us. Blissful may be a more accurate description. Six months in, he got deployed. Since all of you 'civilian' ladies need reminding on what deployed means: he was sent to a WAR. Bombs, guns, bullets, death, bravery. You know, the whole nine. Not sure, and don't quote me, but I've never heard of your man having to shoot at people to stay alive. I digress. He got deployed and there was a chance he may not be able to get back in time for the birth of our child. Yes, that was a REAL issue. Fast forward to my due date... my husband did make it home. I gave birth to our amazing little girl, a whole day before he had to go back to 'the sandbox'. Yes, he had to walk away and leave me and our newborn daughter in the hospital.. not knowing how we were even going to get back to the post, to our apartment. Correct me if I'm wrong but, your man brought you and your child home from the hospital and actually got to stay. I was on my own, with a newborn, for almost four months. NOT by choice of my own or my husband's, keep that in mind. He considered going AWOL because he did not want to leave us, but I wouldn't let him do that. I knew I was strong enough to get through it. And I know women who have done what I have done, I greatly appreciate you ladies (military and non). Here's where I give yet another sigh. *SIGH* This lady had the ovaries to tell me she understood where I was coming from because she had to deal with her newborn alone, too. "But, your husband isn't in the military. He works a normal job. He was still home, right?", I said. "Yea. BUT, he was working 12 hours a day!! So I was all alone.", was her reply. Really? REALLY?!?!?! That's what you're going to come back at me with? My husband was stressed out so totally and completely in a WAR-ZONE, 10,000 miles way from us 24 hours a day for almost four months.. and you want to compare that with 12 hours a day?!?! COME. ON. I changed diapers, fed her every 2 hours, burped, rocked, bathed, took her to checkups, etc... ALL ALONE. ALONE. Do you get what ALONE means? I did all of this alone. Completely. No help, no friends ( I didn't know anyone, seeing as we had just moved here.), no support system because we are in a foreign country. I did it all alone. You had family, friends, your husband, etc. How is that considered alone? There were times I thought I would go insane from all of the stress. I had never had so much stress in my life, but I tried very hard to enjoy our daughter because she IS our miracle. Mostly, because I am a very strong woman, I enjoyed it. However, there were a couple of times all I could do was cry and feel overwhelmed. Which is exactly the normal response. I'm not saying any of this for a pat on the back, or a medal, or even any recognition. I just want YOU to get over yourself and understand that you do NOT understand my life. You do not understand the military world. You don't get it. You never will.

And finally, on to what this whole blog is for... I'd like to tell you that I will not have this pissing contest with you anymore. I refuse. I know how much more challenging my life is than yours. We chose this life and we take responsibility for that, however, I will not let you belittle my strength by saying you KNOW what I have to put up with. By comparing your easy life to my hard one. Actually, I don't really know if it's easy for you or not, but it fucking looks like it. In all honesty, my life is relatively easy. I have an amazing husband, a wonderful daughter, a nice apartment, nice vehicles, a nice bank account, I'm emotionally stable. I am blessed beyond words. I really am. I also have to deal with the military. My husband has to deal with the military, way more than I do. That's one of the many reasons why that man is my personal hero. He can make his job look easy when I know it's not. He has to deal with leaving us, just as much as we have to deal with him leaving. He takes the brunt force of all of this bullshit.. for us. For YOU. For your family. For the whole United States. So, how about instead of having a pissing contest, you just be nice? I get that I'm not always as nice as I should be, and I'm not even saying I get a pass because the military stresses me the fuck out, but when I'm wrong, I appologize. I'll appologize now for any bitchy moments I may have in the near future. It's a consequence of sacrificing, it makes people bitchy. True story.

The problem is...

I have this problem. It's a pretty major one and it's been bugging me for awhile. I've touched on it in previous blogs, but this time, I'm ready to get down and dirty. With my words, that is. Not physically, because honestly, that would be a little weird. HA!

The problem is... there is this new phenomena of men feeling oh-so threatened because *allegedly* girls (toddlers, children and up) are being taught to be "anti-men". Now. Let me explain. Supposedly us ladies (as moms) are teaching our daughters to be anti-men, and this is direct consequence of us teaching them to be strong intelligent women. Women (girls) who are not afraid to stand up and fight for a fair shake in this day and age. Women (girls) who should be PROUD of who we are (this includes weight, nostril size, boob size, intelligence, etc) and stop catering to a lesser species (men). Before I go any farther I'd like to say that I love my husband. He is one of those RARE men who actually has a nice healthy respect for women, myself and our daughter included (first and foremost), of course. So when I put down men, he is not included. He has sense. He is intelligent. He recognizes the universal balance. So again, I say, he is excluded from this rant. If I ever do a rant about leaving the toilet seat up.. then we'll see. ;)

Back to my thoughts.

I think this all boils down to some men not being prepared to relinquish control over women (as we are seeing with the 'war' on contraceptives and abortion). They are afraid of being second best. Really though, let's be honest. Men have always been second best. I don't know many men who can do everything a woman can do, and not bitch and whine all day about it. I don't know ANY men who can go through childbirth kid after kid, and live to tell the tale. Anyone? I'm open to personal accounts here. Before I write a year long blog, I'll come to my point. Which is : Just because I teach my daughter she should be a strong person, that doesn't mean she can't get married someday. I am a very strong intelligent woman, a bit of a feminist, and yet I am married to a wonderful man. We have a wonderful relationship. I even took his last name. I have a college degree (albeit a small one, but still) and yet I chose to be a stay-at-home-mom. Why? Because I love my husband and I love my daughter. If I wanted to go work for some internet company in the marketing department and make bank, I could. However, I would rather give our daughter the best headstart possible. In this day and age of failed relationships, baby mamas/daddies, disrespect for women and children and the family unit essentially being destroyed... I value the title of wife and I value the title of mother. This also harkens back to a few thoughts I had about the war on stay-at-home-moms, as well. I've heard it said that you can't be a feminist and be a SAHM. Really? Why not? I am. I do it quite well. You've never been to my house. You don't exactly know who calls the shots, do you? I can give you a hint. =)

I digress... lol

I recently spied an article about these anti-choice people attacking the Girl Scouts because "they are teaching young girls/women to be pro-abortion and anti-men". Oh, and let's not forget the "pro-homosexuality" they are getting taught as well. Well gee-golly-gosh, I just was not aware of this. We must stop it. (End sarcasm.) You are either a compassionate person with an open mind, who just happens to view homosexuality as NORMAL (because it IS) or you are not.  65% of the world is in that latter category. I happen to be in the first category. I will teach our daughter that it is completely normal. BECAUSE IT IS. If you happen to be a bigot, well then, you can teach your children hate and close-mindedness. But don't bring it to my house. Don't bring it to my family. Don't bring it to me and you had better definitely never bring it to my daughter. If I do my 'job' correctly as a mother... if anyone ever belittles a gay person (or in racial slur cases, bullying because of weight, etc) in front of my child, she will be tearing you a new one before you can take a second glance. Also, if I do my job correctly as a mother, our daughter will never fall for those idiotic 'lines' men seem to think work so well. I just can't see a parent of a child, especially a daughter, not wanting her to be able to stand up for what she believes in. Even if she is standing alone. Sadly, this also leads me back around to Christianity. (Yes, again.) Women are treated so poorly in that faith. It makes my soul hurt. Why do these women put up with such nonsense? There are feminists in religion, but they are mostly in Pagan religions and/or Atheists and/or Agnostics. Christianity has absolutely tried to destoy the universal balance, and that is what makes me the most angry with their religion. Man and woman exist on equal terms. One cannot live without the other. Woman creates man. However, she cannot do this without the help of man. So therefore, there is yin, there is yang. One gender, race, creed, etc should NEVER be allowed to have more power than the other. So when men start getting all pissy-faced because women are teaching their daughters that they have CHOICES in life, excuse me if I go and throw up with rage. Or rather, blow up. It's ridiculous that in today's society women are still considered second class. We are coming up though, we are fighting. Essentially we are *almost* like the poor honorable slaves of past generations. We are a-comin' and you had better get ready. There was a time when everything was equal. I have faith that it will come again. If not in my lifetime or in my daughter's lifetime.. I will make sure that she understands how much power she wields.


I'm sure I'll hear how much of a hypocrite I am, after this is published. I don't see it as hypocrisy. I see it as living in balance.

Happy Mother's Day!

Whether this is your first or your 50th, Happy Mother's Day. Whether you have furbabies or human babies, Happy Mother's Day. Whether you are still waiting for babies or you have 15 babies, Happy Mother's Day.

The title of 'Mommy' is a sacred one, not to be taken for granted. Although it is YOUR day, honor your children as well because without them you wouldn't be able to wear that title. I know ladies who would give anything to be called mommy and for her friends and family to call her on this day to wish her well. Being a mother is *the* greatest blessing. Being a mother is a career. The most important one that will ever exist. You are shaping a human life. I take being a mommy very seriously. I watch my actions and change them according to how I want my daughter to act. Being a mother is about making mistakes. There is no perfect parent. Perfect doesn't exist. But being the absolute BEST you can, does. Thinking about your child (or children) first is the name of the game. Giving them values, morals and the courage to stand up for their personal convictions. Give them hope, a shoulder to cry on, self esteem, love, strength, imagination, patience and respect. They will give it back to you. The strongest mothers (and people) I've known are the mothers who have lost a child. They must go on while literally missing pieces of their heart and soul. I'm not sure how they do it, but rest assured that they do. I honor these mothers, the most.


So here's to all of you moms out there. Give yourself a great big hug or better yet hug your babies to you. Sit back and revel in the miracles you made. You are AMAZING.



Happy Mother's Day! <3