I have come to be a bit partial to Saint Stephan and his day/feast.
Most of this is due to the “The Song” – especially the great version by the great Mel Torme.
I couldn’t find Mel Torme’s version in an embeddable form, but here is a traditional version, and a jazzy version:
I just like the song Good King Wenceslas I suppose and the Croatian connection to St. Stephan’s Day.
So while I work a long day this 12/26 defeating network (and some security) problems for both fun and profit (mostly profit), I will keep humming the song to myself.
There is another advantage for St. Stephan’s day: There is no chance my evil/insane Iranian relative will ruin the day for me.
He has ruined many Christmas gathering and other family gathering with his loud, obnoxious, vulgar, boorish and bullying behavior. His actions on Christmas day at the dinner table would best be described as “escalating confrontational madness”.
He loudly and repeatedly mocked and denigrated Christianity – as a guest at a Christmas day dinner (and a fairly secular one at that). When the person he was primarily aiming at said she was offended he started going ballistic. I said I was offended as well, but I guess he was more insanity-driven by a woman telling him that.
I actually thought I was going to have to force – physical violence to subdue him. He seemed to threatening by word any body language two of my Aunts and my Sister. He wisely didn’t threaten me directly. I placed my self in a location to defend the one Aunt and my sister if need be.
Anyways, I am done with him. No more contact. Not now not ever. He has had a negative effect on every gathering he is part of. I will no longer listen to crazy talk. I will no longer listen to his conspiracy theories. I will not listen to the “Poetry” he forces on me and other guests. I will no longer provide him free computer help to correct the problems the people he pays cause. I will no longer sit politely to take for sake of a family gathering. His wife is my favorite Aunt, but no more for me. I am done with him and all that.
Update: I know where some of his rant came from (at HotAir) Iranian President Ahmadinejad delivered a Christmas Address to to the UK on British TV.
Filed under: Pop Culture Stuff | Tagged: evilness, familiy, iranian, persian, Religion |
PurpleSlog - The Future Will Be Kludged 
The Loreena McKennitt version is my favourite; feel free to drop by and listen to it (since unfortunately there’s no visual). And good for you that you cut off negative people!
That’s a nice version:
“There is no chance my evil/insane Iranian relative will ruin the day for me.”
After reading this entry, I understand where your Islamaphobia comes from. Usually some clever wit keeps these fools at bay. Thankfully I had only to deal with Anti-Semantic conspiracy theories for my Christmas dinner. After you live in Israel for a summer, you are suspected of supporting the “Zionist regime taking over America.”
Glenn, I don’t consider him to be representative of the average Muslim. My opinions are Islam are not based on him.
For instance, his 2 younger brothers (whom I have had lesser contact with) are good guys.
Conspiracies I have heard from him:
Jews – as in controlling the world
Robots – as in the coming uprising
The Harley Family – as in Harley-Davidson controlling Milwaukee
The IRS – though I observed him making a false set of bookkeeping entries for his business
I think there was one involving monkeys or monkey research.
I think what youare seeing in me that you call islamaphobia is actually a my deep dislike to totalitarian movements, their supporters and their enablers.
Most Muslims get a pretty raw deal from “Islam” in Islamic countries. They ruled by Mullahs and strong men for the benefit of the mullahs and strong men with the vast majority of Muslims have there potential, their freedom and their human capital wasted. I would consider my self to be:
pro-human
pro-Muslims
pro-anti-totalitarianism
anti-Islam
anti-sharia
anti-ruling-elites
anti-totalitarian-assholes
anti-lifesucking-political-and-social system
I don’t think it is fair to define the above as “islamaphiobia”.
Note: those in favor of Sharia and the mullahs and the other totalitarian elites in the Muslim world who benefit from subjugation of regular people (who are called Muslims), want you to call their enemies racists or islamaphobes or other slurs becuase that makes their time easier.
Related:
I would consider this particular relative to emotional disturbed. He is crazy. He needs to go back to iran.
I noticed later this afternoon that his rant shared themes with the Iranian president’s UK Christmas Day TV message.
We have been watching War and Remembrance. I noticed some eerie similarities between Hitler and your crazy relative.
Heh.
The Winds of War and War and Remembrance are my favorite Mini Series. I also love the 2 books.
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