I’m not seeing the metaphorical barrel, here, but a metaphorical backfire is apparent.
Meh, I never got out of the habit of saying, “dude”, I’m afraid. :o
As for attending-again, DON’T GO. If your coworkers are like you said, I’d stay far, far away. (And sneak some goodies when they’re not around, just for the hell of it)
Dude, he participated in the party - it’s not as if he was holding the poor girl’s legs apart. I agree that attending such an event would be generally reprehensible, but we don’t know the whole story, do we?
Or “Jesus.” But I always wonder why lowering the level of discourse is such a big part of the Christian argument. Call me “Naive” (go ahead, venting feels good!) but I always foolishly expect Christians to respond with patience and forbearance and compassion, even to me, especially if I’m not engaging in deliberate offensiveness (well, except for the "Holy Cross up my buttcrack"response, where I let Hockey Monkey get to me with his gratuitous outburst) but merely articulating my position. I mean, you folks pride yourself on long-enduring all sorts of persecution and hatred with love in your hearts, and tell yourselves to turn the other cheek when you’re offended, but some thoughts expressed on a message board elicit such hostility? I should be more prepared for this by now, I know.
I haven’t had anyone explain to me, in this thread or elsewhere, a rationale for permitting religious stuff to be perpetuated on company time, with company money, unless you count John Mace’s deeply offensive majoritarian argument to be such an explanation. “We’re here, we rule, you suck, get used to it, BWAHAHAHA!” He seemed offended at my foolishness in refusing to acknowledge the numerical prevalence of Christians in the U.S., which was funny because that’s my complaint, if true. If we were to have a major shift, and a majority of Americans were to begin practicing Islam, you guys would make my position your highest and most sainted priority. You’d go to a party in your workplace and get told “Pipe down with that christian crap, John Mace! Don’t you realize that most of the people in this room, and in this workplace and in this country, praise Allah, are Moslems and we can sing all the songs we like in praise of Allah, and ignore you other puny belief systems all we like?” and bbbyyy. You’d be screaming like stuck pigs, insisting that this behavior belongs behind closed doors, and that everyone should be sharing inoffensive common beliefs at official, open office parties to which all employees are invited.
I didn’t catch the Scrooge reference at first, and I thought you were referring to 9/11, where I did have a student who died in the WTC. Funny, but she was a frail, quiet Hindoo teenager who spoke up in class about twice the previous semester, and the memorial service we had for the numerous employees and students who died in the buildings’ collapse was a very moving service for me, in large part, I think, because it was so respectful of people’s beliefs and lack thereof. There was no Jesus, no Vishnu, no Darwin-fish–no religion at the ceremony at all, though people were perfectly free, of course, to think their own thoughts and to take whatever spiritual counsel they pleased. Silly me, I thought that was an excellent model of how people at this university and in this culture were capable of behaving, but I’m finding out all the time how wrong I am about that tolerance and that humility.
I think you mean “she”–Even Sven’s a woman.
She did cite it as an example of her participation in a religious ritual that we might be offended by, right? I think it’s safe to take that at face value. There are religious ceremonies that offend all of us, the more the deeper we think about them, and Even Sven was counseling us to resist being offended by other culture’s practices.
As I sit here at work, the person next to me is playing Christmas songs on her computer and singing along with them. She knows about one word in three and can’t sing a lick. Do I complain? No… I could stop her if I wanted to since I am her supervisor, but why dampen her spirits? The building is half empty and it’s hurting nothing.
I’m somewhere between agnostic and atheist, but how can Christmas offend me?
No, we do not know the whole story, but I think we got enough detail to see that she chose to participate in a ritual that she considers barbaric (or at least I hope she does) out of politeness. I am all for politeness, mind you, but at some point you have to go with your values and principles and say no.
Maybe improve her spirits by giving her a ten and sending her on a coffee break (of the long type)?
You’re not trying hard enough, obviously.
I have read your many arguments prr, and was going to add more counterarguments, but I’ve realised that none of them would be as strong as the conclusion I have drawn from what you’ve been saying, which is that you’re a miserable cock.
Merry Christmas to you!
(While I’m at it, let’s not forget what this season is all about, too: the birth of Santa.)
I can do better than that, I could send her to the roof patio for a smoke break. 
My sarcasm meter just exploded.
Must’ve been miscalibrated - I’ve seen stronger sarcasm in fortune cookies.
If the closet wall is made of brick, I’d say you should follow through on your impulse. If it is made of sheetrock, you would soon pound a hole in it and the benefit to the rest of us would be lost.
This is among the very top two or three useless and undeserved pittings I’ve seen on these boards.
This is among the very top two or three useless and undeserved posts I’ve seen in this thread.
Have I told you lately that I love you, LouisB?
You too, even sven.
Not you, pseudotriton ruber ruber. I stuck up for you in the other thread because I don’t think anybody should be pressured to sing Christmas carols at an office party. And I did not agree with sven, either with regard to her content or her tone. But she’s a great poster who made a less-than-fabulous post. You’re a total douche.
So you agreed with me in the other thread, but I’m a “total” douche? Does that make you a partial douche?
Did you just call me a Christian? :dubious:
All I wanted to do was point out how petty you are being. So what if the company you work for pays for a Christmas party. You don’t have to participate if you don’t want to, but really how is it going to hurt you to sing some carols and grease the wheels? I’m not a Christian, so I just bowed my head politely when thanks were offered in Jesus’ name at my company Christmas party. It didn’t offend me that others there would be celebrating Christmas as a religious holiday and that I would be celebrating it as a secular one. Get the fuck over yourself.
The imperatives never stop coming.
Do you folks offering me all of these commands really think that people change their minds because someone orders them to?
I’m thinking that you don’t really care if I change my mistaken opinions or not. If you really wanted to amend my thinking or show me where we disagree, you’d offer some rational argument, not simply call me names or tell me how fucked I am.
Variations on this monotonous theme (PRR, you suck! Drop dead! You’re an asshole! Get over yourself! Now! We’re in the majority, you’re insignificant! Go to hell!) just sorta confirm to me how little you’ve got in the way of an argument. I gain enormous confirmation from the sheer number of people posting in this thread simply to distribute abuse, or its opposite (“You’re completely wrong about this issue, Even Sven, but I love you! You go, girl! I’m glad you gave to that swine PRR, with whom I’m in total agreement, unfortunately!”). If all you have is rude commands and ruder abuse, I’m very comfortable in dismissing your redundant posts out of hand. Does anyone care to argue my central point here, or is it just abuse and commands all the way down?
And sorry about calling you a Christian, Hockey Monkey. That wasn’t very nice of me.
As to your point, such as it was: “All I wanted to do was point out how petty you are being,” I acccept that in my OP. It’s not that big a deal, simply annoying to me. I’m totally not getting why anyone is bent out of shape by my posting anonymously on a messageboard that i was annoyed at having my afternoon wasted in part by a glurgy office-party.
I mean, except for the part where I told everyone off at the party, explained my own blasphemous views on Xianity and screamed in lengthy detail for twenty minutes explaining how oppressive this party was to me, what did I do wrong?