Edgar “Yip” Harburg - Stamp - 2005

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/starry-nyc-concert-will-celebrate-unveiling-of-yip-harburg-postage-stamp-ap-125405

A wildly playful writer who penned antic verse (and choice romantic lyrics) for the musicals Bloomer Girl, Finian's Rainbow, Jamaica, The Happiest Girl in the World, Darling of the Day, Flahooley and the film "The Wizard of Oz," Harburg (1896-1981) was also fiercely supportive of liberal social causes. 

His political feelings often seeped into his shows, offering views on slavery, freedom, women's suffrage, class, the arms race, war and more.*

Fans know that in addition to standards such as "Paper Moon," "April in Paris" and "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?" he wrote socially-potent lyrics for "When the Idle Poor Become the Idle Rich" (about class distinction, from Finian's Rainbow), "Leave de Atom Alone" (about nuclear arms, from Jamaica), "Napoleon" (about the fleeting fame of celebrities, tyrants and politicians, from Jamaica ), "The Eagle and Me" (the expression of a runaway slave in Bloomer Girl)….

Finian's Rainbow was the first Broadway show in which black and white performers danced together.

The Yip Harburg- Harold Arlen classic "Over the Rainbow" was named the number one film song of all time by the American Film Institute; in 2001 it was chosen as the greatest song of the 20th century in a Recording Industry Association of America/National Endowment for the Arts poll….

*Blacklisted in Hollywood and TV from 1950-1962.

.

Tell the Christmas Myth a Trillion Times

Tell the Christmas Myth a Trillion Times

Listening to commentators on church services or even news reporters stating things of the Christ Myth like “Jesus was born in Bethlehem” matter of factly, which of course these days is an off limits place full of Arabs in Israel etc.

There is the old Doctor Goebbel’s line about telling a lie often enough that the lie becomes the truth at least in a fascist state setup.

But standing back and being looked down by Ph.D.’s in Theology by the mere fact that I can read, the new testament in particular, and see the gaping holes in facts and timelines etc., and the Doctors of Divinity merely and or mildly presenting tolerance of me in the presence of vested education degrees. 

Sheepskins do not necessarily represent intelligence, merely the assets to sit in class for so many number of years and being a certificate of attendance as an actual substitute for learning.

The real tragedy I see this Christmas is how lukewarm real Christians give to the devotion and reverence that used to be given as the fear of being in the presence of a warlord god ready to strike non-conformists for the least infractions of the army rule book of Christianity set up by the Emperor-god Constantine in the fourth century of this common era as a means to glue together a falling apart Roman Empire.

That if the Christian myth has been told a trillion times over the centuries, the myth more likely to the young at Christmas has been told at least three trillion times around some kindergarten table in the repeating the stories of surrogates of fairy pervert pedophile elfs, like Santa, who sees you every day and everything you do. 

And you as a child get rewarded for conformity to the army manual myth of who or what the commander in chief says Christ is that day, week or month. Love this day and then go to holy war for centuries in the name of the Prince of Peace.

I think the perversion of the story of Jesus and his human golden rule teachings starts at Christmas and progresses until the Spring with the sado-masochist torture of Jesus in time to be merged with the Easter Bunny myth. The Santa Claus thing is an almost human story. The Easter Bunny is pure animus.

And the lovely little baby in a manger morphing into a bloody corpse on a cross as the only means of war that a warlord mean desert god says is the only means for the rabble to salvation, to be drafted into the Empire’s army to save the Empire and the Emperor etc. is a story that Mel Gibson took from the Anti-Semitic boutique designer gospel of John used in producing his movie blockbuster Passion of the Christ (myth). 

.

Birth of Jesus Entertainment - TV - 2015

Christmas Shows on TV – 2015

What struck me as weird as I watched the first few minutes of the midnight at Christmas mass at the Vatican was that 90% of the faithful were snapping pics of the very long procession of deadweight bishops, cardinals and of course Pope Francis. In my day such a procession would have produced a lot of crossing of one’s self and return to kneeling after a blessing of holy water.

They had some green Hispanic priest narrating or I should say reading boiler plate propaganda and in a few phrases of Spanish as the pope seemed to have to smoke the immense altar at St. Peter’s, smiting evil spirits to go away – quite ironic in the presense of the hundreds of bishops and cardinals in the front row – you know evil spirits and all that. The whole thing a contractual NBC/USCCB production of liberal eastern media reinforcing the party line of rule of elites in the United States.

Then I watched a few minutes of that drunk Timothy Dolan do his Ralph Kramden common vulgar man imitation in yellow robes, floating through the newly refurbished 180 million dollar St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Would have been cheaper to tear it down and rebuild it right instead of every 20-30 years trying to reinforce the inferior stone inside and outside, supplied by Tammany Hall btw, and spend more tens of millions to clean the architectural mess that only is made to look like a true gothic cathedral - illusion, delusion(?). 

And of course, once off the ground at arm's length inside St. Patrick’s, the real stone disappears and the plaster and paint over chicken wire surfaces mask the inferior workmanship of a large parish church being used as the seat of the very large evil fat-assed archbishop who would rather spend large volumes of money on cathedrals than keep parishes open for the faithful. ...

.