My wife has heard it all. She was going to work and walked passed a bus stop. two women

waited for a bus.

The older woman (wearing a tea party shirt) said "I'm not doing it this year. It makes absolute sense to me. We need halloween banned".


"But it isn't harmful". woman 2

"Isn't harmful. It teaches kids to expect handout and when these kids get bigger they expect bigger handouts. Look at welfare! Give kids candy now for dressing in costumes and they will grow up expecting the government to hand them money because they dressed like a worker for a couple of days and than did something stupid to get themselves fired".

...deserve to go through life scared of non existent boogie men and their own shadows.

It's not boogie men and shadows they flail at. It's "niggers", "spicks", "faggots", "ragheads", "pinko liberals", "long haired intelectuals", "geeks", "nuff-nuffs", "spazzes" and "retards". You know, real people like you and me.

Real people they attach hateful labels to: to dehumanise them; to make it easy to hate them; to convince others to participate in the hate: by calling them a threat to morality; to culture; to freedom; or worst of all in Capitalist Central, a threat to the hip pocket.

and possibly even a geek or a spazz....I have no idea what a nuff-nuff is.

Jesus never hated on Halloween

That nobody really has heard it all, even if they think they have. Because I thought I'd heard it all until reading this post. The word(s) that immediately come to mind is dumbass. How does anyone go through life like that? Halloween equated with welfare? Give me a break.

"WTF, it's just Halloween?"

which I'm sure also has an element of truth.

So they know they have to work for it, dammit. Also, Santa Claus is a commie.

(Obviously kidding. I don't even have a car or a lawn - I live in an urban apartment.)

"Yes.. and it's Satanic, too!"

Get 'em stirred up even more. They can't vote against us more than once.

(Upon reflection... maybe the machine will vote against us more than once.)

:D

But then she may expect even more eggs next year and then what? Government cheese? Senior discounts for the bus?

OMG! The thlot pickens! Oh noes!!1! I'm series!!1! :evilgrin:

Apparently All Hallows Night is a liberal conspiracy.

I even tried to 'splain it to the lady...it is an old, before the church got into the game... She had that look of horror... So walked away.

I'd get it if you're Jewish and know that aspect... The closest we get to the day of the dead..

<snip>

Historian Nicholas Rogers, exploring the origins of Halloween, notes that while "some folklorists have detected its origins in the Roman feast of Pomona, the goddess of fruits and seeds, or in the festival of the dead called Parentalia, it is more typically linked to the Celtic festival of Samhain, whose original spelling was Samuin (pronounced sow-an or sow-in)".<1> The name is derived from Old Irish and means roughly "summer's end".<1> A similar festival was held by the ancient Britons and is known as Calan Gaeaf (pronounced Kálan Gái av).
Snap-Apple Night by Daniel Maclise showing a Halloween party in Blarney, Ireland, in 1832. The young children on the right bob for apples. A couple in the center play a variant, which involves retrieving an apple hanging from a string. The couples at left play divination games.

The festival of Samhain celebrates the end of the "lighter half" of the year and beginning of the "darker half", and is sometimes<2> regarded as the "Celtic New Year".<3>

The ancient Celts believed that the border between this world and the Otherworld became thin on Samhain, allowing spirits (both harmless and harmful) to pass through. The family's ancestors were honoured and invited home while harmful spirits were warded off. It is believed that the need to ward off harmful spirits led to the wearing of costumes and masks. Their purpose was to disguise oneself as a harmful spirit and thus avoid harm. In Scotland the spirits were impersonated by young men dressed in white with masked, veiled or blackened faces.<4><5> Samhain was also a time to take stock of food supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores. Bonfires played a large part in the festivities. All other fires were doused and each home lit their hearth from the bonfire. The bones of slaughtered livestock were cast into its flames.<6> Sometimes two bonfires would be built side-by-side, and people and their livestock would walk between them as a cleansing ritual.

<snip>

The word Halloween is first attested in the 16th century and represents a Scottish variant of the fuller All-Hallows-Even ("evening"), that is, the night before All Hallows Day. Up through the early 20th century, the spelling "Hallowe'en" was frequently used, eliding the "v" and shortening the word. Although the phrase All Hallows is found in Old English (ealra hālgena mæssedæg, mass-day of all saints), All-Hallows-Even is itself not attested until 1556.<10>
Symbols
Jack-o'-lanterns in Kobe, Japan

Development of artifacts and symbols associated with Halloween formed over time encompassing customs of medieval holy days as well as contemporary cultures. The souling practice of commemorating the souls in purgatory with candle lanterns carved from turnips, became adapted into the making of jack-o'-lanterns.<11> In traditional Celtic Halloween festivals, large turnips were hollowed out, carved with faces, and placed in windows to ward off evil spirits.<5> The carving of pumpkins is associated with Halloween in North America where pumpkins are both readily available and much larger – making them easier to carve than turnips.<12> Many families that celebrate Halloween carve a pumpkin into a frightening or comical face and place it on their doorstep after dark. The American tradition of carving pumpkins preceded the Great Famine period of Irish immigration<13> and was originally associated with harvest time in general, not becoming specifically associated with Halloween until the mid-to-late 19th century.<14><15>

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween

to spend a few bucks on candy.

edit: typo

Thanks. I knew I'd love coming back to visit here.

Somehow, it always has to be misogyny when it's a woman.

If she weren't an old crone, I guess she'd be a cougar ...

Speaking as someone who would most assuredly be called an "older woman" by most here: it's so nice to have choices. Thanks for defining mine.

I must say, "old crone" made a nice break from the "bitch"s I've been reading about at this site tonight, though.

As one who has attained the social rank of senior curmudgeon and elder goat, I must say that we geezers of the male caucasian persuasion come in for our share of "old patriarchal white racist reactionary …(etc.)" stereotyping as well, even if we are DFH's at heart.

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

It was a description!! The phrase "older man" is also used frequently.

How about comprehend what you read?

I was replying to a post. The post asserted that the person in question was an "old crone".

So forgive me if I quote you here:

Wtf are you babbling about?


For anyone else not following ... the OP stated:

"The older woman (wearing a tea party shirt) said ..."

If the younger woman was 20 years old, the older woman might have been 25. I don't know, and neither does anyone else who read that statement, because the older woman's (apparent) age wasn't specified.

The person to whose post I replied assumed that she was "old" and then associated certain negative characteristics with the status of old woman, by using an offensive term to stereotype her and old/er women in general, and thus all women. "Old crone" was really not intended to be a compliment.

If someone had applied that kind of demeaning stereotype to a member of another historically demeaned and stereotyped group because the person had done something someone didn't like that had nothing to do with the individual's personal characteristics -- say, "a flaming old queen", or whatever equivalent you might imagine for a person of colour, to refer to someone who advocated cancelling Hallowe'en -- I think it would not have passed unnoticed. (edit: See post 54; huh.) And if the person in question had been a man, I'm quite sure that whatever derogatory label might have been applied to him, it would not have been a demeaning stereotype based on his sex.

But hey. It's just women we're applying demeaning stereotypes to, not anybody who actually matters to all the liberal/progressive people here at DU.

Now let's all go mourn the passing of Bob Guccione. That's a much better topic for a liberal/progressive discussion forum, I think.

I can tell you that I didn't take offense at the description of the teabagger lady as an old crone. So, if it doesn't bother me, why should it bother you?

As I said in the post to which you replied, and you have studiously ignored in your post, "old crone" was not intended as a compliment.

Assign/reclaim meanings to/of words if you like, for your own purposes. We're quite familiar with this argument. The use of a certain word by African-Americans is the classic case in point, no?

Nonetheless, I have never heard an African-American defend the derogatory application of term "nigger" by a non-black person to a black person.


So, if it doesn't bother me, why should it bother you?

Lordy, there's words to live by, eh?

in the 40s & 50s did the the "trick or treat" thing and now is on the dole for Social Security and Medicare. x(

They're not giving hand-outs.

They're participating in sharing.

Their family gives out as much-- if not more-- in candy than they get. Everyone is sharing what they can afford to with everyone else.

We need to make that point with our kids.

Here we get the people who are against Halloween for religious beliefs. I have gotten a ton of calls since September from churches who will be having events involving costumes, candy and treats, bonfires, hayrides, and games like bobbing for apples, but they're not Halloween parties - they're Harvest parties... even though I keep referring to them as Halloween parties when on the phone with them.

I did get a call from the grandmother of a kid I did a birthday party for asking me if I could perform at her church in Independence, Kansas this Saturday for a Halloween event. I took the job as I could visit my family in Kansas (where I'm writing this from). I asked her, "Now, you said it was a Halloween event, and as you know I'm in Tulsa where that doesn't fly at a lot of churches so I want to make sure it definitely is a Halloween party and not a Harvest Party or whatever else it's called." Oh, man, she flew off on a tangent talking about how she hated how churches are trying to do away with the word Halloween, and it definitely was one, etc. Literally bitched about it for 2 minutes straight without taking too many breaths. My kind of customer. :)

TlalocW

... "Winter Festivals?"

LOL

And :hi: to a fellow Okie!

----------------------------

but Halloween costumes are explicitly welcome. I don't get the "Halloween is evil" BS.

I am so sick of this "no scary costumes" and no Halloween bullshit.

When my daughter was little they had "literary character day" at school and I always wanted to dress her as a witch based on a "literary character" or as something creepy out of an Edgar Allen Poe offering! Oh and wouldn't Frankenstein and Dracula be "literary characters" (WTH?)

My compliments to the Kansas church lady for having a brain!

Frankensense and Mirr... Guess it's ok to help out the Son Of God just not your neighbors kid.

:rofl:

That Santa Claus ... big damned liberal ...

It comes from Jesus

the correct response here is pity

country and they didn't do that. We always went to the movie that night. It was allot more fun. My parents had 2 more kids late in life. I told my mom I thought my little sister should experience dressing up and going out. She said yes and she had fun

What about community spirit?

Or helping your neighbor?

I've heard of Christians opposing Halloween because it's supposedly eeeeeevil and all, but encouraging kids to want welfare? What world is this bozo living in? Does she buy her kids Christmas or birthday presents, isn't that the same thing? It's all in fun, lady, get over it!

Clay on the potter's wheel.

She can be made to do anything.

All she needs is for Glenn Beck to say, "Why don't you pass the time by playing a little solitaire?"

of costumes and Trick-or-Treat goodies.

:puke:

That's just sad.

I think you made this story up.

It doesn't sound like a real conversation to me. If true the elder woman is batshit crazy.

:rofl:

He's gotta be an illegal immigrant, right? That name don't sound 'Murcan.

.

The Tea Party is the National Association of Neighborhood Assholes. All the mean spirited bastards in America got together and formed their own political party. Their party platform is simple, spoil everyone else's fun.

:(

What a dumbshit!

PB

We may be winning the War on Christmas, but the War on Halloween has just begun!

Defend our little pagan, Communist, Muslim, offspring against this attack.

:rofl:

Do these people have an active grey cell in their little pointy heads?
Ever?

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Of course, Christine O'Donnell has managed to make witchcraft cool in the teabagger Bizarro World. :eyes:

Seriously? A woman said this?!?! Yeah, that tops all IMO!