Matt Davies for December 25, 2022

There was a very clever cartoon from Matt in the telegraph which had bunches of mistletoe captioned “Give the gift of flu this season.”

NOT the “wise” men.

The Three Unwise Men.

Like coronaviruses, political ideologies also mutate — and neither vaccine nor reasoned logic is always 100% effective at deterring all their ill effects.

I believe it is going to a rough winter, especially for the stubbornly unvaccinated.

Except those diseases are very real, as opposed to that fairy tale.

The gifts that keep on giving, unfortunately.

Even as a child, I found the story of the Magi confusing. It is only mentioned in the Gospels once, in Matthew where it doesn’t give a number (3 gifts, hence Western tradition of 3 Wise Men), names, or land of origin (singular, not plural) or even when they showed up. But it does say they came from the east, following a star in the east. But if the star is in the eastern sky, they should be coming from the west or maybe northwest or southwest — definitely not from the east. And how can one country have three kings?

When I grew older, I discovered that the pieces of the legend were gathered rather haphazardly over centuries and different sects selected what they wanted in and ignored what didn’t fit their take on the story. “Kings” may have come from the Psalm 72 [written around 1000 BC] which makes a general comment that kings will fall down before him. Or it may have simply come from the idea that having kings do the bowing instead of farmers or bankers makes it more powerful.

The names — dozens of names — started popping up in early Christianity, possibly because it again makes a more meaningful story if the characters have specific names. The earliest written records is a Greek manuscript in 500 AD; another Greek document of Irish origin around 700 AD fills in a lot of ‘details’. These are names found in the Western tradition; different names are found in Eastern traditions. And of course, the names used in one’s particular church are the correct ones. Everyone else is wrong. /s

And, because it is convenient, why not just ignore Matthew’s description of the meeting: “And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother. . .” Just cram the Wise Men together with the shepherds into a tidy neat stable scene. No need to bring in a house [whose? where is it?] That simplifies things and puts the message into a tidy box. [cynical, not sarcastic]

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

TSA reports peak gun problem, vast majority are loaded

Aggressively paranoid Republiguns and the NRA have convinced Americans that they need to pack a gun along with their toothbrush.

Is this the part of the story where Peter denies Christ three times?

Or is it the part where anti-vaxxers deny reality three times?

What they represent, ew. What they look like, hahahaha. Cute.

I was given a simple cold for Christmas

Too realistic, Matt!

Hey! You three there. Youse tryin’ to be some wise guys coming’ here like dat. MASK UP!

It was brought by Fauci and the lock down crew. Put your immune system in a bottle for a couple of years and yeah, you’re gonna have a bad day.