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By the Numbers ... Mark Steyn
The New York Sun ^ | 16 Dec 2007 | Mark Steyn

Posted on 12/18/2007 6:40:29 AM PST by Rummyfan

This is the time of year, as Hillary Clinton once put it, when Christians celebrate "the birth of a homeless child" — or, in Al Gore's words, "a homeless woman gave birth to a homeless child."

Just for the record, Jesus wasn't "homeless." He had a perfectly nice home back in Nazareth. But he happened to be born in Bethlehem. It was census time and Joseph was obliged to schlep halfway across the country to register in the town of his birth. Which is such an absurdly bureaucratic overregulatory cockamamie Big Government nightmare it's surely only a matter of time before Massachusetts or California reintroduce it.

But the point is: the Christmas story isn't about affordable housing. Joseph and Mary couldn't get a hotel room: that's the only accommodation aspect of the event. Senator Clinton and Vice-President Gore are over-complicating things: December 25th is not the celebration of "a homeless child," but a child, period.

(Excerpt) Read more at nysun.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: children; christmas; marksteyn; population; steyn

1 posted on 12/18/2007 6:40:30 AM PST by Rummyfan
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To: Rummyfan

“It was census time and Joseph was obliged to schlep halfway across the country to register in the town of his birth.”

LoL


2 posted on 12/18/2007 6:47:19 AM PST by nuconvert ("Terrorism is not the enemy. It is a means to the ends of militant Islamism." MZJ)
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To: Rummyfan

Good article. I love the writers that clear the miasma surrounding us in the popular culture and see things clearly.


3 posted on 12/18/2007 6:47:45 AM PST by Greg F (Duncan Hunter is a good man.)
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To: Rummyfan

You know, I never realized this before. In the gospels the “Son of Man had no place to lay his head”. He was homeless!

If only he lived in SF, he could have been getting a nice stipend. Herod was SO first century.


4 posted on 12/18/2007 6:51:36 AM PST by I still care ("Remember... for it is the doom of men that they forget" - Merlin, from Excalibur)
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To: Rummyfan

Steyn is right when he calls the anti-human environmentalist agenda “mental illness.”

It’s probably no accident that the same folks who want to remove any nativity scenes from their view are often the same ones who seem to revel in the idea of abortion.


5 posted on 12/18/2007 6:53:03 AM PST by cvq3842
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To: Rummyfan
Just in case there was any doubt, the Left intends to politicize everything. Even when it's a huge stretch. Christmas, mother's day, mass shootings, a kid whose parent's decided to not buy a certain kind of health insurance, etc. You name it, the Left will spin it into something they can use.
6 posted on 12/18/2007 6:56:31 AM PST by coloradan (Failing to protect the liberties of your enemies establishes precedents that will reach to yourself.)
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To: Rummyfan

The Christmas trees in the White House, when Hillary was First “Lady”, were decorated with condoms and sex toys. I shudder to think how they will be decorated if she becomes president.


7 posted on 12/18/2007 7:15:26 AM PST by wife-mom
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To: I still care
That was when He was grown up, and an itinerant preacher.

One of the choices He made, on the way to Calvary.

He could have chosen to stay home and make tables and chairs, just as Mary could have chosen to say, "No, thanks," to the Angel Gabriel.

8 posted on 12/18/2007 7:19:38 AM PST by AnAmericanMother ((Ministrix of Ye Chase, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment)))
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To: Rummyfan

“This is the time of year, as Hillary Clinton once put it, when Christians celebrate “the birth of a homeless child”

Why on earth does she have to subvert EVERYTHING? It isn’t enough she wants to dismantle American society, value by value, tradition by tradition…does she also have to mutilate the cultural form primary to Christianity in America??? I am sorry because I know it’s Christmas … but Evita really does need to STFU!


9 posted on 12/18/2007 7:20:36 AM PST by SMARTY
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To: Rummyfan
Which is such an absurdly bureaucratic overregulatory cockamamie Big Government nightmare it's surely only a matter of time before Massachusetts or California reintroduce it.

Ha!

10 posted on 12/18/2007 7:24:09 AM PST by NeoCaveman ("The most expensive thing we pay for is ignorance" - El Rushbo)
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To: nuconvert

Actually, the ‘enrollment in the time of Quirinius’, according to Roman records seems to have been a real estate enrollment, not a census. So the schlep halfway across the country was occasioned not by absurd bureacracy, but by Joseph owning land in Bethlehem as well as Nazareth.

Christ’s poverty was, like His Incarnation, voluntary, a model of the voluntary poverty of monks and nuns, not an infliction of circumstance, not a model for ‘liberation theology’, however much the Left may wish otherwise.


11 posted on 12/18/2007 7:26:17 AM PST by The_Reader_David (And when they behead your own people in the wars which are to come, then you will know. . .)
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To: I still care

In the gospels the “Son of Man had no place to lay his head”.


Herod (govt) was very eager and willing to provide a place to lay his head.


12 posted on 12/18/2007 7:27:15 AM PST by PeterPrinciple ( Seeking the truth here folks.)
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To: Rummyfan
What's the "pro-choice" line? "Every child should be wanted"? Not anymore. The progressive position has subtly evolved: Every child should be unwanted.
There's a REASON why they're called FemiNazis.

It's not just a clever nickname.

13 posted on 12/18/2007 7:49:18 AM PST by samtheman (Huckabee: Praise the Lord, Raise the Taxes. Christians: Amen.)
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To: I still care
If only he lived in SF, he could have been getting a nice stipend.

And, don't forget, a nice new shopping cart!

14 posted on 12/18/2007 7:54:06 AM PST by GOP_Party_Animal
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To: coloradan
Just in case there was any doubt, the Left intends to politicize everything. Even when it's a huge stretch. Christmas, mother's day, mass shootings, a kid whose parent's decided to not buy a certain kind of health insurance, etc. You name it, the Left will spin it into something they can use.

The Liberal Mantra - Find a problem in the world and then suggest that Lord Government should be the one to fix the problem. Once enough are on board, draw up legislation which sounds like the problem will be fixed, attach a huge sum of money to fix the problem which will be collected through taxes, never fix the problem, but still collect the taxes. In the end, people are left with even worse problems, no money and a Government will all the power.
15 posted on 12/18/2007 8:05:39 AM PST by Eagle of Liberty (It's what you get for free with National Healthcare that should scare you.....)
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To: Kerretarded

The culture that is (increasingly) secular will eventually ascribe the attributes of God to the state—omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence.


16 posted on 12/18/2007 8:08:26 AM PST by twntaipan (To say someone is a liar and a Democrat is to be redundant.)
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To: I still care

Rich Mullins realized it at least a short time before his untimely death:

Oh, You did not have a home
There were places You visited frequently
You took off Your shoes and scratched Your feet
‘Cause you knew that the whole world belongs to the meek
But You did not have a home
No, You did not have a home

And You did not take a wife
There were pretty maids all in a row
Who lined up to touch the hem of Your robe
But You had no place to take them, so
You did not take a wife
No, You did not take a wife

Birds have nests, foxes have dens
But the hope of the whole world rests
On the shoulders of a homeless man
You had the shoulders of a homeless man
No, You did not have a home

Well You had no stones to throw
You came without an ax to grind
You did not toe the party line
No wonder sight came to the blind
You had no stones to throw
You had no stones to throw

And You rode an ass’ foal
They spread out their coats and cut down palms
For You and Your donkey to walk upon
But the world won’t find what it thinks it wants
On the back of an ass’ foal
So I guess You had to get sold
‘Cause the world can’t stand what it can’t own
And it can’t own You
‘Cause You did not have a home

Birds have nests, foxes have dens
But the hope of the whole world rests
On the shoulders of a homeless man
You had the shoulders of a homeless man
No, You did not have a

Birds have nests, foxes have dens
But the hope of the whole world rests
On the shoulders of a homeless man
You had the shoulders of a homeless man
And the world can’t stand what it cannot own
And it can’t own You
‘Cause You did not have a home


17 posted on 12/28/2007 6:57:38 PM PST by MikeD (We live in a world where babies are like velveteen rabbits that only become real if they are loved.)
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