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• The Philippine Comedian Spoof of UP’s newspaper Philippine Collegian is now online!
• For Bay Area Filipinos, Christmas is about welcoming - SFGate

I’ve been listening to Christmas songs by Sufjan Stevens alongside ones by Nat King Cole, Sinatra, Guaraldi, and whatever iTunes has given away free so far. The following song fits my last post, I think.

That Was the Worst Christmas Ever!
by Sufjan Stevens

Going outside
Shoveling snow in the driveway, driveway

Taking our shoes
Riding a sled down the hill side, hill side

Can you say what you want?
Can you say what you want to be?

Can you be what you want?
Can you be what you are?

La la lala lalala

Our father yells
Throwing the gifts in the wood stove, wood stove

My sister runs away
Taking her books to the school yard, school yard

In time the snow will rise
In time the snow will rise

In time the Lord will rise
In time the Lord will rise

Silent night
Holy night

La la lala lalala

Silent night
Nothing feels right

La la lala lalala

Download the song here.

Lyrics via

For those who did not enjoy watching ABC’s new version of The Ten Commandments the past two nights, here is something to make up for it: Who Let the Jews Out.

Is this from the same folks who gave us My Humps last Christmas?

Just had a thought: will we ever see something similar done for the third monotheistic religion? Somehow I doubt it.

via felix hominum

Whew, four posts in a row. While my wife was out doing some last-minute Christmas shopping, I was home doing some last-minute blogging. I have a few more things to write about but it’ll have to wait until the weekend’s festivities are over.

We’ll be zig-zagging across the Bay Area the next couple of days. Tomorrow Later, we’ll be at my sister’s place in Hayward, then we’ll be back in Fremont to celebrate the rest of Christmas Eve at my wife’s brother’s house. On Christmas Day, we will attend church service in Union City, then stop over at the pastor’s place in San Leandro, then head on out to Vallejo for the “extended family” get-together.

Have a Merry Christmas y’all!

In what is called “Operation Candle,” Muslim authorities in Indonesia are providing security to Christian churches in Jakarta during this Christmas season. It is part of the authorities’ goal “to move beyond physical security to include an ideological campaign against violent strains of Islam.”

During Christmas Eve 2000, “29 churches were bombed in an attack blamed on Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), a group that has been linked to Al Qaeda.” Earlier this year, three Christian schoolgirls were beheaded by masked attackers in Sulawesi. Other events in 2005 include Islamist mobs closing down 40 unregistered Christian churches, and the Islamic scholars’ council issuing “edicts condemning pluralism and interfaith marriages.” These are acts that are threatening Indonesia’s reputation for “religious tolerance.”