perfidy

For no good reason I am reminded of two quotes today.

The first is from New York politician (and later US Senator and founding member of the GOP) William H. Seward. After a dinner party in the late 1840s at which he locked horns with Elizabeth Cady Stanton over the vexed questions of women's suffrage and women's rights, Mr. Seward admitted to Stanton:

You have the argument, but custom and prejudice are against you, and they are stronger than truth and logic.

The next comes from everyone's favorite humanist misanthrope, H.L. Mencken.

"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard."

In other news, I think it's kind of funny that certain parties are doing their yearly Dance of Vexation over the greeting "Merry Christmas." Leaving aside the delicious ironies inherent in Protestants of any stripe defending a Mass, a pox on all y'all's houses for bringing this up in the first place. 80 percent of the country is Christian. That's no beleaguered minority. And, hearing a few "Merry Christmases" isn't going to blacken anyone's soul within their bodies (or burn the ears out of their heads). Tolerance isn't about making everyone feel comfortable at every turn. It's about tolerating shit that makes you crazy. Your shit is making me crazy; this is me tolerating you with all my feeble might and precious good will. So, to those making noise: Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, kiss my ass, kiss my ass, kiss your ass, kiss his ass, Happy Hannukah.

Happy Festivus, everyone.