Apparently Del. John Cosgrove of Virginia doesn’t take joy just in imprisoning women who have miscarriages; he’s also quite the fan of singing Christmas Carols!
In fact, Cosgrove is so enamored with the sound of his own voice that he sent 3,500 friends and constituents a CD himself singing Christmas carols and “other Christian songs.” Apparently everyone in his constituency must be a Christian, cause otherwise that would be a little creepy. Oh wait, his constituency isn’t all Christian. Huh.
Cosgrove made no apologies for the religious nature of his CD—titled “A Cosgrove Christmas” (yes, I’m serious)—noting that “being a Christian…Christmas is the time to recognize the birth of Jesus.” Ok, I can dig that. But again, that doesn’t mean everyone else thinks the same. Sheesh.
Maybe next year he can do a remake of "Christmas in Jail." A special tune for all you ladies out there going through the tragedy of a miscarriage.
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hey jess -
i clicked the link (and the link inside of that link) - didn't see any mention of any girl being imprisoned, or Cosgrove having to do with any girls being imprisoned. It was a link to the tragic story of a girl being shot and her ex-boyfriend being imprisoned. is it the wrong link, or did i miss something?
Ack! Thanks for pointing that out James. I linked to the wrong post; I meant to link to the one right before. It's all fixed now.
Sorry for the fuck up!
You know, thanks to Bill O'Reilly and others, I was forced to suffer my conservative relatives bitching about liberals trying to take the Christ out of Christmas. As an atheist, Christmas isn't about Christ for me--it's about family (even my conservative family), and I don't feel I have any less of a right to celebrate the Holidays (yes "the Holidays" because it's the Holiday season, which nowadays starts around Halloween) because I'm not Christian.
Sorry, I had to vent there. And I also don't think there's anything wrong with being a religious person. In fact, I wish more Christians would really take the teachings of Jesus to heart, like love for one, or compassion.
I thought you might be interested in the "White Christmas" and "Christmas Song" licensing fees that Cosgrove claimed would have cost him $8000.
He used the hefty price tag as an excuse for skipping less religious Christmas songs. The thing is, if an artist wishes to legally cover a tune they can either get permission from the copyright administrator and negotiate a licensing fee (this can be costly upfront but cheaper in the long run for big sellers), or, without any permission, they can simply pay a statutory rate of eight-and-a-half cents per manufactured unit (a better deal for small pressings). Since Cosgrove gave out 3500 cds, he would have had to pay $297.50 per cover song. The total cost of the two songs he wanted to cover would have been $595 not $8000.
Hey, I'm all for celebrating the birth of Jesus. But I'm even MORE for celebrating the TEACHINGS of teh adult Jesus, who preached mercy, caring for the poor and disposessed, and said to the crowd of blood-hungry judgemental folks who wanted to stone an adulteress - "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."
That's the Jesus I venerate, not just the baby in a manger.
I thought you'd like to know that Cosgrove has altered the language of his bill according to Chez Miscarriage http://chezmiscarriage.blogs.com/
Yeah, it's been toned down from fascist edict to wingnut conservative legislation.