Patterico's Pontifications

3/31/2013

Happy Cesar Chavez’s Birthday!

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 10:53 am



He is risen, and the occasion is memorialized at Google (via Twitchy):

Turns out they’ve almost never run doodles on Easter, and the one time they did, it was with a secular theme. It also appears that they don’t have Christmas doodles (or, to be fair, Ramadan or Kwanzaa or Hannukkah doodles either). At Christmastime you get the inoffensive, politically correct “Happy Holidays” themes. Other religious holidays or festivals, like Passover, are largely snubbed. As you browse through their collection, you see a lot of “Bangladesh Independence Day” or “Joseph von Eichendorff’s 225th Birthday” type themes, but almost nothing for religious holidays. Unless the holiday has been completely secularized, like St. Patrick’s Day or Valentine’s Day. Those are apparently kosher, er, I mean, acceptable.

So enjoy this very special day: Cesar Chavez’s birthday. And please. Don’t over-commercialize the day. Remember to take a moment to stop, bow your head, and have a moment of prayer for the continued vitality of the United Farm Workers.

42 Responses to “Happy Cesar Chavez’s Birthday!”

  1. Oh, and Happy Easter too. If you’re so inclined.

    Patterico (9c670f)

  2. uvas tasty!

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  3. i Bing…. haven’t used g00gle in years.

    redc1c4 (403dff)

  4. Another vote to boycott Google and use Bing.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  5. Just waiting for a Cesar Chavez to unionize the Android phone workers so they make more than 30 cents/hr.

    beer 'n pretzels (6ef50f)

  6. Our Church changed their schedule and we arrived what we thought would be 5 min early, and it turned out to be 5 min before Communion.

    JD (b63a52)

  7. Google likes the dreary when you’re feeling the spring.

    SarahW (b0e533)

  8. Start praying to the new God.

    AZ Bob (c11d35)

  9. Human secularism.

    AZ Bob (c11d35)

  10. Ate a grape today. Thanks Cesar!!!

    Ipso Fatso (1e3278)

  11. Would you happy with another secular Easter doodle? If not, what do you propose?

    Leviticus (46159f)

  12. *be

    Leviticus (46159f)

  13. Religions are as much a part of life as secular holidays. I’d like Google to recognize some of them, even if they don’t want to honor them.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  14. I am a certified and ordained Minister in the Church of Secular Humanism. It is true.

    JD (b63a52)

  15. Entonces!!!

    Colonel "el pinchi Gabacho" Haiku (ffd610)

  16. How do you wish people “Happy Holidays” in December and not say what those holidays are? You know, the very word “holiday” means “holy day.” So the people who have brought the Vagina Monologues to your local High Screwel have decreed “Easter” too offensive to utter it’s name but haven’t figured out “holiday” yet?

    This is the reason I’m against spending more on education. In addition to the fact that hiring more NEA union members is just a giant Dem money laundering scheme designed to recycle Republican tax dollars into Dem campaign contributions.

    When your kid is smarter than the teacher, which is not rare by any means, they put them in special ed and mainline him or her ritalin. Meanwhile the valedictorian has mastered the subjects of LGBT history, self-esteem, and masturbation.

    Right. That makes us more competitive on the world stage.

    Steve57 (be3310)

  17. The more you expose your kid to the American education system the dumber your kid will get.

    Steve57 (be3310)

  18. There were plenty of other options. They could have gone with non-religious flowers like daffodils or tulips, Peeps, cute baby bunnies, or lil’ chicks. Featuring Cesar makes them look like stupid stick in the muds, clueless of their social surroundings, and overly prissy on a day that even non- Easter celebrating people worldwide recognize as a “welcome to spring” and a day when winter’s gray harsh is officially overturned for a season of pastel “new beginnings”.

    elissa (9e3aa8)

  19. and Time may change me
    may be for worse than better
    but I can’t trace Time

    Colonel "el pinchi Gabacho" Haiku (ffd610)

  20. He is Risen! Why didn’t He close the door behind Him?

    Because He was born in a barn.

    Colonel "el pinchi Gabacho" Haiku (ffd610)

  21. WTF is with conservatives and their constant need to whine? Boo fucking hoo. So all you free marketers can just take your search business elsewhere. I’m sure their CEO’s crying himself to sleep on his bed of millions because a few hundred conservatives want to short out their laptops with tears. What a bunch of fucking kindergartners.

    JEA (fb1111)

  22. Caesar Chavez didn’t look like that. The Googlettes must be smoking something.

    Mike K (dc6ffe)

  23. It’s also the birthdays of Al Gore and AC/DC’s Angus Young.

    Icy (9678a1)

  24. There are . . . possibilities

    Icy (9678a1)

  25. Gee, ain’t Google smart? They ignore the man who gave His life so that others could live, and honors the man who used to get his homeboys together so they could go kick the shit out of farm workers who were illegal immigrants and run those illegals back across the border into Mexico.

    zane (9d78c1)

  26. Google knows exactly what it’s doing here; I think it’s pretty obvious that their choice for today’s doodle was to send a message. But you know what? It doesn’t really matter. I may stick out a little with this opinion, but I don’t see a problem with it.

    Why? Because it’s their site, it’s their business, and they’re free to do things like this here in America.

    On a personal level, I do not agree with what they’re doing, but there are other options. For instance, Bing has a nice Easter theme today.

    To me, a free market means I will sometimes see things like this that I don’t agree with in order to have choices. I’m happy to put up with it, because I’d rather that than have The State telling them and me what’s supposed to honored.

    Happy Easter, everyone.

    Jim Bob (461c51)

  27. HE IS RISEN.

    NJRob (fe68e7)

  28. BTW, Tacitus reports the Romans detesting the Christians for their anti-infanticide stance.

    Once football gets outlawed for savagery they’ll need something for Sunday entertainment in all those stadia.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  29. I think the most damning analogy is that they honor Cesar Chavez’ birthday (March 31), but not Jesus’ birthday (December 25).

    Elephant Stone (f4dd79)

  30. Gawd!….I f…..ing loathe co-opting!

    Angelo (8bf6b7)

  31. And I’m getting kinda not keen on the new Pope… I demand the Latin Liturgy back….and fish on Fridays.

    Angelo (8bf6b7)

  32. Well, ES, it’s kind of like the old “God is dead”- Nietzsche, “Nietzsche is dead”- God

    They don’t use Google in Heaven, God has no need of resorting to a “Search Engine”.

    MD in Philly (3d3f72)

  33. the new pope is a rock god i think

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  34. I’m not so sure….I smell sell out…I’ll give him some time……

    Angelo (8bf6b7)

  35. …and have a moment of prayer for the continued vitality of the United Farm Workers.

    Some more water in the Central Valley would help…

    Blacque Jacques Shellacque (1016a0)

  36. Google has responded:

    In a statement emailed to the Guardian, the internet giant acknowledged that there had been a “lot of angry user emails” but only a couple of press inquiries.

    A spokeswoman said: “We enjoy celebrating holidays at Google but, as you may imagine, it’s difficult for us to choose which events to highlight on our site. Sometimes for a given date we feature an historical event or influential figure that we haven’t in the past.”

    According to the Atlantic Wire, the last time Google recognized Easter was in 2000.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  37. Render to Cesar the things that are Cesar’s, and to Google the things that are Google’s.

    carlitos (49ef9f)

  38. No thanks. After I saw Chavez on my google page yesterday, I switched my browser search engine and home page to BING…..

    Don (5a234e)

  39. Easter/Astarte/Astoreth has been celebrated for at least 5000 years starting with Babylonians, Asryians, Hebrews.

    ID’s vary from culture to culture.

    Claymores (fe3400)

  40. Would it be appropriate to post Cesar Chavez’ Congressional Testimony condemning illegal immigration back in the 70’s during this run-up to the latest Comprehensive Immigration Reform; or to remind people of his protest along the Border in 1969 over same.
    He found it difficult to improve the wages of domestic farmworkers when there was a never-ending supply of immigrants willing to work for less.
    Imagine that?

    askeptic (b8ab92)

  41. @ # 39 Absolutely that would be appropriate. Everyday, and twice on Sunday.

    papertiger (c2d6da)

  42. JEA is really butthurt that one might dare complain about this.

    JD (b63a52)


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