WP:What 'War on Christmas' (Great Read!!)

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

I think this article was a great summary.

snip
"I've been hearing about this "War on Christmas," so I headed to the Heritage Foundation the other day for a briefing from one of the defending army's generals: Fox News anchor John Gibson, author of "The War on Christmas: How the Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Christian Holiday Is Worse Than You Thought." Gibson -- and Bill O'Reilly, his comrade in the Fox-hole -- see this as a two-front war: Assaulting Christmas from the government end, they say, are pusillanimous school principals, politically corrected city managers and their ilk, bullied by the ACLU types into extirpating any trace of Christmas from the public square. Battering the holiday from the private sector are infidel retailers such as Target and Wal-Mart, which balk at using the C-word in their advertising in favor of such secularist slogans as "Happy Holidays.""

snip
After the lecture, I wandered over to Union Station to check out a retail battlefield. Inside and out, the station was festooned with giant You Know What wreaths. A huge You Know What tree, with presents wrapped in red and green underneath, stood in the main hall, near a placard announcing "Norwegian Christmas at Union Station." A high-tech player piano was playing "Go Tell It on the Mountain," proclaiming the birth of You Know Who; the next selection was You Know Who Else Is Coming to Town. The most generic element was a small sign reading "Happy Holidays," but even then the words were bracketed by reindeer -- and let's just say, they weren't eating latkes. It was beginning to look a lot like You Know What.

If the anti-Christmas forces are winning, then the war in Iraq is nothing short of total victory.

end snip

C'mon, ya can't tell me that last line ain't a winner! Some other good ones in there too. Go check it out!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/09/AR2005120901357.html

[Catch22Dem]

1. Yes, that last line is great

Is anyone taking Gibson and O'Liely seriously. I mean, what in the FUCK is wrong with FAUX. Is it a slow news month? If they think so, may I point out to them the dead and dying Iraqis and Americans half a world away. Perhaps they should go over there.

[Jade Fox]

2. Glad to see WAPO taking a....

sarcastic stance on this whole non-issue.

For a more serious critique, go here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x178714

[Demit]

3. Another good one in the Philadelphia Inky--

There's a war on Christmas? Don't buy it

By Chris Satullo

...This year, the riff also targets retailers, Wal-Mart and so on, who allegedly are too liberal with "Happy holidays" in their ads and decorations and too stinting on "Merry Christmas." ...

That's why the kvetching about Wal-Mart is so ironic. Christ-in-Christmas purists used to get angry at how retailers commercialized the holiday. Now O'Reilly gripes that the commercializers aren't exploiting Jesus' name aggressively enough to sell Obsession perfume and Xbox 360.

"Happy holidays" and "Seasons greetings" are neither new nor hostile to Christmas. They are fine, old inventions that exemplify civility and recognize that one of the nation's glories is its diversity. In much of America, you never know whether the stranger with whom you exchange pleasantries in the line at Starbucks might be Jewish, Buddhist, agnostic, Muslim or Hindu. The "War on Christmas" riff smacks of a panicky grievance against an America of many hues. ...

Now, if a store wants to shout "Merry Christmas" to the world, the First Amendment is certainly OK with that. Retailers may do it, churches may, individuals, as well. A newspaper may, without apology, publish an annual Christmas story. (Hint: See this space next Sunday.) ...

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/editorial/13377997.htm

[Hamlette]

4. the rest of the article is the best part...especially this:

"This has reached its most imposition-of-Sharia-law-like level of intolerance in the campaign to cow stores into saying Christmas. O'Reilly, escalating his "Christmas Under Siege" campaign, has posted a list of naughty and nice retailers. The American Family Association goes further, calling for a boycott of stores -- it's targeted Target -- that fail to use the word Christmas in their advertising or in-store promotions. "Target doesn't want to offend a small minority who oppose Christmas," says AFA's chairman, Donald Wildmon. "But they don't mind offending Christians who celebrate the birth of Christ."

<snip>

This is the time of year, though, when those of us who aren't Christian, or who don't celebrate Christmas, most feel our minority status."



Why is it offensive that the person at the store doesn't say Merry Christmas? Sheesh. What would Jesus buy?

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

5. Ahhh, ya didn't post the finisher! LOL After your first paragraph, this

ending:

snip

"Really? I've just gone on the Target Web site and plugged Christmas into my product search. "We found 39,197 match(es) for 'Christmas' at Target," it reported. How offensive is that?"

[Wilber_Stool]

6. It looks like we're loosing the

war on Christmas to. We've got quite a war record, haven't we?

[Generic Other]

7. Some terrorist at work stuck a magnet on my office door

It said "You know what with the C word" and was personalized with my name.

So when Spring comes around are we going to hear about the war on the "E" word?

Why not start celebrating all the holy days of all religions? If Christmas is a state sanctioned holiday, then shouldn't Hannukah, Ramadan, Passover, Bon Odori, Solstice, Halloween, Kwanza, and other holy days be given equal treatment? I think this is the reason why we celebrate a generic holiday. You can't single out one without giving every group a day off. I am fine with that. Federal holidays for all religions. Paid holidays.