For what it's worth, David Greenberg wrote a piece three years ago, noting that previous presidents have sent out White House cards with "Season's Greetings," including Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Reagan, Clinton, and even George W. Bush. All, Greenberg noted, "took care ... not to alienate non-Christian recipients of holiday mail."

Well, NONE of those presidents were MUSLIM, were they? That makes all the difference in the world!

I'd like to know exactly when New Year's Day, which falls a week after Christmas, stopped being a holiday. After all, when we talk about the "holiday season," most people are talking about the Christmas/New Year's combination, not just the one day of Christmas. So when did Congress reverse themselves and declare New Year's Day not a holiday?

Why am I not surprised that BHO is sending out Halal winter solstice cards?

As a celebrator of The Winter Solstice, this card works for me.

Season's Greetings to all.

T'was the night before the winter holidays.

Not a creature was stirring,

except for those who are upset over

semantics and the omission of

explicit references to December 25th.

If it means so much to the good congressman, he's free

to wish a Merry F'ing Christmas to anyone he pleases.

Of course this will be too "complicated" for wingnut fundamentalists to grasp...but it is a SEASON of holidays for peoples of various beliefs...and he is the PRESIDENT of all the people! The stupid just makes your head explode...

Greenberg listed every post-Truman president except George H.W. Bush. Did Bush I use "Merry Christmas"?

And, uh, who cares? I could easily go weeks without hearing about some wingnut's current psycho-hissy fit about nothing. If we ignore them will they go away? Please? Go away, please.

Happy holidays to all!

Tis the season,
Saturn is the reason!

..Dick!

Might I offer a suggestion to the more scanctimonious among us like Rep. Henry Brown: Stop with the umbrage, and put your spirit where it should be this Christmas and buy meals and good tidings for the less fortunate among us. When Rep. Brown shows such evidence, I will listen to his concern. But until he shows his Christmas spirit through more actions than his current worry of what should be on a holiday card, I will count him as an idiot among the mulitudes who can't find peace with their own religiou tenets! -Kevo

Axial tilting is the reason for the season.

Because everyone knows that the true spirit of Christmas involves hating Jews, right?
Isn't that what the Bible said?

That's Easter, Paul. Christmas is about hating innkeepers.

Thank you Kevo. This idiot should be censured for NOT DOING THE WORK he was elected to do! This is a STUPID cause that is stirred up every Christmas by the very wingnuts they say CARE. I'd like to smack 'em...

http://www.positiveliberty.com/2009/12/fighting-the-war-on-christmas.html

It's a nice response.

As usual, the guys on "South Park" capture perfectly the hypocrisy of morons like Henry Brown.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksOCE5S_Bec

what is so disturbing about the right wing political rhetoric today is the lack of realization that for a pluralistic democracy with a disinterested public sphere such things as christmas, i.e. religion MUST be limited to allow space for those who believe and practice differently.
and i say this as a religious jew. who believes in the blessings of democracy.

I have a couple of friends who buy into this "War on Xmas" BS (and neither is at all religious). I ask them is images of Santa Claus is OK, to which they replied "Of course". I then challenge them to name me one thing, just one, that "takes the Christ out of Christmas" more than Santa Claus.

They've yet to give me a good answer.

See, the Republics simply don't understand or accept that this is actually the Hanukka season, the Solstice season, the Christmas season, the Eid ul-Adha season, the Islamic New Year season, and the Ashura (for Muslims), the Kwanzaa season, and the general New Years season all in one big lump.

Suck it Republics, hell, your Xmas nonsense isn't even in the right time of the year anyway! You should be looking to March (or thereabouts) to even get close to a reasonably accurate period for your mythology. Idiots.

I suppose that none of the Xmas nuts know that "Christmas" was not set as a Xtain holiday until the 4th or 5th century (I don't remember the details) and was taken over from a pagan celebration. The Xmas tree is a hold-over from Teutonic (an/or Celtic) tree-worship as is Santa Claus. The Puritans banned Xmas as a pagan holiday, and they were right (not to ban it, to identify it).
But, oh, such considerations can't penetrate the defenses of the convinced and terrified fundamentalist.

When are the nutcase religionists going to realize that they are being played by the politicians and corporatists?

I pity the christian God that would be subjected to an eternity of the company of such selfish, petulant, arrogant, demanding aresholes. What a dismal eternity.

http://www.BossCreations.net/

It's enough to make Jesus smack his forehead and shout, "Me!"

They should start providing fainting couches for every Republican congressman. They get their knickers in a bunch so often they would really appreciate a soft place to collapse in the tears and sobbing we see every day now.

Send one to Glenn Beck, too, come to think of it.

Isn't this predictable?

Axial tilting is the reason for the season.

True that. We should be encouraging everyone to Keep the Sol in Solstice.

So, in the name of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, let's suspend all killing and military operations on Christmas Day. Only acts of kindness and generosity(gift-giving) are allowed.

God Bless the United States of America, One Nation, Under God, with Libertarians and Justices for all.

peace,
st john

Stetson Kennedy @ 2:06 - let your friends know what the Church Lady has already discovered: Santa rearranged spells Satan! -Kevo

Since I refuse to click on foxnews, I don't know if they show a picture of the Christmas card. It's off-white with a red trim and a gold embossed eagle with a Christmas wreath around it. Then the message inside.

I bet my DH that the War on Christmas folks would be after Obama about this. Not a bet I wanted to win.

But at least it looks presidential. the Clinton cards always featured a watercolor of the White House with a snowy lawn. I've lived here 12 years and have yet to see snow on the ground at Christmas.

Henry Brown is my Congressman, unfortunately. He's a stupid bastard. His main achievement has been to burn down part of a national forest, then using his position to fight the fine.

I dunno. Can't they just scream and yell at him from across the street? That's usually enough for your average run-of-the-mill kook. What's specially about these kooks?

Re: I dunno....

Who's that idiot who posted this in the wrong thread?

jrosen--
I believe it was Constantine who co-opted a pagan holiday held on the 25th. The idea was that they were already used to celebrating on that day, so why not just change what the celebration is about?

The tree is a German thing, and IIRC, Santa is like, Norwegian or something.

If I get some time maybe I'll hit up teh Googlez and double check all that.

:-)

Oh, and sorry for being OT. It's just that the constant outrage from the right about everything -- and nothing, all at the same time -- is getting boring and predictable.

South Carolina: what you get with ten generations of hillbilly incest, descended from transported sheep fornicators. The place has been a pimple on the ass of the planet since the first transported prisoners were dropped there.

Of course, they are getting even the Christian calendar all wrong. The festival of Christmas and the liturgical season of Christmas (the 12 days ring a bell?) does not start until December 25. If you wanted to be liturgically correct by noting the actual season of the church year, one would need to wish others a 'Blessed Advent.'

Oh, and the whole Santa Claus thing is a bastardization of the legend of St. Nicholas, a 4th century bishop of Myra who paid the dowries for women whose families couldn't afford them. That and he helped children and the poor. I know, I know, certainly not the kind of Christianity that any of these chuckleheads would recognize.

Steve, I think you need to add another acronym to IOKIYAR. "ISIYAD" (or IMIYAD) would be "It's socialist if you are a democrat," for those times when Democrats do reasonable things that Republicans have done--like send "Season's Greetings" cards, or have offices in, oh, office buildings--but Republicans criticze them anyway. It'll save you a lot of typing.

This moron wants religious Christmas cards? Lets all send him cards saying we are praying Psalm 109:8 for him.

Let's just be clear about the Right Wing record here. First they did what no other administration in American history has ever done, and that is to deliberately divide -- and therefore weaken -- the nation on the eve of a war, as Karl Rove did when he turned the 2002 mid term elections into a referendum on patriotism and the fact that he said Democrats didn't have any. That got American soldiers killed when George Bush was forced to "stay the course" in a losing war strategy rather than change course to meet changing conditions on the ground and risk charges of "mistakes" from the embittered Democratic foes Karl Rove had created.

And now our divide and conquer right wing Republicans are taking the Merry out of Christmas by exploting the season of peace, joy and brotherhood for a few cheap political points.

The tree is a German thing, and IIRC, Santa is like, Norwegian or something.

In the classic poem "The Night Before Christmas," Donner and Blitzen are actually supposed to be Dunder and Blixem (Dutch for "thunder and lightning.")

I love Snopes.

Since the repubs don't consider New Years a holiday, I'm sure they won't mind working an all-nighter on Dec. 31.

This has always been a completely nutty conversation. Even Christians celebrate more than Christmas in the "holiday season". For a Christian the phase means Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Christians are obviously waging a war on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. How dare they send cards mentioning just Christmas? Don't they want me to have a happy new year? Where is Riley on this?

Fecked idjits. Time to bring back Jacksonian caning for stupidity in the House. Seriously, might be redundant because these people fell out of the stupid tree and hit every branch.

At times, I feel sorry for these people who become so enraged, or bitter, or mean, or whatever the hell it is that is wrong with them. Carping over the wording of a Christmas card? Good grief.

We just got one of the Obama cards-- very simple presidential logo, season's greetings, etc.

We cover nearly all the bases in my household-- solstice, hannukah, and christmas-- so "season's greetings" is perfect. Tonight we light candles in the same room as our Christmas tree. It's the way my family has always done it.

In Pittsburgh, since we have a very high concentration of jews (2nd in the US after NYC), it's "happy holidays" everywhere. It's nice to be respectful of people's diverse beliefs and practices during the holiday season.

I'm not so sure why so many wingnuts find that notion so offensive. Oh, wait, because they find diversity offensive. Ironically, these are the same people who like to use "judeo-christian values" whenever they can just to sound inclusive but they clearly don't mean it. It's times like this when they prove how much they don't mean it.

jrosen: I suppose that none of the Xmas nuts know that "Christmas" was not set as a Xtain holiday until the 4th or 5th century (I don't remember the details) and was taken over from a pagan celebration. The Xmas tree is a hold-over from Teutonic (an/or Celtic) tree-worship as is Santa Claus. The Puritans banned Xmas as a pagan holiday, and they were right (not to ban it, to identify it).

The real, hardcore fundamentalist types generally tend to be anti-Christmas for these very reasons: too pagan, too popish, not biblically sanctioned. Believe me, I know, because one of my relatives is such a one, and every December finds her spicing up our family gatherings with her loud and insistent gibberings about how godless the whole thing is.

No, the "war on Christmas" crap is mostly peddled by secular pundits and politicians looking for a cheap and easy meme.

Wringers need to get their theories together.

Why would a MUSLIM send a CHRISTMAS card, huh?

Obama should've sent Kwaanza cards.

No make that Eid cards.

No make that Solstice cards.

Forget Hannukah, because evangelicals love the Jews.

Bleh. Save a tree, don't send any cards...

"Donner and Blitzen" IS German for "thunder and lightning". Blitzkrieg? Lightning warfare?

Why come up with a mistranslated Dutch when the straight German is the correct choice?