"In Plano, Texas, a school told students they couldn’t wear red and green because they are Christmas colors. That’s flat-out fascism. If I were a student in Plano, I’d be a walking Christmas tree after that order. Talking Points understands that you know what is going on here."
Plano District Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Bill Otto:
"The school district does not restrict students or staff from wearing certain color clothes during holiday times or any other school days," noted Dr. Otto, who said that the school district’s attorney has requested that Mr. O’Reilly retract the statement.
Dr. Otto said that our attorney requested of Mr. O’Reilly that, in the
future, he ask his fact checkers to do a more thorough job of confirming the facts before he airs them.
Heh.
And in related news, here’s Sam Seder on CNN, debating with Bob Knight of the Culture and Family Institute (moderated by Kyra Phillips):
SEDER: Listen, as far as the war on Christmas goes, I feel like we should be waging a war on Christmas. I mean, I believe that Christmas, it’s almost proven that Christmas has nuclear weapons, can be an imminent threat to this country, that they have operative ties with terrorists and I believe that we should sacrifice thousands of American lives in pursuit of this war on Christmas. And hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money.
PHILLIPS: Is it a war on Christmas, a war Christians, a war on over-political correctness or just a lot of people with way too much time on their hands?
SEDER: I would say probably, if I was to be serious about it, too much time on their hands, but I’d like to get back to the operational ties between Santa Claus and al Qaeda.
PHILLIPS: I don’t think that exists. Bob? Help me out here.
SEDER: We have intelligence, we have intelligence.
PHILLIPS: You have intel. Where exactly does your intel come from?
SEDER: Well, we have tortured an elf and it’s actually how we got the same information from Al Libbi. It’s exactly the same way the Bush administration got this info about the operational ties between al Qaeda and Saddam.
…
Yes, well, Kyra, I mean, listen, I would like Bob to tell me who is the person who has been offended by someone saying Merry Christmas to them? I’ve never met that person.
I don’t celebrate Christmas. But if someone says "Merry Christmas" to me, I either think, well, it’s a little bit odd, it’s like me saying happy birthday to you on my birthday, but no one cares.
But I will tell you this, as we wage the war on the war on the war on the war on Christmas on our radio show. News Corp., Fox News, those people who have started this entire war on Christmas mean, fake war, they’re having a holiday party.
President Bush saying "Happy Holidays." Tokyo Rose, Laura Bush, saying "Happy Holidays" to her dogs in the video, I’m sure you’ve seen it. I mean, these are the things that we should be talking about when we are waging this war in Iraq, we should be equating it to the war on Christmas.
What else would Bob Knight have an opportunity to do, how else would he get on television if he wasn’t pretending to be attacked.
KNIGHT: This would be funny except it is serious to a lot of people who have seen their faith cleansed from the public square systemically.
SEDER: Are you suggesting, Bob, that someone can’t celebrate Christmas in America? Tell me about the person who can escape the celebration.
…
SEDER: I do agree with Bob. I think what should happen is companies should calculate how much money they’re getting from people who are celebrating Christmas and provide exactly that much amount of Merry Christmas, because that is exactly how I would want any type of religious holiday to be celebrated.
…
SEDER: Hannukah is not a high holiday. Our high holidays are Rosh Hashanna and Yom Kippur, which I’m sure Bob has been protesting why there are not more Yom Kippur sales or Rosh Hashanah sales during those holidays. Why shouldn’t there be, right Bob?
…
SEDER: Bob, have you ever protested Martin Luther King Day not being celebrated. Do you resent when people don’t say "Happy Martin Luther King Day" a month out in advance?
…
PHILLIPS: Bob, I’m going to let you have the final thought.
KNIGHT: OK. You know, when the Nazis moved into Austria in 1936…
SEDER: Oh, that’s offensive, Bob, to raise Nazis.
KNIGHT: They immediately removed from the schools. You can read about it in…
PHILLIPS: Hold on, Sam. Let Bob make his point. Let Bob make his point. Go ahead, Bob.
KNIGHT: You can’t even let me speak. Can you? You’re so…
Maria Trapp wrote the story of the Trapp singers that’s in "The Sound of Music," and she said she sent her kids to school after the Nazis took over. And they came home and said mama, we can’t say the word Christmas anymore. It’s now winter holiday.
I think that ought to disturb people…
SEDER: Kyra, that’s offensive.
KNIGHT: …that we’re moving toward that kind of attitude in this country.
SEDER: The Puritans also outlawed Christmas. The founding fathers of this country would fine you in Massachusetts if you celebrated Christmas in the beginning. So don’t talk about Nazis, Bob. I think that’s really inappropriate.
Why do you have to bring hate to this Christmas and holiday season? That’s so sad, Bob.
KNIGHT: Well, let’s go to the Soviet Union then too. They had grandfather frost.
Well, it’s the truth. You ought to read the book yourself, and maybe you’ll change your mind.
SEDER: It’s just sad that you have to raise Nazis when you’re talking about Christmas and the holiday season. And we all know that Christmas actually, Tannenbaum, it’s a German holiday. Bob, I’m really, really disappointed in you.
KNIGHT: I’m sorry to disappoint you, but if you can’t understand the force of history…
SEDER: To bring up Nazis, Bob.
KNIGHT: I’m not calling you a Nazi.
SEDER: Oh, who you calling Nazi? Who are you calling a Nazi, sir?
KNIGHT: I’m not.
And finally, from The American Street:
[ed. note: this is a reprint of the famous 1897 column from the national review online. we think it is as relevant to today’s issues as it was back then]
we take great pleasure in answering at once the communication below, expressing at the same time great gratification that its author is numbered among the friends of nro:
“i am 8 years old. some of my liberal friends say there is no war on christmas. they say it’s just another code-word-filled wedge distraction to keep us from discussing real issues like iraq, the deficit, the patriot act, katrina and the administrations abysmal record on human rights. papa says, ‘if you see it on the internets, it’s so.’ please tell me the truth, is there a war on christmas?”
virginia o’scamlon
virginia, your liberal friends are wrong. they have been affected by the secularism of a secular age. they do not believe except what michael moore tells them. they think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their godless minds.yes, virginia, there is a war on christmas.
it exists as certainly as lesbian feminazi’s who want to abort all the babies in the world exist, it exists as certainly as communist jewish pinkos who want to force children to worship satan in the schools exist. alas! how dreary would the world be if there were no war on christmas! it would be as dreary as if there were no loofas or falafels. there would be no unquestioning faith in republicans, no pollack jokes, no unfettered greed to make tolerable this tenuous economy. the eternal light with which childishness fills the american dream would be extinguished.
not believe in the war on christmas! you might as well not believe in the war on terror. you might get your papa to hire men to watch all the malls during december to catch godless communists trying to force people to say “kwanzaa hannukah ramadan,” but even if you didn’t see anybody try to wrestle christ away from the true believers at the gap, what would that prove? nobody ever sees secular heathens actually try to drink the blood of christian children, but that is no sign there is no war on christmas. the most real things in the world are those that neither logical men nor rush limbaugh can see. did you ever see jesus ride a dinosaur? of course not, but that’s no proof that he didn’t. nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are available only to the truly faithful, who shall delight in watching their enemies be smitten down in flames when the lord takes his rightful place in the mall.
you tear apart a david brooks argument and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the most evil liberal, nor even the united strength of all the hateful secularists and the aclu and all godless jews who ever lived could ever tear apart. only undying allegiance to talk radio, complete loyalty to fox news and our beloved leader, george w. bush, can push aside that curtain and view the eternal joy of the beauty of the faithful, rejoicing by god’s side as the evil-doers burn in torment, including those who watch the daily show and listen to al franken.
is the war on christmas real? ah, virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real.
no war on christmas? thank god it lives forever and ever, as long as filthy multi-culturalistic pedophiles want to keep christ out of the malls in december. a thousand years from now, virginia, nay, 6,000 years from now, because the earth itself is only 6,000 years old, the war on christmas will continue to make glad the heart of neocons all over.