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Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Elf Torture
In an effort to distract Americans from the Republican's ethics problems and the disasterous war in Iraq, Fox News has been focusing non-stop on the frivolous wedge-issue of an alleged "war on Christmas" by supposed secularists and atheists. Citing examples of "Holiday Sales" instead of "Christmas Sales," Fox, led by John Gibson and Bill O'Reilly, has been contending that liberals are trying to wash people of faith out of the public mainstream. Of course, this argument has been seriously undercut by the fact that the Bush Administration Christmas card this year refers only to the "holiday season," and not Christmas, and in several appearances in the past month, Laura Bush has used the phrase "Happy Holidays."
But other networks, thinking that they should replicate Fox to get ratings, have followed suit, leading to this wonderful exchange on CNN yesterday between host Kyra Phillips and Sam Seder from Air America, and Bob Knight from Christian conservative Culture and Family Institute. (Click here for a video link.)
PHILLIPS: Let's start with the holiday card. What do you think, Sam?
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.
PHILLIPS: Okay, Bob Knight, Sam is tying in now the lack of information
regarding weapons of mass destruction and somehow moving that into Santa Claus.
Help me out here. What's going on? Is this a war on Christians, a war on
Christmas? Is this too much political correctness?
BOB KNIGHT, CULTURE AND FAMILY INSTITUTE: Well, first I want to compliment him on his dry humor, but this is actually a very serious subject, because a lot of people are waking up to realize that the war on Christmas is really the
culmination of a war on faith and the idea that the public square has to be
cleansed of any religious expression, particularly Christian religious
expression. At one time "happy holidays" was a welcome addition to "Merry
Christmas," so you wouldn't say the same thing over and over again, but a lot of
people now see it as a substitute, and it's very gratuitous at times. And it's
actually insulting when you're talking about Christmas day or a Christmas tree
and you can't bring yourself to use the word for fear of offending someone. In
the name of diversity we're a less free country when that happens.
PHILLIPS: It's interesting, Sam, because this is a time where, if anything,
we want to be even more sensitive to diversity considering everything that's
happening with regard to war on terror, we're learning so much more about
different religions, different ethnicities and trying to become more of one,
versus being segregated.
SEDER: 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.
Be sure to read until the end to see Seder's reaction when Knight uses a Nazi analogy to sum up his argument, leading to this sign off:
KNIGHT: Well, I'd like to say Merry Christmas if I have the
opportunity.
SEDER: Don't cut and run from the war on Christmas.
PHILLIPS: Thanks, gentlemen, talk to you later.
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