Bad Santa
Grinch
Scrooge
Winter Wizard
Jack Frost
Thanks to Sam Seder, my new hero.
The soldiers
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR,
SAM SEDER, HOST, "MAJORITY REPORT"
BOB KNIGHT, CULTURE AND FAMILY INSTITUTE
Battle Highlights:
SEDER: Are you suggesting, Bob, that someone can't celebrate Christmas in America? Tell me about the person who can escape the celebration.
.
KNIGHT: I'm talking about things like in Ridgeway, Wisconsin, where the school children in the public school were told they couldn't sing "Silent Night," so they substituted "Oh, Cold Night." When you take Jesus out of anything it gets pretty cold, so it's apt.
SEDER: This may come as a shock to you, Bob, but I don't consider Jesus the messiah. If you're going to ask me to praise Jesus, I'm going to be a little offended.
[SNIP]
PHILLIPS: Let me ask you guys about the pressure that's been put on stores, for example.
Pressure from conservative groups, looks like it has an impact here. Complaints from the Catholic League, Wal-Mart agreed to create a Christmas page on its Web site, rather than a holiday page. Macy's, which is perhaps more closely associated with Christmas than any other retailers, sent activists a letter touting its use of "Merry Christmas" in ads and store windows after it was the target of a small scale boycott last year.
This is pretty amazing, all these boycotts of pressuring all these stores, these businesses, Bob.
KNIGHT: These businesses are taking millions and millions of dollars in from Christians, in particular, and others who celebrate Christmas, giving gifts in the name of the Christmas season, and yet they're so worried about offending people... that they don't want to mention the word Christmas. People are sick and tired.
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.
[SNIP]
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?
KNIGHT: Let's put this in perspective.
PHILLIPS: Bob, I want you to be able to respond. What's interesting is a CNN U.S.A. Today Gallup poll, the question was "Is it okay for people to say Merry Christmas, 88 percent said yes, 11 percent said no."
[SNIP]
SEDER: Bob's where is the war, where are the battle lines, you can tell me "Silent Night" can't be sung in one school in Wisconsin.
KNIGHT: That's just one example, that's not the totality, so don't create that straw man.
SEDER: What is the totality?
The totality is -- you brought it up. The totality is 88 percent of the American population has no problem with it.
You don't care about the people who don't celebrate Christmas, fine. But I don't celebrate Christmas and I don't care. So, why are we wasting everybody's time? It's so that you can fund raise, that's why Bob. And I think you know that's true.
[SNIP]
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... 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.
