Megyn Kelly is Dreaming of a White Christmas -- a really, really white Christmas

 

Fox News host Megyn Kelly on the shiny, clean, unassailable whiteness of Santa and Jesus (via Raw Story):

“For all you kids watching at home, Santa just is white,” Kelly said. “But this person is just arguing that maybe we should also have a black Santa. But Santa is what he is.”  

“Just because it makes you feel uncomfortable doesn’t mean it has to change, you know?” she added. “I mean, Jesus was a white man too. He was a historical figure, that’s a verifiable fact, as is Santa — I just want the kids watching to know that.”

Again With The Christmas Tree Tax!

From today's Sunday pops:

The Heritage Foundation reports that a Christmas tree tax has made its way back into the abomination that is the farm bill. A new tax of up to 20 cents per fresh-cut tree will pay for a federal Christmas Tree Promotion Board, whose goal will be “to enhance the image of Christmas trees and the Christmas tree industry in the United States.” Count us among those shocked to learn that Christmas trees have an image problem.[Bolding in original.]

As always, with our friends on the braintrust, what they leave out tells us almost as much as what they put in.  For example, they don't bother telling you in which chamber (the Democratically controlled Senate or the GOP controlled House) this is taking place.

Here's a hint: The "abomination that is the farm bill" is coming from the Republican-controlled House.  Specifically the House Agriculture Committee.

In fact, it even says so at the Scaife-funded Heritage Foundation:

It’s never too early for Washington, D.C., politicians to dampen the holiday spirit. The House Agriculture Committee approved an amendment to its farm bill that would lift the stay blocking implementation of President Obama’s Christmas tree tax.

In fact, it's the very first sentence of the piece.  That would mean that the Republican-controlled House is hating on the Christians and their trees, right?

Well, why didn't they just say so?

Perhaps they should ask Representative Glenn Thompson.  He's a Pennsylvanian and he's on the Agriculture Committee.

We've written about this before and they still get it wrong.  For instance, it's not a "tax" since the money raised does NOT go to the guv'ment at all, but goes directly to that promotion board.

And about that promotion board: The braintrust gets it wrong when describes it as "a federal...Board."  By the way they write it, they must want you to think it's made up of guv'ment bureaucrats, right?

Wrong.  From the Federal Register:

This rule establishes an industry-funded promotion, research, and information program for fresh cut Christmas trees. The Christmas Tree Promotion, Research, and Information Order (Order) is authorized under the Commodity Promotion, Research, and Information Act of 1996 (1996 Act). The Order will establish a national Christmas Tree Promotion Board (Board) comprised of 11 producers and one importer.

Industry-funded board made up of 12 members of the industry and yet, to these folks it's turned into Obama's Christmas Tree tax.

Sheesh, how silly is this?

The Trib's War On Christmas Just Got Silly

This is just silly.  Take a look at what Scaife's briantrust published today:

Speaking of Corbett, a few hours after visiting the Trib last Tuesday in Pittsburgh, he and first lady Susan Corbett lighted the Christmas tree on the front steps to the state Capitol in Harrisburg, resurrecting a tradition that was scrapped in the 1980s. It’s nice to see. And do note, the tree is not called a “Holiday tree” or a “Unity tree” or a “Winter Solstice tree” or “Just a Tree So We Don’t Offend Anyone.” It’s called a “Christmas tree.” Hear! Hear! [Bolding in original.]

Now a little quasi-word association.  Given the right wing media's goofy obsession with the so-called "War on Christmas" what do you think is the point here?  What do they want you to think and not check the details on?

That Governor Corbett resurrected a Christmas tradition, right?  Right and it's an easy jump from there to assume that there was no Christmas Tree at the Capitol since the 80s, right?  Right and so it's them godless PC Democrat Party wimps that took away the Capitol Christmas Tree (or renamed it a "Winter Solstice" tree or something), right?

Wrong.  Take a look this from 2010:

The state Capitol's Christmas tree, a 21-foot Concolor, was delivered to the Capitol Rotunda this morning in Harrisburg and set up by Department of General Services staff.

The tree, from the Crystal Spring Tree Farm in Lehighton, Carbon County, was donated by the Pennsylvania Christmas Tree Growers Association. It will be decorated with 600 energy efficient LED lights and decorated with more than 300 hand-crafted ornaments from senior centers across the state.

The tree will be lighted during a noontime ceremony on Dec. 8 and remain lit from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. through Jan. 7. [Emphasis added.]

Or this from 2008:

The Capitol Rotunda glowed much brighter today as children of Pennsylvania National Guard members helped Governor Edward G. Rendell light a more energy-efficient Christmas tree.
[Emphasis added.]

And so on.  In fact, looks like there's been a "Christmas Tree" in the Capital Rotunda going all the way back to at least 1981.

Further more, it looks to me like like the only tradition that was resurrected was that the tree was simply moved outside.  Now look again at what the Braintrust wrote.  How silly is it once you know the facts.

And they do this everyday.

FIGHT THE WAR ON CHRISTMAS!  IF THE CHRISTMAS TREE IS INDOORS THE ATHEIST PC POLICE WIN!

Frankly...

As far as I can tell, it started here, with Mark Tapscott at the Washington Examiner:

Looks like the PC police have threatened members of the House of Representatives against wishing constituents a "Merry Christmas," if they want to do so in a mailing paid for with tax dollars.

Members who submit official mailings for review by the congressional franking commission that reviews all congressional mail to determine if it can be "franked," or paid for with tax dollars, are being told that no holiday greetings, including "Merry Christmas," can be sent in official mail.

Another example on the PC "War on Christmas" I guess.

Except, it's not.  Not after you take a deeper look.

Wow, Grover Gets It Wrong

I found this Americans for Tax Reform piece via Scaife's own Newsmax.

For those of you who don't yet know Grover Norquist is quite important in Republican circles where his anti-tax pledge, is quite popular.  According to the Washington Times:

All but four of the 242 House Republicans, and 41 out of the 47 Senate Republicans, have signed Mr. Norquist's "Taxpayer Protection Pledge."

That somewhere around 96% of all Congressional Republicans.  That's alot of Elephant!

So it's pretty amazing when he gets something really, really terribly wrong. Take a look at his first two paragraphs of his ATR piece, published Friday, December 9:

The holidays are a season for giving and spending time with loved ones. However, this year taxpayers will be adding Uncle Sam to their Christmas list. Of an identified $10.72 billion of holiday spending, 43.36 percent of the price Americans pay to celebrate Christmas is due to government taxes, fees and other costs.

This season, not even Christmas trees are safe from the government grinch. The Obama Administration has applied a 15 cent tax on each Christmas tree sold, meaning government now composes 31.19 percent of the price of an average 40 dollar Christmas tree. While implementation of the tax has been delayed, this is a particularly naughty idea to fuel increased government spending. For the $1.15 billion in sales generated by the Christmas tree industry employing over 100,000 workers, the Christmas tax is another measure threatening Americans jobs—so much for yuletide cheer. [emphasis added]

And when did this delay occur?  At least a month ago.  Take a look at what we wrote on November 12.  In that post we linked to this piece by Jake Tapper from November 9::

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is going to delay implementation and revisit a proposed new 15 cent fee on fresh-cut Christmas trees, sources tell ABC News. The fee, requested by the National Christmas Tree Association in 2009, was first announced in the Federal Registry yesterday and has generated criticism of President Obama from conservative media outlets.

So Norquist knew it was delayed but he seems to have missed all the other details revolving around the fee - like how it was requested by the NCTA or how the fee is generated by the growers and won't impact the cost of the trees or how the money won't go into any guv'ment coffers as it'll be used by the association to promote fresh cut Christmas trees.

For someone supposed to be real smart on tax policy (or at least well informed) he simply failed on this one.

All this was in the news a month ago.  Why doesn't Grover Norquist know about it?  Or perhaps he does and he doesn't want you to know about it.  Nothing like letting the facts get in the way of a good "Obama Hates Christmas" smear.

You decide.

Republicans Wage War On Christmas!

Republicans hate Christmas. They hate it so much that they don't want millions of Americans to be able to celebrate it. No toy train for little Johnny. No pretty dolly for sweet Sue. No Christmas turkey or ham. No Christmas lights. Maybe they think because Santa wears red and has a beard that he's a Communist.

There's no other conclusion to draw.

By voting no to extend emergency unemployment to millions of Americans during the holiday season at the same time that they refuse to extend tax cuts to millions more middle class Americans (unless they can give themselves huge tax breaks) they are saying no to holiday cheer and waging war on Christmas.

Instead of kids writing a letter to Santa this year, they need to write to Congress and ask them why they want St. Nick to skip their house.

[If Democrats can't sell this they don't deserve to be in office.]
.

Sketchy Santa: The Musical!

Ah yes, the ritual torture of the innocents. :-D


.

Merry Christmas from 2 Political Junkies!

.

.

Tony Norman Follows-up On The OPJ

A few days ago Maria, the OPJ, brought your collective attention to a skirmish in the continuing "War on Christmas." It was an article she found at Eschaton that itself pointed to an article in Haaretz:

Four Jewish subway riders who wished other people Happy Hanukkah werepelted with anti-Semitic remarks before being beaten, New York police and prosecutors said. The incident was being investigated as a possible hate crime.

The four were on a train in Manhattan on Friday night, during the eight-day Jewish Festival of Lights, when they were approached by a group of 10 people who offered holiday greetings. The victims responded, Happy Hanukkah and were assaulted by the larger group, police said Tuesday.

Police caught up with the train in Brooklyn and arrested eight men and two women, ages 19 and 20. They were arraigned Saturday on charges of assault, menacing, riot, harassment and disorderly conduct, the Brooklyn district attorney's office said.

Tony Norman's got some pointed commentary on the subject today. He begins:

Usually, I go out of my way to avoid giving rapacious media baron Rupert Murdoch any of my hard-earned cash.

Still, Mr. Murdoch's U.S. tabloid -- the delightfully unhinged New York Post -- remains a guilty pleasure from my days as a working-class New Yorker two decades ago.

It's easier to justify a lingering fascination with the scrappy tabloid by copping to reading it online. It spares me the indignity of paying $1.50 picking it up at newsstands this far west of the Hudson.

I'll save you the buck-fifty - here's the article from the Post. Turns out that one of the people who tried to stop the assault was Hassan Askari, a Muslim from Pakistan. Here's how Tony describes it:

According to news reports, Mr. Adler, his girlfriend Maria Parsheva, their friend Angelica Krischanovich and an unidentified fourth person boarded the Q train on Canal Street bound for Brooklyn.

Someone from the group that was later arrested shouted "Merry Christmas" to the quartet when they entered. The four returned the greeting with "Happy Hanukkah." The mob, reportedly drunk and hostile, perceived this as yet another salvo in the never-ending war against Christmas.

One guy rolled up his sleeves to show his Christ tattoo. According to Mr. Adler, the tattooed man mocked them and said: "Happy Hanukkah, that's when the Jews killed Jesus."

To prove they were more in tune with the spirit of Kristallnacht than Christmas, the group of abusive men and women surrounded the quartet and shouted "dirty Jews" and "Jew bitches" before breaking Walter Adler's nose, causing him to gush blood like a geyser.

Hassan Askari couldn't bear to watch it anymore. Alone among his fellow passengers, he rushed to the defense of four Jews being assaulted by "defenders" of Christmas. He got beat up for his trouble.

I especially liked the guy with the Christ tattoo who linked Hanukkah to the cruxifiction. I'm pretty well read and for a time I usually won playing Trivial Pursuit but I'd never heard that one. Ignorance is everywhere, I guess. And of course the broken nose for saying "Happy Hanukkah." Didn't he know enough to turn the other cheek? No, wait. I guess not.

We can be happy, though, that the War on Christmas is over.

And Bill O'Reilly won it.

Though if you want, get a gander at the column, O'Reilly uses to prove his point about "secular progressives." It's by Carol Towarnicky of the Philadelphia Daily News. O'Reilly quotes:

To that, this secularist pleads guilty. No religion should be in the public square, not even when the overwhelming majority of citizens practice it. Besides, the big boxes and malls make it impossible to miss the fact that it's Christmas.

But if you take a look at the rest of the column, it's not so much about removing religion from the public square, it's about returning Christmas to what it once was:

Old-timers may recall that, back when Christmas was a religious holiday, the four weeks of Advent was the time when many Christians prepared their hearts for the birth of Jesus. Back then, the first Sunday of Advent used to be the official beginning of the Christmas season - before it was replaced by another religious ritual, Black Friday.

Advent was a time of penance and fasting. It's why many traditional ethnic Christmas Eve celebrations - oyster stew for the Irish, "seven fishes" for Italians, pierogis for Eastern Europeans - are meatless. Of course, modern Christmas preparation also includes hardship, not to mention degradation. Shoppers wear themselves out spending that $435 billion we're expected to drop on Christmas this year. And what mortification could compare to the prostrations of desperate parents seeking this year's Big Gift?

Advent was a time of great expectation, anticipation and hope. Kids and grown-ups lit candles on Advent wreaths and counted off the days of an Advent calendar. These days, surveys show that many Americans count down to Christmas not with anticipation but with dread. Google "Christmas" and find scores of warnings - from psychologists about "holiday depression," from financial advisors about the massive debt we'll incur, and from law enforcement with tips to escape the seasonal increase in crime.

During Advent, Christians traditionally read verses from Psalms and the prophets. These days, it can be hard to hear Jesus' message over all the din, much less proclaim it.

But I fear I've digressed.

Happy Friday everyone!

No Defeat, No Surrender!

Fighting the Good Fight Against The War on Christmas

We here at 2pj are happy to report that there are many citizen soldiers who are willing and able to defeat the evil forces who are waging a War on Christmas.

Case in point #1:

Via Atrios:

On Friday, Four Jewish subway riders who wished other people Happy Hanukkah were pelted with anti-Semitic remarks before being beaten, New York police and prosecutors said.

The incident was being investigated as a possible hate crime.

The four were on a train in Manhattan on Friday night, during the eight-day Jewish Festival of Lights, when they were approached by a group of 10 people who offered holiday greetings. The victims responded, Happy Hanukkah and were assaulted by the larger group, police said Tuesday.

Police caught up with the train in Brooklyn and arrested eight men and two women, aged 19 and 20. They were arraigned Saturday on charges of assault, menacing, riot, harassment and disorderly conduct, the Brooklyn district attorney's office said.

One can only hope this band of holy warriors makes bail quickly and returns to the trains to remind any and all infidels and heathens of the reason for the season.

Case in point #2:

And, this from closer to home:

Video of Debbie Hardy's Westmoreland Mansion Decked Out For Christmas

No chickenheart she, Debbie's obviously spent tens of thousands of Joe's her own money to commemorate the birth of Baby Jesus -- or is it the Wizard of Oz? (see video)

Well, it's something all right and it includes red feather boas and more sparkle and glitz than the eye shadow on a Miss Teen Texas pageant contestant. Proof that money can buy happiness and taste!

According to an MSNBC article:

Hardy-Ucman's candy-themed Christmas tree is topped off by none other than Joe Hardy dressed as Santa Claus.

"This is a specially designed ornament depicting Mr. Hardy as Santa with an 84 Lumber banner," said Neth.

We can't think of anything more appropriate to top a candy tree than a big old Sugar Daddy! (Although she may have gotten a bit confused thinking that the "J" in "WWJD" stood for "Joe.")
.

The "War On Christmas" Christmas Cards

We posted our lovely, deluxe "War on Christmas" cards two years ago and we're bringing them back again because:

1) They're still relevant.
2) 2pj is enviro-friendly and believes in recycling.
3) They're getting a lot of hits lately from google (see here and here).
4) Snow! Snow! There's snow on the ground!
5) I'm a lazy sod.

Enjoy!






.

The "War On Chrismas" Christmas Cards

These pretty much speak for themselves:






(Click on each view larger images)