If there's a "War on Christmas" anywhere but in the minds of conservatives like Bill O'Reilly and John Gibson, then Christmas appears to be winning. But if, as national intelligence estimates sometimes reveal -- up is down, war is peace, and the anti-Christmas forces actually are surging -- then the war in Iraq must be nothing short of total victory at this very moment.
Did you know that the John Birch Society fired the first shot in the War on Christmas in 1959? The enemies, then as now, were American department stores and the "Godless UN". And like their sworn foe Big Retail, the Religious Right doesn't even have the decency to wait until Thanksgiving to open the season -- in the conservatives' case, whining about what words people use to describe the December holidays.
For anyone who is genuinely offended because the newspaper ad from Target fails to include the word "Christmas" and the temporary clerk at Sears dares to say "Happy Holidays," I have some advice: this Christmas, ask Santa Claus to bring you a life.
