I ran across an interesting video of Bill Reilly on the Dave Letterman show at OneGoodMove.org.
I’m not much of a Letterman fan, but the thing I came away impressed with the fact that Bill Reilly came away looking like a pundit with an agenda to push, and Letterman came across looking like a regular guy who was distressed by the pundit’s assertions.
Over the holidays, I got into a small almost-argument regarding the whole “Happy Holidays” vs. “Merry Christmas” thing with my Mom. I could tell who the person was that listened to a lot of right-wing radio 🙂
Favorite quote by Letterman:
I’m not smart enough to debate you point to point on this, but I have the feeling that about 60% of what you say is crap. But I don’t know that for a fact.
McSpelling
The last name is O’Reilly.
As for the debate. I’d love to hear your position on the issue. Mine is documented on murphymaphia.com.
His name…
Ahh. I listened to one of his shows, one time, said, “wow, this guy’s way out there, makes no sense, and isn’t really that entertaining”, and never listened again. On the other hand, I find Rush rather pedantic but amusing, and Michael Savage downright hilarious in his over-the-top venting from time to time.
Guess that makes me a bad journalist, but a good blogger!
Me, I say whatever comes to mind. I, personally, regard “Happy Holidays” as a gracious, inclusive greeting thoughout the month of December. Got some flack from 2 members of my family for saying it, though 🙂
There’s a war on Happy Holidays! Preserve the tradition of the last fifty years, and say Happy Holidays next year!
—
Matthew P. Barnson
Interesting
Your last comment was intended tounge-in-cheek but there’s more truth there than joke, for sure.
This debate began anew this past year when President Bush conspicuously used the term “Happy Holidays” instead of the traditional “Merry Christmas”.
My point on the issue is that any greeting or none at all is fine. I don’t think that Bush or anyone else is trying to gratuitously offend Christians by omitting Merry Christmas.
This debate does nothing more than re-assert my feeling that ultra-religous types need to have a beer and relax.
I remember hearing a
I remember hearing a fantastic quote that summed it up perfectly. (BTW, if I heard it on this blog then I’m an idiot for just reposting it but be flattered I remembered it. 🙂 )
“‘Merry Christmas’ or ‘Happy Holidays’ is fine… they’re both a whole lot better than ^@*# you.”
Happy Holidays
The silly thing is that “Happy Holidays” is not used simply as a way to make the December holiday season more religiously inclusive. I could care less if anyone wants me to have a Happy Hanukkah – it’s just not that exciting of a holiday.
But the real reason why a lot of people say “Happy Holidays” is that it’s shorthand for “Merry Christmas AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR“. Since they are only a week apart, and the vast majority of Americans recognize both, it seems reasonable to shorten the phrase into “Happy Holidays” as a recognition of BOTH holidays.
— Ben
Not to mention that
Not to mention that ‘holiday’, if you look at its derivation in the Oxford English Dictionary, comes from “Holy Day.” So no matter how you say it, you’re still forcing religion of some kind on somebody, suckers! Bwahahahaha!
Holiday
I always thought it was a reference to the Madonna song.
— Ben
Hannukah & Christian Holidays
A Jewish friend of mine related that, if you were to pick a Christian festival of equivalent importance like Hannukah is to Jews, you’d pick something like the Festival of St. Matthew. It happens at the end of harvest in September.
Yeah, you’ve probably never heard of it. EXACTLY.
—
Matthew P. Barnson
Matt gets a festival.
I’ll bring the chips.
Visit the Official Justin Timpane Website Music, Acting, and More! http://www.timpane.com
I’ll bring…
Yay, I get my own festival!
I’ll bring…
…pie…
—
Matthew P. Barnson
More Fun
I have a lot more fun with Christmas than I do with Hanukkah.