Two screengrabs here.

O’Reilly:

The importance the Christmas controversy is that it has become the centerpiece become the culture war between traditional Americans and secular progressives. Outside of the war on terror, this culture war is the most important thing happening in the country today. At stake, whether the USA will turn into a secular country that mirrors Western Europe, or maintain its emphasis on Judeo-Christian values.

The L.A. Times and much of the media is firmly in the secular corner. “Talking Points” is rooting for the traditionalists. So the battle lines are drawn. Too bad Christmas has to be in the middle of it.

Like the Administration it exists to serve, Fox believes that if you can’t find a reason to have a war, you make one up. And this stuff does seep out into the wider culture. I went to the Christmas tree lighting in the center of my little New England town last week, and in the course of it, the (apparently) crankly old man dressed up as Santa made a point of telling all the boys and girls that “–it’s a Christmas tree — not a holiday tree!”

A reader wrote in with a very simple response to the Christmas Warriors. Leaving the question of different faiths and holiday traditions aside (though you’d think that anyone who gives lip service to Judeo Christian values would understand why nondenominational greetings might be more appropriate in the public square), the majority of people in this country will be celebrating two holidays within the space of a week — Christmas and New Year’s. Contra O’Reilly, et al., “happy holidays” and “season’s greetings” are mostly a shorthand way of conveying best wishes for the holiday cluster. Believe it or not, it’s entirely possible that some percentage of the store clerks who use such expressions actually aren’t trying to covertly undermine the entire Judeo-Christian tradition…

(Who Would Jesus Beat Up With a Metal Object?)

Our friend Stephanie in Kansas shares the news that the professor who recently announced a course called "Special Topics in Religion: Intelligent Design, Creationism and other Religious Mythologies" has told police that he was attacked along a rural road late last night and beaten by two men, who were quite clear that his opposition to Christian fundamentalism the cause of the attack.

This is precisely the kind of thing that gives being even vaguely conversant with history or having the slightest ability to reason the delicious tingle of danger.

Granted, Prof. Mirecki himself isn’t infallible, as he showed in an email which referred to his proposed class as a "nice slap in [the fundamentalists’] big fat face."  After the controversy — triggered because, as we all know, most fundamentalist ministers are as skinny as supermodels, just glowing paragons of physical health — the professor decided that the class should be cancelled out of fairness to all concerned.

I agree.  Not one televangelist I can think of has enough double-chins to give his head its own scrotum.

OK, well, one.

Actually, five.  Wait, no.  Seven.  Hmm.  Anyhow.

Naturally, there are already people on the right — I won’t dignify them with links, but you can find them easily enough — who have already decided that the professor staged his own attack.  Well, certainly.  Because beating themselves up in the middle of nowhere is the kind of thing rationalists do.

I don’t know if the local District Attorney plans to prosecute this the same way they would if two atheists beat the crap out of a minister, specifically for his beliefs.  But they should.  I’m gonna send them an email in a minute and say so.

And this Kos diary suggests making a donation to Americans United for Separation of Church and State in Prof. Mirecki’s name, as a specific show of support for him and a deterrent to future similar attacks.  Not a bad idea.  I’m gonna go chip in a few bucks myself.

…question answered, so I’m removing the post…thanks to all who responded…

Oh, no, wait, I’m a liberal, so I hate Christmas. What I mean to say is, it’s like a secular seasonal celebration every day!

Anyway, the nice mailman just brought me a package with the Live Rust DVD and Kurt Vonnegut’s latest book, courtesy of a kind reader. As always, many thanks–who doesn’t love getting surprise presents in the middle of a dreary day?

PS: Don’t mean to slight the other generous readers who have also sent items from the Wish List recently–believe me, whether or not I list them off here, they’re all greatly appreciated.

Just in case you missed it last year:

Too much fun not to share:

The United States Air Force definition of suspicious behavior includes more than a few interesting resemblances to somebody we all recognize.

O’Reilly three weeks ago:

I’m glad the smear sites made a big deal out of it. Now we can all know who was with the anti-military internet crowd. We’ll post the names of all who support the smear merchants on billoreilly.com. So check with us.

O’Reilly tonight (from memory, so probably not an exact quote):

It’s our policy not to mention these sites by name, because they only want the publicity…

In fairness–and lord knows, if anyone deserves fair treatment, it’s good ol’ evenhanded Bill O’Reilly–he did only promise to post the names of those who “support” the smear merchants.

While we’re on the O’Reilly beat, Media Matters has a transcript of some O’Reilly craziness here–but I happened to watch (and Tivo) that same edition of Cavuto’s show, and there was another truly peculiar exchange:

O’Reilly: I have guys inside the five major oil companies–my father used to work for one of those oil companies by the way–who have told me that in those meetings they looked for every way to jack up oil prices after Katrina, every way, when they didn’t have to, but they got scared because of my reporting and the reporting of some others.

Cavuto: Wait, wait wait — you’re taking credit for gas prices being down?

O’Reilly: My reporting and the reporting of some others. They got scared.

Who knew we were so indebted to Big Bill O?

…update: Think Progress already had this one, here (with full crazy transcript).

I’ve cross-posted here rarely of late. Bunch of reasons. My own site tends to have two kinds of posts: a) political stuff, and b) my own pet joys in life, things like cricket and very tiny Chilean deer. The latter set doesn’t seem appropriate here — you guys are here for penguins, after all, not pudus — and often when I’ve written something newsier, dang if one or more of the perceptive folks over here hasn’t usually beaten me to it, usually saying it better and shorter than I would have.

But the other day, while ranting about the emergence of death squads in Iraq under America’s watch, I blew off steam in a way that a bunch of readers seem to have liked. Quoting myself is kinda gross, so I’m reluctant and beg forgiveness. But I’ve gotten enough email that I’m thinking maybe I should at least share the last half of this post with the class:

Still, one last aside.  To those who repeat the current GOP spin that opponents of the war are motivated by a hatred of Bush or a desire to see America disgraced, I would like to respond.

I can speak for no one else, but it seems obvious to me that it is the war which disgraces America.  It is the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people which disgraces America.  It is torture which disgraces America.  It is imprisonment without trial which disgraces America.  It is the use of chemical weapons which disgraces America.  It is disdain for international law, the use of military power as a first resort, the intentional confusion of the Iraqi people with terrorists thousands of miles away in Afghanistan, and the corruption of the very word “democracy” which all disgrace America.

As an opponent of the war, I am trying to stop my country from being disgraced any further.

As to hatred, yes, I will confess: I hate the actions of everyone involved — including Bush and his entire team, who are obviously most responsible, but also including plenty of Democrats (Biden, Lieberman, Clinton, etc.) — in creating the current fiasco.  My anger and disgust extends even more intensely to the actions of murderous extremists on all sides — like, say, these death squads, for example — but as they are not elected officials representing and theoretically accountable to the very public which reads this blog, I rarely go into much detail on the point.

I would also eagerly forgive anyone able to admit that what they have done is wrong.  I forgive John Murtha.  I forgive Walter Jones.  I forgive John Edwards.  Forgiveness is, after all, one of the most important things we can offer.

I could be wrong, but I also believe the majority of humanity would agree.

To my mind, there’s not a single word there that isn’t screamingly obvious. And it has all been said a thousand times before, much better, by others.

Still, knowing the way the internet works, I half-expect to see those words flying around in an email. Probably credited to someone else entirely. Possibly Dick Cheney.

This would be fine with me.