Here I am thinking that nothing, and I mean NOTHING, can get me into the holiday spirit. But then I forgot about these two.

In 2008 this country got perhaps one of the greatest gifts in its short history.

So instead of lamenting the loss of that gift, instead perhaps we should simply take pride in knowing that we lived in time when Barack Obama led this great nation.

I don't know what the future may bring, but I know how amazing these past eight years have been.

And I would not have missed them for the world.

Merry Christmas my friends.

For the next time somebody asks you.

It's really such a simple sign of respect, and yet there are those who feel that by using it they are surrendering to an attack on their religion.

Ho-Ho-Holy crap are we done with this Christmas thing yet?

Merry Christmas and peace on Earth from my family to yours. pic.twitter.com/TYhmJAoTFi

— LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) December 25, 2015

(Just a family celebrating the conservative tradition of the showing of the firearms to ward off bad spirits and Democrats.)

I know I said earlier today that I love Christmas, and I do. Up to a point.

But right now I am all Jingle Belled the fuck out.

Sure it was fun at first. Visiting the family, opening the presents, bringing up embarrassing stories about my brother's past just to humiliate him.

All good.

But now I'm over it.

For one thing I had to drive all the way out to Palmer, where my mother and brother now live, which meant no holiday beverages. (Uncle Gryphen cannot afford a DUI on his spotless record.)

I'm not saying that drinking alcohol makes every thing better, because everybody already knows that drinking alcohol makes everything better. (Except child rearing of course, not that my father did not give it the old college try.)

Anyhow before I go all Grinch that stole Christmas and harsh everybody's mellow, let me just say that I had a lot of fun today. (You know as much fun as you can have without a drop of alcohol and your brother telling everybody that story about how you used to sing out loud to Bee Gees songs. By the way Too Much Heaven is a classic!)

I got a lot of nice gifts, gave more expensive ones to others so that I looked cool, and enjoyed my visit with my family.

Now I am back home contemplating the upcoming year.

And while I have literally no idea what is in store, I know that it will undoubtedly be a wild ride and I could not imagine a better group of people to share that experience with than all of you.

Happy Holidays! (That's right Fox News I said "Happy Holidays," bite me!)

Merry Christmas IMers!

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!

I think Santa has been here and I can hardly wait to open my gifts.

Here's hoping that you have an awesome celebration as well.

In sign of desperation Donald Trump tries a little too hard to woo the Religious Right.

Courtesy of KXAN:

After initially declining the invitation, Trump spoke Friday in front of several hundred social conservative leaders at the Family Research Council’s Values Voter Summit in Washington. He joined a speaking program that includes Republican rivals with long records of dedication to religious causes — among them, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Baptist pastor, and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who wants his colleagues to risk a government shutdown to block funding to Planned Parenthood. 

Trump brought his Bible along once again, and briefly addressed his faith between attacks on his rivals and Democrats. 

“I believe in God. I believe in the Bible. I’m a Christian,” he said. He ended by bemoaning the increased use of the term “Happy Holidays” in place of “Merry Christmas” as a sign that Christianity is under attack. As president, he said, he’d reverse the trend.

God, the jumping on the "War on Christmas" bandwagon.  That is possibly the lamest pandering that any politician can do.

And as Mediaite points out Trump is more than a little vulnerable to attacks on that topic himself:

And that is only the cherry on top of the numerous tweets that Trump sent out over the years to friends and co-workers wishing them, not a Merry Christmas, but the more politically correct "Happy Holidays."

Ah hypocrisy, where would the Trump campaign, and in fact the entire GOP "deep bench" of nominees be without it?

This Values Voter Summit is also where Trump got booed for calling Marco Rubio a "clown."

Yeah I think Trump's starting to feel the heat.

Yeah in politics BS will only take you so far (Of course in the Republican party that distance is the top of the polls) but eventually people are going to start getting sick of the dog and Pony show and demand to see what you've got.

And all that Donald Trump has got, is more dogs and more ponies.

Bill Maher gives some advice on saving Christmas. And it is INFINITELY better than that Kirk Cameron movie.

Okay that was pretty funny.

And I am almost sold on Thankshallowistmas.

Sounds like a hell of a good holiday, almost up there with Festivus.

Okay so I was accused of putting a damper on everybody's Christmas by posting about so many unsavory people. Is this better?

Merry Christmas. pic.twitter.com/XaN5kz5uiL

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) December 25, 2013

Of course there will be SOME people who will even find something offensive about this lovely couple.

But hey, you can't please everybody!

Salvation Army bell ringer gets assaulted for saying "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas."

Courtesy of WCPO Cincinnati:  

Some might call it the “December Debate.” Do you greet people with “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays?" An Arizona woman, who’s also a bell ringer for the Salvation Army, says she was assaulted for choosing the wrong one. 

Kristina Vindiola says a woman hit her outside a Phoenix Walmart after she said "Happy Holidays." 

"The lady looked at me,” said Vindiola. “I thought she was going to put money in the kettle. She came up to me and said, 'Do you believe in God?' And she says, ‘You're supposed to say Merry Christmas,' and that's when she hit me." 

Vindiola says the woman hit her in the arm and then went inside the store.

WTF? Since when did the Republican "War on Inclusive Christmas" turn physical?

And what kind of a self identified Christian thinks it is okay to strike another human being simply for demonstrating religious tolerance? Do these people have any understanding of Jesus whatsoever?

That lady should take legal action. And she is.

....the bell ringer who said she was assaulted now plans to take legal action. 

"She should've just been happy I said 'Happy Holidays,' but I got hit because I didn't say 'Merry Christmas,'" Vindiola said.

Good for her!

Now if we can just find some way to make this Sarah Palin's fault.

Sarah Palin finds the courage to appear on the O'Reilly Factor? Must be a Christmas miracle. Update!

Click poorly fitted Christmas wig to start video

Here is the transcript which I checked against the one at Fox for accuracy: 

O'REILLY: Continuing now with Governor Sarah Palin her new book "Good Tidings and Great Joy" pretty much takes up my theme that Christmas has to be defended these days in America. So when did you first notice a change? 

PALIN: Oh well you know, I noticed a change back when I was the mayor of our city. And I sanctioned and promoted and participated in our Nativity scene that I would allow -- 

O'REILLY: That was Wasilla. What year was that? 

PALIN: Yes that was in the early 2,000s was when I started hearing from people saying you're not going to be able to keep this up, Madam Mayor. Somebody is going to sue you for allowing God to be recognized in the public square. (Yeah I am pretty sure this never happened. Especially not in Wasilla which is full of Fundamentalist Bible thumpers. Just a story to give her self credibility with O'Reilly.)

O'REILLY: Ok so early 2,000? 

PALIN: Yes. 

O'REILLY: It started to come in. 

PALIN: In my life, yes. 

O'REILLY: Right. And no that's me too. Me too. 

PALIN: Ok yes. 

O'REILLY: Pretty much 10 years ago. And then it reached its apex when some major corporations ordered their employees not to say "Merry Christmas", do you remember that? (And that Timmy is how the Fox News fake war on Christmas began.)

PALIN: Yes. (Of course she remembers that. Where do you think she got the idea to have this book written for her Bill?)

O'REILLY: And I think you have some examples in your book about that. 

PALIN: I do. Yes. 

O'REILLY: And then we said to people hey you know maybe you don't want to shop at these places. And then all of a sudden magically, like Santa, they changed. 

PALIN: Well, what I recognized in the book too, though, are those businesses that are bold enough to not allow that double standard to be applied. And their employees can say what they want to say. And they can freely express their acknowledgment of Jesus being the reason for the season at Christmas time. And I give shout outs and kudos to those businesses because customers will stick with them then. (Sure but let one business owner celebrate Saturnalia, the foundation for Christmas, by selecting one customer as "Lord of Misrule," to embody the evil in the world, and then slaughter them as a sacrifice, and watch the Christians freak out about that! Hypocrites!)

O'REILLY: And most of them are doing that. 

PALIN: Yes, they are. 

O'REILLY: You don't have any beef about happy holidays. Do you? 

PALIN: Absolutely not nor Santa Claus, or anything else. No it's all wonderful. 

O'REILLY: You know this woman -- this woman in the "New York Times" today I forget her name. But she writes a column there. (Gail Collins. Good article too.) She is you know she's mocking you and mocking me saying oh they don't like happy holiday. I don't care about happy holidays. Somebody say happy holidays to me I said ok give me a present that's my thoughtI don't care if they're holidays you know let's -- where is my present. But when you start to say you can't say merry Christmas. 

PALIN: Right, right. 

O'REILLY: And you can't have the karesh. (I have no idea what this is supposed to mean. Update: Okay some of you have suggested that O'Reilly might have said "creche" which is a French word representing the nativity.)

PALIN: Right. (But of course dipshit says "right" anyhow.)


O'REILLY: And you can't have Christmas carols by choirs, school choirs, it's part of our culture. 

PALIN: Well and that's the double standard that's applied. And that's what I'm not going to sit down and accept and I don't think the majority of Americans will. Because that is -- that war on Christmas is the tip of the spear that really translates into a war on religious freedom and that's a much bigger problem that we will be facing if we just were to sit back and allow the angry atheists who are armed with an attorney to tell us that we cannot say things like "Merry Christmas".  (There's that slam against atheists again.)

Want one.

"The stockings were hung by the chimney with flair,
In the hopes that Richard Dawkins soon would be there."

I think somebody needs to send this flowchart to Fox News.

Source

Of course I am not at all sure that the Religious Right can understand such a confusing flow chart, but it's worth a shot.

By the way Christians if you want to experience actual modern day persecution, try being an Atheist.