November 18, 2009

The War on Christmas Carols

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Mark Kleiman tries to find common ground with Bill O’Reilly:

“Frosty the Snowman” and human rights

Heard it today while changing planes in Houston.  Even if having to hear that song isn’t covered by the Convention Against Torture, surely there’s a substantive Due Process claim about having to hear it before Thanksgiving.  I hope you will all agree with me that Something Should Be Done.

And not to get to Bill O’Reilly here, but the problem isn’t Christmas music.  They’re welcome to play Adeste Fideles and Good King Wenceslaus and the Gower Wassail and Gaudete and even God Rest Ye Merry as often as they like.  The problem is secularized ”holiday” music.  “Frosty” isn’t even the worst of the lot; that dubious honor goes to Jingle Bell Rock.

I happened to tune in to a few minutes of O’Reilly today, and sure enough, he was blathering on and on and on about some poor school principal in Massachusetts whose life he planned to turn into a living hell because school rules in her town don’t allow kids to sell manger scenes at the holiday gift sale.  (Something like that, anyway.  I tuned in a little late to get the whole grim story.)  But look: isn’t secular holiday music something we can all agree on?  I mean, it sucks.  It really does.  If O’Reilly could dump the whole War on Christmas schtick and instead take up a War on Christmas Music, it would be a bipartisan joy for all.

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It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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