Jingle Bells, Batman Smells!

Last time I checked, this country is still called the United States of America - a place with freedom of thought and freedom of speech. So what difference should it make to Bill, sexual harrassing, O'Reilly if I say Happy Holidays during the holiday season instead of Merry Christmas (which I generally say on that day).

During the November 28 'Talking Points Memo' segment of his Fox News show, The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly decried those who avoid using the holiday greeting 'Merry Christmas': 'Anyone offended by the words 'Merry Christmas' has problems not even St. Nicholas could solve.' He further asserted: 'Every company in America should be on its knees thanking Jesus for being born.'"

Irish Catholic Bill probably needs to cut the rhetoric and remember how Christmas came about. Companies need to thank the Holy Roman Empire for manufacturing this holiday to celebrate the birth of Christ in order to ease the Roman pagans into the religion that was being thrust upon them. It was a political move - not a spiritual one.

In 350, Pope Julius I declared that Christ’s birth would be celebrated on December 25. There is little doubt that he was trying to make it as painless as possible for pagan Romans (who remained a majority at that time) to convert to Christianity. The new religion went down a bit easier, knowing that their feasts would not be taken away from them.

Christmas (Christ-Mass) as we know it today, most historians agree, began in Germany, though Catholics and Lutherans still disagree about which church celebrated it first ...

The controversy continues even today in some fundamentalist sects.