Goldberg and Guthrie

This New York Times article was linked to by Drudge - I won't bore you with many details. Basically, some neighbors are complaining about a Christmas display in Scottsdale, AZ that they say is too loud or too bright or something. The guy who runs the display - and his numerous supporters - see this as part of the attack on Christmas.

"I just love entertaining people," said Mr. Birkett, who predicted he would win his case but scurried about in a shirt with a prisonlike number, SC 12 25, and a message on the back: "Wanted for spreading Christmas cheer."

...

Mr. Birkett, who says he has spent $4,000 for a special fence to muffle the sound and has even offered to buy the Majercins' house for $225,000, says that he is acting out of devotion to Jesus and the spirit of Christmas and that his freedoms were also at stake.

"I believe there are lots of rights they are taking away," he said. "Like we're being asked not to say 'Merry Christmas.' They want you to say 'Happy holidays.' "

Of course, the "liberal" New York Times doesn't submit this comment to mockery it deserves - given that, you know, nobody is being denied the right to say "Merry Christmas."

But this is my favorite part of the article. How does this self-appointed defender of the Christmas tradition spend the holiday? Uh...

Among those shunning the uproar, Mr. Birkett acknowledged, is his wife, Sarah, a massage therapist, who left with their 15-month-old daughter, Avari Elizabeth, to spend Christmas with relatives in Wyoming. But he said she encouraged him "to fight for the freedom of the holidays.'"

Seems to me this man would rather be seen as a martyr for Christmas than actually, you know, spend the time with his daughter. (And I love how the reporter just trusts the guy to accurately quote his wife.) Seems to me this guy cares more about engaging in a divisive fight than spending time bringing his own family together. And this, it seems to me, is all you need to know about the "religious right."

What sort of piece of shit society do we live in when a national "liberal" paper writes a puff-piece on this loser?