In retrospect it's clear that the backlash against the War Against Christmas, entirely grass-roots and spontaneous, was a precursor of this year's Tea Parties and Town Hall uprisings, stunning the Establishment Left, but almost equally discomforting to Establishment Right, notwithstanding the fact that it stands to benefit. I expect a thoroughly good time in 2009, given the Obama Administration's painfully shallow roots in America's historic Christian majority. Roger Chaillet, winner of our 2003 War Against Christmas Competition, has just submitted an early entry for the 2009 Competition: Curriculum plan would remove mention of Christmas: Conservatives decry proposal for 6th-grade lesson, by April Castro, AP, September 11 2009.

AUSTIN – A proposal for new social studies curriculum in Texas public schools removes a mention of Christmas in a sixth-grade lesson, replacing it with a Hindu religious festival, a change that's riled conservatives who say it's another battle in the "war" against the Christian holiday... The standards currently instruct sixth-grade students to be able to explain the significance of religious holidays such as the Christian holidays of Christmas and Easter, the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and the Jewish holidays of Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah. The proposal, which is set to be debated during a hearing next week, removes the words Christmas and Rosh Hashanah. Diwali, a Hindu festival, is added. In a note explaining the change, members of a review committee wrote "the examples include the key holiday from each of the five major religions."

The change was protested by the Texas-based Free Market Foundation. Naturally, AP's Castro gave one of the state's Christophobes the last word:

"This is just a cynical attempt to use religion as a weapon to mislead the public and divide Texans over something as important as our children's education," said Kathy Miller, president of the watchdog group Texas Freedom Network, which opposes initiatives pushed by Christian conservatives. "If I were their teacher I would send the Free Market Foundation to detention."

(VDARE.COM link) "Detention", eh? Of course, I'm sure Miller would claim this is just rhetoric. But you aren't allowed anymore to say "kill the ump" (or the president) because of recent history. And as it happens there is now a recent history of individuals in common-law jurisdictions being sent to prison for "hate speech" — something that would have been dismissed as unthinkably Orwellian fifty years ago—and vigorous effort by Miller's fellow-leftists to import this power here. Does Miller want to make Christmas a hate crime? Ask her. Be polite!