{"id":18796,"date":"2016-12-24T01:55:13","date_gmt":"2016-12-24T01:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=18796"},"modified":"2016-12-24T01:55:13","modified_gmt":"2016-12-24T01:55:13","slug":"here-comes-the-holiday-lets-enjoy-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=18796","title":{"rendered":"Here comes the &#8216;holiday&#8217;; let&#8217;s enjoy it"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p>I cannot let this time of the year pass without commenting on a typically ridiculous rant offered by the former half-term Alaska governor, Sarah Palin.<\/p>\n<p>The 2008 Republican vice-presidential nominee just had to go off on the Obama family because it sent out &#8220;Happy Holiday&#8221; cards during this season. The card features a Christmas-like image of a fireplace and Bo, the Obamas&#8217; dog sitting in front of the crackling fire.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/latimesblogs.latimes.com\/culturemonster\/2011\/12\/sarah-palin-fox-news-attack-white-house-holiday-card-design.html\">http:\/\/latimesblogs.latimes.com\/culturemonster\/2011\/12\/sarah-palin-fox-news-attack-white-house-holiday-card-design.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Palin ventured onto her favorite &#8212; and friendliest &#8212; venue, the Fox News Channel to spew her nonsense. As the Los Angeles Times reported: Palin told Fox News that she found it &#8220;odd&#8221; that the card emphasizes the dog instead of traditions like &#8220;family, faith and freedom.&#8221; She also said that Americans are able to appreciate &#8220;American foundational values illustrated and displayed on Christmas cards and on a Christmas tree.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/card.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-18797\" src=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/card-300x193.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"193\" srcset=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/card-300x193.png 300w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/card.png 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Sigh &#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>C&#8217;mon, Sarah! Didn&#8217;t you see the poinsettias in the picture? They&#8217;re universal symbols of Christmas, aren&#8217;t they?<\/p>\n<p>As someone who grew up in the Christian faith &#8212; I was baptized in the Greek Orthodox Church and became\u00a0a Presbyterian after I got married more than 45 years ago &#8212; I&#8217;ve never had a problem with someone wishing &#8220;holiday&#8221; greetings during this time of year.<\/p>\n<p>And I have grown weary of those who keep getting their hackles raised when they see others do so.<\/p>\n<p>As I keep noting on this blog, the Constitution declares that there shall be &#8220;no religious test&#8221; for anyone seeking public office. The Obama family, therefore, need not prove to anyone that they believe in the same God as most Americans.<\/p>\n<p>But the &#8220;Happy Holidays&#8221; greeting is a simple reminder that the nation&#8217;s head of state recognizes that not every American celebrates Christmas. Yes, this remains a festive time of the year. So, the first family has chosen this year &#8212; as it has during their time in the White House &#8212; to celebrate the holiday in a more ecumenical manner.<\/p>\n<p>Some first families have chosen to emphasize the religious aspect of the season. I honor that desire, too.<\/p>\n<p>In this joyous season, though, I have to take mild umbrage &#8212; it&#8217;s not all that severe, given that\u00a0it&#8217;s Christmas &#8212; at a politician yapping about the first family&#8217;s choice of message to send out during this holiday season.<\/p>\n<p>Put another way: <em>Zip it, Sarah!<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">***<\/p>\n<p>This will conclude my snarkiness during the\u00a0holiday season. I&#8217;ll be commenting on this blog throughout Christmas Eve and I might even add a comment or two after we see what Santa brought us during the night.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll get back at it, though, after Christmas. The new year awaits and there will be <em>so-o-o-o<\/em>\u00a0much fodder for us to\u00a0ponder.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I cannot let this time of the year pass without commenting on a typically ridiculous rant offered by the former half-term Alaska governor, Sarah Palin. The 2008 Republican vice-presidential nominee just had to go off on the Obama family because it sent out &#8220;Happy Holiday&#8221; cards during this season. The card features a Christmas-like image &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=18796\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Here comes the &#8216;holiday&#8217;; let&#8217;s enjoy it<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[540,978,4119,5043],"class_list":["post-18796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","tag-barack-obama","tag-christmas","tag-sarah-palin","tag-us-constitution"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18796"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18798,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18796\/revisions\/18798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}