It is my sincerest hope that this heading doesn’t offend any Jews, Christians, Muslims, atheists, agnostics, pagans, Taoists, Buddhists, or members of any other faith (or lack thereof) that doesn’t celebrate Boxing Day. I assure you no slight was intended. Feel free to wish me a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Ramadan, a dark and dreary winter solstice, or anything else except Kwanzaa. I’m a fairly open-minded person, but goofy made-up holidays invented by brutal, racist thugs are where I draw the line. Unfortunately, both our President and the U.S. Postal Service appear to disagree.

Meanwhile, all this Christmas/Hanukkah/Ramadan cheer has left the blogosphere sorely wanting. Mickey Kaus hasn’t posted an entry since Monday, Andrew Sullivan is on vacation, Eugene Volokh’s replacement blogger is gone, and as of Christmas, Glenn Reynolds has better things to do than blog. So that leaves….me?! Horrors.

Whoops, I see Eugene is back online, and blogging up a storm. I guess that part about me having to hold down the fort was a bit premature. He has an interesting take on the ultra-PC phrase “Season’s Greetings.” His take on the phrase is nicely summed up by the last paragraph, which states that it:

captures much of what makes so much political correctness so obnoxious: a tin ear for the language; a pointless rejection of cherished traditions; an insistence on finding offense where none is intended; a bureaucratization of the way we express ourselves; and the rejection of perfectly sensible alternatives that actually fit the way real Americans speak.

I was puzzled by one phrase in the penultimate paragraph, however, in which he writes:

I am not invariably anti-P.C., in part because sometimes the political correctness forces do have it right. Columbus isn’t someone to be revered (though he was no great monster by the standards of his monstrous day). Using “gay” as a general pejorative, which is apparently all the rage among kids these days, is hardly right. We should be aware that we live in a society filled with people from many traditions, and sometimes (though only sometimes) adjust our actions, words, and thinking accordingly.

I don’t think that children’s use of the word “gay” as a synonym for “bad” is anything new. I heard it used that way all the time 20-odd years ago, when I was in junior high. The Simpsons picked up on it at least as early as 1996, in an episide where Bart kissed a girl, only to be told by Jimbo, the schoolyard bully, that “that is so gay!”