Nice, decent, educated, sensitive people take exception to the old “Merry Christmas” greeting since some people - very few in America, mind you - don’t celebrate Christmas and hence might be offended by such a well wishing.

Yet I don’t know of anybody who holds back on hearty “Happy New Year” exclamations for fear of offending somebody who might recognize a different date as the first day of the year - as Chinese and Muslims do.

The discrepancy is telling. The anti-Merry Christmas faction isn’t afraid of “offending” people, its mebers most likely want to offend and their targets are Christians.

On that note, have a Happy New Year and welcome to 2006!