It's amazing how irresistible it can be to make fun of idiots.

I mean, I know I shouldn't. It's bad for my health. But they're so funny.

Like this CNN exchange between Sam Seder (Minority Report host) and Bob Knight (Culture and Family Institute aka. Concerned Women for America). (Look at the clip or read the transcript. The transcript has attribution errors which I have corrected. Kyra is the moderator.)

SEDER: Listen, as far as the war on Christmas goes, I feel like we should be waging a war on Christmas. I mean, I believe that Christmas, it's almost proven that Christmas has nuclear weapons, can be an imminent threat to this country, that they have operative ties with terrorists and I believe that we should sacrifice thousands of American lives in pursuit of this war on Christmas. And hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money.

KNIGHT: Well, first I want to compliment him on his dry humor, but this is actually a very serious subject ... it's actually insulting when you're talking about Christmas day or a Christmas tree and you can't bring yourself to use the word for fear of offending someone. In the name of diversity we're a less free country when that happens.

SEDER: Yes, well, Kyra, I mean, listen, I would like Bob to tell me who is the person who has been offended by someone saying Merry Christmas to them? I've never met that person. I don't celebrate Christmas. But if someone says "Merry Christmas" to me, I either think, well, it's a little bit odd, it's like me saying happy birthday to you on my birthday, but no one cares. What else would Bob Knight have an opportunity to do, how else would he get on television if he wasn't pretending to be attacked.

KINGHT: This would be funny except it is serious to a lot of people who have seen their faith cleansed from the public square systemically.

SEDER: Are you suggesting, Bob, that someone can't celebrate Christmas in America? Tell me about the person who can escape the celebration.

KNIGHT: Can I get a word in here? I'm talking about things like in Ridgeway, Wisconsin, where the school children in the public school were told they couldn't sing "Silent Night," so they substituted "Oh, Cold Night." When you take Jesus out of anything it gets pretty cold, so it's apt. But it's outrageous, they had children actually singing a bastardized version of "Silent Night."

SEDER: This may come as a shock to you, Bob, but I don't consider Jesus the messiah. If you're going to ask me to praise Jesus, I'm going to be a little offended. ... you can find other songs to sing, so what about "Silent Night."

KNIGHT: Because you're offended none of those other kids can celebrate the great heritage of Christmas carols.

SEDER: I'm not the one who said they couldn't do that. ... You don't care about the people who don't celebrate Christmas, fine. But I don't celebrate Christmas and I don't care. So, why are we wasting everybody's time? It's so that you can fund raise, that's why Bob. And I think you know that's true.

KNIGHT: OK. You know, when the Nazis moved into Austria in 1936...

SEDER: Oh, that's offensive, Bob, to raise Nazis.

KNIGHT: You can't even let me speak. Can you? You're so...Maria Trapp wrote the story of the Trapp singers that's in "The Sound of Music," and she said she sent her kids to school after the Nazis took over. And they came home and said mama, we can't say the word Christmas anymore. It's now winter holiday. I think that ought to disturb people...

SEDER: Kyra, that's offensive.

KNIGHT: ...that we're moving toward that kind of attitude in this country.

SEDER: The Puritans also outlawed Christmas. The founding fathers of this country would fine you in Massachusetts if you celebrated Christmas in the beginning. So don't talk about Nazis, Bob. I think that's really inappropriate. Why do you have to bring hate to this Christmas and holiday season? That's so sad, Bob.

You can tell they don't have much to go on, when it's national TV and in ten minutes they've already lost according to the Godwin's Law Corollary. Also, accusing a Jewish person of Nazish behavior is just...tacky. Even if Knight meant well. Which I'm not convinced that he did. Humorless people scare me and man, is that guy humorless.

And then, there's the stunning news that Mr. Anti-Christmas crusader Bill O'Reilly himself...gasp... got the facts wrong when he shared the suspiciously urban-legend sounding tidbit that "In Plano, Texas, a school told students they couldn't wear red and green because they are Christmas colors." It turns out -- it was an urban legend. According to E-mail sent to parents in the Plano, TX school district:

Due to the number of e-mails, inquiries and phone calls to Plano ISD regarding students "wearing red and green," Superintendent of Schools Dr. Doug Otto is e-mailing this communication to eNews subscribers (and has posted this message on the PISD website) to assure the school community that this rumor is false.

"The school district does not restrict students or staff from wearing certain color clothes during holiday times or any other school days," noted Dr. Otto, who said that the school district's attorney has requested that Mr. O'Reilly retract the statement.

Regular watchers of The Daily Show might have seen a clip where O'Reilly (O'Really?) calls Comedy Central "secular central" (uh...what else are they supposed to be?) then shows a Samantha Bee clip where she says, "Christmas is the only religious holiday that's also a federal holiday. That way Christians can go to their services, and everyone else can stay home and reflect on the true meaning of, separation of church and state." Then O'Reilly makes a face and says very sarcastically, "Merry Christmas to YOU, Jon Stewart." (Who is, some of you might know, Jewish. Does O'Reilly know this? Is there...well, I hate to sound paranoid, but is there...maybe...kind of a...kind of a nasty little anti-Semitic flavor to this whole war on Christmas? First Knight's Nazi crack, and now this?) Then a very pregnant Samantha Bee comes out and establishes that the, uh, "offending" clip is from a year ago. Because her highlights are honey instead of caramel. So you see, Christmas is under attack! Because somebody made a joke more than a year ago!

Then O'Really came out with this perplexing quote from his December 2nd show:

"I am not going to let ... anti-Christian forces ... denigrate the holiday. I'm gonna use all the power that I have ... to bring horror into the world of people who are trying to do that. ... They are on the run in corporations, in the media, everywhere. ... And anyone who tries to stop us ... is gonna face me."

Whew. When your idea of spreading Christmas cheer is to threaten a Cthulhu-like summoning of unnamed horrors...

Then some people decided that what they really needed to do was picket Wal-Mart. Which in general I approve of, except that these particular protesters are "hoping to turn away customers by calling attention to the retailer's decision to use 'happy holidays' rather than "merry Christmas" in its seasonal advertising." Oh, yeah, that's important. We'll give 'em a pass on all their oppressive anti-labor policies, but using "happy holidays" instead of 'merry Christmas,' that's really going to far! Because...uh, I don't know. I'm still not getting how anybody is materially harmed by any of this. (You know, to paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, it neither breaks my leg nor picks my pocket if a man says "happy holidays" or "merry Christmas," or "bah, humbug.") Unless, perhaps, at some point, fisticuffs ensue.

Then, bringing the whole thing to a crescendo of absurdity, Congress decided (apparently) that the First Amendment is just a helpful suggestion, and that bit about "making no law respecting the establishment of religion" certainly wasn't intended to prevent them from hopping on the latest bandwagon to stupidtown. So Virginia Congresswoman Rep. Jo Ann Davis introduced a bit of offensive anti-constitutional nonsense, House Resolution 579, titled "Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the symbols and traditions of Christmas should be protected (for those who celebrate Christmas)." Congressman John D. Dingell made fun of it with a fairly clever poem. Then he joined an overwhelming 402 majority and voted YES on it. (Here is the complete idiots list if you wanna read it and weep.)

So, in conclusion -- if you think that "Christmas is under attack!" because you heard it on Fox or something, just try a little experiment. Try going to a public place and saying "Merry Christmas" and just see -- just see if stormtroopers suddenly come bursting out of the wall to point automatic weapons at your head.

Because I'm pretty sure they won't.

(In a related issue, try going to a public place and saying "President Bush is a moron" and see if they start tapping your phone lines without a warrant. Because that's actually seeming pretty likely these days.)