I've read several places that stores started using "Happy Holidays" or "Seasons Greetings" rather than "Merry Christmas" during the twenties or thirties because churches were complaining that it wasn't right to use Christmas as part of an advertisement.

To me that makes sense. Next time you see one could you let me know where?

The bits of mainstream atheism that are about being pissed off at Christianity go right over my head

Some people get exposed to the message "you are an inferior person because you don't believe" a lot. That can make one resentful.

Of course, every group has their belligerent folks as well.

“It is insensitive and mean.”

Oh, fer Chrissakes. Call the wah-mbulance.

My mom is actually among those who is pro-Merry Christmas, which I find odd since she's married to a JEW and has celebrated Chanukkah for the past 40 years. ::shrugs::

Honestly, I don't care whether a store clerk says "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays" to me. Either way, it really is about Christmas -- it's not like anybody bothers acknowledging any Jewish holidays that don't come right near big Christian ones. And insisting that a "Happy Holidays" given several weeks after Chanukah is over actually includes Chanukah is just silly.

Kind of reminds me of elementary school attempts at "inclusion." Which generally meant sticking one or two Chanukah songs into the winter concert and having a cultural learning experience where the class learned about Chanukah and all the Christian kids stared and asked questions of all the Jewish kids as if we were cultural artifacts, rather than, y'know, kids. If anyone had actually asked any of the Jewish kids or parents what we wanted from the school in terms of acknowledgment of holidays, nearly all of us would have said that having a day or two off from school for Passover would be at the top of the list. But "Let's learn about the interesting traditions of these Jewish kids! They celebrate and get presents just like we do!" was usually what we got.

Signs similar to those in Washington are being placed on buses and billboards in New York, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, and near the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho, as well as in London; Barcelona, Spain; Genoa, Italy; and Toronto, Montreal and Calgary, Canada, Mr. Speckhardt confirmed.

How did Moscow, Idaho make that selection?

When my mother had a job that involved answering the phone a lot, she dealt with the situation by starting to answer with "Happy Holidays" in early November. To cover Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's.

Interesting. A former head of the American Humanist Association wrote in a letter to the editor criticizing those ads.

Some of those signs definitely fall into the "Not Helping" category. I don't mind ads that are in the vein of "It's okay not to believe", but I don't like the attacking ones. There are plenty of religious billboard ads I see, but they are usually in decent taste. There is the odd "you'll burn in hell" ad, but those are pretty rare. Of course, I guess if the article is talking about a handful of atheist ads they are pretty rare as well, but the bad taste ones are probably a lot higher percentage.

I've been getting the emails promoting keeping the Christ in Christmas thing. They just get deleted. I save my rage and nasty replies for the bigoted anti-Obama or anti-Muslim stuff. I don't enjoy getting my rage on that much so I use it sparingly.

"Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays"

I don't care one bit. Honestly, I think Christmas has been both a secular and religious holiday for a long time, so the greetings seem completely interchangeable to me. I hear "Merry Christmas" far more often than "Happy Holidays" FWIW.

There is the odd "you'll burn in hell" ad, but those are pretty rare.

I've never seen "burn in hell" (though I have had it shouted at me on the subway) but I have seen "Jesus is the one true God, accept Him into your hearts" type ads, which I don't think is so different in spirit from "Religion is myth and superstition."

Definite fail points for use of the word "enslaves," though. That was unnecessary.