{"id":23567,"date":"2011-11-09T07:22:28","date_gmt":"2011-11-09T14:22:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/11\/09\/eek-obama-hates-christmas-and-christians-and-trees-proof-eek-2.html"},"modified":"2011-11-09T09:59:27","modified_gmt":"2011-11-09T16:59:27","slug":"eek-obama-hates-christmas-and-christians-and-trees-proof-eek-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/11\/09\/eek-obama-hates-christmas-and-christians-and-trees-proof-eek-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Eek! Obama hates Christmas! And Christians! And trees! Proof! Eek!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yeah, I figured when I started seeing this stuff hit my feed that there was a mundane reason for it all.<\/p>\n

Yes, there is now a 15 cent (eek!) tax on all fresh-cut Christmas trees. Yes, this is being instituted by the Dept of Agriculture in the Obama Administration.<\/p>\n

But what Drudge et al. don't mention is that this actually came from recommendations by a task force of the National Christmas Tree Association, a collection of growers and retailers. Because fresh-cut trees have been lagging in sales compared to artificial trees. The fee will go into research and promotional activities to improve cut Christmas tree sales. The program is very similar to similar promotional programs for dairy products ("Got Milk?"), pork, beef ("It's what's for dinner!"), etc.<\/p>\n

Figure the average fresh-cut tree costs, what, $30? This represents a half a percent surcharge. If it can increase sales by at least that much, then it's a win-win for the cut Christmas tree folks.<\/p>\n

Now, you might legitimately ask whether it is the role of the government to assist the Christmas tree industry. A fine question. I'll note on the side that that the folks screaming most loudly about this would be utterly silent if we were talking about a program to encourage the sale of oil and gasoline products, or some other industry that already gets substantial government support. Or if it weren't the Obama Administration and a chance to lob accusations of how they're the enemy in the mythical "War on Christmas."<\/p>\n

Of course, given that Christmas Trees are a pagan symbol, calling a surtax on them an attack on Christians is even zanier. Unless … of course! This is being done to support Christams Tree sales, which means … the Obama White House is pro-paganism!<\/p>\n

Eek! #ddtb<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tArtificial War On Christmas Campaign Launches Fake Obama "Christmas Tree Tax" | Media Matters for America<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tArtificial War On Christmas Campaign Launches Fake Obama "Christmas Tree Tax". November 09, 2011 12:38 am ET by Jeremy Holden. Right-wing media figures are accusing the Obama administration …\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yeah, I figured when I started seeing this stuff hit my feed that there was a mundane reason for it all. Yes, there is now a 15 cent (eek!) tax on all fresh-cut Christmas trees. Yes, this is being instituted by the Dept of Agriculture in the Obama Administration. But what Drudge et al. don't … Continue reading “Eek! Obama hates Christmas! And Christians! And trees! Proof! Eek!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,35,68,9,8],"tags":[107],"class_list":["post-23567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-big-business","category-holidays","category-politics-law","category-zt-pc","tag-ddtb"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3402,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/12\/02\/its_beginning_t.html","url_meta":{"origin":23567,"position":0},"title":"It’s beginning to look a lot like …","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 2-Dec-02 7:23am","format":false,"excerpt":"... yes, Christmas. 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If you ask me.","rel":"","context":"In "Holidays"","block_context":{"text":"Holidays","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/holidays"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Christmas-Tree-ornament-hanging.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Christmas-Tree-ornament-hanging.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Christmas-Tree-ornament-hanging.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1608,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/12\/04\/decking_the_hal.html","url_meta":{"origin":23567,"position":2},"title":"Decking the halls","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 4-Dec-01 5:49pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Doyce is going all frantic over Christmas decor, since (a) they are in a house finally, (b) they don't have any Christmas decor stuff since they've not been in a...","rel":"","context":"In "Parenting"","block_context":{"text":"Parenting","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/personal\/parenting"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":128656,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/09\/because-snowflakes-and-trees-are-what-christmas-is-really-all-about.html","url_meta":{"origin":23567,"position":3},"title":"Because snowflakes and trees are what Christmas is REALLY all about","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 9-Nov-15 10:22am","format":false,"excerpt":"So I just visited a Starbucks and got a drink in one of their new Horrifyingly and Contemptuously Non-Christmassy Cups. And you know what?The Oprah Cinnamon Chai Latte is really pretty blah.But aside from that ... well, egads and gadzooks, to think that Starbuck would dare to dis Jesus by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4488,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/08\/21\/yellow_yellow.html","url_meta":{"origin":23567,"position":4},"title":"Yellow? Yellow?!","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 21-Aug-03 7:11pm","format":false,"excerpt":"With the sweltering heat (albeit cool evenings), I am -- astonished to see patches of yellow leaves on the trees in back. 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The disconnect between what people think of as the Hallowed Exclusionary Zone of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Potpourri"","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23567\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}