Our nation's founders came here to escape religious persecution. They made sure that our Constitution prohibited the formation of a national religion, but to this teabagger from California, forcing Christmas music on children is patriotic. More from The Huffington Post:

The Tea Party movement is supposed to be all about keeping the government out of your business. But if some California members get their way, the state will force public school children to sing Christmas carols.

It's called the "Freedom to Present Christmas Music in Public School Classrooms or Assemblies" initiative.

Merry Hyatt, a substitute teacher and member of the Redding Tea Party Patriots, is behind the push. The Record Searchlight reports:

The initiative would require schools to provide children the opportunity to listen to or perform Christmas carols, and would subject the schools to litigation if the rule isn't followed.

"Bottom line is Christmas is about Christmas," said Erin Ryan, president of the Redding Tea Party Patriots. "That's why we have it. It's not about winter solstice or Kwanzaa. It's like, 'Wow you guys, it's called Christmas for a reason.' " Read on...

This goes against the Tea Party movement's anti-government intrusion platform, but consistency or historical accuracy has never been their strong suit. Hanukkah-Shmanukkah, there is only one REAL American holiday, don't ya' know? /snark off

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h/t Scarce

Oh this is just lovely. From hekebolos at Daily KOS.

So, the story isn't news--go read the diary for the full account--but I'll recap it:

an incident broke out at a town hall at Simpson University in Redding [Northern California] on Tuesday when Herger signaled encouragement to a 67-year-old town hall attendee, Bert Stead, who called himself a "proud right-wing terrorist."

"Amen, God bless you," Herger reportedly replied to the comment. "There is a great American."