Harriet McBryde Johnson, perhaps the most visible disability rights figure in the national media, published an op-ed piece that appeared in the New York Times over Christmas. Her subject, of course, is Tiny Tim. She finds something laudable in Dickens’ creation, a subversive symbol of social justice garbed in the crowd-pleasing garb of a crippled child. I’m not certain Dickens was being quite so clever; I think Dickens pitied Tiny Tim as much as his audience. But I’ll confess that I haven’t given the text a close reading. Perhaps next year.

My guests have departed, but they left me with a lovely little cold. Thus the absence of a post yesterday. I’m trying to tell myself that this particular microbial visitation feels pretty mild and I can kick it relatively quickly. Honestly, this is getting old. But there’s not much I can do except grin and bear it. Send exotic dancers and bottles of Vitamin C post-haste.

The Siegel family spent this morning exchanging gifts and enjoying some secular holiday cheer. I have plenty of books and DVDs to keep me amused through the winter months and everyone seemed happy with the presents I had chosen for them. The only blemish on the day was the abscondment of the holiday stollen by Sasha, the notorious Agoraphobic Golden Retriever.

I should probably let my father humiliate me at chess. Maybe he’ll go easy on me since I just gave him a new chess set and board.

Blogging may be light over the next few days as I’ll be entertaining guests. But don’t worry: my OCD streak won’t let me stay away for long.

And if you’re still looking for charities to give your end-of-the-year contributions, might I suggest:

VSA Arts of Minnesota: I may be biased because I’m president of its board of directors, but this nonprofit does an amazing job of giving kids and adults with disabilities opportunities to experience and create art.

Doctors Without Borders: I give to them every year. They are in many of the world’s most ravaged spots, providing health care to the neediest while serving as their voice to a world that has largely ignored these people and their plights.

Ours is a society that likes to define social phenomena in militaristic terms. There’s the war on drugs, the war on terror, the culture wars, and, of course, the war on Christmas. For the past few years, conservative Christians have made a great deal of political hay by sounding the alarms and warning the faithful about the insidious forces attempting to secularize the holiday. Leaving aside the legitimacy of these claims, the war on Christmas is a cash cow for conservative organizations. Some statistics:

• The Mississippi-based American Family Association says it has sold more than 500,000 buttons and 125,000 bumper stickers bearing the slogan “Merry Christmas: It’s Worth Saying.”
• The Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal aid group that boasts a network of some 900 lawyers standing ready to “defend Christmas,” says it has moved about 20,000 “Christmas packs.” The packs, available for a suggested $29 donation, include a three-page legal memo and two lapel pins.
• And Liberty Counsel, a conservative law firm affiliated with the Rev. Jerry Falwell, says it has sold 12,500 legal memos on celebrating Christmas and 8,000 of its own buttons and bumper stickers.

I have no doubt that these organizations would defend themselves by saying that the money is used to defend all that is good and decent and sacred in America. But speaking as a unapologetic secularist, at least I’m not trying to make a quick buck by inciting my followers (yes, all six of you) into a paranoid frenzy.