I'm not a particularly religious person; certainly not in the organized religious sense. But I do put up my old nativity scene in my house every year. Partly from nostalgia, as it was my parents, but also because of the story behind it: A poor, working-class couple, forced by petty government regulations to take an unexpected and unbudgeted trip, which is further complicated by the impending birth of their first child.

Too poor for lodging, they wander around until a kindly soul takes pity on them and lets them stay in a stable, where the woman gives birth.

In this day and age of conspicuous consumption and "compassionate conservative" there is a lesson in that story for all of us.

Unfortunately, it's too often lost when these christian gasbags open their yaps.-