Utah: State Sen. Buttars proposes resolution mandating retailers use 'Merry Christmas'

Ultra wingnut and homobigot Chris Buttars clearly thinks that the state of Utah has no business to attend to in the state Senate. The lawmaker jumps into the 2008 War on Christmas fray (a little late, I might add), with this lunacy:

Utah state Sen. Chris Buttars told Salt Lake City's Deseret News that he's drafting the non-binding resolution because several employees at a retailer told him they were instructed not to say "Merry Christmas" to customers.

"I'm sick of the Christmas wars," Buttars told the Salt Lake Tribune. "We're a Christian nation and ought to use the word."

...Utah Senate President-elect Michael Waddoups said a resolution lacking the impact of law is really just a message being sent, but, he added, "Sometimes you have to send a message."

Salt Lake City civil rights attorney Brian Barnard, however, warned Buttars that asking for "Merry Christmas" is fine, but basing the resolution on America being a Christian nation was taking it too far.

"If [Buttars] wants people to say 'Merry Christmas' because it's the Christian thing to do," Barnard told the Tribune, "then it becomes a violation of First Amendment rights."

Buttars responded with this brain-dead statement (why is this mental giant in office?) --

the majority of Americans celebrate Christmas as a Christian holiday because the United States is a Christian nation.

"We started that way and we still are," the senator said.

BTW, besides being a racist (x2), homophobe and defender of intelligent design, Chris Buttars also proposed a bill earlier this year that would allow police to withhold misconduct reports from the public, including those infamous Tasing incidents. Nice.