as i wait for my train this afternoon in the midst of the usual christmas mania, my thoughts turned to this matthew yglesias post from a few days ago.
it occurs to me that what yglesias advocates--"a fake late-December non-sectarian" holiday that everyone can celebrate, with christians who are so inclined observing a religious holiday celebrating the birth of christ and jews letting hanukkah "sink back into obscurity" where it belongs--is essentially what they do in kazakhstan (the "fake" secular holiday being new years day). i think this counts as one of those things that kazakhstan does do better than the u.s.
