abandonment of tspiritual meanig of the holiday for the earthly delights of presents stacked tall under the tree. for my next guest there's a new holiday war being waged on thanksgiving. and are american families the casualties? dean obidalla joins me now along with jim tankersley from the "washington post." a lot of what you write is comedy. you're a funny guy. let's acknowledge that. but you have this piece in the daily beast which is very serious and sincere titled "the war on thanksgiving" and you say you want to put the thanks back in thanksgiving. >> absolutely. everyone talks about the war on christmas. people write books about the war on christmas, they make money off christmas. this is actually a holiday, this war on a holiday has an impact on people's lives. on thanksgiving, when people are enjoying their dinner, about a million workers will have to report to work at retail chains this year, it's a record opening of chain stores, walmart, k-mart, target. i guess people desperately need