How to Celebrate Christmas
by
Paul Johnson
Here we are, my fellow Eathlings, celebrating the end of another year on this planet and being thankful that we’re still here to celebrate. Now that the past 20 years of foolish economic policies have destroyed our nation’s and the world economy AGAIN, we’re taking a second look at what’s really important. That’s the sliver lining around the otherwise gloomy economy.
We’re still inundated with commercials on the TV and on the radio and in the papers. It makes one think that it’s not Christmas without all the presents, and it’s bad taste to not over spend for Christmas. How did we get to this notion? Christ was against commercialism, or physical glutony as it better defined. The real notions of celebrating Christ’s birthday (which was really in June, by the way) is celebrating what Christ was about, about being not being a consumer or a glutton, but remembering to help those less fortunate. Yes, Jesus was a Progressive.
Do you ever wonder why organized religion moved the birth of Christ (lied about the date, in other words) to the Winter Solstice? Why? Was it better for you and me? Obviously not. It was a lie for the benefit of the organized religion. And now there are numerous reasons to celebrate at the end of the year. Many religions and many non-religions have events to remind us to pay attention to what’s important and to ignore all the advertisements.
What kind of a religion would move their celebration to compete with other celebrations in December and then complain because people say more than just Merry Christmas? Obvously only a religion like the Taleban’s Islam, that wants to destroy all other thoughts but following blindly behind the anointed ones. In other words, only a non-Christian religion would refuse to show tolerance. The Bill O’Reilly religion?
So, how best to celebrate the holidays? Here are my suggestions:
- Regardless if you’re Christian or not, there are plenty of principles promoted by Christ and many other religions. Be more tolerant (blacks, gays, anyone different), keep the money out of church, like Jesus, challenge your own organized religion, help the needy (low and middle class).
- Avoid gluttony in all things, especially in what you buy and what you eat.
- Be thankful, and really mean it. You’re not on this earth because you’re chosen or elite or special. You’re here only because we have communities that support one another. If you’re a successful business owner, be thankful to your employees.
- Be thankful to your community, local and global. We wouldn’t be here and won’t be here for long if we don’t all work together to make this a better world.
- Tell your loved ones that you love them, and really mean it.
- Smile, laugh, celebrate
Happy holidays: Merry Christmas, Happy Solstice, Happy New Year, Happy Hanuka, Happy Thank the Earth Day, and happy tolerance.
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Bush’s Requirement – Lower the Average Middle Class Wage
Sunday, December 21st, 2008Bush’s Requirement – Lower the Average Middle Class Wage
by
Dave Speck
What happens when you have a mental midget running the country? You end up with what we have today. No wonder Bush’s closest friends call him 85. I’m sure it’s not because of his IQ. I couldn’t imagine him reaching above 75.
Anyone who has read any history knows what caused the first Republican Great Depression and it’s only painfully obvious that that’s the same that is causing this Republican Great Recession (hopefully not another Depression). The cause? An imbalance between productivity and wages, or in simpler terms, supply and demand. Of course, there were other contributing factors like the run on the banks and no minimum wage. The run on the banks is more a symptom than a cause and the missing minimum wage is just more of the same supply and demand balance issue. Like the run on the banks a century ago, we are again failing to properly monitor and regulate the banks and investment institutions.
Let’s talk about the balance between productivity and demand in simple terms. Productivity is the amount of products that Americans make in a given time. In other words, supply. Demand is driven by low and middle income wage earners. When supply goes up and demand (aka wages) doesn’t, prices have to fall. Simple, yes?
A president like eighty-five will want to reduce the wages thinking that the consumer fairy will take care of buying up the excess supply. He probably also thinks he was chosen by God. Eighty-five.
So, what has Bush done? He is demanding that the United Auto Workers reduce their wages, bringing DOWN the average spendable wage in America. When the UAW workers wages fall, all the other non-union automaker wages will fall as well. So will the income at all the businesses relying on the auto workers and so on.
Just as an aside, remember the HUNDREDS of BILLIONS of dollars mysteriously given to the banks to free up credit? Wonder why it’s not working? The bank execs have skimmed off 1.7 BILLION for their personal income. I don’t remember giving them money to fatten up their coffers, do you? If anything, they should be penalized for being greedy and for helping cause this mess.
Back to the economy… When you give a billionaire $100 dollars, he pockets it; when you give $100 to a low or middle income family, they spend it immediately. Which one will stimulate the economy? Simple, yes? Even ol’ eighty-five could figure it out if he had half a desire to.
So, lowering the average wage of the American low and middle class worker will reduce demand even further and more prices will fall. If we continue to mismanage this disaster like Hoover, we’ll be in the next Republican Great Depression. The ONLY solution to this is to raise the average wage for American workers.
We can’t wait for January 20th to get Bush out of power. We need to tie him up in investigations 24 hours a day until the day he leaves office. Otherwise, he’ll only continue to cause America more harm.
Eighty-five.
Posted in Finance, General, Politics | 2 Comments »