Same to you and everyone else here.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Please forgive me.  I had intended to wish everyone holiday cheer but read the paper this morning first, hence I'm here scratchin' my head over stuff.

So...Merry Christmas,  Happy Hanukkah, Wonderful Kwanza, belated good Festivus.  What is it that the Flying Spagetti Monster people celebrate?

The scratchin' stuff...  How do you hide losing $50 B?  How can one hijack a civil government & turn it into a kleptocracy?  Why do folks just seem to prefer arguing & fighting with other folks instead of actually doing something about it?  I don't know.  I really don't.

As the dust settles from Madoff's ponzi scheme, it's taking down a whole bunch of peripheral players.  Same thing with the $700 B bailout.  These are people who we outsiders expect aught to know better.  I mean that's why they get paid exorbidantly, right?  The truth seems to be that they don't actually know better, they are just higher paid actors in a staged play we all call business & life & sometimes that play sucks even if the pro's say it's all good.

Same thing with our government.  Over my life I've come to believe that our government is more of a facade than an actuality.  More of an inspiration so we the populace can believe & think things are OK & have hope.  Much more so than actually controlling or shaping our common destiny.  This most recent Administration especially so.  They come in all grand and pretentious, claim to represent the best of the people & our business interests and instead end up being new age PT Barnums.

Let's have new hopes that Barack's Administration (Barry's for the righties here) end up being better actors or at least less frauds.  Let's hope the other estates, the House, the Senate, the Judiciary & the press all actually carry out the functions they are supposed to rather than roll over and say "yes thank you master, please give me another!" (I'll let you fill in the blank with what ever you think fits & don't be sicker than me, please!).

I don't want Cheney, Addington or Bush to go to jail.  I did, but I don't now.  I just want an accurate accounting of what they actually did & why so we can go about fixing it & cleaning up after they leave.  That includes all the secret directives, especially the secret directives.

So on that note, I wish you all an extremetly warm & happy holiday.  Do enjoy the company of your family.  Do embrace the moment & your loved ones (even if that asshole Ken Star just went to court to invalidate 18,000 loving marriages...I mean, hey, just because the pro Prop 8 folks said they didn't want to touch the already married doesn't mean they aren't lying & deceitful bastards, eh?)

Raise a toast to yourself, your family & our world at some point this holiday season.

I love how the right wing foams at the mouth over nothing. here's the latest non-issue turned into an issue:

As prominent Christian conservatives decry the supposed "war on Christmas" and retailers grapple with whether to say "Happy Holidays" or "Merry Christmas" to their customers, a small incident at the Mall of America has sparked right-wing attention in such high places as Sean Hannity's website.

When a recent kid's meal at Long John Silver's came with a small coloring notebook bearing Bible verses and the words "Build with Jesus," a Muslim family became upset. 

The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) wrote a letter to the parent company of the restaurant franchise on behalf of the family, earning ridicule and derision  from a multitude of right-wing posts  and anti-Islam sites .

 Personally, Long John Silver's, as a private company, has every right to give out Christian coloring books if it wants, just as Chick-Fil-A closes on Sundays. Anyone who is offended by a coloring book with Jesus in it can eat somewhere else. In this case, LJS provides "alternate" toys for those who don't want Christian toys. Case closed -- except on Fox, of course, which will flog this dead horse for all they're worth.

www.minnpost.com/katherineglover/2008/12/24/5491/muslim_familys_complaint_over_christian_toy_giveaway_provokes_conservative_backlash

Lots of folks don't seem to be 'feelin' the Christmas spirit this year. May they enjoy the purity of the grumpiness gods and the toast with that glass half empty.

 To the rest,  Merry Christmas. Remember life is short and gratitude is pleasing. Enjoy family, friends, food, movies, your couch, your dog and a good walk. 

 Cheers!

Happy Holidays, all.

  ►How weird would it be if instead of the Kennedy family being the victims of successful assassination plots it had been the Bush family and of the three Bush sons only one was living.

 ►How weird would it be if people actually respected the earth from which they derive sustenance, instead of raping it on the cheap Clean water is delicious, and fresh air is good to breathe, separate and apart from whether you think the climate is changing.

 ►How weird would it be if white collar crime was viewed in a negative light, and securities fraud was investigated by adults? Get a DUI, spend the night in jail. Rip off billions in a ponzi scheme and win a get out of jail free card, and a blind eye of regulators and the SEC.

  ►How weird would it be if Israeli hawks would just get it over with and start building gas chambers for Palestinians, with trains that run on time. Halalacha Justice for the 'showers' would be served if all muslims in the Holy Land would just die.

 ►How weird would it be if we had a War without an increase in taxes. We could inflate the housing market so states would increase their tax base, without looking to the federal government for aid. If the bubble burst, states would go broke and maybe it would force states to cut back on their social programs, like medicaid. It would be a great way to get even with 'the liberals' for promoting socialism.

   ►How weird would it be if we had a new President that lived up to the legend of the 'Magic Negro' so that conservatives could sing songs by the ashes of their old cross burnings Instead of cross fires the conservatives promise the new grass roots movement promoted by the Grand PooBah's of Hate Merchant Trade, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh. for their new anti-hero, Barack the Magic Negro™. The conservatives hate them some libruls. Sell the hate, it's good for ratings.