The Gift that Keeps on Giving

Christmas is approaching as rapidly as ever.  In fact, it's approaching at exactly the same pace it always have and probably always will.  I don't know what everyone wants but I do know what most people desperately need.  They need the thing that helps them get through life, cold and twisted a thing as it is.

Unfortunately, if you're in the ninety-nine percent who don't seem to have this, nobody can give it to you.  That is, nobody can give it to you but you.

This year, give yourself the gift that keeps on giving: a fucking sense of humor.

The Reason for the Season

Hey everybody!  Thanksgiving is coming up and I'm very excited.  Of course, there's the feast but it's also a special day on which we all get together and celebrate the circumstances that afford us this free and comfortable lifestyle to which we have all grown so accustomed.

So this year, invite everyone you love to come over to your place.  Gather around the table.  Join hands.  Pray, if you're the religious sorts.  However you do it give thanks for the thing that allowed us to be us.  Was it Columbus?  No.  Was it the corn and beans thing?  I think not.

I wouldn't waste any precious thanks on those things.  Instead, let's remember how it really happened and let that remind us of who we really are.  We're the people who figured out how to make blankets into a weapon of mass destruction because winning a war with bullets, cannons, superior infrastructure, and trick beads wasn't going fast enough.

This Thanksgiving, instead of saying "Happy Thanksgiving," why not something that rings a little more true:

"They never knew what hit them."

"5 Whys" on the Economic Meltdown

The economy crashed.
Why? Because banks were profiteering off of loans the borrowers couldn't afford.
Why? Because people were borrowing more than they could afford.
Why? Because prices were sky-rocketing.
Why? Because government created artificially low interest rates.
Why? Because the economy crashed.

Occupy the Slippery Slope

"You know what?  Maybe it's not just the top 1% who's the problem.  That second percent is pretty rich and therefore responsible for my lot in life, too."  It's not unlikely that the #Occupy movement will take that turn and this is what it looks like...

1% becomes 2%.
2% becomes 4%.
4% becomes 10%.
10% becomes 25%.
25% becomes 49%.

Nearly half of all Americans would be screwed by them trying to "make things fair."

Then, if they get what they want (read their literature), we'll have full scale communism which screws almost everyone all the time.

So here is my modest call to action.  Go to the places where they are organizing and counter organize.  Help them see that they are their own problem and nobody else is responsible for the choices they make but them.  Be relentless with your reason and maybe we can avert the storm they are gathering.

I think it's time to invade China

Check this out:

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/08/apple_stores_in_china_the_one.html

I know how we could enforce trademarks over there.  We could threaten to default on our loans to them.  We could place an embargo on them.  We could start a good ol'fashion war with them.  It's about time a World War didn't start in Europe, anyway.