Christmas 2011 -- Birth of a New Tradition

A friend posted this on a message board and I thought it was worthy of sharing here. I think through our political difference we likely can all agree on this.

Christmas 2011 -- Birth of a New Tradition

As the holidays approach, the giant Asian factories are kicking into high gear to provide Americans with monstrous piles of cheaply produced goods -- merchandise that has been produced at the expense of American labor. This year will be different. This year Americans will give the gift of genuine concern for other Americans. There is no longer an excuse that, at gift giving time, nothing can be found that is produced by American hands. Yes there is!

It's time to think outside the box, people. Who says a gift needs to fit in a shirt box, wrapped in Chinese produced wrapping paper?
•Everyone -- yes EVERYONE gets their hair cut. How about gift certificates from your local American hair salon or barber?
•Gym membership? It's appropriate for all ages who are thinking about some health improvement.
•Who wouldn't appreciate getting their car detailed? Small, American owned detail shops and car washes would love to sell you a gift certificate or a book of gift certificates.
•Are you one of those extravagant givers who think nothing of plunking down the Benjamins on a Chinese made flat-screen? Perhaps that grateful gift receiver would like his driveway sealed, or lawn mowed for the summer, or driveway plowed all winter, or games at the local golf course.
•There are a bazillion owner-run restaurants -- all offering gift certificates. And, if your intended isn't the fancy eatery sort, what about a half dozen breakfasts at the local breakfast joint. Remember, folks this isn't about big National chains -- this is about supporting your home town Americans with their financial lives on the line to keep their doors open.
•How many people couldn't use an oil change for their car, truck or motorcycle, done at a shop run by the American working guy?
•Thinking about a heartfelt gift for mom? Mom would LOVE the services of a local cleaning lady for a day.
•My computer could use a tune-up, and I KNOW I can find some young guy who is struggling to get his repair business up and running.
•OK, you were looking for something more personal. Local crafts people spin their own wool and knit them into scarves. They make jewelry, and pottery and beautiful wooden boxes.
•Plan your holiday outings at local, owner operated restaurants and leave your server a nice tip. And, how about going out to see a play or ballet at your hometown theatre? Musicians need love too, so find a venue showcasing local bands.
•Honestly, people, do you REALLY need to buy another ten thousand Chinese lights for the house? When you buy a five dollar string of light, about fifty cents stays in the community. If you have those kinds of bucks to burn, leave the mailman, trash guy or babysitter a nice BIG tip.

You see, Christmas is no longer about draining American pockets so that China can build another glittering city. Christmas is now about caring about US, encouraging American small businesses to keep plugging away to follow their dreams. And, when we care about other Americans, we care about our communities, and the benefits come back to us in ways we couldn't imagine. THIS is the new American Christmas tradition.

Forward this to everyone on your mailing list -- post it to discussion groups -- throw up a post on Craigslist in the Rants and Raves section in your city -- send it to the editor of your local paper and radio stations, and TV news departments. This is a revolution of caring about each other, and isn't that what Christmas is about?

Since when was Christmas really about draining the American pocket? Sorry to burst your bubble but Christmas has nothing to do with any of that. And comparing it to a hair cut or an oil change or having your car detailed disgust me!

Change your post to Birth of a dumba-- "YOU"

Weird response Jim. Personally I am all for simply buying nothing, and agree with your very first statement. But your disgust with hair cuts intrigues me . This is a simple alternative for those that feel they want to buy gifts but would like to keep it in the pockets of true local merchants. It also is a much more environmentally sound approach to the consumption during Christmas.

JimA wrote: Since when was Christmas really about draining the American pocket? Sorry to burst your bubble but Christmas has nothing to do with any of that. And comparing it to a hair cut or an oil change or having your car detailed disgust me!

Change your post to Birth of a dumba-- "YOU"

You completely missed the point to what the post was about. This country is falling apart, as we continue to support other countries. All it is saying is lets help out America this year. LETS HELP OUR NEIGHBORS!!! Not the ones overseas but the ones that feed us, detail our vehicles, cut our hair.

You are correct in saying that Christmas is not about purchases. But for those that do, lets think of helping out this country when doin so.

Me. I applaud you for being so calm.

Your post was completely out of line and unnecessary. And if I was a moderator, it would have been your last. I am so sick right now, every time I read what you wrote it makes me want to................................................

Thanks Madness, you know us Dumba folks do our best to keep from losing our cool

Um yeah what I wanted to say didn't come out quite right. Still a tasteless thread.

Fuel to the fire.

http://blog.heritage.org/2011/11/08/obama-couldnt-wait-his-new-christmas-tree-tax/

JimA wrote: Um yeah what I wanted to say didn't come out quite right. Still a tasteless thread.

Fuel to the fire.

http://blog.heritage.org/2011/11/08/obama-couldnt-wait-his-new-christmas-tree-tax/

Dont know the reason for posting that. Are you for it or against it? What ME posted has absolutely nothing to do with the sorry, worthless, piece of **** president all you ******** voted in. So dont get me started on him. As for a Christmas tree tax. Give me a ******* break. All the more reason to throw him out of a moving car.

As for what ME posted. As for what you posted.

I would be against anything Osama,I mean Obama comes up with. I just thought it was ridiculous and adds to whats wrong with our country.

I also understand what "me" posted. But shopping at local businesses would help for a short term change has to come with changing the government and what they are doing. I am afraid that time has passed and America is on a downward spiral. Dem or republican We as a country are a laughing stock of the world. We need to get out of Afghanistan pronto. Were spending millions to help a people that don't want us there. They have nothing we need except middle east control which will never happen EVER. Overall you can't blame China they are not stupid. US manufacturers can have chit built there cheaper than they can here thanks to unions and the cost of doing business in the US.

lol lets be frank then.. the country's falling apart and sooner rather then later it will be the wild west again. so if you really care about someone.. buy em a nice American made piece of steel AKA a GUN! shotguns, 9mm, .22, any of these would work and ammo is readily available.. i wont post any more as this is taking away from the idea behind it which i totally agree with. outsourcing seemed like a great way for that 1% to make a killing.. meanwhile they kill off the 99% left over.. lets get some change and turn America back into an industrial powerhouse as opposed to a country of fat consumers. Thanks for the idea "me"

Well I have to agree with most of what you said, this time. But believe it or not, our Government forces manufacturing companies to have their products manufactured in China, and then sent back over here.

Another member here and I had a long chat about this. Go figure right. I also read another article(written in China) that they have been monitoring the U.S. for many years, and predicted the fall of the U.S. by 2014. This recession is far from being over.

Did you know that the Japanese can fly to Hawaii, stay and play golf, for less than it would cost to play 18 holes in Japan. Our money isn't worth squat anymore.

Sorry folks, we need to get the American man or woman in office, not these 2 faced lieing, crooks, we call politicians. We need to return this country back to the way it was many years ago.

Sorry guys I could go on forever. Im done now this is just making me want to puke again.

Anthraxx wrote:lol lets be frank then.. the country's falling apart and sooner rather then later it will be the wild west again. so if you really care about someone.. buy em a nice American made piece of steel AKA a GUN! shotguns, 9mm, .22, any of these would work and ammo is readily available.. i wont post any more as this is taking away from the idea behind it which i totally agree with. outsourcing seemed like a great way for that 1% to make a killing.. meanwhile they kill off the 99% left over.. lets get some change and turn America back into an industrial powerhouse as opposed to a country of fat consumers. Thanks for the idea "me"

Well put, and to the point.

Ok I am done as well. I have never been good at conveying what I want to say on a computer. It's a debate better held in person and over a beer or 3.

lol jim theres the idea! come on down south sometime. im sure we could argue for hours.. call it the fishbox debate '11! lol just pick a bar or perhaps madness' fish room...

Christmas should be about the Jeebus Squid being born unto this world via the armpit of a mollusk!

Have you people no shame????

BLASPHEMERS!!!!!

and he said, come to my inky squid arms, and thou shalt find eternal bliss.

Wow, politics in a fish forum... I love it!!!!! Thanks for censoring yourselves.

I probably shouldn't but here it goes...

Call me an extremest, but I think the world would be best off if all countries only imported absolute necessities which cannot be found in their native lands. Point and reason being we are using all of our resources just to ship things around the world. Even within large countries like ours, doesn't it make the most sense to buy locally and reduce the use of our resources? From my childhood till know, and even from my late teens till now I have noticed a HUGE increase of large trucks on highways in Washington, Oregon, and California. Much more than the actual increase of population. Were we really worse off in the early 80's? Did we not have enough to eat? Or even enough material items? Many that would disagree with me may argue the environmental issues are not real, or that we have plenty of oil on this planet. Let's for a moment say that there are no environmental issues, and that their is more oil than stated by the professionals. Do you truly believe Oil will never run out? Do you truly believe that emissions from factories, cars, trains, boats.. etc etc will never fill the greenhouse that is earth? Do you believe that if you sit in a sealed room with tiny little gas powered vehicles that the room will never get polluted and raise in temperature? I often think if there really are aliens watching us, they must be shaking their heads at the idiots slowly killing themselves. If we didn't have the knowledge we have it may be excusable, but you either believe in the atmosphere of earth or you don't. You either believe that exhaust is harmful or you don't. You either believe in math, or you don't. Put them together, and you either believe in reality, or you do everything you can to convince your self of everything but reality. And even if you are the latter, buying local will only help your community. Happy Holidays !

and lets not forget about global warming haha
we are doomed doomed!!!!

Well, there are emergency contingencies to help with global warming, but they involve toying with the environment even more, so it is not ideal to say the least. Plus those that don't believe in scientists global warming warnings, will likely be the first to oppose scientists trying to remedy it.

I feel more sorry for my kid's, kids, kids, kid's. Give this planet another 100/200 plus years. It's gonna be a over crowded stinky mess of a place to live. Either that or they will have solved many a problem and things will be fine. At some point something has to give though.

Agreed. I think we are capable of making the changes needed, and in fact many of the changes are as simple as do less. As I was alluding to a big part of the problem is that we consider the economy a tangible thing, when it really is not. The environment is a real thing, and when push comes to shove is a much much much much more powerful force than the dirty economy which is nudging it into a hostile state. We did fine without an economy for a very long time, and so did the earth and that's actually what makes humans so great, the ability to adapt to many situations. We need to end resource gobbling imperialism, and simply enjoy the good thing we have. Earth. It sounds idealistic to many, but I think it is more realistic than any other scenario. Otherwise we are simply dogs running in circles chasing our tails till all the resources are gone and the planet is a hostile hostile place with no where near enough food to sustain 7 billion and counting. The simplest thing we can do to start the change is buy less crap. If it is plastic put it back, unless you intend on using it for many years. I could go on and on, but I have to run to work (actually skateboard).

Call me a bad person, but I fully and totally believe we need to eliminate people from the planet..en masse. We need a plague that will wipe out a full third of this planets population. I prefer this plague be dropped on third world countries and the middle east.

LOL, well if you want my honest opinion Spyral in reality it would serve the earth and it's inhabitants more if you dropped it on China and the US. Simply because we breed to fast, and create more pollution than any others. Not to mention we both have allot of idiots in our countries.

However I am a bit more Optimistic. I think as hard as it is to believe, with a bit of education and perhaps incentive people can simply cut back to 2 kids per couple and just through natural early deaths the population would steadily reduce. The Catholic church should be taking the lead on this since they are kinda dumb when it comes to reproduction.

I also feel inclined to say, some of the nicest and most intelligent people I have ever met were from the middle east. Much kinder on the whole than Americans granted some Americans are amazingly kind and cool.

I'm doing my part; 1 kid from my first marriage and no plans for any in my second. We both feel pretty strongly about that, so we will have done our part to reduce the population explosion.

Nice idea Spy. What we need is some type of weapon created that singles out the stupid people. And it either does 1 of 2 things. Picks them off from space, or takes in the data of each individual, and allows the SPTF (stupid people task force) to retrieve them and dispose of them. Shoot, this will clear out millions this way.

A plague of crotch ants on them!

http://www.7billionandme.org/you/entire-history-of-the-world.php

After you fill in your info, be sure to click on the Since You Were Born tab. If you're as old as I am, it's shocking to see how many have been born since my birth date.

madness wrote:Nice idea Spy. What we need is some type of weapon created that singles out the stupid people. And it either does 1 of 2 things. Picks them off from space, or takes in the data of each individual, and allows the SPTF (stupid people task force) to retrieve them and dispose of them. Shoot, this will clear out millions this way.

Well in a manner of speaking the weapon has already been created. It's called Fox News. Now all we need to do is take control of the weapon and broadcast an announcement that they have found a place where it's always sunny, there is endless fuel, no property taxes, no government and there are no liberals. The Sun. Rockets are standing by to take you to this paradise.

Sorry my republican friends, but then not all republicans watch that garbage, and to those that don't ---->

Friday hbr is calling you. Curious me, how old are you and what do you do?

I am in my mid 30's and teach English as well as breed fish.

I just want to say kudos from everyone giving their thoughts on this thread and it's spin off topics. All other forums I've posted this on have stayed stagnant. I like good natured but lively discussions. Bottom line, I really do love everyone, even though I want to slap some silly till they wake up

Okay, I can’t stay off this topic any longer.

Many valid points all along this thread. Having been a biologist for many years and studying ecology, evolution and genetics from a macro standpoint, sometimes I think of myself as an alien looking at earth and here’s my simplistic take on things…..

Man is unlike any other populaton of organisms on this earth.
He has the opposable thumb AND a “highly” developed brain. The two together have never been produced in any other species as far as we know. With this combination of characteristics man has been able to modify his environment to fit his needs and desires, and extract resources from it to a greater degree, and faster, than any other organism has been able to do so far.

Man is also like any other population of organisms on this earth.
His population is in an exponential growth phase. Eventually it will reach the point at which the resources of the earth can no longer sustain the population growth rate. At that point waste and lack of food sources will limit the growth rate through hunger, disease, dehydration, reproductive failure, and wars. The population will be in a death phase. We have historical records of these things happening in localized human populations of the past.

Whether the human species will survive the eventual limitations of the growth rate or not, is dependent on how biologically adaptable the species is through that period. If not adaptable, then perhaps the insects may become the next dominant organism on this earth. They already have adapted in extreme ways morphologically and instinctively, to changes in their environment, and have survived many global warmings and global coolings; which, by the way, have been occurring over millions of years. Remember, we humans consider that the dinosaurs at one time were the dominant organism on earth!

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