THE JOY OF GIVING IS EGO STROKING

Christmas update at the Guardian.  In today's technology section PS3's being traded for Wiis at the bottom there is a comment from CharlieHorse that reads:

There is something peculiar going on... little kids cheered W11 and booed PS3 when Santa presented both systems at an event today in Burbank,CA.

Just further proof that more is just more and not necessarily better.  So far, the most obvious reaction of appreciation from any gift I've given has been the cheap $25 gas cards I gave my friends who are in college.  Those were also the easiest to buy.

The most fun to was definitely the basket of canned food for the shelter that was collected.  The grocery store trip was ok but the people that would just bring cans by really made the holiday a social event for me.  That present is also the most useful in the way it is being gifted.  I'm giving it to my daughter for her to give it in her name.  She spent Christmas Eve at her Grandmothers so I don't know what her reaction is yet.

The least pleasant part of this holiday so far for me was time spent at jewelry counters.  I was only buying cubic zirconium earrings that my daughter asked for.  Diamonds are not worth the money as she sees it, but it was at the Macy's.  And the real sucky part is I had to go to several counters before somebody would tell me where to buy the things. 

Me at a mall is like watching a goldfish in tap water slowly cooking under the chlorine toxicity.   The final counter I arrived at was hosted by two middle aged women who spoke Urdu.  I was able to transcend the experience only because one lady from India spoke of her friend standing next to her who is Pakistani.   They laughed like young school girls at the wars between their two countries over religious intolerance.  It was a real Macy's experience.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

The Guardian has 5 great ideas to help fix the world - Here is just one of them:

Happiness is what counts

For two or three decades, economists and philosophers have questioned whether technology and rising wealth automatically mean greater well-being. In 2006, we finally realised that we are too inattentive to what makes us happy, a crucial step forward. Happiness is about earning the esteem of others, behaving ethically, contributing selflessly to human betterment and assuaging the need to belong. We have finally understood it is not economic growth that delivers these results - it is the way we behave.

And by way of Happiness and Public Policy this from Scientific American.

Despite those who romanticize depression as the wellspring of artistic genius, studies find that people are most creative when they are in a good mood, and now researchers may have explained why: For better or worse, happy people have a harder time focusing.

Now for some fun with Bill'O

A VIOLENT FORCE HARMONY IS

truthout.com and thinkpeace.com posted an article from Robert Dreyfuss for TomPaine.com dated November 8th with a thought provoking question:

So the question is: In the face of an electoral sandstorm of Biblical proportions, how long can Bush and Cheney continue to do "what we're doing"? Let's look at five forces arrayed against them: the Democrats, the Republicans, the military, the U.S. bureaucracy and the Iraqi resistance.

The article explores intrinsic elements within each of the five groups all working against the administration's policy in Iraq. I call the common binding force within each of these disparagingly different factions as harmony. Some people talk about this common binding force as order. I call it harmony because there is a resonance of order within the exclusive groups.

On the same day of publication the pResident calls a press conference after announcing Donald Rumsfeld's resignation and after the Democratic landslide victory. The pResident said:

Amid this time of change, I have a message for those on the front lines. To our enemies: Do not be joyful. Do not confuse the workings of our democracy with a lack of will. Our nation is committed to bringing you to justice.

I heard him say these words on CNN and wondered who he calls his enemies. Could they be all five from the Robert Dreyfuss article? I felt maybe he was talking to more than the insurgents in Iraq. I felt he was talking to the insurgency against the NeoCon Republican movement. I wondered how he would work to pervert the workings of our democracy as he has done the Constitution. I wondered what he meant by the very inappropriate word "JUSTICE". Was he alluding to 9/11? I thought we settled that. I figured he was obfuscating again, but I'm used to that but still felt odd about his choice of words.

His congress has given him retroactive protection for torture and unobstructed NSA omnipotence, and a scared and battered group of fundies over here in America. No wonder Bill Frist likened this war to Lord of the Rings. It does kinda looks like Lord Sauron's eye spying on us while the fundies act like Orks and Trolls.

My question has become: who says we are fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them here?

How twisted is it to think that we are fighting HIM over here so we don't have to fight unjust wars for corporatists everywhere else?

This administration is not creating a breeding ground of terrorists in Iraq against America, Americans or our way of life. This administration is creating a breeding ground of contempt against the NeoCons and their arrogant way of life. In Iraq this contempt is militant ugly and violent as it must be. In America this contempt created a storm of votes - violently destroying his Congress.

"A violent force harmony is" Yoda might say.

PEACE! Honor Veterans Day.