Black Friday 2019

No, I'm not going to write about shopping excess or the irony of people wanting more after a day of supposing to be thankful for what they already have. I mean, it's been done by others. And by me. A lot. Or at least enough. In fact I have three other ideas for today, so I'll throw them all at the wall and see what sticks.

I appreciate my son carving the turkey yesterday. I always detested that job. It's nasty, indeed just plain yucky, and is one of two things which could make me vegan if I had to do it regularly. The other is a trip to rendering plant, which I spoke about here:

https://thesublimetotheridiculous.blogspot.com/2018/10/render-under-somebody-else.html

So thanks Chuck!

Today we put up the Christmas tree and other holiday decor. It's good to have same said son and his family here to help, because it's just more fun with the kids (even if they are all in their thirties). We've long hit the remember-this-ornament-remember-that-one stage. It's more fun with more folks involved.

Number three, number three, paging idea number three...oh yeah. It was to be a remembrance of me Grandpa Joe's old friend Amos and his overabundance of Thanksgiving good luck at a Church festival years ago. But it turns I wrote about that last year. You can read about it here:

https://thesublimetotheridiculous.blogspot.com/2018/11/amoss-turkey-day.html

And now you have it: the three ideas I had to blog about today. It's kinda the written equivalent of a clip show I suppose. But people like clip shows, don't they? I know lazy writers do...

Another Black Friday

Once there was a day called Black Friday. It was meant to launch the holiday shopping season, and was known to start as early as 4 or 5 in the morning on the day after Thanksgiving. Yet that, it seems, was not good enough. We have reached the point where the sales are encroaching so far into Thanksgiving itself that there are stores opening as early as 3 or 5PM Thursday afternoon. We are now faced with Black Thursday.

There is something seriously wrong with this picture, something which speaks to a serious ill in American society. Why do we need these sales? Why do people think they have they right to them? And before all the rabid libertarian free marketers go livid about it (no one makes them do it, what about freedom?) let's ask you two things: aren't some folks (if not most involved, quite frankly) being made to do things?, and, isn't their freedom thus being sacrificed?

It is hard to imagine that the bulk of sales and support staff at stores would rather be working than at home with their families and friends on a major holiday. The same can be said of those working arenas for sporting events as well, or even at television stations and entertainment establishments. Why do we think we have the right to expect those people to have to work for our leisure?

This isn't capitalism. It's consumerism, and it's the worst example of bacchanalia. It is the time of year when we least like free markets, and perhaps the best time to remind those who do preach them that economics aren't everything. Simple, unfettered economics may well infringe on someone's freedom as well as any government attempt to stifle a reasoned liberty. Yet there is a difference. There's at least a small chance that, with a bit of discipline at the voting booth door, we might actually stop government. Is there any way we might stop the Invisible Hand?

Anything which does not practice a decent amount self examination and a reasonable self discipline will become a devil. The free market is no different. Yet it does create quite the hypocrites among its defenders, doesn't it? They express a disdain for coercion. Yet they sure don't mind the coercion which the markets force upon people.

That strikes us as violence against the person as hateful as any government encroachment upon the person. But the free marketers won't see it. They have their own god attending to their business. And it is not constrained by care for humanity.

Two remarks and an attempted joke

Cuban leader Fidel Castro has died. Not that I had supported him in any way, shape or form, but isn't it a little sad (or maybe pathetic is a better word) that someone who was going to change the world has passed on in relative obscurity? He was going to be the player in the Americas. But then the Soviet Union fell. So too went his real forum. Such is history; I sincerely hope he has made amends with his Maker and that all is now well for him.

Only 4 people shot, with two killed nationwide in Black Friday violence yesterday. That may be some sort of record. But if it is, I'm sure it ain't one to be proud of.

Did you know that I used to be afraid of those folks who went around with wax painted faces and red noses? I sure was, but now I'm cured. It turns out I was being Pennywise and clown foolish.

Please tell me someone gets that joke. Until next time...

Let's end Black Friday

Once there was a day called Black Friday. It was meant to launch the holiday shopping season, and was known to start as early as 4 or 5 in the morning on the day after Thanksgiving. Yet that, it seems, was not good enough. We have reached the point where the sales are encroaching so far into Thanksgiving itself that there are stores opening as early as 3 or 5PM Thursday afternoon. We are now faced with Black Thursday.

There is something seriously wrong with this picture, something which speaks to a serious ill in American society. Why do we need these sales? Why do people think they have they right to them? And before all the rabid libertarian free marketers go livid about it (no one makes them do it, what about freedom?) let's ask you two things: aren't some folks (if not most involved, quite frankly) being made to do things?, and, isn't their freedom thus being sacrificed?

It is hard to imagine that the bulk of sales and support staff at stores would rather be working than at home with their families and friends on a major holiday. The same can be said of those working arenas for sporting events as well, or even at television stations and entertainment establishments. Why do we think we have the right to expect those people to have to work for our leisure?

This isn't capitalism. It's consumerism, and it's the worst example of bacchanalia. It is the time of year when we least like free markets, and perhaps the best time to remind those who do preach them that economics aren't everything. Simple, unfettered economics may well infringe on someone's freedom as well as any government attempt to stifle a reasoned liberty. Yet there is a difference. There's at least a small chance that, with a bit of discipline at the voting booth door, we might actually stop government. Is there any way we might stop the Invisible Hand?

Anything which does not practice a decent amount self examination and a reasonable self discipline will become a devil. The free market is no different. Yet it does create quite the hypocrites among its defenders, doesn't it? They express a disdain for coercion. Yet they sure don't mind the coercion which the markets force upon people.

That strikes us as violence against the person as hateful as any government encroachment upon the person. But the free marketers won't see it. They have their own god attending to their business. And it is not constrained by care for humanity.

Black Friday 2014

Once there was a day called Black Friday. It was meant to launch the holiday shopping season, and was known to start as early as 4 or 5 in the morning on the day after Thanksgiving. Yet that, it seems, was not good enough. We have reached the point where the sales are encroaching so far into Thanksgiving itself that there are stores opening as early as 5PM Thursday afternoon. We are now faced with Black Thursday.

There is something seriously wrong with this picture, something which speaks to a serious ill in American society. Why do we need these sales? Why do people think they have they right to them? And before all the rabid libertarian free marketers go livid about it (no one makes them do it, what about freedom?) let's ask you two things: aren't some folks (if not most involved, quite frankly) being made to do things?, and, isn't their freedom being sacrificed?

It is hard to imagine that the bulk of sales and support staff at stores would rather be working than at home with their families and friends on a major holiday. The same can be said of those working arenas for sporting events as well, or even at television stations and entertainment establishments. Why do we think we have the right to expect those people to have to work for our leisure?

This isn't capitalism. It's consumerism, and it's the worst example of bacchanalia. It is the time of year when we least like free markets, and perhaps the best time to remind those who do preach them that economics aren't everything. Simple, unfettered economics may well infringe on someone's freedom as well as any government attempt to stifle a reasoned liberty. Yet there is a difference. There's at least a small chance that, with a bit of discipline at the voting booth door, we might actually stop government. Is there any way we might stop the Invisible Hand?

Anything which does not practice a decent amount self examination and a reasonable self discipline will become a devil. The free market is no different. Yet it does create quite the hypocrites among its defenders, doesn't it? They express a disdain for coercion. Yet they sure don't mind the coercion which the markets force upon people.

That strikes us as violence against the person as hateful as any government encroachment upon the person. But the free marketers won't see it. They have their own god attending to their business. And it is not constrained by care for humanity.

Shop Till You Drop Wherever

Today is shop local Saturday, or something like that. We forget the acronym for day or whether there even is one, but we all get the point: shop local, shop the mom and pop establishments rather than the big box stores.

We're okay with that, provided that you aren't doing it merely to knock shopping the big national or international chains. At the end of the day it's about shopping for what you want where you want. There are advantages both ways really.

Think what you want, there tend to be better buys for the common goods at larger stores and there isn't anything wrong with taking advantage of that. Smaller neighborhood stores are typically niche stores, and there are good things about that. If you want something quirky or unique you'll often find it at a place small enough to be quirky and unique. And if you think that's helping your friends and neighbors, well, you're right. You are.

Yet you're helping them too to shop the box stores. How many friends and neighbors work at them? If it's keeping the money local which worries you then it's at least worth considering that the wages they earn and the taxes they pay, much of it, anyway, stays local. Why be all hung up on money staying local as it is? Everything's local to someone. So WalMart's profits go to, where is it, Arkansas? Wherever their products are made is local to those folks, isn't it?

The bottom line is to shop where you want and don't try to shame others about where they spend their dimes. This means that the box stores mavens must reject their sneering about shopping local for those who want to while the supporters of the store next door end their holier than thou tactics as well. To us, that sounds like the perfect solution.

It isn't all about the Economy

Once there was a day called Black Friday. It was meant to launch the holiday shopping season, and was known to start as early as 4 or 5 in the morning on the day after Thanksgiving. Yet that, it seems, was not good enough. We have reached the point where the sales are encroaching so far into Thanksgiving itself that there are stores opening as early as 5PM Thursday afternoon. We are now faced with Black Thursday.

There is something seriously wrong with this picture, something which speaks to a serious ill in American society. Why do we need these sales? Why do people think they have they right to them? And before all the rabid libertarian free marketers go livid about it (no one makes them do it, what about freedom?) answer two questions: aren't some folks being forced to do things, and, isn't their freedom then being sacrificed?

It is hard to imagine that the bulk of sales and support staff at stores would rather be working than at home with their families and friends on a major holiday. The same can be said of those working arenas for sporting events as well, or even at television stations and entertainment establishments. Why do we think we have the right to expect those people to have to work for our leisure?

This isn't capitalism. It's consumerism, and it's the worst example of bacchanalia. It is the time of year when we least like free markets, and perhaps the best time to remind those who do that economics aren't everything. Simple, unfettered economics may well infringe on someone's freedom as well as any government attempt to stifle a reasoned liberty. Yet there is a difference. There's at least a small chance that, with a bit of discipline at the voting booth door, we might actually stop government. Is there any way we might stop the Invisible Hand?

And we have yet to address the question of how society seems okay excising religion from itself while employing religious holidays just the same for its own nefarious purposes. But we'll save that for another time.

Take Away Black Friday

Here it is again, the fabled Black Friday orgy of spending excess which comes right on the heels of a popular holiday. We feast one day, and spend like mad the next. What are really being thankful for, in that light? It has been said ad infinitum the the commercialization of Christmas is a bad thing. It most certainly is, particularly for real Christians. Why should the second most important day in Christendom be hijacked for the sake of the economy? We ought to be insulted, not once, but twice: once, for the secular world co-opting the season, and two, for the hubris displayed by a world which doesn't want to hear about religion when religion is intent on making it a better place (which is what the truly religious seek) but is more than happy to invoke its call for generousity when it means lining tradesmens' pockets and adding sales taxes to the government coffers. The best thing to do is to stop feeding the beast. Maybe we are at a point where we ought simply stop giving and receiving Christmas gifts. Not that giving gifts is wrong; but that can be done anytime and any place. Why not be generous all the time and not just when the powers that be (be they private or government) encourage it? They should know we are Christians by our love, not our Christmas gift giving. It's just sad that too many folks, especially Christians, no longer see it that way.

Democracy and Capitalism

Democracy is the worst political system...except for all the other political systems.

Capitalism is the lousiest economic system...outside of all the other economic systems.

Why are they the best, yet the worst? Because they are based on human freedom and dignity. People have a great capacity for good, but a terrible propensity to do ill. Freedom unfortunately feeds both these notions. Freedom is why we see people carrying pepper spray on a shopping trip, but giving to charities. And protesting for their rights.

Of course, we can, do, and should restrict freedom when mere free will leads to dangerous excess, such as carrying pepper spray on a shopping trip. The world won't end because of Black Friday and the troubles in Egypt won't end simply because we or the Egyptian protesters like democracy so much. Free will gets in the way of that too, sadly, and it isn't likely the situation will be particularly stable anytime soon.

But what else are we to do? Encourage whoever is in power in Cairo to play nice, and exhort Christmas shoppers to be more considerate of everyone else milling about the mall. These are not what many of us may want, but, again, what are we to do beyond hoping and praying that it all works out. Because at the end of the day, we have two of the lousiest operating systems of human creation, and nothing else will do.

Suh, Egypt, and Black Friday

Ndamukong Suh just doesn't get it. He is an egregious example of what's wrong not just with football as it's now played but of what's wrong with the City of Detroit itself. It's called arrogance, plain and simple, and it has to stop.

He sounded an awful lot like another infamous Detroiter, Kwame Kilpatrick, after the game. No apology, no true acknowledgement that he was wrong, but only a shallow explanation about being held down. He didn't intend to kick the defender. Uh, then why did you in fact kick him?

He ought to be suspended, and the Detroit Lions need to examine the ways in which they've allowed yesterday's incident to happen and stop making excuses for Suh themselves. The City of Detroit too should look at how the man's actions make it look worse as well, and make a few changes for the better in the town's collective conscience. As to Ndamukong Suh, he needs to finally ask his mother whether he really is a dirty player.

Is it too early, in light of recent actions in Egypt, to say we told you so? Because the recent unrest suggests that installing a democratic government there aren't all coming up roses. Sometimes it is better to deal with the devil you know...but, to be fair, it is still very early in an ongoing process. We just wish it didn't look quite so much like chaos. It is difficult to trust the intentions of rioters and riot supressors in a part of the world so long dominated by authoritarian government.

Black Friday is once more upon us, that annual orgy of consumerist excess. But what we find rather galling this year is the advent of shop local Saturday following it. The idea itself is a good one: we should support our local merchants, our closest neighbors. But to see television ads encouraging local shopping on the day after you gorge yourself at the national chains seems rather patronizing. Spend the big bucks with us, the few dollars left over at the neighborhood appliance shop (if there is one) appears to be the mantra. Such gall makes us frown even more harshly at Black Friday.

Ah well. Until the morrow...

Saturday Morning Musings

Stephen Hawking believes that the best hope for humanity is colonizing other worlds. We are likely heading for disaster in the next hundred years and need to plan ahead.

We're not saying that a disaster doesn't loom, but the physicist's prediction is hardly rocket science. The fact is that disaster is almost always just around the corner and has been during all of history. Simply because our capacity for destruction is worse now than ever (it seems a safe presumption that that is what Hawking fears) doesn't mean calamity is only possible these days. Besides, even with colonization we would still have to deal with the ages old human factor; we're as likely to destroy ourselves on Mars as here.

The real truth is that if human life is to continue we need to become moral people. Short of that, the future doesn't matter anyway.

Mitt Romney leads Michigan according to the polls and is considered to be the likely GOP nominee to run against President Barack Obama in November 2012. When we need an inspiring candidate, we get Mitt Romney. Where have you gone Ronald Reagan?

A Florida woman and three other families have camped out in front of a store nine days ahead of Black Friday. They, of course, wants to be sure she can get the goods she craves so badly. What is the, Occupy Best Buy? Pathetic.

It appears that Michigan will have added about 64,000 jobs in the state by the end of 2011. This would represent the first gain in jobs in more than ten years. But we're still way behind most of the country, and progress is projected to be slow here for at least the new couple of years. At least Snyder seems to have us headed in the right direction. Hopefully, anyway.

That's it, we got no more. Until tomorrow, that is.

Spending in the Holiday Season

Consumerism, the great evil exemplified by the current madness rushing towards and known as Black Friday, is something generally associated with conservatism. Yet it is in fact a liberal trait.

To be sure, there's nothing wrong with buying things for others, or even for one's self as such. Clothes, food, even our recreation, are things which must be regularly purchased for various yet obvious reasons. The list is surely much longer, too, but again, you get the point.

It's when we begin to buy things simply to buy them that we start to slip into error, into the evil of pure selfishness. When we have to buy a new TV because the old one (still working well) is simply old, we have become consumerists. When we buy a Hummer when a van will do, we have become consumerists. When we make any purchase which is plainly conspicuous, we have become consumerists. It displays an excess of pampering, or worse, of egregious self indulgence.

That bigger, better, and newer isn't of itself wrong, true. Making purchases is something which, as with so much else, must be seen in context against the objective standards of right and wrong. There's nothing wrong with buying a tractor trailer rig if you're going into the shipping industry: a Chevy simply won't do the job. But if all you're doing is driving around to attend your daily needs, that Chevy should do just fine.

But to the point: consumerism is a liberal trait because it ultimately puts the state ahead of the individual for no good purpose other than the state. Why else would FDR, that old liberal, want to change Thanksgiving, except to lengthen the buying season? And at that, for the sake of the state in general, and his Presidency and popularity in particular. He wasn't interested in the person, but in himself and his government.

When we become preoccupied with buying things solely for the sake of the purchase, we are putting the nation ahead of the person. And that is the worst kind of consumerism, for it begins to make getting and buying into a patriotic mantra. When we become bad people, we become a bad nation.

Black Thursday?

Thanksgiving is not far away now; two weeks from Thursday in fact. How many of us can already smell the turkey, the stuffing, the gravy and sweet potatoes, and...the sales?

Many stores have already announced that they simply cannot wait until the actual day after Thanksgiving, the aptly named Black Friday, to begin their Christmas sales. Many local stores, or, more precisely, the local outlets of national chains, have announced that they will open at midnight of Black Friday. We might suppose so that they can, with some smirky honesty, assert they have not encroached on the holiday. Still, some cannot wait that long. Great Lakes Crossing has said that their sale prices will go into effect at 9PM on Thanksgiving Day.

If we simply must appeal to secular attitudes, seeing as the secularists have pretty well made Christmas into a selfish orgy of shopping fanaticism anyway, is there at least some way we might make people believe again that it is all right to have a holiday or two not tied into our nation's economic success? Is not the human benefit in the way of rest and relaxation acceptable even to the nonreligious? Can we not have holidays be holidays anymore, simply so that we can see family and friends and just have a good time?

Anybody out seen Terry Gilliam's Brazil? How many of you who have actually get it? It's Christmas all the time in that movie world precisely so that the citizens will buy, buy, buy, because it's the only way they can keep the economy going. We're becoming like that, you know. Our lives are being run by how many things we have.

That's all we have at the end of the day, of course. Things. Our new TV is great for a few days, and then it's simply our TV. Same with our clothes and our cars and our almost everything else. Yet we rarely stop for a moment and consider that maybe, just maybe, we're being played.

This is not to say that shopping is bad or that buying and getting new things is bad. But it is to say that, when buying and getting becomes our focus, we might perhaps take a deep breath and a step back and ask how ourselves exactly how important mere things are. We need to tell ourselves: it's okay not to get the best TV at the best price. It's just a thing. It's okay if we help the general economy starting at 9AM on a Friday rather than let such insipid needs be fed while we're still on holiday. We'll be all right. We'll still have plenty of things at the end of the day.

Actually, we might have several more: the goodwill and good cheer of friends and the family. You know, the ethereal things which make for true humanity and true human happiness.

What are We Becoming?

I thought that Black Friday was bad enough simply as a reflection of the consumerism which is gripping our land. Then yesterday's unfortunate incident in New York sinks our already poor culture to new depths.

A worker at a Wal-Mart gets trampled to death for the sake of cheap TV's? Shoppers refuse to leave the store when told of the death because, essentially, they had already waited so long? And in a further bizarre twist to yesterday's deal seeking frenzy, a woman trampled in another Wal-Mart files charges...after she finished her shopping?

An eyewitness reported, in the former incident, that people were acting like savages. Savages? Now that's in the spirit of Christmas. Acting like savages while in search of goodies to make people happy. Or make themselves happy; let's own up, folks, we all know that many of these bargain hunters are simply ponying up for their own new toys.

Who, BTW, is one of the agencies getting the most flak for the attack (for that's what it was, an attack) which cost a worker his life? Wal-Mart. For not providing enough security.

This is beyond sad. It is more than unfortunate. Events like these ought to infuriate every person out there who has an ounce of decency and charity in their body. It is an outrage that in the name of one of the greatest Christian holidays this sort of carnage, and the selfish attitudes which propagate it, should be tolerated at all, let alone promoted by the system which created the opportunity for it to happen. If we cannot look ourselves in the mirror after this tragedy and realize we need to take a breath, a deep one, and several steps back to set our bearings straight, then we are a hopeless race.

I never thought, never considered, that a human life is worth a $69 megapixel digital camera. What kind of animals have we become?

The Day After.

What do you do on the day after Thanksgiving? I'll tell what I do not do: go shopping.

In the first place, that's just nuts. Does anybody really think, in this poor economy, that there won't be any great sales later in the season? Especially as so many ads with so many great prices also end with, 'extremely limited quantities', why bother? You'll get one great deal at best, and only if you're far enough towards the front of the line. That's nothing more than dumb luck, unless you want to be at a store at 1 AM. Skip that.

Then there's the crowds. No way Jose. Wait until later when the shopping ghouls aren't cramming the aisles.

And I never get enough mileage out of this reason: I am not obliged to prop up the American economy on the pretext of a co-opted holiday. Christmas is about Christmas, by golly, and not about buying things. I'm not averse to giving gifts; that should be encouraged. But do it year round, friends, not on someone else's schedule or say so. If you see something someone would like in May, buy it then and give it to them then. That's real charity. That's real concern for them in doing them a good turn and making their day.

I'll tell you what I will do today: put up the Christmas tree. That says more about getting into the spirit of the season: putting up Christmas decorations with your family. Even though I'm sure the lights will be knotted up and half won't work and they'll be frustration at and on several levels, at the end of the day we'll have something far more special than baubles and trinkets. We'll have the best Christmas tree ever.

For that, Sears can wait.