Holiday Cheermeister

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

In most recent years, it was simply enough and quite acceptable to greet everyone with a simple Merry Christmas. Times have changed, however, and most of us now are asked to make a better personal efffort to embrace diversity and realize that a "Merry Christmas" greeting is no longer so simple a greeting this time of year.

Again, the many Christmas specials were broadcast on television throughout much of December. Unlike decades past when viewers often had but one, perhaps two opportunities at most, to watch "A Charlie Brown Christmas" or "It's A Wonderful Life", the existence now of cable TV, DVRs, TiVo, and other gadgets, makes it possible to view any Christmas special at any time. One of these Christmas specials, in fact was not about Chritsmas at all, but aired on network television once each December for many years. It's ultimate message though ("there's no place like home") serves as an excellent interpretation of at least one specific meaning of Christmas. It is theme of the 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz".

Some in the media industry this year have hinted that a truer meaning of Christmas may have emerged as many families have been forced to severely reduce their holiday spending and gift giving. A deeply recessed global economy this year has in some respects for many people put a damper on what is perceived to be the collective Christmas spirit. However, I quite agree that Christmas does not come from a store, but perhaps means something more.

Be joyful this Christmas Day and holiday season. Be thankful, be spiritual and share at least one kind moment with a family member, a friend, a stranger, and an animal.

Some Common Sense Returns

Following a precipitous decline in global stock markets recently, it appears some of the emotional mania created largely by the news media has subsided. Stock markets have shown a modest rebound worldwide, but undoubtedly remain upon an unstable platform due largely to the fact they can be readily upended by irresponsible reporting.

Several industry observers have come out to say publicly that in fact now is a good time to invest in stocks as there now are plenty of bargains to be had here in the USA and in foreign markets. Energy prices have sharply declined as well and it appears some stability may be returning to the economy.

The truth is that families and individuals are affected by economic downturns in various ways. A tightened credit market, job losses, higher overall energy costs and a generally poor attitude about economic matters serve collectively to help shape a personal economic reality. Much of the reality too, is that Americans certainly as a society, have been living well above our means. We had succeeded in creating our own perceptive economic realities that grew farther and farther from the truth. In other words, we created a lot more economic prosperity for ourselves that actually was affordable and now we are paying the price in a massive economic readjustment.

Becoming informed and knowledgeable through a diversity of resources is the key in attempting to assess an economic conditions -- in your home, in your state, in your country and across the world. It takes a real effort to get informed as opposed to say opening oneself to the emotional windfalls and pitfalls of simply reading something on the Internet or watching a news broadcast. And yes, it is easier to be an emotional person without intellect instead of an intellectual person without emotion which explains why so many Americans are victims of their own wayward emotions rather than masters of their own collective intellect.

Media At Fault For Causing Global Economic Panic

I'm a little embarrassed to admit I once was firmly embedded within the journalism profession and still have considerable activity in the that industry. But make no mistake that I attribute 75 percent of early October's global economic crisis squarely upon the shoulders of the media industry.

"It is the No. 1 story in the world right now," a respected and retired news director commented to me on October 10.

I say that much of the media industry is ruled by a liberal bias and it is through political motivations on the eve of elections in the USA that has the media industry creating a story rather than reporting it. The domestic and international news content for October 10 readily proves my point that the media industry is out of control on this subject matter. In one story, the idea that capitalism as we know it is about to die could not be farther from reality. A second story carried by many media outlets reported that J.D. Power was predicting for 2009 a total global collapse of the automotive/light truck industry -- again a gross speculation that could not be farther from the truth.

Sadly, many consumers and investors believe such reports because they are too caught up in a collective mania fueled largely by a runaway media industry. While it is true that some components of the U.S. and global economy need to achieve a more balanced realignment, much of the current so-called economic crisis is a product of mind control engineered and freely distributed worldwide by media outlets.

Here's some reality: Americans are still getting approved for car and truck loans and they are purchasing new vehicles. Americans are still buying homes and condominiums and getting loans to do so. Americans are still traveling, in some cases, even to foreign destinations. Americans are still paying on their monthly credit card bills and planning to go Christmas shopping. Do not believe for one second that there is any truth to the media industry's collective cry that "the sky is falling, the sky is falling" because it very simply is not true.

Unfortunately, our politicians and social reformers have in recent years so wanted to ensure a fair and balanced approach to some of the have-nots within their respective electoral borders that standards were lowered for some people so they could borrow money. Never mind their apparent lack of credit worthiness, which the rest of us will now take responsibility for in the coming years as we bail out much of the world from its economic crisis. And never mind America still pays people not to work instead of stepping in to help create real jobs.

Here's what you do. Turn off the television news. Stay away from Internet media sites. Skip reading the newspaper. Go about your business for awhile as you are accustomed to doing and keep in mind that the world is not ending, industries are not becoming extinct and chaos will not become the new political, economic and social order. For investors, now is the time to be putting money into stocks, not selling them. For workers, now is the time to increase personal savings. Give your family a good Christmas and try to remember the spirit of the season is why we celebrate such holidays -- not because of anticipated year end investor and retail industry reports, which are more mind control products of the media industry.

In fact, just ignore the doomsayers. I now believe there is a lot to be said for those of you who have said to me over the years "Oh, I don't ever watch or read the news---it's too depressing."
It is and doesn't need to be. With each new day comes a little more sunshine and I see it, do you?

George Carlin United Us In Laughter

When NBC's Tim Russert died this month (see blog of June 13) many of his fans, including yours truly, were nearly brought to tears with grief over such an immediate and unexpected death. He died of a heart attack while working in his office. But when news came that comedian George Carlin had died June 22, many of his fans were brought to smiles and perhaps a little laughter.

"Everything God makes, dies," Carlin quipped in one of his many comedic routines.

Everything?

"Yup everything, every blue hog....."

It is my sincere belief that George Carlin perhaps was among the most honest and irreverent human beings on Earth during the 71 years of his life. He told it like it was, in his opinion yes, but also in the shared opinions of many others, including those who would not publicly claim to be a fan of George Carlin's rude and often disrespectful behavior.

I thought he was right on target with many of his routines derived from his unique observations on life. And who could truly argue with some of those observations?

"The forecast for tonight is dark, and continued dark throughout most of the evening with some widely scattered light towards morning," said one of his early characters -- Al Sleet, the noted Hippy Dippy Weatherman. It truly was a routine for the ages as Carlin so cleverly and simply outted the true ridiculousness displayed by nearly every TV weather person in the United States today.

If human cloning ever was a reality many years ago, then Carlin certainly may have been cloned from the DNA of the late social writer, comic, critic and American satirist Leonard Alfred Schneider (aka Lenny Bruce). It was from Bruce's style of raunchy humor and satire launched during the 1950s and 1960s, that some say ignited the generational culture change among the first of the Baby Boom generation. Many thought that Bruce was responsible for a growing tide of social and civic disrespect in the U.S. In fact, he was arrested in Miami during 1951 because he impersonated a priest attempting to secure donations to assist a leper colony in British Guiana.

That sounded so Carlin-esque.

Carlin was no stranger to priests, having been raised an Irish Catholic in New York City. In fact, among his largest followings were Catholic schoolboys who grew up in the U.S. during the 1960s and 1970s. As many of us were trained by our Catholic educators to recite noted works such as the Gettysburg Address, learn Latin and also be able to name in correct chronological order all the U.S. Presidents and their respective terms in office by year -- then it should not have come as any surprise that many of these same Catholic boys, including a few who today are Roman Catholic priests, were able to entirely and accurately recite some of Carlin's comedy routines. Topping this list of course, and ranked No. 1 well ahead of any other subject matter by Catholic boys and perhaps Jewish boys, and Protestant boys and so on and so forth, was Carlin's "Seven Dirty Words" routine.

Those of us, who among a consensus of our youthful peers back in the 1960s and 1970s, could accurately and with proper inflection, recite Carlin's "Seven Dirty Words" routine in its entirety without being caught by parents, teachers, Catholic nuns and priests, relatives, neighbors and the police --- became journalists by trade. I am proud to say I became one of those journalists.

What struck me about George Carlin perhaps above all other things was his ability to convince audiences that his comedy routines in fact were not comedy, but acute satire which he believed to be a truism for life as we have come to know it, but afraid to admit it. Carlin was the quintessential expert, who successfully crafted and offered in highly public fashion, his judgements about people as merely his "observations" of life.

• "First of all, the Catholic boys where I grew up would always go to a Spanish priest, like Father Muerta, to confess their sins because they didn't seem to understand the sins: "Ah, Bless me Father for I have sinned....I've touched myself in an impure manner -- thought, word and deed.....etc., etc., etc---"that's okay man, tres Santa Marias ---- brrrrrrroooooo (with a roll of the tongue). Whereas the Irish priests---well first they knew your name -- why did you do that George? Oh God, he knows! And, they were heavy into Penance.

Carlin indeed proved himself to be the world's ultimate class clown. He often regaled television audiences with his observational humor, not only as the very first host of Saturday Night Live in 1975, but also as a frequent and regular substitute host for the late Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show".

I can say with laughter and forever a huge smile, that Carlin's death will likely reunite him with the place where all of his "lost stuff" throughout a lifetime of 71 years likely now can be found to some extent. His death will certainly put him right there in touch with Johnny Carson as some sort of heavenly co-host. Carlin's death perhaps means that he could one day become united with his greatest known fan of all time -- the Lord himself. As irreverent as that may sound to a few people, I think the Almighty might just agree that he is a fan of the most honest and directly outspoken comics, authors, satirists and entertainers known in this millenium.

National Callout To Subdue Oil Speculators

I have a plan.

Actually, we need to adopt a plan hatched just a few nights ago by Columbus resident James Pelfrey while discussing with me world affairs. It's called a plan of action to subdue speculators who continually and artificially drive up the price of oil at everyone's expense, and certainly not their own.

Here's the Pelfrey Plan: Every motor vehicle operator, every boat captain, every pilot, every kid with a power lawn mower, every farmer with a tractor, every motorcycle operator, the folks who operate military vehicles, every law enforcement agency, every trucker and anyone else who purchases fuel for any type of motorized vehicle during July 3-4, 2008 shall collectively fill their vehicles with gasoline and diesel fuel ---- then not purchase a drop of fuel for a period of seven consecutive days, or until the period of July 10-11.

It's known as a new Independence Day -- independence from commodity speculators who make billions of dollars by stealing money from the mouths of your children, preventing you from paying your mortgage or rent on time, forcing you to pay higher utility and food bills, and essentially attempting to force you into some type of economic repression that fattens their bank accounts at your expense.

Fill all the gas tanks, fill all the fuel containers and inundate the retail market with the largest ever single day purchase of motor fuels July 3-4, then shut down the bleeping industry and the oil speculators. Don't buy a single drop of fuel for one week and the result will be to put oil speculators and other commodity brokers on notice that consumers actually drive the market price --- not a handful of sideline bettors who risk nothing at your expense.

What the Pelfrey Plan will accomplish is to put speculators on notice that their day is done in setting the daily market price for oil and other commodities. It will serve notice that at any time and without warning, consumers will collectively take matters into their own hands and there no longer will be any safe bets on speculating about where commodity market prices shall go.

The Pelfrey Plan, if well implemented by American consumers July 3-4, will also serve notice to speculators of oil prices that a developing hurricane located 1,500 miles or more southeast of the Bahamas will not have any influence on daily market prices. If well implemented, the Pelfrey Plan also will serve notice to the nation's media industry that they too, will no longer influence daily commodity prices.

American consumers need to adopt and exalt the spirit of Howard Beale, a character portrayed by the late actor Peter Finch in the 1976 Sidney Lumet-directed film "Network". His noted phrase "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore" should today be America's collective refrain to put the commodity speculators out of business under the goal of the Pelfrey Plan.

Until the American consumer takes responsibility for its commodity consumption, its public relations imaging and its desired lifestyle --- there always we be the speculators and others who will profit from the inability of consumers to truly shape their economic realities by establishing new rules governing supply-side economics. And guess what, the fact American consumers will continue to believe the bullshit explanations offered by "economists" and "industry experts" as communicated ever so diligently 24/7 by the media industry (it's supply and demand?) is what gives the commodity speculators their power.

The Pelfrey Plan gives you, each and every American consumer, the opportunity July 3-4 to put these con artists to sleep with the fishes, if you fill your tanks with their motor fuels, then cut them off for just one week. Learn to make that sacrifice now and consumers collectively will recapture their power to influence commodity markets as supply and demand should truly dictate. Once you take off the heads of the oil speculators, the plan is to then move into other commodity markets such as housing finance and food prices and finally put an end to someone controlling your destiny, other than you -- the American consumer, the American citizen and you, the American family member.

Adopt the Pelfrey Plan and put speculators out of business. Buy all the motor fuels you can July 3-4, then shut down the oil and retail gasoline industry for a period of just one week out of the 52 weeks we have to live this year. You can do it and you can do it again later this year if needed to take back control of your own lives and not the ones that are being shaped by strangers who profit from their overt speculating.

It is time for American consumers to become mad as hell and not take this anymore.

Tim Russert Death Shocks Many

Announcement Friday, June 13 of the sudden collapse and death of veteran broadcast journalist Tim Russert came as sad and tragic news that rocked the journalism profession as well as many broadcast viewers. Russert was moderator of NBC's "Meet the Press", which aired each Sunday morning, served as NBC's bureau chief in Washington D.C. and was regarded among the most respected and recognized political anaylsts in the news business.

Russert, age 58, was a husband and father. He in fact had just returned from Italy where he was celebrating a son's recent college graduation. He was devoted to his religious faith and to his profession. He embraced and well exemplified an obligation of duty to his viewers and listeners. In a rather historic moment, at least in our so-called modern day, NBC's evening network newscast June 13 was devoted entirely to one subject alone -- the unexpected death of a respected colleague and friend.

Through all the remembrances, the messages and sentiments of condolence sent in by dignitaries worldwide, and the global news coverage of Russert's death, the solitary thought which embraces me is one single word ---- "was" --- in that we are now speaking of Tim Russert in the past tense.

Many of these condolences are expressed in these words, which many perhaps know all too well: "our prayers are with his family."

While a certainty in our world, death often comes as a bit of a shock and unexpected surprise, even when we know it may be imminent. A highly publicized notice of death seems to grip us with a little more reticence, particularly when it is someone we have come to admire or someone whose name we may have recognized without aforethought.

Russert's death no doubt fostered this reaction among his family and co-workers and other professional colleagues: "Why, I just saw him a few minutes ago and he was fine," or "I just saw him on the evening news a few nights ago."

Among noted American celebrities, the shock of Russert's death perhaps recently was only eclipsed by news on that fateful day of February 18, 2001 when professional race car driver and NASCAR giant Dale Earnhardt Sr. had suddenly perished during a crash on the final lap of the Daytona 500 race in Florida.

Earnhardt's death in 2001, and certainly Russert's death earlier today, should remind us solemnly that we perhaps better need to reflect upon the value we assign to our lives and those of others whom we cherish. We often become so absorbed in what we each perceive as life's daily challenges that we simply forget that a life vanishes in a brief moment and often without advance notice.

Russert's contributions will be long remembered by declining numbers of people in the years ahead as will Earnhardt's contributions to racing over the course of this century. Ask yourself if the manner in which you live your life each day is indeed the message you wish to leave for others when your soul is immediately called upon to depart this existence. How do you want to be remembered by those who have come to love you and to know you?

High Costs Fuel Family Vacations Near Home

Perhaps one positive result to record high fuel prices this spring can be defined in upcoming summer family vacation plans. Young couples and families, for example, commonly had small vacation budgets during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, which made outdoor camping trips highly popular. These often were low-cost vacations that featured a vartiety of outdoor living experiences.

In Ohio this year, for example, reservations at state park campgrounds and lodges are running 15%-20% ahead of last year's pace. The parks offer a diversity of recreation opportunities well suited for families. Choosing a vacation destination closer to home, such as a state or national park, may be the perfect answer for higher fuel and travel costs.

Higher fuel costs bring into question travel options that may be centered closer to home. Considering an in-state vacation to another city can offer a great opportunity for discovery that may have been previously overlooked. Also consider a family getaway that takes advantage of the unique lodging experienced at a bed and breakfast. These private home lodging businesses can be a great change of pace from staying at a hotel and more confortable than a campground.

We often look to great distances to enjoy our travel and now may be time to look at the opportunities that can be enjoyed at or near our homes. Consider day-trips from home and invite family members to join in as a way to enjoy a vacation without worry about higher fuel costs.

Also consider simplicity. Build a travel iternary that maximizes affordability and enjoyment of diverse activities that do not require long hours and miles of travel away from home. Perhaps the higher fuel costs this year will lead us into another direction that will help bring families closer together.

Just For The Moment

It's St. Patrick's Day.



In the days of my youth, the holiday was spent largely with drunken revelry. It was New Year's Eve in March. Another reason to unwind and become silly all in the name of a holiday. Oh well.



In recent years, this and other holidays seem unable to stir much passion within me. However, I took a new approach this year and that was simply to spend part of an early St. Patrick's Day evening with friends and family -- simply to celebrate that they are my friends and my family.



Over the past weekend, there were a half dozen or so New York City families whose lives were forever altered. A building crane fell, killed six or more people, and forever changed family destiny. In northwest Ohio during this same St. Patrick's Day weekend, five persons died in a horrific motor vehicle accident. Again, families and lives forever altered by a passing solitary moment.



So, when it came time to simply going home after work for a quiet St. Patrick's Day evening, I decided instead to join some friends and family briefly at a local neighborhood bar. It was not so much because it was a drinking holiday, but because every day in one's life should be thought of as a celebration of life............and to be thankful we can continue to enjoy our time together with family and friends. It indeed, is just that simple.

Keep On Moving

Adrienne moved again.

Displaced by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, this 30-something woman relocated to Oxford, MS where she was trying to begin a new chapter in her life. It was a short chapter. She writes in her recent blogs of how her Mother was diagnosed with cancer and recently passed away. The call home to Long Island, NY this winter began for her another chapter in life. Not only is she looking for work, but she is cooking chickens, sneaking into her cousin's hot tub, and planning to keep driving her pickup truck.

I do not know Adrienne, but I am drawn to her writing because it is simple, open and honest. She gets virtually no response to her blogs, but I am struck by her honesty.

But the subject of moving and starting new chapters in life affects families worldwide. Through war, natural disaster, death, divorce and many other reasons, we choose to move on from one chapter in our life to another.

The urge and perceived need to relocate has driven mankind forward since the first days humans inhabited the planet. We are forever searchers --- searching for new beginnings, older foundations and perhaps a new challenge. To keep on moving is a key to life. Only when we become stagnated or immovable, by choice, do we risk living life less than full capacity.

"Keep moving and stay low" is a quip a good friend of mine always uses when saying goodbye at the end of a conversation. I say, "keep moving and may your sails be full of happy winds and contented seas.