Of Christmas Cards And Thank You Notes

Yesterday morning I caught Stuart Varney asking his panel whether or not they still send Christmas cards.  Only one said yes and that was to see the family photos that often were included in those she got in return.

Considering the other excuses were simple and expected - it's so much easier to do it on line, I'd have thought catching up on family photos would be just as easy on Facebook.   But at least she does it for now.  By her own admission as the children grow up she too will end the practice.

The whole conversation depressed me.  Whatever happened to the art of letter writing?  It disappeared years ago.  Now even  the teaching off cursive writing in our schools is going to be eliminated.  One more time I see the world in which I was raised slowly disappearing.  It's sad.

I can remember as a child how I loved having pen pals from far away places.  I anxiously awaited birthday cards from grandma and grandpa because they othen contained maybe a whole dollar! I always wrote a letter to Santa and loved to leaf through the Christmas cards that filled our mail box a whole seven days a week throughout the season. I also remember my Mom sitting me down after Christmas or the birthday to crank out the thank you notes.  I came to find they were greatly appreciated.

Those days are gone forever.  Now even sending a greeting on Facebook or one of the greeting card sites seems like a chore. I do it - and don't.  I've gotten lazy and I say that with no pride.

I'm trying to remember the last time I actually got a personal letter in the mail.  I cannot remember the last time I wrote one.  I do though still send Christmas cards and on most write a line or two in greeting. I'm not big on newsletters.  Our life is pretty quiet and I suspect of little interest to others, even good friends.  That's also why I don't participate on Facebook.  If I don't want to share something with old friends why would I want to share it with the world?

 We send far fewer cards these days.  Our base of friends is shrinking as the years pass. That's why I feel strongly that at least once a year I can make the effort to remember good and long time friends with a personal, hand written greeting. It's a way to let them know they are special to me - to us.

And thank you notes?  Always!  Once again I slip into my mother's spirit and mourn the loss of the 'good old days'.  Times were not as frenetic as they are today.  People had time for one another and relished personal time together.  I suspect those days are soon to be no more than memory except for those of us of a certain age.

Perhaps the coming generations won't miss what they've never had.  But I'll miss those times and practices because they helped shape me into the person I am.  One who will still say please and thank you and still put pen to paper. I'll feel a pang of remorse though that we've not done the job of passing on these wonderful old traditions to those coming behind us.  It will be their loss and perhaps should be our shame.

Don't Let The Gingrinch Steal Christmas!

There are few politicians who worry me more than President Obama.  Newt Gingrich is one of them.

With time getting short, even members of his own party  like Senator Tom Coburn, R-OK, are admitting they have little regard for his leadership abilities. Maureen Dowd is just one of many columnists who has put pen to paper about his past history. His weaknesses would seem to outnumber his strengths yet he is the reigning flavor of the day.

Let's hope our taste buds improve before the Iowa caucuses and early state primaries.  Anyone who reads knows of his messy and hypocritical personal past.  Some are saying it doesn't matter because he has fessed up.  I don't buy it.  It goes to character far more deeply than what we see on the surface, a supposedly contrite Catholic convert.

His personal baggage aside, however, this is what I see in the man.  Arrogance, a monumental ego and all that goes with it.  Condescension toward all lesser beings. It's a bad mix for leadership, even worse for compromise.

We have a lot of this already in Obama.  He's the 'visionary'.  Gingrich sees himself the same way.  Both are short on details as to how to get things done.  Obama's tack has been to hand it over to his overlords in Congress while he campaigns or vacations. My guess is that Gingrich will micromanage.  While Obama is trying to duck his inexperience, Gingrich would be more inclined to have little use for anyone elses opinion because of his experience.

Having had a good strategy for the debates doesn't necessarily mean he has a good strategy for running the country.  In this regard I see him as his own worst enemy.  He has personality to be sure.  So does Herman Cain and Rick Perry.  They are colorful and entertaining but the flaws they don't admit to are what sunk them.  Will the same happen to Newt?

What's left on the tasting menu?  Romney, like vanilla ice cream, has gotten boring from a certain sameness. There is something to be said for that, however.  Ron Paul.  He reminds me of something like chocolate walnut.  You may love the chocolate but if you don't like nuts you won't like this one.

 Rick Santorum.  Sarah Palin likes him.  That could be either a blessing or a curse.  the problem with him is no knows whether he's Baked Alaska or Pennsylvania Dutch Apple pie!

  And of course Jon Huntsman whose daughters are better know then he is.  I'm anxiously awaiting the December 12 debate between Huntsman and Gingrich.  Hopefully it will reveal more of what Huntsman is about than I know now and it will give Gingrich an opponent of substance to stand against.

If all else fails Donald Trump is waiting behind the curtain to endorse the best for the job. That everyone is making the pilgrimage to the Trump Tower should make us wonder how we've ended up with him choosing the apprentice for the job!

Maybe some good will emerge from all of this yet.  I'm losing my taste for politics.  That's the most positive thing I've said in weeks!

"Pardon" Me?

Did you know that many states still have sex out of wedlock laws on the books? Strange isn't it?  In this day and age where it seems to be the norm rather than a sinful exception!

For all those who partake,  be darn glad you don't live in Afghanistan.  There you'd get a prison term.  The woman, that is.  Actually half the women in prison are there for  sex 'crimes' or running away from their husbands who many were forced to marry in the first place or maybe even sold to them.

When word got out about a 19 year old serving 12 years who was raped by a relative and gave birth in prison,  five thousand people signed a petition urging she be released.

Talk about nitpicking details.  Rape being considered, for legal purposes, as sex outside of wedlock!

Well, the pressure seems to have worked.  Karzai, that pillar of law, order and ethics, pardoned the woman.  Was it the 5000 signatures?  Nope.  She agreed to marry the rapist!

We're supporting this nation why?  Okay, we're leaving.  And we should.  As one nation, even if we had the strongest leadership in the world (forget we once did), we would not be able to change their mindset.  It's the way they have functioned for centuries.  It is the bedrock of their male dominated culture. Women are possessions. Nothing more.

It isn't that they don't know how other cultures function.  Their leaders have visited this country often enough as well as other western countries to know that women are valued, contributing members of society.  They just don't want them to be such in their own country.

The view that they hate us for our decadent ways doesn't seem to hold much water.  To me it's the result of a huge inferiority complex.  They can accomplish nothing without corruption.  Let's face it.  They are inept.  One way to feel superior is to pick on the weaker.  In this case by using archaic laws to enslave women.

My, what big macho men they are.  What role models.  What paragons of virtue.  What sorry excuses for human beings.

The Cain Disconnect

How many more women are going to emerge before Herman Cain does the honorable thing and bows out of the campaign?

Last night I heard one opinion that suggested he might wait for the Iowa caucuses then fade away after he loses.  To do otherwise might jeopardize his  future earning power.

That may be practical but it doesn't strike me as honorable.  It does strike me as the way a politician would think.  So much for Mr. Cain being an outsider!

He is either the most maligned candidate in recent history when it comes to all things female or he really doesn't understand what is and is not acceptable behavior, even for the powerful and the well to do.  The more this continues the more I'm convinced he doesn't get it, or doesn't want to or thinks he's exempt for some reason.  Wrong on all counts.

Suddenly he's reassessing his campaign.  Talk about living in a fool's paradise.  With his foreign policy faux pas his chances automatically became slim to none.  With the continuation of his alleged sexcapades, take away the slim.

He speaks of worry about what it is doing to his family.  Well? Here's one more similarity between him and so many 'real' politicians.  The ever faithful, bewildered wife standing staunchly by his side.  Have you ever noticed how close Callista stays to Newt?

Nope, Herman, it's time for you to go.  It has nothing to do with people resenting a black Republican.  It has everything to do the Republican himself.  Romney may be boring and a flip flopper and too much a policy wonk but morally speaking he seems a decent man.  Is Newt? I wouldn't take his conversion to Catholicism as proof positive.

I cringe at the thought of another four years of President Obama.  But what I so dislike does not have anything to do with him as a father and a husband. Is it the measure of a man?  At least partially. It should be part of the equation.  How much it counts will be determined by the voters.  But Mr. Cain doesn't even have that going for him.

It was fun while it lasted, but it has lasted too long.

Will The Real American Please Stand Up?

For the past several months the news has been filled with the various versions of  the Occupy Wall Street exercise.  We've watched it evolve from an irritant reminiscent of the hippie 60's peace, love and pot outcasts to anything but.

 Rather than lining parade routes and putting flowers into the gun barrels of our military the crowds have turned ugly.  So ugly even city officials who had been giving them a pass on their law breaking ways decided, for their own political well being, it is time for them to go.

The bodies were buried, the injured cared for, the tent cities and filth which came with them were bull dozed to the ground. Businesses could assess the damage done by the hooligan element and repair it.  Until warm weather returns and they emerge from where ever they went maybe things will be nearly normal. Maybe.  Nearly.

I guess it may depend on how you define normal.  Have you ever wondered just who these people are and where in fact they do go?  It's pretty evident who they are - malcontents for whatever reason.  It doesn't have any coherency to it.  These young people who complain about lack of jobs yet study under water basket weaving.  Complain about the unfair distribution of wealth as they tweet their discontent on iPhones, iPads and every other electronic gadget known to man.

I didn't see many people my age in any of those crowds. We're not blessed to be one of the most wealthy but we do pay our bills and mortgage.  I'm not proud to be equated with these demonstrators.  One needed be wealthy to have a moral code and manners.  I do not expect handouts from anyone nor do I want any one to be forced to share with me what I've not earned.

That's enough moralizing on my part.  I'm not trying to be holier than thou.  Really.  I just don't understand what is happening to our country.  I could blame it on the generation gap but I don't think that's it.  If it is then it's because I've been around long enough to have learned a few things and did, in fact, learn.

So here we are.  A month before Christmas.   Thanksgiving just passed.  The demonstrators must have had a home to go to because they weren't evident at any of the free dinners being provided.

On second thought, I do know where they went.  At least on Black Friday.  They went shopping!  And they took with them all their good sense, manners and behavior with them. Look in the mirror and they are us. The 99% looking for bargains.

Well, maybe you.  Not me.  With all the faults heaped upon them by the 99% I'd much rather identify with the 1.