The Real Meaning of Thanksgiving

As with Christmas, the real meaning of Thanksgiving is not in the trappings.

Many people get depressed at this time of the year.  And maybe that is why we invented winter holidays - to do something to cheer ourselves up at a time of year when the skies seem dark all the time.  You wake up, it is dark.   You go to work and sit in an office all day.  You leave for home, and it is dark already!   You never see real sunlight for two or three months!  Some fun!  It is not hard to understand why people get depressed.

Thanksgiving has now morphed into the official starting-gun for Christmas.  But it was not always the case.  When the musical "Mame" came out, there was a catchy tune called, "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!" which was a song tinged with irony.  But regardless, it has become a Christmas classic, with the irony surgically removed.

One of those surgical operations was on the lyrics.  Originally, the one lyric read, "But, Auntie Mame!  It's only two weeks after Thanksgiving!" - in reference to getting into the holiday spirit.  In other words, when the musical was written, the idea of setting up your Christmas tree in mid-December was viewed as "too soon".

The lyric was changed, in later versions to "But Auntie Mame!  It's only two weeks before Thanksgiving!" and that sort of says it all.  Today, I guess the lyric would be "before Halloween" or "before Labor Day" or perhaps "4th of July".  Christmas has spilled over into adjacent holiday seasons.

No, it seems we have lost the meaning of Christmas, and the commercialization of it has washed over onto Thanksgiving, and we've ruined that holiday as well.

What do you think of, when you think of Thanksgiving?   Turkey?  Family?  Travelling?  Football Games?  Parades?  Black Friday Shopping?   These are the trappings of modern Thanksgiving, and they are all blatantly false.

Thanksgiving, as the name implies, is all about giving thanks (just as Christmas is a Mass celebrating the birth of Christ).   And just as Frosty the Snowman and Santa Claus have horned in on the Christmas gig, football games and parades and shopping have taken over Thanksgiving.

And that is one reason why I refuse to participate in the modern versions of either Thanksgiving or Christmas.

The traditional Thanksgiving has nothing to do with Pilgrims and Turkey, but was designated as a day of giving thanks - thinking about how much we have and how lucky we are.  But today, in America, this is not the case.  Most folks today are convinced, via the media and particularly Fox News, that they are disadvantaged and put-upon - that their lives are one horrific problem after another, usually caused by those unseen others who are taking all their money and making their lives miserable.

But this, of course, not the case.  If you are living in America as a homeless person you are likely wealthier than most of the population on the planet.  You have options for free food, free shelter, and job training, free clothes, and a social support network (never mind that many refuse to accept these offers).

If you are living "below the poverty line" in the USA, you likely own (or rent an apartment equipped with) a microwave oven, a refrigerator, a stove, an air conditioner, and also own a car.   And of course, you have a TeeVee and maybe even cable!  And one of those "Obamaphones" as well!  And likely you are overweight, as you consume more calories than you need.

You are hardly put upon.

If you make the median income in the United States - $51,000 a year, you likely own a home, two cars, and have a host of electronic toys, a flat-screen TeeVee and all the cable channels.  The fact that you also have a mound of credit card debt is a choice you made, not a preordained outcome, of course.

And likely, if you are reading this, your income is much higher than even that.  If you make $100,000 a year, which is not hard for a couple to do these days, you are likely in the top 1% of income for the planet.  And chances are, you have a house full of crap - all charged to credit cards.

What were you bitching about again?  Oh, right, a 3% tax increase that likely won't even apply to you.  That.

It is obscene, really, to whine and complain about how rotten things are, when you are at or near the top of the pyramid.

And that is what Thanksgiving is all about - to step back, reflect on how lucky you really are, and put your life in perspective.

Because no matter how much the media and the politicians get you riled up, chances are, your life isn't really all that bad.   If you are even a pound overweight, you have no right to complain about anything - not when others are going hungry in this world.  You have a calorie surplus.

That is the real message of Thanksgiving.  But not surprisingly, the commercial interests that dominate our culture have subverted it (and Christmas) to their advantage.  The real message of Thanksgiving is anti-consumerist, if you think about it.  If a person stops and thinks about how lucky they are in life, and how much "stuff" they already have, they may think, "Gee, chasing after the consumerist dream is a false value - I already own too much junk as it is.  I will be happy with what I have, rather than constantly wanting more!"

And if people start thinking that way, well, that is dangerous to the powers-that-be.

So Thanksgiving has morphed into a spending spree.  You must spend money on food, to begin with - and far too much of it.  We fell victim to one of these "free turkey" coupon deals.  Buy $60 worth of crap, and you get a "free" turkey.   Do you really think we got a "free" turkey?  Of course not.

For many folks, traveling is part of the bargain.  So the airlines rake in the dough, as people travel on the worst days of the year to go off to spend time with people they hate.   More spending money, not because you want to but because you feel obligated to.  It really is stupid, if you think about it.

After the food is served, everyone sits down to watch the TeeVee.  The Macy's day parade is one long advertisement for a retailer.  The football games are loaded with ads.

And the next day?  The shopping orgy to end all shopping orgies.  People trample each other to death and shoot each other in line, all so they can have a "Tickle Me Elmo" (now gay-free!).

They really have us, don't they?   They managed to take a simple holiday and turn it into an excuse to empty your wallet.

But it need not be that way.   You can spend Thanksgiving being thankful for what you have, and stop and reflect on why you worry about what you don't have - and why that bothers you.  You can prepare a simple meal and maybe share it with friends.  But you don't need to fly across the country just to spend the weekend with relatives.

It is within your power to make Thanksgiving into what you want it to be.  Few people realize this, unfortunately.

Raging True Believers!

Save belief for the church.... and even then, remain skeptical.

Belief is an odd thing.  And I can understand how people might be drawn to a religion to answer the unanswerable questions in life - "Why are we here?", "What happens when you die?", "What is Consciousness?" -  that sort of thing.

But it mystifies me as to why folks rely on belief to answer questions like, "Which car gets the best gas mileage?" or "What should I invest in?" - that sort of thing.  Things that are best left to a calculator than to fervent belief.

For example, I posted a note about whether Diesel cars make sense.   After cranking some numbers, I came to the conclusion that no, they really don't.   The extra cost of the car, combined with the extra cost of the fuel, more than offsets the gas mileage advantage - if there even is one.

But the Diesel "faithful" would have none of that.  They believe in diesels as though it were a religion, and of course, cannot be dissuaded even by a numerical argument.

Similarly, you point out to Gold bugs that the run-up in Gold prices is pretty much done, and buying gold at this point is pretty dumb - it has nowhere to go but down, when it is being mined for $500 an ounce or less - often far less.  "No, no!" they cry, "Gold will always be worth a lot and will just keep going up in price!"

But having lived more than a decade on this planet, I remember similar words, in fact from about 8 years ago, when people tried to convince me of the same thing with regard to Real Estate.  Talk about raging true believers!   And again, I heard the same mantra in 1989, again with regard to Real Estate.  And I heard it in 1995 with regard to "dot com" stocks (and again in 2012 with Facebook).

And of course, I heard it all in 1980 - with regard to the price of Gold.   And yes, friends of mine bought "Gold Kruggrands" from South Africa back then.  The price tanked and stayed tanked until 2005.

"But this time, it's different!" the Raging True Believers say.

Um, again, I heard that in 2007, 1989, 1995, and in 1980.   The believers always say that "it's different this time" and then make a lot of vague noises.

Why do people substitute belief for logic in areas of their lives where belief has no business?   Many are just stupid, and don't understand the difference between the two. There is a fellow in Florida, who preaches "prosperity theology" and says you can pray your way to success. Many evangelical Christians on the radio do this as well - telling listeners that God is like Santa, and if they just tithe enough, he will pay off their Visa bill.

But if you have read this far, then you aren't that stupid, or at least I hope you aren't.   We can't help the truly stupid, but we can help ourselves.

So why do otherwise smart people do this?  Why did Chelsea Clinton's Father-in-law buy into a Nigerian Scam?

Because we, as human beings, like to be told what we want to hear.   And what we want to hear is this:

1.  Our misfortunes are not our fault.

2.  You can make money without work or risk.

3.  You look good in that hat.

4.  Have you lost weight?

5.  There are simple secrets or tricks to life, and once you know them, you are set!

6.  But for the actions of others, you would be wildly successful.

The list goes on and on.  The common denominator is weak thinking and externalizing.

You really want to know the inside secret to getting ahead in life?  Really?  Well, it is hidden in those six statements listed above.   Actually it is not hidden, but in plain sight.

And I'll give you a clue:  P.T. Barnum understood how it worked.

Yup, all you need to do, in order to be wildly successful, is exploit other people based on their inner need to be told what they want to hear.  There is a sucker born every minute, and you will never go broke, underestimating the taste and gullibility of the American Public.

But of course, perhaps profiting from the weakness of others makes you queasy and disgusted. If so, good.  Congratulations, you have a soul.

You realize, of course, that many others do not, including a certain Mormon with a shit-eating grin.  Folks like that are happy to exploit and ruin others for fun and profit.  And it doesn't bother them at all - and they may even self-justify their actions as "creating jobs" even as they lay people off and crush their retirement plans - and the plans of many others.

You can still succeed in life without having to sell your soul to Satan.   In fact, you can do quite well, working hard and providing value for your labor.  The trick is to take what you have earned and save it, so you accumulate wealth, not dissipate it.

And to do this, you just need to not be a Raging True Believer and think that spending money is going to make you happy, because the TeeVee said it would.

In other words, to get ahead, you don't have to victimize others but rather just stop being a victim yourself.

And if you think about that last sentence, it illustrates how con artists prey up their victims.   Most victims believe that the system is rigged, and that the only way to "get ahead" in the world is to rig the system.   These are the folks who regale you for hours about how rotten everything is and how the system is rigged in favor of the big banks, the government, the minorities, or the "Wall Street Fat Cats."

So, as a con-man, when you tell a loser like this that you have an inside "trick" on how to game the system, well, he believes!  Of course he believes - he is a Raging True Believer!

Save belief for Sunday at Church.  And even then, you should be skeptical, particularly when the pastor asks you to take out your wallet.

(Why do I say this?  There are hundreds, if not thousands of religions on this planet, each claiming to be the "one true religion".  Clearly one or more of them are wrong.   You need to contend with the possibility that it might be yours that is wrong).

For other areas of your life, use logic.   Do this, and you will do well.

A Sea Change for the GOP?

The logjam in the GOP is starting to break up.   First Jindal, now Chambliss.  Politicians seems to be finding their balls finally, and are standing up for what they believe in, instead of cow-towing to right-wing extremists.

In the news today, a story that makes me proud to be a Georgian:

(CNN) – A top Republican U.S. senator brushed off the anti-tax pledge pushed by activist Grover Norquist and embraced widely for years by GOP lawmakers.

"I care more about my country than I do about a 20-year-old pledge," Sen. Saxby Chambliss told Georgia television station WMAZ, a CNN affiliate, on Wednesday. "If we do it his way, then we'll continue in debt and I just have a disagreement with him about that."


Congress faces a year-end deadline to reach agreement on taming the U.S. budget deficit or take other steps to avert the so-called fiscal cliff of mandatory tax increases and spending cuts that experts say would push the country back into recession.

At the heart of budget standoff is disagreement over how to raise new revenues to help reduce red ink.

President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats call for an increase in tax rates for the wealthiest Americans, while House Republicans, who control that chamber's majority, favor other approaches for brining in money, such as closing certain tax loopholes and eliminating deductions.

Norquist, who heads the conservative group Americans for Tax Reform, has been successful over the years in lobbying a strong majority of congressional Republicans to sign his pledge to not raise taxes.

Many GOP candidates who ran for office also signed the promise, but earlier this year, a small number of freshman lawmakers rejected the idea that they were bound to the document.

Chambliss, along with 38 other senators and 219 House members entering the next Congress, have signed the pledge, according to the website for Americans for Tax Reform.

But Chambliss, who has previously criticized Norquist's stronghold on anti-tax sentiments, said this week that the fiscal conservative's ideas stand in the way of finding a solution for ballooning debt.

"Norquist has no plan to pay this debt down," said Chambliss, who is up for re-election in 2014.

The anti-tax crusader has said he predicts congressional Republicans will stand firm and negotiate a deal that excludes tax hikes.

Asked if Chambliss is concerned Norquist may use his resources to combat a re-election bid, the senator said, "In all likelihood, yes."

"But I don't worry about that because I care too much about my country," he said. "I care a lot more about it than I do Grover Norquist."

The two-term senator from Georgia added he's "willing to do the right thing and let the political consequences take care of themselves."

Wow.  A politician willing to stand up for what is right, and willing to let the chips fall where they may.  I have to admire this man.

It is about time someone stood up to that bully, Grover Norquist.  And I think more and more people will do just that, and realize he is a paper tiger.

And who the hell names their kid after a Sesame Street Character?

This guy has my vote - and my poltical contributions as well.

Is Facebook Evil?

Is Facebook a work of Satan himself?  Perhaps.

Another day, another person losing their job over some stupid thing they did on Facebook.


Nothing good ever seems to come of Facebook, do you notice that?  

There are never any heartwarming stories about how it saved a life or brought people together.

Never.

All you hear about is people getting into fights, pedophiles luring little girls, people being fired after posting photos of themselves doing dumb things, or kids committing crimes and then getting caught after posting pix.

Facebook is just inherently evil.  It appeals to the narcissist in all of us.

Everything we post on Facebook seems more relevant, more important, or funnier, than it actually is.  And we get an inflated sense of our self-worth from this constant self-grooming.

I closed my Facebook account and erased all content before I did.   Facebook is the work of Satan, I'm afraid (literally or metaphorically, take your pick).

It caters to the Ego, far too much.

Externalizing, Revisited

Wake up!  Stop feeling sorry for yourself and blaming all your problems on unseen others!

When I started this blog, I was trying to figure out "where all the money went".   After all, I was making a good living and made good money in Real Estate.  And yet, it seemed, no matter how much I made, the bills were always there and it was always a struggle to make ends meet.

I had assumed that once I was "making good money" that someday I could just spend as I pleased, and there would be plenty left over at the end of the month.   Such was not to be.  Just as Boyle's law dictates that gas expands to fill a vessel, spending expands to fill a salary - unless you decide to do something about it.

And legions of Americans - at all income levels - end up in the same trap.   People tell me they are living "paycheck to paycheck" on $50,000 a year, $100,000 a year, $174,000 a year, and even $250,000 a year.

Funny thing is, though, the median income in this country is about $51,000 per household.  And people are born, grow up, live and die, on this salary and do just fine, over time.   So why the "struggle" to live on that much money - or two, three, or five times as much?

And inevitably, people say, "Well, it's the government's fault!" or "It's Wall Street's Fault!" or "it's the Big Bank's Fault!" or "Its the fault of those people on Welfare!"

And while there is a small (very small) nugget of truth in these statements, they do no account for the overall situation.   Yes, you would be wealthier if you paid less taxes.  Not a lot wealthier, but a little bit.  Lowering the marginal rates by 3% during the Bush era didn't make anyone a Millionaire.   And yea, there are a lot of shenanigans on Wall Street, and if you played their game, like buying IPO stocks, you could lose a lot.   And yes, the banks offer odious mortgages and credit card deals, and if you signed up for them, you could be in a lot of trouble.  If you sign up for them.

But the interesting thing I found out, writing this blog, was that what the real problem was, was not these "other people" screwing up my life, but things I did to screw it up.   Simply stated, I spent more than I made, or more precisely, I didn't save as much as I should have.   Real wealth, I figured out, is in your net worth, not in your garage or your cell phone.

And it became readily apparent that what I did was far more important than those "other actors" in the equation.   In fact, it is about 99.9% of the deal.

So, while it would be nice to pass a law outlawing "funny money mortgages" - and they have taken steps in this direction - a better idea would be not to sign one.

And while the availability of "Liar's Loans" certainly put fuel in the fire of the Real Estate Meltdown of 2007, it was people like you and me who signed those loan documents, bought the overpriced mini-mansions, and deluded ourselves that we all would get rich.

But of course, no one wants to hear that.  It has to be the mean old Bank's fault, for enticing us with those loans.  Or maybe those Minorities (code for N-word) who took out all those mortgages under the Community Reinvestment Act - and then defaulted!   Yes, they brought down the price of houses!

Actually, not really.  Not really even close.    When a two-bedroom condo in Florida is selling for $850,000 and has a $3,000 a month condo fee, and all of the buyers are buying them as speculative investments, this has nothing to do with the "Community Reinvestment Act" and poor people buying $50,000 homes in the ghetto.   When housing prices went up to the point that it cost 3-5 times as much to own as it did to rent, that was pure greed and idiocy on the part of the buyers.  And yes, I said the buyers, not the sellers.   Only buyers set prices.

And a lot of people made foolish mistakes.   And I know these folks - they are my friends and acquaintances.   Some bought houses as investments hoping to "flip" them quickly, even though they were huge negative-cash-flow deals.  Others bought "look-at-me!" houses, convinced their ship had come in, and that they could afford granite counter-tops and a three-car garage because a salesman told them they could.

They suspended disbelief and signed the papers.  And each sale created a new market value for such properties, and the prices kept going up, and up, and up, until it reached a point where no one could afford to buy - and the smarter people said, "Gee, this doesn't look so swell."

It was people who drove this market, not Fannie Mae.   Would more onerous mortgage requirements have dampened the market?   Perhaps.  And we are seeing this today, and people are complaining about it - that the banks are saying, "Gee, you have to prove you can pay this back!" - as if it were a bad thing.

And that is the Catch-22 of this whole deal.   Citizens blame "others" for their woes, and then petition the government to fix things.  The government does so, and then the same citizens complain it is too much interference!  Pick one.

Yes, it would be nice if the excesses of the credit card industry were reined in.  And the new Consumer Finance Protection Bureau is doing just that.   But odious deals with credit cards still abound.  And if you get a $20,000-limit 25% interest credit card, on the premise you are getting "flyer miles" or "cash back" it can - and likely will - bite you on the ass over time.   The government can take steps to protect you, but you have to be the one to say "no" to the temptation.   Leave your pen at home!

No, what I have learned, after years of penny-pinching and scrimping, is that the real actor in all these deals is ME and only ME.  Blaming other people is just weak thinking at its worst - and emotional thinking as well.

And yet, this is a popular sport in the US of A.  Go on any news channel or news site, and you will see people blaming the Blacks, the big corporations, Wall Street, or the Banks for their personal woes as well as the woes of a nation.  Our own actions are never suspect - and not even up for discussion!   To hear most people talk, they are as innocent as newborn babies - and victims of the actions of others.

And yes, even the people who decry the victim mentality are really just using that to deflect blame from their own actions.   "I would be a Billionaire," they posit, "if it weren't for everyone else claiming to be a victim."   Irony is lost on most folks.

You do have choices in life.  All it takes to get ahead is to act rationally in an irrational world and you will succeed.  Most people, if they do succeed in life, do so because they acted somewhat rationally over time.   Those who fail, in most cases, do so because they engaged in emotional thinking and wishful thinking and blame-shifting and self-pity.

And the latter are often called "losers" which sound kind of cruel, but is often apt.   You know the type, the sad-sack-of-shit who laments for hours about what a raw deal he got out of life and how difficult it is for him - and how unfair it all is - and how it is someone else's fault.   And usually, he is texting this crap to you from his iPhone or some other nonsense.

It is like the friend of mine, complaining how rotten they have it, and how "lucky" I am, while we are riding around in their $40,000 leased car that gets 12 miles per gallon.  "We're living paycheck to paycheck!" they cry.  Gee, I wonder why that is?  It must be someone else's fault.   Those mean old oil companies, perhaps.

Or the fellow who delivered concrete, telling us how rotten he had it, and how he was investing in Glen Beck's gold, and how the economy has tanked.   Then a fellow drives by and says, "There you are, I've been calling for a week now, leaving you messages!  I have  big job for you!"   The connection between running his business and his own personal success is just not there.   He is spending more time worrying about the price of gold than the price of concrete - and blaming the President for his woes.

Getting ahead in the world means you have to chuck all of that sort of crap - entirely - and take responsibility for your own actions.  And this may mean finding new friends, if your existing ones are the types who like to sit around and moan and groan about how rotten it all is,  or forward conspiracy-theory e-mails.   You need to reset your brain and start over, and stop letting people like that program it with "ain't it awful" and "let's feel sorry for ourselves".

(And this means, of course, unplugging from the TeeVee, which is the monster of all poor normative cues programming.)

Because, let's face it, if you are reading this, you are one of the minority on the planet who can (a) read, and (b) has access to a computer.   No one feels sorry for you.   On a planet-wide scale, you are one of those 1%'ers.   Start acting like it.