Tuesday 23 September 2008

Pic of the day: It is soon that time of the year again! SHOPPING FOR JESUS! And the American way of life!

Shopping perspective

Holiday sales sets for worst gain in 6 years - (Reuters)

"The National Retail Federation expects 2008 U.S. holiday sales, or retail industry sales in the months of November and December, to increase 2.2 percent this year to $470.4 billion. That would be the paltriest gain since sales rose 1.3 percent in 2002". A paltry gain? Things are going downstairs in a handbasket, the world is on the brink of the precipe and leaning outward, and this they will celebrate by buying 2.2% more stuff than last year, when they were also buying much more than the year before, which was at the height of the boom.

In other words, people have been feeling richer and richer during every single year of the Reign of the Shrub. Unless you disagree with the notion that what a man believes may be ascertained, not from his creed, but from the assumptions on which he habitually acts.

This seems to be a good time to relentlessly mock Michelle Obama and her symposeurs, who whip each other up in a frenzy about how things are getting worse and worse for ordinary people every single year for the last decade. Only the rich are getting richer. Yeah, perhaps the billionaires are shopping at the retail stores - remember when last you bumped into a billionaire at the check-out? Mock, mock, mock.

Of course, it is entirely possible that people have been feeling poorer and poorer for each passing year, but still done more and more Xmas shopping because they need to give more expensive gifts than they received last year so they can impress everyone even though they can't afford it. If that is the case for you, I don't know what to say to mock you. I mean, how can I possibly make someone like that look more stupid? Perhaps a red clown nose would help. I'm not sure though.

In any case, I was not amazed. I have never believed that people were immune to hypocricy or self-deceit. I am just a bit surprised by the sheer scale of it. And I like to have it bookmarked so I can use it to mock the people who whine about how everyone is worse off after eight years of Shrub malarchy and ZOMG we must have change NOW! Yeah, you'll get that for sure. Better late than never. Let's talk holiday shopping again next year, if we're still here.