Vermonter.com

It’s that most wonderful time of year again, or so the nation’s retailers would like to believe. Santa Claus is going to have some rough sledding this year along with the rest of us. Fortunately, he hasn’t begged for a bail-out like the rest of the corrupt institutions have.
What’s with this Secretary of the Treasury Paulson guy anyway? Looks like he slid one in under everyone’s noses to allow the big-wig bankers to line their pockets yet again with bonuses…courtesy of the taxpayers and folks about to lose their jobs. Is it time to warm up the tar and feathers yet?

Merry Christmas to all who can afford it. For the rest of us, maybe it’s time to get back to basics and forget about all the commercialized, politically correct, generic “holidays” they’ve replaced Christmas with. If you’ve got a job, a warm place to stay and are holding steady, consider yourself lucky.

I was watching Little House on the Prairie the other day and was amused by the presents they received on Christmas Day. A sweater, a scarf and a couple other items…that’s it. The most interesting part of all was that the kids were actually excited and thankful for what they received. Can you imagine giving out gifts like that these days? After all, everyone knows that anything less than a $200 iPod or $400 Wii would be a major disappointment. Might this cause junior to wreak havoc upon his schoolmates or prompt the Hannah Montana crowd into dressing like pre-teen prostitutes? Hmm, I forgot. We already have that anyway.

Maybe 2009 would be a good year to get back to basics and be thankful about what we already have and how to keep it. For a long time now, people have been buying too much of what they don’t need with money they didn’t have in the first place. Companies and families don’t need a “bail-out”. They need a “reality check”.