Rick Raw: Black Friday Craziness–American Commercialism Run Amok

By Rick Grant rickgrant01@comcast.net www.rickatnight.com

The Friday after Thanksgiving is now known as Black Friday, conjured up by savvy cultural programmers, a.k.a. social trend setters known as advertisers. These market mavens brainwash Americans to spend like there’s no tomorrow to save the Gross National Product. The media hype switches on the subliminal program among mostly female platinum card carriers, insinuating that if they don’t max out their plastic, the country will fall into a terrible recession. A voice inside their heads says," It’s your patriotic duty to buy, buy, buy, or the filthy rich Walton family (Wal-Mart owners) will take out a hit on you.

The crazed spendaholics lineup at 5:00 am in the morning to fight their way into department stores to get their puny bargains in an orgy of reckless spending. This over-hyped holiday madness underscores how American masses have degenerated into glassy-eyed consummer-Moonies, worshiping the idol deity of commercialism during this dark season of bad craziness.
After the dust cleared, the retailers and mall operators racked in an estimated $20 billion in the 24 hours of Black Friday’s spend-a-thon. Clearly, the lure of the shopping mall has a very strong appeal, despite the rise in on-line shopping. Most Americans will spend an average of $1,000 dollars or more on Christmas, running up credit card debt to unprecedented levels.

Well, why not, the National Debt Clock is clicking away at over $9 trillion dollars and rising at the rate of $1.4 billion dollars a day. We are the largest debtor nation in the world, and after Black Friday, we claim the prize for amassing the highest personal debt in the world. Let the good times roll, and never mind the spending hangover the day after Christmas.

The holiday season has become a benchmark for economists, retailers, and market forecasters to gauge our country’s economic health. Christmas spending accounts for a large percentage of retailers’ yearly profit. Over the years, the significance of Christimas as a bacchanal of out-of-control credit-card charging has obscured any religious or family oriented meaning. This has not happened by accident. Years ago, the market gurus devised a sinister plan for turning the holiday season into a green light for the masses to lose all reason and logic when planning their assault on the bargain isles. The light flashes green, as in "spend," and all hell breaks loose.

This raises deeply psychological motivations for our spendthrift culture. Why are we so materialistic? Why must we have so much stuff? Why indeed! Yes, I’m guilty as charged. I shun the Black Friday madness like the plague. However, over the years, I’ve accumulated a pile of gadgets, computer systems, cell phones, and other technological toys. Ah, the good old days when my radio was my electronic contact to the outside world.

But that was before the runaway train that is technological progress ran over us all, and we must have the latest widget or bad things will happen. Steve Jobs will appear in our dreams, implanting his devious program that forces us to buy his iPhone or God will put us on heaven’s no-pass list. I wake up and see that cool touch screen and I must have it, damnit, or my heart will explode.

We wretched tech-heads need to take a nature hike with no modern technology like that guy in Man Vs Wild. My getaway would be Spartan–dropped off in the Outback of Australia with a canteen of water, a Bowie knife, and accompanied by MVW’s Bear Grylls to teach me how to survive in the wild, live off the land, and commune with nature. Frankly, I’m such a technocrat, I don’t think I would last too long into this serious deprivation and having to eat bugs-- kill, skin, and devour small creatures. But, it would be a revelation to try and a great object lesson in humility–a cold turkey trip without my electronic connections with other people.

If all the technology that we depend on was suddenly taken away, we would be naked before a cruel world. It would give us a new perspective on how little we need to survive--never mind communicate with the world through the Internet. If we get hit by a catastrophic event like a large asteroid strike or a gamma ray burst (GRB) from a super nova in our galaxy, wiping out all electronic devices, if we lived, we would have to survive like Bear Grylls or our forefathers. Well, it could happen. And yes, I’m not ready for it, nor will I ever will be.

Rick Raw: Televangelists–Money Grubbing Swine

By Rick Grant rickgrant01@comcast.net www.rickatnight.com

Dating back to the hell-fire & brimstone preachers of yesteryear’s tent revivals, today’s televangelists enjoy tax exempt status while amassing millions in contributions, fueling opulent lifestyles. I’ve always considered these false prophets money grubbing swine--the used car salesman of religion. They prey on weak minded poor people who believe that if they give these charismatic preachers money they will be saved, winning a first class ticket to heaven. And yes, I consider Billy Graham’s ministry to be part of this great fraud. He pioneered this way of raising vast sums of dinero. These televangelists live like kings, while many of their flock have a hard time making ends meet.

This week, Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican in the Senate Finance Committee, setup an investigation of six prominent televangelist ministries for financial misconduct. Sen Grassley said on CNN that these televangelists live in palatial mansions and drive Bentleys and Roll Royces. In one case, he said, the bathrooms of one minister’s mansion were equipped with $20,000 marble commodes, while their congregations, many of whom live in poverty, make sacrifices to give much of their income to the ministries. Sen Grassley believes that these ministries are improperly using their tax-exempt status as churches to shield lavish lifestyles.

Get this, one of these televangelists in question is named Creflo Dollar! He has no shame, "My name is Dollar therefore give me as many dollars as you can," he could have said. The other hypocrites are Joyce Meyer, Benny Hinn, Eddie Long, Kenneth Copeland, and Paula White. Because these organizations have tax status as churches, the ministries do not have to file IRS 990 forms like other non-profit businesses, which allows their financial dealings to be kept secret, allowing for blatant misuse of the congregation’s contributions. If you watch their shtick on television, they frequently ask for money as a way of redemption for their congregations’ sins, making outrageous statements like "Give me your money and you shall receive God’s love."

More significantly, the structure of many of these ministries are essentially dictatorships lorded over by one person or family which encourages non-disclosure of the family’s financial dealings. Clearly, these televangelists are raking in the dough to the tune of tens of millions of dollars a year. Any savvy person would question their sincerity when they spend big bucks on prestige cars and mansions. Shouldn’t they use those funds to help the poor members of their congregations? Of course, that’s not their mission. They are greed mongers of the worst kind.–using their on-stage, on-camera charisma to con donations out of vulnerable and lonely people.
Sen.Grassley’s investigation was sparked, in part, by Ole Anthony’s Dallas-based Trinity Foundation, which is a watchdog group monitoring religious media. Anthony has written countless letters to media companies complaining about televangelists’ fraudulent practices for years. "We have furnished them with enough information to fill a small Volkswagen," Anthony said. He went on to say that after twenty years of working with media organizations to expose televangelists, he saw little reform. That’s why Anthony went straight to Sen Grassley, who was outraged by Antony’s findings.

The truth is–televangelists’ obscene profit motivations give legitimate churches, like
Episcopalians and Methodists a bad name and defile people who are sincere in their efforts to live Christian lifestyles. To me, these grifters who claim to communicate with God and con people out of their hard earned incomes, spew the worst kind of blasphemy. They’ve found an easy way to get rich without paying taxes. Even if Sen Glassley exposes them as frauds in front of the entire country, the deluded true believers will still follow these preachers–it’s their feel good pill. Indeed, it’s a sad commentary on how many of these people are searching for something to hold on to, and they find these crooks, who tell them what they want to hear and take them for all they’re worth.

Rick Raw: Mule Museum Blues –Kicking Rep. Buck McKeon’s Ass–A Strange Alliance with W

By Rick Grant rickgrant01@comcast.net www.rickatnight.com

Earmarks are pork spending initiatives that surreptitiously get slipped into bills by our Congressmen who have pet projects back home such as statues of Rocky or Elvis in their city’s main square, or stocking their favorite fishing hole with bass. Normally, these "earmarks" are quietly added into the bills without our knowledge. But some of these pork spending earmarks are so ridiculously comedic they beg to be publicized, like a Mule Museum.

Now don’t get me wrong, I like mules even though they are cantankerous animals (a sterile cross between a female horse and a male donkey) whose hey-hawing brays could drive a mule handler batty. But Rep. Buck McKeon R-California wants to build a museum honoring the mule to the tune of $50,000 taxpayers’ dollars. And, Buck (Ass ) wants to hold the biggest mule celebration in the United States in tiny Bishop, California. Hey, how far can you toss a mule poop patty? Can horses have equal time?

This year alone, Americans for Prosperity, a pork spending watchdog group, uncovered house members’ pork spending binges totaling $13. 7 million in tax dollars on 63 museum related expenses. But Rep McKeon’s pork spending is not uncommon on the Hill and not limited to party affiliation. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pennsylvania, has asked for $150,000 to restore the W.A. Young and Sons Foundry as a "key historic property." Americans for Prosperity call Murtha "The King of Pork" for his earmark spending.

Yes, we send these knuckleheads to Washington to represent us–government for and by the people sayeth the Constitution–and they act like taxpayer money is their personal piggy bank. This outrageous robbery of our hard earned dollars amounted to $29 million in 2006. Efforts to make the earmarks more transparent have been thwarted by the same people that use them as perks–our Representatives. It’s cheaper if they get blow jobs at massage parlors or in airport bathrooms.

Not surprisingly, Congress’ approval rate is the lowest in history–22%. But it’s our fault–you and me, bubba–for not getting more involved with what’s going on the Hill. We should give these dunderheads hell by writing them E-mails or letters demanding accountability. Take these mealymouthed losers to task. They work for us–the people!

Recently, (to reiterate a previous Rick Raw piece) I heard that Congress was about to pass a Children’s Health Bill, (the so called S-Chip) which, at first, sounded righteous. But they were planning to finance it by the biggest tax increase in history on tobacco, which effected my guilty pleasure of smoking cigars. How dare they attack my nicotine addiction. What’s the world coming to if I can’t enjoy a cigar. Mark Twain joked that he made it a rule to smoke only one cigar at a time. I immediately sent out E-mails to Sen. Martinez and Senator Nelson. Their replies were typical politicians’ gobbledegook.

The tax increase on cigars would amount to over 2,000% and would tax the cigar industry out of existence. Fine cigars are already expensive, but with the new tax, a box of medium quality cigars would cost $500.00 or more. To add insult to injury, there would be a floor tax on inventory, further burdening the industry in many different countries, forcing thousands of workers out of jobs.

Here’s the kicker: If they tax the tobacco industry out of existence, then they will have no money to fund the initiative–nullifying the program! Everyone loses! It’s a bone-head move by our elected representatives. In this ad hoc case, I was in Bush’s camp. He vetoed the bill with not enough votes to override it. Bush has threatened to veto a revised version of the bill. Yes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend–even if I cringe at the alliance.