Being an omnivorous reader, I try to read all kinds of viewpoints on all kinds of subjects.

While reading conservative columnists on www.townhall.com I came upon a Michael Medved column which was entitled "Commercialization" Of Christmas Actually Shows Community and Giving.

In this column, he's trying to explain that the spend, spend, spend of the Christmas season is not actually a bad thing and criticism of commercialism during Christmas is not warranted.

http://townhall.com/columnists/MichaelMedved/2009/12/23/commercialization_of_christmas_actually_shows_community_and_giving

In this piece, Medved likens all that frantic buying and spending to the fiber that holds communities together and makes us all stronger.  He closes his column with the following words,

 In fact, the kind instincts demonstrated by the giving mania, and by the ubiquitous figure of Santa Claus, may at least bring us closer to the message of higher love that’s part of the holiday’s religious core.

I'm kind of thinking here that he's missed the message of Christmas all together.  There's something about the idea that buying and giving with the end result being getting is not at all what God had in mind when He gave His Son as the best gift of all.

Or maybe I just see the Christmas season a bit differently than he does.

Ok, so here I am catching up on reading the newspaper, online news sites, (shudder) network news, etc.  And the more I watch/listen/read, the more annoyed I become.  Yes, I know.  Close it, turn it off, put the paper down.  But, you see, I'm an insatiable, omnivore of news.  All kinds of news.  It's part of the problem of being an omnivorous reader...the tendency to gather spills over into other media as well.

As I'm cruising along gathering tidbits of information, I find myself becoming more and more annoyed.  Here's a few instances of why:

1. You can't go naked in your own home.  This annoys me on several levels.  First of all, who in their right mind believes for one minute that if you stand in front of a picture window that no one will be able to see you?  Duh!  But on another level, it annoys me that two people (one a minor!) were trespassing on this guys lawn at 5:30 AM (just where were you taking that kid at that hour of the morning anyway?) and looked in his window.  Um...do we not have peeping laws anymore?  And cutting across someone's yard used to be called trespassing...when did that become ok?  The guy convicted was convicted of indecent exposure and seemed surprised by the verdict.  He makes the statement that there was a double standard, and he may just be right.  If he had been crossing the woman's yard and looked in her window, he would have been in major trouble, most likely trussed or tasered for being a public danger.  I want to know why nobody is asking where she was taking a kid at 5:30 am.  There has to be a story there.....

2.  Tiger Woods is now a victim?  Apparently there is some spin out there trying to make his physiologist the goat for his whole mess.  The doctor is suspected of giving him a human growth hormone (which the dr. was caught importing illegally) mixed with other things that really amped up his sex drive.  Ok, so this supposedly highly disciplined athlete could not find the discipline to take care of this need without going to almost a dozen skanky women and betraying his wife and family?  Oh, don't tsk, tsk. These women knew exactly what they were doing....not one of them is crying rape.  They hoped to get some exposure/bling/money out of this deal.  Most of them are getting just that.  Does this come under be careful what you wish for?  As for Tiger, does this ruin or enhance his reputation?  I have the feeling that in some ways, he's got a lot of guys wishing they were "just like Tiger".   

3. In today's newspaper, there is a letter to the editor from someone who is yelping that the government needs to butt out of his life.  Really.  Let's just take a look at what life would look like without some government buttinsky business.  First of all the roads would be tolled.  Without the government collecting taxes to pay for the upkeep, somehow they would have to be paid for.  In Colonial times, the towns did just that-tolled the roads.  The way we like to drive, that would get very expensive very quickly.  And what about food?  Without some government oversight, we'd be eating food (what we could get of it) chock full of chemicals from unregulated manure (think sludge without the cleaning....), drugs to make animals grow faster in less time and money, and very careless handling procedures.  And then there are the medications that we use/need.  Sure we could get them really cheap, quite probably mixed with toxic chemicals (what a great way to recycle poisons!) and readily available.  Maybe.  If you were the right color, lived in the right place and weren't a drain on society.  Think you would be safely employed?  Think again.  It wasn't too awful long ago that workplace safety was virtually nonexistent.  So long as there was a steady stream of immigrants willing to do the work for whatever pay was made available, who cared if the bodies added up?  I could go on and on.  But I'll spare you.  I'm sure you get my idea.  I'm not a fan of a government that micromanages my life, but I do like things like public safety, safe food, workplace safety and roads that I can actually drive on.   I'm like that.  And I'm willing to help pay for it.

4. "Keep your paws off my Medicare".  I find it fascinating that the people squawking about medicare being taken over by the government and offered to all seem to forget that the signature on that check (or direct deposit) is the U.S. Government treasury.  That, people, makes it a government handout.  Yes, I know you worked for forty years.  Yes, I know you paid taxes.  Yes, I know you feel entitled to that money.  But, here's the kicker.  Remember those shouts you made about how "health care is not to be found in the Constitution"?  A close look reveals that Medicare isn't in there either.  Most individuals, within five years of retiring, will take out more money than they ever put into the Social Security system.  So, when you hit that sixth year, you are on a government dole.  Just like welfare. Just like those people you like to point fingers at and sneer at. 

Much more of this and I'll become a humbug.