Are we allowed to call it a recession yet?

President Bush and his administration certainly don’t think so. Fox News isn’t calling it that yet. But I’m one of those people who believe that if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, you really ought to call it a duck!

Not being an economist, though, I defer to those with far more expertise, such as the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), a century-old nonpartisan group employing sixteen winners of the Nobel Prize for economics. The NBER defines a recession as “a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales” (NBER.org, 2003).

Okay, so GDP or gross domestic product is determined by: GDP = consumption + gross investment + government spending + (exports − imports). I’ll be really honest here: I don’t understand much of that. I do know that our stock market is in a shambles right now, though. My husband’s 401(k) has been cut almost in half, and he finally yanked it out of stocks and put all of it into bonds. That sounds like an investment problem to me. I’m sure government spending’s still through the roof as it has been for the entire Bush administration, but it doesn’t appear to be enough to rock that formula. The Commerce Department reported yesterday that our trade deficit increased for the second straight month, and even the most optimistic analysts are starting to waiver a bit (Associated Press, 4/11/08).

Alright, so how about “real income?” Real income is defined as “income of an individual or group after taking into consideration the effects of inflation on purchasing power” (financial-dictionary/thefreedictionary.com). According to the Christian Science Monitor, “Inflation is a global phenomenon this year” (4/11/08). No kidding. My husband got a 3% raise last month; his company, United Health Group, had capped all raises at 3% even though they made a profit of about $6 billion last year. The 3% raise will cover our gas to get to and from work each month.

Employment? Good news there? Again, I’m not an economist. Government officials and the media play fast and loose with unemployment statistics; one person says they’re up, and another says they’re down. Here’s what I do know: ATA closed its doors last week. Frontier Airlines just filed for bankruptcy. General Motors is closing several of its plants; Chrysler is idling some its plants and forcing employees to take vacation time. Sprint is laying off 4,000 of its employees. Those are some big companies getting rid of a lot of jobs. It doesn’t sound good.

I’m not even going to touch industrial production since I have no idea what that means!

Retail sales, though, I understand, having worked in retail for over 10 years. According to the national retailers’ reports, sales were down .5% in March, reaching their lowest point in 13 years (The Record, 4/11/08). The holidays weren’t great for retailers either. From my many students and friends who currently work in retail, I can tell you most stores weren’t hitting their sales goals. According to the International Council of Shopping Centers, holiday sales for shopping malls in 2007 were the weakest in 11 years.

I was surprised that housing sales weren’t included in the recession definition. To me, housing seems like a logical element to affect the country’s economic health. Everyone knows the housing market and mortgage industry are in a huge mess. The house next door is in foreclosure; my neighbors packed up and left in the middle of the night. My former boss had to transfer to Alabama, and she and her husband lost tens of thousands of dollars on their home.

But even without the housing data, the nation is OBVIOUSLY in a recession. Consumers already know it which is why consumer confidence is at a 26-year low (Reuters, 4/11/08). Why can’t we just call it what it is? I guess using the actual word would be an admission that the old Republican economic policies just don’t work. Surely I am not the only one who recognizes that after several years of Republican economics, our country always ends up in a recession?

Many of my conservative friends and family members refuse to believe we’re in a recession. They are, generally, well off and lucky enough not to have been directly affected yet. They haven’t lost their jobs, their homes, or much of their disposable income. I’m happy for them; really, I am. But just because you’re not hungry doesn’t mean everyone around you isn’t starving to death. The Marie Antoinette act is getting old, folks.

Christmas used to be my favorite holiday.  Nowadays, I think it’s so commercialized, it’s hard to enjoy it. So I find it strange that conservative Christians get upset that Christ isn’t in more stores, schools, and government offices. Every year around this time, the Spanish Inquisition is renewed. The Christian Right gets all upset about “the attack on Christmas,” and TV pundits, radio heads, bloggers and e-mailers start insisting that EVERYONE should celebrate Christmas and do it properly. Talk about insensitive ethnocentricity.

I’m a Christian, and I love my Christmas. But I have friends who aren’t Christians. I’m not going to shove my religion in their faces. I don’t want them to shove their religion in mine. They don’t anyway, so I’m not sure why my fellow Christians on the right get so upset. “The attack on Christmas” is fiction.

Still, the e-mails keep coming. Here is a poem I received this morning:

T’was the month before Christmas
When all through our land,
Not a Christian was praying
Nor taking a stand.
See the PC Police had taken away,
The reason for Christmas - no one could say.
The children were told by their schools not to sing,
About Shepherds and Wise Men and Angels and things.
It might hurt people’s feelings, the teachers would say
December 25th is just a ” Holiday “.

Yet the shoppers were ready with cash, checks and credit
Pushing folks down to the floor just to get it!
CDs from Madonna, an X BOX, an I-pod
Something was changing, something quite odd!
Retailers promoted Ramadan and Kwanzaa
In hopes to sell books by Franken & Fonda.
As Targets were hanging their trees upside down
At Lowe’s the word Christmas - was no where to be found.
At K-Mart and Staples and Penny’s and Sears
You won’t hear the word Christmas; it won’t touch your ears.

Inclusive, sensitive, Di-ver-si-ty
Are words that were used to intimidate me.
Now Daschle, Now Darden, Now Sharpton, Wolf Blitzen
On Boxer, on Rather, on Kerry, on Clinton!
At the top of the Senate, there arose such a clatter
To eliminate Jesus, in all public matter.
And we spoke not a word, as they took away our faith
Forbidden to speak of salvation and grace  

The true Gift of Christmas was exchanged and discarded
The reason for the season, stopped before it started.
So as you celebrate “Winter Break” under your “Dream Tree”
Sipping your Starbucks, listen to me.
Choose your words carefully, choose what you say

Shout MERRY CHRISTMAS, 

not  Happy  Holiday!

Argh!

·          Christmas is not in any danger. If anything, it’s taking over the world. Ramadan passed several weeks ago without much notice in the United States. Hanukkah’s going on right now. Did you know? Hard to tell around here, I assure you. But EVERYONE (Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and atheists alike) knows that Christmas is coming in exactly 20 days. You can’t miss it.

·          The stores may not be using the word “Christmas” outright as much as they used to, although I don’t really see much difference from when I was a child. Still, is there any mistaking all those decorated trees, the big guy with the white beard and red clothes, and the shepherds gathered around a baby in a manger as anything other than Christmas décor?

·          I’m always amused by the conservatives who get irritated by what retailers do during the holidays anyway. Aren’t conservatives all about letting the “free market” regulate itself? Well, isn’t that what the retailers are doing? They’re just following the needs and wants of their customers. You want a free market, folks, this is what you get.

·          I still say “Merry Christmas” to lots of people. And I hear it back from a lot of people. There is no law against saying “Merry Christmas,” and there never should be; however, I would no sooner wish my Muslim students a “Merry Christmas” than they would have wished me a “Happy Ramadan.” To do so would be insensitive and rude, not to mention downright stupid. It has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with common courtesy.

·          Government offices have to be sensitive because they deal with ALL citizens. In addition, we have this pesky Constitution in the United States that is supposed to separate church and state. It was written by Christian men because they were worried about protecting Christianity. Christians seem to forget that, though, whenever the Constitution keeps them from getting what they want. Like a Nativity on the statehouse lawn. Can you imagine the uproar if someone tried to put a copy of the Koran or the Talmud on the statehouse lawn? To keep things fair, we just don’t allow any religious holiday décor in our government offices. Just like kindergarten, folks. If there’s not enough for everyone, no one should have any.

·          As for the schools, I can’t speak for all of them. But my son’s school is doing all sorts of activities for the Christmas season. They’re going on a field trip to our Children’s Museum which is celebrating winter holidays. They’re having a party the day before the break. They didn’t do any of that during Ramadan. Hanukkah will be over by the time the school celebrates. Maybe they don’t call these events “Christmas” activities, but who’s fooling who? I like the approach our school system is taking. They are using the winter holidays as an opportunity to teach students about different cultures and traditions. They’re talking about all the holidays, and they’re studying the way people in other countries celebrate them. It is a school after all, not a church. I’ll teach my children the meaning of Christmas at home or in Sunday School, thank you very much!

·          These people who get all in a tizzy about what they perceive as an “attack on Christmas” seem to me to be extremely self-absorbed and negative. Have they really looked around? Christmas is everywhere. Maybe we don’t say the downtown monument is decorated in Christmas lights, but those lights would NOT be there if it weren’t for Christmas. The Jewish residents of Indianapolis aren’t complaining about the holly and tinsel and twinkle lights. What do Christians have to complain about? Do Christians have to advertise their faith as well as their holiday trappings? For me, faith is a personal thing. I don’t feel the need to run around shoving my personal religious convictions in other people’s faces. I have my nativities in my home. I read the scripture to my children in my home. We sing Christmas carols IN OUR HOME. Sense a theme? The true meaning of Christmas cannot and SHOULD NOT be institutionalized, commercialized, advertised. Personally, I don’t want to see it in a store window or on a courthouse lawn. In the words of Charles Dickens, keep Christmas in your heart.  That is its true place.

·          My favorite conservative Christian uproar, though, has to be over the use of “X-Mas.” The fact that they’re offended by it exposes their ignorance about the history of their own faith. X is the Greek letter chi. When early Christians wanted to celebrate Christmas, they had to be careful not to let the anti-Christian authorities know. They used X-mas as an abbreviation to disguise their holiday. In modern times, the English letter X has taken different meanings. Good Christians who know their history, though, should not be confused by the term.

·          According to the ultimate hardliner conservative Christian, Oliver Cromwell, Christmas should not be celebrated at all. It is a decadent, frivolous holiday with too many origins in Pagan celebrations. When he and his religious reformers took over England in the early 1600’s, they outlawed Christmas altogether (An Outlaw Christmas, history.com).

Christmas is a wonderful holiday, and I love it. Most of my family and friends celebrate it. Even my agnostic husband likes Christmas and does not object to our creches, the angel on our tree or the reading of the book of Luke. We keep Christ in Christmas in our home where He belongs. No, thanks, but I’d rather not see Him in Wal-Mart or at Starbucks. I prefer to keep Him close.

Senator Larry Craig (R-Id) is reconsidering his decision to resign his Senate seat after a telephone call from Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa). If you’ve been living under a rock for the past couple weeks, Craig was arrested in Minneapolis for soliciting sexual favors from an undercover police officer in an airport men’s room (AP, 9/5/07). The arrest occurred in June, but Craig managed to keep it quiet for a couple months. In August, he pled guilty to a reduced charge of disorderly conduct. Under pressure from the Republican Party, Craig announced his resignation this week.

Maybe. Now he’s changed his mind. He says the only mistake he made was pleading guilty.

Whatever.

Despite the damage President Bush and his administration have inflicted on our Constitutional rights over the past six and a half years, an American is still considered innocent until proven guilty. So even if Craig did plead guilty, I allow that he may be an innocent citizen. Fine. His judgment, however, is lousy, and I see no reason to support his bid to remain a U.S. senator.

First, Craig’s supporters contend that he was just “in the wrong place at the wrong time” (AP, 9/5/07). I’m sure there were a lot of men in that airport restroom who were not arrested in that sex sting. The police were not just arresting every guy in there. He had to be doing SOMETHING to get their attention. Even if he wasn’t soliciting sex, he wasn’t behaving like all the other men who walked out of there without handcuffs. Poor judgment.

Second, if you’re a U.S. senator who has been a supporter of family views as well as a vocal opponent of pro-homosexual legislation and you get arrested for something like this, why on earth would plead guilty at all? Especially if you were innocent? This man’s supposed to be intelligent, politically-savvy and educated in the ways of the American legal system. Pleading guilty is obviously not the way to go if you’re innocent.

Finally, an American lawmaker should be a good decision-maker. After all, they are entrusted with many big decisions that affect the lives of millions of people in this nation, billions of people all over the world. After 27 years in office, I would think that Senator Craig would have a lot of experience in examining the facts, weighing the options, making the big decision and sticking with it. So when faced with this disastrous moment in his own little career, he flakes out? He announced his resignation Tuesday and just a day later, he changes his mind?

I find it sad that Senator Specter felt the need to make that phone call. Is Larry Craig really the best we can do? Is this the kind of person we need in our Senate? I know hundreds of people who have never been arrested, never had to plead guilty to anything. Even if they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, they had the good sense to keep their mouths shut. I also know many people who behave in ways that consistently uphold the values they espouse. If they say they support family values, they would always make decisions that support their claim. If they say they are innocent, they would behave innocently. And I know a lot of people who stand by their decisions, even when they’re difficult, complicated or challenged by others.

Basically, I know a lot of people who would make better senators than Larry Craig, people of whom the Republican Party could be quite proud.

Innocent or guilty, Craig is a flaky hypocrite with poor judgment. Surely we don’t need him in the Senate.

It’s been a tough summer for dogs. In Indianapolis, we’ve experienced a rash of dog attacks on children. Then, of course, we’ve had the Michael Vick dogfighting case, Ving Rhames’ caretaker mauled by dogs, and DMX’s maltreated dogs removed from his home. So I’ve been thinking a lot about dogs lately.

First, let me be honest. I like animals, but I’m NOT a dog person. I’m not necessarily a cat person either, but I have a cat I like very much. Generally, I’m picky about my pets, and no dog will ever make the cut. That’s not to say that I don’t like dogs. I liked my grandmother’s German shepherd mix, my aunt’s standard poodle, the service dog at the Writing Center, my friend’s Corgi and a few others. I just would never want to own one.

Dogs are just too high-maintenance for me. They have to be walked or let out all the time. They need attention. They whine; they howl; they bark; they bite; they lick; they jump on you. I like my pets quiet and fairly self-sufficient: cats, fish, the occasional hamster or parakeet.

The dogs, however, are not nearly annoying as some dog owners. You see a wide range of “dog people.” From the folks who dress their dogs, throw them birthday parties and buy them Christmas gifts to these girls who use them as fashion accessories to the people who have several dogs and pay little or no attention to them, just leave them outside to bark all day. It’s not the dogs’ fault, of course. The fault lies with the breeders who engineered certain breeds to be yippy and annoying dogs and with the dogs’ owners who let their dogs bark and whine at 7am on a Saturday.

I think what really drives me nuts, though, are the people who constantly talk about their dogs as if they were children and use their pet as an excuse. I hate it when I’m talking about my child, and someone has to interject with some story about Fido as if that’s an appropriate comparison. Even before I had kids, I would never inject my cat into a conversation in which people were talking about their children. And I think it’s pretty rude when people cut out of a get-together early to go let the dog out. When people say, “I have to go. Poor Fluffy needs to be let out,” I hear, “I’d rather be at home with my dog than here with you.” I have lots of friends with dogs who have never cut out early to tend to their pets, so I know it’s not necessarily true. Not all dog owners are like that, of course. I have some friends who are loving, responsible dog owners without ever letting the dog become an excuse or a creepy substitute for kids.

So I don’t care for dogs much, but I still cannot fathom what Michael Vick and his friends did. Animal cruelty is wrong whether the animal in question is a cute little bunny or a vicious cobra. If cruel and unusual punishment were not illegal, I’d say we should string Vick and company up in a puddle of water and give them a few shocks like Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon. As for DMX, Ving Rhames and the owners of the dogs who mauled the kids in Indianapolis, they need to be  tossed into a ring with some vicious pit bulls and see how they fare.

What’s a non-dog person to do? Well, I would support legislation to stop the breeding of aggressive dogs - pit bulls, Rottweilers, mastiffs - or of “purebred” dogs in general. One of my friends used to be a veterinary technician, and she told me all sorts of horror stories about pedigreed species who have been so inbred they are genetic nightmares even without being aggressive.

I would also encourage people to really think about why they want a dog before they go get one. Security is a lame reason because security systems are cheaper, safer, cleaner, and more reliable than a dog. Companionship is fine, I guess, but cats are easier.

And if your dog is the one that wakes me up on a Sunday morning, rest assured I’ll be on your doorstep. It won’t be pretty. Not only am I not a dog person, I’m not a morning person either!

What a mess.

Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie: Put them together and what have you got? Multiple arrests, stints in jail, a messy divorce, several lawsuits, aborted rehab stays, public nudity, downright trashiness and little, if any, talent.

I haven’t really figured out why any of these girls are famous, especially Hilton and Richie, who cannot even claim to be actresses or singers. (Hilton’s embarrassing appearance in “House of Wax” does NOT count.) Spears had a couple catchy songs about a decade ago; Lohan was once a decent enough actress to land roles in films starring much better actors. Now they seem to be famous for their all-too-exposed anatomies. Hilton and Richie seem to be celebrities simply because they were born rich. No wonder these girls are so screwy.

I saw this morning that Richie was sentenced to four days in jail. I don’t know what for. I can’t keep track. Lohan’s in rehab again, I think. Hilton’s out of jail at the moment. Does anyone know where Britney is? Bet you $50 she’s not with her children.
A few years ago, I could feel a bit sorry for most of these girls, but they’re getting too old for this nonsense now. Plus, they’re becoming mothers! Once you have a baby, you are no longer the center of your universe. All your issues should take a backseat to the needs of your child. But I just don’t see that happening with these horribly self-absorbed girls. Nicole Richie is pregnant now. God help her child. I heard Britney’s ex-husband is suing for full custody of their kids. How terrible a mother do you have to be to make Kevin Federline look like a good parent?!

My main concern, though, is not for these trashy girls or even for their unfortunate children. I’m worried about what they’re doing to America’s young women. All their ridiculous behavior is teaching our girls that you can act like a stupid, drugged-out, skanky criminal and be rich and famous for it. That’s disgusting. How am I supposed to teach my daughter to be a strong, educated, whole person when she has all these idiots staring at her from every magazine, website and television?

The kindest thing we can do for Spears and her ilk and the smartest thing we can do for our daughters is to ignore these young Hollywood fools. Don’t buy a magazine that sports them on the cover, don’t go to websites that spin their stories, and turn the channel when they pop up on the TV. Maybe they’ll eventually learn that there are bad consequences for bad behavior and clean up their acts. In the meantime, I’ll just try to keep my daughter out of rehab, out of jail and out of court. If only these girls’ parents could do the same.