A Christmas Story

Once upon a time Christmas was a simple holiday. The earliest Christian churches down played it because they felt the birth of Jesus was nowhere near as important as his death and resurrection. The Puritans of Boston Colony practically outlawed any celebration of Christmas other than church service, which every citizen was required to attend or they could be fined up to two schillings (which was a lot of money back then). It makes you wonder why there are no Puritans today.

So here is Christmas, a huge fat pageant of exuberance and excess, loaded up with pagan symbolism and it's represents for some the front lines of the culture wars over the soul of America. For the overly faithful it has become the height of rudeness to say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas -as though there is only one holiday in December. My friend Harrison has come up with several retorts for the militant wing of the Jesus fan club, which are all out of spirit with "peace on Earth, good will towards men". As Harrison would say it's becoming Christmas uber alles.

Harrison is an assumed name, he prefers I don't use his real one. Twenty years ago when my wife and I were selecting baby names, as a joke I came up with Harrison Mackenzie James, something to honor my wife's Canadian heritage. Yes my wife is an ethnic Canadian but she doesn't like to draw attention to that fact. So neither of our sons got stuck with that name but I saved it for a character in a half finished story. Harrison Mackenzie Jones -Hero of the Northwest Territories, I haven't gotten too far with the plot. It's difficult writing adventure stories where every conflict is resolved with a hardy handshake (the way real Canadians do, even the ones who play hockey end the game with a handshake -right eh?).

Harrison has read my writings and has latched on to the name. He is also excellent wingman and partner in crime. Like Cheap John, Tom the collector of everything, Slow Paul, Shady Ric, Keith aka Jabba the Hut and several other denizens of my (guy) life; Harrison is in that club of  friends my wife neither approves or wants to know too much about. Yesterday I was out on the quest to find the perfect gift for one of my nieces. She is in love with Thomas the Train and wants Cranky. The last week I failed to find Cranky because I thought he was another steam engine with an irritable attitude -instead he a happy little crane. So over breakfast I declare "today I'm getting Cranky" and my wife replied "good for you".

I picked up Harrison on the way to mall. Harrison was grateful because he still had some Christmas shopping to do and he was "in between" checks and his car is in the shop. On the drive down we're soon singing Christmas songs, Harrison does spot on impersonation of Tom Waits and sings "Santa has been drinking". Next we mix and match Christmas songs until we come up with "Yoko got run over by a reindeer".  While walking across the parking lot Harrison in his loud classically trained voice belts out:
                                                            "It's coming on Christmas
                                                             they're cutting down trees
                                                             they're putting up reindeer
                                                             and singing songs of joy and peace
                                                             wish I had a river -just to see if Joni Mitchel could swim"

A couple of fellow shoppers clap and one person shouts back at us about how much he hates that song.

The quest for Cranky didn't turn out to be an epic adventure. It's easier to find things when you know what you're looking for. Cranky was waiting for me in the third department store I went to. Harrison shopped with the precision of a cruise missile and in short time finished up everything he needed to do. With our missions completed we went to the food court for a cup of coffee.

Harrison for a moment was absorbed in his thoughts looked over to me and said "I could have been somebody".  

I had known Harrison back from my days in South Jersey. He was a radio DJ on a popular college station. As a gig it didn't pay anything but on the air Harrison was minor cult of personality. And here we are now three decades later. I'm embedded into middle-class suburbia and Harrison, though only a couple of paychecks away from destitution, was an indomitable spirit with a personal philosophy of confronting the world and not hiding from it.

Harrison assured me he never told anyone this story. He was doing his Saturday afternoon show and broke away from the usual alternative rock, pop and schlock; and played few selections of African folk music. Several new records came in (yes it was the days of vinyl) that no one else was willing to touch them because they didn't recognize any of the artists or the liner notes weren't in English. The music was exceptionally good.

Normally that part of the college was empty on the weekends so it was a surprise when this skinny kid comes by. He's a student and works on the janitorial staff, that's why he's in the building on a Saturday and the kid is totally blown away with the music. This kid isn't some new age world music debutante, he's actually from African. He knows the music and can translate the lyrics. His name is Lyle.

Afterwards Lyle would visit every other Saturday. He was friendly guy, soft spoken and polite. He eventually began to talk about his home in Africa and that his father was an Assistant Secretary to the Department of the Interior in Zimbabwe. Lyle was rather dismayed that the average college student was only concerned with getting drunk or laid. He had taken a liking to Harrison, because Harrison at least knew where Zimbabwe was and how the country got its name.

Then one day Lyle asked Harrison "would you like to meet my father?" He gave Harrison an invitation to Christmas dinner in New York City.    

Harrison broke from his story for a moment, looked down in his coffee. "It was either 85 or 86, it snowed that winter. You know Lyle thought I'd be great working for the government of Zimbabwe. That's why he wanted to introduce me to his dad."

Harrison described that perfect winter's day in the city. It snowed big white fluffy flakes that covered everything and made the city look bright and clean. It was like a movie but better. The invitation only had an address but that address was to the very exclusive Stuyvesant Club. One of those enclaves of the privileged, a place that doesn't advertise -either you belong there or you don't. The doorman verifies your invitation and then you're whisked up thirty or forty stories up to what looks like a country club in Connecticut except for the view of skyscrapers out the windows.

"Best beef dinner I ever had" Harrison said in a voice that sounded like a daydreaming child. Harrison returned to his story. He talked to Lyle's father, a warm but formal man, the product of an English boarding education. There was a steady flow of pleasant conversation, it was the diplomatic kabuki of powerful people being nice to each other. After a couple of drinks they sat down to dinner with twenty other folks from the Zimbabwean Embassy. The one odd thing were the place setting, the dinner plates with a bright polished metallic finish that looked like little UFOs dipped in liquid mercury.

After dinner, one man at the end of the table dominated the conversation. A Sir Richard Blackthorne, one of those old colonial carryovers from when Zimbabwe was ruled by an all white government as Rhodesia. According to Harrison, Blackthorne was one of those characters would have fit perfectly into the royal family or the what the average person would identify as a condescending twit. Blackthorne began to talk about the dinner plates. Zimbabwe had just discovered huge deposits of Chromium ore in its western hills. The dinner plates were so silvery and shinny because they were plated in chrome. Blackthorne continued on how chrome was superior to any other metal plates -better than silver and certainly better than gold.

Harrison looked directly at me. "You know where I went wrong? I let Sir Dick get under my skin. If I had just sat there and only pretended to listen... things could have been different. But no I huffed and said  loud enough for everyone to hear me - what do think these dinner plates are going to cost?"

The table of guests went silent. Then Blackthorne began to mock Harrison as being another cheap America who can only see the price but never understand the value. That chrome dinner plates are worth the price because they're meant to last a lifetime.

Harrison started to act out that past conversation between him and Blackthorne.

I asked Sir Dick "Is this what the world really needed another over priced luxury item? Chrome is better than gold for dinner plates -like who cares?"

In a accent more appropriate for a Monty Python skit Harrison went into Blackthorne's explanation about how gold stands up to almost anything but not everything. How gold tarnishes when it comes in contact with eggs. And what was part of the dinner that night? Asparagus in hollandaise sauce! Hollendaise sauce has eggs in it!  The hollendaise sauce would have tarnished the gold but never the chrome!         
    
Harrison took a sip of his coffee. "That's when I looked Blackthorne right in the eye and said -oh you mean there's no plate like chrome for the hollandaise?"

"Two guys came and escorted out, that could have been the best job I every had" Harrison finished his coffee, smiled and wished me Merry Christmas.

And I don't know if that whole story is bullshit, or partly true, or as improbable as it sounds the complete and honest truth. Harrison is capable of all three possibilities and like any other Christmas story who knows what the truth really is -it depends on what you want to believe.

Oh, this morning Harrison sent me the link for this video. Merry Christmas.

  
           

What would Jesus buy?

Yesterday, Tuesday the 18th of December, we had had an afternoon thunder storm with summer time hail. I'm 40 miles (65 km) west of Philadelphia and I'm 40 degrees north of the equator. The lawn is still green and it looks like it needs to be cut. Yes, these are strange times.

I feel like the Knights of the Round Table from the movie Monty Python And The Holy Grail -what is your quest? Today the one big quest is to find Cranky, he goes with the Thomas The Tank Engine play set for my niece. At first I didn't realize which character was Cranky and I was looking for an engine with an irritable expression, just didn't think Cranky was a happy little crane.

Cranky seems to be the undercurrent. Economically things are better but half the people I know are still out of work and the other half just hate their jobs. What happened in Newtown Connecticut still casts a dark shadow over everything and the issue of gun control has given plenty of people fodder to argue over. There's the coming fiscal cliff -who's to blame and what does it really mean. I was listening to one local yammering about how Obama is part of Muslim world conspiracy to take over America. It enough to make you want to shout -what about peace on Earth and shut the hell up.

Billy J down in Pottstown is still out there in his one man campaign against Wal Mart. It been fun to watch because Billy has been successful getting the public to see how harmful the Mega-Merchandiser is. Yes the parking lots of the two Wal Mart supercenters (less than 10 miles apart) are full but Billy has made his mark and few less shoppers are there this year and maybe a few less next year.

My biggest fear today is the local Wal Mart might have the last Cranky The Crane on the shelves .

I will have consult the other Billy of the Christmas Season, also known as Rev. Billy C Wirtz. Rev. Billy Wirtz is the man with the message, yes -what would Jesus buy?

   

Still some time today I have to find Cranky the Crane. When my two sons were little children, they were very enamored with Thomas the Tank Engine. Just back then it seemed the pieces were lot less pricey and easier to find. And when we couldn't find a piece, that was okay my boys would play around that. I'd help them too, tell them stories about Thomas and all the cheeky little steam engines on the Island of Sodor. Like the time Gordon got addicted to painkillers because his sleeve bearings were old and scraped -and how Gordon got better with proper lubrication and a stint in rehab. 

We had other imaginary adventures on Sodor, like when Sir Toppem Hat divorced his wife and got a new girlfriend. Then Sir Toppem Hat had to pick which steam engine to sell to pay for the new vacation house in the Cayman Islands. Or the time when the new steam engine from the factory was accidentally shipped to Mordor instead of Sodor. Or when Frank the Boxcar had an operation and came back as Francesca the Flatcar -boy was Percy embarrassed over that one.

It's really not about things. You have encourage your children to think, to be creative and always know that you're willing to spend the most precious thing in the world on them -not your money but your time.    

The Gift of the Magi

This the season to go shopping. Like when did all this craziness begin? It seems it began right at the first Christmas. When the Three Wise Men, the Magi, came bearing gifts for the new King of Kings. The Magi traveled far from Persia. They used astrology and when they saw the right lineament of stars they followed it. So you have three pagan mystics who are among the first to recognize Jesus Christ. Is it me? -Or does this story sound a little incongruent?  Especially in the light of what most modern Christians think about astrology.

The first Christmas -at least according to the Bible in Book of Luke happened on a cold night when the shepherds were out in the fields. Which really only happens in springtime when the ewes are giving birth to their lambs. It's when the flock is most vulnerable, otherwise any shepherd was willing to get a good night's sleep in a warm bed and let the dog guard the flock.  

There has always been a connection between many Christian holidays and the Pagan ones they supplanted. As one historian pointed out, it's easier to get people to change their Gods than their holidays. So we have Christmas in the winter and celebrate Easter instead of Resurrection Sunday. (Easter is a whole other story in itself)


And the issue of the Virgin Birth isn't something you want to discuss over Christmas dinner. Though one of my friends who is both sanctified and a graduate of a Bible college felt that Mary's virginity was proof that she didn't commit adultery. Back then adultery was a capital crime.   

It's funny if you really examine the Christmas story, it is kind of loopy but it still makes you feel good. Over the years I have had the opportunity to listen to a wide variety of people talk about their holidays and their faiths. These days I refrain from saying things like "that's silly" or "how can you believe that nonsense". In the end it's all good. In all those conversations I don't think I learned much about God but I have been able to see inside people. See what they value, what they fear and what inspires them to be a better person.

So this is Christmas. A time for celebration, a little excess and an excuse to be as generous as the Magi.  

Shopping for some people is easier than others. The easiest person on my shopping list is Tom, otherwise know as "Tom, the collector of everything". He is a hoarder but then again so am I, though my wife keeps it down to an inconvenient clutter. Actually I can say I'm more than just casually acquainted with a dozen or so obsessive collectors or full blown hoarders. Most these people are guys -yes guys tend to collect things and women tend to collect cats. Anyway these guys are mainly bachelors and their houses, garages or man caves are like little museums (or junk yards). Now I'm starting to wonder about my next gift to Tom, does he suffer from an addiction and am I being an enabler?

I'll still get Tom a gift, I don't want him to think I'm cheap.

Maybe that's one of the differences between collectors and hoarders. Collectors, people like Tom, share their collections and show off their big finds. Whatever they collect, that collection is their passport into a community of like minded people.

True hoarders are so much less connected to other people. They pack away and hide their stuff until they have no where else to put it -and it begins to take over the living space, both physical and socially. Every hoarder seems to be preparing for some unknown emergency and does not feel safe and secure unless they have at least two of everything.

Maybe that's where the Magi come in. From Magi we get the word magician. And maybe that's an important part of Christmas and life in general -not magic like sorcery -not some conjured supernatural event -but the magic act. The magic act, where through illusion and harmless trickery we see something we know is physically impossible but we still take it in and marvel at it.

Life is that great magic act, mostly filled with mundane chores and yet every moment really is a miracle. Love and friendship, you learn not to look too closely at it -you know where the warts and imperfections are but that's okay because even if it's half illusion, they are the best gifts life can offer.       

It's The End Of the World - then again maybe not

Once again it look likes it the end of the world is coming. And it is also the birthday of Nostradamus, well truthfully no one knows for sure if it was December 14th or December 21st. Whoa...December 21st? Nostradamus's birthday could be on the day the world ends? Who could have ever imagined that?

Well if the world doesn't end and Nostradamus was still alive -then he would be 510 years old. Amazingly his books of prophesies have never been out of print. No matter how bright the light of skepticism and logic shines every generation rediscovers the dark mystical and seductive idea that the future can be seen before it happens. It's always been a good premise in fiction, from the myth of Cassandra to Phillip K Dick's story The Minority Report, though knowing the future doesn't seem to change the results.

The last time I remember Nostradamus being a popular topic was at a college New Year's Party a couple of years after the release of Al Steward's album Past, Present and Future, which featured the 10 minute ballad of Nostradamus. The song was too long for commercial radio stations but it became clandestinely popular with those who wanted a cosmic connection to the world. The hosts of the party were new age people, happy to be alive and see the end of the Age of Pisces; the future promised to be something better. There was a discussion on how Nostradamus would meditate while staring into a shallow bowl of water to see his visions and sometime after midnight each of us at the party tried our hand at it. As far as I can recall our predictions were silly, pretentious and of course totally wrong.

No one invented anti-gravity shoes, wars are still fought and everybody didn't covert over to solar energy. There's always the strong prejudice to predict the world you would like to see. Atheists don't predict the second coming of Christ, Muammar Gaddafi was planning on having a huge 70th birthday blow out in 2012 and Ann Romney wanted to find out what the White House would look like with red velvet curtains. The future is a tricky business -or as one old gambler said you never know if you picked the winning horse until after the race is over.

I believe there was a Victorian politician who said if you want to control the world all you have to do is know God's mind for the next fifty years. A century ago the world's superpower was England. English engineering, fashion and institutions were what the world aspired towards. If you ever wondered why the Japanese drive on the left -it's because they thought the English would endure and America would eventually fade away.

So somewhere in the mumbled and sublimely vague quatrains of Nostradamus people look backwards into history to marvel how he got things right. Others can argue that it's so much wishful thinking of partisans editing the words to fit the facts. I fell pretty secure the world will not end this Friday because Nostradamus had predictions that ran right up to 2016. So we'll soon find out if who's right Nostradamus or the Mayans.

Hey -does anybody remember Jeane Dixon? In the 1960's she was the toast of the psychic world. The Age of Aquarius was coming, the Pentagon was studying psychic warfare and on May 13th 1956 Jeane Dixon predicted that whoever was elected President in 1960 would die in office.

When Kennedy was assassinated everybody remembered Jeane Dixon, though they forgot that she predicted Nixon was going to win or that the Russians would be the first on the Moon. The term "the Jeane Dixon Effect" was coined, where a couple of correct predictions could over shadow a whole bunch of wrong ones.

Long before Jeane Dixon's revelation -Robert Ripley, the creator of Ripley's Believe It or Not, wrote about the the coincidental pattern of Presidental deaths. In 1934 Robert Ripley noticed since 1840 that President William Harrison and every President elected five terms later (twenty years) died in office. Robert Ripley left a line of question marks for 1940. FDR was re-elected in 1940 and died in office in 1945. I don't think it was a big stretch for Jeane Dixon to think history was going to repeat itself again in 1960.

One of these men is the Amazing Kreskin and the other Amazing Criswell. If you said Kreskin on the left and Criswell on the right -then good for you.

Come this New Year's Eve you might again see the Amazing Kerskin give his predictions for 2013 on CNN. The Amazing Kreskin never promoted himself as having paranormal powers but has always been a showman and a "mentalist".  


The Amazing Criswell ... well he is amazing. Once long time friend of Ed Wood -yes that Ed Wood, Criswell starred in world's most notorious grade Z movie, Plan 9 From Outer Space. So after the after the countdown of 2012 and 2013 begins, it might be the perfect time to read a few select passages from Criswell Predicts From Now To The Year 2000 !  -And if that's enough campy fun to start 2013 with then rent Plan 9 From Outer Space -or if you can, get a copy of Orgy Of The Dead, another film Criswell made with Ed Wood. It's all so bad and unintentionally very very funny.  

So until next time .... I'll see you in the future. I plan to be there and I expect you plan to be there too. 

When The Unthinkable Happens

Friday I was planning to post a light little article about some frivolous aspect of the holiday season. Before I could start the news about the mass shooting in Newtown Connecticut came on the radio. As reporters updated the story, it felt like a nightmare that became darker and more depressing as the day went on. My two sons are on the edge of adulthood but it wasn't that long ago that they were in grade school. The schools in my middle-class suburban town are already security conscious, how much more like a fort or a prison will we have build our schools to keep our children safe?

This tragedy the shooter forced his way in, he wore body armor, he had enough legally purchased firepower to kill many more children and school staff if the police didn't arrive as quickly as they did. Will schools have to be built with heavier doors and anti-ballistic glass? And will we pay for these "improvements" by paying teachers less? Are any of us really safe when just about anybody can legally and almost anonymously buy the kinds of weapons that are only marginally less effective than front line military hardware.

I'm not sure how provocative I want to be about this. Already people are hiding behind the same old rhetoric and bullshit arguments that keep any kind of gun reform from happening. Really if we are Democracy then let's really talk about gun ownership openly -I can't think of anything that is more of a political issue than this. 

If mass shootings are the price we have to pay for the absolute right of every citizen to own a gun, then the NRA and every opponent to gun reform should stand up say that. Of course no one would dare say those children died as martyrs for the Second Amendment but maybe something is very wrong in a society where it's easy to buy a gun than health insurance. 

I know many gun owners and I'm not opposed to gun ownership. Though I am for a much higher level of gun responsibility. It's clear that the vast majority of gun owners in America follow the law, safely handle their weapons and pose no danger to the community. But there is that small minority, maybe 1%, maybe only a fraction of a percent, who will methodically plan out the next mass shooting and most likely do it with legally purchased weapons. If this was done by a foreign government we would have no problem declaring it as an act of war. But if it's an event that forces the public to re-examine the logic behind the Second Amendment  -then the tragedy is being unfairly politicized. How do we keep guns out of the hands of people who are dangerous?

Some of my pro-gun neighbors like to bring up the example of Switzerland where there is a high percentage of gun ownership and very low crime rate -actually almost no gun related crimes to speak of . The Swiss have the very "well regulated militia" that the US constitution originally tried to set up in the Second Amendment. The gun culture of Switzerland is entirely different than here, actually everything is different in Switzerland starting with things like universal health care and a progressive education system. The Swiss people don't seem to be at odds with their government, they participate in their government so the people and the government are one in the same. I'm sure in Switzerland people have problems, there is dis-harmony and everyone doesn't get along -but it seems when people in Switzerland have problems they don't go for their guns as a solution.

The bumper sticker mantra that "guns don't kill people, people kill people" is one of those stupid half truths that ignores the tremendous amount of lethal force that's easily available to almost anyone. You can legally buy a gun without training, without showing you're physically or mentally fit and anonymously disappear into the community until unthinkable happens.    

As another one of my pro-gun neighbors had said "no one with the spirit of Jesus ever tried to shoot him". Which made wonder how many weapons did Jesus own? I know several devote Christians who fish and hunt. The guns they own are mostly hunting rifles, shot guns and a maybe a target pistol -I've never seen any of them carry an automatic pistol with an extended ammo clip or an semi-automatic assault rifle. As one very devote Christian said to me "I don't own a gun because I'm in God's hands. When it's my time a gun isn't going to save me -only my faith can do that". I wish people had less faith in guns.

I don't care which side of this issue you are on -tell me what you think. If you have an idea of how to stop the carnage, then feel free to speak up.

The New Cold War

American history and politics has often been propelled by an undercurrent of Evangelical Christianity, which one of its premises is -one can not tell if you are saved unless they can point out somebody who is damned. It becomes possible to identify one's self by identifying their enemies and America is looking for a new enemy.

During the Cold War years of 1945 -1989 Russia was a worthy adversary but it failed create the "worker's paradise" and "bury the United States in corn" (Khrushchev's actual quote) because of drag on the economy from its military and arms industry. Between the Stalin's purges and the destruction from the Great Patriotic War it's surprising the Soviet Union just didn't collapse a week after VE Day but instead the Soviets rebuilt their nation and tried to keep pace with the United States at the same time. Ironically the capitalist style of competition between US and USSR to dominate the world arms market made Soviet weapons either the best in the field or the best value for whatever hard currency you were paying in. There was no competition in their domestic markets, so you would never want to own a Russian car but if you were stuck on a battlefield you could always depend on a Russian made weapon.

After the collapse of Communism many politicians and fear mongers faced an existential crisis -again who are we without an enemy to fight? Ten years ago you would have thought the United States had found its enemy in the Islamic world. Two things had changed the scenario for an "endless war" that could become a perpetual stalemate (and defense industry cash cow) that can never be won or lost. One was the insanely complex maze of cultural politics that ran through North Africa into the Middle East and on into South and Central Asia. These people didn't just want to fight the Great Satan but they also wanted to settle every injustice inflicted upon them for the last 1,000 years. The old Cold War was more simply Capitalism verse Communism, us verse them.

The other game changer was (and is) The Arab Spring. It's not just a popular uprising against the old dictatorial governments in the region. As young people bought computers, they got on-line and began to see the rest of the world without filters and censorship. This generation has seen other people, mostly infidels, living in peace and prosperity. They want what other people have, a house, a car, meaningful employment, a spouse, children and the choice to have as little or as much religion in their life as they wanted. This is tricky stuff for America because a secular liberal Islamic world could be more troublesome as productive economic competitors than wild Jihadists and stereotypical terrorists for the evening news.

The power of the internet is to help people connect up with other people. China struggles with the internet because it's become a Goose that lays the golden eggs but also spouts out subversion. Cuba and North Korea totally fear the internet, though both nations are developing systems where computers in the respective countries can communicate within their boarders but not with the rest of the world.

North Korea has long ago devolved into the very model of George Orwell's 1984. Radios are pre-set to the one government channel, try to modify the radio and you can be sent to a labor camp for five years. There is no private ownership of cell phones and the government issued ones can not connect to the outside world. Every aspect of North Korean life is controlled by the government or the grinding poverty. In the book 1984 the whole world was controlled by three totalitarian super states that were equally brutal and inhuman. There was no hope because there was nothing better to compare your life to. In the Arab Spring, when news and information that conflicted with the government (and religious) propaganda came flooding in -the people saw they were lied to and they rebelled. This is what North Korea fears, this is what any dishonest government fears.

So who will be the United States new Cold War enemy?  Scandinavia

That might sound like a joke but that wasn't an entirely satirical statement. The Scandinavian countries (Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland) challenge and threaten every assumption, postulate, and conceit America is built upon. The Scandinavian nations produce world class goods, usually run trade surpluses, have cradle to grave benefits for all its citizens and they balance their federal budgets. These nations are places where government works, people are not only legally equal but also socially equal and they not only have a standard of living about the same as the United States but they manage that with almost no poverty or violent crime.

I have already notice a decrease in news stories about Scandinavian countries. When Iceland started putting Bankers in jail for their participation the the worldwide fiscal crisis -not a word of it was printed in the US. The Icelandic government's decision to bailout homeowners (not the banks) with low interest loans and debt forgiveness was exactly opposite of what was done in America and though Iceland's economy took a huge hit the overall effects where only half as bad as in America and the EU.

In Norway the per capita income is higher than the United States, for the last several years at least 10% higher. Part of that comes from profits on the North Sea oil where ever citizen receives a dividend check because the government manages the resource and not private industry. The North Sea oil is seen as the property of the the people of Norway and not a handful of stockholders. As you can see this is a very Un-American concept.

Sweden is considered the most politically conservative of the Scandinavian nations. If you read any of the books by Stieg Larrson you might believe there's a decrepit ruling class of closet Nazis running things. From what I gather a conservative Swed would be so far left of center that in America that we would think of as a radical socialist. I wish I could remember who was speaking, he was a Swedish conservative reformer. When asked if he would like to see an American style health care industry in Sweden the man got quite indignant and answered some like -I want to reform what we have here, what they have In the United States is "uncivilized".  

Denmark is working to be a carbon neutral nation -not because it's profitable but because they see it as morally right. They are becoming a leader in solar cells and bio-mass energy. They pay twice as much for electricity as the average American does but Danes don't sit at home in the dark and the cold -but they just don't waste electricity either. In one report I read that compared the health systems of Denmark and the United States -Denmark came out the clear winner. In Denmark people live longer, enter old age with less complaints and chronic illnesses, their children are taller and healthier (and far less obese) and all of these benefits come to the Danish people at about half the cost per person than in America.

I would say something about Finland but I don't know too much the country other than the people are friendly and they really like coffee.

So here are America's newest enemies. People who work hard, live in peace and share their wealth as socialists. Nations that demand every worker gets a "livable" wage and if you should fall sick, become unemployed or need a little help you suddenly don't become a "taker" , a "mooch" or some kind of social pariah. Most of all they respect the person as human being and not a unit of net worth.

So be prepared America, we can ignore Scandinavia but sooner or later the word is going to get out. They are living happy lives and not killing themselves over work. They are saying no thank-you to the American Dream because having peace of mind is priceless.

Watch out -the Socialist Vikings are coming.

As an update this was sent to me. One more bit of evidence on how Scandinavian socialism differs from American capitalism. Scandinavian will never militarily take over the world but a generation from now when their children are taller, healthier and better educated; those children will project and assert the power of social influence. It's easy to discount and ignore the sway of setting a good example but it's what really changed the momentum of the Cold War in America's favor was the cool factor of America being the place to live in the 1950's and 1960's. The oppressed people behind the iron curtain sabotaged their Soviet masters because they wanted a better life like the life they heard about in America.

Fewer and fewer western Europeans look to the US for inspiration and direction. They are looking north to Scandinavia.

There's Treasure Everywhere -part 2

I had previously written about the philosophical idea that "there is treasure everywhere" -it comes from the Calvin and Hobbes book of the same title. Things get so frantic and hectic in life that it's easy to miss the treasures that are only a short distance away.

The American Helicopter Museum in West Goshen Township Pennsylvania sits on the edge of the Brandywine airport. They have 35 about historic helicopters on display and several more in restoration. I heard about the Museum through one of the volunteers -Steve. Steve works a auto mechanic and on every Tuesday, when the museum is closed to the public, he helps restore and maintain the helicopters. It was fun spending the afternoon with the motor heads, gear geeks and retired Boeing engineers who are there almost every week.

The American Helicopter Museum is not a large museum but it is one of the few in the world dedicated solely to rotor wing aircraft. I purposely only posted a few pictures because I want to leave plenty for the first time visitor to discover.

Only a few miles to the west is West Chester PA. A college town with shopping, entertainment and a wide range of restaurants from eclectically casual to fine dining. So after seeing the museum you can round out your day in town

As a special treat the museum has the only civilian V-22 Osprey on public display. They look a lot different up close than they do on TV. The rotors are huge,  38 feet (12 m) in diameter.  

I could go though some of the activities and events at the museum but it's probably better to contact them yourself.