The name derives from the tradition of giving seasonal gifts, on the day after Christmas, to less wealthy people and social inferiors, which was later extended to various workpeople such as labourers and servants.The traditional recorded celebration of Boxing Day has long included giving money and other gifts to charitable institutions, the needy and people in service positions. The European tradition has been dated to the Middle Ages, but the exact origin is unknown and there are some claims that it goes back to the late Roman/early christian era.
In the United Kingdom it certainly became a custom of the nineteenth century Victorians for tradesmen to collect their 'Christmas boxes' or gifts in return for good and reliable service throughout the year on the day after Christmas. [1].
The establishment of Boxing Day as a defined public Holiday under the legislation that created the UK's Bank Holidays started the separation of 'Boxing Day' from the 'Feast of St Stephen' and today it is almost entirely a secular holiday with a tradition of shopping and post Christmas sales starting.
Want to wash the conspicuous consumption off your holiday? Take a few of the minutes and a few of the dollars you were going to spend shopping today, and put them to work helping others.
Need an idea? Every community in the nation has a food bank, and every food bank in every community is struggling to feed dozens, even hundreds more families who never needed food help before. Check the phone book, or google "Food Bank" and the name of your community.
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Rex Rammell may be running for Idaho's governorship, but he is clearly preparing for (or at least thinking of) something more grand. The Mormon candidate will be holding closed door meetings with elders from the Church of the Latter Day Saints (LDS) on the rather apocalyptic predictions by Joseph Smith called the "White Horse" prophesy that leads to Mormons saving the nation by taking over the government.
Rammell previously attracted national attention with a joke about hunting President Obama, here.
In January, Rammell will hold a series of special meetings targeted specifically at "faithful priesthood-holders of the LDS Church" to discuss the so-called "White Horse" prophecy. Smith foretold of a constitutional crisis that leads to the impending breakup of the United States — only to have the Mormons take over the government.
Women are not invited but Rammell said that their husbands can return home and explain to them what occurred.
Rammell insists that the meetings are closed but not secret:
"There is nothing secret about the meeting — it's just the sacred nature of the things we will be talking about. We are going to talk about (LDS Church founder) Joseph Smith's prophecy that the Constitution will be hanging by a thread and that the Latter-day Saint elders will step forward and save it. . . . Only LDS elders are invited because I don't want people there that don't believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet. . . . Any active member of the church is welcome to attend."
Now that is the ultimate stimulus package. Of course with Sarah Palin sucking the oxygen out of the Republican race for the White House, an apocalypse may be the only viable option left to Mitt Romney.
For the full story, click here.
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Aside from the fact that clowns are scary, this is why you should never ever go to the circus:
Story here.
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h/t Sadly No:
It is a significant but insufficient improvement over the status quo, and it is a fail compared to progressive aspirational goals, but it is the best whack that can be taken at this problem for the next fifteen years.
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Eagles teammates vote to honor dog killer Michael Vick with Courage award
Sorry, Philly Eagles. Anything Michael Vick experienced is a result of his cowardice and cruelty in training innocent dogs to fight, then maiming, beating, shooting and abusing the ones who couldn't "measure up." It's not "courage" to make a comeback in the NFL after doing time in lockup for that sadistic, sick behavior.
Michael Vick's peers appreciate his tough journey back to the NFL. Vick won the Ed Block Courage Award, voted on by his teammates on the Philadelphia Eagles. The once-disgraced star quarterback returned to the league after spending 18 months in a federal prison for his role in a dogfighting ring.
...The Ed Block Award honors players who exemplify commitment to the principles of sportsmanship and courage. All 32 NFL teams select a recipient, and each winner will be honored at an awards ceremony in Baltimore on March 9.
"I've overcome a lot, more than probably one single individual can handle or bear," Vick said. "You ask certain people to walk through my shoes, they probably couldn't do. Probably 95 percent of the people in this world because nobody had to endure what I've been through, situations I've been put in, situations I put myself in and decisions I have made, whether they have been good or bad.
Check out that humility. Holy mother of dog. It's one thing to give the man a fresh start to work (some wouldn't believe he deserved that), but to honor someone as having courage just because of the media circus he endured that evolved out of the dogfighting catastrophe makes me ill. It only tells me that his teammates and the Eagles need their moral compasses adjusted.
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Jim Lippard has put up an excellent post identifying the major institutions behind climate change denial. They are almost uniformly conservative and populated with old and unqualified cranks, although Jim is too genteel to put it that way. It's useful information if you need a scorecard to keep track of the players.
It's also amusing. Lippard makes this passing mention of a certain notorious crank in a discussion of the denialists with the best academic credentials:
The top-cited scientist, Lubos Motl, has 150 citations for his fourth-most-cited paper, but he's a theoretical physicist with no publications containing the word "climate."
Commie,
I urge you to instantly remove the libels and lies from this blog, otherwise I will start to work on the legal liquidation of the criminal that you are.
These things may be common among the green trash in which you seem to live but I won't tolerate it against myself.
Wow. "Legal liquidation." I'm impressed. Although…did anyone spot any lies or libels against Motl? Does he have 151 citations for that paper, or what?
If you hadn't realized that Motl is a freakish little sociopath before, that comment may just persuade you.
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Has the time come to abolish the Senate?
How many American lawmakers of the Republican persuasion have campaigned over the years with a huge anti United Nations plank in their platforms? The attitude of most "conservatives" these days seem to be that the United Nations is a hook by which the largest countries, like the US, pay most of the bills but the smaller countries, who naturally pay less based on their populations and budgets, get the same number of votes the big countries do... one. The Republicans have long hated a system in which the number of votes is not pretty much wholly dependent on the number of US dollars being contributed or, to a lesser degree, the number of people being "represented.
Yet these same "conservatives have no problem applying the exact same principles to our own system of government which for me, brings up a couple of rather pointed questions that I would dearly like to hear some reasoned and rational answers to instead of the usual jingoistic slogan spouting.
First Question: Why do we have or need a senate in the first place? How did we wind up with our equivalent to the English House of Lords... which was part of a system that most Americans of the time had come here to escape... in our own system?
Keep reading: http://www.theygaveusarepublic.com/diary/4502/has-the-time-come-to-abolish-the-senate
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Listen, son, there's no North Pole anymore! From now on, you either swim to Canada or you die!"
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Just imagine how pleasant these financial companies would be if you did the same to them. That's OK though, because these businesses are more important than common people and get special privileges. Reuters:
Fifty-five financial companies failed to pay dividends in November on money they borrowed from the U.S. government, bank research firm SNL said on Wednesday.
That number swelled from 33 companies that missed an August payment on government funds, according to an SNL analysis of government data.
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Gee. Another investigation into Wall Street fleecing customers - and another tie to the new Obama team.
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The Real Rogue of 2009: Levi Johnston
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Kevin Drum wants to know when Obama willl give up on bipartisanship:
Obama clearly seems dedicated to a program of compromise and bipartisan comity, and he wants to keep at it long enough to give it a real chance of working. But how long is long enough? I never really believed Republicans were ever likely to respond to olive branches in the first place — they need a few more years in the wilderness before they're willing to really take stock of the corner they've painted themselves into — so I'm not a good judge of this. But it's been nearly a year now and Republicans, if anything, are more intransigent than they were on inauguration day. How much longer does Obama give them? Another year? Two? At what point does he finally give up and decide that he's just being played for a patsy?
He keeps going because the party that loses the middle is the party that looks the most intransigent and ideological. I hope he keeps up the kind of discipline he has so far.
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This is so convoluted only teabaggers could come up with it.
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Nader feels ignored:
"This is what I meant a year ago when I said the next year will determine whether Barack Obama will be an Uncle Tom groveling before the demands of the corporations."
Charming.
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Michele Bachmann puckered like a Kissing Gourami when the ###
David Broder got paid to write this:
Obama has not intervened with a heavy hand as the bill has moved through the House and Senate, but now it is time for him to act.It would help a lot if he reached out personally to those few Republicans who might still want to improve the bill rather than sink it. And it would help even more if he shamed the Democrats into rescinding some of the crasser bargains they made to buy votes along the way.
The country would welcome even a few signs that this legislation has bipartisan support.
Then we could applaud its final passage and take our thumbs from our noses.
How do you reach out and get a sign that Republicans support a bill that they just unanimously rejected? Olympia Snowe just voted 'aye' on an amendment that calls the mandate 'unconstitutional.' Is she going to turn around and vote for the bill anyway? It would be hard to wank harder to the God of bipartisanship than David Broder. No amount of proof seems capable of teaching him what this generation of Republicans is all about.
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Senate fails to confirm some of Obama's key progressive nominations: http://thinkprogress.org/2009/12/25/dawn-johnsen-patricia-smith-nominations/
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War zone pregnancy punishments dropped.
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Celebrities Oppose US Government Plan to Move 25,000 Mustangs East
US government plans to round up as many as 25,000 mustangs and move the horses, symbol of the Wild West, further east have prompted a bitter row with an alliance of conservationists and celebrities.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/12/25
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Sign the Petition:
Investigate Rahm Emanuel
We write to demand an immediate investigation into the activities of Rahm Emanuel from his time at Freddie Mac, and the potential coverup of criminal activity.
Join us in calling for the Department of Justice to investigate White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel's dealings at Freddie Mac and the subsequent stonewalling of an investigation.
» Sign the petition: Rahm should be investigated and resign.
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Celebrating the birth of history's most famous liberal
The woman was as guilty as sin of the crime of adultery: the penalty for the offense, death by stoning, was clearly established. So what was Jesus Christ's response?
"He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone."
Talk about a bleeding heart liberal!
Now, to be fair to the alligator brains out there who have somehow managed to construe words like these to constitute an endorsement of intolerance, vengefulness and greed, I should probably note that there's some controversy over whether this particular story belongs in the Bible. It wasn't in the earliest versions of the Gospel of John, apparently having been added later.
So, perhaps the alligator brains are relying, instead, on less disputed examples of Jesus Christ's teachings. This for example:
Matthew 25:33-40:
For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'
"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'
"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
Let me see if I've got this straight. The test of being a good Christian is generosity toward the underprivileged. Strange. I mean, what's that got to do with the prosperity gospel?
Come to think of it, wasn't this the same man who overturned the money changing tables, declaring: "Get these out of here! Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!"
Hasn't he heard of the divine right to unfettered and unregulated markets?
You know, if I didn't know better I'd have to say the man sounds like a card carrying . . . liberal.
Wow. Whoever would have thought there'd be a whole holiday set aside celebrating the birth of history's most famous liberal?
Merry Christmas.
It never stops:
Landrieu said she would not support the final legislation if negotiators tinkered with the Senate proposal for taxing high-cost insurance plans."I can only support a bill if the Cadillac plans are taxed at the level they are in the Senate [bill,]" said Landrieu. "It's not because I'm thrilled about taxing those plans, which I'm not, but it is the No. 1 cost-containment measure in the bill. It's what is going to drive costs down over time."
Nelson said he would not support the final bill if it included the House proposal to impose a tax surcharge on individuals earning more than $500,000 and families earning more than $1 million.
"I've already said that would be a deal-breaker," said Nelson.
Lincoln also said she has great concern. "If it moves very much at all from where we are, it's going to be hard," she said.
Shorter blue dogs- it is imperative we tax union workers and others making 60k a year with good benefits, but leave Paris Hilton alone. I'm sure Broder and Hiatt will love this definition of "sacrifice."
Why do we even have a House? They simply are not co-equal branches.
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Well, er, not all of them:
For the first time, chimpanzees have been seen using tools to chop up and reduce food into smaller bite-sized portions.
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Christmas Wrapping
CHICAGO – A Chicago man could be unwrapping the hundreds of Christmas gifts spread around his apartment for days, even weeks.
Trouble is, they aren't really presents. They're his own belongings meticulously wrapped by friends as a prank while he was out of town.
Louie Saunders' packages contain everything from couch cushions to the beer in his refrigerator.
His friend Adal Rifai masterminded the scheme after Saunders gave him a spare key. It took 16 people, 35 rolls of wrapping paper and eight hours to finish the job.
Saunders tells the Chicago Sun-Times he's only been able to unwrap about 10 percent of the packages.
He jokes that the upside is that, with each package he unwraps, he finds something inside that's just what he needs.
As millions of Americans celebrate Christmas with their loved ones today, one group of people will commemorate the holiday in a state of virtual "seige." Palestinian Christians in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, are living under an occupation that is squeezing the city's only hope for economic recovery - tourism.
The Israeli "security fence" - a sometimes 8 meter tall barrier that contains guard towers and barbed-wire fortifications that the World Court has ruled illegal - cuts deep into the Palestinian city, and severely restricts travel and supplies. The United Nations estimates that between 50 to 70 % of the agricultural land used by the citizens of Bethlehem has been confiscated by the building of Israel's fence and settlement expansion. As a result of the occupation, fewer than 30% of visitors choose to spend the night there. "When tourists see the wall, they think they are going into a war zone," Adnan Suboh, a souvenir shop owner told the press. "They are afraid."
Meanwhile, Israeli officials have let few Christians from the Gaza Strip travel to Bethlehem to make pilgrimages for Christmas. While the Strip has nearly 3,500 Christians, the Israeli government has only offered travel permits to those below the age of 16 or above the age of 35, and "only 200 christians from Gaza" have been allowed to make the trip.
Al Jazeera English filed this report from the city, noting that it is virtually "under siege" during Christmas. Watch it:
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/12/25/christmas-bethlehem/
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Michelle and Barack do the Christmas boogie with this red space monster
Here's a special Xmas Photo of your president and first lady "getting down" (that's Chicago ACORN talk) with the red space monster "MUNO" from teevee's Yo Gabba Gabba. Who would want to go to Hawaii when you could do this all night, in front of a portrait of George Washington, WHO BUILT THIS HOUSE WITH BLACK SLAVE LABOR?
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Yes, this is a repeat, but it needs to be said over and over: Goldman Sachs ...lower than slime mold
AIG doesn't have the bastard monopoly on Wall Street.
WASHINGTON - In 2006 and 2007, Goldman Sachs Group peddled more than $40 billion in securities backed by at least 200,000 risky home mortgages, but never told the buyers it was secretly betting that a sharp drop in U.S. housing prices would send the value of those securities plummeting.Goldman's sales and its clandestine wagers, completed at the brink of the housing market meltdown, enabled the nation's premier investment bank to pass most of its potential losses to others before a flood of mortgage defaults staggered the U.S. and global economies.
Only later did investors discover that what Goldman had promoted as triple-A rated investments were closer to junk.
Now, pension funds, insurance companies, labor unions and foreign financial institutions that bought those dicey mortgage securities are facing large losses, and a five-month McClatchy investigation has found that Goldman's failure to disclose that it made secret, exotic bets on an imminent housing crash may have violated securities laws.
And I'll bet you my lest five bucks that not one of the miserable sonsofbitches that make up that nest of flipping snakes is ever called to answer for any of it. Any takers?
A Goldman spokesman, Michael DuVally, said that the firm decided in December 2006 to reduce its mortgage risks and did so by selling off subprime-related securities and making myriad insurance-like bets, called credit-default swaps, to "hedge" against a housing downturn.DuVally told McClatchy that Goldman "had no obligation to disclose how it was managing its risk, nor would investors have expected us to do so ... other market participants had access to the same information we did."
The damned banksters don't seem to have any responsibility to anyone. do they?
For the past year, Goldman has been on the defensive over its Washington connections and the billions in federal bailout funds it received. Scant attention has been paid, however, to how it became the only major Wall Street player to extricate itself from the subprime securities market before the housing bubble burst.
More at the link. Does it get any scummier than this?
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Taliban video shows US soldier denouncing war:
http://news.antiwar.com/2009/12/25/taliban-video-shows-captured-gi-denouncing-war/
If the Taliban follow US rules, this unfortunate guy (that wandered off base on his own 6 months ago) has ZERO right to any trial or representation while also being subjected to torture.
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