I think you're better off with no gift than gifts like that. The charity thing makes people feel guilty and they resent you for it and probably think you're being condescending (like in that episode of Arrested Development). The latter... the sentiment's nice, but it's almost always something you have no idea what to do with after you receive it At least if you do nothing, you're just an Ebenezer Scrooge.
I would just as soon skip Christmas myself. It's such a time drain trying to buy gifts and cards and whatnot.
Giving a gift of charity makes people feel guilty? What? A gift to whatever cause they feel strong about it would make you feel guilty? I have a daughter who has a disability. Giving to meaningful causes is close to my heart (obviously not my sisters' though...says a lot about them...), and if it just makes you feel awkward, I'd suggest you go spend some time with some less fortunate people. It would change your mind.
says a lot about them? sorry, no offence intended, but your above post seems quite pious. Surely just one day of the year you can buy a loved one a nice inexpensive heartfelt gift instead of giving them a charity token or whatever it is you gave them. You're forcing your belief upon them. Because giving to meaningful causes is close to your heart then you that's what you should do... but clearly your sister would rather have a gift and i 100% understand that. Its not materialistic at all... its the one time of the year that i think we should give a guilt-free gift to a loved one... after the 25th of Dec if you want to send an African tribe 6 chickens then thats up to you... and good on you for doing that... I give a set amount to Save The Children every single month... we should all try and do a little bit... but not in the name of someone who doesnt want you to...
that made me laugh....
and yea, i agree...i give my mother an annual christmas gift that is actually a donation to charity in her name. i try to choose things i know she would support/believe in. i do so b/c i know she doesn't need or want more 'stuff'.....and i know she truly appreciates it. however, i do not do this for anyone else, b/c some could actually use a gift or simply appreicate a well thought out gift for THEM - my sister LOVEs to get gifts, and really...how often, especially as an adult....do you get gifts? usually 2x a year if that.....and still others - most really - give no gifts at all....b/c yea.....most of us don't need more 'stuff'...certainly don't need to give stuff to show you care, nor do i have to make a donation in your name either. i figure most people give to charities they believe in and want to support, and i do the same.....they don't need me to make a donation in their name. there is no one right way to celebrate any holiday....just in ways that are meaningful to you and your family.
btw - i have given my mom the baby chicks for african women...she thought it was great.
Oh, please. you sound so arrogant. The point is that Christmas has become a fruitless "give me more STUFF" holiday. Obviously you can't see past the fact that giving others the gift of giving to others something other than an object would put you out. Get over yourself, SS. You'd rather think about "how it makes you look" rather than the good deed you're doing for others. Purely selfish thinking on your part.
So what? That's their problem, not yours.
I couldn't care less about giving or receiving gifts. I've argued with my family for years about skipping the whole gifting thing, because I think it's a pain. But what it comes down to is that that's what they want to do, and Christmas is about THEM and giving something THEY will appreciate, not what YOU think they SHOULD appreciate. It isn't about me wanting more stuff, it's about me wanting to do something that shows my family how much I appreciate them by making them happy. You're giving them a gift that makes YOU happy and telling them that they are bad people if it doesn't make them happy too. That's why the gift is a slap in the face to them. You don't care about what they want or appreciate them for who they are, your whole gift is about telling them that they're petty and selfish and trying to change who they are to something you think is better. And yet you call me arrogant.
Like I said, I'm willing to bet they'd be happier getting no gift from you at all, just your company at the family gathering, than they would be getting a "gift" that reeks of your judgments about how shallow they are... one that says "I know you all are selfish consumers that just want stuff, but IIIIIII am giving the gift of charity to needy people and I'm going to force you to do the same."
There's probably a happy medium in here somewhere. Certain people who have everything they need or want, and can afford to buy whatever they want might appreciate charity given in their name, but that's not everyone. There is someone who does little nice things for me, (like decorate the planter in front of my business), on her own, not by request to me, and is VERY charity and community oriented, so rather than giving her a trinket that she won't want (she's brought back to me things like water bottles before, that I'd given her previously), I mail her a check for $20 or $25 with the name blank for 'the charity of her choice' as a show of appreciation together with a thank you note. I know she'll like that because that's how she is. Not everyone is that way though. Bringing it back to the topic, this woman is definitely something good about America. (And her sons like Pearl Jam too)
R.i.p. Rigoberto Alpizar.
R.i.p. My Dad - May 28, 2007
R.i.p. Black Tail (cat) - Sept. 20, 2008
Woodchuck Hard Apple Cider
Smokey Mountains National Park
Primus
The writings of Robert E. Howard, Howard Zinn, Robert McCammon
Alaska
Dauphin Island, Alabama during Spring or Fall bird migration
Frosty Root Beer
My lovely wife
Grand Teton National Park
The dance and calls of Sandhill Cranes
D.C. Comics
Drive-by Truckers
Christy Canyon
How about we change this to a "This land is my land" thread so that it can include the leftist bent that most of us (me very included) would like to espouse.
How about we change this to a "This land is my land" thread so that it can include the leftist bent that most of us (me very included) would like to espouse.
i like this idea but then this thread would devolve into a cyper chest thumping debate about whose version and idea of "land" is the best and why.
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
...
As I was walkin' - I saw a sign there
And that sign said - no tress passin'
But on the other side .... it didn't say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!
This land is your land, this land is my land
From California, to the New York Island
From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me
In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office - I see my people
And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin'
If this land's still made for you and me.
Allen Fieldhouse, home of the 2008 NCAA men's Basketball Champions! Go Jayhawks!
Hail, Hail!!!
...
As I was walkin' - I saw a sign there
And that sign said - no tress passin'
But on the other side .... it didn't say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!
This land is your land, this land is my land
From California, to the New York Island
From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me
In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office - I see my people
And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin'
If this land's still made for you and me.
Heard in Celtic Park ( Home of the best soccer/football team in the world )
This land is your land, this land is my land
From the northern highlands to the western islands
From the hills of Kerry to the streets of (Free) Derry
This land was made for you and me
Heard in Celtic Park ( Home of the best soccer/football team in the world )
they are not even the best team in Scotland... let alone the world
oh scary... 40000 morbidly obese christians wearing fanny packs invading europe is probably the least scariest thing since I watched an edited version of The Care Bears movie in an extremely brightly lit cinema.
Heard in Celtic Park ( Home of the best soccer/football team in the world )
they are not even the best team in Scotland... let alone the world
"...Dimitri...He talks to me...'.."The Ghost of Greece..".
"..That's One Happy Fuckin Ghost.."
“..That came up on the Pillow Case...This is for the Greek, With Our Apologies.....”
After reading this thread, I'm feeling pretty good. I thought I was the only one who was easily baited....
~I want to realize brotherhood or identity not merely with the beings called human, but I want to realize identity with all life, even with such things as crawl upon earth.~
Mohandas K. Gandhi
~I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance than I should have been by any epaulette I could have worn.~
Henry David Thoreau
What a ridiculous phrase. As if God - if there were such a thing, which there isn't - would recognize borders and nation states and differentiate between them. Do you ever hear anyone saying "God Bless Equatorial Guinea", or "God Bless The Federated States of Micronesia"?
Thanks for your input. I'll be sure to return the favor tomorrow by pissing in your corn flakes.
Things I like about America:
Guns
Apollo 11
Amber waves of grain
Cars
Apple Computer
James Madison
Ronald Wilson Reagan
Fender Stratocasters
So this life is sacrifice...
6/30/98 Minneapolis, 10/8/00 East Troy (Brrrr!), 6/16/03 St. Paul, 6/27/06 St. Paul
What a ridiculous phrase. As if God - if there were such a thing, which there isn't - would recognize borders and nation states and differentiate between them. Do you ever hear anyone saying "God Bless Equatorial Guinea", or "God Bless The Federated States of Micronesia"?
Thanks for your input. I'll be sure to return the favor tomorrow by pissing in your corn flakes.
Things I like about America:
Guns
Apollo 11
Amber waves of grain
Cars
Apple Computer
James Madison
Ronald Wilson Reagan
Fender Stratocasters
oh yes, the thread that will not go away....god bless america is a ridiculously stupid phrase. i have posted on that at length in this thread. byrnzie was joking, did you not see the laughy face? no need to urinate in anybody's food. that is just gross.
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
What a ridiculous phrase. As if God - if there were such a thing, which there isn't - would recognize borders and nation states and differentiate between them. Do you ever hear anyone saying "God Bless Equatorial Guinea", or "God Bless The Federated States of Micronesia"?
Thanks for your input. I'll be sure to return the favor tomorrow by pissing in your corn flakes.
Things I like about America:
Guns
Apollo 11
Amber waves of grain
Cars
Apple Computer
James Madison
Ronald Wilson Reagan
Fender Stratocasters
Firstly, I don't eat cornflakes.
Secondly, Ronald Reagan was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans, along with the rape of thousands of women - including the raping of nuns.
He also lied to the American public and pissed on the constitution, setting the standard for further top level abuses of power in the future - Papa Bush, and Bush junior, for example.
I don't see how anyone can say that he was good for America.
Still, each to their own, right?
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Ronal ... an_iF.html
'...In the 1980s, U.S.-backed forces committed widespread massacres, political murders and torture. Tens of thousands of civilians died. Many of the dead were children. Soldiers routinely raped women before executing them.
There can be no doubt, too, that President Reagan was an avid supporter of the implicated military forces, that he supplied them with weapons and that he actively sought to discredit human rights investigators and journalists who exposed the crimes...'
http://www.counterpunch.org/gaspar06062004.html
'...Reagan's economic policies were a disaster for working-class Americans. Reagan presided over the worst recession since the 1930s, and economic growth in the 1980s was lower than in the 1970s, despite the stimulus of military Keynesian policies, which created massive federal budget deficits and tripled the federal debt. By the end of the decade, real wages were down and the poverty rate had increased by 20 percent.
Reagan was also a liar. In November 1986, he publicly denied that his administration had been illegally selling arms to Iran and using the proceeds to fund the contras. One week later he was forced to retract this statement, but denied that the sale was part of a deal to free U.S. hostages. The following year, Reagan admitted that there had been an arms-for-hostages deal, but denied he knew anything about it.
In 1992, that too proved to be a lie when former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger was compelled to release notes from a January 1986 meeting revealing, "President decided to go with Israeli-Iranian offer to release our 5 hostages in return for sale of 4,000 TOWs [U.S. missiles] to Iran by Israel."
The man whose administration spearheaded class warfare on behalf of the rich, dragged American politics to the right, and rebuilt US imperialism after the Vietnam debacle, is dead. Good riddance.'
Comments
that made me laugh....
and yea, i agree...i give my mother an annual christmas gift that is actually a donation to charity in her name. i try to choose things i know she would support/believe in. i do so b/c i know she doesn't need or want more 'stuff'.....and i know she truly appreciates it. however, i do not do this for anyone else, b/c some could actually use a gift or simply appreicate a well thought out gift for THEM - my sister LOVEs to get gifts, and really...how often, especially as an adult....do you get gifts? usually 2x a year if that.....and still others - most really - give no gifts at all....b/c yea.....most of us don't need more 'stuff'...certainly don't need to give stuff to show you care, nor do i have to make a donation in your name either. i figure most people give to charities they believe in and want to support, and i do the same.....they don't need me to make a donation in their name. there is no one right way to celebrate any holiday....just in ways that are meaningful to you and your family.
btw - i have given my mom the baby chicks for african women...she thought it was great.
Let's just breathe...
I am myself like you somehow
So what? That's their problem, not yours.
I couldn't care less about giving or receiving gifts. I've argued with my family for years about skipping the whole gifting thing, because I think it's a pain. But what it comes down to is that that's what they want to do, and Christmas is about THEM and giving something THEY will appreciate, not what YOU think they SHOULD appreciate. It isn't about me wanting more stuff, it's about me wanting to do something that shows my family how much I appreciate them by making them happy. You're giving them a gift that makes YOU happy and telling them that they are bad people if it doesn't make them happy too. That's why the gift is a slap in the face to them. You don't care about what they want or appreciate them for who they are, your whole gift is about telling them that they're petty and selfish and trying to change who they are to something you think is better. And yet you call me arrogant.
Like I said, I'm willing to bet they'd be happier getting no gift from you at all, just your company at the family gathering, than they would be getting a "gift" that reeks of your judgments about how shallow they are... one that says "I know you all are selfish consumers that just want stuff, but IIIIIII am giving the gift of charity to needy people and I'm going to force you to do the same."
R.i.p. My Dad - May 28, 2007
R.i.p. Black Tail (cat) - Sept. 20, 2008
Christy Canyon.....you da man..
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
As I was walkin' - I saw a sign there
And that sign said - no tress passin'
But on the other side .... it didn't say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!
This land is your land, this land is my land
From California, to the New York Island
From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me
In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office - I see my people
And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin'
If this land's still made for you and me.
Hail, Hail!!!
Heard in Celtic Park ( Home of the best soccer/football team in the world )
This land is your land, this land is my land
From the northern highlands to the western islands
From the hills of Kerry to the streets of (Free) Derry
This land was made for you and me
they are not even the best team in Scotland... let alone the world
"..That's One Happy Fuckin Ghost.."
“..That came up on the Pillow Case...This is for the Greek, With Our Apologies.....”
Mohandas K. Gandhi
~I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance than I should have been by any epaulette I could have worn.~
Henry David Thoreau
Thanks for your input. I'll be sure to return the favor tomorrow by pissing in your corn flakes.
Things I like about America:
Guns
Apollo 11
Amber waves of grain
Cars
Apple Computer
James Madison
Ronald Wilson Reagan
Fender Stratocasters
6/30/98 Minneapolis, 10/8/00 East Troy (Brrrr!), 6/16/03 St. Paul, 6/27/06 St. Paul
oh yes, the thread that will not go away....god bless america is a ridiculously stupid phrase. i have posted on that at length in this thread. byrnzie was joking, did you not see the laughy face? no need to urinate in anybody's food. that is just gross.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
It was said that you would destroy the Sith, not join them. You were to bring balance to the force, not leave it in darkness :evil:
Firstly, I don't eat cornflakes.
Secondly, Ronald Reagan was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans, along with the rape of thousands of women - including the raping of nuns.
He also lied to the American public and pissed on the constitution, setting the standard for further top level abuses of power in the future - Papa Bush, and Bush junior, for example.
I don't see how anyone can say that he was good for America.
Still, each to their own, right?
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Ronal ... an_iF.html
'...In the 1980s, U.S.-backed forces committed widespread massacres, political murders and torture. Tens of thousands of civilians died. Many of the dead were children. Soldiers routinely raped women before executing them.
There can be no doubt, too, that President Reagan was an avid supporter of the implicated military forces, that he supplied them with weapons and that he actively sought to discredit human rights investigators and journalists who exposed the crimes...'
http://www.counterpunch.org/gaspar06062004.html
'...Reagan's economic policies were a disaster for working-class Americans. Reagan presided over the worst recession since the 1930s, and economic growth in the 1980s was lower than in the 1970s, despite the stimulus of military Keynesian policies, which created massive federal budget deficits and tripled the federal debt. By the end of the decade, real wages were down and the poverty rate had increased by 20 percent.
Reagan was also a liar. In November 1986, he publicly denied that his administration had been illegally selling arms to Iran and using the proceeds to fund the contras. One week later he was forced to retract this statement, but denied that the sale was part of a deal to free U.S. hostages. The following year, Reagan admitted that there had been an arms-for-hostages deal, but denied he knew anything about it.
In 1992, that too proved to be a lie when former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger was compelled to release notes from a January 1986 meeting revealing, "President decided to go with Israeli-Iranian offer to release our 5 hostages in return for sale of 4,000 TOWs [U.S. missiles] to Iran by Israel."
The man whose administration spearheaded class warfare on behalf of the rich, dragged American politics to the right, and rebuilt US imperialism after the Vietnam debacle, is dead. Good riddance.'