Merry Christmas to Anchor Rising, the staff and their advertisers, contributors and readers. - Mark

Happy Holidays to all
with love
Sammy..in Arizona

Merry Christmas!!

From Dicken’s, “A Christmas Carol”:

"Mr. Marley has been dead these seven years," Scrooge replied. "He died seven years ago, this very night."

"We have no doubt his liberality is well represented by his surviving partner," said the gentleman, presenting his credentials.

It certainly was; for they had been two kindred spirits. At the ominous word "liberality," Scrooge frowned, and shook his head, and handed the credentials back.

"At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge," said the gentleman, taking up a pen, "it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and Destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir."

"Are there no prisons?" asked Scrooge.

"Plenty of prisons," said the gentleman, laying down the pen again.

"And the Union workhouses?" demanded Scrooge. "Are they still in operation?"

"They are. Still," returned the gentleman, "I wish I could say they were not."

"The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?" said Scrooge.

"Both very busy, sir."

"Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course," said Scrooge. "I'm very glad to hear it."

"Under the impression that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude," returned the gentleman, "a few of us are endeavouring to raise a fund to buy the Poor some meat and drink and means of warmth. We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices. What shall I put you down for?"

"Nothing!" Scrooge replied.

"You wish to be anonymous?"

"I wish to be left alone," said Scrooge. "Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don't make merry myself at Christmas and I can't afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned -- they cost enough; and those who are badly off must go there."

"Many can't go there; and many would rather die."

"If they would rather die," said Scrooge, "they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population. Besides -- excuse me -- I don't know that."

"But you might know it," observed the gentleman.

"It's not my business," Scrooge returned. "It's enough for a man to understand his own business, and not to interfere with other people's. Mine occupies me constantly. Good afternoon, gentlemen!"

Seeing clearly that it would be useless to pursue their point, the gentlemen withdrew. Scrooge returned his labours with an improved opinion of himself, and in a more facetious temper than was usual with him.

Today Scrooge has become institutionalized as the Tea Party.

OldTimeLefty

I can't imagine the bliss it must be to live in a fantasy world like OldTimeLefty does in which all our problems this New Year will be just a matter of reshuffling wealth or implementing the right controls from enlightened top-down planning. A world in which a few thousand dollars would give the drug addict a second chance instead of sending him to an early grave, or would send the fry cook to college instead of buying the shiniest and loudest car add-on the local garage had to offer. A world in which all of life's inequities can be boiled down into easily quantitative factors like luck, race, and financial background. A world in which all of the Tiny Tims could be cured by unlimited government healthcare. A world in which all people can be classified as scrooges or saints based upon how much of other people's money they are willing to give away.

What a Wonderful Life it would be, to take no responsibility for anything, and at the same time to have all of the answers, prevented from creating a perfect Yuletide Utopia only by the stubborness and shortsightedness of everyone else. Oh, how I wish I was not burdened with seeing how so many obstacles are more complex than a giant novelty check handed out by a local politician in front of so many flashing cameras on Christmas Eve. If I had one Christmas present to give to all Rhode Islanders, it would be the gift of progressive self-deception that keeps hope alive in the failed, corrupt, socialist experiment gone horribly awry that educated young professionals flee like deer and rabbits of the winter forest running terrified before a blazing fire consuming everything in its path.

Nay, my wish upon that North Pole star is that everyone will be able to leave this state as soon as possible, and to make a new life for themselves in a state where men still speak openly of ideas like responsibility and shame. I wish that all may have the opportunity to move away, as I have, to a land of opportunity, which I am thankful for every magical day.

Dan

Come back up here anytime, spend your dollars, make sure you sample the local shellfish liberally and then go home.

Dan

If you do take my advise make sure that the shellfish you try includes Hope Island Oysters. Thank you. Phil

Wow Dan,
And congratulations, you have managed to take a couple of hundred words to say "humbug".

OTL-we really don't need a long quote from Dickens-most of us have either read "A Christmas Carol"or at least seen one of the various film versions,or both.
Dispensing with cumbersome quotes,I'll just say that Poe's "Masque of the Red Death" summarizes the liberal elite exemplified by Chafee,Whitehouse,Cicilline,or Obama.
Too bad it's fiction.

OldTimeLefty - always with the quick, stale rejoinder.

Please regale us again with how all of Rhode Island's problems would be ameliorated if only this left-leaning state would lean a little bit farther. How business would flourish if taxes were only raised a little bit more. How people would behave properly if only government intervened a bit more firmly. How things would be better if only you, and those exactly like you, were given the power to change them with your brilliant top-down planning solutions. As if history has never heard that one before.

The only Christmas miracle would be if you actually engaged in some introspection for once, or even attempted to see societal problems in terms of anything but a black and white solution handed down by the self-appointed intellectual and moral elite- namely yourself.

The real tragedy is that getting old doesn't always mean that you have to turn into a crotchety, condescending know-it-all. It may surprise you to learn that *some* actually approach their golden years as a new opportunity to broaden their horizons. I'd recommend some works by Friedrich Hayek or Nassim Taleb as a good starting point in tearing down the massive amount of hubris you've spent years fortifying.

Friedrich Hayek ?

Spend some money up here and go home. Remember to purchase shellfish to bring back. Thank you.

OldTimeLefty

Keep giving them the Dickens.

"If I had one Christmas present to give to all Rhode Islanders, it would be the gift of progressive self-deception that keeps hope alive in the failed, corrupt, socialist experiment gone horribly awry that educated young professionals flee like deer and rabbits of the winter forest running terrified before a blazing fire consuming everything in its path."

LOL.
You know, this is a state where the very rich and government cronies do quite well, the destitute, parasites and illegal aliens get feted like they were living in Norway and the working and middle classes get SCREWED.

"A world in which all people can be classified as scrooges or saints based upon how much of other people's money they are willing to give away."

Very good, Dan.

joe,Dan and Monique
Too many words for you? Try:
1 Corinthians 13
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

OldTimeLefty

OldTimeLefty

When dealing with the likes of Dan, remember this from Corinthians:

"But if any man be ignorant, Let him be ignorant."

Phil,

I did make sure to spend some money during my trip on presents, clothes, and other things...

In Massachusetts. And if New Hampshire were within a 30 mile radius, I would have spent my money there instead. It's not even about the money at this point, it's the principle of the thing.

Enjoy the many Wintery years ahead in the North Korea of New England. I'm not referring to the weather.

P.S. My county in Virginia ran a surplus this year. Want to know what that feels like? Keep wishing.

OTL-please spare me the scripture quotes-I don't watch that show.
I have done the right thing when it was needed-not out of religious obligation,but merely out of what I could've used in a similar situation.
I won't say more about it.

The scriptures teach that charity is measured by what is in a person's heart. If one's gift of a penny to someone even less fortunate is truly a sacrifice, it counts more than Ted Turner's $1 billion gift to the U.N.

Sometimes when I give, I get a sense of guilt that I didn't give enough. I believe that's God's way of saying I could have done better.

Having money taken away from me because someone else has decided someone else "needs" it (...often out of greed), is not charity, it's larceny... it certainly does not come from my heart.

Dan

I wish you nothing but the best. I hope you do come to RI for visits in the future. I hope that all that I love about this place is still intact ... a commitment to environmental responsibility, a varied multiracial population, a generous social welfare system that helps the young and old and all others that need help, strong public employee unions that shield workers from the so called reforms of power hungry politicians and administrators, and of course the great variety of foods including Hope Island Oysters. See you soon and Happy New Year.

I'm glad you're happy as well, Phil. Please don't ever leave Rhode Island. In particular, please do not move to Virginia or New Hampshire or to any other states that are flourishing because of their low taxes, excellent union-less schools (pardon the redundancy there), and reasonable social safety nets designed to get people working again instead of loafing about on unemployment for years.

Perhaps someday you will be able to see the causal connection, that is so obvious to everyone else, between the corruption and abuses of Rhode Island's politicians and the very same special interests that you claim are protecting you from them. Until that day, Rhode Island will be the same as it ever was, the same as it ever was. Perpetual 12% unemployment, skilled young professionals such as myself fleeing by the thousands, and municipal bankruptcies being consolidated by an equally bankrupt state that lives year to year begging for handouts from the federal government.

Phil envisions a cradle to grave safety net in RI that welcomes all into it-doesn't matter if you're here legally or not.
Only thing is-how to pay for it?
Why,tax the hell out of everyone who isn't on assistance.
Interesting coming from someone in the shellfishing business-their income is probably about as easy to verify as a waiter's.