Wal-Mart anti-Christmas?

[rlmurraysr59]

Re: Wal-Mart anti-Christmas?

I also think it is hilarious about the controversy over Christmas. Guess that is what really makes this nation great, we can all have our own thoughts and ways of doing things as long as they don't encroach upon someone else's rights. "Accustom to trampling on the rights of others, you have lost the genius of your own independence, and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises amoung you." Abraham Lincoln 1858. And if you don't know what that means you should be ashamed of yourself for following the tyrants. Why should we have the Ten Commandments in the court house? There are only two of them that are illegal in this country. Thou shall not Kill and Thou shall not Steal. You want to have sex with your neighbors wife, It's not a crime, unless you get caught and he kills you, You want to call your mother and father all kinds of bad names and live off them until they die, not a problem. You want to use the Lord's name in vain or play golf on Sunday instead of going to church, Have a good time. You want to put a statue in your yard or wave a flag that you can bow down too, go ahead, no one cares what your priorities are. And you can slander anyone you want to as long as you are politically correct. Forget about the Golden Rule unless it means someone else is suppose to do something nice for you. Me first attitudes are what built this great nation and we should punish all those lazy Poor People that get in our way.

I was amused a couple years ago when Wal-mart was closed on Christmas Day, Saturday, but opened early on Sunday, the Lord's Day in this country, so that shoppers could take advantage of After Christmas sales and return unwanted gifts. Talk about the Money Changers in the Temple. What ever happened to those Great Blue Laws we use to have? Oh, that's right, they got in the way of the Profit Margin. Can't have that, can we?

I celebrate Christmas the way it should be celebrated. I give money to feed the poor, I donate to my church, and I help my fellow man whenever I can. And I do it all year long. Just like Jesus did. Before you get upset about Christmas or any other holiday you should study it's origin. You might not like what you find. Just like the origin of Halloween. Now we have people who spend more money on Halloween decorations than they do on Christmas. But it is a Free Country because we all contribute in some way to it being free. But if they put up Halloween decorations on the Baptist church next to my house I am going to have a talk with the Pastor.

Love diversity. And I have a tendency towards Sarcasm.

 

[rlmurraysr59]

Re: Wal-Mart anti-Christmas?

And all that stuff about the left putting pressure on stores to do away with Christmas, or Merry Christmas, or the religious aspects of Christmas is just Bill O'Reilly's lying crap. There are to many other things in this country and this world to worry about with out spending time putting pressure on stores to sell or not sell holiday decorations. Why don't people just go to church? When I was a boy we use to take a sled out across the snow covered hills and find a cedar tree, we didn't have pines, cut it down, put it in a metal bucket with gravel in it, place it in the living room of the farm house, string up pop corn and make chains out of construction paper, and put on one string of lights. Then we would all load up in a car and go around singing Christmas carols to our neighbors who would come out with hot chocolate and cookies. Then we would have a Christmas play at church and everyone would get a sack with apples, oranges, home made chocolate candy, and nuts. And we all said "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays" because New Years was only a week away.

So all this right, left, liberal, conservative, red, blue, etc. etc. etc. is just another way to divide this nation so the people can be enslaved a lot easier. You better get back to watching what is really going on in this nation or you will be going to Wal-mart with your Script to buy food just like the Coal Miners did at the Company stores. A Nation divided against itself cannot stand. If you ain't rich you better get your head out your butte.

 

[DL Rupper]

RE: Wal-Mart anti-Christmas?

Blah,blah,blah. Bill O'Rielly is great. Long live Rush. Why do you think the stores are all taking the word Christ out of Christmas. It certainly isn't the right doing it. Wake up and smell the roses while you still can. Next thing you know roses won't be politically correct because they smell good and people enjoy them. :approve:

 

[ARCHER]

Re: Wal-Mart anti-Christmas?

Come on Ron, don't start about being poor again, please

 

[rlmurraysr59]

Re: Wal-Mart anti-Christmas?

Who ever said I was poor. I just don't buy into the right wing propaganda. Ever study history? Where do you think Veterans Benefits came from? Certainly wasn't the right wing chicken hawks like Druggy Limbaugh or Lying O'Reilly or the fools who control the government now. I just don't buy this idea that the wealthiest American are the only Americans and we owe them our undying devotion. Did you know that income taxes were first established for the wealthiest Americans to pay? Who pays most of them now? When the current bunch took over 1 in a 1000 of the wealthiest didn't pay a dime in taxes. That number is now 1 in 400. Do you think it will ever get to your level? Don't hold your breath.

I also don't accept the idea that everyone who believes that this nation is One Nation Under God is a conservative. And what has been so Conservative about the last 6 years? You call 3 trillion dollars of new debt being Conservative? 2600+ killed and 20,000+ wounded of America's bravest military in a war fabricated from lies are a call to Conservative Glory? Not every soldier dying in Iraq is a right wing Republican. One of the symbols of America is the Bald Eagle. How would that great bird ever fly if it had only one wing? So if you cut off either wing it is dead. I am glad there are others like me to provide a balance. Talk about silent majority, it certainly isn't the right wing.

Like I said, the issue of abolishment of Christmas being caused by some left wing pressure on retailers is crap. It isn't happening, it ain't going to happen, and never will happen. Not while those same retailers can make an Almighty Dollar off people who believe Christmas means buying things that people don't want for people who don't appreciate it.

I been down your road and it doesn't go anywhere.

And I don't shop at Wal-mart anyway. I always take time to smell the roses, I just don't bury my head in the sand. And if you think I should get a life, let me assure you I have one and it isn't based on someone else telling me what to think.

And while your at it, if you have a Bible, look up Zacharia in the old Testament and read Chapter 7 beginning with the 8th verse. Then come back and tell me you think my position about how America treats its poor and middle class is all left wing rhetoric.

So now that is off my chest. I will continue to post on this website if I can help someone solve a problem. But if you think that only your opinion counts and that I shouldn't add my 2 cents worth on a discussion thread like this you are sadly mistaken. I pay my dues!

And one last point...Ever hear the saying, "Corporation have no Body to be punished or Soul to be Damned!" Why is it that we think giving tax breaks and subsidies to Corporations is good business for America? What have we gotten in return? Don't complain the next time you fill up with diesel or gas or pay higher fees to camp. That is just the American way.

Have a great day and travel safe. God I feel great!

 

[rlmurraysr59]

Re: Wal-Mart anti-Christmas?

Rupper: You mean that one day we are going to celebrate Mas on the 25th of December? Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas. Isn't this still August, where did I put that calendar. Man I love this stuff!

 

[TexasClodhopper]

Re: Wal-Mart anti-Christmas?

Perhaps it is time to remind EVERYONE that this is an RV forum; not a DEBATE forum. Take it somewhere else.

 

[rlmurraysr59]

Re: Wal-Mart anti-Christmas?

Texas Clodhopper, you are just so cool. I wish I could meet you someday and let you find out I am not just some outspoken liberal. We could share a lot of laughs. I use to love going to Wichita Falls, Texas. I was there one time after they had a rain storm and their waterfall looked like chocolate milk. Great place to live. I hope everyone gets your message. Merry Christmas in August.

 

[TexasClodhopper]

Re: Wal-Mart anti-Christmas?

There's room for a lot more of you guys here in Texas. Come on down!

 

[DL Rupper]

RE: Wal-Mart anti-Christmas?

Gee Ron, I'm glad you got it off your chest. I feel better already. Too bad the rest of us can't have an opinnion without getting slammed. I'm am an agnostic so don't get me confused with the religious right. I just like to keep the traditional name Christmas. I believe in our history as a nation, Christmas came first as a December holiday before we were force fed all of the other ones. I really don't care much what you celebrate, but I wish this PC crap would stop. This country was founded on Christian principles and verbage. Leave well enough alone. Like I said, I'm a Jack Morman/agnostic so I don't have a religious ax to grind, and I certainly didn't start this thread. I only expressed an opinion.

This rich vs poor doesn't hack it either. I just know who taxes me the most. If I remember correctly redistribution of wealth has never worked. Oh, by the way, the middle class not the rich now own the majority of stock (businesses) in the US.

There now it's off my chest. Peace be with you and I hope you have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS. :laugh:

 

[rlmurraysr59]

Re: Wal-Mart anti-Christmas?

Don't mistake my sarcasm as slamming you. And you are wrong if you think the Democrats taxed you the most. Reagan was not a Democrat nor was Bush I. Clinton did not raise taxes on the poor or lower middle class. And he had a Republican Congress to deal with too. And as far as that socialist entitlement called Social Security, why is it so wrong for a government of the people, by the people, and for the people to provide a small insurance program that will supplement the income of people who are getting to old to work. There are literally millions of older Americans, many of them Veterans, who could not exist independently without that small check each month. Funny thing is, every time I hear someone bad mouth Social Security as a Socialist Program I also never hear them say they send the darn check back every month.

And I don't believe in re-distribution of the wealth either. I just think that if a man or woman does a job they should be paid a "living wage" not held to slave wages while the Corporation Exec's light cigars with $100.00 bills. We are standing right now in the same position this country was in back in the early 1900's. And there is nothing to stop it from happening again. Have you noticed the "Dust Bowl" conditions in the midwest states? The only difference now is that a lot of those poor people have the where with all to fight back. And that "have vs have-not" war has been predicted by a lot more intelligent people than I.

And a study of our Founding Fathers shows that a lot of them were Diest. In other words, they believed in God, but they believed He formed the world, created man and woman, and then left us alone to make it on our own. And if we are going to have Christian principles in the this country then lets not pick and choose which principles they are going to be. And if that isn't true why are our churches empty on every Sunday and the golf courses full?

Peace to you too, My Brother. And with 11 grandkids I am guaranteed a very Merry Christmas.

 

[DL Rupper]

RE: Wal-Mart anti-Christmas?

Hey Ron, now that I know you worked for GM I get a better picture of your politics. I too worked for a union in a copper mine and at one time was a union shop steward at a government enity. So I can say been there done that. However, later in life I became part of mangement and my thought process took a somewhat different turn.
Actually after I retired from the government I worked in a GM plant in Dayton, OH, as the mail room supervisor, so I also have an understanding of the GM union employee. I hate to say this, but I took the job in the plant to finish off my Social Security quarters (40). Government employees, in the past, did not qualify for Social Security. Will now step up to the socialist money troff in 2008.

Anyhow, now that I understand your background better, I will forgive your transgressions. :approve:

Lets get off this foolishness now that we have had our fun. You do have good RV advice.

 

[rlmurraysr59]

Re: Wal-Mart anti-Christmas?

I agree with getting off the subject, but don't necessarily consider it foolishness. So you will know my real background I retired as an International Representative of the United Auto Workers Union. And I also know the sins of unions along with their strengths. But when I was the big fish in the little bowl I was a proponent of education for the workers. I helped negotiate educational programs through public adult education, community college, and universities to train workers for jobs outside the auto industry. The hand writing was on the wall. But a lot of that training and education benefitted General Motors Corporation. When they shifted some of the jobs to computer operated robots we had skilled people ready and trained to step in and maintain those robots.

What has bothered me about this whole right/left wing issue is the advantage it has given one group of people, namely the super rich and greed, the opportunity to divide the middle class and working poor against itself. The Christmas issue is just one nail in the coffin, so to speak. I am not against people being rich, I have made pretty good money myself, but I do decry the injustice of companies like Wal-mart paying their employees, regardless of year of service, a sub-standard slave wage and not allowing them to work 40 hours a week in order to keep them from receiving benefits mandated under that work schedule. Yet those same Wal-mart employees are forced to go to Social Services and apply for food stamps, medicare, and medicaid to take care of their family. And that is paid for through our tax dollars.

Survival is the most basic of human instinct. I read post on this website about someone stealing gas and license plates. I understand the anger that the victim suffers because I have had things stolen from me, including a truck that was three payments from being paid for and was told I would never see again by the police. But when I talked about the war between the "Have's and Have-not's" you can look at this type of activity and see the beginning of that war. The real have not's are not going to attack the people who live in mansions in gated communities, they are going to attack us because we "Have" a little more than they do. And it will escalate from there.

When I said what I did about where America is standing today it isn't just about the nation being divided. If you study history it was divided in similiar fashion back in the beginning of the 1900's between the filthy rich and the dirt poor. But the other issue is one you and I both share. As Veterans. After WWI a group of Veteran's marched on Washington DC demanding benefits they had been promised during the war. The governments response under Herbert Hoover was to send out the National Guard to dispell the protestor. Gunfire erupted and a number of Veteran's and their families were killed and wounded. In response the Veteran's Administration was established, only it wasn't called that at the time, as a real government cabinet position. Before that they had a Veteran's Committee made up of members of Congress from both sides of the aisle and Veteran's petitioned for redress. But the Veteran's Administration didn't do much until FDR enhanced it to include mortgage assistance, medical assistance, educational opportunities etc.

So as you and I travel down the highways and byways of this great nation there are others who can't even afford to take a weekend trip once a year. Is that what our democracy promised them? Does that mean they choose to be poor? Or are they just lazy and stupid? Wouldn't it be much wiser to at least require those who benefit the most from the labors of the many to pay something towards the rebuilding of the infrastructure of this country, to rebuild and maintain the schools and halls of higher education so that even the poorest amoung us could afford to better themselves? And what was this crap that came out about "You go to war with the Army you have!" We attacked them, wouldn't it have been wiser to make sure our soldiers, sailors, air force, and marines had the best equipment our nation could provide before we went to war? And where is Bin Laden? But instead we get rhetoric and issues that don't mean a hill of beans. Personally, I could care less if George plays with Dicks colon. I have never seen a man that I wanted to be with more than my wife. And God will deal with them anyway so I don't have to.

Guess I have said enough, not that I have said everything. I was sitting in church this morning and got to thinking about these post. According to the number of people who have read them I don't think you or I are going to make a great deal of difference in the world as we know it.

 

[DL Rupper]

RE: Wal-Mart anti-Christmas?

Ron, Amen to us not making a difference. Actually I worked for Wal-Mart for 3 weeks before I went to work at the GM plant that became a Delphi plant (car/truck a/c compressors) and now is closed. Anyway Wal-Mart provides the masses with cheap mechandise/food so who's to say where the money is best located. With the workers in the form of wages or with the buyers ability to buy more merchandise at lower costs. In Wal-Marts case, I think there are far more low income buyers who benefit the most.
Wal-Mart will close it's doors if forced to pay the high union labor costs/benefits and then all of the low income Wal-Mart customers will be penalized.

My first introduction with unions was in 1965 when I went to work at Kennecott Copper in Magna, UT and was told by the militant shop steward as I walked in the door, "You work for the United Mine Workers not Kennecott and don't ever forget it". I never have. I had no choice wheather or not to join the union, it was a matter of living to see the next day accident free.
Bottom Line: Kennecott Copper automated and replaced 90% of the workers do to high labor costs/benefits.
Delphi (GM Plant) closed the car air conditioner plant in Dayton,OH do to high labor costs/benefits

I do take the Left/Right issue seriously and I'm sure you and I will never agree on on todays hot issues, but I have fun on the forum adding my 2 cents worth occasionally. Ok, quite often. However, this is my last posting on this subject, as I'm sure everyone is bored to death and would like to get back to RV'ing issues. Take care and have fun RV'ing. Life is short and we need to spend all time we have left traveling down the highway when possible.

 

[rlmurraysr59]

Re: Wal-Mart anti-Christmas?

Yea, except I think Wal-mart Corporation would do just as well with $40 billion a year in Profits as they do with $80 billion. And some of that $40 they don't make could be used to pay their employees better.

And the reason Delphi closed was not because of high labor cost. It closed because of foreign competition taking GM market share. And if the Right to Work (Payless) Committee can totally destroy the unions then the workers in those foreign transplants are going to stop receiving the benefits they do now because of the unionized domestic plants. And if American workers had National Health Plan like they do in Japan, German, England, every other industrialized nation in this world, then maybe the industry could have competed on a more level playing field. Seems the workers always pay for poor management decision. Enron is a prime example of that. "Corporations have no Body to be Punished, nor Soul to be Damned!" I'm bored too.

Ron

 

[DL Rupper]

RE: Wal-Mart anti-Christmas?

Not A National Health Plan now. Good golly look at the economies of the Countries you just named. They all pay exorbitant taxes. Super high unemployment. The youth can't get jobs. You keep digging a deeper hole. Delphi is shutting down everywhere because all the past union demands are driving them into backruptcy. You can't sell cars if the price of the car includes 50 years of pension plans and wages for unskilled labor that are as high as the wages of college graduates. Ford is next.

I'm sorry but when I worked at the union run mine, nobody worked more than 1 hour in an 8 hour shift. Kennecott could not fire anyboby unless the union agreed. Well nobody has jobs anymore. Only the operators of the automated machines and their repairman have jobs. They are highly trained not unskilled labor. You have to pay individuals for what they know. Unskilled labor is a thing of our past.

Wal-Mart employees always vote against the unions.

I know I said I was through, but come on a National Health Plan. Ask Canadians how well that works and at what cost. I promise this is my last post on this subject :evil:

 

[TexasClodhopper]

Re: Wal-Mart anti-Christmas?

I suppose that somewhere this is about RVing?

 

[DL Rupper]

RE: Wal-Mart anti-Christmas?

Hey Texas Clodhopper, No, it's all about Wal-Mart. Did I lose the thread. I thought I used Wal-Mart in each of my replies. :clown: :bleh: :approve: :laugh:
I guess Ron and I got carried away like you and bazzer do sometimes. Sorry!

 

[Kirk]

Re: Wal-Mart anti-Christmas?

Wal-Mart is still the most RV friendly store around, and the employees that I know who work for them need to talk with Ron so that they will stop being so pro the company and understand just how bad off they are!

 

[TexasClodhopper]

Re: Wal-Mart anti-Christmas?

DL Rupper & Ron, sorry if I lost the connection to RVing after all of the old home week of ex-GM union employees and corporation bashing.

Actually, I'm a corporation myself and WalMart still likes me, because their employees still smile at me when I come in. I especially like the little ole lady greeter at my local WalMart.

I've bought lots of RV 'stuff' from them, because they advertised 'Made in America' so much years ago. Well, that went out the window long ago, too.