The new 8.6% jobless rate would be more impressive if it really was the jobless rate, but it isn't. It is really the percent of people collecting unemployment insurance which is not at all the same thing. Many people who don't find a job may decide to stop collecting unemployment for a number of reasons including: they decide to do early retirement, they realize they are spending much of those unemployment checks looking for work, or their spouse finds a good job so they simply decide to stop looking. It's kind of like saying anyone who is not currently in a hospital is in perfect health, which is simply not true.

It's sad that people still thing Christmas is all about consumption and a successful holiday season is determined by how much money the retailers make.

I had to laugh at the story about a guy in India who was tired of local officials blocking his attempts to get some land because he wouldn't pay them the bribes they wanted to approve it, so he dumped a couple dozen poisonous snakes including cobras in the local tax office as a protest.

“The eye is not strong enough to look at the brilliant sun;
But you can watch its light reflected in water.
Pure Being is to bright to behold, yet it can be seen
reflected in the mirror of this world.” ~Mahmoud Shabistari