Detour

The only thing that irritated me more then spending last Christmas in the hospital was watching the television ads avoid using the word Christmas. Happy Holidays, Seasons Greetings, Joyous Season, Etc. I haven’t done any research on the matter, but I doubt Chanukah, Kwanzaa, and Eid ul-Adha (The Muslim Festival of the Sacrifice) Gifts approach 10% of the gift sales from November 25th to December 31st. Retailers make a majority of their profits for the year because of the holiday Christmas. As I heard someone say earlier tonight…retailers should be grateful for the capitalist tradition known as Christmas.

I am not religious, but the avoidance of retailers to acknowledge that people are purchasing Christmas gifts is starting to really irritate me. I surely am not alone. Where I come from we celebrate December 25th (aka Christmas) by decorating the house with Christmas gifts, buying and giving Christmas gifts, placing those Christmas gifts under the Christmas Tree wrapped in Christmas wrapping, singing Christmas Carols, and eating a Christmas Ham. Do you notice a pattern?

I wouldn’t mind if only some retailers were participating in this denial of Christmas…I would just shop in places that openly celebrated Christmas. But I am finding it nearly impossible to find retailers that openly solicit Christmas shoppers without hiding behind the euphemisms of modern advertising that use any and every word in place of Christmas. Why? Look at the ads for Macys, Walmart, Costco, Lowes, Best Buy, Sears, etc.; none of them mention the obvious. My anger has reached terminal velocity with this past week. I went through the entire Thanksgiving paper looking through the ads and found it near impossible to find the word Christmas. Christmas Trees are now Holiday Trees or Fir Trees, Christmas Cards are now holiday cards, Christmas ornaments are now holiday ornaments. WTF? By now you have all seen the Lowes banner that advertises Holiday Trees in English but Christmas Trees in Spanish…

The funny part is that when you go in the store you can’t find a holiday tree stand…they only sell Christmas Tree stands. It seems that the manufacturers haven’t received the advertising censorship if the word Christmas. What do you want to bet that this problem will be resolved next year….when Lowes forces the stand manufacturers to call them ‘Holiday Tree Stands’?

Not even Middle Americas Retailer of Choice is immune to this Christmas-removal disease. In the newspaper advertisements Christmas trees are called 6-1/2-Foot Pre-Lit Artificial Colorado Pine Trees…

However, the webmaster in Texas didn’t get the message; he still calls the same trees Christmas Trees. Someone is going to get fired over this breech!

Here is the famous Holiday Card section of the Walmart Thanksgiving ad…

Notice that all of the boxes say the word Christmas or have Christian religous symbols on the front. Nope not Christmas cards…holiday cards…yep. Blech!

The funny part is that the word ‘holiday’ has its roots in religious ‘holy-days’. I bet Michael Newdow is organizing the lawsuit as we speak.

Update: Reuters has it wrong; Christian conservatives aren’t the only ones upset about the renaming of everything Christmas.

More Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, …

Update II:

Desenting opinions can be found here, here, here, and …

The gem below can be found here…

No offense, but F@#! Xmas and christians too.

My job is gone because Bush cut research budgets, hey why do research when jesus tells you what to do.

My ‘tax break’ was eaten up by higher energy costs and my kid losing his Pell grant. His future is gone because of a record deficit. Mu cousin is gone because he died looking for non existent WMDs.

I had cable, theoretically 1040 hours of programming per day. Over 10% of that was christian,(would have been much higher but even those channels have infomercials), during the hollow days it was upped to 37.5% . So bill o’reilly thinks people of MY faith, or any other faith besides christofascists control the media!?

I still helped my neighbors dig out of their snow banks, and didn’t charge them for my labor. Guess I’m not ready to be an american, even tho I was born here, as were 3 generations previous.

Bitter? Let’s see, no presents for my family, no heat at home, losing my job, dirty air, undrinkable water, no future for me and my surviving children, deaths in the family due to war criminals.
Yep, bitter doesn’t even come close.

So you’re upset because I said ‘happy holidays’ instead of ‘merry christmas’?

Christ was one of the greatest philosophers ever known to this planet, but God, please save me from your followers!

If you are interested, there is a great discussion on the merits of socialized health care in America (minus the normal snipping and back-biting that usually accompany such a discussion). Be sure to check out the comments section, where the meat of the debate is argued.

Masa Kudamatsu, a PhD student at LSE, has collected quite an impressive list of links that address the transition from a lowly undergraduate to a mighty economics professor. Every stage of the process of becoming an economist is covered.

There are multiple links covering the following subjects…

Applying for PhD programs in economics

How to proceed with your PhD life

Choosing a research topic

Building a theoretical model

Seminar Presentation

Presentation of your research (either in a seminar or in a paper)

Writing a paper

Going on the job market…

After becoming an assistant professor…

Great work Masa.

I can tell by the spike in hits to my home-site that the application process for wanna-be economists hoping to get into a great graduate economics program (with funding…of course) is in full swing. Winslet in Washington DC has a site called Sophomore in the Capitol which is pretty good. Check it out if you want to reminisce about the pain and turmoil of the process (or if you aspire to one day put yourself through the punishment that is an economics PhD).

Winslet has collected some quotes about Econ Math Camp…

At Berkeley:
“Math camp was a horrible experience, but I got through it and have to say that Advanced Calc at AU really did help. I didn’t at all know as much analysis as I should have, but at least I had some idea what a proof was. (I think I would have cried if I had gone in with no analysis background at all.) The macro, micro, and metrics theory courses aren’t incredibly interesting all the time, but they’re probably not as dry as they could be. ”

- my former AU classmate

At Boston U:
“Guys, Math Camp is the BEST. Seriously! It’s so good to be around people who weren’t embarrassed to respond to the question, “What are you doing this summer?” with “Going to math camp.” Or, at least it is good to be around people who were also mocked for it.”

- fomer IIE RA

At Northwestern:
“Math camp, on the other hand, is very hard. The 3hr lectures are followable, but the (daily) problem sets are pretty brutal, and just about nobody is getting the answers before they give them to us for the discussion section (fortunately, there are no grades). The material they are reviewing is supposed to be the math you will need to know for the first year. We have Real Analysis & Topology, Linear Algebra, MV Calc, Optimization, and Probability sections, all 2-3 lectures each. The students are on very different levels math-wise. The ones who seem to be doing the best appear to be those who just graduated undergrad w/ a math major. Those of us who have been out of classes during the past couple years are having to re-learn quite a bit. We have a textbook (Simon & Blume, Mathematics for Economists) but the book is very simple compared to what they are teaching in class. I’m hoping that knowing the stuff in the textbook will get me through the year. ”

- former IIE RA

I have always been a fan of free market environmentalism, the concept of using markets and property rights to protect and improve environmental quality. So when I heard about a project by some Wharton Business School classmates called TerraPass, it definately caught my attention.

TerraPass is a service that eliminates your car’s contribution to global warming.

20% of the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere every year comes from cars, and this carbon dioxide is one of the key causes of global warming.

TerraPass invests its members’ money in clean energy projects that result in a decrease of carbon dioxide emissions. We guarantee that the money from your membership will result in a reduction of carbon dioxide that counterbalances the pollution from your car.

TerraPass can do all this for less than $80. With so much at stake, can you afford not to buy a TerraPass? Clean up after your car!

Here is some of the pricing…

ford explorer - $79.95
ford taurus - $49.95
toyota matrix - $39.95
toyota prius - $29.95

The TerraPass guys have a blog that seems to stay true to a business/economics way of trying to tackle the issues of environmentalism. I don’t always agree with the tactics, but I certainly respect the goals and the path they are trying to take to accomplish them. A recent blog entry examined the issue of hybrid cars in California having permission to use carpool lanes, even with no passengers. The Terrablog suggests that an auction should be used to maximize revenue and clear the market efficiently…

An alternate proposal would of course be to auction off these slots to the highest bidder, regardless of vehicle type. I estimate clearing price above $1000/yr, as this could easily become the de rigeur accessory for your typical 745iL-toting VC or hollywood exec. Total funds raised: $65 Million. Conservatively, that is enough to power 2 Million homes with clean renewable energy (there are about 12 Million households in CA). Surely that would have a much bigger impact than a slight bump in demand for hybrids, or given the supply situation, a slight bump in the price for hybrids.

I will definately be keeping an eye on this site.

If this type of stuff interests you, then a visit The Commons Blog

Update: Michael Crichton will be in Oakland Tuesday speaking on similar subjects at The Independent Institute. A freind of mine saw the speech that generated his recent book ‘State of Fear’ at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco a few years back. Should be a good time.

From Pat Santy’s site Dr. Sanity about Bush Derangement Syndrome…

…Rather than blame the terrorists; rather than admiting they have to take action against them; their fear is transformed to anger and displaced onto President Bush. If everything is his fault, then the reality of what happened does not have to be faced (this also explains the intense psychological denial that these same individuals tend to have about 9/11).

Bush becomes the “criminal mastermind”, so devious, so evil, that everything he says is a “lie”, everything he does is part of a vast global consipiracy. His family has intimate ties to Bin Laden and the Saudis; He is trying to enrich his oil business friends; He is trying to avenge the insult to his father by getting rid of Saddam; He plans world domination etc. etc. I could go on an on, but you get the point.

What is most funny is that these psychologically naiive individuals simultaneously think of Bush as this “criminal mastermind”–a genius of evil; and also as a complete moron who isn’t capable of uttering a sentence without making a hash of it; or that his brain is controlled by the equally evil Karl Rove….

I disagree with President Bush on quite a number of issues, but when it comes to the fight against Tyrants and Islamo-Facists I am very much in agreement with his goals. While in college I met many people with ‘Bush Derangement Syndrome’ (the acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal people in reaction to the policies, the presidency — nay — the very existence of George W. Bush.). It has always struck me as strange that someone can be soo stupid, yet win every election. If you lose an election to a dimwit…what does that make you?

I love Costco

My mother picked horrible men to share her life with for the entirety of my time on this planet, and most likely hers as well. I hate her for it. I live my life as if my parents have already died, regardless of their actual status. Sad…but true. The silver lining of this scenario is that I have lost all patience for women who pick poor partners and opt to stay with them. I can’t stand to be around women who complain about their man, yet stay no matter what he does. If a man hits you, leave him. If a man cheats on you, leave him. If a man would rather have a drink, then spend time with you, leave him. If a man hits your kids…kick him in the nuts….spit on his face, and then leave him. Simple. If any of these transgressions happens once, shame on him…if it happens twice, shame on you for allowing it to continue. I am not sympathetic to someone who stays in such a relationship after multiple occurrences of such behavior. I know it’s not easy; much pain can be caused in the separation….but you can’t expect much sympathy from others if you aren’t willing to ask for help to remove yourself from such a situation.

I heard a lady on a cell phone today talking to a man about his ‘game’ being tight, an allusion to his ability to pick up women. She counseled him that women don’t like men who are nice to them and that he needed to treat women like badly if he wanted to keep the ‘game’ going. I just shook my head and came to the realization that I may never understand this world. I can’t imagine wanting to be with someone who isn’t nice to me…why would anyone want to be? Don’t get me wrong; clingy suck-ups that are nothing but nice at every moment of everyday of their life are not desirable either. How can people be attracted to someone who is mean to them…I’ll never understand it.

Update: This post probably doesn’t live up to this Advice for Bloggers from Maryam for her son who is considering writting a blog. I think I violated more then half of the rules…pointer found via Andrew Ferguson.

I don’t miss doing math for hours upon hours each day. An economics Ph.D seems to have an endless string of equations and proofs in the first year. I look at old freinds websites, such as this, and thank god I left that behind. I never found joy in math equations and proofs and will not miss that part of graduate school life.

One thing I do miss about my old life as a student is writing. I used to write everyday. Whether it was my blog, ideas in a journal, or notes in the margin of whatever book I was reading at the time. I just don’t write anywhere near the amount I used to when I was in school. I miss it.

What I can’t figure out is why this is. I have way more free time then I used to. I haven’t lost my desire to explore ideas…I just don’t do it as much anymore. I have to make a determined effort to change this.

First, I need to understand why this has happened?

Jacques Chirac has not commented on the riots in France until today. 11 DAYS AFTER THEY STARTED! And you thought the BUsh administration was slow to respond to developing stories. Damn!