By the time you read this, it will be too late. Many of you will have already succumbed to Black Friday. Every year, the retail industry tells all of us bargain hunters out here that the best day to shop is bright and early the day after Thanksgiving. I am not buying it. Literally.
For anyone who trudged out today, they were likely to see lines and lines of people waiting in line in frigid conditions for the chance to finally score that I-Pod or X-Box 360 at a reduced price. In all actuality, the only items that will be significantly marked down are items from last year or before. If shoppers are lucky enough to even find this year’s hot new items, they are likely to be the same expensive price that they will be any other time during the shopping season.
My favorites among the perceived markdowns are when stores advertise DVDs or CDs at extremely low prices. When you get to the store and look through the bargain bin, chances are you are going to find titles like Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey or Whitesnake’s Greatest Hits. The new releases most people will be after will be the same old prices.
Retailers have done such an extensive job of marketing over the years, that Black Friday is almost a holiday in itself. We could all save a lot of post-holiday frustration and preserve some of the spirit of the season if we avoid shopping centers, however.

Sourest of grapes
Whenever a majority party is handily defeated in an election, it is bound to happen. Those supporting the losing party refuse to go without some whiny and insulting parting shots. Democrats cried when they lost their majority control in the mid-1990s and now Republicans are doing the same thing. Don’t believe the lies.
Much of this uproar comes from the public themselves and not the actual candidates. For their part, many Republicans who managed to stay in power and Democrats who won seats have stated intentions to work collaboratively and stop petty sniping that has plagued politics.
Now, Republican voters are lamenting the choices of the majority, claiming the country is now more susceptible to terrorism and Democrats don’t have a “plan” when it comes to national security or the economy.
Many voters were looking for answers when it came to an economy that has been on the decline for several years now and regarding the war in Iraq. The fact that the Secretary of Defense stepped down right after the elections shows that Republicans may not have had a plan either, or at the very least, the plan wasn’t going how it was supposed to.
The sniping by the public is to be expected, but really, it is ruining politics. What purpose does a letter to the editor predicting some horrible atrocity because of the Democratic Party’s perceived lack of a defense strategy serve? Whether the horrible prediction is right or wrong, does that make the people who wrote these or expressed similar sentiments superior? Would they not grieve or feel for innocent people that would be lost in such an act? Or would everyone who voted Democratic based on their personal beliefs and convictions get a big fat “I told you so” from these doomsayers?
We are not a nation of political parties; we are a nation of human beings. Insulting the intelligence of people who voted a certain way, trying to heighten fear of potential terrorist attacks and trying to place blame on voters for terrible acts that have not even happened are not how human beings are supposed to treat one another.
Government is most effective when opinions of many different people are represented. Majority rules in the electoral process, but that does not mean that the views of those whose candidate did not win a particular election are to be ignored after the election is over. Once elected, representatives are supposed to represent everyone, whether they voted for the candidate or not.
The best recipe for effective government is having multiple parties empowered to maximize our system of checks and balances. The great thing about the electoral process is that if someone does not do an adequate job, their performance can be re-evaluated in a few years. Voting a certain way does not make individuals stupid or uninformed. Being critical after losing does, however, make individuals petty and immature.

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