Black Friday Lives Matter: The Post Apocalyptic Turkey Blues

This year was a banner year for Spain’s biggest tourist attraction. Every year, dare devils and those who can run super-fast have gathered every year for the Running of the Bulls. It is one of those events that demonstrate what is called a “mondo world” event and always winds up on many television news shows as a feature story. The Running of the Bulls featured on You Tube has always been a favorite download every year and that is why now you can see the running of the bulls on a three day live stream online.

Not to be outdone, the United States mirrors the Running of the Bulls every year with Black Friday a ritual for people who claim they are thankful for what they have on Thanksgiving, and then the next day decide that it is not enough and so they charge through doors, run like bulls and trample anyone that gets in the way of their yule tide rage.

The mainstream media will always go out of their way to tell us the death toll on holiday weekends, but when it comes to Black Friday they fail to tell us just how many people have been trampled. Maybe the answer is obvious.

Not enough.

The doors open at the Wal-Mart and if a live crew is there from the local TV station we see reporters run for their lives as a group of people all looking like deranged bulls in stocking caps fight for electronic gear and Star Wars toys.

The event reminds me that there is a reason why people over the age of 10 dread Christmas time.

I don’t know how a country that boasts 46.7 million person poverty rate, a 93 million jobless rate, nearly 110 million people on welfare and a whopping 66 percent making 40,000 a year can even buy anything that is marked up for the holidays.

Now you do realize that if you spend more than 8 minutes working hard at the best Buy to try and save a buck you are literally working for less than minimum wage.

On Black Friday? Come on wouldn’t you rather stay home and watch the TV you have rather than risking death for a TV you don’t need?

It is sad that this is the way huge crowds tend to celebrate Thanksgiving when chasing their own shadow becomes tiresome and frankly, unfulfilling.

I think one of the funniest pranks you could play on someone during Black Friday is to wait for a parking spot at Target, Best Buy or Wal-Mart. Park your car.

Go into the in store Starbucks and a news paper. Then go back to your car, make sure the parking brake is on and then throw the car into reverse. The white tail lights will be on and you can sit back relax and annoy the hell out of those who beat you to the widescreen TV and various video games you wanted to buy. All you have to do is clip coupons for added value and sip your Starbucks latte.

Speaking of Starbucks I want address something that has bothered me ever since people have put up a stink about their red cups. Now every year Starbucks has issued a wintery cup to represent the holiday season. Since its inception Starbucks has had cups with snowflakes, Snow men, and even trees. This year Starbucks issued just a plain red cup for the Holidays and immediately it was seen as the first shot in the war against Christmas.

Even Donald Trump weighed in on the Starbucks Christmas Cup controversy during a rally in Illinois and he said:

“No more ‘Merry Christmas’ at Starbucks. No more,” Trump said, noting that the coffee giant is among his tenants at Trump Tower in Manhattan. “Maybe we should boycott Starbucks. I don’t know. Seriously. I don’t care. By the way: That’s the end of that lease. But who cares? Who cares? Who cares?”

Yes who cares? And better yet who is paying attention?

The other day, I walked into the Starbucks that is in my building and I decided to poke the Christmas bear.

I said to the Barista – I notice that you have red cups for the Holidays. The barista said yes that is true. I said very loudly so everyone could hear. me.—“You know that there are a few people that think that Starbucks should be boycotted because your nasty red cups say nothing about Christmas.

She looked at me and gave me an uncomfortable laugh. I then smiled and said even louder – could you please fill my secular red cup with “Christmas Blend” which is a brand of Starbucks coffee.

“Yes I would like Christmas blend with heavy cream and sweetener.” She started giggling and went to work. I then said –now are you sure your Christmas blend coffee is not really Holiday Blend coffee?

She said no sir it is Christmas blend. Then at the counter I saw a box shaped like a Christmas tree that said “Christmas event calendar.” I then told the Barista with a loud voice – oh and by the way, I would like a Christmas event calendar – now you aren’t going to sneak in some Hanukah offer or something like that in your Christmas calendar—she said no…

And I said, good.

Now I would have wished her a Merry Christmas but quite frankly, I was still wondering why Halloween doesn’t last until the day before Thanksgiving – after all the Christmas shopping mess starts the day after turkey day—I think the whole idea is unfair.

The Fourth of July gets one day, — however we do get a week of illegal celebrating with fireworks that are responsible for blowing fingers off of morons. Halloween gets one day – that is if you don’t mind a marathon of silly slasher flicks the weekend before – Christmas now gets two months of stale TV specials, Christmas songs, fights over whether or not there should be a manger at city hall and the whole embarrassing idea that while we have the holiday shoved down our throats that there is a war against Christmas.

The sad thing is that when the holidays arrive, news networks like Fox News decides that the vigilant Christmas Crusaders are worth nudging a bit. The unfortunate thing is that Fox News doesn’t nudge, they give a full on shove and devote their time to “The War on Christmas.”

Fox News has single-handedly cornered the market on Christmas doom that it can be speculated that every year Rupert Murdoch and his team, led by Bill O’Reilly, get out the dry erase board and strategize the manner in which they will present the so called liberal plot to put a stake of holly through the heart of Christmas.

You would think that Christians would laugh off the prospect as they take their vacations at the end of the year, while their Muslim and Jew counterparts don’t get Chanukah or Ramadan off for religious reasons. You’d think they would count their blessings and take their winnings and be happy.

But they don’t laugh it off they take it very seriously.

In fact, there is a scary poll that was taken by the Chicago Tribune that indicated the 68% of American Christians believe that there is a liberal conspiracy to destroy the Christmas holiday.

I can concur with only part of the concern. While it may appear that there is a liberal war against Christmas – the truth is there is a liberal war on everything – all for the conspiracy to annihilate free speech.

Political correctness has now somehow brainwashed the younger generations into believing that offensive speech, sarcastic speech, racial jokes, and even any speech that is fired at minorities should be banned.

American Millennials that is those who range in age between ages of 18 and 34 are far more likely than older generations to say that the government should be able to prevent people from saying offensive statements about minority groups, according to a new analysis of Pew Research Center survey data on free speech and media across the globe.

U.S. Millennials are more likely to support censoring offensive statements about.

Even though a larger share of Millennials favor allowing offensive speech against minorities, the 40% who oppose it is striking given that only around a quarter of Gen Gers (27%) and Boomers (24%) and roughly one-in-ten Silents (12%) say the government should be able to prevent such speech.

The question is what to the average 18-34 year old is offensive? Who will decide and how can you legislate free speech?

Jay Leno, former host of the Tonight show has weighted on this issue as well.

He lamented college kids” these days don’t even understand what real racism is.

He said in an Interview with NBC late show host Seth Meyers “College kids now are so politically correct. I mean, to the point where — I’ll give you an example, we had interns at the show, college interns. Like, the last year of the show, one of the interns comes and says, ‘Mr. Leno, I’m getting lunch. What do you want?’ I said, ‘I don’t know, where you are going?’ He said, ‘we’re getting Mexican.’ I said, ‘I don’t really like Mexican.’ He goes, ‘whoa, that’s kind of racist.’ That’s not racist,” Mr. Leno said.

So as Leno pointed out, “being anti-guacamole doesn’t make you racist.”

It is not just the fact that young people don’t understand what racism is, or isn’t they also don’t understand satire or what fair comment is.

According to a recent report two of the most respected American comedians, Chris Rock and Jerry Seinfeld, have discussed the unique problems that comics face on college campuses.

In November, Rock told Frank Rich in an interview for New York magazine that he no longer plays colleges, because they’re “too conservative.” He didn’t necessarily mean that the students were Republican; he meant that they were far too eager “not to offend anybody.” In college gigs, he said, “you can’t even be offensive on your way to being inoffensive.”

Then, in June, Seinfeld reopened the debate—and set off a frenzied round of op-eds—when he said in a radio interview that comics warn him not to “go near colleges—they’re so PC.”

Today, young audiences are not aware that jokes involving gay people aren’t necessarily homophobic—and jokes involving black or Hispanic people are not necessarily racist. Jokes that are told by men about how women are in their relationships are not necessarily sexist either—and women who roast men are not necessarily man-haters.

I think we should also say that just because a business is not overtly saying Merry Christmas does necessarily mean they have declared war on Christmas or has taken an anti-Christian stance.

Religious humor is also not anti-Christian—and while we are at it humor about Jews- is not necessarily anti-Semitic.

Now we all point the finger at Muslims who can’t take a joke while we make fun of the prophet and their God – but isn’t it a bit ironic that we are beginning to see the same ultra-sensitivity coming from college aged people?

Many in the 18-34 age bracket call this forward thinking. I would say that somewhere they have been bred into thinking that social fragility is a virtue.

Text – Check out Ground Zero Radio with Clyde Lewis Live Nightly @ http://www.groundzeromedia.org