Holiday Thoughts From The Shack

The Shack Family (The Shack, ShackWife, LittleShack1 and LittleShack2) wish all of you the best at this holiday season, regardless of what holiday you may celebrate, or even if you don't celebrate any holiday.

Remember you can make every day of the year like Christmas. Focus on the giving, not the getting. Keep that spirit of giving year-round. And not necessarily material things. Instead, give love, friendship, patience, foregiveness, a helping hand where possible.

And every day can be like New Year's, too. A new beginning. A clean slate. The problems and wrongs of yesterday in the past. If necessary, make amends and ask for foregiveness for things you may have done wrong and remember to forgive others as well. Then start anew.

So Sayeth The Shack

I Wouldn't Take This Drug

I was reading a magazine the other day and came upon one of those 2-3 page advertisement and information layouts for a prescription drug. I usually page right past these, but something caught my eye. The drug is called Abilify and supposedly treats bipolar disorder. Here is a quote directly from the ad: "How ABILIFY is thought to work:.... the exact way any medicine for bipolar disorder works is unknown"

That's just great. They have now idea how the stuff works but they want people to buy it. I think I'll just wait until they figure it out. Not that I have bipolar, but it seems to me they should know how a drug works before marketing it.

So Sayeth The Shack

Watch How You Spelll That

I was typing something the other day and interchanged a couple of letters within a word. This ended up turning "santa" into "satan". Wonder if it is just a coincidence that the two words are so similar?

So Sayeth The Shack

Protecting Us From Ourselves

Here are some of the latest examples of how our government is protecting is from ourselves, since they seem to have nothing better to do.

1) As mentioned in a recent post here, New York City is banning trans fat because it is bad for our health,

2) In Ohio, it is apparently illegal for a truck driver to smoke in the cab of his or her truck, because it is a "workplace" and the ban on smoking in the workplace apparently extends to the cab of the truck, even though no one else is being affected.

3) This one really takes the cake. Virginia either has or is considering passing legislation making it illegal for churches and other charitable organizations to prepare and feed meals to the poor unless they go through the time and expense of being licensed and inspected like a regular restaurant. Jeez you can't even do something nice for somebody else without the government getting in the way!

So Sayeth The Shack

Big Apple Bans Trans Fat

So the latest news out of New York City is that they are enacting a ban on trans fat. Really now. Just what kind of country are we living in here? It is perfectly OK to kill your (unborn) child, but you can't have trans fat because it's hazardous to your health!! Seems a bit hippocritical to me. So what will happen now? They'll have bootleg trans fat coming in from Boston and Philadelphia. Seriously though. If I want to eat something that isn't good for me, I should be free to do so. I'm not hurting anyone but myself.

So Sayeth The Shack

Things I'm Sick Of Hearing

We are all used to hearing the disclaimers at the end of advertisements. Things like "batteries not included", "shipping and handling extra" and "side-effects include....". One of these that I've really gotten sick of hearing lately is "well-qualified buyers". This phrase usually is part of an ad for a car. Judging by the numbers of ads for cars that are on TV these days (every other ad seems to be a car ad), there must be millions of cars out there waiting to be sold. But they only seem to want "well-qualified buyers". Just what is a "well qualified buyer"? Probably someone who doesn't really need the perks they are offering like zero percent financing forever or incredibly low lease payments or no money down. A "well qualified buyer" is one who is well enough off financially to be able to make a downpayment or pay a little interest. But they don't have to. What about the rest of us who aren't "well qualified"? We have to pay the interest, make a down payment or whatever. This is just another example of how the well-off in our society are catered to at the expense of the rest of us. So don't expect me to be buying a new car anytime soon, because I'm not "well qualified" So screw you, car companies.

So Sayeth The Shack