Holiday Spending

Holiday spending has grown to be a huge expenditure in the U.S. and the crazy thing is that numbers are still increasing each year. In recent years, we have spent as a whole 200+ billion dollars from all the major holidays combined. The amount of money spent on holidays, especially Christmas, is very disturbing to me for a few reasons. Many people, almost all of America, have lost the real meaning of Christmas and why it is celebrated. If you look at it from that perspective, the amount of money spent on presents should not even exist. Also, imagine if instead of spending money on things that we want and do not necessarily need, the money (125+ billion) was used to eliminate hunger in the U.S. or provide education for those who cannot afford it. Christmas in the U.S. has exploded into a hectic time of gift buying instead of spending time with family and celebrating what it is all about, the birth of Jesus. I am not complaining about all the presents I will receive on the 25th, but rather that this is all people care about and it is clearly shown through the enormous amount of money spent each year. Holiday spending provides us with happiness and satisfaction but ironically only for a season, the joy is only temporary. Each year, we will spend the same amount of money to again never be fully satisfied. The money could be used for a better purpose or simply not spent at all. The money saved would be put into the economy slowly instead of in a small period. Do not get me wrong, I love the holidays, its just the insane amount of money spent on them seems unnecessary to me.

Journal Presentations

•   In Australia, a man decided to run around on the freeway and head-butt oncoming cars. Now police and others aren’t positive if he was on some sort of drug, but he was taken in for a mentally distressed evaluation. The man who filmed this event happening, Gawker, say that this is the start to a zombie apocalypse. But in reality the man is either insane or drugged up beyond belief. Although the man’s name has yet to been released, we do know that he is fairly young at age 34. From watching the footage it clearly shows that he deliberately trying to injure himself. The man congested traffic for hours and was head-butting cars for 10 minutes straight without stopping.    

• Two twins who grew up separately have an unbelievable amount of similarities and coincidences when comparing their lives. Ohio resident James Edward Lewis, who married a woman named Linda, but divorced her and married a woman named Betty, with whom he had a son named James Alan. Lewis had been adopted as a baby, he tracked down and met for the very first time his twin brother, James Arthur Springer, who also married a woman named Linda, but divorced her and married a woman named Betty, with whom he had a son named James Allan. When the men met in 1979, they were both in their 30’s and had no specific knowledge of their twin brother. Twins are capable of having very similar traits even if they grow up separately. It turns out the twins had even more similarities: They both liked math and carpentry in school but hated spelling. They both had jobs in law enforcement and suffer from headaches at the same time of day. 
• In the Czech Republic, a man was just eating his pudding at a restaurant near closing time and when closing time came around, it was time to go. The manager made him leave with his pudding on the table and unfinished. The man wasn’t pleased so he then decided to take it a step further than just eating his pudding or taking it home with him. During cleanup, the man came back… this time, with a chainsaw.  He sliced a hole in the door and climbed inside where he then continued to grab his unfinished pudding to eat peacefully. After he was finished he went on to attack some restaurant workers and threatened them with his chain saw. He was eventually stopped when he was tackled and overpowered by the waiter who then brought him to the station. The man will serve some jail time.
  
  
  
  

High Interest Question

Should all students be required to use laptops to take notes and the whole education system go digital (more use of blogs, similar style to our journalism class).