December 13, 2007
Angry moonbats at family gatherings
We drove to Los Angeles last night for the annual Chanukah party, hosted by my mother's boyfriend, Bob (who we think is a great guy), at his home.
After a two-hour, stop-and-go drive, we arrived to find everyone enjoying corned beef, pastrami, and turkey -- all on tasty rye bread -- and two kinds of crispy potato latkes, with applesauce.
Good stuff.
Anyhow, I found myself standing in the corner of the living room, chatting quietly with Bob's son-in-law, a business owner and the only other conservative in the house. I realize that a Jewish conservative often leads a lonely existence at family gatherings; my modus operandi is to studiously avoid getting into political discussions when surrounded by my liberal friends and family, realizing that these events are tailor-made for following the little-used social prohibition on talk of sex, religion and politics.
So, the son-in-law and I were enjoying our private conversation when we were joined by Bob's nephew, a bald, unshaven, rabid leftist, given to tossing rhetorical hand grenades at the dinner table about Chimpy McBusHitler, Haliburton and Cheney -- comments that usually draw nothing more from me than a bemused look at the son-in-law across the table to see if he shares my silent contempt for this fool.
The nephew (let's call him "Cindy Sheehan") says, "So, you two are the last Jewish conservatives standing. This should be a terrible couple of years for you."
Son-in-law and I looked at each other, puzzled.
"Excuse me?"
"Well, what with a failed war, the economy a wreck, and the elections ...."
"The economy seems to be doing okay," I said.
"No it's not," Cindy said. "Bush has destroyed it and we're in a recession."
"We're not in a recession," son-in-law said.
"Are too," said Cindy.
Son-in-law tried a different tack.
"Perhaps the next quarter might not be as good; it's possible that we enter a recession. But the current numbers don't show that we're in a recession now."
"I don't know what numbers you're looking at," Cindy said, "but if you look at honest statistics, we are in a recession."
"Well, I guess we just disagree," I said.
This morning I see that the Associated Press is reporting the latest economic numbers -- and they're not bad.
WASHINGTON - Wholesale prices and retail sales jumped in November and jobless claims fell last week. Business inventories grew slightly.
Wholesale prices shot up 3.2 percent, the biggest jump in 34 years, propelled by a record rise in gasoline prices. Meanwhile, consumers put aside worries about the weak economy in November to storm into the shopping malls, pushing up retail sales by the largest amount in six months.
The Labor Department reports that new claims filed for jobless benefits dropped to 333,000 last week, an encouraging sign that the job market is holding together despite problems in the economy.
And the Commerce Department reports that business inventories grew by 0.1 percent in October, the weakest advance in seven months.
[...]
The Commerce Department reported Thursday that retail sales surged by 1.2 percent last month, double the gain that economists had expected. That followed a much weaker 0.2 percent rise in retail sales in October.
Half of the November increase came from a big jump in gasoline pump prices and therefore was not seen as a sign of strength in consumer demand. But there were widespread gains across a number of other areas from department stores to appliance and furniture stores.
The big gain in retail sales was the largest increase since a 1.6 percent jump last May. Economists had expected a much weaker 0.6 percent rise, believing that a multitude of problems facing consumers, from a prolonged housing slump to rising troubles in obtaining credit, would dampen spending.
[...]
Excluding gasoline, retail sales would have been up by a still solid 0.6 percent. This strength reflected a gain of 0.9 percent at department stores and general merchandise stores such as Wal-Mart and Target and a solid increase of 2.6 percent at specialty clothing stores. Analysts said colder weather in November and heavy promotional efforts in the period following Thanksgiving helped lift this total.
Retail sales also posted strong increases at appliance stores, furniture stores, sporting goods stores and grocery stores. Sales were down, however, for autos, falling by 1 percent after a 0.6 percent drop in October. Domestic automakers have been struggling with weak demand in the face of surging gas prices.
Like I and the son-in-law were saying, the economy's doing just fine.
The angry, moonbat nephew wasn't even close to being done; he had a lot left to say, including an attack on the troops, an accusation that we were chickenhawks, and that only idiots support the war or Pres. Bush.
More on this delightful holiday-season encounter later.
Posted by Mike Lief at December 13, 2007 08:03 AM
| TrackBack
Comments
Sounds like a Chanukah party that I would have enjoyed. Folks like the bald, unshaven gent help to fuel this Navy retiree's passion to continue working both for profit and as a volunteer to keep our country on a sane course.
Regarding the economy, I've been consulting in a manufacturing environment since my last "retirement." Our small company, which does business in Asia and Europe, is profitable, has created REAL jobs and our contribution to the international balance of payments (IBOP) is positive. There are many like us, but the liberal press doesn't like to print good news.
Posted by: Robert Worthley at December 13, 2007 09:58 AM
I find it amazing that so many liberals are so pessimistic about life and look to government to solve their perceived crisis of the day.
Today, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi lashed out at Republicans, saying they want the Iraq war to drag on and are ignoring the public’s priorities. She said: "They like this war. They want this war to continue."
Why not acknowledge that the situation is improving? Instead, she insists upon looking at the glass as being half empty instead of half full.
It sounds like "nephew" has the same view. Sure there are problems in the sub-prime lending market and the economy is not growing as fast now as it has been during the last few years. But, the economy has been on a great run during President Bush’s tenure. Where is the reality with so many liberals?
Posted by: macman at December 13, 2007 02:00 PM
I know how you feel in the relatives department. I'm not speaking to certain relatives in my family... let's just say it's in the "matter of safety of my children" department. My in-laws are better company than my own family.
Posted by: sonarman at December 13, 2007 06:31 PM