The Exercise of Vital Powers

WSJ has a brief history of the holiday, from Roman times, through the middle ages when it was more like a modern new years, to the reformation where the holiday was largely forgotten to the 19th and 20th centuries that created the child-oriented holiday we know celebrate.

The Christmas of parties and presents is far older than the Nativity. Most ancient cultures celebrated the winter solstice, when the sun reaches its lowest point and begins to climb once more in the sky. In ancient Rome, this festival was called the Saturnalia and ran from Dec. 17 to Dec. 24. During that week, no work was done, and the time was spent in parties, games, gift giving and decorating the houses with evergreens. (Sound familiar?) It was, needless to say, a very popular holiday.
[Illo]

In its earliest days, Christianity did not celebrate the Nativity at all. Only two of the four Gospels even mention it. Instead, the Church calendar was centered on Easter, still by far the most important day in the Christian year. The Last Supper was a Seder, celebrating Passover, which falls on the day of the full moon in the first month of spring in the Hebrew calendar. So in A.D. 325, the Council of Nicea decided that Easter should fall on the Sunday following the first full moon of spring. That’s why Easter and its associated days, such as Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, are “moveable feasts,” moving about the calendar at the whim of the moon.
A Brief History of Christmas – WSJ.com

“Who is your favorite author?” Aleya Deatsch, 7, of West Des Moines asked Mr. Huckabee in one of those posing-like-a-shopping-mall-Santa moments.

Mr. Huckabee paused, then said his favorite author was Dr. Seuss.

In an interview afterward with the news media, Aleya said she was somewhat surprised. She thought the candidate would be reading at a higher level.

“My favorite author is C. S. Lewis,” she said.

Reason Magazine – Hit & Run > Aleya and the Huckabee

Clean Energy Watch: CBS Evening News Asks the Candidates about Global Warming
“I think we ought to be out there talking about ways to reduce energy consumption and waste. And we ought to declare that we will be free of energy consumption in this country within a decade, bold as that is.” — Mike Huckabee.

When I listen to Huckabee’s populist rhetoric railing against “Wall Street Fat Cats”, coming out against school choice, and practically begging his state legislature to raise taxes, I can’t help but to wonder if the only difference between the average Edwards supporter and the average Huckabee supporter is that the Huckabee supporter is bigoted against gays and Hispanics.

Baby tax needed to save planet, claims expert:
A WEST Australian medical expert wants families to pay a $5000-plus “baby levy” at birth and an annual carbon tax of up to $800 a child.

I like this idea. Instead of taking money out of a tax payer’s wallet to support dead-beats who have kids, we’d slap them with a fine/tax instead. Get rid of the assinine incentives created by LBJ’s “Great Society” for poor people to have more kids they can’t support so they get more money from the government.

Apparently the writer’s strike is effecting politics as it seems we’re about to see a rerun of the Clinton-Gingrich budget battles.

Army Civilians Could Receive Furlough Notices by Christmas
Some Army civilian employees may get layoff notices before Christmas, because $178 billion in emergency funds have not yet been approved to continue the war on terror, a senior Defense Department official said today.

From: Instapundit.com

WEAK DOLLAR UPDATE: “With the dollar as weak as ever, European companies are trying to avoid disaster. Factories in North American are becoming more attractive, and over the weekend, both Airbus and VW hinted they might take the plunge.” Hmm.

UPDATE: Reader Jim Dunn emails:
Greetings, Prof. Reynolds. I saw your post on the weak dollar possibly leading to foreign manufacturers building plants in the U.S., but I wanted to point out that the Spiegel Online article you linked to erred in one respect. (I write for Business Alabama magazine, so it’s my job to know about these things.) Airbus is hoping to land the Air Force tanker replacement contract, true, but that’s been known for a while. What’s new is that they’re now considering building passenger aircraft in Mobile, Alabama, as The Birmingham News reported. Here’s a link to that story.

Also, I have to point out that German steelmaking giant ThyssenKrupp is already building a massive new facility in the Mobile area that will cost around $4 billion.
A weaker dollar is not all bad.

The weakness of the dollar intruigues me. Why is it weak? Efficent Market Theory says that its not weak because all our bad decisions are catching up with us, since we’ve known that these decisions are bad for awhile and smart investors would have begun shorting the dollar long ago. The dollar’s slide began in earnest roughly two years ago. Its not due to the Fed printing more money or we’d be seeing higher inflation. Very little has been said about this thats not blantent political demogauging.

I have a theory as to why the dollar is weakening, but I’m not yet ready to publish it. It needs more research. However, if my theory is right, then this trend towards more manufacturing moving _to_ the US is a perfect example of the invisible hand, and free markets correcting themselves.