With a knee-jerk tax “rebate” coming from Uncle Sam, that great benefactor without whom we could not live nearly as well as we do, let me point out a bit of common advice from Paul Borthwick’s book Simplify: 106 Ways to Uncomplicate Your Life. He writes:

#3 Resist Temptation

An article in a local paper described customers at a local “bargain” store as “People Shopping for Things to Need.” Stay away from shopping centers or malls except when you have a specific purchase in mind. Don’t surf the Internet gazing at all the stuff for sale on eBay or at the website of your favorite clothing, technology, music or DVD store. Window-shopping in all forms induces buying. That’s why professionals spend so much time decorating the windows, jazzing up their websites, and bombarding your Christmas mail with catalogs.

According to the must-be-decent people at feedthepig.org, any money we get from the federal government (which is probably being stolen from starving children in the first place) should go to pay off our debt and save for our future. How boring is that? America was built on the back of responsibility, now was it? No, sir. Spend that money, citizen, and vote for the candidates who will beat down the rich man to save you from victimhood–in good ole American fashion.

A new book discusses “how popular culture is attempting to replace Biblical Christianity with ‘Jesusanity,'” sort of the same Jesus without all that life change and resurrection stuff. Why can’t we all just be inspired by the man? Do we really have to be born again?

Alan of Thinklings recommends seven books he read last year, including this one from Wendell Berry:

The Unsettling of America. There are certain authors about whom I have to say, “but of course I don’t agree with everything he says.” Wendell Berry is one of those guys. He probably wouldn’t approve of the time I spend commuting in my truck, my fancy phone that keeps me hooked up to the office 24/7, or my fondness for frozen pizzas. By the same token, I think he could stand to read a few books on economics. But he is a good corrective to many of the more/faster/now obsessions of contemporary life.

Happy New Year (again)! I told you that one of my daughters thought this was the best Christmas ever. Part of that assessment came from the gift of this book, Encyclopedia Prehistorica Dinosaurs. This is an incredible book. If you can find a display edition somewhere, it’s worth spending ten minutes flipping through it. The primary illustrations leap off the page, and one of the secondary ones wrestles with itself. Of course since we are evolution-deniers, I shed doubt on certain age statements, and I criticized the section on why the dinosaurs died. What else can a father do? Now my girls throw around dinosaur names they can’t pronounce.

Another Christmas book which excites my older two girls is Starfinder, a neat book with a star chart on the cover. We tried to use this last night, while my oldest kept identifying constellations that weren’t there. I want to sit out in the back yard with them one night when the sky is clear. We’ll have to study this book ahead of time.

I actually did a little shopping the day after Christmas, in part because one of my girl’s presents came with dead batteries and in part because I hoped to save a little on a things the children will enjoy but don’t fit the personal gift model (replacing the back yard swings). I didn’t save anything–well, maybe a little. I bought a couple early birthday gifts. One of my daughters has a birthday in February, and I briefly thought to ask her if she missed a gift at Christmas, but I didn’t want to encourage her to be discontent, especially after she declared this year to be the best Christmas ever (she got Little Debbie Swiss Rolls from her uncle). How could I ask her to think about how the best Christmas ever could be improved by one more gift? I hope her birthday will be the best ever with the large set of Tinkertoys I got her. And a chocolate cake, naturally.

I also had to go out today to return a gift my sweet, sweet wife gave me and was unable to return herself after she learned she could get it from a friend for less. Now I have to correct a problem caused by the return. The store gave us back about $50 more than we deserve. At least, the traffic wasn’t bad.

I received a toolbox for Christmas, but it wasn’t loaded with books, so I’m disappointed. Bill Reichart talks about just such disappointments and other Christmas hangovers and refers to a 1991 book called, Unplug the Christmas Machine: A Complete Guide to Putting Love and Joy Back into the Season.

Here’s a book you may have overlooked. What Orwell Didn’t Know: Propaganda and the New Face of American Politics, edited by András Szántó. It’s an essay anthology from people who believe the “state of public discourse in our country, especially the language used by politicians and journalists, [is] ‘divorcing itself from reality at an alarming rate.’ [They] ‘were especially concerned about the waning power — or inclination — of the press to bring political rhetoric in line with fact,’ believing that the line between debate and propaganda had become dangerously obscured.” The fact that George Soros funded the book may mean it’s a waste of paper, that is, a collection of thoughts from those who would take the speck out of our eyes will nurturing the log in their own. But on the surface, I agree with their premise. Political discourse and those “debates” they keep pushing at us appear to be pretty lightweight.

Our friend Roy Jacobson, at Writing, Clear and Simple, is offering a copy of the soon-to-be-released book, Elements of Internet Style in a drawing. Roy is a contributor to the book, and it looks like just the thing for you young folks who understand all this interwebs stuff. Go over and take a chance.