According to a Reuters article today, fear about the fiscal cliff affected the Christmas shopping results this year. Here’s a link to the article:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/27/us-usa-economy-jobless-idUSBRE8BQ08P20121227

No surprise there. What continues to amaze me is that the stock market hasn’t budged more than a smidge. So one of two possibilities is in the offing: either the market has already factored the decline in to prices (not likely) or they think there really IS a Santa Claus that will save us from Congressional foot-dragging. Um hm…

So with four days left, still about half the population thinks there will be a deal. Wow.

On the seventh day of Christmas,
My True Love Gave to me..
Seven Swans a Swimming

Seven Swans a Swimming

The seven swans – who might they be?

Barack Obama
John Boehner
Mitch McConnell
Harry Reid
Nancy Pelosi
Eric Cantor, and
The individual who will actually step forward and get this thing resolved: player to be Named…

Yes, ungentle readers, it’s The Lone Ranger – that masked avenger who rights wrongs, saves the ranch for the widow and yells, HiYo Silver as he rides away into the sunset. Who was that Masked Man? Only the Shadow Knows? We’ll see…maybe we’ll see some leadership emerge – like in Lincoln’s day.

We went to see Lincoln yesterday – of course it was awesome, particularly Daniel Day Lewis who disappeared into the man. But the message for today is – where’s that individual who can lead the country through an incredibly bloody civil war, deal with a crazy wife, dead son, angry older son, crazy Abolitionists who stood for purity, regardless of the impact on the country (like the Tealiban), and a recalcitrant Cabinet? That was Lincoln’s plight. Yet, he still managed to get the 13th Amendment passed in record time, knowing full well if he waited until the war ended, there would be no amendment to abolish slavery. And his reward for all his hard work? Shortly after working this miracle, he got himself killed by an assassin. Where are men like that today? Individuals who can see past the petty differences and concern for their own position and presumed power to lead us to a better place, both as a country and a Democratic process? I suppose you only get one of those a century, and we aren’t far enough along in time, or deep enough in trouble yet to find that individual. We can only hope…