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By Katherine Boo
By Jerry Z. Muller
$16.47
$22
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After a day of overindulgence in food and drink, many Americans observe the nutty consumerist tradition known as Black Friday around the country. Here’s a montage of some of the most frightening stampedes in recent history.
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Transportation Security Administration
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Passengers traveling to the U.S. from or by way of certain countries on the U.S. government’s naughty list, which includes Yemen and Cuba, will be subject to “enhanced screening” starting Monday. (continued)
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Flickr / KatЯ
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At a time of the year when alcohol consumption is traditionally up in Russia, a campaign against alcoholism launched recently by President Dmitry Medvedev will substantially raise the price of vodka. The cost of the cheapest half liter will increase to at least 89 rubles (about $3) from about 50 rubles.
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By Ruth Marcus — The more I think about the Christmas all-but-bombing, the angrier I get.
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AP / Evert Elzinga
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By Eugene Robinson — The United States will soon have about 100,000 troops chasing shadows in Afghanistan, not long after an airliner was nearly blown up by a terrorism suspect who had no connection to that country. What’s wrong with this picture?
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Wikimedia Commons
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In one of the most improper of Christmas presents, Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese human rights activist, was sentenced to an unusually harsh 11 years in prison for charges of “subversion.” The decision was ostensibly made on Christmas Day to minimize international attention.
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By Eugene Robinson — Last Christmas we were staring into the economic abyss. A year later, there’s reason to smile—but no telling where we’ll be a year from now.
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By William Pfaff — Will Christmas in America end up like Christmas in Japan, or Halloween in France? That is to say, a merchandising opportunity that eventually flopped.
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Wikimedia Commons
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The cartoon “A Charlie Brown Christmas” is a classic that offers us an endearing and memorable message against yuletide commercialism. But ABC must not have been paying attention, as it cut several key scenes from the program to add even more space for—you guessed it—advertisements.
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In addition to all the other problematic things we might point out about President Obama’s West Point speech Tuesday night, there’s also the troubling, scheduling-related factoid that the broadcast of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” was bumped out in favor of Obama’s highly anticipated Afghanistan oration.
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AP photo / Hasan Sarbakhshian
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Britain’s Channel 4 has a tradition of featuring an alternative Christmas message as a kind of counterpoint to Queen Elizabeth’s customary speech, and this year’s speaker—Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad—is sparking outrage.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — On this consumer holiday, let us recognize those whose satisfaction comes not from accumulating material goods or political power: The relief workers and community builders lending their energy to the poorest people in villages and urban slums scattered around the globe.
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Tab, The Calgary Sun —
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letstravelvacations.com
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By David Sirota — A voyage to Sin City in this moment of ecological and economic crisis is a journey to a giant concave mirror reflecting back the magnified—and ugly—truths about this epoch of cataclysmic consumption and hubristic hedonism.
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seattlepi.com
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When Laura Bush oversaw the White House’s Christmas tree decorations, she failed to notice a shiny red-and-white ornament with the message “Impeach Bush.” The orb has since been removed, but the artist who created it still got to party with the Bushes.
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By Marie Cocco — Two weeks ago I wrote that this was going to be a Wal-Mart Christmas. I could not have anticipated the most macabre manifestation of the syndrome: the death of a Wal-Mart worker who was trampled by a mob of early shoppers Friday on Long Island.
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Who knew Jon Stewart could carry a tune? The “Daily Show” host tries to get Stephen Colbert to warm to Hanukkah, with its wooden tops and potato pancakes, in this duet from “A Colbert Christmas.”
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How could Martha Stewart ever outdo herself after luring Snoop Dogg onto her show? Maybe she should just pack it in ... or maybe making silk dupioni mistletoe spheres with Stephen Colbert would be just the ticket.
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philadelphiaweekly.com
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During his midnight Christmas mass at the Vatican on Tuesday, Pope Benedict XVI paid special attention to what he called the “ill-treated world” and our “selfish and reckless exploitation” of energy. He’s not just all talk: it turns out the Vatican bought carbon credits this holiday season to offset emissions. It’s just a little present to the world from the biggest little city in Italy.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — Hope is an overused word and an underrated virtue. We “hope” for all kinds of things, from the trivial to the profound. But hope is both a habit and a discipline. It is an orientation toward the future based on the conviction that we live in an ultimately trustworthy universe.
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The one and only anti-war Republican presidential candidate didn’t raise his hand when asked who doesn’t believe in evolution, but it turns out he may have wanted to. In this clip, Paul responds to a question about the incident by saying that it was an “inappropriate question,” but that “I think it’s a theory—theory of evolution—and I don’t accept it.”
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Mike Huckabee tells MSNBC that the prominent floating cross in his Christmas ad was pure coincidence, although he immediately loses credibility points with a series of canned jokes.
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By Marie Cocco — The turkey may share the table with lasagna or guacamole or Asian-style rice bowls. Welcome to America, Pilgrim.
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By Amy Goodman — “Rev. Billy” wants you to stop shopping. He’s the brainchild of an anti-consumerism activist and the subject of a new movie that takes a hard and entertaining look at our shopping-addicted culture just in time for “Black Friday.”
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Clothing companies and the consumers who buy their products tend to feign ignorance when it’s revealed that those products are a bargain because they were made by 10-year-old slaves. That’s certainly the case with Gap, which says it was unaware of the sweatshop in New Delhi, India, where children were recently found toiling under deplorable conditions to create clothes bearing the Gap Kids logo.
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abc.net.au
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The legendary innovator and icon died early Christmas morning after being hospitalized for pneumonia in Atlanta. When it comes to his influence on American culture, the “Godfather of Soul” said it best himself: “Disco is James Brown, hip-hop is James Brown, rap is James Brown. You know what I’m saying?”
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