America's #1 Online Cigar Auction
first, best, biggest!

International Man: Let’s start with the basics.

What are holidays, and why are they important to a culture or country?

Doug Casey: The word “holiday” actually comes from “holy day”; it has a religious derivation. Once upon a time, I’d say as recently as the 1950’s, religion played a very important role in Western culture. It no longer does. Christianity is a dead duck in Europe, and fading rapidly in North America. Much as it replaced classical religions starting in the late Roman Empire, Christianity is being replaced by Wokism/Greenism.

Our holidays, until recently, were still about shared values and shared traditions. They were an acknowledgment of common beliefs, a celebration of what was important among the people of a country or a culture.

But that’s no longer the case. The meaning of holidays, as with so many things, has degraded.

International Man: Marketing agencies are responsible for most consumer-themed holidays, which aim to get people to buy stuff they don’t need.

It started with Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day, but now there seems to be a holiday for everything.

There is National Tequila Day, National Donut Day, Amazon Prime Day, and countless others.

What’s your take on this?

Doug Casey: Previously, people limited work during holidays. They were celebrations. Sure, there were sales of food, drink, and things necessary for the celebration. But in the past selling was just a consequence, a necessary adjunct of the holiday.

Today, selling has become the essence of the holiday. Christmas used to have a real religious essence, but it’s devolved into little more than a time for intensive marketing and competitive gift giving.

One of the very few good things about the giant amount of debt in society, and the unfolding Greater Depression, is that the promiscuous consumption centering around holidays will drop. People are likely to reorient towards more basic values as times get tough.

The fact that so many holidays have gotten a seal of approval and made “official” by the government is another sign that fascist values have overcome the West. Fascism, you’ll recall, doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with violence and black uniforms. It’s simply the melding of big business and government. They support each other, and prosperous big business means more tax revenue for the State. It’s exactly what Mussolini, who coined the word “fascism”, intended.

International Man: Identity politics has been a big factor in the surge of new holidays as politicians seek to cater to certain groups.

Juneteenth is a newly declared federal holiday.

Columbus Day has been re-branded as Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

President Clinton gave the first presidential declaration marking Kwanzaa.

We now have Pride month for those with sexual deviations, February is dedicated to black history, and November is dedicated to Native Americans, and so forth.

It seems there is now a day, a week, or a month for every group.

What is going on here?

Read more...

https://internationalman.com/articles/doug-casey-on-the-rising-number-of-fake-holidays/

I think Juneteenth is a great holiday for those whose families were enslaved and freed. That is something to celebrate. And, what or who is a day off going to hurt?

I want January 6 as a paid holiday.

What name should they call it HD?

On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger arrived at Galveston and immediately issued General Orders No. 3, declaring,



I like real historical holidays, not feel-good holidays pandering to politically useful interest groups for votes. The only decedents of slaves that could possibly celebrate their ancestors emancipation were those slaves in Texas. Even then, they were told to stay where they were and work for their former masters because the Union Army wasn't going to help them. It's like Lincoln told Alexander Stephens in February, 1865 at the Hampton Roads Peace Conference when Stephens asked Lincoln what his plans were for freed slaves. He replied to Stephens, “Let them root hog or die”. That wasn't a very nice thing to say since Lincoln's invasion of the Confederate States and the scorched earth war tactics he supported were responsible for the former slave's plight.
According to Professor Downs of Connecticut College, in his book Dying for Freedom, approximately 1 million black southerners, one out of four, died from 1862-1870 of war violence, disease, and starvation.

Ray the Holiday Whisperer. Who would have thought?

oh, that reminds me...Happy Fathers' Day, Anth.

when ya swinging through Greater Boston again?

What is a "father"? What is a "woman"? It's so complicated these days, ain't it?
So you and Abrignac are SWINGERS?

On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger arrived at Galveston and immediately issued General Orders No. 3, declaring,



I like real historical holidays, not feel-good holidays pandering to politically useful interest groups for votes. The only decedents of slaves that could possibly celebrate their ancestors emancipation were those slaves in Texas. Even then, they were told to stay where they were and work for their former masters because the Union Army wasn't going to help them. It's like Lincoln told Alexander Stephens in February, 1865 at the Hampton Roads Peace Conference when Stephens asked Lincoln what his plans were for freed slaves. He replied to Stephens, “Let them root hog or die”. That wasn't a very nice thing to say since Lincoln's invasion of the Confederate States and the scorched earth war tactics he supported were responsible for the former slave's plight.
According to Professor Downs of Connecticut College, in his book Dying for Freedom, approximately 1 million black southerners, one out of four, died from 1862-1870 of war violence, disease, and starvation.

Your suspicions? So you concern yourself with other people’s private lives?

C'Mon Man! I've heard that everybody wants to know what Frankie Tripod is up to?

Don’t go to the doctor.

Modern problems require modern solutions.

What defines a holiday as fake or real?

up to about 254...doctor is gonna holler at me Tuesday