BY WILL ROBERTS | Christmas Cheer - Leaded or Unleaded?

Well, I sit here typing my comments today and I hope, hope I can get through these in enough time to meet my deadline. I'm still moving slowly after this weekend's feast. Good food, good friends and good talk.

See, as many of you may experience, we all had our fair share of turkey and stuffing last weekend.  Plus, for the first time in a LONG time, I got a little extra stuffing-- political stuffing. You know, the stuffing that fills you up with promises and has absolutely no nutritional value. (lol)

Now, much to my surprise, what was once taboo in public gatherings, dinner, drinks, hanging out is now making a comeback; political conversation. I've spent my Thanksgiving talking with folks about politics.

Now, this might be just an isolated incident, because I'm a political humorist, you know; I might be the only person experiencing this. However, I think we might be seeing a serge of speaking out in our country. Let’s just hope we can speak out before the elections and not after, like we normally do-- 5 years after. Anyhow, I'm here to bring you some good cheer not political spear, so let’s talk turkey!

Now, this weekend marked the beginning of the Christmas season. You notice I said "Christmas" season, and not "Holiday Season." Well, I've made a decision that I'm not going to play into the Politically-Correct Christmas thing. There's that word again-- politically, that word gets us in a lot of trouble. Politically correct Christmas: you know Happy Holiday versus very Merry Christmas. Last year it was Happy Holidays and now I am hearing that Merry Christmas might be ok to say. This could have something to do with overseas and the war thing and flexing our religious rights. Now, if you are asking yourself, I wonder if Will believes in GOD. I will tell you this, I whole-heartedly believe in GoOD, not much different in my book. But I will ski downhill of this one before it snowballs on me and becomes a slippery slope.

Now, if you remember my comments a while back about recalls, and if you don't, it might be too late for you because the lead has reached your blood stream and you memory has gone forever. Anyway, I talked about making sure you buy American first and China last, or maybe not at all.

I have already heard the news reports about buying being good and only dropping slightly, a few points. Now, maybe that is because folks are buying American products? And, maybe because that is such a low number, normally, that these points don't show on the buyer's radar? Who knows? Let me give you another reason for buying American products.

The U.S. spends TRILLIONS of dollars every year on these products from China. We might be supporting our troops over there but were certainly not supporting our "Made in the USA" merchants here at home.

Seems to me the reason we are having all these RECALLS from China may be that they're sending us all the seconds on the products they make. They keep all the good products and we get the leftovers.

We have got to stop being such a dependant country, Oil, goods, outsourced services. Don't just buy American products, demand American products. If you think we would be losing a lot of jobs if we stopped getting our goods from other countries, think about how many jobs we would create. We might even be able to sell them some goods; or, we may even be able to pay off the national debt.

If we don't start making more American products, the only thing we may be able to get for Christmas next year is our imagination, unless the lead gets to that first.

Buy USA and if you can’t MAKE IT, The spirit of the holidays was at one point was, at one point, made up of good cheer and being thankful for what we have. Not IPods and debt.

In this time of our country where everything seems a little down including the dollar. Don't let the big boys have your money when we need it most.

Now, I am not saying don't buy from stores, we have to do that. Just try to send a message that you love this shop, but would love it more if they carried products from the USA.

Ok, well, Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas, I guess still flip a coin on this greeting thing… but when it comes to decorating I really have to call it a Christmas Tree.

PS. Note to Santa: Included below is my list of things for Christmas, NOT TO BRING ME. Oh, and by the way, please check the bottom of the cookie bags to make sure they are not made in China, we would hate to see you go down.