Ho ho ho, made ya click! (Sorry, traffic’s way down during Christmas week.) Spotted on Flickr.

Tough economic times can engender moral and ethical quandaries (for a cinematic illustration, see The Bicycle Thief.) If the recession has caused you to somehow stray from the scrupulous high ground, not to worry. Now, be forgiven online at the Apology Center, “where you can share the many, many, many things you’ve done wrong in [...]

Video starring the characters from the Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer Christmas special…

Short inspirational film by Anthony Ferraro.

Click on an image to see it full size. More photos here.

Where does the thinking of some progressives and some evangelicals overlap? Perhaps in their mutual dismay at the ubiquitous commercialism surrounding Christmas. For instance, take this chat between filmmaking muckraker Morgan Spurlock (”Supersize Me“) and Portland Pastor Rick McKinley, a co-founder of The Advent Conspiracy, a movement to put the focus of Christmas back on Jesus Christ as opposed to shopping for gifts. Time magazine writes this week:
…to a growing group of Christians, the focus on the commercial aspect of Christmas is the greatest threat to one of Christianity’s holiest days. “It’s the shopping, the going into debt, the worrying that ‘If I don’t spend enough money, someone will think I don’t love them,’ ” says Portland, Ore., pastor Rick McKinley. “Christians get all bent out of shape over the fact that someone didn’t say ‘Merry Christmas’ when I walked into the store. But why are we expecting the store to tell our story? That’s just ridiculous.”

From the Empty buildings for economic reasons photo pool: Click on an image to see it full size. More photos here.

Two posts from the blog They Pay to Kiss Your Feet deal with two issues very much on the mind of many people this year–jobs and health care–and the interrelationship between them.

You know what might get me to cut down on my purchases and stay within a budget? Making a rule that I actually had to draw what I bought. Artist Kate Bingaman-Burt has been doing just that since 2002. She posts and archives illustrations of everything she buys on Obsessive Consumption. One commenter on the [...]

Nothing says “I couldn’t afford to buy you a present” like a Merry Recession Christmas card.