I’m thankful for the brand-new vending machine at our company with the red light beam inside, just above the slot you reach into – the beam that tells the motor pushing the bag of chips forward that the bag hasn’t dropped yet because the beam hasn’t been broken yet and the bag may be stuck so keep pushing which it did the other day when my bag of veggie wheat thins got stuck and otherwise I would have rocked the machine until it fell over on me and then no more chips for me, ever. Also thankful for veggie wheat thins.
– http://www.sawyerspeaks.wordpress.com

I am thankful that I have the best interior decoartor in the world.

I’m thankful that we finally have a president we can be proud of.

I’m thankful that greed and ignorance is finally getting the public spanking it deserves, thanks to Bernie Madoff, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, overpaid CEOs, and the Republican Party.

I’m thankful for people who believe in helping others who are less fortunate.

I’m thankful for laughter, love, and my children.

Oh, and I’m thankful for the Bing Blog.

Thankful that this article is over!

I am very thankful that we now have a president and administration that takes at least a little time to try to figure things out.

This is a tough one since it’s been a rough couple years. And I know I’m in good company.

I’m thankful my house is worth more than I paid, even though I bought it nearly 30 years ago.

I’m thankful I have a retirement fund and didn’t flinch in March ‘09. Well i didn’t flinch much.

I am thankful that I was born in a country that provided me with K-12 education, and helped me pay for college, even though I am female.

There’s a lot that went wrong in our world in ‘08-’09. But there’s a lot that went right over the past century. We sometimes forget how far we’ve come.

I’m thankful I live in US instead in China.

—–
* Extremes of Two Nations *

US and China are two countries of extremes to each other. It could be the difference in their cultures, their wealth, and/or changing of wealth. It would be best for both countries to move at least 10% away from their extremes.

Spending.
US. Like no tomorrow.
China. Saving for fear of begging in the street.

Health Care.
US. Encourages folks to be lazy, so they get free health care.
China. If you do not pay in yuan, you die.

Foreign countries.
US. Either my puppet or my enemy.
China. Non interference.

Environment.
US. Our pollution is not too high (translation: pollution per capita is).
China. My pollution per capita is not high (translation: total pollution is).

Human rights.
US. Killing for the name of liberty! or keeping our weapon suppliers rich.
China. Lifted 300 millions from poverty. Is this basic human right?

Military might.
US. New carrier with two nuclear generators.
China. 0 carrier.

Sports.
US. #1 in all sports. Get them at all costs.
China. Let’s get 100 Walmart shoppers and have a race to see which nation is fitter.

Natural resources/farm land.
US. Can support double the current population.
China. Can support half the current population.

Politics.
US. Do everything for votes.
China. If you do not listen, you disappear.

Gun control.
US. Need guns for the wild, wild cities.
China. Thanks NRA for allowing us to sell them to your citizens.

View each other.
US. Job snatcher, banker.
China. Job provider, loaner.

I am thankful for my wife of nearly 20 years and the two marvelous children she gave me.

I am thankful for continued employment, benefits and retirement.

I am thankful for our men and women in uniform standing watch and risking all so that I may live free. God bless and protect each and every one of them.

I am thankful for the Bing Blog, its progenitor, and its thought provoking cast.

Thanks for letting me crack wise, lyricize, but, most of all, for the camaraderie.

I am also thankful, more and more as time goes by, for all those, no longer here, who helped make it better.

Each has a different list, but we all know who they are.

Happy Thanksgiving and God Bless you all.

I’m thankful I live in the USA.

I am thankful that 2009 is almost over!

Being thankful can be taken as being appreciative and grateful, like being thankful for a Xmas bonus, the heads side of the coin. Like, what a great organization to work for!

Thanks a lot can also be a vindictive response for a failed fiduciary responsibility by a trustee in government or a wall street trustee etc., the tails side of the coin.

In either case, one can have a good thoughtful server, or, a devious corrupt server; thanks can qualify in both cases!

Now, as in Aretha Franklin’s song, “RESPECT”, we have a dutiful regard to show honor and esteem avoiding intrusion or interference with one, and promoting selfless thanks and selfless giving.

Madoff, while in prison, will have to earn his respect every day for the next 150 years.

One can only imagine what side of the thanksgiving coin Bernie’s thanks will come from on Thursday!

A handout with respect will get one an heartfelt thank you, a hand out with hubris will get one an asshole of the month nomination! Chow!

I am thankful for being able to go to the bathroom at night without night goggles and my rifle…and being able to flush afterwards.

I am thankful that I am not silly enough to believe that all of the good things that have happened to me in my life are due to my work ethic, moral purity, and general worthiness…I mostly had lots of help from dumb luck.

I am thankful that this is a 3 day work week.

I am thankful that I found a saint-like woman, who has put up with me for the past 40 years…no mean feat, considering that I am even more obnoxious in person than in this blog.

I am thankful that Bing, while fully immersed in the real business world, continues to pen disturbingly hilarious tomes (such as the one I finished reading this weekend)about prospering in the corporate world despite its absurdity. It’s a tale of sound and fury, uttered by an articulate madman, signifying nothing….other than it’s always better to laugh than cry.

I am also thankful to American men and women who now have to wear night goggles and carry their rifles, when going to the bathroom at night… and are deprived of pleasure to flush afterwards.

Beyond the normal Family, Friends, and job, I am thankful for the following:
Six year old boys are smart enough to tell the truth even when their parents lie about balloon trips.
Bad guys do get caught.
Good guys and gals can succeed.
I can still get a daily newspaper.
I am not yet on Facespace or Mybook or am a twit with twitter.
I still spend dollars and not euros or yen or yuan for my gasoline.
I didn’t buy that vacation home at Bass Lake last year(but I still want to).

And lastly…

Thankful for waking up everyday,because I am not ready for the alternative yet and no matter how bad it looks, there is always something good that will happen the next day.

I’m thankful for being blessed with enough of a sense of humor to appreciate and enjoy life’s absurdities (most of the time). That, the love of a good woman, and two pretty cool kids make life worth living.

Oh, and then there’s fresh pumpkin pie with whipped cream on top, cold beer and football.

I am thankful that the Democrats are so messing up the USA, that many of them if not most, will be given the old heave ho in 2010. We need new turkeys

I am thankful that Obama keeps dithering and making promises he won’t and cant keep. He too will get the old heave ho too in 2012.

I am really thankful that my left arm pain after every test known to man ended up being bursitis.

I am thankful for Bing

I am really really thankful OPRAH is quitting and my Indian Girlfriend will no longer force me to watch that blather.

Most of all I am thankful for all the men and women who are in the USA military. True heros all. Thanks for your service.

I am thankful for people who know how to spell, or at least use a spell-checker.

I am thankful for people who know how to use a shift key, and take the trouble to do so.

I am thankful for people who know how to punctuate, or at least make an honest effort at it.

I am thankful for people who proofread what they are about to post, and take the time to correct it.

I am thankful for people who create thought-provoking posts, rather than just blare parroted talking-points from their media messiahs.

And, every so often, I am thankful for people who, like Bing, discover something truly worthy of a rant, and who rant about it in an insightful and entertaining fashion.

I’m thankful that there are still a few places where I can order a “Medium coffee black”, and not have my order translated into a pseudo foreign language.

I’m also thankful for my family, my dog and the fact that there is always a younger generation that is still optimistic.

I’m thankful the recession is over and we don’t have to feel guilty about oppressing poor people anymore. Not that I actually felt guilty, but I felt pressure to feel guilty and didn’t much care for it.

I’m thankful for:
• The confident trust of a child
• Second, and third, chances
• Everyone who practises restraint and civility in polarized times
• The opportunity to give
• The discipline to innovate
• The quest for significance
• Books, e- or the old-fashioned kind
• Sacrifice
• And, of course, family

I am thankful for having lived in a country so great that it could elect a Chicago lawyer as President and expect to survive.

Taking time? In a real world, time is money. In war, time is life or death. Had the commander in chief had any experience in, never mind. It’s Thanksgiving.

I am thankful, of course, for you, Bing. You help contextualize the madness which is the modern world of work.

Having said that, I am thankful for once that my job is funded by soft money and won’t be laid off for at least another 2.5 years.

I am thankful for my wonderful husband, cat, and friends. Oh, and my sister, too. The rest of the family is suspect.

I am thankful that my house is still standing; the termites are a determined lot.

I am thankful that a Friendly Toast opened nearby and I can enjoy the Mexican Mash Meal of veggie sausages, oozy eggs, hot mashed potatoes all topped with a beautiful chitpotle sauce anytime I can rustle up the dough.

I am thankful for:
-living in the US
-ditching work to go surfing
-Friends to share a pitcher with
-Family that give me opportunities to grow
-Stupid people that make me feel smart
-Not having health problems…yet
-Chicken

I am thankful for countries that manufacture and dispose of plastic waste in the Pacific Ocean with such ingenious disposition practices.

The accretion of plastic and garbage waste, the size of Texas, serves to be a classic show and tell for current and retired MBAs’ that have, and had, oversight of this forming mass and chose to be silent about it.

What are all those satellites in space doing besides causing more pollution?

The giant “zit” formed on the elegant blue Pacific, turned cess pool, is a grand display of “education in motion”.

The perpetrators relax on the country club golf course as the attorneys rationalize the double talk of compromise.

A spit into the wind doesn’t travel very far.

What lord can we thank for this?

I’m thankful that I don’t have to actually work with too many idiots who are happy to see the country suffer, if only to prove President Obama wrong.

I’m thankful for good health and a good, secure job.
I’m thankful that our economic system is so strong that it will survive the occasional dabble in Keynesian economics. Remember-free market economics brought us the Mustang and the Corolla; regulated economics brought the Eastern Europeans Yugos and Trabants.
I’m also thankful that we (most of us, anyway) can agree to disagree about this stuff.

I am thankful for all of you guys and gals here on the Bing Blog who keep an old guy thinking.

And for something that happened last night. Here in the Ardmore section of Winston-Salem, we had a Community Thanksgiving Service. Try to picture this:

People from all of our churches in one place. Jews, Muslims, Catholics, every kind of protestant you can think of, Greeks, and Unitarians. All in one building, and nobody killed anybody.

You do not have to be religious to see the power and possibilities in that.

I am not thankful that our system of higher education apparently cannot produce graduates with more than a superficial understanding of macro-economics.

I’m thankful that I’m not a hiker imprisoned in Iran or a young American girl on trial in Italy for murder. I’m thankful that I have common sense and money in the bank. I’m thankful that I don’t have any debt except for my house. Most of all, I’m thankful for my family and my friends. They make life worthwhile!

Thanks, Jim. And thanks to Winston-Salem, too.

Give thanks for the thinkers who think and do-ers that do, and for the promise of another day.

Happy Thanksgiving Everybody…

I am thankful my apartment building in Bangalore has better security than the White House has for State Dinners

I am thankful that some expatriates find their current situation superior, and am hopeful that this choice of residence becomes permanent.

I’m also grateful for football on Thanksgiving.

Several family members must work today, so Thanksgiving, for my family, comes this Sunday. No complaints; I’m happy they’re all well employed.

To kill some time, I decided to go to the hardware store to pick up a few things to complete some household repairs…nothing was open…not even even any of the big hardware superstores. Actually, it made me feel pretty good….some employees were getting to spend some well0deserved time with their families.

I’m sure the decision to remain open isn’t much based on concern for employee well-being, but rather due to economic considerations, but nonetheless, it was kind of nice.

In America, a complete cessation in commerce, even for a single day, is an aberration. A number of years ago I spent a bit of time in New Zealand (Napier to be exact), and the respect accorded non-commercial time was quite striking. Businesses, almost without exception, shut down starting Saturday afternoon, only to open the following Monday. That’s the norm, and I heard nobody complain about it….time with friends and family they explained, was sacred.

Could I live at the overtly slower pace? I don’t know, but I often do get the feeling that much of the economic ‘hampster wheel’ life we live in the US is simply self-perpetuating, rather than an essential part of the nation’s well-being.

The sun never sets. Earth rotation never stops. Earth orbit revisits the Spring solstice perpetually the third week in March. No holidays in nature.

Creatures of the Earth that follow the cycles of nature thrive better than those who are deprived of their natural cycle flow.

Do mandated restrictions on natures creatures satisfy and promote the common well being of all? Does the echoe of bah humbug occur as part of the traditional season’s greeting? Do family quarels tend to spike during holidays? Does law enforcement work overtime curbing out of control revelers? Wow! Not nice to fool with mother nature.

The comfort zone is appealing when nature calls it. When nature doesn’t prescribe comfort as when protesters are protesting, it takes tear gas to put them in their comfort zone–harsh but true!

Mother nature is kind to those who respect her laws!