They don't like the crowds, the traffic, the parking chaos. They dislike the sameness -- the same mall chain stores piping in the same holiday music and selling the same made-in-China sweaters, whether in Spokane, Indianapolis or Raleigh. They stress out when waiting for someone to take their payment. Small wonder that 45 percent of consumers are doing at least some holiday shopping this year via the Internet, according to the Deloitte consulting firm.
The usual gun extremists largely went into hiding this weekend after the obscenity in Connecticut. The National Rifle Association offered only a flowery expression of sympathy for the victims. Real brave, aren't they?
One foe of gun control who did speak out was Michigan Rep. Mike Rogers, a Republican. He said the "more realistic discussion" is "how do we target people with mental illness who use firearms?"
Ah, the great American West, where man can generally breathe free and also inhale -- woman, too. Thank you, thank you, voters in Colorado and Washington state, for legalizing marijuana. But will Washington, D.C., leave you alone? Attorney General Eric Holder said this week that the Justice Department will weigh its response to the state referenda.
Nothing like a debt-ceiling brawl to raise the public's anxiety levels. The Republican threat two summers ago to let America default on its borrowing helped lower America's credit rating and sent consumer confidence back into intensive care. The people were not amused.
As global warming causes more serious and frequent shoreline flooding, indignation rises over federal programs helping owners of beach properties rebuild in places the ocean wants to take back. Superstorm Sandy was a lollapalooza in terms of waterfront damage and demands on the Federal Emergency Management Agency's resources.
On a recent "Meet the Press," host David Gregory presided in a tailored jacket and tie. Panelists Al Sharpton, David Brooks and Ken Burns appeared similarly professional. But the two female panelists, Andrea Mitchell and Carly Fiorina, seemed ready for cocktails, not coffee, in form-fitting dresses, arms naked to the world.
AARP's shot over the bow on the fiscal cliff talks is most unpleasant. Perhaps you've seen the ad on TV. As seniors go about their day, a stern female voice says of Medicare and Social Security, "We earned them." She goes on, "If Washington tries to cram decisions about the future of these programs into a last-minute budget deal, we'll all pay the price." She left out "down your throat."
Conservatives never much liked Social Security. It's a wildly popular government program that's totally solvent until 2033. It will be easily fixable and by then may not need fixing at all. Doesn't quite fit with the government-can't-do-anything-right talking point.
Forgive me, Bobo, but I do not believe in Bigfoot. Nevertheless, it was a delight spending a Saturday afternoon with you -- the sasquatch hunter from Animal Planet's "Finding Bigfoot" -- in, of all places, a midtown Manhattan bar. Most pleasant was your welcoming embrace of one rejecting the existence of the apelike hominid you say inhabits the forests of North America.
One of the more curious "gifts" in Mitt Romney's list of ways Barack Obama allegedly bought off voters was letting young people up to the age of 26 stay on their parents' health plan. It was a gift, all right, a gift to America.
The tea party now has its own news site. Based at the Venetian Resort in Las Vegas, the Tea Party News Network describes itself as "the only trusted news source." It focuses on such right-wing heroes as Michele Bachmann and Allen West, who just lost an election for a House seat in South Florida -- though perhaps not on TPNN.
Here's a question from a recent national exit poll: "Which is closer to your view? Government should do more. (Or) government is doing too much." More voters said "too much" than said "not enough." Political analysts picked up that response and ran with it for days.
Americans wanted to keep the country they know, and said so Tuesday. Now it's time for responsible Republicans to take their party back from the fringe that loses them elections.
My favorite Frankenstorm quote comes from Ralph Lopez, interviewed outside a housing project in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn. "Half the world doesn't have electricity," the 73-year-old said, walking his Chihuahua, Pepe. "I grew up in a cold-water flat with no heat at all. And this is just for a week. So, boohoo."
Mitt Romney is running ads explaining that he does not object to birth control. But no one questions his stance that women should have, as the ads say, "access" to contraception. They already do. They also have access to Coach handbags and flights to Acapulco. And that's where the Romney smokescreen, intended to close a gender gap favoring Democrats, needs clearing.
Dubach, La., was named "Dogtrot Capital of the World," and how cool is that? Very cool in the "small house" obsession embraced by urban hipsters. A dogtrot house is typically a modest home in which the cooking and living sections are divided by a breezeway (the dogtrot). Another Southern invention is the "shotgun house," a narrow rectangle whose handful of rooms line in a row. Elvis was born in one.
Nine years ago, the Ohio Art Co. closed its Etch A Sketch operation in Bryan, Ohio, and moved the jobs to Shenzhen, China. The 100 laid-off American workers weren't surprised. They'd been training their Chinese replacements.
A weird war between the generations is growing, and the Republican candidates are the mongers.
Driverless cars are on the horizon, and we can all start feeling ancient now. The youngest among us will remember the days when we had to keep our hands on the steering wheel and foot near the brake. Joining "icebox" and "fire stable" will be such terms as "behind the wheel," "pedal to the metal" and "in the driver's seat."
It can't be by accident that Obama campaign adviser Robert Gibbs made the Sunday talk-show rounds using the word "masterful" to describe Mitt Romney's performance at the presidential debate. True, President Obama looked tired, while Romney was brimming with old ideas. But Romney's master-of-the-universe act was not universally admired. It will be turned on him.
