What taper? Ed’s Daily Notes for December 19th

So what does yesterday’s Federal Reserve QE taper mean? Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge nails it with the following chart:

On to other news…

Washington Times: Half of America strips religion from Christmas

Nine out of 10 Americans do Christmas and three-quarters believe in the biblical account of Jesus‘ birth — but only a little more than half actually regard the holiday primarily as a religious celebration.

More than one-third say it’s more a cultural holiday, a new poll from Pew Research’s Religion & Public Life Policy found.

And the problem with this is? If the religious aspect of Christmas is important to you, good for you. But the cultural aspect of it is important too. Consider that they celebrate Christmas in Japan, a country where the overwhelming majority is NOT Christian. It is a cultural tradition that they picked up from the U.S. during the occupation after World War II. The Japanese recognized what a wonderful cultural tradition it was, so they went along with it.

In fact, if you look at Christmas traditions, a lot of them come from other non-Christian cultures. “Yule” was an ancient Germanic religious festival. The practice of gift-giving comes from the Ancient Roman Saturnalia. Christmas caroling comes from the “koliada”, which was a pre-Christian winter festival celebrated in eastern Europe and Russia (and the word is still used in association with the Christmas holidays there today). If anything, Christmas is one of the most “human” of holidays, with a very rich cultural tradition that covers much of the world and human history.

USAToday: Obama adviser sorry for comparing GOP to Jonestown cult

John Podesta was just named as a new senior-level adviser to President Obama last week, but he’s already ruffling Republican feathers.

In a profile published late Tuesday by Politico Magazine, Podesta is quoted comparing Republicans to the infamous cult led by Jim Jones, who was responsible for the 1978 cyanide poisoning of more than 900 of his followers in Guyana.

“They need to focus on executive action given that they are facing a second term against a cult worthy of Jonestown in charge of one of the houses of Congress,” said Podesta of what Obama’s White House team faces. Jonestown was the informal name of the settlement founded by Jones and his American followers.

This coming from a member of the party which gave us the “messiah” Obama, who made us all drink the Obamacare koolaid? You know that koolaid? The one that kills your health insurance market?

I would suggest to Democrats that a little modesty might be in order. For all the Republicans’ flaws, they can’t claim the biggest government screw-up in modern times…