This is insane.

I wish I could learn to make my own cards. I guess if I take the time I could. Good luck and I would like to see some when you get them made.

Save the cards people send you. Use white out to mark off the name. Sign your own. It can be that simple.

Sandy, I usually publish a greeting card each year, with my wishes for a Merry Christmas and Happy and prosperous New Year. And yes, I still say Merry Christmas, If I wanted to wish people happy holidays I would do it all the time.

Like Now, HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE, START WITH VETERANS DAY, AND FINISH WITH CONSTITUTION DAY ON NEXT SEPTEMBER 17TH.

cute Karl. I have never been on this site at Christmas time so I didn't know how you do it.

Oh, Last year I used Corel Photo house to create the face of the card, and using the quad fold template from Print House, I did the rest of the work, but it's a lot easier with American Greetings but, so far as I know they have discontinued the Create-a-card software.

Here's a list of inexpensive, one totally free card making programs. The description of the free program seems to say that post cards are the limit. http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/downloads/greeting_card_software_software/ I'm sure there are other possibilities.

Thanks Karl. I will put that to good use.

I could do all that, but I am too lazy. I use BlueMountain. LOL

I use Ad Blocker so I never have to be reminded Hallmark or Handy Manny or any advertiser who feels it's good policy to force ads on people exist.

Well, I plugged it in, but I hate to deny Gather ALL the revenue they get, just the stuff that gets in the way of using the system. Still, the penalty for creating chaos is dismissal.

I have no problem with ads along the side of the page, but when they are animated, make my computer run slower, and won't go away then I just have to pull the plug.

Just got another popup from Internet explorer on my Firefox browser, except it is not from Firefox, IE is opening itself.

Hmm...is IE set as your default browser? (Check settings.)

Not on this computer. And when it takes over on the one I made the mistake of installing Google Chrome on, I fix it. That is one of the reasons I am so stymied. I had to reformat this particular computer.

Are you sure your computer has not been "violated"? Run your anti-virus software. when IE begins opening by itself, it is not a good sign.

No, I'm not, but I do regular full scans, using a highly rated virus program, and I keep IE updated even though it is not my default browser.

Karl, don't you know that Hallmark is the publisher of the Neoconservative Doctrine of Domination? Their popup was intended to block you until you bow before them.......LOL.

Next time, just click the little X in the upper right corner. Those boxes tend to go away quickly when you do that.........LMAO!

No Bret the publisher is Rupert Murdoch, the managing editor is William Kristol, and the authors are, among others, Dick Cheney, Jeb Bush and Donald Rumsfeld. Paul Wolfowitz is also one of the writers.

I am simply amazed that you have not learned this in your careful research of the positions of the Neo Conservative Movement and the TEA Party. OH wait, I am not surprised at all. None of the Sheep in those movements have the necessary curiosity or honest courage to find out anything beyond the slogans.

OH, I get it, you are just giving me opportunities to show you how much I know about the movements I reject. Why don't you try finding out about the ones I support. We could have a lot of fun with you making me defend the philosophy of American Liberal/Progressive politics.

And, if there had been a "little x" I would have clicked it. I am not as stupid as some people. You know who they are.

Bret, The book explores a failing United States where leading innovators, ranging from industrialists to artists, refuse to be exploited by society. Or if you want to look at it from a socialist point of view, refuse to submit to dictates from bureaucrats.

A major point in the book is made (amazingly considering how long that book is) by this passage.

“My purpose,” said Orren Boyle, “is the preservation of a free economy. It’s generally conceded that free economy is now on trial. Unless it proves its social value and assumes its social responsibilities, the people won’t stand for it. If it doesn’t develop a public spirit, it’s done for, make no mistake about that.

Orren Boyle has appeared from nowhere, five years ago, and had since made the cover of every national news magazine. He had started with a hundred thousand dollars of his own and a two-hundred-million-dollar loan from the government. Now he headed an enormous concern which had swallowed many other companies. This proved, he liked to say, that individual ability still had a chance to succeed in the world.

“The only justification of private property,” said Orren Boyle, “is public service.”

And that in a nutshell is what YOU say is not true. A) Boyle is seeking to "preserve a free society." His method is to take a two hundred dollar loan from the government (sort of a stimulus package) and then, despite his windfall 200 million dollar loan, he claims his success is proof "that individual ability still had a chance to succeed in the world." And you come at us with the nonsense that today's world is like the world of "Atlas Shrugged" I CAN'T REALLY LAUGH IN YOUR FACE... just consider it done.

Karl, you are looking at this from the wrong point of view.
Orren Boyle is not one of the heroes, he's one of the "looters". He's part of the system. He's profited not because he's an innovator, but because of government patronage. He's a tool of Mr. Thompson and the evil bureaucracy that dominates and subjugates America.

The government we now have in place shares a common goal with the government found in the book : the lust for control.
Only SMALLER government will save the Republic. More government control is what Rand warned us against...............and she couldn't have been more correct.

“The only justification of private property,” said Orren Boyle, “is public service.”

Said like a true Socialist.
No Karl, the justification of private property is the freedom to do what you want with it.............without government interference.

Well we obviously disagree Bret. You take the position that the first responsibility of a company is to profit the owners. I take the position that they must do that, AFTER they satisfy the consumer. And satisfying the consumer in a RATIONAL culture includes protecting the consumer from the effects of producing the product. That principal ranges from environmental protection, to ethical financial dealings. It is painfully obvious that those protections are often ignored in an effort to cut costs, and increase profit.

That attitude is not sustainable. If you poison the consumer, you lose the consumer, and so does every other producer of every other good and service.

Your position is that the company has a right to do whatever they want. Does that include genocide?

Karl : "Your position is that the company has a right to do whatever they want. Does that include genocide?"

Bret : Well, I don't know, Karl............does that break any laws? LOL
If it does, then it probably doesn't fit into too many business plans that I know of.

Yea, it does, but then the EPA and the FDA and OSHA and CPSC are all empowered Federal and in many cases duplicate State Agencies enforcing those laws. THANK THE LIBERALS FOR THAT.

Those, Bret. are some of the ways the Constitutional Mandate to proved for the General Welfare is carried out by government.

Karl : "Well we obviously disagree Bret. You take the position that the first responsibility of a company is to profit the owners. I take the position that they must do that, AFTER they satisfy the consumer."

Bret : When owners of a corporation are forming, they already have an idea of the markets for which they'll produce products. Their only real question is 'can we do it profitably?' Customer satisfaction is built in to the sale. So is worrying about a second sale, and a third, etc. If a profit margin is not established while still in the planning phase, the product cannot continue be produced, Karl.
Even Marx & Engels go into great detail about this in The Communist Manifesto.

Karl : "Yea, it does, but then the EPA and the FDA and OSHA and CPSC are all empowered Federal and in many cases duplicate State Agencies enforcing those laws. THANK THE LIBERALS FOR THAT."

Bret : Those are all just costs of business. I don't give them a second thought in any of my businesses.............I let the lawyers do that.

Bret, you are not being truthful. You whine and cry about government involvement in business ALL THE TIME.

YOU SAY YOU WANT THE GOVERNMENT TO STOP GOVERNING YOU.

By the way, your lawyers are not going to pay any penalties your companies incur. The fines will be on your bottom line, along with the legal fees. And I know it. Do You?

Karl, I'm past the point of saying things to impress people. I say what I feel..........and what empirical facts have shown me is the truth.
There IS too much government in this country, no doubt. When 44% of the population works for some form of government, that tells me that Big Brother is getting fat and bloated. Thankfully, he's too fat and bloated to catch me......lol.

And like I said before - in the planning stage of a new company of mine, I figure out if I can make a profit even with all these government agencies screaming for my compliance. If I can't, I don't push forward.

But I definitely don't lose sleep over it.

Whatever....

I am tired of wasting time with you.

Karl, any time I can help you learn the discipline of Economics, I consider it time well spent.

I learned economics from a CPA who also was Treasurer of an Insurance Company. As well as a few VERY Conservative College Professors. The CPA also taught me about ethics, and sweeping floors.

Although I don't believe in "no child left behind", I won't leave you behind, Karl.

I've been listening to your words and posts for a while now, and it seems that this CPA that you learned Econ from, must have taught at Moscow State University back in the Brezhnev era.

He taught at the Thunderbird School of Global Management, one of the Top Post Graduate Business Colleges in the US. This is a list of their NUMBER ONE international rankings in MBA programs in several fields. OH the CPA was my father, but that is not the issue.

He was the son of an immigrant gardener, and devoted his life to teaching. He was dyed in the wool Liberal/Progressive/Democrat. And he did not die poor.

It all makes sense now, Karl.

It should, you were so dense it took three days.

Karl, you're like an onion - it took me three days to peel back the layers and find a Socialist core in the middle. I just thought you were a garden-variety Lib 4 days ago. Now I know that your anger goes far deeper.

Hell why the shazbot did you not just ask.

I find that people tend to blurt out the truth when they're angry.

I find that suffering fools and jackasses is tiring and frustrating. It took me the same three days to discover you were too dense to bother to ask me my political position. I KNOW YOURS.

Karl, there really isn't anything you can say to defend yourself about your "Neoconservative Doctrine of Domination". I just wanted to hear you go on and on about it. It's pure entertainment to hear you try to defend the indefensible.

I'm a Conservative Democrat...........no mystery there.
You're a Left Wing Democrat...........also no mystery there.

Bret I don't have to defend myself. The documents are there. THE WARS are there. The rhetoric is there. Believe what you want. I AM NO INVESTED in you.

If you make outrageous statements on a public forum like this, you'll have to defend yourself................or look silly. I suppose you could just make outrageous statements and look kooky, but why?

Documents, Karl?
Wars? You mean the wars that Mr. Obama promised he'd get us out of? He hasn't kept those promises, has he?

Hell Bret at least I know how to reply to comments. Looking silly at my age is commonplace. But What outrageous statements are you referring to? Do you claim that my assessment of your activities is outrageous?

I claim that the Liberal point of view is outrageous now, in light of utter devastation last Tuesday. In the same way that Conservatives were under fire after Obama was elected, Liberals will now are having to go re-think their platforms and tactics.

I find it funny that you'd be writing such bold articles when clearly your point of view is under such constant attack these days, and being held in such low esteem by such a high percentage of American voters.