Sunday Morning News and Views. Part I

Dolls are getting larger, electronic and interactive, yet the hottest selling dolls remain Barbie and soft plush dolls not much different than what Grandmother use to play with.

The nurf-blaster, which shoots soft nurf-balls at far too high a velocity, lead affordable boy's toys (just under  $12, as low as $5 at some locations).

iPads and Kindles lead the adult toys (not to be confused with X-rated toys), with flat screens and other highly discounted consumer electronics items filling in the top ten.Blue Rays are down, but discounted DVD's are selling well at locations from Costco to Walmart, given increased floorspace during the holiday season only (some "experts" say it is a last gasp).

Cell phone sales are going strong, with iPhones leading on the high end but most sales being the mid to lower level "smart" phones (lower resolution, fewer aps, slower speeds or simply telephone calls, texting and limited Internet services).

We are in for a wet week for the pre-holiday week in southern California, all of Nevada, parts of Utah and Arizona. Some of it, if you live at higher elevations, will be snow.

England is recovering form 8 inches on snow. That may not sound like much, but the country is not set up for heavy snow. Roads are being cleared, some people are stranded in the country, and airports are at a crawl. The BBC reports that Heathrow in London has only a handful of flights,where-as the usual rate is one or more planes every ten minutes taking off. Runways are clear, but planes remain frozen at their gates ("slots" as the English say it).

While shoppers shop, UPS and Fed Ex join the Post Office in the full fury of delivering packages and mail, for many this is the season for religion and hope, not celebration and spending.

Nationally there remain 6 applicants for each open job, as many as 600 qualified applications for every job opportunity. Those figures could be as high as 12 for each job and far higher for professional positions here in Las Vegas.

Employers are not going to hire after seasonal layoffs in January and February, reluctant as they wait to see what the new Republican majority in the house does, how the retail and home markets does,
if there are reasons to invest in the US rather than the high return potential of investing overseas, and test the waters on the potential for market growth at home.

Jobs and housing were the top stories of 2010, statistically upsetting the heated and way too expensive national election and the BP oil spill in most media coverage (Pew Trust and CBS polls). Toyota took a hit, as did BP and other corporations. The US auto industry made strong financial rebounds, but at the price of layoffs, retooling and shipping production overseas. Inflation has been low, however prices have gone up in key consumer areas such as gasoline and food.

Have Americans changed their view of the American Dream? Is buying a home a key part of it? Are larger homes a thing of the past? How about muscle cars, large pick-ups, boats, off road vehicles and other "luxuries".

Meanwhile the attitude toward marriage has shifted, with scientifically done polls showing that fewer  young Americans are getting married, that traditional heavy marriage groups of working class and religious are among the highest in preferring "living together" to formal marriage, and that adults are waiting for a sense of financial stability before having children. Of course teen pregnancies and other issues remain, but the statistically attitudes toward children at younger ages has shifted to waiting until late 20's or even middle 30's to have a child.

No one is neutral about controversial net neutrality rules that are set for a vote at the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday. Public interest groups say the rules favor giant phone and cable companies that spend millions lobbying the agency and Congress. Unless there are big changes between now and Tuesday's vote, many net neutrality backers are urging the FCC to reject the rules. The two Republican appointees on the FCC have already declared their opposition. That leaves commissioner Michael Copps, a longtime supporter of net neutrality, with the decisive vote. Large corporations are lobbying the commission heavily not to regulate the net, which means they can limited service, charge sliding scales, provide high speed access to preferred companies or customers and pay for the expansion of new technologies. Amazon, Netscape, Skype, NetFlix and others want the FCC to protect them from being at the whim of the "hard" carriers (Internet Service Providers) and to make sure that there is open and fair access for all over the net. Meanwhile AT&T, Comcast and other favor "toll roads" on the Internet, so that they can control who uses their infrastructure. Both Republicans say they will vote "no" on net neutrality, in favor of the large corporations who feel they need to be unregulated so they can invest in the technologies that consumers want. Meanwhile on the agenda of the Republican Majority in the new congress is cutting off any funding for FCC enforcement of any rules to support an open access Internet.

Meanwhile how safe is the net. This past week I was "phished", as were dozens of friends and family, by what seemed to be a real post from a close friend about a video posted (being an actor, I wanted to know who had pirated my image). It quickly spread with phone calls, e-mails, and yes, Facebook posts reporting to me that the screen was blank when they tried to open it, or that they were being virally sent over the Internet by the bug "I" gave them. Facebook is not safe.

phishing." Washington Post columnist Marc Fisher describes his family having their privacy his column this week describing the burglary at his home and the thief's subsequent posting of a picture of himself, with the spoils, on Mr. Fisher's son's Facebook page.