By Brian Karem

Every year my wife and I have the kids make up a list of presents they desire for Christmas and then we try to fulfill as many of those wishes as possible without going broke, taking out a second mortgage, declaring bankruptcy or resorting to bank robbery to pay the bills.

It's getting tougher to do so as the kids get older.

The trip to Europe is out (requested from my oldest), as are the free passes to Hooters (requested from the youngest boy), and we also nixed the request to travel to Dallas to see the Cowboys play (as requested by the middle son - who for some strange reason is a Cowboy fan).

I also nixed the request for three, count them, three X-Box 360 video games.

Mind you we already have an X-Box (actually two) in the house, but that isn't enough.

Nope. Each kid wants an X-Box 360 so they don't have to share with each other.

As if I need three different games of "Halo" going on in my house with the assorted sound effects and yells and screams coming from the game and my kids. Not to mention that it wouldn't kill anyone to learn the concept of sharing. It's a good thing.

Truth is I kept X-Box and all other forms of video games out of the house for many years, until finally succumbing just a few short years ago.

I have to admit I finally caved out of a sense of selfishness - I wanted to play Madden too.

But, now I think I'm going to go against the grain and confiscate the darn things all over again, start a big log inferno and toss these plastic and metal mind-sucking contraptions on the pillar of fire and watch them roast up like Darth Vader at the end of the Star Wars double trilogy.

The planned obsolescence involved is disgusting. The engineering is tweaked every couple of years to produce marginally better graphics in an attempt to get the sucker, I mean consumer, to go out and buy the same games all over again for a different platform - never mind you have to purchase a new platform to play these games on every two years too.

The whole thing stinks of the type of manipulation that would make an oil company management team salivate.

While I need to purchase gas to drive to and from work every day, I definitely don't need to buy another toy that runs only slightly better - if indeed it runs better at all - than the toy I already have in-house.

Boobus Americanus may live and breath in this country still, but I'm not going to become one. I will not go gentle into that mind-fogging night.

During the Christmas season people get confused. They want to give to their loved-ones, sometimes in a bid to overcompensate for not giving of oneself during the other 364 days of the year. Sometimes they want to give for the right reasons, but just want to give too much.

This year I think I'll turn a bit curmudgeonly and not give in to every whim.

I found my inspiration for this in some recently published statistics that noted most people who live in Montgomery County are among the richest one percent of people in the entire world.

That little bit of information certainly puts the X-Box debate in context.

It also made me think of something else.

If, indeed, we are among the richest in the world, then why don't we live in an area filled with contentment, merriment and a general feeling of superiority?

After all, we've got it over everybody else in the world.

So, why do we fight with each other in traffic, shoot, stab, steal, engage in burglaries, argue about X-box, scream at co-workers and backstab our friends?

We apparently are all a bunch of spoiled brats and can't put things into perspective.

It's so very human. We don't appreciate what we have until we lose it.

I won't do it on Christmas.

Merry Christmas. Peace on Earth to everyone.

Now, put up the X-box and go hug somebody.