IX II V

Lest we forget, it really is all about taking and no giving.Twenty nine years later and the only thing that's changed (other than the hair and dress styles) is that more people are either unemployed or overworked, for less pay of course, while the powers that be continue to rake in profits and bonuses based on the fruits of the their employees efforts.

The Republican meme is to demonize the unions and the masses eat it up, never realizing that it was the unions that made it possible to have a home, health care, send their kids to college, enjoy the occasional vacation and have a nice retirement.  You know something is really wrong when the owners and CEOs make 236 times what their employees do and then said employees bitch about how much union workers make and that it's okay for the people in the ivory towers live high on the hog.

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The Stupid, It Burns

I actually started writing this post a few days ago and then several personal issues came up.  My disgust with politics, what passes for news (it used to be called gossip), the lack of intelligence and the stunning erosion of critical thinking of the average American has prevented me from caring as much as I used to about the future of America.

And then, sure enough, another act of stupidity wasted no time raising my blood pressure to the boiling point.  Banning the Merriam Webster Collegiate dictionary from the Menifee Union School District because a student found the definition of oral sex in a dictionary. Menifee may be located in California, but it is definitely behind the Orange Curtain.

The Golden State's Menifee Union School District has yanked all copies of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary from its shelves and is investigating the classic American text for containing "age-inappropriate" words.
snip
Menifee, which is composed of 9,000 students between kindergarten and 8th grade, is forming a committee of principals, teachers and parents to pore over the book and determine whether it's fit for young eyes. It could take a while: the unabridged edition available online contains over 470,000 entries.

Cheese and rice, these people are just plain stupid, there is no other way to put it.  In the mid nineties "oral sex" was all over the news, now it can't be in a dictionary because kids might find the correct definition instead of what they hear on the playground.

Up until this morning my, and most other liberals, definition of "f*cking retarded" was when you screw over 88 percent of the people who approve of most of what you're doing AND WHO GOT YOU ELECTED in the first place in order to please the same 22 percent who still thinks Bush and Cheney walk on water that isn't frozen and who wouldn't approve of anything the Obama did if God himself came down from on high and anointed Obama as his son by a different mother.  Now it seems to encompass everything in politics.

Of course there is going to be political pain on the democratic side, what did they expect?  Flowers thrown in the street for not doing the job that the American people elected them to do?  For saving Wall Street instead of Main Street and then letting Wall Street enjoy bonuses completely out of proportion to the crappy job they performed?  After suffering through eight years of the the Bush maladministration, the last thing that the democratic base wanted was to be ground under the jackbooted heel of the same people who caused the country to head into the crapper in the first place.  Sure, you can blame it on the economy, and you would be right.  It's too bad that what passes for leadership these days only cares about the economy of the working people when it's time for them to get reelected.

Living in an unequal society creates shorter lifespans.  That would be for the poor and the middle class, the rich have all their needs met.  Even when they contribute nothing to society except to increase the inequality.  Welcome to America, land of the free, home of the brave.  If you have lots of money .

Over 200 studies since the early 1980s have now documented that people living in societies where wealth has concentrated at the top of the economic ladder live significantly shorter, less healthy lives than people who live in societies that spread their wealth more evenly.

And we’re not talking just poor folks here. All people in unequal societies do worse. Middle-income people in the United States, the world’s most unequal developed nation, have shorter lifespans than middle-income people in Japan, Sweden and a host of other more equal nations.

So, my newest iWant is called iPad?  What the hell was Apple thinking?  Aren't there any females in their advertising department?  It reminds of some comedian in the nineties who made fun of sanitary pads.  As he said, why not call them what they are instead of some gussied up name that has no relation to its purpose.    He used the example of Always and thought a better name would be cranky hanky.  I realize that the iPod saved Apple's bacon, but there were a slew of better names than iPad.  Duh!

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It's Snowing!

And the dogs are not happy about it.  It's about 6-8 inches, all white, soft and fluffy.  Sounds are muffled and the place looks like a postcard.  I haven't lived in a snow area for almost thirty years and while I may think it's pretty now, that will quickly change.  The roads will be plowed and salted, the snow will pile up by the curb and turn brown and slushy from car exhaust.  At least is isn't going to be like when I lived in Germany.  I would drive the ex to work, passing by numerous fields covered with pure driven snow and come back less than an hour later and those pristine fields would now be covered with neat rows of manure spread by the honeywagons.  The offal fragrance would travel on the crisp air and overwhelm the senses until you were back home and safely indoors.

Several years later we lived off Route 209, between Kerhonkson and Kingston, NY, in a small one bedroom house that was heated by oil.  If you had the money.  During the winter heating oil was our most important bill.  We were as frugal as possible, but when your pipes freeze for eight days and you're boiling snow to flush the toilet and taking ho baths in the restroom at work, one tends to think that the term "winter wonderland" is a tad overrated.

I loved snow when dad was stationed in Spokane.  There was this marvelous thing called snow day and you didn't have to go to school, but then we were transferred to Puerto Rico and its beach weather and I've been a tropical girl ever since.  Rarely do I think that it's too warm.  Last night as I was shivering in bed I wondered where those personal summers were that some women complain about and then I covered my head with the covers and I warmed up enough to go to sleep.

Thermal underwear, gloves and a winter hat have greatly increased my tolerance to the cold, I wish I could say the same for the car.  It sounds like a belt is being tortured and the sound goes away after it warms up, I hope nothing breaks.  I bought a snow brush ice scraper thingy and some window de-icer but I'm not happy about my tires.  One shouldn't slide when accelerating at 2 mph, I'm so glad they're new.  It doesn't really matter since the car is snowed in and the maintenance guy locked up the shovels.

Meanwhile, back in the somewhat real world.

Off the deep end.  While I may not like Obama, every little farting thing that goes wrong is not his fault and blaming him because regulations that have been in place for many years prohibiting animals from food establishments is a little over the top.  As was banning the dog in the first place.

Why is everyone so surprised that there isn't going to be a public option?  Congress has done very little over the last thirty years to help those people who don't put massive amounts of campaign cash in their pockets and everything that the corporations  who do contribute have asked for.  Making it harder and more expensive to file bankruptcy when all indicators showed that out of pocket expenses for health care were increasing and that a majority of bankruptcies were related to medical issues should have been a glaring warning sign.  So of course it makes sense to add another mandatory expense to shrinking household budgets and babble about health care gulags or the wonders of employer based insurance when people don't have jobs and companies are eliminating benefits faster than the road runner evading a falling anvil.

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Pet Centricity

While Shadow might sit through a church service because she likes being with me, Shai Shai never would.  Her need to get love and attention from humans is pretty strong and with her friendly face and wiggling butt (her tail is curled against her back, so her butt moves when she wags her tail) most people can't resist her.  On the other hand she seems to make the people who pet her feel better and they smile more.

Which is why I would never consider eating her.  For any reason, even if I was starving to death.  Robert and Brenda Vale can take their idea and shove it where the sun doesn't shine.  For most people that would be their ass but for them it seems to be the place where their heart should be located.  My dogs don't eat beef, chicken, wheat, corn or soy and the companionship they provide is worth more than gold.  It's one thing to be green and another to be viciously stupid.  Using the argument that dogs are eaten in other countries isn't a good reason, didn't their parents teach them that if your friends jump off a cliff you don't have to follow them?

Not only can a cat has cheeseburger, it can also have H1N1, which directly contradicts the email alert I received two days ago.  There is no reason to panic, the cat caught it from its humans and is recovering nicely.  To prevent your pet from contracting it wash your hands, cover your coughs and don't play with them if you feel like you have the flu.  Duh.

BadTux must be so proud that one of his own has had a thirteen year relationship with a human.  Isn't that sweet?

World of Warcraft has virtual pets for sale.  What the heck is a lich?  And why would you want an imitation pet when you can have the real thing?

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Going To The Dogs

Wow!  Republicans really are willing to cut off their nose to spite their face.  The comments are fascinating.  No matter how the NY-23 race turns out the GOP is dissolving from within.  I almost feel sorry for the them but it's their own fault.  They embraced the wackos last year, they tolerated and encouraged the fringe to express their anger, rage and hatred during the campaign and as with any rabid animal, it's biting the hand that feeds them.

They don't need another job, they need to live within their means.  I'm sorry that one can't live comfortably on $93K a year and while I admire the work ethic of getting another job to support your lifestyle instead of doing what the rest of us do which is to cut back or eliminate expenses, taking a minimum wage job that might keep a family on the lower end of the economic spectrum from becoming homeless, is part of why we are in the economic mess we are all suffering through.  Those that have always think they deserve more or that they shouldn't have to sacrifice.  Marie Antoinette would be so impressed.

The kerfuffle about the Obama boy's club amuses me.  I tried warning people that he had little to no respect for women and their opinions, so it doesn't surprise me at all that women are being cockblocked while decisions are being made in circumstances that have no official record.

Somebody has been watching a little too much television.  The story never says why the owner had to steal his dog from the pound under the cover of night instead of picking him up during normal business hours.  It doesn't sound like the dog's behavior was a problem since the animal society released the dog to a friend of the owner.

Speaking of dogs, is this normal sleeping behavior?

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This 'N That

No wonder people have given up looking for work.  They did everything they were supposed to, they got more education so they could get ahead and now their resumes are the first ones discarded by employers looking to hire.  Because they might leave for a better job when times get better.  Like that's going to happen anytime in the near future.

The overwhelming response astonished him. He asked Cheree Seawood, one of his current assistants, to go through the résumés and help pick out several to interview. To make the task easier, he decided they should be even more rigorous in ruling out anyone who appeared even slightly overqualified (emphasis mine).

Key senators are not thwarting President Obama on healthcare, they are thwarting the will of the American people.  And it should be reported that way.  If the senators are worried about survival, perhaps they should vote the way their constituents want instead of pandering to the insurance industry.

Newsday is going to put its content behind a paywall, with access limited to people who subscribe to the print edition, pay for local cable, or you can pony up $5 a week, which is $260 a year.  If people wouldn't pay $50 a year for the NYTimes a few years ago, very few people are going to find Newsday to be worthy of $260 a year or $5 an article when they accidentally print something interesting.

What drugs are these people on?  For eight of the twelve years the Republicans controlled Congress they had a Republican president who claimed he was the Decider and they rammed bills, useless proclamations and tax cuts through to the detriment of the country.  And the spineless Democrats not only helped them, sometimes they gave them more than they asked for.

“We need more voices,” said House Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia, one of the party’s up-and-coming leaders. “Our party’s challenge has been that we need to be more inclusive — we need to attract the middle again. ... When one party controls all the levers of power in Washington, they’re going to try and villainize whoever they can on our side. It gives us an opportunity now to try and harness the energy and point it in a positive direction, so that we can attract the middle of the country to the common-sense conservative views that we have been about as a party.”

As the Bible states (Job 4:8), those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it, and by pandering to the lowest common denominator the Republicans coddled a section of society which attacks its own instead of working together.  80 percent of voters do not identify with the Republican party or its ideals and unless there are some major changes in attitude those in the middle will run even further away.

Cheney wants Obama to quit "dithering" on sending more troops to Afghanistan.  Meanwhile, back in the real world, a majority oppose sending more troops off to die in another useless land war in Asia.

Singing for her supper. Or not.The Performance Royal Society caused itself a little bad publicity by telling a woman who sings while she stocks shelves in a grocery store that she needs a performance license. Meanwhile musicians also don't approve of the government using their songs for torture. Britney Spears and Eminem qualify, but the Bee Gees?

Someone is begging for a Darwin Award.  Dennis LeRoy Anderson outfitted is La-Z-Boy with a lawnmower engine, a cup holder and what every pimped out ride needs, a stereo.  One day he rode it to the bar and had eight or nine beers.  He tried to ride it home but a parked vehicle jumped in his way and with a blood alcohol level of .029, besides wrecking his ride, he received a DWI.

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Saturday Morning Observations

Hmm, Byron York in the Washington Examiner has an article about how lefty anger could sink the Demowienies in 2010.  As if the Republicants are happy with their choices for candidates.  Perhaps the problem is that all of the choices suck, it doesn't matter if you're Republicans or Democrats.  Maybe the reason why the congressional approval ratings are so low is because the majority of them are useless sycophants out to line their own pockets and don't represent the interests of the people who voted for them.  It's just a thought.

The H1N1 virus is killing people who are obese or morbidly obese more frequently than in the past and the doctors seem mystified.  Did they pay attention in medical school?  Earlier in the article it's stated that for the people at risk the H1N1 virus affects the lower lungs as opposed to the usual invasion of the upper respiratory tract.  As an asthma patient I can tell you that my lung function tests reflected an almost twenty percent increase when I lost fifty pounds.  With less fat in the way, my lungs had more room to expand and at the same time more carbon dioxide was expelled, which increased the amount of oxygen my lungs were able to take in.  One of the things I noticed during an asthma attack is that I tend to try and suck more air in without trying to exhale which means that the only the upper lungs are working.  The lower lungs are congested and when I focus on exhaling forcefully, I tend to get a deeper, more satisfying breath.  Being fat makes this more difficult.  Duh.

I'm confused.  Does the NY Times have a time machine?  Today is October 17, 2009 and at the moment it is 11:44 am.  How do they know for sure that the article on the overreaction to the H1N1 virus is going to appear tomorrow?

A version of this article appeared in print on October 18, 2009, on page A1 of the New York edition

It's written in the past tense. Writing it today is one thing but a lot can happen in the next twelve hours as I'm sure Thomas Dewey would have explained to them.  Or if this asteroid had come a little closer.

It's not that I think the H1N1 virus isn't a problem that might become worse, at least some lessons were learned from SARS, but a better focus might be how the many people who don't have health insurance are going to receive adequate treatment and if hospitals are strained already why isn't something being done to change that?  Eight months into the pandemic and still not enough ventilators.  That's like eight years into the Afghanistan debacle and the troops still don't have dependable weapons.  Too bad we don't manufacture things in this country anymore, these problems would have been nipped in the bud thirty years ago.  Viva la corporations!  There bottom line is everything and now Americans are at the bottom of the line.

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Looney Tunes

What has happened to this country?  People seem to have lost their freaking minds.  The state of Michigan would rather have kids wait outside in the rain and snow (give them an umbrella was one suggestion) for a bus than let them wait inside a neighbor's house.  They have a law on the books that says if a child who isn't related to you is in your house more than 28 days a year while their parents aren't at home you are running an unlicensed daycare center even if you aren't being paid.  It doesn't matter if the kids are there five minutes or five hours.  As one commenter pointed out, if one of those kids was abducted there would be a completely different attitude and people would be wailing about how neighbors don't watch out for each other anymore.  Once again no good deed goes unpunished.

Who's doing the economic projections now?  Condoleeza Rice?  It's not unexpected to me or anyone else I know that consumer confidence would drop.  Money doesn't go as far as it used to and opportunities to increase one's income have become almost nonexistent.  It's only if you live in a bubble that you think things are getting better for the average consumer.  You know people aren't dealing with a full deck when they think that a few hundred people on Wall Street raking in dough is an indicator of a bogus recovery than the reality that hundreds of thousands of people who can't play the stock market, don't have jobs, are losing their homes and dying for lack of health care.  Nobody could have seen that coming.

Many years ago I worked for Home Savings in their signature verify department.  There were three of us whose job it was to match suspicious check signatures to their enrollment card on file.  The other fifteen people in the department had the responsibility of authorizing which checks would be paid from flagged accounts.  They would spend the morning ordering the checks so the bank would make more money on overdraft fees.  That was 1983 and not much has changed other than the fees have been increased.  Like any other business they want more of your money and aren't ashamed to use any means to get it.  Debit card transactions and are one more way to accomplish this.  The mistake most people make with banks is thinking that it's your money.  It was until you put it in the bank, now it's theirs and they decide how you can spend it.

Chopped liver, onions on the side.

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Stating The Obvious

And this is a surprise?  To whom?  The political landscape has become a pressure cooker with no release valve and some nut will take the opportunity to do what the voices tell him to do.  Unfortunately those voices belong to pundits and preachers who influence millions of people and that makes it increasingly likely that more than one person will decided to take matters into their own hands.  When you talk about someone as if they aren't human, as if they are the devil in disguise, the hate factor is ratcheted up into the stratosphere and logical thought flies out the window.  It won't occur to the perpetrators that they have lost the moral high ground, listening to the right justify killing someone at church is proof of that, and that the repercussions of their actions will bring about almost everything they fear.  Martial law, restrictions on what few civil liberties we have left and confiscation of as many weapons as possible.  But that won't stop them because their hatred knows no bounds.

My issue is with the Secret Service and the cavalier way they seem to be doing their job.  There is never, and I mean never, a good reason for people without a badge to have weapons around the President.  It has been almost 46 years since the last successful attempt to take the life of a President and there have been unsuccessful attempts since then.  Squeaky Fromme, Sara Jane Moore and John Hinckley spring to mind and you would think that the Secret Service would do everything in their power to prevent another attempt.  Especially since they were so good at making sure that people who were wearing tee shirts protesting the war or the administration and who were exercising the right of free speech, weren't allowed into events where Bush and Cheney were speaking.  Why does the Secret Service hold the Second Amendment in higher regard than the First?  But then I remember, the Secret Service has members that are comfortable hanging ropes that look like nooses in training facilities.

In October 2000 there was a television show named Freedom whose premise was a coup that started with the killing of the President by flying a plane into the White House.  It wasn't on long but as I think back it doesn't seem to be that far fetched.  No matter how many times the previous administration and their cheerleaders repeat the opposite, somebody did foresee using an airplane to attack the United States and it isn't that far of a stretch to think that someone will use the diatribes of Cheney and the encouragement of "pastors" to set the country back on the "right" course.

To the detriment of us all.

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Penny Wise And Pound Foolish

The California Dream has become a nightmare for a good proportion of its citizens. The Governator continues his policy of balancing the budget on the backs of the poor because the poor can't contribute to his coffers or buy him cigars and they must be punished until they miraculously find a way to improve their situation and their salaries. Without education or viable job opportunities of course. His solutions to the California budget crises is too take from the poor and give discounts to the corporations and the rich.  As a result emergency rooms will become even more crowded, elderly people with dementia will have little to no support and for $8 an hour will have very few competent people to help take care of them, and going to the park or beach for recreation is on its way to becoming a thing of the past.

The Golden State no longer gleams unless you're rich, in which case the immediate future looks quite bright.  It's only a matter of time before the worker bees find somewhere else where their minimum wage will go farther and they won't have to live in tent cites or parking lots that let them park their RV for the night.  And these aren't illegals, they are electricians and truck drivers.  Who will probably be joined by other middle class workers that worked for the state and couldn't afford to lose 14 percent of their pay.  And the best part?  Schwarzenegger and crew believe that the same amount of tax revenue can be brought in even if there are fewer employees to do it.

As part of budget-cutting measures, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has ordered most state employees to take off three days each month without pay, including the staff of the Franchise Tax Board.

Despite objections from the board, the governor ordered employees to take two days off each month starting in February and a third beginning this month. The board estimated that the loss of work time already had cut income tax revenue by $177.4 million for the spending year that ended June 30.

If the furloughs continue, the board said the backlog of dealing with tax disputes and late collections would contribute to a net loss of another $372 million over the two years after that.

This isn't about balancing the budget, it's about revenge and punishing people for working for the state.

The board collects both the personal and corporate income tax, which bankrolls about 70% of the state's $85-billion general fund. The estimated tax collections lost through furloughs represent about 1% of all state income taxes paid in the state.

Forcing about 5,000 people at the board to take furloughs essentially reduces an already streamlined workforce by about 15%. But the productivity losses don't stop there. An additional 289 staffers have received notices that they could be laid off in the fall.

The reductions in personnel immediately translate into lost revenue for a state that's trying to dig itself out of a $24-billion hole with an austerity budget that the governor signed into law Tuesday.

"As a department, whose only product is revenue -- voluntary and involuntary -- cuts in our operations do impact our final revenue output," Franchise Tax Board Executive Officer Selvi Stanislaus wrote on June 30 to Schwarzenegger's finance director, Mike Genest.

The state would save about $60 million in salaries by furloughing all board workers for three days per month, the board said. But cumulative revenue losses would be as much as nine times that amount.

It looks like I really did get out in time even though there are three things I don't like about living in Reno.  One, the cigarette smoke.  It's everywhere.  I didn't realize how few people smoked in California until I started dodging the smoke clouds that hang in the most unusual places.  Two, they don't recycle here and I feel guilty not sorting my trash or returning my bottles.  Third and most important, I traded Dianne (I don't care what my constituents want) Feinstein for Harry (what are cojones and why do I need them) Reid.  Good grief, his hands off approach has made sure that nothing gets done in a timely manner except whatever is good for corporations and banks.  We the people are treated more like silly children instead of taxpaying citizens who deserve equal representation.

What the heck is wrong with this country when a family forgets one of their kids in a taxi and the taxi driver gets the reprimand instead of the parents?  Twenty years ago I had a friend who left his five year old at the grocery store.  For four hours.  He finally noticed the kid was missing and went back and found him tapping his foot with his hands on hips.  I never let an opportunity pass to tease this guy.  He may have been cute but he certainly wasn't responsible.  And neither was the taxi driver.

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Saturday Morning Observations

That is kind of the point, isnt't it?  Schwarzenegger is California's version of hurricane Katrina.  Get rid of the poor, elderly and disabled by any means necessary, let them die if he has to and California will be the Golden State once again.  Completely missing the point that the people who actually do the work, the ones that clean the buildings, pick the fruits and vegetables, serve the food in restaurants or other such "lowly" jobs can no longer afford to live there and that eventually there won't be anyone to give the rich their due.

"It does not look like rich people are leaving California in order to avoid income taxes," Kolko said.

Tax critics often claim the state's high cost of living and tax structure drive high-income earners out.

The study found that the rich — those in the top 20 percent of income earners — leave California at only a slightly higher rate than those who arrive. For those with incomes above $200,0000, the departure rate is only 1.09 households for every one household that arrives, the report said.

Meanwhile, 1.73 households with annual incomes of $22,000 or less depart California each year for every one out-of-state arrival.

And yes, one of the factors in my decision to move to Nevada is that they have no state income tax.  I don't mind paying taxes, as long as they are used to benefit the public not just a select few.

The older I get, the less geek cred I have.  Along with not having any interest because I think we're in a technological holding pattern at the moment and I'm waiting for something a little more interesting than Twitter.

The problem with Texas having a known creationist in charge of the state Board of Education is that Texas has great influence on textbook printings.  Publishers are as cash strapped as any other business and can only afford to print a select number of books.  If Texas wants to teach creationism as part of its curriculum then a lot of other states (and children) will be exposed to the same nonsense.

The New York Times is considering charging for access.  Again.  Good luck with that.  All it did the last time was take themselves out of my reading rotation.  I don't pay for Wikipedia and the Times version of information sharing isn't much more accurate.

The Quit bull (love that term!) is still babbling.  So she chose not to play "their game".  What game would that be?  The one where you have to cross the finish line in order to collect your reward?

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I Don't Want To Shock Anyone, But

I had a stroke of good luck.  I know, I know, it's not normal for me but every once in a while something nice happens.  And this was very nice.  Not that I had the money to be doing this, but I was over at the Atlantis playing a penny machine for 60 cents (max bet is a $1.50) with something called Goldbeard's Treasure and just after 4 in the morning, when my eyes were looking for matchsticks to keep them open, I hit a little jackpot.  And suddenly I was wide awake.

There are five progressive jackpots in this game and it randomly eliminates them one by one.  I figured I would win the $6.28 but it was eliminated first.  Then the $44 one disappeared, followed by the $50 one.  That left a $100 and one worth a very small five figures.  Which then started blinking "Winner."  You have no idea how surprised I was, I believe the exact quote was "no fucking shit?" Other than the taxi home the first thing I did was get a ticket to see Ron White tonight at the Peppermill.

Now that I have a little money in the bank (and of course B of A put a 7 day hold on it), I am loathe to spend it.  I need a car and a bed for mom would be really nice, as well as a computer desk (I'm using stacked beer cartons to hold the iMac and I prop the keyboard on my lap) and a lamp.  I loved the Infiniti but knowing what I know about the maintenance costs ($900 for a tuneup, premium gas only) makes me hesitant to replace it with another, but driving a beater car doesn't appeal to me.  I like things such as air bags, ABS brakes and the ability to smoothly move out of the way of trouble.  The heated seats weren't bad either.  Oh well, courtesy of the bank which has my balance at -$260, I have a week to look for a car.  And a new bank.

On the other hand, the woman who bought my car lost her job so I offered to buy the car back.  Then I could take some of the money and do the maintenance.  I like that alternative.

The maverick strikes again.  Since when does writing a book and giving speeches qualify one to run a country?  Especially one that thinks it's supposed to be the world's policeman.  Palin supporters are a different breed.  Of idiot.  Quinn Hillyer of the American Spectator writes that anyone who cuts and runs from elected office without finishing the term they were elected for is not to be admired or respected for their decision and the wingnuts came out in droves to support her and call him a twit, a fool and a mental lightweight.  And that was in the first four comments.  Funny how the army determines leaving your post to be desertion and to most employers it shows that the employee is not a good bet in the future because they didn't finish the job in the past.  While I thought the Bush supporters had drunk too much Kool-Aid, the Palin supporters have intermarried once too often.

Oops, in a surprise to researchers, self-help doesn't work.  It seems that the brain knows when your life isn't going well and resists efforts to convince it otherwise.  The brain prefers reality, what a concept.

Strange.  How can people follow me on Twitter when I never post?  Or maybe that's the point.

Today makes eighteen years since dad passed away.  I can't believe how much I still miss him.  Rest in peace, I love you.

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Thursday Morning Quickies

The Supremes surprised me this morning.  I thought the decision on the strip search was going to be 8 to 1, in favor of the school not the girl.  Instead of Ruth Bader Ginsburg being the lone voice of reason, it turns out it was the sexual harasser who was the holdout in favor of humiliating a girl.  Somehow that isn't a surprise.

I agree, Johnny Depp is one cool dude but now the whole world (aka the IRS) knows the waiter made an extra $4000 in tips this year.  It would have been really cool if the poor guy didn't have to pay taxes on it, sort of like the politicians and bankers who manage not to pay their fair share of taxes.

Filling out the paperwork for student loans isn't hard, it's tedious.  Just like college. And unlike college it can be done online, at your leisure.  If the FAFSA has to be simplified for students to understand it, how do they think they are going to understand their classes?  Just wondering.

Senators (the usual suspects) are introducing legislation to insure that the Iranian people are able to evade censorship and Ahmadinejad is complaining that Obama is the one interfering.

Goodbye Farrah, you made many a teenage boy and quite a few older men happy by reviving the pinup poster in the seventies.  Your work after Charlie's Angels revealed a depth of character that had been overlooked and highlighted the issue of abused women.  Thank you for being you and rest in peace, you deserve it.

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From Obscurity To Stupidity

She's no Vanessa Williams, that's for sure.  She isn't as classy, pretty, talented or graceful and she certainly isn't as natural.  She doesn't take responsibility for her actions or her words, always blaming someone else.  Which isn't really a surprise given her "beliefs".  She lied on her application and the fact that someone released a risque photo that she posed for is not an attack on her beliefs, it demonstrates that she is a hypocritical liar. It's long past the time for her to fade into obscurity, where she belongs.

Speaking of fading into obscurity, Mr. and Mrs. Edwards need to do the same.  I was a John Edwards supporter for many years but I can't and won't get past the fact that he lied and let down the people who most needed his help, his children and the poor.  The poor have been forgotten as this drama has turned into tabloid fodder.  And bad tabloid fodder at that.

Wow!  The definition of work certainly has changed.  Globetrotting workaholic?  So that's what they are calling it these days.  Spoiled floozy seems like a better description.

Cash for clunkers is a misnomer.  In order to get the cash you have to be willing to buy, and make payments on, a new car.  I don't have a job and even if I did my credit sucks, so trading in my 17mpg car is out of the question.  Actually, I'm going to have to sell it and take the money to buy food, mom's medications and pay off the deposit on the apartment.  Hopefully some enterprising person will buy it and then they can trade it in for a new car, I'll be taking the bus.

If marijuana was legalized, we wouldn't have to worry about things like this and law enforcement could concentrate on important things like finding murderers, rapists, kidnappers and thieves.  Building a fence is a stupid idea and won't close the borders to drug traffic or any other kind of traffic.

How can you protect the quality of healthcare for all Americans when significant sections of the population have none and will never be able to afford it?  You can't ration what they don't have and patients can only be a part of their healthcare decisions when they can afford to see the doctor.  Typical Republican strategy of nowadays, can't see the forest for the trees.

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Like A Rock

I was trolling around Craigslist looking for cheap furniture yesterday and came across an ad for a brand new futon in the box.  I drove out to pick it up and the best thing I can say about the purchase is that since the sales tax in Reno is only 7.75% it saved me money over purchasing it in California.

The mattress itself was wafer thin and I could feel every one of the metal parts that took me two hours and some cursing to put together.  It was so uncomfortable that I got up in the middle of the night and retrieved the air mattress.  Proving once again that you get what you pay for.  In this case $49.99 plus tax equals $53.78.  I'm heading out to look for something to make it a little more comfy.

And I thought my back hurt yesterday.  Sheesh, will I ever learn?

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Do Unto Others

Yesterday the FX channel showed A Few Good Men and while everyone remembers "you can't handle the truth" very few people remember the pressure exerted on Marines to follow orders no matter what or the ending and the judgment rendered against the two Marines.  It seems that back in 1992 following an illegal order was enough to have you kicked out of the military with a dishonorable discharge for conduct unbecoming a Marine.  Just like it was when I joined the Army in 1974.  It's almost funny that the crime took place at Gitmo.

On the charge of Murder, the Members find the defendants Not Guilty.

It's hard to resist the temptation to scream and shout, but they do.

RANDOLPH
(continuing; reading)
On the charge of Conspiracy to Commit Murder, the Members find the defendants Not Guilty.

RANDOLPH looks up. Then reads from the last slip of paper.

RANDOLPH
(continuing)
On the charge of Conduct Unbecoming a United States Marine, the members find the defendants Guilty as Charged.

A little of the energy drains out of the room.

RANDOLPH
(continuing)
The defendants are hereby sentenced by this court to time already served, and are ordered...

RANDOLPH clears his throat.

RANDOLPH
(continuing)
... And are ordered to be dishonorably discharged from the marine corps.
(pause) This Court-Martial is adjourned.

RANDOLPH raps his gavel.

SERGEANT AT ARMS
Ten hut.

All rise.

RANDOLPH's gone.

SERGEANT AT ARMS
(continuing)
Dismissed.

The M.P.'s move to DAWSON and DOWNEY to unlock their handcuffs. KAFFEE is packing up his things, just another day at the office.

DAWSON
Why?

KAFFEE
Harold, I'm sorry.

DAWSON
Why?!

DOWNEY
I don't understand. Colonel Jessep said he ordered the Code Red.

JO
I know, but--
 
DOWNEY
Colonel Jessep said he ordered the Code Red, what did we do wrong?

JO
It's not as simple as--

DOWNEY
What did we do wrong?

DAWSON
We did nothing wrong.

If it wasn't a viable excuse in 1992, it's even less of an excuse when you have a college degree (required to join the CIA) or a medical degree and are supervising torture. Waterboarding two men 266 times and receiving the same answers shows that torture doesn't work.  Common sense dictates that if they haven't given any more information after the first or second time, they aren't going to cough up anything useful on the hundredth time.  By then they know they aren't going to die from simulated drowning and that their captors are depraved idiots following illegal orders.

Why is it considered torture when our troops are subjected to water-boarding but not when we do it to other people?

Interestingly, we weren't nearly as blithe about waterboarding when it happened to our own guys during World War II. Then, we considered it a war crime and a form of torture.

In "Drop by Drop: Forgetting the History of Water Torture in U.S. Courts," Judge Evan Wallach of the U.S. Court of International Trade has documented the trials in which the United States used evidence of water-boarding as a basis for prosecutions. The article, still in draft form, will be published soon by the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law.

Among the numerous examples, Wallach cites one involving four Japanese defendants who were tried before a U.S. military commission at Yokohama, Japan, in 1947 for their treatment of American and Allied prisoners. Wallach writes, in the case of United States of America vs. Hideji Nakamura, Yukio Asano, Seitara Hata and Takeo Kita, "water torture was among the acts alleged in the specifications ... and it loomed large in the evidence presented against them."

Hata, the camp doctor, was charged with war crimes stemming from the brutal mistreatment and torture of Morris Killough "by beating and kicking him (and) by fastening him on a stretcher and pouring water up his nostrils." Other American prisoners, including Thomas Armitage, received similar treatment, according to the allegations.

Armitage described his ordeal: "They would lash me to a stretcher then prop me up against a table with my head down. They would then pour about 2 gallons of water from a pitcher into my nose and mouth until I lost consciousness."

Hata was sentenced to 25 years at hard labor, and the other defendants were convicted and given long stints at hard labor as well.

Wallach also found a 1983 case out of San Jacinto County, Texas, in which James Parker, the county sheriff, and three deputies were criminally charged for handcuffing suspects to chairs, draping towels over their faces and pouring water over the towel until a confession was elicited. One victim described the experience this way: "I thought I was going to be strangled to death. ... I couldn't breath."

The sheriff pleaded guilty and his deputies went to trial where they were convicted of civil rights violations. All received long prison sentences. U.S. District Judge James DeAnda told the former sheriff at sentencing, "The operation down there would embarrass the dictator of a country."

Hmm, so we have prosecuted our own law enforcement agencies for performing water torture but the CIA. the doctors and everyone else involved in these heinous acts against people in their custody are not to be punished?  Right now President Obama is no better than President Nixon was when he had Lt. Calley removed from the stockade after a single weekend after being sentenced to hard labor for the rest of his life for killing innocent women and children at My Lai 4.

I love this country but I am not immune to its faults and lately they have been obvious to everyone but us.  Whenever we feel threatened we feel we can use any means necessary to accomplish our goals but we want others to be punished (Mr. President, I'm sure you saw those documents as you studied for that law degree, they were in your college library) for using those same means.  I guess this means that our motto is no longer "Land of the free, home of the brave" it's more along the line of "do unto others as you would have them do unto you, but do it first."

As John Adams said many years ago, we are a nation of laws.  Mr. Obama it is your job to enforce them.  Otherwise you, and by definition America, are nothing more than an empty suit.

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When Did We Lose Our Ability To Empathize?

What the heck is wrong with people?  Are our math skills so poor that we can't do simple addition and subtraction?  For a supposedly Christian nation we sure are harsh on those who have the least.  A recent Gallup poll finds that even though the economy has tanked, that rental prices have risen as home prices have fallen, that food and medical costs have also risen high enough that families making $50K a year are visiting food banks to supplement their pantry and doing without medical insurance while hoping for the best and yet only 41% of Americans think that the poor are paying their far share of taxes and 16% believe that the poor pay too little.  If you want the poor to pay more taxes, you should let them earn more money.  As Warren Buffet pointed out a few years ago, his secretary and cleaning lady paid a higher tax rate than he did.  In other words, a larger proportion of their income.

In California the minimum wage is $8 an hour.  If your company hasn't forced you to take an unpaid vacation or cut your hours you will gross $320 per week, $1,387 per month and $16,640 per year. Sounds like a lot, doesn't it?  Back in the day, the rule was that you were to spend less than one third of your income on lodging so living by yourself is out of the question if you plan on eating.  Rents in Santa Clara for a one bedroom apartment hover between $950 and $1400 a month.  These numbers can be reduced if you are willing to live in a high crime area on the wrong side of town or live so far away from your job that it takes you an hour to get to work.  But what the heck, you're poor and don't deserve to live with the "better" members of society.

Federal and State taxes are taken out before you ever see your check, along with Medicare, State Disability and Social Security taxes, so that $1387 a month is really closer to $1000 which means you compromise and live in a house or apartment with several other people and rent will only cost you $550.  That doesn't include utilities or telephone, be it a land line or cell.  If you don't have a car there are no payments, repairs, registration or insurance to worry about but the bus pass for the bus that doesn't run on weekends or holidays that's a mile from your apartment on one end and a mile to the job on the other is $70 a month.

Now this job obviously doesn't have health insurance and if you are young and never been seriously ill, the premiums can be pretty low but heaven forbid you're over thirty because you are looking at premiums around $250 a month.  I hear tell that you are supposed to buy new clothes occasionally so you had better be a Wal-Mart shopper, but not too often.  No going to the dentist either and if you need glasses they had best be of the birth control variety.  Fortunately they happen to be in style now.

You really shouldn't have pets, hobbies, own a television now that everything is going digital and you can't afford cable or satellite, go to the movies, smoke cigarettes, or enjoy a beer or latte because that money is coming directly out of your food budget since you gross over $1100 a month you aren't eligible for food stamps.  And with the price for a decent loaf of bread coming in at over $3.50 you should be eating rice and beans.  It doesn't matter if you aren't getting proper nutrition and are gaining weight because all you can afford are simple carbohydrates, you're poor and that's all the world owes you.

Now what happens if you stupidly fall in love and get married?  That salary will not support two people but you will finally qualify for food stamps.  According to the traditional view of Christian marriage a man is supposed to support the wife and she is supposed to stay home and take care of the kids you can't afford.  Reliable birth control is out of the question and abortion is a no-no so you better not have sex either.

Unfortunately this recession is hitting all income levels and the ranks of the newly poor are swelling at the same time as all of the safety nets are being eliminated.  For those of us who are either not knowledgeable or have too much knowledge, poverty is our future.  It won't matter how much you have paid into the system over the years, your fellow Americans think you are a loser and abusing the system because they are positive you're lazy.  Not that the job that required a Master's degree when you took it was shipped overseas and the only thing left in your area is working at Wal-Mart and they won't hire you because you're over qualified.  Even though you had six months of savings that have run out and now can't pay your bills, it's all your fault now because you're poor.  You should have planned better and gotten an advanced education.  Oh wait, you did that and have the student loans to prove it.

What the heck is wrong with us that we must make ourselves feel better by demeaning those who can't fight back? The poor pay into the system in many ways (including the regressive sales tax) and then society determines that this isn't enough and that they aren't contributing as much as they should even though it's all they have.  And then have the audacity to say that the poor should work harder and pull themselves up by their bootstraps when all they have are flip-flops.  How messed up is that?

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Union Of The Snake

Have you ever noticed that no matter how much we interfere in other country's dealings that within a short amount of time they revert to their old ways?  We went to war with Afghanistan to eliminate the Taliban and to capture Osama bin Laden.  Seven years later and the Taliban are back in power and threatening us without impunity.  And that crap about improving the lives of women?  It was just that.  Crap.  Afghanistan's freely elected President, Hamid Karzai, rushed a bill through Parliament whose only goal was to keep him in office until they have their next election.  Most world leaders wouldn't put pen to paper and legalise the rape of women, restrict their access to courts, and approve child marriage in this day and age but that didn't stop Mr. Karzai.  Oh no, he rushed the bill through without it being read out loud or debated by the Parliament.  And we keep supporting this guy. You know it's bad when Saddam Hussein had more respect for women.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.  We get the picture, things haven't changed much since the last Depression.  Corporations, banks and Wall Street are the winners and their employees are the losers.  And will stay that way.  In the waiting line. 

For a country that revolves around its citizens buying things we aren't going to last very long if a majority of the people are unemployed and stuck in places that don't have enough jobs for the amount of people who would like one and therefore can't afford to buy anything.  If people can't afford housing, food or clothes, how can they afford a new car or a refrigerator for the house they no longer have?  The recovery needs to start at the bottom, the top has had help for years and look at the mess they made.  Not that they're suffering.  Yet.

This is my issue with working for a corporate employer.  They require that you be at work at a certain time, eat and sleep at a certain time, dress a certain way, behave according to their rules and that if you break them, you can be dismissed.  For complying they promise to pay you a certain wage on a predetermined schedule and years ago they offered benefits such as a steady job, health insurance, vacation and sick pay and a pension after committing a large percentage of your life to the company.

In the eighties they started spending company money to move production to another country to save costs and increase profits.  When they figured out that the people they laid off could no longer afford their products they didn't discipline the people who had exhibited faulty judgment by eliminating the consumer base, they laid off more people in the States and moved production to even poorer countries where they wouldn't have to pay benefits or worry about workplace conditions and could still give the almighty shareholders their precious dividends and executives received bonuses.  Then they set about systematically dismantling the pension and health insurance for the people who had already fulfilled their end of the bargain and worked faithfully for them for years by claiming that they couldn't afford to keep the deals they made with the employees.  And then the Bush administration shifted large sums of money from the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation to the already unstable stock market.  End result?  The elderly will eat dog food and ketchup or die of starvation or they can hang on until winter when they can freeze to death.  The middle aged live in their cars and earn just enough to eat a mini meal at Mickey D's once a day and the youth wander the streets aimlessly with no hope for the future and see crime as their only way of getting ahead.  I know I'm a cynic but what's next?  Lining the homeless up against a wall and shooting them so the rich aren't offended by all those lazy people?

At one time we were the greatest country in the world and now all we have is faded glory.  The rich don't notice, they are too busy vacationing or buying homes in other countries while ensuring that they pay less and less to the country that made it possible for them to be a success.  Heck, they even adopt kids from poor countries while forgetting about the ones in the land of their birth. The sad part is that those who aren't rich don't mind getting help to cut their own throat because they no longer have the skills to think critically, question authority before it goes too far and are willing to be spoon fed economic pablum by the pundits instead of looking at their own circumstances and seeing how screwed they are.

We may not be watching Rollerball but American Idol, Survivor and Dancing With The Stars make a nice substitute, don't they?

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Life Without Credit

Russ over at Scholars and Rogues, has an excellent article about credit cards being equivalent to usury and used George Washington as an example as to some of the other reasons why our Founding Fathers started the Revolutionary War. One of my college professors had told us stories about ol' George's spending habits so it wasn't a total surprise but if the Founding Fathers thought that 5% interest was robbery, I wonder what they would think of us putting up with 30-36%?

I no longer carry credit cards, they won't let me have one. They don't even send me offers. Which is okay by me because when I run out of money to pay my bills and unlike my government and huge corporations, I stop spending. I just wish there weren't so many bills left over. The last few years of taking care of mom has taken a severe financial and emotional toll as it has for many in my generation. Every month I run out of money about two weeks before I run out of month. And just like a lot of other people we are falling through the cracks.

I don't own video games, I don't go on vacation to exotic places, I don't go out to eat very often and unlike some women, I only own two pair of shoes and one purse. I hate clothes shopping which is unfortunate since mom has magically disappeared almost everything I own several times. So, where did my money go? Rent, food, cell and gas. At the end of the month rent is not going to be an issue because unless a miracle happens we'll be homeless and that bill will go the way of the dodo. Thank goodness my two year contract is up with DiSH on the 17th and I can cancel the cable without penalty. Which I can also do with mom's phone as of yesterday since no one calls her and even though I have it set to answer when she flips it open, she misses most of my calls and uses it mainly to see the time. I can't justify the expense so there's another $10 a month saved.

Last year when gas was getting close to $5 a gallon here in San Jose I put myself on a gas budget. I bought a $100 gift card at Costco at the beginning of the month and when it ran out, I walked or stayed home. And even though I am not within walking distance of anything important such as food, I cut my driving by over 70%, a practice that continues to this day though now the requirement is one tank per month.

Could I use a credit at this moment? You betcha. When I bought the used 1994 Infiniti I checked Carfax for everything except how much it cost to tune it up. It never occurred to me that it would be more than $100. Boy was I naive. Depending on the place it is anywhere from $942 to $1200. Mainly for labor. You have to take half the engine off just to get to the spark plugs! Which can only be platinum. As tight as things are I would need to spread that amount over twelve months and hope that nothing else goes wrong. If I'm not willing to take that chance why would a creditor? So, I'm cleaning it and selling it this weekend.

Fortunately I do have an iPod and it will help entertain me while riding the bus. Since public transportation was one of the things that the Governator decided wasn't important enough to be funded and he had to give corporations a $1B tax break, I will walk a mile or two to get to a bus stop where I can pay higher fares and go fewer places. It's tough losing one's autonomy in California, the state isn't designed for it. On the bright side, there is the added benefit of increasing my cardiovascular health and helping me to lose weight.

Like a lot of people I've cut back everywhere I can, I even live in a crime ridden area because the rent is cheaper. Mom and I would like to move out of the state but we can't for three reasons. One, we don't know anything or anyone in the places mom wants to go so we would have no idea about the quality of the neighborhood. Two, she loses her Medicaid until residency is established and the drugs the doctor just put her on are as much as her Social Security each month so that presents a huge problem but three is the kicker. It seems we need a credit card to rent a truck. Not pay since they are only to happy to accept cash, just as security to rent.

It's sad that our nation has become the laughingstock of the world. Our news exports scenes of beautiful people doing nothing but attending parties or adopting babies while the poor and the middle class are blamed for not being one of the beautiful people. Hospitals are content to let people die in the waiting room, food banks are teeming with more people than they can healthfully feed while restaurants are throwing out unused food by the tons as the dinner rush becomes the dinner trickle. Meanwhile, those that have not only blame those that have not, they seem to spend every waking moment trying to get the last penny from those that don't have it to spare and then call them deadbeats because the have nots can't afford all the new rates and penalties on what they already don't have.

How many tent cities will it take before the populace can drag themselves away from American Idol Idle and see that the flood waters of debt are at their doorstep and still rising? How much longer will the people tolerate bailing out the banks when they can't bail themselves out of the mess they're in? Especially without a job. Telling people not to live above their means when everywhere they turn all they see is stuff that they are brainwashed into needing is like telling an eight month pregnant teenager that sex is even better after you have the baby but abstinence is the way to make your parents happy. Some other advice needs to be given.

There's a reason why Clara Cannucciari is becoming so popular that she is getting ready to release her first DVD at the age of 92. She knows a Depression when she sees one. Cooking from scratch is an art, cooking with cheaply available ingredients is magic in the land of Mickey Ds, Whole Foods and tight budgets. I remember many of those meals from when I was growing up and you know what? They still taste good. Comfort food rocks. I may like caviar and champagne but fried potatoes and club soda taste just as good when you're hungry. Plus, you don't need credit to enjoy them.

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Sunday Morning Musings

What's the point of going then?  If you eliminate all the extras to save money on a cruise it will be pretty boring after a day or two and on my two cruises the classes were free and the gym wasn't.  The best part was that I lost weight even though I ate like a pig (one night all I had was 6 orders of escargot and a salad) and drank like a fish (by the third night the sommelier would be at my table as soon as I sat down) I never took the elevators and spent quite a few hours walking around the ship. The whole idea of a cruise is to relax and indulge yourself, not look longingly at what everyone else is enjoying.

If you're counting pennies, skip the casino, spa, specialty restaurants that charge extra, the gift shop, art auction, fitness classes, lattes in the cafe and cocktails at the bar.

It only makes sense that more strokes occur in areas of high fast food density.  Supermarkets with fresh fruit and vegetables are becoming harder to find in urban areas but fast food can be just a block away.  Thank you city planners.  When your only options are the joint on the corner or traveling several miles by bus to find a grocery store, most people will opt for closer to home.  An entree salad is not going to be the first choice for most young men since it costs as much as most value meals and will do little to assuage their hunger.  That being said, do people really eat fast food 17 times a month?  I don't do 17 times a year, the food is tasteless, packed with sodium, fat and sugar, and the french fries don't taste like they used to.

And Oklahoma City is of course not alone in its insatiable appetite for fatty burgers, salty fries and sugary soft drinks. Nationwide, on average, fast-food patrons have upped their monthly visits from 14 in 1999 to 17 last year.

And I am not giving one dime of my money to a corporation that denies worker compensation benefits to an employee by claiming that good Samaritan acts are not within the scope of employee responsibilities.  You would think that after having one of their outlets shot to pieces and 21 people killed they would be a little more compassionate towards an employee who was trying to prevent harm to a customer or a repeat of said incident.

Littering is a $1000 fine if you get caught in the state of California.  Too bad space doesn't have the same rules.  We have littered on the moon but the belt around the globe is becoming more hazardous as more satellites become just so much junk.  It should be a rule that for every satellite you send up, two defunct satellites must be destroyed safely.

The new debris adds to the growing amount of junk accumulating in orbit. Thus far the annoying objects have not had a major impact on human or robotic missions into space, but there are grave concerns for the future. At some cluttered altitudes, collisions are producing debris faster than gravity can eliminate it. If the trend is not reversed, one can imagine a time when it could be too risky or too expensive to fly spacecraft through the debris fields.

Uncle Pat is off his rocker again.  It's amazing to me that one can indulge in a racist rant and not suffer consequences in this day and age.  Poor schooling, few role models, trigger happy policing and no opportunities ensure that certain groups will have a difficult time getting ahead and blaming them for society's ills is foolish and shortsighted.  As one commenter pointed out Pat fixates on individual crimes while missing the crimes that impact thousands of people.

Should have come back at him with white crime: bankers and CEOs who commit fraud, cause millions of job losses which leaves hundreds of thousands with no health insurance; then some of the laid-off have a cancer diagnosed a year later than it would have been and they die when they would have survived had it been found sooner. Those deaths are a direct result of fraud committed by wealthy white people. Or you lose your job and have to put off brake work your car needs, then you have an accident and someone dies. These deaths all result from crimes committed by wealthy white people. Or your 401k vanishes, and you can't eat as well as you need to and you just die at 80 instead of the 82 you could have lived to had you been able to afford the diet you needed. The problem is, Buchanan and his ilk have a mind-set that "sees" crime in a particular way, they "see" murder as cause by a particular set of actions and NOT by other actions. This allows them to be blind to their own racism; they can't understand that the mind-set they have adopted allows them to "see" the responsibility one group of people have for the results of their actions but not see the responsibility a different group has for the outcomes of their actions. This is what it means to be racist. And I speak as a white man.

So the Governator is willing to accept stimulus money that other states don't want.  Good, let him take Louisiana's portion, California can use it.  One of the unpublished stories is that Arnie cut the In Home Support Services salary to $9.50 an hour from $12.35, a loss to me of over $165 every month.  I now don't earn enough to pay the rent, much less feed us for a month and there isn't a cheaper place to live in San Jose.  Then you add the effect of the sales tax and life has become that much more expensive.  I doubt the increase in state income tax will affect me since I'm obviously below the poverty level.  Way to go Arnie!  I wonder how much rent is in Las Vegas since it is one of America's emptiest cities.  Hmm, I actually found places within the budget. Wow, just about any place outside of California is much, much cheaper than here. Now if I just had the money to move.

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