I have never felt sadder for a machine, poor Rover
Jerry O’Connell Stands With Israel
1 hour ago
Friday, January 29, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Mel Gibson
I believe Mel Gibson doesn't like Jews, but as a Jew that opinion makes me ..... suspect ?
Mel just doesn't feel the necessity to hide his feeling, because you know you are talking about Joows, those protocols of Zion, control the world, organ stealing ( we have moved on from stealing christian babies and eating them ) people.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Bookssssss
After spending the last hour pursing Amazon and reading samples of various Sci Fi, I have come to the conclusion that with advent of cheap printing and especially the Kindle, any crock of shit can be published.
I can write shit as well as the next person, perhaps I will spend tomorrow looking for.... novel writing software, I am sure it's out there some where.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
South Carolina Lt. Governor Andre Bauer Compares His State's Poor Children to 'Stray Animals'
An example of the philosophy of the new Republican party
No longer do they have to whisper behind close doors their true feeling, they are now free to share them with the world, confident they have the full support of their party and their community
Let's be absolutely clear, here: Bauer's remarks are not appalling because they're offensive or "un-PC" or a Biden-esque "oops!" They're reprehensible because this man who currently holds office in South Carolina and is making a bid to run the state is demonstrating beyond a shadow of a doubt that he doesn't possess even the very most basic understanding of the biggest problem in his state, which is poverty. Deep, ingrained, historical-legacy style poverty. The kind of poverty where, forget about college, nobody in your family has ever owned a telephone or a car or a TV or known how to read. The kind of rural poverty that at its worst is invisible to most Americans, because the only way to see it is to accidentally get off I-95 at a no-gas-station exit and drive twenty or so miles from the highway. That is what this still, in 2010, very segregated state is dealing with. And then their Lt. Governor said something even worse:
"My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed. You're facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don't think too much further than that. And so what you've got to do is you've got to curtail that type of behavior. They don't know any better."
Yeah, no shit. The fact that Bauer is presenting the correlation between poverty and low test scores as his own magical "aha" discovery and not something every high school student who has ever taken a sociology class understands should strike nothing less than mortal fear in the hearts of anyone who lives in or cares about the state of South Carolina. Poverty, especially of the Southern kind, is an extremely complicated and difficult and frustrating issue, and so far nobody, Democrat or Republican, has been able to solve it. But South Carolina deserves a leader who at least knows what it is.
"I can show you a bar graph where free and reduced lunch has the worst test scores in the state of South Carolina. You show me the school that has the highest free and reduced lunch, and I'll show you the worst test scores, folks. It's there, period."
24Comments
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Satan's Open Letter to Pat Robertson
As the kids would say, Lily Coyle FTW.
Dear Pat Robertson,
I know that you know that all press is good press, so I appreciate the shout-out. And you make God look like a big mean bully who kicks people when they are down, so I'm all over that action. But when you say that Haiti has made a pact with me, it is totally humiliating. I may be evil incarnate, but I'm no welcher. The way you put it, making a deal with me leaves folks desperate and impoverished.
Sure, in the afterlife, but when I strike bargains with people, they first get something here on earth -- glamour, beauty, talent, wealth, fame, glory, a golden fiddle. Those Haitians have nothing, and I mean nothing. And that was before the earthquake. Haven't you seen "Crossroads"? Or "Damn Yankees"? If I had a thing going with Haiti, there'd be lots of banks, skyscrapers, SUVs, exclusive night clubs, Botox -- that kind of thing. An 80 percent poverty rate is so not my style. Nothing against it -- I'm just saying: Not how I roll.
You're doing great work, Pat, and I don't want to clip your wings -- just, come on, you're making me look bad. And not the good kind of bad. Keep blaming God. That's working. But leave me out of it, please. Or we may need to renegotiate your own contract.
Best, Satan
LILY COYLE, MINNEAPOLIS
Friday, January 15, 2010
A Growing Underclass
Interesting article from the NY Times on the growing underclass of the unemployed, but it is one comment which most resonates with me which I posted at the end... politicians should pay attention, this comment is the voice of many. A dissatisfied, educated group of people who are being squeezed into a corner are not going to passively walk off the cliff, like a pack of lemmings.
By CATHERINE RAMPELL
Slowly but surely, longer-term unemployment seems to be becoming the norm.
While layoffs are slowing, the number of job openings relative to the unemployed population were still at a record low in November.
That means that those who have already been laid off must spend longer and longer periods looking for work. Take a look at the make-up of the unemployed last month, compared with a year earlier:
In December 2008, 22.9 percent of the unemployed had been out of work for at least 27 weeks. A year later, that portion rose to 39.8 percent. That translates to having about 4 percent of the total civilian work force categorized as long-term unemployed.
Here’s a look at how many weeks the average jobless person has been jobless for:
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
The average person who was unemployed in December had been out of
work for 29.1 weeks. By contrast, when the recession began two years
earlier, the average unemployed person had been out of work for 16.5
weeks.
I would guess that these numbers might even understate the portion of Americans who lost their jobs long ago and have not been able to find work, as many of the laid-off have most likely dropped out of the labor force altogether after months of discouraging job searches.
These are bad trends.
Initially the labor market imperative facing Washington was cushioning the blow of layoffs with safety-net programs like unemployment benefits, so that the newly jobless could still put food on the table and make their car payments. Now the problem is figuring out what to do with this growing army of idle workers.
After all, all things being equal, the longer unemployed workers stay out of work, the less likely they may be to subsequently find work, for two reasons.
First, their skills may deteriorate or become obsolete — especially if they are in a dynamically changing industry like high technology.
Second, the stigma — both internal and external — of their unemployment grows. Studies have linked job loss to declines in self-worth and self-esteem, meaning these people will probably make less compelling job candidates.
Besides that, long-term unemployed workers will have a marketing problem: Even if their skills have not deteriorated, employers are going to worry about that big, gaping hole on their résumés anyhow.
If given the choice between a job candidate who’s been unemployed for a month and a candidate who somehow hasn’t been able to get hired for a year, wouldn’t you choose the former?
In other words, unemployment insurance benefits may tide these workers over for a few months. But eventually we will have to figure out a way to transition the long-term jobless back into the work force, whether through training or therapy or tax incentives or public service announcements or something more drastic. And for the two reasons above, the longer Washington waits, the tougher the transition for this growing underclass will probably become.
Comment by mikeswinney
While layoffs are slowing, the number of job openings relative to the unemployed population were still at a record low in November.
That means that those who have already been laid off must spend longer and longer periods looking for work. Take a look at the make-up of the unemployed last month, compared with a year earlier:
In December 2008, 22.9 percent of the unemployed had been out of work for at least 27 weeks. A year later, that portion rose to 39.8 percent. That translates to having about 4 percent of the total civilian work force categorized as long-term unemployed.
Here’s a look at how many weeks the average jobless person has been jobless for:
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics I would guess that these numbers might even understate the portion of Americans who lost their jobs long ago and have not been able to find work, as many of the laid-off have most likely dropped out of the labor force altogether after months of discouraging job searches.
These are bad trends.
Initially the labor market imperative facing Washington was cushioning the blow of layoffs with safety-net programs like unemployment benefits, so that the newly jobless could still put food on the table and make their car payments. Now the problem is figuring out what to do with this growing army of idle workers.
After all, all things being equal, the longer unemployed workers stay out of work, the less likely they may be to subsequently find work, for two reasons.
First, their skills may deteriorate or become obsolete — especially if they are in a dynamically changing industry like high technology.
Second, the stigma — both internal and external — of their unemployment grows. Studies have linked job loss to declines in self-worth and self-esteem, meaning these people will probably make less compelling job candidates.
Besides that, long-term unemployed workers will have a marketing problem: Even if their skills have not deteriorated, employers are going to worry about that big, gaping hole on their résumés anyhow.
If given the choice between a job candidate who’s been unemployed for a month and a candidate who somehow hasn’t been able to get hired for a year, wouldn’t you choose the former?
In other words, unemployment insurance benefits may tide these workers over for a few months. But eventually we will have to figure out a way to transition the long-term jobless back into the work force, whether through training or therapy or tax incentives or public service announcements or something more drastic. And for the two reasons above, the longer Washington waits, the tougher the transition for this growing underclass will probably become.
Comment by mikeswinney
texas
January 15th, 2010
10:59 am
I was recently laid off from a large IT consulting firm. I was
initially put 'on the bench' (i.e. unassigned and unbillable) and it
was suggested (under the table of course) that I start looking for
another job. So, I began a new job search that evening. I was told the
next morning that I would not be given another assignment because I was
looking for another job. Four weeks later I was called into HR and told
I would be laid off four weeks later if I didn't resign or find another
job. Since I was given nothing to do I spent my time teaching myself
something new while searching for another position. My
managers/supervisors knew what was going on and eventually forgot about
it. When my last day came management was totally unaware of it. I a few
co-workers goodbye and drove the 110 mile commute back home. The
company agreed to pay unemployment which is almost half of what I was
bringing home before. Health insurance is gone of course. I've been
looking diligently in my field and using the State of Texas job boards
to find work - any work. Since it's a buyers market the few available
positions will stay open until someone with the exact skill-set is
found who will work for 2/3 of the previous salary and do the jobs of
two people. I get tired of hearing the imperious comments from
employers who feel they have some pre-ordained right to determine who
works and who doesn't, who has insurance and who doesn't and who should
be grateful in an economy like this. I went through the same thing
after 9/11 in NYC. All being out of work for extended periods of time
is make one bitter towards employers, not grateful and it does nothing
to increase 'employee loyalty'. I'm 56 yrs. old and I'm not optimistic
right now. As a software engineer I've seen my profession decimated by
outsourcing, off-shoring blah blah blah. When accountants and attorneys
and bankers begin seeing their positions sent overseas there will be a
great uprising. Until then the middle-class will continue to be sucked
downwards into oblivion. Americans have no one to blame but themselves
for allowing this to happen. The hardest thing to teach a man is
something his job depends on him not knowing.....
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Reports of Snow
There were reports of snow but I didn't see it unfortunately. It was cold, the wind felt like it was flowing
straight from the Arctic. So clean and pure, what a change for us in this perti dish called South Florida. G-d , I miss the cold, I never thought I would say that, but I do. I hate Florida... controlled by right wing republicans and the insurance companies and full of mold. Crap art, crap music, a state whose sole purpose is to serve up employes and consumers to big business on a sacrificial silver platter, readied to be screwed.
It is warming up slowly and I will move my
tomatoes back outside today, maybe
My tomatoes and eggplant plants
Thursday, January 7, 2010
South Florida Chill
The high today is predicted to be 64 f, right now at 10 am it is 45 f, if it makes it to 55 f I will surprised. On Saturday we have rain and a low of 37, if we are off by 5 degrees, a real probability, we could have SNOW! Snow in South Florida, there will be pictures
A listing of snow events in Florida
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_snow_events_in_Florida
youtube videos of snow in South Florida
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YW0rYafyxsM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ7UzDCd6wk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pZBwUxILD4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NGA0byUlfE
Monday, January 4, 2010
Move Your Money
We all have some money, even if it only lasts the 2 days it takes you to pay your bills, but there is power in numbers. For all the people who throw shoes at their TV when the stock market goes up as unemployment goes up, Wall Street loves high unemployment, it means better numbers for businesses , for people disgusted with big banks and big corporations, there is something you can do, move your money to a community bank.
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