As a union supporter, I invite you to check out this link and this link for information on how to support labor while you shop this Christmas Season.
Monday, December 08, 2008
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Monday, October 06, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Talk like a pirate week on Capitol Hill
I watched a little bit of the bail-out hearings on C-SPAN yesterday, and ended up with smoke stains all over the seat of my Jockey shorts. Today, I am going to take a teaspoon of Tequila every time Paulson fails to complete a spoken sentence. I fully expect to suffer alcohol poisoning.
I once had a Financial Planner tell me that I was effectively losing 7% a year on my money because I was sticking it in a savings account at a little under 3% interest rather than investing it in a risk portfolio that was returning at a rate of 10%. He was an excellent sales person, but when he remarked that “even an idiot can see which the smarter investment is”, I had to walk away. I wonder how he is doing this week…
My Mother was firmly against using credit because it tended to make a difficult situation worse. She raised five children as a single Mother on Welfare, and her frugality and sacrifice didn’t escape any of us. Her circumstance was one that could befall any young woman with few employment skills and a husband who decided (after the first four children) he would be better served on his own. Only her oldest son failed to graduate high school, opting to enter the military instead, and he later furthered his education beyond most high school graduates. The rest of us eked out an existence that was below middle class, but did culminate with a high school diploma in hand. Upon graduation, each of us was shown the doorway out of our Mother’s rented house and into the world.
I haven’t always followed my Mother’s example regarding credit, but (except for a brief period following a separation and divorce) I have tried to use credit sparingly and responsibly. I feel much more comfortable drawing 3% interest on a savings account than I feel pushing my money into the hands of a professional counselor who is going to purchase paper with it that has my name on it but yields value only to the people handling it.
My view of the stock market has always been skeptical. I prefer to deal in real estate that might fluctuate in value, but is always something I can place my feet upon. I also enjoy having a pocket full of cash when people are desperately trying to offload stuff that they purchased on overextended credit. I don’t get to do that very often because I seldom have even a hand full of cash, but I can easily see the upside of having liquidity rather than credit. Each situation spirals in its own direction… especially when lending regulations are non-existent, and the credit card companies are allowed to ply their tricks and traps against an uneducated public.
I guess the bottom line is being played out on Wall Street and in Congress this week with the Republican scheme to extract the maximum amount from the National Treasury before the Bush Administration wanders down the Happy Trail. I just have to shake my head because these Power Vultures have plucked and plundered their way into this current financial situation with focused attention, and they expect to wipe the shit off their shoes onto the American people once again.
I say…let the market heal its own wounds. The regulations that are being discussed by many Democrats and some Republicans should be slammed into place while the wound is raw and bleeding, and the fat cats who legislated this situation into existence should be recognized for their greed and irresponsibility. Taxpayer funds should be used to ease the burden of mortgage holders without excusing them from their obligations, but the lending institutions that are on the verge of failure should be allowed to fail if that is what the market decrees.
When the market finally settles out of its own accord (and it will), we should take our newly honed regulatory skills and abilities into the world of Government Contracting with a vengeance. We should also take a piercing look at the military weapons industry, and apply some regulatory common sense to a culture that perpetuates the ability of the world to argue lethally when diplomacy should be the norm.
There are many perversions in Government that need to be addressed. That won’t happen unless the American people insist on it, and we prosecute the Bush Administration officials (including Bush, Cheney, and their enablers) who have removed the last vestiges of honesty and integrity from the Justice Department and the Executive Branch so their political and financial Ponzi schemes could be perpetrated against America.
Country first, my ass!
I once had a Financial Planner tell me that I was effectively losing 7% a year on my money because I was sticking it in a savings account at a little under 3% interest rather than investing it in a risk portfolio that was returning at a rate of 10%. He was an excellent sales person, but when he remarked that “even an idiot can see which the smarter investment is”, I had to walk away. I wonder how he is doing this week…
My Mother was firmly against using credit because it tended to make a difficult situation worse. She raised five children as a single Mother on Welfare, and her frugality and sacrifice didn’t escape any of us. Her circumstance was one that could befall any young woman with few employment skills and a husband who decided (after the first four children) he would be better served on his own. Only her oldest son failed to graduate high school, opting to enter the military instead, and he later furthered his education beyond most high school graduates. The rest of us eked out an existence that was below middle class, but did culminate with a high school diploma in hand. Upon graduation, each of us was shown the doorway out of our Mother’s rented house and into the world.
I haven’t always followed my Mother’s example regarding credit, but (except for a brief period following a separation and divorce) I have tried to use credit sparingly and responsibly. I feel much more comfortable drawing 3% interest on a savings account than I feel pushing my money into the hands of a professional counselor who is going to purchase paper with it that has my name on it but yields value only to the people handling it.
My view of the stock market has always been skeptical. I prefer to deal in real estate that might fluctuate in value, but is always something I can place my feet upon. I also enjoy having a pocket full of cash when people are desperately trying to offload stuff that they purchased on overextended credit. I don’t get to do that very often because I seldom have even a hand full of cash, but I can easily see the upside of having liquidity rather than credit. Each situation spirals in its own direction… especially when lending regulations are non-existent, and the credit card companies are allowed to ply their tricks and traps against an uneducated public.
I guess the bottom line is being played out on Wall Street and in Congress this week with the Republican scheme to extract the maximum amount from the National Treasury before the Bush Administration wanders down the Happy Trail. I just have to shake my head because these Power Vultures have plucked and plundered their way into this current financial situation with focused attention, and they expect to wipe the shit off their shoes onto the American people once again.
I say…let the market heal its own wounds. The regulations that are being discussed by many Democrats and some Republicans should be slammed into place while the wound is raw and bleeding, and the fat cats who legislated this situation into existence should be recognized for their greed and irresponsibility. Taxpayer funds should be used to ease the burden of mortgage holders without excusing them from their obligations, but the lending institutions that are on the verge of failure should be allowed to fail if that is what the market decrees.
When the market finally settles out of its own accord (and it will), we should take our newly honed regulatory skills and abilities into the world of Government Contracting with a vengeance. We should also take a piercing look at the military weapons industry, and apply some regulatory common sense to a culture that perpetuates the ability of the world to argue lethally when diplomacy should be the norm.
There are many perversions in Government that need to be addressed. That won’t happen unless the American people insist on it, and we prosecute the Bush Administration officials (including Bush, Cheney, and their enablers) who have removed the last vestiges of honesty and integrity from the Justice Department and the Executive Branch so their political and financial Ponzi schemes could be perpetrated against America.
Country first, my ass!
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Conspiracy for Fat America & High-Fructose Corn Syrup
You can watch the following video from here, or visit it on You Tube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi6fK1PvQK4
to get more info and watch other related videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi6fK1PvQK4
to get more info and watch other related videos.
Lipstick in School (Priceless!) OH YEAH!!!!!!!!
According to a news report, a certain private school in Washington was recently faced with a unique problem.
A number of 12-year-old girls were beginning to use lipstick and would put it on in the bathroom. That was fine but after they put on their lipstick, they would press their lips to the mirror leaving dozens of little lip prints.
Every night the maintenance man would remove them, and the next day the girls would put them back.
Finally the principal decided that something had to be done. She called all the girls to the bathroom and met them there with the maintenance man. She explained that all these lip prints were causing a major problem for the custodian who had to clean the mirrors every night (you can just imagine the yawns from those little princesses).
To demonstrate how difficult it had been to clean the mirrors, she asked the maintenance man to show the girls how much effort was required. He took out a long-handled squeegee, dipped it in the toilet, and cleaned the mirror with it. Since then, there have been no lip prints on the mirror.
There are teachers and then there are educators.
A number of 12-year-old girls were beginning to use lipstick and would put it on in the bathroom. That was fine but after they put on their lipstick, they would press their lips to the mirror leaving dozens of little lip prints.
Every night the maintenance man would remove them, and the next day the girls would put them back.
Finally the principal decided that something had to be done. She called all the girls to the bathroom and met them there with the maintenance man. She explained that all these lip prints were causing a major problem for the custodian who had to clean the mirrors every night (you can just imagine the yawns from those little princesses).
To demonstrate how difficult it had been to clean the mirrors, she asked the maintenance man to show the girls how much effort was required. He took out a long-handled squeegee, dipped it in the toilet, and cleaned the mirror with it. Since then, there have been no lip prints on the mirror.
There are teachers and then there are educators.
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Monday, May 26, 2008
Monday, May 19, 2008
Pen Pals
Osama decided to send George Bush a letter in his own handwriting to let him know he was still in the game.
Bush opened the letter and it contained a single line of coded message:
370H-SSV-0773H
Bush was baffled, so he sent it to Condoleezza Rice. Condi and her aides didn't have a clue either, so they sent it to the FBI.
No one could solve it at the FBI so it went to the CIA, and then to MI6.
Eventually they asked the Mossad for help. Within a minute the Mossad emailed the White House with this reply:
"Tell the President he's holding the message upside down."
Bush opened the letter and it contained a single line of coded message:
370H-SSV-0773H
Bush was baffled, so he sent it to Condoleezza Rice. Condi and her aides didn't have a clue either, so they sent it to the FBI.
No one could solve it at the FBI so it went to the CIA, and then to MI6.
Eventually they asked the Mossad for help. Within a minute the Mossad emailed the White House with this reply:
"Tell the President he's holding the message upside down."
Monday, May 12, 2008
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Downer Cows: Whose Fault?
What is a downer cow?
A downer cow is a cow that falls down and cannot get up. A cow that has walked in the evening, and cannot walk again the next morning.
A downer cow is an animal in pain. She lays down for one of two reasons. Either her bones no longer support her weight, or her brain is unable to send the proper signals to coordinate her movements.
When a cow goes down at her dairy farm, the dairyman can no longer send her to auction or to commercial slaughter. His choices are to slaughter her, euthanize and bury her, or call the renderer.
Each year, more than 200,000 dairy cows become downer cows, according to the New York Times (May 1, 2008). Many people are familiar with downer cows as a result of recent publicity surrounding the 143 million pound meat recall resulting from video footage filmed by Humane Society employees working undercover.
See: http://youtube. com/watch? v=SWmAJlwLnQI (53 seconds)
Some (not all) cows that become downer cows do so because their brains are infected with an encephalopathy called bovine spongiform encephalalitis, or BSE. BSE is also known as Mad Cow Disease.
USDA should ban downer cows from being used for meat and for pet food, but they refuse to do so, despite petitions from the cattle and dairy industry. Bills have been introduced in Congress to accomplish that ban, but those bills are now in committee, and may or may not ever be enacted.
Whose fault is it that cows become downer cows? Many people would blame the slaughterhouse, but that would not be fair.
Downer cows result from inhumane treatment of cows at dairy farms. There are no California Happy Cows, despite the lies told in cute television ads.
Slaughterhouse workers can easily identify an animal that has been treated long term with the genetically engineered bovine growth hormone. How? He can rip apart her porous pelvic bone with his hands.
In 1760, the average American cow yielded just one quart of milk per day. By 1960, the average American cow produced 8 quarts of milk each day. In 2008, the average cow will produce 25 quarts of milk per day. That's a lot of milk, and these are severely stressed animals.
Milk is rich in calcium. Where does that calcium come from? From her feed, of course. From the grass turned to hay and from mineral supplements added to her daily rations. Where else? From her own bones.
Drink cow's milk and you drink her life. You deplete her bone density. Let the truth be known. Downer cows are cows whose bones dissolve from within until they become too weak to stand.
Dairy farmers see the warning signs. It is a race against time to milk the cow until she can be milked no more. To stress the animal until her milk production wanes. To get her to stand and walk onto the truck to be taken to auction. To get her from the auction ring back onto a truck and to the slaughterhouse. Many animals just do not make it. Sometimes the dairyman waits a day too long.
The bones rot from within. The cows go down and become downer cows. They are sometimes unloaded from trucks with machines, unable to stand and walk the final ramp to her own death. Are they downer because of Mad Cow Disease or because of stressed bones? Do they have leukemia or tuberculosis or Johne's Disease, or are they just tired?
Slaughterhouse workers do not create the situation, but they must deal with it. They carry stun guns and cattle prods to urge the animals to first stand up and then be put down.
There ought to be a law. Yes. There ought to be a law. But what is a law? A law is a legal principle which must be enforced by the threat of punishment because men have sacrificed their moral principles.
So who is really at fault for the downer cows? It is not the slaughterhouse worker who is there to do the cleanup. It is not the dairy farmer whose agricultural practices lead to downer cows. It is the consumer, who eats the pain and digests the abuse and must take responsibility for the wretched life and horrific death of each animal to satisfy a lust for flesh and body fluids. Robert Cohen http://www.notmilk.com
A downer cow is a cow that falls down and cannot get up. A cow that has walked in the evening, and cannot walk again the next morning.
A downer cow is an animal in pain. She lays down for one of two reasons. Either her bones no longer support her weight, or her brain is unable to send the proper signals to coordinate her movements.
When a cow goes down at her dairy farm, the dairyman can no longer send her to auction or to commercial slaughter. His choices are to slaughter her, euthanize and bury her, or call the renderer.
Each year, more than 200,000 dairy cows become downer cows, according to the New York Times (May 1, 2008). Many people are familiar with downer cows as a result of recent publicity surrounding the 143 million pound meat recall resulting from video footage filmed by Humane Society employees working undercover.
See: http://youtube. com/watch? v=SWmAJlwLnQI (53 seconds)
Some (not all) cows that become downer cows do so because their brains are infected with an encephalopathy called bovine spongiform encephalalitis, or BSE. BSE is also known as Mad Cow Disease.
USDA should ban downer cows from being used for meat and for pet food, but they refuse to do so, despite petitions from the cattle and dairy industry. Bills have been introduced in Congress to accomplish that ban, but those bills are now in committee, and may or may not ever be enacted.
Whose fault is it that cows become downer cows? Many people would blame the slaughterhouse, but that would not be fair.
Downer cows result from inhumane treatment of cows at dairy farms. There are no California Happy Cows, despite the lies told in cute television ads.
Slaughterhouse workers can easily identify an animal that has been treated long term with the genetically engineered bovine growth hormone. How? He can rip apart her porous pelvic bone with his hands.
In 1760, the average American cow yielded just one quart of milk per day. By 1960, the average American cow produced 8 quarts of milk each day. In 2008, the average cow will produce 25 quarts of milk per day. That's a lot of milk, and these are severely stressed animals.
Milk is rich in calcium. Where does that calcium come from? From her feed, of course. From the grass turned to hay and from mineral supplements added to her daily rations. Where else? From her own bones.
Drink cow's milk and you drink her life. You deplete her bone density. Let the truth be known. Downer cows are cows whose bones dissolve from within until they become too weak to stand.
Dairy farmers see the warning signs. It is a race against time to milk the cow until she can be milked no more. To stress the animal until her milk production wanes. To get her to stand and walk onto the truck to be taken to auction. To get her from the auction ring back onto a truck and to the slaughterhouse. Many animals just do not make it. Sometimes the dairyman waits a day too long.
The bones rot from within. The cows go down and become downer cows. They are sometimes unloaded from trucks with machines, unable to stand and walk the final ramp to her own death. Are they downer because of Mad Cow Disease or because of stressed bones? Do they have leukemia or tuberculosis or Johne's Disease, or are they just tired?
Slaughterhouse workers do not create the situation, but they must deal with it. They carry stun guns and cattle prods to urge the animals to first stand up and then be put down.
There ought to be a law. Yes. There ought to be a law. But what is a law? A law is a legal principle which must be enforced by the threat of punishment because men have sacrificed their moral principles.
So who is really at fault for the downer cows? It is not the slaughterhouse worker who is there to do the cleanup. It is not the dairy farmer whose agricultural practices lead to downer cows. It is the consumer, who eats the pain and digests the abuse and must take responsibility for the wretched life and horrific death of each animal to satisfy a lust for flesh and body fluids. Robert Cohen http://www.notmilk.com
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
What in the world?
If you are curious about all the crap that is going on in the world (shootouts, airport closures, abductions, mass transit mishaps, etc.), take a look at the Global Incident Map. Mouse over any symbol to get a brief pop-up, and click to get all the known facts. CLICK HERE
Monday, May 05, 2008
Timed Release Monsanto
Millions Against Monsanto ... is it too little too late?
A 27 minute video with a promising beginning, a sad middle, and a terror filled ending.
A 27 minute video with a promising beginning, a sad middle, and a terror filled ending.
Saturday, May 03, 2008
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Do a good thing
Please recycle your wine corks (check this out)
The Wine & Cork Connection
When people drink wine,
They are celebrating life,
They are celebrating their life or
The life of family and friends,
They are celebrating the life
Of the vine and the grape,
The skilled hands of the vintner.
When the wine is all gone
There often remains at the table,
A small reminder of life.
It’s the wine cork stopper.
The centuries old solution
To preserve the special taste
Of wine stored in stone
Why, that little cork is bark.
Bark from a tree, a mighty tree.
A tree that livesIn just a few places
On our planet Earth.
A tree that is endangered.
If the use of wine corks declines,
The magnificent cork oak
Is threatened with being cut down.
To make more living space for the Coastal loving people.
Once a cork tree is gone,
It is rarely replanted
Because it takes generations to grow
From seedling to cork bark.
When people save their corks,
They are saving some of this life.
They want it to continue.
It surely must have more life,
People want to believe.
When the wine corks are transformed
Into something all may use and see.
Awareness is renewed
About the mighty cork tree.
And drinking that wine
With a real cork stopper
Becomes more of a cause
For even more celebration.
Drinking wine is a celebration of life
The Wine & Cork Connection
When people drink wine,
They are celebrating life,
They are celebrating their life or
The life of family and friends,
They are celebrating the life
Of the vine and the grape,
The skilled hands of the vintner.
When the wine is all gone
There often remains at the table,
A small reminder of life.
It’s the wine cork stopper.
The centuries old solution
To preserve the special taste
Of wine stored in stone
Why, that little cork is bark.
Bark from a tree, a mighty tree.
A tree that livesIn just a few places
On our planet Earth.
A tree that is endangered.
If the use of wine corks declines,
The magnificent cork oak
Is threatened with being cut down.
To make more living space for the Coastal loving people.
Once a cork tree is gone,
It is rarely replanted
Because it takes generations to grow
From seedling to cork bark.
When people save their corks,
They are saving some of this life.
They want it to continue.
It surely must have more life,
People want to believe.
When the wine corks are transformed
Into something all may use and see.
Awareness is renewed
About the mighty cork tree.
And drinking that wine
With a real cork stopper
Becomes more of a cause
For even more celebration.
Drinking wine is a celebration of life
Monday, April 28, 2008
Thursday, April 24, 2008
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