tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29872863875094900502024-02-19T01:32:33.652-06:00Old feminist and wild-eyed liberalBecky McCrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05752231568940350610noreply@blogger.comBlogger333125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2987286387509490050.post-56887871726971291302013-05-28T21:04:00.000-05:002013-05-28T21:04:59.005-05:00Before 1970<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">.</span><br />
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Ponder all this, my gentle snowflakes, <a href="http://msmagazine.com/blog/2013/05/28/10-things-that-american-women-could-not-do-before-the-1970s/" target="_blank">before 1970, an American woman could not:</a></div>
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<strong>1. Keep her job if she was pregnant. </strong>Until the <a href="http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/statutes/pregnancy.cfm" style="color: #ca0164; text-decoration: none;">Pregnancy Discrimination Act in 1978</a>, women could be fired from their workplace for being pregnant.</div>
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<strong>2. Report cases of sexual harassment in the workplace. </strong>The first time that a court recognized sexual harassment in the workplace was in <a href="http://theweek.com/article/index/101896/sexual-harassment-a-fine-line" style="color: #ca0164; text-decoration: none;">1977</a> and it wasn’t until 1980 that sexual harassment was officially defined by the <a href="http://www.eeoc.gov/" style="color: #ca0164; text-decoration: none;">Equal Employment Opportunity Commission</a>. </div>
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<strong>3. Be acknowledged in the Boston Marathon. </strong>Women could not don their running shoes until <a href="http://www.boston.com/zope_homepage/sports/marathon_archive/history/1972.shtml" style="color: #ca0164; text-decoration: none;">1972</a>!</div>
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<strong>4. Get a credit card. </strong>Until the <a href="http://www.fdic.gov/regulations/laws/rules/6500-1200.html" style="color: #ca0164; text-decoration: none;">Equal Credit Opportunity Act</a> in 1974, women were not able to apply for credit. In 1975, the first <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/24/business/judy-h-mello-is-dead-at-60-executive-of-women-s-bank.html" style="color: #ca0164; text-decoration: none;">women’s bank</a> was opened. [Following my divorce in 1983, I had a fairly hard time getting a credit card in my own name. Of course, I <u>was living</u> in Oklahoma at the time.]</div>
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<strong>5. Refuse to have sex with her husband. </strong>The mid 70s saw most states recognize marital rape and in 1993 it became <a href="http://www.rainn.org/public-policy/sexual-assault-issues/marital-rape" style="color: #ca0164; text-decoration: none;">criminalized</a> in all 50 states. Nevertheless, marital rape is still often treated differently to other forms of rape in some states even today.</div>
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<strong>6. Compete as a boxer in the Olympics. </strong>It wasn’t until the 2012 London Olympics that women could compete in boxing in the Olympics. This was marked with the amazing victory by <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/the-womens-blog-with-jane-martinson/2012/aug/09/womens-boxing-london-2012-olympics-nicola-adams" style="color: #ca0164; text-decoration: none;">Britain’s Nicola Adams</a>.</div>
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<strong>7. Get a divorce with some degree of ease. </strong>Before the <a href="http://www.harrisfamilylaw.com/the-history-of-no-fault-divorce" style="color: #ca0164; text-decoration: none;">No Fault Divorce</a> law in 1969, spouses had to show the faults of the other party, such as adultery, and could easily be overturned by recrimination.</div>
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<strong>8. Celebrate International Women’s Day. </strong>In 1980 President Carter declared one week in March to be <a href="http://www.nwhp.org/whm/history.php" style="color: #ca0164; text-decoration: none;">National Women’s History Week</a>, including International Women’s Day on March 8<sup>th</sup>.</div>
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<strong>9. Have a legal abortion in most states. </strong>The <a href="http://www.ushistory.org/us/57d.asp" style="color: #ca0164; text-decoration: none;">Roe v. Wade</a> case in 1973 protected a woman’s right to abortion until viability. </div>
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<strong>10. Read Ms. Magazine! </strong><em><a href="http://www.msmagazine.com/about.asp" style="color: #ca0164; text-decoration: none;">Ms.</a> </em>was launched as a sample inset in New York Magazine in 1971.</div>
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maeszhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01762646350898728713noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2987286387509490050.post-24552007691812065732013-03-11T12:27:00.000-05:002013-03-11T12:43:28.700-05:00Oh, Dear, I Was Wrong----<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">.</span><br />
I once <a href="http://oldfeminist.blogspot.com/2008/11/send-bill-clinton-to-senate.html" target="_blank">posited that upon leaving the White House</a>, George Bush 43 would retire to a life of cutting firewood outside Crawford. Instead, he moved to Dallas and stayed hidden (as he should).<br />
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Now, we finally know what contributions he is finally going to make for the good of the nation and the world. He is going to <a href="http://www.thesmokinggun.com/file/bush-family-photos?page=5" target="_blank">paint</a>. And <a href="http://www.thesmokinggun.com/file/bush-family-photos?page=6" target="_blank">paint</a>.<br />
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And the world, my gentle snowflakes, was at peace.....well, maybe not. We are now in the 12th year of the Bush 43's wars. Dead in Iraq as of 4 March 2013 = 4488. Dead in Afghanistan as of 10 March 2013 = 3259. Total dead 7747. And enough wounded and maimed to populate a good sized city. And no end in sight.<br />
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Think about it: That means that this year's (2013) graduating seniors have seen the United States at war since they were in the 1st grade. Quite a record.<br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">.</span></div>
maeszhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01762646350898728713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2987286387509490050.post-77397352154562182232013-01-04T06:30:00.000-06:002013-03-11T12:30:42.870-05:00"Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man." Thomas Paine<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">There is no war against Christians or Christianity. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Morning <a href="http://www.newshounds.us/20130103_steve_doocy_tells_historical_whopper_during_dar_hit_piece" target="_blank">"news" show hosts</a> and the <a href="http://www.newshounds.us/huckabee_i_didn_t_mean_prayer_in_school_would_have_stopped_newtown_school_shooting_i_meant_more_christianity_12162012" target="_blank">so-called Christian</a> leaders in this country need to give it a rest. Or at least, </span></span><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">they should </span><b style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">STOP</b><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> presuming to speak for any other person who calls themselves a Christian.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In addition, if they really want to be perceived by the world as Christians, they need to stick with the New Testament--preferably the Gospels and maybe the Acts of the Apostles. You know, the parts that actually involved what Christ said and did? </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">OK, my gentle snowflakes, I will climb down off my soap box now.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Remember when we all studied our history? We learned that this nation's first European settlers came here to escape religious persecution. I say it again, escape persecution.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Because of that, the Founders of this nation made sure that our</span><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><a href="http://topics.law.cornell.edu/constitution/billofrights" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Constitution prohibited the formation of a NATIONAL religion</a><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">. In the First Amendment. The</span><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-weight: bold;">FIRST</span><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-weight: bold;">AMENDMENT. </span><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">First.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So, by our founding document, this cannot be declared a "Christian" nation.</span><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: italic;">"</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: italic;">Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."</span><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In the First Amendment. The</span><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-weight: bold;">FIRST</span><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-weight: bold;">AMENDMENT. </span><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">First.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">You can practice all the Christianity you want, in any way you want--from going to church only on Easter Sunday or Christmas Day, up to and including handling snakes every week and speaking in tongues.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But your Buddhist neighbor has exactly the same right to practice Buddhism. According to the founding document of this nation, you may not force upon her, your Christianity. The same goes for the sikh or the atheist next door.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">However, for some people, "religious freedom" is really indistinguishable from the "freedom to impose MY religion on others." Nope. Wrong. Remember that whole<i> "make</i> </span><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: italic;">no law respecting an <b>establishment </b>of religion</span><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">" thing-y?</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And, think about it, Jesus loved sinners. It was hypocrites he couldn't stand. Remember, </span><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2021:12-13&version=NIV" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">the only time he descended into violence</a><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> was at the hypocrisy being practiced at the temple.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I mean it. Really.</span><br />
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maeszhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01762646350898728713noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2987286387509490050.post-26784412910039199432012-12-29T11:14:00.001-06:002013-03-11T12:31:37.622-05:00A Few Thoughts on Gun Ownership<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Let's see here, the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of--</span><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">moviegoers, </span><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">kindergarteners, mall shoppers and folks gathered to worship? You must explain to me exactly how is that ensuring freedom.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Understand, I'm not for ending gun ownership. I own guns. And I like mine. And I am not prepared to give them up. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But in this country, my uterus is subject to more government oversite than my guns. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Birth control and access to reproductive health services are harder to get than bullets. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">To see a gynecologist, I have to drive a minimum of 150 miles--round trip. Bullets, on the other hand, I can purchase from several places in my little hamlet of 5000 people. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Justify that one for me: Guns don't kill people -- vaginas do?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Really?</span></div>
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maeszhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01762646350898728713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2987286387509490050.post-47746236684942422862012-11-29T10:49:00.000-06:002012-11-29T10:49:56.621-06:00Bigger is Not Always Better<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
.<br />
My gentle snowflakes, I think, and I <a href="http://oldfeminist.blogspot.com/2009/02/clean-energy.html">have written</a> in the past that we need to think smaller in order to think even bigger. Now, the forecast for green power is just that: <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20115984-54/small-wind-heading-into-boom-period-report-says/?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=GreenTech">Smaller</a>.<br />
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Each house/home/building should be a source of electrical generation. Instead of investing HUGE amounts of money in large wind farms or big mirror arrays that tend to be far removed from the need for the electricity generated, the government money could go into retro-fitting every building with a combination of solar and wind generators--small units. Check <a href="http://www.aerotecture.com/products.html">here</a> and <a href="http://www.pacwind.net/products.html">here</a> and <a href="http://www.helixwind.com/en/">here</a> and <a href="http://www.grist.org/feature/2008/04/11/">here</a> and <a href="http://www.mrsolar.com/page/MSOS/PROD/CE/CE8">here</a>.<br />
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Perhaps the best part of this idea is that it could put thousands of people to work fairly quickly.<br />
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The Vocational-Technical schools could be subsidized to train citizens locally to do installation and maintenance. Many of those no longer working in home construction because of the downturn in the housing market could be cross-trained, with pay, for solar and wind systems. The newly trained could then be paid from a government fund (think the WPA) while all this retro-fitting is going on.<br />
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But this will take time, you say. Well, that is true.<br />
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But U.S. manufacturers will need that time to gear up their assembly lines to meet the demand for their products. Manufacturers would also require additional employees to make the systems. And since there are only a few manufacturers, the trucking industry will need more drivers and more rigs to move the newly produced systems around the country. We are really getting folks back to work now.<br />
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As an added benefit, as more and more units are installed the prices should plummet. With more and more units in operation, R&D would learn more and more about functionality and improved efficiency.<br />
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Finally, with all those systems pouring energy into the grid, black-outs (or even worse, the dreaded, rolling brown-outs) should be greatly reduced. The energy is largely consumed exactly where it is created. Any "left-over" is put out on the grid. Areas in greatest need at any time will be supplemented by those areas with less need.<br />
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As a recovery takes place and new houses are starting to be built again, the installations can be mandated to be incorporated into any new construction.<br />
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Next, we can get busy figuring out what to do about vehicle emissions.</div>
maeszhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01762646350898728713noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2987286387509490050.post-27029123408653921002012-11-12T17:53:00.000-06:002012-11-12T17:56:51.921-06:00Medicare for All<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And now, perhaps, the BEST argument for a single-payer system--<span style="font-size: large;">Medicare for All</span>--or, at least, a public option.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The situation begins, f</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">inally, to highlight why it is essential that health care be completely and forever severed from employment. Until that happens, the banker-owned companies, and the CEOs that run them, will continue to whine and moan and screw employees in the name of keeping their "shareholders" happy.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You see, t</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">he oligarchs are grumbling, frothing at the mouth, shaking their fists and stomping their tiny, little, </span></span><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Louis Vuitton-clad feet </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">over ObamaCare.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Surely, you have already heard about the</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> miserable jerk (<span style="line-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><b>Robert Murray</b>, CEO of Murray Energy--you know, the ass hat who <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/09/20/1134307/-Headlines-about-Romney-coal-ad-focus-on-miners-forced-to-serve-as-unpaid-prop-at-Romney-speech?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos%29" target="_blank">ordered his miners to take the day off, without pay, to show up at a campaign rally for Mitt Romney</a></span><span style="line-height: 16px; text-align: justify;">) </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">w</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ho recently <a href="http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/murray-energy-ceo-reads-prayer-staff-after" target="_blank">prayed over his employees before letting approximately 150 of them GO</a>. But, wait, it's about to get better.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Papa John's Pizza </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">CEO <b>John Schnatter</b>, who has declared</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><a href="http://www.wptv.com/dpp/news/state/john-schnatter-papa-johns-ceo-obamacare-likely-to-raise-costs-employees-hours-being-cut" saprocessedanchor="true" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">he will cut employees' hours</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">to bring them below the full-time threshold which would require him to provide full coverage for those employees. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Evidently that 14 cents per pizza is just too heavy for Wall Street to bear.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Schnatter also said he has a legal duty to shareholders to provide the maximum rate of return. Might be worth knowing who the shareholders are? Seems 74 percent of Papa John's stock is </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">institutionally owned; that is, owned by investment firms and other Wall Street funds.</span></span><br />
<strong><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></strong>
<strong><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Darden Restaurants: i.e., Red Lobster, Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Bahama Breeze, Seasons 52, The Capital Grille, Eddie V's and Yard House</span></strong><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yes, Darden Restaurants which is a public corporation, but largely owned by bankers and hedge funds to the tune of</span><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><a href="http://www.google.com/finance?cid=657727" saprocessedanchor="true" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">about 84 percent</a><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Darden's solution to the problem is, also, to</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><a href="http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/opinion/letters-darden-restaurants-serve-up-fear-regarding/nSkH2/" saprocessedanchor="true" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">cut employees' hours</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">so that those hours are under the minimum required to provide health insurance because Darden's just will not tolerate the idea of actually doing something that might cost a little bit in order for employees to live better, happier, healthier lives.</span></span><br />
<strong><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></strong>
<strong><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Zane Tankel, CEO of a large New York Applebee's Franchisee</span></strong><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Zane Tankel, the CEO of a very large Applebee's franchisee in New York (only in New York), explains how</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/09/zane-tankel-applebees-obamacare_n_2094568.html?utm_hp_ref=tw" saprocessedanchor="true" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">he will jack the rules</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">in order to avoid providing health insurance to his employees.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This one is particularly nasty, because other Applebee's franchisees--in other areas--do offer health insurance to their employees.</span><br />
<b style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></b>
<b style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Bad Actors"?</b><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Each and every one of these greedy CEO's is NOT trying to figure out HOW <b>to get </b>health insurance for their employees. <b>NO</b>, they are trying to figure out ways to avoid paying the</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><b><span style="color: #cc0000;"><em style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">penalty</em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></span></b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">for </span></span><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">NOT</b><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> providing health insurance. Because they have </span><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>no</u></b><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> intention of providing health insurance to their employees despite the fact that in every case they could, in fact, adopt a nationwide group insurance plan which would be less costly after tax deductions than paying the </span><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">penalty</span></b><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. You see, it is a temper fit--you know, like a two year old would throw?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Next?</b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is time </span><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">these corporations and </span><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">banker-owned</span><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> franchise chains</span><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> learned they must play by the rules. If they don't like the employer penalty, perhaps the government could slap a transaction tax on share trades to help pay for the health care benefits they don't give a damn whether their employees get or not! </span><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And with </span><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/09/1159695/-Elizabeth-Warren-to-Banking-Committee?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos%29" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Elizabeth Warren on the Senate Banking Committee</a><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, we just might get it.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="background-color: #f6f6f6; font-family: Trebuchet, 'Trebuchet MS', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b><a href="http://billmoyers.com/segment/bill-moyers-essay-everyone-should-be-entitled-to-medicare/" style="color: #444444;" target="_blank">Medicare for All</a></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: #f6f6f6; font-family: Trebuchet, 'Trebuchet MS', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b><a href="http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/110/s1218/text" style="color: #444444;" target="_blank">Medicare for All</a></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">(Different links to different sites)</span></div>
<div style="background-color: #f6f6f6; font-family: Trebuchet, 'Trebuchet MS', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></div>
</div>
maeszhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01762646350898728713noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2987286387509490050.post-38452826733447910432012-10-10T12:07:00.002-05:002012-10-10T12:09:41.939-05:00Medicare Vouchers?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">Oh, my gentle snowflakes, I don't think so.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">In 1964, when Medicare became the law of the land, </span><a href="http://www.ssa.gov/history/corningchap4.html" style="font-family: Arial, 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span style="color: blue;">only 50 percent of the elderly even had insurance and of those that did only fifty percent of those policies would cover hospitalization</span></a><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">. That’s the free market! </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">Old people, when they get sick, need expensive care. Old people aren’t attractive to private insurers even if they have more money than Ann Romney’s dancing horses’ Cayman Islands trust funds. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">Why on earth people think that the free market system has gotten "kinder and gentler" since 1963, and why any thinking person can believe that a voucher system isn’t the moral equivalent of marching grandma onto an ice floe and pushing her out into a frigid ocean, is beyond me. </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">And, as a grandma myself, I don't want to go.....</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: large;">No vouchers (even by another name) for Medicare.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
maeszhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01762646350898728713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2987286387509490050.post-2305572234711152182012-10-01T10:42:00.000-05:002013-03-11T12:32:34.089-05:00Old Age--Ver. ~5.0<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As I continue to age, I look for ever easier ways to cook the foods I love with ever decreasing involvement from me in the hour immediately preceeding sitting down to eat whichever meal is in question. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">My, gentle snowflakes, have I got a deal for you! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I love sauteed mushrooms. With anything or nothing. BUT, I always disliked the amount of attention and involvement involved just before sitting down to consume them. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Enter my faithful slow cooker/Crock Pot!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Italian Mushrooms</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b> Ingredients:</b></span><br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">1 pound medium sized, fresh mushrooms, whole</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">1 large onion, cleaned, cut in half (stem to root) & sliced</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">¼ cup butter, melted in a cup in the microwave</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">2 tablespoons good olive oil</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">1 envelope italian dry salad dressing mix</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">2-3 tablespoons (more or less) white wine</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b> Directions:</b></span><br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In a 3-quart slow cooker, layer the whole mushrooms and the sliced onion. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Combine melted butter, olive oil, and dry salad dressing mix; pour over vegetables.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Sprinkle the white wine over all.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Cover and cook on low for 4-5 hours or until the vegetables are tender.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Serve with a slotted spoon.</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">This is supposed to serve 6. Fat chance! Not if you love mushrooms! The last time I made these I ate over half of them myself. Boy, are these things delicious.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">However, the chief attraction, as far as I am concerned, is throw everything in the crock pot sometime between 1 and 2 pm then come back at supper time. Sure beats standing over a skillet and stirring and tossing those delightful little buttons for 15-20-30 minutes. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
maeszhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01762646350898728713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2987286387509490050.post-68518337649811331762012-08-06T12:58:00.000-05:002012-08-06T12:58:11.112-05:00Just One More Sign....<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">.</span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
This past week, I experienced just one more sign that I am truly getting old!</div>
<br />
My gentle snowflakes, I was driving down the street and I <u style="font-weight: bold;">actually</u> swerved to <b><u>MISS</u></b> an empty drink cup lying in the street!<br />
<br />
Since I first started driving, as most of the teen-aged-drivers did, I have made it a test of steering acuity to plow across any empty cup I encountered--given, of course, a lack of oncoming traffic. But that day, I swerved.<br />
<br />
As soon as I had swerved and missed the cup, I realized the implications: <b>creeping old age</b>.<br />
<br />
You can bet your bottom dollar that next time I am driving and encounter that well-known, rolling cup or plastic bottle, I will once again attempt to flatten any that I come across in the roadway. I am now aware and will not make that mistake again!<br />
<br />
Fight it off as long as possible!<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://billmoyers.com/segment/bill-moyers-essay-everyone-should-be-entitled-to-medicare/" target="_blank">Medicare for All</a></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/110/s1218/text" target="_blank">Medicare for All</a></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">(Different links to different sites)</span></div>
</div>maeszhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01762646350898728713noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2987286387509490050.post-49030013406780993512012-04-15T13:36:00.001-05:002012-04-15T13:36:20.412-05:00How Long?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
.<br />
My gentle snowflakes, I first started screaming about <a href="http://oldfeminist.blogspot.com/2009/06/in-nutshell.html" target="_blank">Medicare for All in June 2009</a>, linking to an article about how to implement it in a reasonable fashion. It seemed then, to me, to be the only fiscally sustainable answer.<br />
<br />
Then, in December of that year, I actually began to link to the <a href="http://oldfeminist.blogspot.com/2009/12/hope.html" target="_blank">original bill calling for Medicare for All</a>.<br />
<br />
Now, a real economist (Gerald Friedman, University of Massachusetts-Amherst) has <a href="http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2012/0312friedman.pdf" target="_blank">put pencil to paper</a>--well, probably keystrokes into a spreadsheet template. (As an aside, I really hope some <a href="http://cyranowriter.wordpress.com/2010/08/23/vocabularist-revolutionary-improv-prose/" target="_blank">vocabularist</a> is devising words & phrases to describe current activities as well as some of the old words & phrases.)<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2012/0312friedman.pdf" target="_blank">His conclusions</a>? It's cheaper!<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/110/s1218/text" style="background-color: #ead1dc;" target="_blank">Medicare for All</a></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></div>
</div>maeszhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01762646350898728713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2987286387509490050.post-40211270693119092922012-04-12T09:37:00.000-05:002013-03-11T12:33:30.052-05:00Just What Is Feminism?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcup-lAc5PryFfngRSywMctelWtRZm3KfOb_cDuFJmntT_W77_iGIi4zlbvj5OQmHA3X_JSKfgOCukyQXgbYyk9eyaH12FpX6r3BlA-IqHtYAX4HHhsTEZu8dWcrb_MpMXzFMEWRMtmps/s1600/feminism.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcup-lAc5PryFfngRSywMctelWtRZm3KfOb_cDuFJmntT_W77_iGIi4zlbvj5OQmHA3X_JSKfgOCukyQXgbYyk9eyaH12FpX6r3BlA-IqHtYAX4HHhsTEZu8dWcrb_MpMXzFMEWRMtmps/s320/feminism.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
.</div>
maeszhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01762646350898728713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2987286387509490050.post-46297633835193292782012-04-04T10:02:00.000-05:002012-04-04T10:02:51.005-05:00Happy Birthday, Mom!This is Becky, sneaking a post in today to wish Mom a very Happy Birthday!<br />
<br />
Here's a piece of tres leches birthday cake for you!<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bjmccray/5830518555/" title="Had to try the tres leches cake because @sheilas always raves about it. On our way to #140conf by bjmccray, on Flickr"><img alt="Had to try the tres leches cake because @sheilas always raves about it. On our way to #140conf" height="299" src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5225/5830518555_41382e9cf4.jpg" width="500" /></a>Becky McCrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05752231568940350610noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2987286387509490050.post-50347951117012805342012-03-07T11:02:00.000-06:002013-03-11T12:34:14.163-05:00Next Question--<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL-hYPIHq_oHpNsZuYP4L39txmhgMfEdJf_b88UWSz-urbNuCiHTD71KvddsldnobNyxaCGQxUy6u-4ZvThLS3clG8SGYcccnKJ6epgRPshHJZX2xnQg1UqX2qbUiqVGStGgIAK649qr8/s1600/policevswomen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL-hYPIHq_oHpNsZuYP4L39txmhgMfEdJf_b88UWSz-urbNuCiHTD71KvddsldnobNyxaCGQxUy6u-4ZvThLS3clG8SGYcccnKJ6epgRPshHJZX2xnQg1UqX2qbUiqVGStGgIAK649qr8/s320/policevswomen.jpg" width="227" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1907004268">"</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; line-height: 16px;"><a href="http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2012/03/06/contrivances_of_the_left_s_attack_on_liberty_the_war_on_women_and_food_justice">'Cause there is no war on women."</a> Rush Limbaugh 6 March 2012. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; line-height: 16px;"><a href="http://socialismartnature.tumblr.com/post/18737368736/photo-militarized-police-presence-at-protest">Really</a>? </span></div>
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maeszhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01762646350898728713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2987286387509490050.post-46446144128861935072012-03-06T13:30:00.000-06:002012-03-06T13:30:24.315-06:00One Question---<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">How can it be that the Republican candidates want us to believe that they have the cojones to face down the Mullahs in Iran as fronted by </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Kim Jong Un, </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Vladimir Putin, </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">the Taliban and what’s left of al-Qaida, and yet they cower in fear before a nincompoop of a talk-radio bully who chooses to pick on a school girl?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">.</span>maeszhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01762646350898728713noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2987286387509490050.post-62881236520383705862012-02-19T13:44:00.000-06:002012-02-19T13:44:20.493-06:00You Don't Own Me!<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">With many thanks to <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/19/1065048/-You-don-t-own-me">Mark Sumner</a> who has managed to say most of the things I have been struggling for some time now to get into some sort of reasonable order. So, here it is.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #242424; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">There's a basic, historical misunderstanding at the root of modern Republican philosophy. A little fact that seems to get overlooked. It's not their insistence that the road to fascism begins with good health care. It's not even the pretense that President Obama somehow masterminded an economic collapse, bank bailout, and massive deficit weeks, months or years <b>before</b> he came into office. No, the incident that the GOP has let slip is a little more basic: </span>The South lost.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">See, Republicans seem to have mistaken "wage slavery" for ... that other kind of slavery. They must have, because anyone who understood that workers are employees, and not property, would recognize that workers have rights. Not just <i style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">some</i> rights, not a neatly restricted little subset of rights, but the same rights as the people who employ them. They would recognize that the rights of an employer do not include the ability to abridge the rights of an employee.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Only they don't. When you see Mitt Romney or Rick Santorum or John Boehner railing against government overstep on religion, conscience, what-have-you, you can be 100 percent certain that their concern is that somewhere, somehow an employer might have to allow his employees to do something that, you know, miffs them. That millions of employees might be forced to do without needed health care ... doesn't enter into the equation. </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It's easy to see how employers might be confused, considering all the love being lavished on them by both parties, and with the paeans being sung to them as magical "job creators." And hey, we already pretty much handed over that fourth amendment to them, what with peeing in a cup or being able to fire people because of an old photo on Facebook. Republicans have been busy reinforcing that lesson by insisting that anyone who collects so much as an unemployment check should be subject to any rules they want to set. It's no wonder that the line between handing someone a paycheck, and holding someone's title, should have gotten blurred.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">So consider this a primer to the confused American business owners and executives who might have listened just a little to long to all that sweet praise. </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As an employer, you have the absolute right to religious freedom. Attend any church, temple, synagogue or reading room you like. Give as you feel obligated. Worship as you please. Place on yourself any restriction in diet, activity or anything else that you feel is in keeping with your beliefs ... but only on yourself. <b style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">You don't get to impose these restrictions on your employees.</b></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Your employees are separate from you. Not only that, they are equal to you in rights, no matter how unequal you may be in income. You do not get to tell them who to vote for. You do not get to tell them who they can love. You do not get to use your religious beliefs as an excuse to limit their health care.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">No matter how strong your personal faith, your employees are not obligated to live according to those beliefs, expressly because they are personal. You may find it frustrating, but your employees have just as much right to their own beliefs as you do to yours, and whether you pay them pittance on an assembly line or six figures as a manager, you have zero right to carve off a slice of their freedom. The direction of the pay arrow has no effect on who gets to dictate to who.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">If the government was telling you, as an individual, that you had to use birth control, that would be a violation of your rights. That's not happening. They're just saying that you don't get to make that decision for the people who work for your company. Because, really, you don't own them.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">If you're still mad; if you're upset that healthcare has to be funneled through employers at all ... there's a cure for that. It's called "single payer."</span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://www.pnhp.org/sites/default/files/docs/2011/HR676-Feb-11-2011.pdf">Medicare for All!</a></b></span></div>
<br />maeszhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01762646350898728713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2987286387509490050.post-80986323808105381462012-01-24T11:07:00.000-06:002012-01-24T11:07:27.575-06:00Time to Eat a Little Crow :(<br />
Ouch, my gentle snowflakes, I may have to eat crow, bite the bullet, swallow my pride, go against my ideals even. I will have to shop at Walmart. I will have to shop at Walmart to get sustainable fish. And let me tell you this, it makes me mad. I quit shopping at Walmart several years ago for various reasons--political differences, treatment of their employees, the fact that the Walton clan just does not need anymore money! Now, I will have to go to Walmart because it is near 100 miles to a Target.<br />
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I have quit buying frozen fish from my local market because all that is stocked there comes from China. Besides taking jobs from Americans, it seems stupid to ship the fish all the way across the ocean and half-way across the US to get to me. I know cat fish are farmed in Alabama and Mississippi; trout in Colorado; tilapia surely somewhere on this continent.<br />
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<b>No Fish Tale: Sustainable Seafood At Target, Walmart</b><br /><a href="http://www.recipe.com/blogs/cooking/author/lesleykennedy/" rel="author" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #2864b4; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Posts by Lesley Kennedy">Lesley Kennedy</a><a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/click;h=v8/3c06/0/0/%2a/z;44306;0-0;0;74083928;6-120/60;0/0/0;;~okv=;channel=WhatsCooking;parent=FoodNews;child1=;site=recipecom;id=eb328f6367189ac2fbba7e85bca45f2d;dcopt=ist;tile=7;sz=120x60;~aopt=2/2/50/1;~sscs=%3f" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #2864b4; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"><img alt="Click here to find out more!" border="0" src="http://s0.2mdn.net/viewad/817-grey.gif" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-style: initial; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /></a><menu class="gigya-wrap" id="gigya-social-bar_gig_containerParent" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(175, 175, 175); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(175, 175, 175); border-top-style: dotted; border-top-width: 1px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 10px; min-height: 32px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 650px;"><img alt="Wild Salmon from Walmart" class="alignleft" height="384" src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5148/5550731741_0b4a1844d9_z.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #605b54; float: left; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="233" /></menu>Who needs to make the extra trip to a pricey gourmet market when you can get your sustainable <a href="http://www.recipe.com/recipes/seafood/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #2864b4; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">seafood</a> at Target, Costco, or Walmart?<br /><br /><a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/01/19/145474067/sustainable-seafood-swims-to-a-big-box-store-near-you?ft=1&f=139941248" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #2864b4; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">NPR reports</a> many of the big box stores are now selling seafood with the blue <a href="http://www.msc.org/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #2864b4; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Marine Stewardship Council </a>(MSC) label, meaning it “comes from a fishery that’s met a rigorous set of standards aimed at promoting responsible, sustainable catches.”<br /><br />According to the media organization, Target stores have gotten rid of unsustainable seafood (think Chilean sea bass) and farmed salmon (due to environmental concerns—wild <a href="http://www.recipe.com/recipes/seafood/salmon/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #2864b4; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">salmon</a> is available, instead), and are currently stocking 50-plus frozen and fresh seafood options that are MSC-certified or Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP)-certified.<br /><br />At Walmart stores, some 73 percent of fish was sustainable-certified as of last January, and all seafood will come from certified fisheries by June, NPR adds.<br /><br />Prices could potentially rise if demand becomes greater than the supply, but so far, a Target spokesperson tells NPR, prices have remained the same.<br /><br />Sustainable seafood that won’t empty our wallets? And that we can buy at the same time we stock up on paper towels, frozen waffles and Qtips? There’s nothing fishy about that.</blockquote>
Walmart, here I come. Fish only. Nothing else. Cripes, I already have a headache just thinking about it.<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">.</span><br />
<br />maeszhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01762646350898728713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2987286387509490050.post-80068926019746238442012-01-18T20:51:00.000-06:002012-01-19T10:18:22.332-06:00A Letter to the Editor.<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My gentle snowflakes, with some pride, I tell you that my hometown owns and runs a very excellent retirement community for the people who can still live independently. It is called the <a href="http://www.alvahomestead.com/index.htm">Homestead Retirement Community</a>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Since the economic downturn, our little town has been seeking ways to cut costs. Some short sighted people have been campaigning to sell The Homestead. They want to take it out of the public sector (where it is run for the good of the occupants and the community) and sell it to some for-profit corporation or LLC (which must, because that is the duty of a for-profit group, run it with the sole desired outcome of making money--as much as possible). Now, the City Fathers have actually taken that very, fateful step: the <a href="http://news.mywebpal.com/news_tool_v2.cfm?pnpid=348&show=archivedetails&ArchiveID=1464000&om=1">Homestead is for sale</a>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I was personally livid over this development. Consider that: me, livid. I have a nephew who gained a place in our family lore by uttering the phrase, "Careful, Glenna [that's me] will get ugly."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, being me, I dragged out my soap box, dusted it off, climbed aboard, sharpened my "pen" and fired off a letter to my local paper.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">I think it is horrendous that the City is trying to sell the</span> Homestead.<span style="color: #222222;"> <u></u><u></u></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It may be "good business" but it creates a lousy perception of what "society" (as in the social fabric of the community) is in Alva! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u></u> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If memory serves me correctly, Alva </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">voted</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">for the Homestead because there was a lack of adult living space for those citizens who were not in need of rest home care (</span><a href="http://www.beadlesnh.com/" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Beadles</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, </span><a href="http://www.ourparents.com/oklahoma/alva/share_medical_center" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Share</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, </span><a href="http://www.ourparents.com/oklahoma/waynoka/waynoka_nursing_center" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">etc</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">) but who were concerned to keep living alone.</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>[I have, since this letter was published in the local paper, been set straight by a very highly placed source: "citizens did not vote; there was a survey with overwhelming positive results."] </i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The creation of such a facility in Alva would enhance the community. It would show that the people of Alva valued ALL members of the community. It would allow more people to stay active in Alva, longer. It was to be a contract Alva made with its citizens.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u></u> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Enid, Wichita, Oklahoma City offered the type of facility that the Homestead became, but they require a BIG buy-in that was forfeited when the residents moved out. In addition, those other places are not Alva and Alva residents are in Alva because they want to be--their friends are here, their church is here. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have taken several of my friends from out of town to see the Homestead. People from the Dallas-Ft Worth Metroplex, the Boston area, the Denver locale, the San Francisco region, all rave about how wonderful the place is. When I tell them there is no buy-in they all really do a double take in amazement. They bemoan the fact that there is nothing similar in their own geographic area or in the area where their aging parents live. <u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Alva could certainly do a better job of advertising the Homestead. Also, if residents could bring their pet--say one small dog or one cat or one bird--more would move to the Homestead earlier, at a younger age. Someone bringing a pet could pay more of a "cleaning deposit" than others; they could pay a little more each month for the pet. I am sure some set of rules could be worked out.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I really, firmly believe that Alva should re-think this business of selling such a fantastic asset as the Homestead. Finally, since the oil and gas boom has come to town, surely Alva can find the money to continue offering this jewel to our older citizens.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have not changed my mind. I still think it is an incredibly BAD idea to sell this community treasure.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">.</span>maeszhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01762646350898728713noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2987286387509490050.post-23283434017569430752012-01-16T09:13:00.001-06:002012-01-16T09:13:37.795-06:00Progress?<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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"I'm very happy in my former life<b>;</b> we helped create over 100,000 new jobs."<span style="font-size: 0.8em;"> </span></div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 1.7em;">--</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: sans-serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5em;">Mitt Romney, several weeks go</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="line-height: 1.7em;">"We started a number of businesses, invested in many others, and that, over all, created tens of thousands of jobs." </span><span style="line-height: 1.7em;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> --</span></span></div>
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</span><span style="color: #666666; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5em;">Romney, several days ago</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 1.7em;">"...helped create and ran a company that invested in struggling businesses, grew new ones, and rebuilt old ones, creating thousands of jobs. Those are the facts."</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 0.8em; line-height: 1.7em;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">-</span><span style="font-size: x-small;">-</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: sans-serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">new Romney ad</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Yes, those pesky, pesky facts! </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Well, at least, Romney is "flexible:" He will change his "facts" just as fast as those facts ensnare him. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">. </span>maeszhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01762646350898728713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2987286387509490050.post-67143319108325850272011-12-29T13:52:00.001-06:002011-12-29T14:00:11.971-06:00Should There Be a Parade?<span style="font-size: xx-small;">.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">My gentle snowflakes, Perry and Romney and Gingrich and Palin, etc. are running around this mid-week all a-flutter because there has been no parade ordered up to "honor the troops." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">President Obama is somehow being un-patriotic. (Irony here folks.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Well, it seems to me that a parade is a pretty poor "honor" for what we have put our troops through. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Now, I will admit that I might be out of touch--never having been a member of the military myself and not understanding the military mindset. But, I can not even begin to imagine that a whole lot of soldiers really want (after years of their lives spent scrabbling around Iraq) to march up and down some city streets just so a few people can feel good about the whole "cakewalk" war thing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Then there are all those troops who came home already--probably to be rotated back into Afghanistan and combat again next year. And all those sent directly from Iraq to Afghanistan. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Seems not to be the time for a celebration of a mess that we have not managed to yet clean-up.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">How about this? If we want to thank our soldiers, protect and expand their benefits--healthcare and education. Pay them better. Give them body armor--without them having to write home and ask their family and friends to take up a collection to get it. Make sure, if and when they do get home, that they go to the top of any list for any and all jobs available. Stop the big-banks from foreclosing on their homes. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Hey, I could go on and on and on.... </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">From the sublime to the ridiculous.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Send--that is you, personally--send one or more of them a welcome home card. Put five hundred dollars in it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">And finally, DON'T EVER, EVER, EVER SEND THEM OFF ON ANYMORE WILD GOOSE CHASES like the last 10 years. No more bizarre, ideological machinations to prove the bona fides of a bunch of slimy, smirking chicken hawks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Just saying.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></div>maeszhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01762646350898728713noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2987286387509490050.post-53617854121132474652011-12-19T12:03:00.012-06:002011-12-19T12:24:56.666-06:00For the Boomers....<span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">.</span></span><br />Ahh, my gentle snowflakes, I rise for a point of personal privilege. (If you do not understand, I highly recommend you join a group/organization which adheres to some form of Robert's Rules of Order.)<br /><br />As I age, I have been making my father's noises. For quite some time now, I have been making, especially, his morning noises and, lately, I have added his middle of the night noises. More or less, I have gotten used to it. Sometimes a particular noise will startle me. Mostly though, I have grown to accept them--as just gentle reminders of my father. It could be worse, I could have received the gene that gave him that ski slope of a nose! Bad enough that from the genetic lottery I drew the jug-handle ears.<br /><br />This morning, though, when I put on my socks--I saw my mother's feet.<br /><br />Not long and elegant. Oh, no, not long and elegant. No, I saw feet with tendons ropy, toes boney, veins pronounced.<br /><br />I do not like it. Do not like it one bit.<br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">.</span></span>maeszhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01762646350898728713noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2987286387509490050.post-23611835007872254482011-11-20T19:21:00.016-06:002011-11-20T19:32:14.113-06:00Anger Sowing Seeds of a New Consumer Movement<a href="http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/anger_sowing_seeds_of_a_new_consumer_movement_20111120/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Truthdig+Truthdig%3A+Drilling+Beneath+the+Headlines">Posted from truthdig</a> on Nov 20, 2011<br />By <a href="http://www.truthdig.com/david_sirota">David Sirota</a> <p style="font-size:small;"></p><p style="font-size:small;"></p><blockquote><p style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-size:85%;">As we all know, America is angry. Really angry. To put it in pop culture terms, we’ve moved from the vaguely inspiring agita of Peter Finch in “Network” to the wild-eyed, primal-scream rage of Sam Kinison in “Back to School.”</span></p> <p style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-size:85%;">When we pay attention to politics, we get peeved at Congress and the presidential candidates. When we tune into sports, we’re annoyed with squabbling players and owners. When we turn on the news, we fume at the smug pundits. And when it comes to the economy, we’re in a tizzy at big corporations.</span></p> <p style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Most of this indignation is nothing new; it is atavistic fury expressed in the modern vernacular. Yet, one strand of our anger—the kind directed at big business—may be truly novel, as our chagrin is no longer just that ancient animosity toward excessive corporate power. Instead, it has also become a personal disdain toward firms we deal with on a daily basis.</span></p> <p style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-size:85%;">This is the key finding of the latest report from the Center for Services Leadership at Arizona State University. Its findings show that after years of rising anger, consumer rage has reached an all-time high.</span></p> <p style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Back in 2004, ASU’s researchers theorized that such apoplexy was an outgrowth of affluence. “Households simply have more products and services today, and thus more points of contact, increasing our chances that we will have a problem,” they wrote.</span></p><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">But, of course, 2004 was a comparatively prosperous time. Today, by contrast, recession-battered consumers have access to fewer products and services and yet are angrier at companies, meaning the sentiment likely reflects a response to deeper trends.</span> <p style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-size:85%;">One of those is a decline in craftsmanship in the era of free trade and offshore production. With America now awash in foreign wares, we’ve imported the developing world’s lax regulatory standards and, thus, its lower product quality. That means poorly constructed furniture, malfunctioning electronics and all the other shoddiness that drives customers nuts.</span></p> <p style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Another maddening trend is the corporate sector’s shift from long-term customer care to short-term predation. Though firms have always tried to make quick money off clients, the intensity of this recession, coupled with investors’ insatiable demand for quarterly profit growth, has prompted unprecedented bill-padding, corner-cutting and inflexibility. Today’s typical air travel experience epitomizes the dynamic: You get hit with a baggage charge, shoved into an ever-smaller seat and then stranded in airport purgatory because you missed your connection. With this kind of experience being replicated in everything from debit card fees to interminable customer-service wait times, it’s no wonder we’re ticked off.</span></p> <p size="small"><span style="font-size:85%;">Finally, there’s what Mother Jones magazine calls “The Great Speedup,” whereby downsized companies are forcing their remaining employees to do more work at a faster pace than ever. While this means our workforce is generating more output, it also means that output often becomes less satisfying to the end user. So, sure, your energy company’s electrician may be servicing more homes, but he’s also more error-prone and no longer maintains a customer-friendly demeanor—because he’s being run ragged.</span></p> <p size="small"><span style="font-size:85%;">All of this is no doubt responsible for a spike in self-destructive temper tantrums. However, there is an upside: The angst is resurrecting the notion of consumer activism. And that’s a big deal.</span></p> <p style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Recent headlines tell this story. From moving deposits out of big banks to a mass abandonment of Netflix, customers are suddenly channeling the old Ralph Nader zeitgeist. We’re remembering that being a patron comes with power—and we’re finally getting mad enough to use it.</span></p> <p style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size:85%;">If that ends up bringing back a lasting consumer movement in America, then all the heartburn and stress of being a mistreated customer will have been worth it.</span></p><span style="font-size:78%;"><i>David Sirota is a best-selling author of the new book “Back to Our Future: How the 1980s Explain the World We Live In Now.”</i></span></blockquote><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(102, 0, 204);">Oh, my Gentle Snowflakes, we can only hope</span><span style="color: rgb(102, 0, 204);">.</span><br /><i><br /></i>maeszhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01762646350898728713noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2987286387509490050.post-40822204262361818352011-10-14T14:50:00.009-05:002011-10-14T16:04:58.839-05:00The Republican Jobs Plan<span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">.</span></span><br />At last, we see the Congressional Republican jobs plan.<br /><blockquote>A <a href="http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2011/10/12/in-a-down-economy-fewer-births/?src=prc-headline">sharp decline in fertility rates</a> in the United States that started in 2008 is closely linked to the souring of the economy that began about the same time</blockquote>Now, we can understand (NOT) their do-nothing policy toward helping the recovery of the country. If they can just stand around doing nothing long enough, available jobs will equal ready workers. This will be aided by the deaths of most of those currently seeking work.<br /><br />Fewer babies now + expected mortality rates = fewer unemployed in 18-20 years. The unemployment rate drops! Problem solved.<br /><span style="font-family: arial;font-size:78%;" >.</span>maeszhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01762646350898728713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2987286387509490050.post-24687624122978847082011-10-02T11:09:00.012-05:002011-10-02T11:18:55.699-05:00"You Can Get Laid Without Being a Jerk"<span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">.</span></span><br />I just stumbled upon "<a href="http://goodmenproject.com/">The Good Men Project</a>."<br /><br />Today they have <a href="http://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/you-can-get-laid-without-being-a-jerk/">posted a letter</a> everyone should read and crib from liberally.<br /><p></p><blockquote><p>You should never feel like you’ve been convinced to have sex, and you should never feel like you’re doing the convincing. You want partners—one-night-stands or long-term relationships—who want to have sex with you as much as you want to have sex with them. The culturally established “no means no” is too low a bar. Only yes means yes. And I’m not talking about an “I guess we could…” or an “I don’t really care….” or an “Only if you really want to….” or a “Might as well…” I’m talking about an enthusiastic, excited, sustained “Yes!” Are those “yesses” less frequent than the non-committal, hesitant “not-nos?” Yeah, they are, but it’s worth it to know that the people you’re fooling around with really want to fool around with you, too.</p> <p>Alcohol clouds everyone’s decision-making abilities, but it doesn’t make us deaf. Even at frat row, bar crawls, or crowded house parties, you need to listen for that “Yes!” And you need to be saying it too! If you’re a “Yes!” and your partner is a “Yes!”, then I revert to my original advice: be safe, have fun. Consent is not a traditionally sexy concept, but I absolutely guarantee you that two enthusiastic, excited, sustained “yesses” is what it’s all about.</p></blockquote><p></p>"Only yes means yes." Send it on to all the young men you know. Send it to their big sisters for those sisters to send to their brothers.<br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:78%;">.</span>maeszhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01762646350898728713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2987286387509490050.post-8014557322266616172011-09-28T11:12:00.011-05:002011-09-28T11:23:11.229-05:00Myths<span style="font-family:arial;font-size:78%;">.</span><br />OK, my gentle snowflakes, here is a another handy, dandy list containing links to the facts that you can easily use to bedevil your Republican/Tea Partier brother-in-law when he starts spouting the myths promulgated by the conservative mind-machine and Frank Luntz.<br /><blockquote>> Ben Bernanke is the most inflationary Fed chairman in recent memory.<br />(Except <a target="_blank" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/is-bernanke-the-most-inflationary-fed-chairman-in-history/2011/09/08/gIQAvNITCK_blog.html">he's not.</a>) <p>> Cutting taxes is a magical, mystical sure-fire job creator!<br />(Except <a target="_blank" href="http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/18/were-the-bush-tax-cuts-good-for-growth/">it's not.</a>)</p> <p>> Allowing voters to register on election day results in widespread fraud.<br />(Except <a target="_blank" href="http://www.pressherald.com/news/vote-fraud-probe-finds-one-illegal-incident_2011-09-22.html">it doesn't.</a>)</p> <p>> As the Koch brothers' net worth rises, so does employment at their companies.<br />(Except <a target="_blank" href="http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/09/23/7927178-the-koch-brothers-graph">it doesn't.</a>)</p> <p>> American companies are overregulated.<br />(Except <a target="_blank" href="http://doingbusiness.org/rankings">they're not.</a>)</p> <p>> Bloody violence is out of control along the Mexican border, and illegal immigrants are streaming into America at record levels.<br />(Except <a target="_blank" href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2011-07-15-border-violence-main_n.htm">it's not and they're not.</a>)</p> <p>> President Obama's plan to boost the economy doesn’t appeal beyond the liberal hippie fringe.<br />(Except <a target="_blank" href="http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/robert-schlesinger/2011/09/20/poll-most-americans-support-obama-deficit-plan-to-tax-rich">it does---big-time.</a>)</p> <p>> Social Security is going broke, it adds to the deficit, and we have to raise the retirement age because people are living longer.<br />(Except <a target="_blank" href="http://pol.moveon.org/ssmyths/">it's not, it doesn't and we don't.</a>)</p> <p>> Don’t listen to that Paul Krugman---he's not very accurate!<br />(Except <a target="_blank" href="http://www.hamilton.edu/news/story/pundits-as-accurate-as-coin-toss-according-to-study">he is.</a>)</p> <p>> The earth is getting cooler.<br />(Except <a target="_blank" href="http://www.climate.gov/#understandingClimate">it's really really not.</a>)</p> <p>> Mitt Romney is a member of the middle class.<br />(Except <a target="_blank" href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/09/21/1018957/-Mitt-Romney-says-hes-one-of-us-in%20the%20middle%E2%80%91class?via=blog_1">milk just snorted out my nose.</a>)</p></blockquote><p></p><p>All courtesy of <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/09/28/1020780/-Cheers-and-Jeers:-Wednesday?via=user">Bill in Portland Maine</a>.</p><p>Thank you, Bill. I just love facts.</p><p></p>maeszhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01762646350898728713noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2987286387509490050.post-61787723547678982652011-08-22T08:27:00.019-05:002011-08-22T09:17:21.703-05:00Governor Perry and the Miracle Jobs<span style="font-family:arial;font-size:78%;">.</span>
<br /><span style="font-family: verdana;font-family:courier new;" >"Sure, Perry has created thousands of jobs....I'm working three of them." </span>
<br /> <span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;" class="dash">—</span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;"> </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;" class="author">joke currently circulating in Texas</span>
<br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;" >
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<br />Which, my gentle snowflakes, leads to a thought--always a dangerous thing.
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<br />While it is true, that </span></span><span style="font-family:georgia;">since the beginning of 2008 </span><a style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: georgia;" href="http://news.yahoo.com/rick-perry-created-jobs-texas-160000729.html">Texas has added about 75,000 jobs</a><span style="font-family:georgia;">, it does </span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family:georgia;" >NOT</span><span style="font-family:georgia;"> follow that 75,000 more Texans are employed now than in 2008.</span>
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<br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">There may be, as the joke suggests, simply many more minimum-wage, part-time jobs being held by not that many more people. Each worker having 2 or 3 or more "jobs." No one of which would allow that worker to provide shelter and food and a modicum of comfort for her (or him) self and family.</span>
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<br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">That's what makes it a good joke: a tight, hard kernel of bitter truth.</span>
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<br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">So, when Governor Perry suggests he can do the same thing for the whole country, are we sure that is what we want? A country of sub-par, minimum-wage (or less), part-time jobs with little or no benefits, little or no worker protections, perhaps even "off the books" so that these jobs do not even accrue Social Security earnings for the employee? A country of economic serfs?</span>
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<br />Just saying.
<br /><span style="font-size:78%;">. </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">
<br /></span>maeszhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01762646350898728713noreply@blogger.com4