Only in America, do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage.
I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.
In their dark heat I labor all summer making them ready.
A time of death is coming, and they desire to live.
It is only the labor surrounding them that is manly,
the seasonal bringing in from the womanly fields
to the womanly enclosures.-from The Buildings, p. 29
Found in my electronic chapbook.
From Farming: A Hand Book by Wendell Berry.
It”s Friday and time to get some things “off my chest.” I have three items that I need to yell about. So here goes:
REP. FUDGE – YOU MADE THE WRONG DECISION
I guess my Congresswoman – Rep. Marcia Fudge – believes nothing she does will ever put any stress on her holding the 11th District job.
Maybe she thinks no one will notice that she sided with the big telecommunication companies and against her constituents. The big communications companies would like to control the Internet and how much it costs to access it.
Fudge, along with 74 other Democratic Congress members, allied themselves with AT&T, Verizon ad Comcast by signing a letter that will undercut the Federal Communications Commission “ability to make a fast, affordable and open Continue Reading »
This should make you think a little:
There were 39 combat related killings in Iraq in January. In the fair city of Detroit there were 35 murders in the month of January. That’s just one American city, about as deadly as the entire war-torn country of Iraq.
When some claim that President Bush shouldn’t have started this war, state the following:
FDR led us into World War II. Germany never attacked us; Japan did. From 1941-1945, 450,000 lives were lost, an average of 112,500 per year.
Truman finished that war and started one in Korea North Korea never attacked us.
From 1950-1953, 55,000 lives were lost, an average of 18,334 per year.
John F. Kennedy started the Vietnam conflict in 1962. Vietnam never attacked us.
Johnson turned Vietnam into a quagmire. From 1965-1975, 58,000 lives were lost, an average of 5,800 per year.
Clinton went to war in Bosnia without UN or French consent. Continue Reading »
Only in America, do banks leave both doors open and then chain the pens to the counters.
I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.
And we rest, having done what men are best at.
-from The Barn, p. 28
Found in my electronic chapbook.
From Farming: A Hand Book by Wendell Berry.
Imperialism is an important and loaded word. Is China engaging in imperialism? It might be, or it might simply be following an economic model of the Capitalist west (or there may be no difference that makes a difference between the two. In either case, Kanbawza Win thinks Myanmar is a casualty.
From Asian Tribune:
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, is schedule to arrive in Burma, on June 2nd on the last leg of his tour to the four Asian countries. China which shares 1,370 miles (2,190 kilometers) of common border with Burma and is the third largest foreign trade partner with an estimated annually of $2 billion while the Chinese population residing is Burma is roughly about 5 million, amounting to one tenth of the country”s population.
“Imperialism” a dead word of the 19th and 20th centuries, where the West used to colonize the Afro Asian countries, has make its presence felt again only this time it has taken the form of economic sphere. The men on the Dragon throne are practicing a very sophisticated 21st century version of imperialism, in which Imperial China loans Afro Asian countries billions of dollars, in exchange for encumbering natural resources. These resources range from oil and natural gas to copper, cobalt, and titanium. As part of its debt encumbrance strategy, Imperial China gets to reduce its unemployment rate by using a large Chinese construction workforce to actually do the work – rather than relying so much on the native population and teaching them the technical know-how.
The Imperial Chinese Communist government has set-up uneven economic playing fields domestically and globally through currency manipulation, protectionism, worker mistreatment, lax regulation–if any at all–and ignoring product piracy within its borders e.g. 80% of pirate products seized in North America come from Imperial China. Such practices have fueled Imperial China’s economic growth at an unsustainable pace. Throwing in a growing appetite for natural resources, both its own and those of other countries, Imperial China seems to be a ravenous beast, not easily sated. Its economic needs affect its judgment as the pressure to maintain the rate of economic growth encourages the maintenance of the same unfair and immoral practices.
Is China Imperialist? Is the West? Is the United States?
Or, does Imperialism exist in the 21st century corporation and nations are simply the fronts?
The day socialism comes to America
by
Joseph Farah“The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism, but under the name of liberalism they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program until one day America will be a socialist nation without ever knowing how it happened.” – Norman Thomas, American socialist.
I’ve been thinking deeply about those famously prophetic words spoken by America’s premier socialist thinker and leader. They didn’t resonate in the 1940s when Franklin Roosevelt, in the name of ending the Depression, exceeded all constitutional authority by approving new federal assistance programs. They seemed a bit far-fetched to most of us in the 1960s when Lyndon Johnson vastly expanded the welfare state in his failed bid to end poverty in America.
They still didn’t connect in the 1970s when Richard Nixon, in a bid to ingratiate himself with Democrats in Congress and stave off an impeachment, greatly increased spending on wealth-redistribution schemes. And by the 1980s, with Ronald Reagan in power, it seemed this 40-year trend had finally been reversed.
But with the initiatives being proposed by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in the 2008 presidential campaign, it appears Norman Thomas was right all along. Americans will, indeed, embrace every fragment of the socialist program in the name of liberalism.Both of the leading Democrats call for nationalized health care – for a power grab by Washington in which the federal government will seize full control of another one-seventh of the U.S. economy. This would, of course, be the most dramatic and irreversible step toward U.S. socialism in the nation’s history.
Even today, however, the architects of these plans conceal from the public the centralized, command-and-control nature of the new system they devise. They are not asked by the press to show the American people even one successful program government has run. Yet the American people seem ready to put the lives of their children and grandchildren in the hands of Washington bureaucrats.
Now comes an even grander proposal by Barack Obama. It’s called the Global Poverty Act, that would, in the next decade, transfer at least $845 billion of U.S. taxpayer money overseas. Think of Johnson’s failed war on poverty going international – directed not by Americans but by the United Nations.
How we could even be debating ideas like this in the 21st century, after all of the climactic failures of socialism around the world, is amazing to me. But we’re not really debating them. It seems we’re not even capable as a people of debating them, reasoning over them, using our brains to consider them.
Americans may simply be too far gone spiritually, morally and intellectually to reject the temptations of socialism. Socialism is antithetical to human nature, yet it has great appeal to the human mind.
It’s one of the great lies of all time – similar to the one told by the deceiver in the Garden of Eden. You can be like God! You can have it all right here on Earth. You can live in utopia, and you don’t have to obey the laws of the universe to achieve it.That’s the essence of socialism. And it is finally seducing America as it has seduced much of the rest of the world over the last century. Unfortunately, Americans don’t even have a party representing clear, unequivocal opposition to socialism. The Republicans dare not even speak its name. John McCain admits publicly he doesn’t know much or care much about economics.
And so, Americans don’t even have a reason or a mechanism to say no to the socialism that is coming to their country under the guise of liberalism – just the way Norman Thomas predicted it would come.
I broke my standing rule about saying something nice about anything or anybody. Always disappointed soon after. I praised Crain”s daily blog recently. I don”t take that back. And I still congratulate the weekly business magazine on its 30th birthday. BUT…
Crain”s did a series on some Cleveland”s most influential (their selection) people in the last 30 years.
It”s fluff and puff at its worst.
Mostly done, of course, for blatant advertising revenue. The ads accompany the profiles and photos of Important People – a rogue”s gallery in my opinion. They are mostly Important People who helped produce the Cleveland of today.
Is there anyone who likes what they see?
Everyone profiled is a hero. Continue Reading »
Only in America, do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries, and a diet coke…
I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.
I am wholly unwilling to be here
between the bright silent thousands of stars
and the life of the grass pouring out of the ground.
The hill has grown to me like a foot.
Until I life the earth I cannot move.-from On The Hill Late At Night, p. 27
Found in my electronic chapbook.
From Farming: A Hand Book by Wendell Berry.
For those who slept through World History 101, here is a condensed version.
Humans originally existed as members of small bands of nomadic hunters/gatherers. They lived on deer in the mountains during the summer and would go to the coast and live on fish and lobster in the winter.
The two most important events in all of history were: the invention of beer, and the invention of the wheel. The wheel was invented to get man to the beer, and the beer to the man.
These facts formed the foundation of modern civilization and together were the catalyst for the splitting of humanity into two distinct subgroups: Liberals and Conservatives.
Once beer was discovered, it required grain and that was the beginning of agriculture. Neither the glass bottle nor aluminum can were invented yet, so while our early humans were sitting around waiting for them to be invented, they just stayed close to the brewery. That’s how villages were formed.
Some men spent their days tracking and killing animals to BBQ at night while they were drinking beer. This was the beginning of what is known as the Conservative movement.
Other men who were weaker and less skilled at hunting learned to live off the conservatives by showing up for the nightly BBQs and doing the sewing, fetching, and hair dressing. This was the beginning of the Liberal movement.
Some of these liberal men eventually evolved into women. The rest became known as girlie-men.
Some noteworthy liberal achievements include the domestication of cats, the invention of group therapy and group hugs, the evolution of the Hollywood actor, and the concept of Democratic voting to decide how to divide all the meat and beer that conservatives provided.
Over the years, Conservatives came to be symbolized by the largest, most powerful land animal on earth, the elephant. Liberals are symbolized by the jackass.
Modern liberals like imported beer (with lime added), but most prefer white wine or imported bottled water. They eat raw fish but like their beef well done. Sushi, tofu, and French food are standard liberal fare. Another interesting evolutionary side note: most of liberal women have higher testosterone levels than their men. Most social workers, personal injury attorneys, journalists, dreamers in Hollywood and group therapists are liberals. Liberals invented the designated hitter rule because it wasn’t fair to make the pitcher also bat.
Conservatives drink domestic beer. They eat red meat and still provide for their women. Conservatives are big-game hunters, rodeo cowboys, lumberjacks, construction workers, firemen, medical doctors, police officers, corporate executives, athletes, Marines, and generally anyone who works productively. Conservatives who own companies hire other conservatives who want to work for a living.
Liberals produce little or nothing. They like to govern the producers and decide what to do with the production. Liberals believe Europeans are more enlightened than Americans. That is why most of the liberals remained in Europe when conservatives were coming to America . They crept in after the Wild West was tamed and created a business of trying to get more for nothing.
Here ends today’s lesson in world history. It should be noted that a liberal may have a momentary urge to angrily respond to the above before deleting it.
A conservative will simply laugh and be so convinced of the absolute truth of this history that it will be forwarded immediately to other true believers, and to liberals that have retained a sense of humor.
It’s been a busy week in Wally World: the Universe’s source of cheap plastic crap. On The Writing On The Wal — the blog USA Today says should be on its readers’ radar — Jonathan Rees and I continue our work dedicated to drawing back the curtain on the Bentonvile Behemoth’s corporate disinformation and other flackery.
1,000+… 1,000+ SHOWED UP… I”ve long lost count of how many times we”ve written about the tragically long lines of people who show up at a Walmart job fair every time the company opens a new store. In Evergreen, Illinois, 25,000 applicants showed up for only 325 jobs. Keep reading…
WALMART SEEKING DOCK-TO-SALE CONTROL… Vertical integration involves the control, by a single company, ever facet of production from resource extraction to product disposal/recycling. Walmart is a long way from that model, but it wants to come one step closer: by shipping only with its own fleet of trucks and truckers. Keep reading…
PROTEST EARLY, PROTEST OFTEN… What is it that makes Chicago and New York different from the rest of the country? Size? History of political activism? Tradition? I”m sure that Walmart would like the answer to that question as it continues to bang its head on those particular walls. Keep reading…
WALMART AS META MESSAGE… The message that can be lost in my laser focus on Walmart is that Walmart is not the problem. Walmart is simply the largest and most obvious symptom of the economic pathology infecting our community. We can treat Walmart and the patient still might not live. Keep reading…
AN UPDATE ON THOSE WALMART TRUCKERS… Bloomberg updated its story on Walmart and truckers and the final quote from a retail consultant – need to know the time? loan me your watch – caught my eye. If more businesses every this lesson to heart, Walmart would be in big trouble. Keep reading…
DON”T PUT YOUR CHILD ON A WALMART BIKE… I do my bike shopping and maintenance at Cain Park Cycle – just a two minute walk from door – and just this week I had a discussion with owner Gary Schumacher about bicycles bought at Walmart. I think that Gary and Andrew would be in agreement here. Keep reading…
10 MILLION SQUARE FEET OF WHAT…? Walmart Asia CEO Scott Price said at a summit in Beijing that Wal-Mart plans to add 10 million square feet of retailing space in China this year. OK, but 10 million square feet of what? Supercenters, Sam”s Clubs? Neighborhood Markets? Smart Choices? Keep reading…
FLASHMOBS ARE SO LAST CENTURY…
I don”t know that anyone has identified Flashmob Zero and there have been plenty since, but this is the first one that I”m aware of called in support of workers” rights. That it happened in San Fracisco is no suprise. Could it work in a Walmart, hourly, across the U.S.? Keep reading…
IT”S REALLY NOT YOUR JOB… I started working discount retail in high school and continued through college. Then, it was the standard rule that you did not approach or attempt to apprehend shoplifters. It wasn”t your job and the store had professionals they paid to do the dirty work. Keep reading…
THE APPLE 3GS IPHONE IS TOAST… How do I know that? Because the news webs are swamped with people screaming that you can buy one at Walmart for $97, marked down from $197. People who buy iPhones want the newest, the latest, the geekiest, and they”re willing to pay a premium. Keep reading…
Only in America, do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front.
I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.FROM MY DAD…
What must a man do to be at home in the world?
From The Silence, p. 23
Found in my electronic chapbook.
From Farming: A Hand Book by Wendell Berry.
A lot of folks can’t understand how we came to have an oil shortage here in our country. Well, there’s a very simple answer Nobody bothered to check the oil. We just didn’t know we were getting low. The reason for that is purely geographical. Our oil is located in: Alaska, California, Coastal Florida, Coastal Louisiana, North Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Texas.
Our dipsticks are located in Washington, D.C.!
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