29 September 2009
29 September 2009
ROLDO RIGHTS…
1230 by Jeff HessPlain Dealer management people now face the same fate as union editorial staff and reporters – job loses – despite a long-standing promise called the “Newhouse Pledge” of no layoffs.
According to a piece on Poynter Online by Mark Holan the Pledge will go out of business on Feb. 5, 2010.
Holan reported, “The so-called ‘Newhouse Pledge,” named after the family that founded and controls the New York-based media company, guaranteed that in most cases, employees would never be laid off. The pledge, which according to a recently filed lawsuit has been in place for at least 25 years, applied to all full-time, non-union employees. Newhouse has a reputation of being an anti-union company, and some believe the pledge was intended partly to discourage employees from organizing.” Continue Reading »
29 September 2009
29 September 2009
CASINOS VS. GREEN ENERGY… DUH…!
0843 by Jeff HessDo we really need to even think about where we want to put our job creation efforts?
29 September 2009
FROM MY DAD…
0630 by Jeff Hess
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.
THE ABSOLUTELY FUNNIEST JOKE EVER
I was going to pontificate on several issues today, but I was reminded of something so funny and horrific at the same time, I have decided this is the only message of the day.
For liberals you will wisely shake your heads in agreement, without any cynicism and conservatives, will only say this is the reason we exist.
What was the reason given for developing the Department of Energy during the Carter administration?
We have spent multi billions of dollars in support of this agency and I am willing to bet not one person who reads this will remember the reason given.
It was very simple.
THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY WAS INSTITUTED TO LESSEN OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL.
And thanks to the billions in lobbying dollars spent by the oil companies and the efforts of oil-funded politicians like President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, we are little better off today than we were in 1977 when farsighted President Jimmy Carter realized that no more important national threat existed than our dependence upon Middle East Oil. If only presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush has been so enlightened.
29 September 2009
29 September 2009
FROM MY CHAPBOOK…
0030 by Jeff HessFound in my electronic chapbook.
“Coming in second in a national novel-writing competition is like coming in second in major league sports. You”re a loser.” p. 81
From Living The Writer’s Life: by Eric Maisel.
28 September 2009
28 September 2009
VOTE NO ON ISSUE 2…
1404 by Jeff HessWith so many people voting early in Ohio, I really need to kick into high gear on who and what will be on the ballot. I confess that this is the first I’ve heard of Issue 2.
Don’t allow special interests to hijack the state constitution: Vote NO on Issue 2 in November!
Issue 2 is not simply a new law. It would amend Ohio’s constitution.
The League of Women Voters of Ohio opposes Issue 2 because this measure is an inappropriate use of the state constitution. By voting to amend the constitution, a dangerous precedent is created which sets a permanent place for special interests.
This proposed constitutional amendment would create a Livestock Care Standards Board to develop guidelines for the raising of livestock in Ohio. Some say this livestock board would be help to ensure for food safety. Others say this board would give a dozen political appointees broad power to decide rules on animal welfare.
Once cemented into the state constitution, this livestock board would have the power to override acts by the Ohio Department of Agriculture or the state legislature. This chills public debate and infringes on our democratic rights, the foundation our country was built on.
For more info, contact Laurel Hopwood.
I trust Laurel in such matters and generally distrust any attempt to amend Ohio’s constitution.
28 September 2009
MY COMMENTS…
1247 by Jeff Hess28 September 2009
SCARING THE B’JESUS OUT OF THE IGNORANT…
1142 by Jeff HessNothing quite scares the ignorant like a good story about how the niggers are coming for their guns, women and whiskey. And the people who want to scare the ignorant somehow believe that they can be best found at a Walmart.
Radio Revolution blasted this headline yesterday:
There’s one teeny, tiny problem, however. Nowhere in the story is Walmart mentioned. So why is it in the headline? See above.
(And it’s not just Revolution Radio, just Google Walmart Ammo Shortage.)
The story is a rehash of one that appeared in the Los Angeles Times back in August. Not unsurprisingly, the LA Times doesn’t mention Walmart at all.
So why the panic? Remember what December 1999 was like as the ignorant scarfed up food stocks and other necessities in preparation for the end-of-the-world-as-they-knew-it at midnight on December 31st? The same applies here.
I also expect that there is more than a little self-fulfilling prophecy here. If I’m the kind of person who might be concerned that the niggers are coming for my guns, women and whiskey and I see a headline that screams Walmart is rationing ammunition, then I might be inclined to go down and buy as many boxes as I can before they’re all gone.
28 September 2009
FROM MY DAD…
0630 by Jeff HessI 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.
Young Chuck, moved to Texas and bought a donkey from farmer for $100. The farmer agreed to deliver the donkey the next day. The next day he drove up and said, “Sorry son, but I have some bad news, the donkey died.”
Chuck replied, “Well, then, just give me my money back.”
The farmer said, “Can’t do that. I went and spent it already.”
Chuck said, “Ok, then, just bring me the dead donkey.”
The farmer asked, “What ya gonna do with him?”
Chuck said, “I’m going to raffle him off.”
The farmer said, “You can’t raffle off a dead donkey!”
Chuck said, “Sure I can. Watch me I just won’t tell anybody he’s dead.”
A month later, the farmer met up with Chuck and asked, “What happened with that dead donkey?”
Chuck said, “I raffled him off. I sold 500 tickets at two dollars apiece and made a profit of $898.00.”
The farmer said, “Didn’t anyone complain?”
Chuck said, “Just the guy who won. So I gave him his two dollars back.”
Chuck grew up and now works for the government. **
**Note: No one actually works for the government: they are merely employed by it.
(As an eleven-year employee of the United States governemnt (Five years in the Navy, six years in the Ohio National Guard) I take extreme exception to the last statement. JH)
28 September 2009
FROM MY CHAPBOOK…
0030 by Jeff HessFound in my electronic chapbook.
“The writer should never be ashamed of staring. There is nothing that does not require his attention.” Flannery O”Connor. p. 80
From Living The Writer’s Life: by Eric Maisel.
27 September 2009
27 September 2009
ROLDO RIGHTS…
1230 by Jeff HessAs the Pee Dee propagandizes for the Casino industry, the Columbus Dispatch editorially says, “No Thanks!”
At the same time, the Pee Dee has a cartoon front-page heralding a poll saying Ohioans want the casinos.
The Dispatch said that casinos COST a community $3 for every $1 of benefit.
In a Sunday editorial the Columbus Dispatch reminded voters that allowing casinos into their communities invites “corrosive influences.”
The Dispatch noted that casinos would pour money into buying the allegiance of state lawmakers with campaign contributions. Continue Reading »
27 September 2009
27 September 2009
FROM MY DAD…
0630 by Jeff HessI 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.
Happy Hour In West Virginia
A redneck is driving down a back road in West Virginia and sees a sign in front of a restaurant that reads:
HAPPY HOUR SPECIAL: LOBSTER TAIL AND BEER
“Lord almighty,” he says to himself, “my three favorite things!”
Paging Lynne Truss.
27 September 2009
WHAT THEY SAY…
0330 by Jeff HessJennifer Mathieu Blessington, who teaches at Johnston Middle School in Houston, said she has been forced to address the issue in her class. “Many boys at that age are so unsure of themselves and are incredibly worried about being perceived as gay, so they call everything and everyone else gay,” she told me. She relayed to me a recent incident when a boy in her class held up a book with a pink cover and said he wouldn”t want to read it because it “looks gay.” “Everyone in the class started laughing like it was the funniest thing they”d ever heard,” Blessington continued, “but I said: ‘We don”t use the word “gay” in a negative way in this classroom. Gay people are human beings, and that”s the way we talk about them in here. Is that understood?” “
27 September 2009
FROM MY CHAPBOOK…
0030 by Jeff HessFound in my electronic chapbook.
“Because a writer has seen through to the fact that there is no ultimate meaning and that all meanings are personal and transient, she may put on a good face and continue to invest meaning in her writing, but she is making this effort against a background of real meaninglessness. This background reality has the power to come forward at any moment and produce a serious existential depression.” p. 75
From Living The Writer’s Life: by Eric Maisel.
26 September 2009
WHAT THEY SAID…
1900 by Jeff HessI should advise you to put it all down as beautifully as you can – in some beautifully bound book. It will seem as if you were making the visions banal – but then you need to do that – then you are freed from the power of them. . . . Then when these things are in some precious book you can go to the book & turn over the pages & for you it will be your church – your cathedral – the silent places of your spirit where you will find renewal. If anyone tells you that it is morbid or neurotic and you listen to them – then you will lose your soul – for in that book is your soul.
