Labor Day - but does anyone know what it means?

Sunday September 6, 2009

. . . . .Choose to live a life that matters. What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example. What will matter is not your competence, but your character. What. . .will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many felt good when they were around you and how you served them.. . . . . . Omar Khayyam

. . . .Yes, a Muslim said that.

. . . . .Playlist, I'll change the order up, but I definitely am not up to uploading and downloading any new files out where I'm at, it'll be about Tuesday and I'll get some new "stuff" up there, though it'll probably surprise you.

. . . .What I'm wondering today is a couple of things, when it comes to entertainment. (1) Just how twisted will the season finale of True Blood get? They're going to have to go some to top themselves with what they've laid out so far this summer. (2) With Disney's acquisition of Marvel, how long will it take before Donald Duck and Wolverine are teaming up to save Snow White? How long before the The Incredible Hulk's signature line of "Hulk smash!" becomes "I'm going to Disneyworld"? I think it's a terrible move, and will in the end, do nothing but hurt Marvel. (3) How can I wait even one more minute for the season opener of "Sons of Anarchy"?


. . . ."But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world - and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.

And that's what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.
Every single one of you has something you're good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That's the opportunity an education can provide" - Barack Obama, President of the United States

. . . .This is what the Right Wing and the Conservative Movement is afraid of? This is, somehow, in those people's minds going to corrupt their children? This is socialist?

. . . .They're afraid of The President of the United States who was raised by a single parent, then his grandmother, as a minority talking to them about personal responsibility!!

. . . . This is their "socialist" agenda? One word for all of them. . . .losers.

. . . . .I don't have much use for a group of people who scream bloody murder at their First Amendment Rights being abrogated when someone suggests that comparing the duly elected through Constitutional process sitting President of the United States to Hitler; who scream censorship when someone suggests that perhaps listening to what the other side has to say is what political process and discourse actually is instead of yelling them down; who see nothing wrong with suggesting secession from the Republic as an answer to their discontent. . . .but who will not allow their own children to listen to the President of the United States speak to them, will abrogate his First Amendment Rights when he wishes to speak with them about personal responsiblity, even if they disagree with his political agenda.

. . . .How little they must think of their own children, how pathetic their own homelife and parenting skills must be, if they fear that a 20 minute address from the President of the United States will corrupt them, and turn them from the quasi-religious, socio-political ideology that they're trying to indoctrinate them into.

. . . .Apparently, someone on the Right doesn't have a problem with his speaking to children at school. Laura Bush, from a CNN interview she did on Monday while in Paris at a conference on illiteracy:

Referencing the uproar over Obama's address to schoolchildren, which will be aired nationwide Tuesday, Laura Bush said it's "really important for everyone to respect the president of the United States."
"I think there is a place for the president ... to talk to schoolchildren and encourage" them, she said. Parents should follow his example and "encourage their own children to stay in school and to study hard and to try to achieve the dream that they have."

. . . .In terms of anything else and the job that Obama is doing as President, the former First Lady thought "he was doing a good job, under tough circumstances".

. . . .Things are really beginning to come together for me. I was reminded by a couple of faithful readers and some people close to me that my tone took a very much sharper turn at the end of last week.

. . . .No excuses, it did, but I get frustrated and tired. Because I have an absolute hatred of small-mindedness, of ignorance, of separtism, of exclusion, of racism, and of self-absorbed, self-centered with the end in mind of doing nothing but enriching one's self at the expense of your fellow travelers in the ship of state.

. . . .Frustrated and tired because it seems to me that lately. . . .crazy and stupid have won, and they won because cluelessness, apathy and arrogance let them win.

. . . . .Frustrated and tired, because, I swear, a good number of people either forgot 7th grade Civics, 10th grade History, 12th grade Government and Freshman year Economics or slept through them all.

. . . . .What scares me? What scares me is that isn't the case, and that there is real purpose behind what at least a small number of people are driving towards, and a large number are unwittingly following along.

. . . . .It seems, to me at least, that what's happening is that everyone is involved in supporting, or opposing, or protesting, or validating to profit only themselves, to better only their own position, and in the end, it won't matter who stood on their side of debate, or the argument, or the protest, because they're only doing it for their own profit, or to better themselves and only themselves, it really, really doesn't seem to me that any of it has been for the Republic and for future generations.

. . . . . . Frustrated and tired, because everyone is caught up in the emotion and political theater, and mob rule is winning the day, not reasoned thought, not critical analysis, not respectful debate.

. . . . Frustrated and tired that the very same people who want to slit their wrists and bleed patriotic Red, White and Blue all over everyone really only want to be a Christian Taliban in charge of everyone else in the country.

. . . .Frustrated and tired, because somewhere, the country and the body politic slipped over a line, and what were party lines, became a religious/political ideology, with the emphasis on religion for one party. For the other, it became a willingness to do nothing, listen to everyone, try to please everyone, and in the end, arrogantly decide for the masses what was "best" for everyone.

. . . .Frustrated and tired, because we got dumber, and no one looks at economics or understands fiscal or monetary policy. Economics is the study of people, and what they value and want; and what they're willing to trade for what they value, what they want. It's as much about human psychology and ethics as it is about anything. Fiscal policy, monetary policy are only vehicles by which the transactions involved in the economy of how people get what they want and value occurs.

. . . . Frustrated and mad, because some very few people recognize what is happening and won't run the numbers.

. . . . .Want the system to stay the same? Cool. Try living up in Michigan where every Blue Cross/Blue Shield policy holder, individuals who purchased their own health insurance all received a letter this week informing them that as of October 1st, their premiums went up 22%, no reason given, and it really doesn't matter, because that's the way it is.

. . . . .Frustrated and tired, because no one, not a soul, will take a look at any of the 5 plans put forward, that I know of, that are tax neutral, will contain costs, and force the insurers back to competitive rates.

. . . . .Frustrated that no one will listen to any of the 5 economists who saw the mess we're in coming who are clearly trying to tell everyone that it's not over and it's getting worse.

. . . . Want some numbers for Labor Day? Here's some for you from The Economic Policy Institute:

TOTAL JOBS LOST DURING THE RECESSION: 6.9 MILLION

• New jobs needed per month to keep up with population growth: 127,000
• Jobs lost in August 2009: 216,000
• Jobs needed to regain pre-recession unemployment levels: 9.4 million
• Manufacturing jobs lost since the start of the recession: 2.0 million (14.6% of sector’s jobs)
• Construction jobs lost in the recession: 1.4 million (19%, nearly one in five construction jobs)
• Mass layoffs (50 or more people by a single employer) in July 2009: 2,157; jobs lost: 206,791

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE: 9.7%

• Number unemployed: 14.9 million (up from 7.5 million in December 2007)
• Underemployment rate: 16.8%; Share of workers un- or underemployed: roughly 1 in 6
• Under- and unemployed, marginally attached and involuntary part-time workers: 26.4 million
• Unemployment rate, ages 16 to 24: 18.2%
• Male unemployment: 10.9%; female unemployment: 8.2%
• White unemployment: 8.9%; black unemployment: 15.1%; Hispanic unemployment: 13%
• Unemployment rate, young college graduates: 5.9% (2nd worst on record); Worst recorded unemployment rate for young college graduates: 6.2% (1983)
• Traditional ratio of young college grads’ unemployment to overall rate: 50%; Current ratio: 70%
• Portion of unemployed who have been jobless more than six months: one third
• Average weekly unemployment benefit in July (including additional $25 per week from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act): $332

STATES WITH DOUBLE-DIGIT UNEMPLOYMENT IN JULY, 2009: 16; WHEN THIS LAST HAPPENED: 1983

• Highest unemployment rate: Michigan, 15.0%; lowest: North Dakota, 4.2%
• When California’s Hispanic unemployment surpassed black unemployment: 2nd quarter, 2009
• Projected African American unemployment for Michigan, 2nd quarter of 2010: 24.9%

INCREASE IN AVERAGE U.S. WORKER’S PRODUCTIVITY, 2000-07: 19.2%

• Decrease in all prime-aged worker’s real median weekly wages, 2000-2007: $1; Decrease for African Americans: $3
• Annual growth rate of private-sector workers’ wages, last three months: 2.6%
• Annual growth of wages in managerial, professional, and related occupations, 2009, 2nd quarter: 0%
• Annual growth rate of real (inflation-adjusted), average, hourly wages since June 2000: 0.70%*
• Ratio of average CEO’s pay to typical worker’s pay in 1979: 27 to 1; Ratio in 2007: 275 to 1

EXPECTED NEW SPENDING (12-MONTHS) FROM THE NEW $7.25 MINIMUM WAGE: $5.5 BILLION

• Share of minimum wage workers with high school diploma in 1979: 57.5%: Share in 2008: 72%
• Workers getting a raise from latest minimum wage increase: 4.5 million
• Share of affected workers with annual family income below $35,000: 57.1%; Share working at least 20 hours a week: 81.6%
• Extent to which the minimum wage’s real value is lower than in 1968: 17%

AMERICANS UNINSURED IN 2007: 45 MILLION

• Drop in children covered through parents’ employers, 2000 to 2007: 3.4 million
• Share of people under 65, with incomes in the top 20%, covered by employers in 2007: 86.4%; Share with incomes in the bottom 20%, covered by employers: 21.9%
• Share of Hispanic workers who are uninsured: 39.8%
• Percentage of under-65 Americans with employer-sponsored health insurance in 2000: 68.3%; In 2007: 62.9%
• Average monthly cost of COBRA with American Recovery and Reinvestment Act subsidy: $370; Without American Recovery and Reinvestment Act subsidy: $1,057
• Rise in out-of-pocket spending for the 1% of adults with the greatest medical expenses, 2004-2007: 42%
• Increase in health care premiums since 1999: 119%
• Amount by which U.S. private health insurance administrative costs exceeded all Canadian national health spending in 2007: $25 billion**
• Share of total U.S. health care costs paid by private insurers in 2007: 35%
• Share of total health care costs paid by U.S. government in 2007: 46%

SHARE OF PEOPLE NEAR RETIREMENT AGE WITH A 401(K) BALANCE UNDER $40,000 IN 2007: 50%

• Percentage of amount needed to maintain living standards that is held by average 401(k) participant approaching retirement: 20-40%
• Share of 401(k) assets estimated to be lost since 2007: 29%

. . . .Those numbers, as dry as they are, are our lives, and should be the only things we're shouting about. Those numbers are our kids and grandkids futures at stake, it's about time we dropped the agendas, and adopted a single agenda, that of finding a solution for those numbers.

. . . .We can salvage this shipwreck of a Nation. It will take all of us working together. It will take all of us understanding the concepts of the Great American Experiment, the political process of the Republic. It's amazing, I don't see eye-to-eye on every issue with my friends, but we respect one another's opinion, share information, share facts, and we don't talk over one another or at one another, we talk with one another. It's amazing what happens when a group of people who share the common goal of leaving a better country for their children and grandchildren can do when they sit down with one another as human beings, and realize that we each have power, and together, we are unstoppable.

. . . .I'm going to ask this of you for the next 30 days. Turn your TV off, turn your radio off. Start to use that beautiful mind that your Creator gave you, that your underpaid, underappreciated High School teachers tried to develop. If you hear something, if you read something, if someone sends you an e-mail that says "this bill will do this", or "this politician says this", I'm asking you to check it out. Check it out this way, use some of the following fact-based sites, who exist solely for the purpose of data and fact-checking.
- If whatever you've heard or read concerns a bill in Congress, use the following -
- Open Congress, it's non-partisan and devoted to a complete tracking of every bill in Congress, both houses. How a bill is developed, who is sponsoring it, what the riders are, what the discussion around it is.
- GovTrack, again non-partisan, non-commercial and open source; devoted to the same things, tracking Congress.
- Open Secrets, one of the most important ones, it tracks the lobbying money and campaign contributions flowing to your congressperson, and most of the time is a pretty good predictor of how they'll vote.
- Political Party Time, non-partisan, devoted to solely tracking political fundraisers, and letting you know exactly what parties your Representative and Senators are throwing for fundraisers and who is attending and how much money they're throwing at them to gain influence.

. . . .If someone sends something to you saying "this is so" or "that is so" or "the President/Senator/Representative said this" use the following:
- Fact Check, non-partisan, designed to separate fact from bullshit and fiction
- Snopes, devoted to the same thing.
- Politifact, devoted to getting to the truth, and separating out the lies that are spread.


. . . .I keep doing this not because I don't have faith, but because I do have faith. I have faith in the ultimate triumph of the spirit, intellect and heart of the American people. I have faith that the people I know want to leave something better for future generations, and know that something is terribly wrong, and want to do something about it. I do it because Paine and Jefferson were brilliant, unique singularities and were right.

. . . .I keep doing this because I don't believe in big imaginary friends for adults, I don't believe in alien conspiracies running the Government, I don't believe the Roswell bodies are at Wright-Patterson, I don't believe that a big portal will open up on Dec. 21, 2012, I don't believe that the spaceships will show up.

. . . I do believe that the people who have fucked everything up are greedy, avaricious human beings who have been able to steal from the American people, to harm them, who have run unchecked because no one calls it out for what it is. I believe that if we shine the light of day on it, if the people of this country have had enough, we can change it, and change it for the better.

. . . . I keep doing this because I do believe that people, human beings, unchecked will continue to do what they've done throughout history, and throughout the history of this country. Together, they will find the solutions and provide better for their children and grandchildren.

. . . .I believe in us, I believe in people. I believe in the beauty, power and grace of the individual.

. . . .I do this for everyone who's ever walked that lonely road of knowing what they do, what they believe, what they know is right. I do it for everyone who's ever walked that lonely road of faith, hope, love, hate, justice, war and peace.

. . . .I do it because I believe in justice, in all it's forms.

. . . .I do this everyday for the people and kids who are tattoed, pierced and inked and keep getting told to get "into the mainstream". I do this everyday for those guys who wear black that you don't understand, you just know there's something about them, and that when the chips are down, when you have to walk down a dark alley somewhere, and you know what's waiting for you at the end of it, and you can only take one person with you, that's who you want walking with you, because you know you'll come back out alive, and that guy doesn't care what it costs him.

. . . .I do this everyday for the outcasts, the misfits, the ones who don't fit and who will turn their back on you and walk away when you try to make them fit into a mold. I do it everyday for everyone who does it their way, knows that they're paying a high price for it, but the freedom is worth the cost.

. . . . I do this everyday for outlaws, cowboys, renegades, pirates and fallen angels. I do it everyday for the people who understand that rock and roll can save their soul, that redemption can be found in a 3-chord lick from a vintage Les Paul. I do it for the men and women who aren't afraid to turn it all the way up, who keep looking for an 11 setting on a volume knob that only goes to 10, who know that rock and roll's got nothing to do with age.


. . . .If right now, you're doing something you don't want to do, stop it. If you've surrounded yourself with people who want you to do or be something other than who you are, walk away. If you've got people around you who actually let it slip out that they think you "should be doing (fill in the blank here)" and it involves your life, your future, your existence as an individual, walk away, right now, and don't look back. You don't owe anyone anything. Live fearlessly. If the people around you can't accept it, can't accept you as you are, really are, they aren't and weren't friends anyhow.

. . . .Don't march to anyone else's drumbeat, don't drink the Kool-Aid, anyone's. Right, Left, conservative, liberal, Democrat, Republican, Christian, Buddhist, Pagan. Use your own mind, that's why you were given one. Examine, question, do what's right for you first, everything else will fall in place from there, quit looking for the path, you're already on it.

. . . .Come out of the gate each morning with both barrels blazing, pedal-to-metal, full-tilt boogie, all-in and balls-out, what's stopping you? Do you want to live forever? That'd be boring.

. . . .Got your back. somewhere out there in the night

. . . .Kiss your kids, tell the ones you love out loud that you do. Seize the precious moments before they're ripped away from you. This rodeo is a one-way ticket and no one, absolutely no one gets out alive. There aren't a lot of second chances, and we don't get to dictate terms and circumstances of how the ticket gets punched. This ain't no dress rehearsal, and the curtain's gone up, it's real and right now. It's not about yesterday or tomorrow. It's about right fucking here, right fucking now. This, what you're reading, what you're hearing, is the proof, the words, the sounds and the sights of someone changing his own life and his own world and not being afraid to put it out there. What have you done for yourself lately and why are you waiting? Do it now.

The Desolation Angel
from somewhere halfway to Heaven, and just a mile out of Hell

You know someone like me, there's still a few of us left. If we have to, we'll stand at the gates of Hell and hold the last train home for you.