tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9479398.post4910149280894927711..comments2024-03-28T11:33:16.271-05:00Comments on Adventus: "I swear I saw your face change, it didn't seem quite right."Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9479398.post-70339943075010269932010-07-13T12:15:06.666-05:002010-07-13T12:15:06.666-05:00A friend lost his job more than a year ago and app...<i>A friend lost his job more than a year ago and applied for countless positions during that period, and still does not have a job. He may lose his house because they can't pay the mortgage. Thanks goodness his wife is employed, or they would not have health insurance. </i><br /><br />I remember a church member losing his job, when I was a child. It was such an unusual occurrence, it reverberated through the circle of people who knew him so that even I was aware of it.<br /><br />Since then, I've seen such unemployment happen on a massive scale, three times now, as I said. Something fundamentally shifted us back from the post-Depression era to the pre-Depression era. More and more I see FDR as the aberration, Hoover as the norm. Ironic, too, since he won the Presidency by his massive aid efforts under Wilson (IIRC) aiding flood victims in the South.<br /><br />Hoover helped the flood victims; today we simply relocate them away from the cameras. Last time I drove through New Orleans (from the east to the west), there were parts of town I'd swear didn't have traffic lights left in them. Or people, for that matter.Rmjhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06811456254443706479noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9479398.post-79751130363653528092010-07-13T11:57:49.858-05:002010-07-13T11:57:49.858-05:00As always we have again committed fornication, but...<i>As always we have again committed fornication, but, it was in another country and besides, the wench is dead.</i><br /><br />One wonders whether the bulk of our social engineering, both at home and abroad, has the hidden goal of giving contracts to corporations.<br /><br /><i>...there'd be...no neighborhoods where you keep your car doors locked and don't stop at red lights. (Yes, I exaggerate, but to make a point.)</i><br /><br />You don't exaggerate. There are neighborhoods in New Orleans where we stop briefly and check for traffic and proceed through the red light.<br /><br />A friend lost his job more than a year ago and applied for countless positions during that period, and still does not have a job. He may lose his house because they can't pay the mortgage. Thanks goodness his wife is employed, or they would not have health insurance. <br /><br />My friend is 64 years old and is highly skilled in computer programming and in writing. What are his chances of finding a job? Yes, we've seen this movie before.June Butlerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01723016934182800437noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9479398.post-83569354068223622072010-07-13T09:48:42.896-05:002010-07-13T09:48:42.896-05:00The gross national product includes air pollution ...The gross national product includes air pollution and advertising for cigarettes, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors, and jails for the people who break them ... It does not allow for the health of our families, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play.<br />-- Robert F. KennedyRmjhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06811456254443706479noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9479398.post-84120918729998605722010-07-13T09:04:19.894-05:002010-07-13T09:04:19.894-05:00Barbara Ehrenreich's new book 'Bright-Side...Barbara Ehrenreich's new book 'Bright-Sided' is terrific.<br /><br />Not many people remember Michael Harrington or RF Kennedy in Appalachia, either. <br /><br />Saw the wonderful Seymour Melman and the reprehensible Herman Kahn debate in college, maybe 1969. Kahn, extrapolating from the then facts, declared with certainty that this would be the Japanese Century. This, from the man who thought about the unthinkable.<br /><br />Melman, at one point, almost lost it, breaking down into a mix of tears and infuriation, then recovered and demolished him...ProfWombathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11251229209601018545noreply@blogger.com