THE CAFE PARTICIPANTS

I have all these thoughts. I think of Mr. Seaton informing me that I may get toooooooooo sentimental, a long time ago.

I go up and down.

Right now I don't care about my archives.

Ha.

Who gives a damn?

The blogs were a now thing.

When I wrote them I had emotion.

Writing made me not dead. Ha

I am dead now:

So I sing songs:

 

Come and listen to a story bout a man named Josh

A poor web addict, barely kept his family posh,

Then one day he was lookin' for some site,

And up from the web came some bubblin bucks

 

Advertisement bucks, real black riches, Texas Tea

Well the first thing you know ol Josh's a millionaire,
Kinfolk said "Josh get away from here"

Said MSM is the place you oughta be

Get rid of the bloggers who are wastin all yer time

MSM, that is. MSNBC, newsy stars.


Well now its time to say goodbye to Josh and all his kin.
And they would like to thank you folks fer kindly droppin in.
You must move somewhere from this locality
Just do not try to take too much advantage of this hospitality

Peasants that is. You can go away, don't cause too much commotion as you go.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFI-hhndCek

 

 

 

Larry is sick of me playing Randy Newman, but I cannot help it

 

What has happened down here is the winds have changed

Right wing came from the south and they started to reign

Truth was discarded by the right for a real long time

Eight years of lies and they want to come back again

 

Repubs reigned real hard

And they reigned for a real long time

Some people got lost in their lies

Some people got away all right

 

The righters have busted through clear down to Baton Rouge

Twenty per cent unemployment in the streets of all of you.

 

CHORUS

AMERICANA, AMERICANA
They're tryin' to sell us away
They're tryin' to sell us away
Americana, Americana
They're tryin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away

Barack Obama came down to warn our citizens
And he carried a message of hope with a note-pad in his hand
The President say, "This is a big fat shame

What the Repubs have done
To this great noble land."

 

OH AMERICANA, AMERICANA
They're tryin' to sell us away
They're tryin' to sell us away
OH Americana, Americana
They're tryin' to sell us away
O Lord they're tryin' to sell us away
They're tryin' to wash us away

They're tryin to wash us away.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkZYbQbdPyE&feature=fvw

 

the end

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                    GEORGE W. BUSH AT HIS HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt.  (M. Twain)

Vanity Fair provides more than just a good read at times. Its recent eight page examination of Sarah Palin is extremely informative.

 Michael Gross delves into the inner workings of government in Wasilla, Alaska:

 

I end up in the living room of Colleen Cottle, who is the matriarch of one of Wasilla's oldest families, and who served on the city council when Palin was mayor. She says she and her husband, Rodney, will pay a price for speaking candidly about Palin. Their son is one of Todd Palin's best friends. "But it is time for people to start telling the truth," Colleen says. She describes the frustrations of trying to do city business with a mayor who "had no attention span--with Sarah it was always 'What's the flavor of the day?' "; who was unable to take part meaningfully in conversations about budgets because she "does not understand math or accounting--she only knows buzzwords, like 'balanced budget' "; and who clocked out after four hours on most days, delegating her duties to an aide--"but he'll never talk to you, because he has a state job and doesn't want to lose it." This type of conversation is repeated so often that Wasilla starts to feel like something from The Twilight Zone or a Shirley Jackson short story--a place populated entirely by abuse survivors.   http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2010/10/sarah-palin-201010?currentPage=6

 

When you really think about it, who does this remind you of?

Even with a Yale/Harvard education; this description of the daily life of the chief executive of Wasilla is exactly how I envisioned George W. Bush in the Oval Office.

Buzzwords; working half days when he was not on vacation; flavor of the day; unable to engage in meaningful conversations...and all the time  George W. Bush was surrounded either by sycophants or extremely powerful people who knew how to steer the bastard in the 'proper' directions for the good of the powerful.

There are differences between George and Sarah; to be sure.

At least w was forced to listen to some lectures and cram for tests at prestigious schools. He also had to shape up for a least a couple of his six year stint with the Guard and he had some grasp of how our military worked.

Palin never was forced into any kind of intellectual or military discipline.

If Sarah actually reaches that Oval Office--and do not discount this possibility--the commercial interests behind the power and the representatives of our military industrial complex will prevail in a manner never really witnessed before in this country.

Hopefully, like beck and rush and the rest of the feces slingers, Palin will just stick to her current plan of filling her bank accounts and stock portfolios.

I wrote this for TPMAHOLICS  where I will be during our hiatus; but Amike, the author of the site had an interesting take on this thread of mine.

It's funny how people always talk up local government. The more local the better. So counties are less virtuous than states, but states are more virtuous than the federal government is. Wasilla proves that goofballs exist at all governmental levels, and goofballs elect goofballs at all levels. Plenty of Uncle Louies at the local level, too...just the rewards of having a nephew on the town council (or vice versa) are a little less rewarding.

So while I was attempting to find the real Sarah, his take brought me back to local government.  There have been plenty of wonderful stories at the local level of government published at Cafe. Some of our Café participants have actually become deeply involved in their city and county governments.

And these participants in the electoral process must fight against incompetence as well as evil. hahaha

Oh and happy Labor Day!!!

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                                  APPELLATE JUDGES RUN AMOK

David Luban writes:

Today the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the conviction of Daniel Millis, convicted of littering because he left sealed bottles of drinking water in a desert wildlife refuge. He explained that he left them "along frequently traveled routes for unlawful entrants to the United States." He belongs to a group called "No More Deaths," and the opinion quotes his testimony: "humanitarian aide [sic] is never a crime."

The majority overturned his conviction because a reasonable person might not understand that leaving drinking water for people dying of thirst is littering. The United States countered that the water bottles constitute "garbage" in the sense of the statute. After foraging through some dictionary definitions of "garbage" and "discarded," the majority concludes that the regulation is too ambiguous to enforce in this case.

Judge Jay Bybee - he of the torture memo - dissents. Littering is littering, and Bybee finds that the regulation is as clear as a sunny day in the desert. This is the same Jay Bybee who thinks that terms like "torture" and "severe suffering" are so vague that it would be unfair to apply statutes prohibiting them to interrogators who waterboard people and keep them awake for a week at a time, naked and hanging in chains.

http://balkin.blogspot.com/2010/09/torture-and-littering.html

 

I found this link fascinating.

The writer has real insight into hypocrisy and at the same time he has a grasp upon how our legal system works.

The first thing that came to mind is that littering should be de minimis in most people's minds.

When someone was arrested on a de minimis charge, criminal attorneys would lump the charge into the category of: Lurking with intent to loiter.

In the old westerns, you might hear the phrase: Spitting on the sidewalk.

Don't get me wrong. I do not appreciate it when people spit on the sidewalk. I do not appreciate it when people discard garbage on the sidewalk or the street for that matter.

And I would be the first to applaud the work of a district attorney--state or federal--charging a large manufacturing firm for violating ERA regs on the state or federal level.

What this case means to me is that the forces of evil and good are always at work in our courts; every hour of every day.

I wish I had the entire opinion but the reader has to understand that some DA decided to charge a person with fine and civilized intent with a crime; a felony. The defendant was facing fines and jail time along with a record that could remove certain rights of citizenship.

Some Federal Judge went along with all this. The judge allowed the charge to stand.

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                                   THE B & E SPECIALIST

Education is really not a be-all end-all solution for every problem.

It doesn't get much stranger than this: A California doctor trying to break into her "on again, off again" boyfriend's home snuck down the chimney and got stuck there, where she died. Dr. Jacquelyn Kotarac, 49, wasn't found for three days. Kotarac had tried to get into the home of her boyfriend, William Moodie, 58, with a shovel, and then climbed a ladder to the roof, where she slid feet first into the chimney. Meanwhile, Moodie slipped away unnoticed from another door, because he was hoping "to avoid confrontation." Moodie's housekeeper noticed a strange smell and fluids leaking from the chimney; she and her son looked in and found Kotarac's body trapped about 2 feet above the opening to the fireplace. Kotarac's cause of death hasn't been determined, and though police don't suspect foul play, they are looking into the event as suspicious.

Read it at Associated Press

http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/09/02/lovesick-doctor-suffocates-in-lovers-chimney/

From time to time, people get strange ideas in their heads. I have noticed this fact over the years.

Their ultimate purpose may be readily discernible following some seeming serendipitous event; following a proper investigation, of course.

But how some people wish to effect their ultimate purposes may, at first look, seem absurd.

Now there are things that we must assume here even after we have read the AP wire as well as the squib at Yahoo.

First of all we must assume that Dr. Kotarac, our victim here, had a high school degree.

I mean doctors need preparation and study before going about their appointed rounds.

And in order to get to college one must attain either a high school diploma or a GED.

At any rate, you can bet some testing was involved.

Second, we must assume that Jacquelyn went to college. One needs a four year degree in order to be accepted by even the most moderate medical school.

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                                        THE TAXES ARE REVOLTING

Alan 'Million Teet' Simpson, patriotic veteran, Republican, member of George W. Bush's triumphant Iraq Study Group,  and lately the vice chair of the Obama administration's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform clarified the GOP position by stating;

"The irony (is) that the veterans who saved this country are now, in a way, not helping us to save the country in this fiscal mess,"

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/k/i/kingdzbws/2010/09/taking-a-stand-against-self-se-1.php?ref=reccafe

MSNY wrote this yesterday afternoon; and it got me to thinking.

This Commission is going to be viewed as a closed door conspiracy consisting of elite capitalists no matter what it reports; for the progressives in this country anyway.  Cuts will be made to the budget. Cuts will be made to SS, Medicare, Medicaid.....you name it.

But revenues must be raised in any event. And spending must be curbed.

At least that will be the conclusion of THE COMMISSION!!!

The right wing in this country will do anything to tie tax policy to morality:

The Tea Party is being misunderstood. TEA stands for 'taxed enough already.' There's nothing cynical about it, there's nothing ethnically charged about it," said Frank from South Carolina. "As for where Martin Luther King would stand today, I think he would stand along besides Glenn Beck and his beliefs. He was a minister, and Glenn Beck is very religious, and I really think they would be standing side by side in their beliefs.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/08/beck-rally-attendees-say-tea-party-misunderstood.php#more

I wish to discuss this revenue issue, but I make no pretense of understanding much of anything with regard to the national budget. Of course, lack of knowledge never stopped me from pontificating before.

The TPer's hate taxes; they pay withholding taxes, Federal Income Taxes, State Income Taxes (in most places), State Consumption Taxes, liquor taxes, tobacco taxes...I really do not blame people for despising taxes.

So the repubs stand on soap boxes and promise DELIVERANCE.

Give us this day our daily income and deliver us from taxes, AMEN, Sir Boner will say.

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       1837 DEPICTION OF UNEMPLOYMENT AND ITS EFFECTS

Swift wrote Alexander Pope that although he loved animals he hated mankind in general.

Swift argued that he did not see humanity as animal rationale.

Rather he felt that man was merely animal rationis capax (an animal capable of acting rationally)

 

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EP2lmG5E-Vc&feature=fvst

 

Trkymomoe asked me to work with her on a post concerning the 99ers. This may end up as one of a series of posts concerning the single biggest issue facing this country; unemployment.

Who qualifies for unemployment insurance?

Well first you must be employed.

I bring this up here because employers attempt to save money by hiring 'independent contractors'.  A business does not have to pay withholding taxes when it hires an independent contractor and a business does not have to pay unemployment insurance.

So there are thousands of frauds being perpetrated in this area of the law and therefore thousands of legal cases that have been handed down defining what an employee is as opposed to what an independent contractor is.

If you run your own little business, you are not entitled to unemployment benefits unless you have made certain arrangements. For instance you can incorporate and then have the corporation hire you.  Most people do not do this because they wish to save money in the short term.

Basically all individuals who have held the same job for over six months qualify for unemployment insurance; with exceptions.  

 

Generally, the worker must be unemployed through no fault of his/her own (generally through lay-offs). Unemployment benefits are based on reported covered quarterly earnings. The amount of earnings and the number of quarters worked are used to determine the length and value of the unemployment benefit. The average weekly payment is 36 percent of the individual's average weekly wage.

No fault, huh?

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                                           THE PHILOSOPHERS       

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FD8ljNobUys

I was attempting to escape my life by practicing the art of a hermit.

I had shut off almost all communication with the 'outside' world for close to a decade.

I found out that I could use 25% of my disposable income to get 'on line'. I had an old computer given to me by my son; low number of gigs and slow on the up take.

But, what would be slow now, was faster than a speeding bullet to me during the remaining months of 2008. ha

I was attempting to comment at about 20 sites. There were limits to the number of 'characters' one could use which I did not understand. I would type something and press some 'submit' button and....the screen was blank or sent me to a warning facility.

I found this place by accident; the site with the picture of the 17th century guy with a pipe in his mouth. I played around and hit some buttons by accident and some sign came up:

You want your own blog?

Wow.

Okay, so I was in. Of course I would write some nonsense and submit and vwella!!! My own post went up!!! It was like being published.

Of course nobody commented. Hahahahaahah

Then, in late November I wrote something in the middle of the night and when I awoke I was embarrassed to see what I had written. It mattered not that I had not had a drink in weeks. I thought: maybe it would be better if no one saw this. But I took a peek anyway.

And there were like ten comments; some long and involved.

I connected with somebody; with several somebodies. Ha

Well, I started reading other posts and commenting and recommending.

I would write other posts, some would attract a few comments; some would attract a more comments.

It was the connection with other folks.

I did not know anything about these 'sites' when I started. But I had learned how to log onto all these newspapers and important sites like Salon and Huffpo and Beast and Mediamatters and regular TPM....

And I learned how to keep notes during the day on Word.

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                   WITNESS TO TODAY'S FESTIVITIES IN DC

"For too long, this country has wandered in darkness," said Beck, a Fox News host. He said it was now time to "concentrate on the good things in America, the things we have accomplished and the things we can do tomorrow."

Palin, greeted by chants of "USA, USA, USA" from many in the crowd, told the gathering, "It is so humbling to get to be here with you today, patriots. You who are motivated and engaged ... and knowing never to retreat."

"We must restore America and restore her honor," said the former Alaska governor, echoing the name of the rally, "Restoring Honor."

"Look around you. You're not alone," Palin told participants.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_dc_rally

 

At this point, Glenn The Beckerhead stood and made the grand address of the day:

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

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                     LATEST ENHANCED INTERROGATION TECHNIQUES

A flying saucer orbits the 1950s Earth. It lands in Washington, DC, on the Mall. The lone occupant steps out and is shot by a jumpy soldier. Gort, a large and very powerful robot appears to save him and is able to melt tanks with the slightest bit of his power arising from his laser eye... When they begin to suspect Klaatu, he reveals himself, along with the news that Gort is a member of a race of super-robot enforcers invented to keep the peace of the galaxy that will destroy the Earth if provoked. http://www.ruinedendings.com/film331plot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0se1QBBOso&feature=related

The greatest sci-fi film of all time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJIH1IKLJS0&feature=related

And the idiots remade it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_the_Earth_Stood_Still_%282008_film%29

Jesus H. Christ, next thing you know, they are going to rewrite the Bible:

http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/

As if Constantine did not put together the perfect panel.

http://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/nicaea.html

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                                 BECKERHEAD, RUSH AND BILLO

Here I am, minding my own business, attempting to look for a nonpolitical slant on things for a change and I find this gem at Mediamatters:

 

Beck praised constitutional provision protecting slave trade. In his 2009 book Arguing With Idiots, Beck reprinted and praised the now-obsolete Article I, Section 9, Clause 1 of the Constitution, which prohibited Congress from ending the slave trade before 1808 and capped taxes on the slave trade at $10 per slave. Beck, without mentioning slavery, interpreted the provision to mean that "the Founders actually put a price tag on coming to this country: $10 per person. Apparently they felt like there was a value to being able to live here."   http://mediamatters.org/research/201008260006

 

The idiot wrote this over a year ago but when the hell would I find the time or procure enough antacids to read beckerhead's book?  And the title is wonderful, is it not? ARGUING WITH IDIOTS.

Okay, so here is Article I, Section 9, Clause 1 of the United States Constitution:

The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person

Now any idiot can see that there can be a prohibition on the 'migration or importation of such persons' after the Year of Our Lord 1808.  And any idiot who graduated from high school should have read SOMEWHERE that 'such Persons' refers to slaves.

Tenth grade history texts used to discuss this passage at length--I have no idea how the Texas Textbook publishers treat the issue now-a-days.

Does not Beckerhead have a staff; and what about the publisher of this pile of manure it advertises as a book?

Are there NO standards in the publishing business any longer?

I can only posit a scenario where beckerhead or the guy who probably wrote this book in fact, sitting in an easy chair with a glass of brandy and a line of coke pulling out the Sacred Document and thinking: Hell, anybody can read and understand the document upon which our government is based. After all, we live in a democracy and my opinion is just as good as anyone else's.

So the idiot serendipitously comes upon Article I, Section 9 and thinks to himself:

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    THE 2010 GRAND MASTER OF THE NEW ORLEANS GAY PRIDE PARADE

Ken Mehlman, who headed the Republican National Committee between 2005 and 2007, has come out in an interview with the Atlantic's Marc Ambinder:

Mehlman arrived at this conclusion about his identity fairly recently, he said in an interview. He agreed to answer a reporter's questions, he said, because, now in private life, he wants to become an advocate for gay marriage and anticipated that questions would be asked about his participation in a late-September fundraiser for the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER), the group that supported the legal challenge to California's ballot initiative against gay marriage, Proposition 8.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/25/ken-mehlman-gay_n_694843.html

 

IN THE NEWS

Ken Mehlman headed the RNC during the height of GOP power and watched that power ebb through the 2006 elections.

And now we are to believe that this entire time, Ken Mehlman is gay.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/25/ken-mehlman-gay_n_694843.html

 

Mehlman arrived at this conclusion about his identity fairly recently, he said in an interview.

Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit. I arrived at that conclusion five years ago. I mean this is news.

And I would watch him on MSNBC justify the GOP positions including the repub belief that all Homosexual activity is sodomy, homosexuals should not be married, family values exclude any rights for gays.....blah blah blah.

But I would watch this guy and know damn well he was gayer than Liberace and Clifton Webb combined.

In related news Anthony Richard (Tony) Perkins of the Family Research Council acknowledged his affection for young boys but confirmed his belief in 'Platonic Relationships'. His housemate, Tom Platonic was not available for comment.

IN OTHER NEWS

Clarence Thomas acknowledged that he was African-American and that both his parents were African-American.

Clarence Thomas also rendered a Majority Opinion in the Supreme Court today finding that an Arkansas Law making Miscegenation a felony is constitutional on its face.

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                       LEFT HAND TURN ISSUES IN MOSCOW

Virginia, Minnesota claims 22,000 residents.  It is partially enclosed by a deep, deep pit on the west and north sides.

On the south side it runs into a freeway that brings 80% of all business to the south side of the city where there is a Target Store, a Grandma's Restaurant, a K-Mart and THE MALL. THE MALL is majestic.  (I mean everything is relative)

I grew up in Richfield, Minnesota. This was one of those all white-white suburbs with restrictive covenants and such...one of those precursors to the gated community; a symbol of 'making it' in America. Except the homes were mostly modest costing around ten grand in the old days and selling between $90 and $130 g's nowadays.

I bring this up because Richfield was artificially designed and square in layout besides being square in its ethos.

Virginia just 'happened' because of the mining of iron ore that helped win WWII and dragged us into the era of steel.

Therefore, on the east side we are bounded by railroads that carried that ore throughout the nation to the steel manufacturing centers; although sometimes that ore would simply be carried 60 miles to Lake Superior where the great ships would finish the transportation end of things.

Anyway, I bring this all up because a couple months ago I was making my periodic trek to the insane asylum which is located by our Target store. It is about 22 blocks from my residence and so now-a-days I must carry a bus pass in case my leg gives out on the way home.

We had a lovely spring. Whenever the high is 68 and the low is 52, that is heaven.

The road construction work began early this spring.

As I reached 8th street south I saw an extraordinary event for these parts.

I witnessed a traffic jam for vehicles heading east. I swear, I saw FIVE BLOCKS OF CARS STOPPED in a traffic jam.

I mean it was taking automobiles 15 minutes or more to transverse the width of this town due to road work.

It was awesome.

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                 Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqowmHgxVJQ

Well now, that wascal Brer Fox hated Brer Rabbit on account of the fact that Brer Rabbit always seemed to win.

Meanwhile Brer Rabbit was receiving accolades and victorious medals and other sorts of good things from the Far East to the Far West. He was renowned across the globe, not just in his little briar patch and tens of thousands of mammals of every mix and religious affiliation would come to listen to what the Great Hare might have to say.

Oh the Great Hare could use the podium with his great linguistic talents and the audience would be transfixed by his eloquence. And so Brer Rabbit would receive even more accolades and victorious medals and other wonderful sorts of things. And even though there were many colored rabbits and possums and wart hogs, they all put away their suspicions and loved Brer Rabbit even more.

Now Brer Fox was exceedingly ired over the victories of the Great Hare from the start for he had thought, this strangely colored rabbit would never reach any real level of power. And yet, there was Brer Rabbit looking down at the Brer Fox from levels on high.  Well Brer Fox became much aggrieved.

So Brer Fox decided to capture and kill Brer Rabbit if it was the last thing he ever did! He thought and he thought until he came up with a plan.

And in furtherance of this plan, Brer Fox decided to start a campaign against Brer Rabbit and began organizing all of the possums and all of the rabbits and all of the wart hogs and all of the bush rats he could find.

Now normally the possums and the wart hogs and the rabbits had no problem with Brer Rabbit. The foxes and the bush rats would always hate Brer Rabbit for a number of reasons.  For one thing, Brer Rabbit was better read and better speechified.

The fact was that all these other fine animals had one big fear and that was of foxes and rats. But I digress.

Anyhow, Brer Fox began his campaign after he had come up with a plan. He would plan and execute a great gathering.

And prior to this great gathering, he would make a tar baby! Brer Fox went and got some tar and he mixed it with some turpentine and he sculpted it into the figure of a cute little Tasmanian Devil Possum. Then he stuck a hat on the Tar Baby and sat him in the middle of the great arena, just before the great gathering he had advertised on his own network.

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                                                      THE HOSTEL

Under the Poor Law systems of England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland, a workhouse was a place where people who were unable to support themselves could go to live and work. The Oxford English Dictionary's earliest reference to a workhouse dates to 1652 in Exeter. There is, however, some written evidence that workhouses existed before this date. Records mention a workhouse in 1631 in Abingdon.[1] The vagrants' and casual workers' ward of a workhouse was colloquially known as a spike, from the tool used to unpick oakum.

Workhouse conditions were deliberately harsh to deter the able-bodied idle poor from relying on them. Men and women were segregated and children were separated from their parents. Aged pauper couples, who by definition were neither idle nor criminal, were not allowed to share a bedroom. By entering a workhouse, paupers were held to have forfeited responsibility for their children. Education was provided, but pauper children were often forcibly apprenticed without the permission or knowledge of their parents. Inmates surrendered their own clothes and wore a distinctive uniform.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workhouse

 

What a history!!!

And what a model for the future!!!

Republican candidate for governor Carl Paladino said he would transform some New York prisons into dormitories for welfare recipients, where they could work in state-sponsored jobs, get employment training and take lessons in "personal hygiene."

Paladino, a wealthy Buffalo real estate developer popular with many tea party activists, isn't saying the state should jail poor people: The program would be voluntary.

But the suggestion that poor families would be better off in remote institutions, rather than among friends and family in their own neighborhoods, struck some anti-poverty activists as insulting.

Paladino is competing for the Republican nomination with former U.S. Rep. Rick Lazio. The primary is Sept. 14.

Paladino first described the idea in June at a meeting of The Journal News of White Plains and spoke about it again this week with The Associated Press.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/22/carl-paladino-backs-welfa_n_690284.html

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                   GREAT THEOLOGIANS AT WORK

Curiouser and curiouser!

I wonder if I've been changed in the night? Let me think. Was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is 'Who in the world am I?' Ah, that's the great puzzle!

                                                                                              alice

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WANNqr-vcx0

 

Philosophy takes my mind off of things.

Today's subject involves the speed of light.

I have read tales that inform us that one flood destroyed all life on this planet.

I have read tales that describe King Arthur personally challenging and ultimately slaying hundreds of enemy soldiers in a single battle.

More recently I have read tales that inform us of the wonders performed under the George W. Bush Administration.

And yet, here is Conservapedia. What is a mother to do? http://www.conservapedia.com/Main_Page

Let us examine, once again, the issues surrounding the speed of light.

Light travels at 186,000 miles per second through a vacuum. There is no such thing of course. I mean there is no such thing as a perfect vacuum. Scientists and engineers have perfected mechanisms that can come close to that ideal of course.

You could never really ever see a perfect vacuum anyway since you need light to see anything. Once light is introduced into a vacuum, it ceases to be a perfect vacuum anyway.

We see planets that have to be sending us their light or we would not see them.

We see suns that have to be sending us their light or we would not see those suns.

We see galaxies that have to be sending us their light or we would not see them.

And light seems to travel through space at a certain speed;  around 186,000 miles per second--since space has an assumed temperature of 3 degrees ABOVE ABSOLUTE ZERO; space turns out to be pretty close to a vacuum depending on the space you find yourself in, in space that is.

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