This thing has been on my mind for a while so I hope I get this off clearly in a way that makes sense.
Lets all party. Everything would be so much better if we were having a massive global festival on par with Carnival or Mardi Gras but on a global or at least national scale. It is amazing how we never manage to celebrate ourselves, although I thought was the original purpose of Labor Day and in a way Independence Day.
Lets face it though, this is an economic depression, many people are dealing with depression, and there is a great level of despair out there. A massive festival would be a great way to lift people up. Just think about all that Mardi Gras does for the economy and for the spirt of the people. Think about what it means to the people of New Orleans to still keep going even after the devastation that town has felt.
In the March 1st issue of The Nation there is an article that says as much. The article makes the argument that festivals such as Mardi Gras and Carnival do more to strengthen a community, create joy and hope, and even help each other and solve problems in a community. The article was called We Won't Bow Down.
I think I got what the take away message was from that article. If we are ever going to make anything of ourselves we have got to come together and festival is the best way to do that.
"I went to look at the worst things that happen to people and found some more hope in the resilience, the inventiveness, the bravery and occasionally the long-term subversion with which people respond."
As the article mentions there are many groups that represent nearly every aspect of our culture that participate in Mardi Gras, but I think the most interesting idea was that idea of subversion. This idea that a community can come together and skip over buisness as usual to help each other. The article specifically mentions subverting capitalism for the sake of what is right in the eyes of humanity.
This is why I say lets party. Let us all come together to celebrate with each other something that we all share. Maybe just maybe we would all learn to respect each other along the way and learn the importance of thinking of more then just ourselves.
Lets Party
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Friday, March 5, 2010
Pay as you Go, Don't make me laugh
How does "Pay as you go" legislation work when you have no money. Seriously!
More importantly, we can look back in history and know that one of the worst things are government can do right now is suddenly decided that a massive recession, even though most people would call it a depression, is the best time to balance the budget. Apparently the FISCAL CONSERVATIVES that were running things during the Bush years ran deficits to the point that the national debt is so large there are real concerns as to how we will ever be able to make payments.
Soooooo.. the one hundred billion a year we need to pay for healthcare reform , never mind that the funds are already there, is too much spending and going to add to the deficit at a time when the national balance sheets are still reeling from the couple trillion a year the Bush administration was spending on a war of aggression in Iraq. (Have you heard that Carl Rove states in his book that that he knew it was unlikely we would go to war with Iraq without the weapons of mass destruction threat, did he not in the past admit they knew the intelligence on Iraq's WMD's was out of date. So in a way isn't he admitting that they used any intelligence they could find to make their case for war, validity be damned. And isn't there a little thing called the Downing Street Memo that also supports that idea. If memory serves me correctly that memo said something about fixing the facts around a policy objective of going to war. Hmmmm)
Anyway..... It is okay for a Republican to spend trillions, each year, on a war of aggression but a Democrat can't spend one trillion over a ten year period to make sure 31 million more people have access to health care. Maybe if Obama called it "The War on Health Care" he would get the green light. Gotta fully fund the war effort you know.
This pay as you go shit is being pushed on the jobs issue too. Some souther hick that used to play baseball and then managed to dupe a bunch of other southern hicks to voting him in to the Senate, I know there is a joke about throwing his constituents a curve ball in there somewhere, actually used Pay Go, which he did not support, as his reason why they should not extend unemployment benefits one more day, "Cause they are not paid for."
For a minute just think about that, cause for one day this situation existed. Current unemployment is just below 10%. The "Real" unemployment number is more like 16% they estimate. So currently 6% of the country has no job and no income to speak of. For one day while this jack off from Tennessee was screwing things up the other 10% was losing their unemployment too. Can you imagine how bad it would get if 16% of the country had no income and no way to take care of them selves.
It is amazing to me how the Republicans are simply in the way and stopping everything at every opportunity. Pay Go was actually something they came up with. Obama tried to pander to them by adopting it and the minute he went for the Republicans wouldn't touch it with a fifty foot pole. The R's wanted a deficit commission, Obama took the fangs out of that proposal but still gave them the commission. The R's wanted that commission to be able to strip and gut the government at every turn to save more on the bottom line.
Wouldn't it be nice if the R's stopped shutting down government for everything and actually let something happen. I think they are too scared that Obama's plans might work and might make him look good, so the only sure way to make him look bad is to block everything.
Pay Go was never about paying for things as you go. There is no Go, and the R's are going to make damn sure there is no Paying either, at least not while they are not in power.
Pay and Go
Or
Sit and Sulk
More importantly, we can look back in history and know that one of the worst things are government can do right now is suddenly decided that a massive recession, even though most people would call it a depression, is the best time to balance the budget. Apparently the FISCAL CONSERVATIVES that were running things during the Bush years ran deficits to the point that the national debt is so large there are real concerns as to how we will ever be able to make payments.
Soooooo.. the one hundred billion a year we need to pay for healthcare reform , never mind that the funds are already there, is too much spending and going to add to the deficit at a time when the national balance sheets are still reeling from the couple trillion a year the Bush administration was spending on a war of aggression in Iraq. (Have you heard that Carl Rove states in his book that that he knew it was unlikely we would go to war with Iraq without the weapons of mass destruction threat, did he not in the past admit they knew the intelligence on Iraq's WMD's was out of date. So in a way isn't he admitting that they used any intelligence they could find to make their case for war, validity be damned. And isn't there a little thing called the Downing Street Memo that also supports that idea. If memory serves me correctly that memo said something about fixing the facts around a policy objective of going to war. Hmmmm)
Anyway..... It is okay for a Republican to spend trillions, each year, on a war of aggression but a Democrat can't spend one trillion over a ten year period to make sure 31 million more people have access to health care. Maybe if Obama called it "The War on Health Care" he would get the green light. Gotta fully fund the war effort you know.
This pay as you go shit is being pushed on the jobs issue too. Some souther hick that used to play baseball and then managed to dupe a bunch of other southern hicks to voting him in to the Senate, I know there is a joke about throwing his constituents a curve ball in there somewhere, actually used Pay Go, which he did not support, as his reason why they should not extend unemployment benefits one more day, "Cause they are not paid for."
For a minute just think about that, cause for one day this situation existed. Current unemployment is just below 10%. The "Real" unemployment number is more like 16% they estimate. So currently 6% of the country has no job and no income to speak of. For one day while this jack off from Tennessee was screwing things up the other 10% was losing their unemployment too. Can you imagine how bad it would get if 16% of the country had no income and no way to take care of them selves.
It is amazing to me how the Republicans are simply in the way and stopping everything at every opportunity. Pay Go was actually something they came up with. Obama tried to pander to them by adopting it and the minute he went for the Republicans wouldn't touch it with a fifty foot pole. The R's wanted a deficit commission, Obama took the fangs out of that proposal but still gave them the commission. The R's wanted that commission to be able to strip and gut the government at every turn to save more on the bottom line.
Wouldn't it be nice if the R's stopped shutting down government for everything and actually let something happen. I think they are too scared that Obama's plans might work and might make him look good, so the only sure way to make him look bad is to block everything.
Pay Go was never about paying for things as you go. There is no Go, and the R's are going to make damn sure there is no Paying either, at least not while they are not in power.
Pay and Go
Or
Sit and Sulk
Monday, March 1, 2010
For George Carlin, I hope I did his style some kind of justice
Dear Planters
I just purchased one of your snack sized nut sacks from a local gas station today and I have some questions and concerns about it.
First of all how is it that 6 ounces comes to 5 servings, according to the nutritional information on the back? If this is being marketed as a snack size why is each serving size calculated as two tablespoons. How many people really carry measuring spoons around with them to ensure proper portion control while driving? Further more if you have to cut 6 ounces down to 5 1.2 ounce servings to keep the fat and cholesterol numbers low maybe you shouldn’t even be marketing it as a healthy snack food in the first place.
On the back of the package I noticed where it said, “Manufactured on equipment that processes nuts.” Manufactured? Maybe it is just because I work at a factory that manufactures auto parts, but saying my little bag of trail mix was manufactured somehow makes it less appetizing to me. What about it was manufactured in the first place? Do you have a bunch of people with tubs of nuts and raisins doing piecework assembling each, visually appealing, mix in to the bag? Most likely you have giant vats of nuts seeds and raisins that feed into a tumble mixer that then feeds down to a pipe and gate valve to dispense the mix. Maybe you should think about calling it “Packaged” instead. Mc Donalds doesn’t call their food preparation techniques manufacturing, although that is probably a better description of their process then cooking, so you shouldn’t call it manufacturing either.
Lastly, why is it even necessary to put that phrase on the package? If you didn’t process nuts on the equipment I would start to have serious concerns about what I was eating. Don’t tell me you have to in case someone with a nut allergy accidentally went to eat them. Let me tell you if they didn’t see the big lettering on the front that said, “Nuts, Seeds, and Raisin.” Or the smaller lettering immediately under that which listed all the different nuts and seeds you used, or the clear cellophane that allows you to see the vary nuts that are in the package, or the picture of the Planter’s Peanut logo, or the ingredient list on the back which is in the same size text as the manufacturing warning, then they are not going to see or read the manufacturing warning either.
I hope you take my concerns seriously and use them to better package and market your nut sacks.
Thank You
I just purchased one of your snack sized nut sacks from a local gas station today and I have some questions and concerns about it.
First of all how is it that 6 ounces comes to 5 servings, according to the nutritional information on the back? If this is being marketed as a snack size why is each serving size calculated as two tablespoons. How many people really carry measuring spoons around with them to ensure proper portion control while driving? Further more if you have to cut 6 ounces down to 5 1.2 ounce servings to keep the fat and cholesterol numbers low maybe you shouldn’t even be marketing it as a healthy snack food in the first place.
On the back of the package I noticed where it said, “Manufactured on equipment that processes nuts.” Manufactured? Maybe it is just because I work at a factory that manufactures auto parts, but saying my little bag of trail mix was manufactured somehow makes it less appetizing to me. What about it was manufactured in the first place? Do you have a bunch of people with tubs of nuts and raisins doing piecework assembling each, visually appealing, mix in to the bag? Most likely you have giant vats of nuts seeds and raisins that feed into a tumble mixer that then feeds down to a pipe and gate valve to dispense the mix. Maybe you should think about calling it “Packaged” instead. Mc Donalds doesn’t call their food preparation techniques manufacturing, although that is probably a better description of their process then cooking, so you shouldn’t call it manufacturing either.
Lastly, why is it even necessary to put that phrase on the package? If you didn’t process nuts on the equipment I would start to have serious concerns about what I was eating. Don’t tell me you have to in case someone with a nut allergy accidentally went to eat them. Let me tell you if they didn’t see the big lettering on the front that said, “Nuts, Seeds, and Raisin.” Or the smaller lettering immediately under that which listed all the different nuts and seeds you used, or the clear cellophane that allows you to see the vary nuts that are in the package, or the picture of the Planter’s Peanut logo, or the ingredient list on the back which is in the same size text as the manufacturing warning, then they are not going to see or read the manufacturing warning either.
I hope you take my concerns seriously and use them to better package and market your nut sacks.
Thank You
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