Where are we now?

It appears that I'm at my last extention for the unemployment and now the state agency that doles out the checks would like me to "try harder". Strange what a few years make. Prior to the Bush debockle I never had to worry about being on the out of work list. In fact I think I was only on it one other time prior to the end of 07. If I needed work I could just make a call to a former coworker or supervisor and they would steer me where the work was. In fact most of the time I'd be up to my eyeballs in some job and others would call wanting to know if I could work for them. Not so any more. I was working at the airport in 07 when I got this epiphany. Like a punch to the stomach and the sudden realization that dark days were ahead. As if you were watching a favorite movie when all of a sudden the screen goes black and no sound. You wait for the projectionist to fix the problem but nothing. So here we sit in the dark in our seats and try to amuse ourselves until the popcorn and one litre pop runs out.
I made some calls to a couple of companies yesterday as required by the unemployment agency. There's another story in itself. They've become a prime example of what Kafka was talking about in his novel "The Castle". Maybe they used the book to restructure their agency some years back. But anyway all the companies called were having a hard time keeping their regular people working. It almost sounded as if those on the other end of the line were sitting there doing nothing but try to justify their own existance. I think one of them I talked to was the actual owner.

A relative called amongst my being busy to inform me that her husband's company was being shut in a few weeks. She also informed me that another relative who had just bought into a retirement community one of those areas with dues and rules just discovered that the developer went bankrupt and with several foreclosures they'll have their dues raised. All is not good. There seems to be only two members of the family left working and even their positions are shakey. But again I digress. The real reason for the post was to give an indication of what's going on in the rest of the country from comments I found on one survival site. Now I'm not one to go to a survivalist site. They've been around as long as I can remember and to date I've never seen an armed uprising of the masses in this country ever. I don't expect one this time round either. But on this web site the author asks a simple question about how things are going around the country. You may reply in the comments was the request. So here it is:

A general report on the state of the nation

I realize that this is but anecdotal but I think you get the point. Rather than some talking head tell you how rosey things are it's nice to get it first hand from those who are going through it. Notice how we aren't seeing tent cities on the 6pm news anymore, but I'm sure we'll be seeing more of them in the next few months. Let's call them Bushvilles if you will because I'd like to leave a true historic legacy to George W.

Beaver of the week

This almost violates one of my unwritten rules on posting friday beavers. That'd be posting two in a row but as things are slow I'll make an exception in this case. Been busy looking for jobs that aren't there.

Pulling a Palin

Sarah Palin the political humorus gift that keeps on giving. She has now made the Urban dictionary. Pop over there because this is only one part of the definition.

Pulling a Palin

The Republican art of disguising your inept knowledge by answering a question with another question as in "with what respect Charlie?"

See also Pulling a Charlie
Charlie asks "do you agree with the Bush Doctrine?"

Sarah responds "in what respect Charlie?" "do you mean his world view" starring with blank ignorance at Charlie

Sarah was just caught Pulling a Palin!

Bits and pieces

Looks like Rupert Murdock is in a bit of hot water. One of his "news" guys was caught tapping cell phones of politicans and celebs. The Brits unlike the U.S. seem to take their privacy a bit more serious and don't put up with this nonsense.
Snoopers

CIA gets caught lying. Can't say exactly what this is all about but I can make a pretty good guess. This came out suposedly in May of 2001 even before 911. My guess is that the Shrub in chief or his minions gave them the power to spy on U.S. citizens with no oversight. This is only a guess but it would make sense as it wasn't about torture or renderings as 911 happened in Sept and the Unpatriot Act wasn't even a thought at that time.

Climate change - If the republicans had their way we'd be riding around in horse drawn carriages and they'd be selling buggy whips and hay. Their money comes from coal gas and oil as we all know.

S.A.L.T. talks - Seems the initial target for limiting nukes to 1500 is a good start except that's enough to blow the earth up nine times over. The detonation of just 24 of today's weapons would eliminate life on earth as we know it.

Warren Buffet says we need a second stimilus bill. Well Duh! Considering our infractructure is falling apart, healthcare, auto cos., airline cos, and who knows what else. $787billion is a spit in the bucket.

300 remains found at cemetary in Ill. workers charged. Greed plain and simple. How they kept someone from visiting grandma and not having them notice that her headstone was moved is baffeling and beyond me.

Net problems

Don't know if the problems are fixed as of yet but the net has been acting very weird today. Most places I've gone wouldn't load indicating a denial of service attack. It's was reported that this came from North Korea. If this is true then I say we turn Kim Jong Ill into Kim Jong Dead. Wave your dongs and fire your missles all you want but when you mess with my internet access you've crossed the line. Remember you're part of the rest of the world and we could always cut you phone cables and jam you radio and TV and leave you isolated if we wanted to.

May post a photo here later when the coast is clear.

Healthcare a Seattle solution

Seattle Clinic
I came across this solution to our health care problem from a small Seattle clinic. At first glance it looked like a good idea until you read further and find out the actual costs. Maximum $119 per month for primary care sounded great but didn't cover catastrophic events. The patient would have to get outside coverage for that at a max cost of $400 per month with high deductables. Not really something everybody could afford and would be about the same cost as what the average per patient costs are right now.
Maybe the solution to this problem is to threaten all of congress with a national referendom to cut off their health care. Let them be one of the 50 million without insurance and see what kind of coverage they could get with their conditions. Remember a whole bunch of them are up there in years and I'm sure have pre existing conditions.
Then there was Sen. Grassly who at a town hall meeting basically told the audience I've got mine the hell with you. He instructed the questioner to either get a job with Caterpiller (which has been laying off people the last several months). Or he could get a job with the government. This from the party that wants to shrink the government small enough to drowned in a bath tub. In other words he's telling us to drop dead. Remember that the next time he comes up for reelection.

Sarah Palin - WTF?

All individuals in public office that I've seen resign their positions have given some definite reason for abdicating their position and duties. The primary reasons given in the past have been health or family emergency or worse some legal issue that would invalidate their oath of office. With Palin's speech on Friday viewers were left scratching their heads wondering. With enough confusing metaphors to make a high school lit. student blush she hit us with basketball, dead fish and quitters. I'm sorry Sarah but basketball players don't throw the ball then walk off the court and expect to win. The dead fish you speak of are those left in office to try and finish the business of the state. You chastize quitters as you announce that you're quitting. I can only say that George Orwell would be proud of your non speak. Even those of your own party are still trying to make sense of what you've said.

And now you threaten legal action against a blogger? One Shannyn Moore whose only crime was to write about what the rest of the nation was wondering...why? If you've forgotten this is a process of the human mind called logic. Logic says that there is a reason for every action. Logic gives us possibilities. An either or route to a logical end. This was no defamation but a report of wonderings. An opinion of what has happened. The left in this country has been far kinder than your own party. Will you be suing them as well? Do yourself a favor and drop it. There are far easier and cheaper ways to stay at the forefront of the news cycle.

To read more about Shannyn Moore from her blog Just a girl from Homer