Tuesday snickers
And I don't mean the candy bar: however, note that Snickers bars reportedly fry as well as Mars bars.
Gratitude, dude
I was in a new lawyer's office yesterday (nothing special, just old fart business). This one is a favourite already, because the waiting room had brand new magazines! When have you ever seen that in a physician's office?
It's the economy, stupid
In one of those magazines, I was reading a piece which quoted some small business type on what it would take to get him to hire more workers. He said, increased consumer demand. OK, let's think. One worker in five is unemployed or underemployed. Until Monday, I was getting along OK with unemployment benefits that are around half my salary this time last year. In a small way, I was able to contribute to this consumer-driven economy and (note to the uninformed) I paid taxes.
Thanks to the game-playing fools in Congress, today I get nothing. That means we live on one income, consume much less, and pay no taxes unless and until the public sector straightens this out or I actually get a job. I sent Easter greetings to Senators Kerry and Brown; with an edge, of course.
I'd also ask Mr. Small-business-type if he's one of those who would rather wreck the economy than hire a worker over 50 or under 25, then ask him where the hell he thinks the demand is going to come from? The only American business person who ever understood that his workers were also his customers was Henry Ford, and even he wasn't able to hang onto the idea for long.
A name game
One of my cheap hobbies is looking out for apposite names. (It's one thing that makes football especially hilarious to watch, but I digress.) In the South Coast area of Massachusetts there is a town called Lakeville, because the dry land is stuffed amongst two or three largish bodies of water. As we stare out our windows at the third major rainstorm in two weeks, it seems that Lakeville is becoming all lake. Another name to consider is "party," when applied to (allegedly) organised political bodies. Over the next fortnight, the members of both major parties evidently will devote their time to "party" in the other sense. I appreciate their sense of responsibility.
Couldn't happen to a nicer guy
It's unclear which is funnier: the calls for Benny the Rat (aka Pope Benedict XVI, aka I vas not a Nazi, I chust played vun on TV) to resign, or the inept media analysis of the topic. Yes, Virginia, popes have resigned: ten have, and whilst it hasn't happened in 593 years, it can. The analysts have skipped over the other things that have happened, since so much of the media has bought into the myth of the one holy head of the one holy church. Most often, they have had competition, so called antipopes. With the backing of one of more heads of state, antipopes set up shop elsewhere and try to rally the faithful to them instead of that other guy. Popes have been deposed, virtually or actually imprisoned, and they have been executed or murdered. The executions happened very frequently in Roman times, whilst the whackings happened now and again through the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Does anyone recall that Pope Benny was supposed to be the pillar of conservative Catholic rectitude who would provide a transition through trying times? Uh-huh, I didn't think so.
Gratitude, dude
I was in a new lawyer's office yesterday (nothing special, just old fart business). This one is a favourite already, because the waiting room had brand new magazines! When have you ever seen that in a physician's office?
It's the economy, stupid
In one of those magazines, I was reading a piece which quoted some small business type on what it would take to get him to hire more workers. He said, increased consumer demand. OK, let's think. One worker in five is unemployed or underemployed. Until Monday, I was getting along OK with unemployment benefits that are around half my salary this time last year. In a small way, I was able to contribute to this consumer-driven economy and (note to the uninformed) I paid taxes.
Thanks to the game-playing fools in Congress, today I get nothing. That means we live on one income, consume much less, and pay no taxes unless and until the public sector straightens this out or I actually get a job. I sent Easter greetings to Senators Kerry and Brown; with an edge, of course.
I'd also ask Mr. Small-business-type if he's one of those who would rather wreck the economy than hire a worker over 50 or under 25, then ask him where the hell he thinks the demand is going to come from? The only American business person who ever understood that his workers were also his customers was Henry Ford, and even he wasn't able to hang onto the idea for long.
A name game
One of my cheap hobbies is looking out for apposite names. (It's one thing that makes football especially hilarious to watch, but I digress.) In the South Coast area of Massachusetts there is a town called Lakeville, because the dry land is stuffed amongst two or three largish bodies of water. As we stare out our windows at the third major rainstorm in two weeks, it seems that Lakeville is becoming all lake. Another name to consider is "party," when applied to (allegedly) organised political bodies. Over the next fortnight, the members of both major parties evidently will devote their time to "party" in the other sense. I appreciate their sense of responsibility.
Couldn't happen to a nicer guy
It's unclear which is funnier: the calls for Benny the Rat (aka Pope Benedict XVI, aka I vas not a Nazi, I chust played vun on TV) to resign, or the inept media analysis of the topic. Yes, Virginia, popes have resigned: ten have, and whilst it hasn't happened in 593 years, it can. The analysts have skipped over the other things that have happened, since so much of the media has bought into the myth of the one holy head of the one holy church. Most often, they have had competition, so called antipopes. With the backing of one of more heads of state, antipopes set up shop elsewhere and try to rally the faithful to them instead of that other guy. Popes have been deposed, virtually or actually imprisoned, and they have been executed or murdered. The executions happened very frequently in Roman times, whilst the whackings happened now and again through the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Does anyone recall that Pope Benny was supposed to be the pillar of conservative Catholic rectitude who would provide a transition through trying times? Uh-huh, I didn't think so.
posted by Uncle | 16:32
1 Comments:
Excellent points...and I can't believe Barack and Deval talk up growing the economy nationally and locally without telling the businesses, big and small, to hire. Even those who moan they can't get enough bank credit for big expansions can hire a few and prime the economic pump.
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