It's kind of amazing when a country is desperate for good/happy news and will take anything to see it.
Trimmed the fewest jobs? Only lost 11 thousand jobs.
If I could drink I would be downing champagne right now.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The long-suffering U.S. jobs market improved significantly in November, as employers trimmed the fewest jobs of any month since the start of the recession, and the unemployment rate posted the biggest one-month decline in more than three years. U.S. payrolls slipped 11,000 jobs in the month, far below any of the job losses posted over the last 23 months. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast a loss of 125,000 jobs in November.
I am all for equal rights, heck I even think the gays should enjoy the thrill ride that is marriage. I also think that a flourishing society should correct it's historical checkered past, in part by helping people less fortunate find a career, a sense of self, and on and on.
What I don't always like is when some group wants to claim special status because of a self inflicted issue. Lets take fatties as an example. We live in the most obese country in this history of the world. Let that sink in. How does one become obese? Eat too much, or more calories than you burn, something like that.
You choose to eat too much. Or, if you are one of the very few with a glandular problem, you seek help once you understand that eating too much will fuck up your glands and help you to become a big giant balloon figure.
What happens when people decide, for whatever reason, to eat way too much and never exercise? They become a lobbying force. They want larger wheel chairs, and special access and then they want to pay as much for, say a seat on a plane, but take up more than the average person is taking up. Thus the picture.
I think freedom means people get to make all sorts of bad choices, gay marriage, drunk in public, having sex with Sarah Palin by accident (I swear). Taking advantage of freedom also has consequences. You want to dine at the fast food buffet and never walk, that's fine. But if you look like a Macy's parade figure, the least you can do is pay for an extra seat on a tiny plane.
Oh god, and I do not mean that god, I mean once again the shopping season and buying crap for people you may not really like very much, is being ruined by the religious nutjobs who want everyone to be like them, lemmings and hypocrites.
Yikes I say. They review stories for the Christmassy attitude? Their love of Jeeezuuus? Huh? Do these religious crazies really not know that everyone loves christmas because we get toys and other shit? I mean, really?
Look what they say about Borders. First, Borders is a terrible store for a variety of reasons, low pay for workers, boring choices and lack of originality and just the box support of bad architecture, but for not respecting the holiday? Anyway, here is what the sheep say about Borders:
I tried to find a children's book about the birth of Christ and could not find any. They had a Christmas display table but it was all about santa!
We had a group from our church who gathered to go Christmas caroling and were invited in to a Pittsburgh PA Borders. When we arived, they told us that they were pleased that we were there to entertain thier customers, but that we could not sing any religious songs. I no longer shop Borders. I also believe that our responsability goes beyond not shopping. We should be writing individual letters to the corporate management to state that until policies change, they have lost our business.
I am slightly offended by Border's lack of incorporation of Christmas in their ad's. I am a member of the Border's Rewards Club but will not be shopping at Borders this Christmas and upcoming year unless a public outreach and apology is issued to all Christians and believers of Christmas.
I find it offensive that this store is so eager to have our money but neglects to honor the holiday. I won't shop here and as much as possible shop in Christian book stores. Borders has an agenda and it is nothing to do with Christian values.
We saw "Holiday" trees, "Holiday" this & "Holiday that, but the ONLY mention of "Christmas" was on 2 of their gift cards. Very disappointing!
More Bibles!
These people make me kind of sick and kind of envious. Maybe if they could remove their robes for a minute, they could imagine if instead of a magic man in the sky they were Jews, they would see all the happy holiday crap as an insult for a variety of other reasons.
Or Muslim. Imagine the whole xmas crap from the eyes of someone other than your own god.
In our capitalistic society, why not just admit the someone other than a child molesting priest is using religious holidays to make money?
So, the democratically controlled senator in New York could not bring themselves to hold their noses long enough to pass a law allowing the gays to marry. Again, all I will say is if you will not allow the gays to marry, the least you can do is remove the perks that straight people get from getting married. Fair is fair.
I was married for 10 years to a woman. For a while is was OK, for a while it was hell, most of the time it just was. Would I want to get married again, well, I plan to get married in about 11 months, so that will answer that question. The problem with prejudice is that there is always the other shoe. Plus, the majority of Americans can not even read, much less eat properly. So stupid fat people are beginning to demand their weird rights.
You want a simple answer to this issue? Don't allow anyone to get married, unless it's some special religious ceremony. Anyone else can get some sort of government license, gay, straight in between, and get the perks, the tax breaks, the automatic inheritance, the insurance coverage. Call if flem or anything, but do not call it marriage, that word will be reserve for the religious ceremony which, much like today, will mean nothing. Don't believe me? Ask Tiger Woods.
So I was at a job today, setting up my super video camera and this woman begins to chat with me. Almost immediately she tells me that she hopes the traffic won't be so bad today, she had to drive across the city to attend a funeral. Quickly she told me about a woman who at 28 was a mother of two young children, married to a swell guy, diagnosed with brain cancer a month ago and now dead.
It turns out the woman telling me this unfortunate story was deeply religious, or is, deeply religious. She told me that god had more important things for her to do, so he called her home. First, I immediately thought how happy I am that I screen my calls, because if god wants to call me, he will have to leave a message. Then I thought about the children.
Now I know its fashionable to always bring up the children when seeking sympathy or money, but in this case I felt bad for the young children growing up without a mother. Now, my children basically grew up without a mother, but they had me, and I spent way too much time with them, parks, games, crayons, school - I was there. This mother, called to Jesus too early, has left behind two young children and a husband who probably has no clue on raising babies and dating. Lucky for him he belongs to a church, I learned that from the woman sharing too much information.
I am not sure when it's a good time for a parent to die, but I am guessing that kids under the age of 13 are too young to have to deal with the pain and loss. If there is a god who calls people to his palace I really have to wonder what sort of motivations he has. Children change peoples lives, at least the ones open to the change, and to remove a parent from a small child seems like the opposite of what god would be doing.
There are many things in life I just don't get, one is falling prey to the allure of an unknown super powerful all forgiving god thing, hanging out somewhere in the pretty sky, doing all sorts of nice things and sometimes taking people home with him to share tea and stories with. I life fantasy as much as most people, maybe more than most people, but the who god business just seems to stupid to me. When people talk about their god taking someone home, it makes me think of how god should act. You know the crazy idiot who killed four police officers in Seattle this past week? Why didn't god call that loser home a few weeks ago, before he started raping children and killing innocent police? No, god was too busy making sure the brain cancer would kill the mother of two babies.
I got a call from a fairly old friend who has not really spoken to me in over 12 months. He said that he and his wife may lose their home. She was laid off about 4 months ago, he just recently saw a severe cutback in hours and everything is tight. According to him, he is less than a paycheck away from falling behind on both mortgage payments and credit card payments.
He vented. When I began to offer some advice, like the wife taking any job to bring in some much needed money, he got kind of sketchy and had to go.
12 months and not a word. Then drama on that first phone call after a gulf of silence. Drama that seemed mostly self inflicted. See, one of the things I would have said was that when the wife lost her job, they would have been smart to stop all sorts of spending right there and cut expenses and she should immediately look for any work and take whatever came, and they should belt tighten like never before. I may have also told him that now is the time for all good artist types to accept money at every opportunity and not be choosey.
But instead I said something about his wife needing to help, and he was gone. I am not sure why he called. Even now, when I use the term friend for him, I think I am being stupid. He is not a friend. When I recently had a medical emergency, he was not an option for someone who should be called to watch the kids. A few years ago when tragedy in another form came for an extended stay, he was never informed. I did not call when I got ripped off by my business partner, nor for any other financial drama, and I have had a few. So now I am kind of steamed. Was he just going through his phone book, looking for sympathy and possible a loan?
There are often times in our lives when it is right to look at what makes a friend and define those qualities and then hold that defined term up agains tour list of friends and associates. Sorry my phone calling friend, but not only are you not really a friend, you would be well advised to keep you skidding drama to yourself. Or grow the balls to be honest and call your "friends" gently explain your financial health and beg for money. Otherwise you just come across as a user.
