Copyright Gary Edward Nordell, all rights reserved. Powered by Blogger.

Monday, March 29, 2010

News Factoids January-March 2010

THE ECONOMY
"Median household income in 2000 was $52,500; in 2008, it was $50,303."
~~ Time Magazine

In 2008, the Dow fell nearly 34%, the worst since 1931; the S&P was down 38.5%, the worst since 1937.

"The stock market is down 26 percent since 2000. (Inflation-adjusted, it's even worse.)"
~~ Time Magazine, Nov 2009

"There are six times as many Americans seeking work as there are job openings."
~~ Paul Krugman, New York Times, Nov 2009

"The Bureau of Labor Statistics employment-to-population ratio of 80.6 percent in November 2009 is the lowest since B.L.S. began keeping track in 1948."
~~ Time Magazine

"One recent survey shows that 44 percent of U.S. families experienced a job loss, a reduction in hours, or a pay cut in the past year."
~~ Don Peck, The Atlantic Magazine, March 2010

Want to know where you can move your checking and savings accounts away from the Big Banks? Check out free website www.MoveYourMoney.info

"In November [2009], 19.4 percent of all men [in the U.S.] in their prime working years of 25 to 54 did not have jobs, the highest figure since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking the statistic in 1948."
~~ The Atlantic Magazine

"Twenty-four percent of U.S. workers between 18 & 34 do not earn enough to pay monthly bills, up 10 percent from 1999."
~~ per AFL-CIO 2009 survey

"The average amount of equity that Americans have in their homes has dropped from 59 percent in 2005 to 41 percent [in 2009], by far the lowest level on record."
~~ Newsweek Magazine

A young worker at a local Burger King volunteered the information that their most popular menu item is the Dollar Menu.

Over 100 U.S. banks failed in 2009 (the last time was in 1992, during the Bush 41 administration), which emptied the coffers of the F.D.I.C.

POLITICS
On 21 January 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court struck another blow for fascism and against freedom & liberty in the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. case reversing a full century of election campaign finance restrictions on the ability of corporations to purchase any elected office that they want. The principle that they stood for is "One million dollers, one vote".

"I figured out why carbon credits seem like a bad idea: It is like an overweight person paying a friend to go to the gym and exercise for them."
~~ G.E. Nordell

Wealthy motor-mouth Sarah Palin's grandchild is receiving federal A.D.C. (Aid to Dependent Children) money.
~~ per several news reports

On 9 March 2010, Limp Rushbaugh threatened to leave the country if ObamaCare passed in Congress. Bye-bye, dirtbag, and good riddance.

"With only half of taxpayers having filed thus far, refunds are already up nearly 10% from last year, thanks to a broad array of tax cuts in the [American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009]."
~~ U.S. Congressman Martin Heinrich [Dem NM-01]

LIFE IN AMERICA
"U.S. schools rank 32nd internationally in math scores, tenth in science, and 12th in reading."
~~ Time Magazine, January 2010

"The U.S. incarcerates 25 percent of the world's prisoners while having only 5 percent of the total population."
~~ Peter Stoup of Wisconsin

Modern Consumerism: There is now a $30 hearing aid disguised as a Bluetooth earpiece.

Not a lot of labor union activity out here in the boonies, and New Mexico does not have an overtime law. (California law is time-and-a-half after 8 hours in the day, or after 40 hours in the week.) The result here is many obviously worn-out workers at the local grocery and several local fast-food stores. The cashier at Taco Bell was dead on her feet and could barely make change, and co-workers in the back were way behind, and no manager in sight. (Current corporate policy seems to be to burn the workers out and throw them away, the next in line will beg to obey the corporate slave-masters.)

OTHER MATTERS
"The U.S. Brder Patrol has almost 17,500 agents stationed along the southern border, or the equivalent of 8.8 agents per linear mile."
~~ A.C.L.U. of New Mexico

Recently discovered the IndieGoGo.com incubator platform for independent film, music and other artisitic and community projects. Artists who join can then seek funding, collaboration, distribution – whatever is needed to realize the project. And IndieGoGo just acquired the online distributor Distribber.com which will (for a fee) add your video content to the iTunes and-or Amazon Video-On-Demand and-or Netflix Watch Instantly streaming sites, and then pay royalties on sales.
IndieGoGo official websiteDistribber official website

"There are 600 coal-fired power plants in America, as against a hundred nuclear-powered ones."
~~ The Atlantic Magazine

Copyright 2010 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

March 2010 Quotations

"You should never wear your best trousers when you go out to fight for freedom and truth."
~~ Henrik Ibsen [1928-1906], in "An Enemy of The People" (1888)

"The next step [in a Fascist movement] is to fascinate fools and muzzle the intelligent, by emotional excitement on the one hand and terrorism on the other."
~~ Bertrand Russell [1872-1970]

"Since Ronald Reagan's presidency, Americans have consumed more than we produced and have made up the difference by borrowing."
~~ Fareed Zakaria

"All those who believe in psychokinesis, raise my hand."
~~ comedian Steven Wright

"Thinking begins only when we have come to know that reason, glorified for centuries, is the stiff-necked adversary of thought."
~~ Martin Heidegger [1889-1976]

"The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well."
~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson [1803-82]

"Scientists dream about doing great things. Engineers do them."
~~ James A. Michener [1907-97]

"The only rules comedy can tolerate are those of taste, and the only limitations those of libel."
~~ James Thurber [1894-1961]

"Sell a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, you ruin a wonderful business opportunity."
~~ Karl Marx [1818-83]

"About half the practice of a decent lawyer consists in telling would-be clients that they are damned fools and should stop."
~~ Elihu Root [1845-1937]

"I ain't Martin Luther King. I don't need a dream. I have a plan."
~~ filmmaker Spike Lee

"The Buddhist approach is 'Don't just do something, sit there'."
~~ cartoonist Brian Crane

"Ruin in its worst form is inevitable if our national life brings us nothing better than swollen fortunes for the few and the triumph in both politics and business of a sordid and selfish materialism."
~~ former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt [1858-1919], in August 1910 speech

"The wastebasket is a writer's best friend"
~~ Isaac Bashevis Singer [1902-91]

"It's a writer's job to carve with language, to hew close to the bone."
~~ Stephen King

"If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything."
~~ Mark Twain [1835-1910]

"Barbarism is the natural state of mankind. Civilization is unnatural. It is a whim of circumstance. And barbarism must always ultimately triumph."
~~ Robert E. Howard [1906-36], in "Beyond The Black River"

"it is the chief value of legend to mix up the centuries while preserving the sentiment."
~~ G.K. Chesterton [1874-1936], in "The Ballad of The White Horse"

“The Revolution is never over, the Class War is perpetual – which side are you on?”
~~ G.E. Nordell

"A nation without the means of reform is without means of survival."
~~ Edmund Burke [1729-1797]

"I believe ... that all the measures of the Government are directed to the purpose of making the rich richer and the poor poorer."
~~ U.S. President William Henry Harrison [1773-1841], on 10 October 1840

"Understanding is the booby prize."
~~ Werner Erhard

"Here's the best truth [that] I know for certain: Never attribute to 'evil' that which you can chalk up to ineptitude."
~~ author Harlan Ellison

"All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better."
~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

"I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all."
~~ Judeo-Christian Bible, Ecclesiastes 9:11

"It may be that the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong – but that is the way to bet."
~~ Damon Runyon [1880-1946]

"Invention, my dear friends, is 93% perspiration, 6% electricity, 4% evaporation, and 2% butterscotch ripple."
~~ Willy Wonka (character created by Roald Dahl [1916-90])

"When you cannot make up your mind which of two evenly balanced courses of action you should take, choose the bolder."
~~ William Joseph Slim [1891-1970]

"Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them."
~~ Wm. Shakespeare [1564-1616], in "Twelfth Night" (Act II, Scene 5)

"The wise make proverbs and fools repeat them."
~~ Isaac D'Israeli [1766-1848]

"The gods too are fond of a joke."
~~ Aristotle [384-322 B.C.E.]

{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}