Fudging The Numbers

Desperate times call for desperate measures.  Or so they say.  It is also the reason so few of us trust anything the government says.

The September jobs report is due out this coming Friday and according to Reuters the numbers are due to show some improvement. Like 60,000 new jobs. That is no where near enough to put a dent in unemployment, but never-the-less, they'd have us believe there is progress.

But is there?  I think not.  It seems included in that figure are 45,000 striking Verizon workers who returned to work!  Is it fair to consider strikers unemployed?  When they strike of their own volition?  Or their union bosses volition? Absolutely not!

I'm sure there are 45,000 unemployed out there that who would have loved to have had a crack at those jobs with a promise not to strike.  The Verizon workers went back to jobs they left on a temporary basis to gouge their company for more.  And they wonder why so many people are anti-union.  Especially in this day and age of fierce unemployment.  Just like the union targeting Ford for a strike because they didn't take bailout money and, thanks to the President, they own a hefty part of the other two of the big three.

Trust government to be straight with us? I don't think so.

Where Have My Birds Gone?

For years, after having read The Birds by Daphne Du Maurier, I had an aversion to them.  That's powerful writing.  Or a very weak mind! Probably the latter in my case.

Slowly and thankfully I finally got over it and came to love them.  All kinds.  Song birds. Birds of prey.  It doesn't matter.  Perhaps it has come from caring for injured ones I'd find on occasion.  I was enthralled with the raptors I'd see when visiting Washington State when Bacchus was a regular at the vet med hospital.  Members of the Raptor Club would have them in the lobby quite often.

Every spring I can't wait to see the first Killdeer and of course the Robins.  The Quail can keep me amused for hours. The meadow larks cheer me.  Even the non-descript brown and black birds I couldn't readily identify cheered me, especially when they'd converge on our pond for their Saturday nights baths.

So what happened to them?  It's fall, yes, but they've been gone for weeks.  It's so quiet it's eerie.  Even the hawks are gone.

I've read where they are pretty well protected.  Fines are being handed out in North Dakota  for the deaths, no matter how inadvertently, of ridiculously small numbers. To the tune of $15, 000 and up to six months in jail per bird!  No, I don't think my birds went to North Dakota to feel safe.  Actually no self-respecting bird would be party to such an obvious witch hunt aimed unproportionately at oil and gas exploration companies.  Of which this administration has little use.

No.  I fear it's more likely they're  an unintended consequence of the highly vaunted wind power.  You know, the great green industry that's so not yet ready for marketing only the government is gambling big bucks on it.  Those giant wind turbines kill thousands of birds a year, including  golden and bald eagles! Has that been the fate of my birds?  Do their migratory paths cross these turbine fields making an impact on their populations?  Funny, none of those companies are being fined even though it's known there is a problem! A huge problem when you consider the numbers.

I don't know.  The government can't even stay out of the lives of our birds for it is government who decides who to fine and whose technology to invest in.   I had to make some sort of political connection out of it.  Politics impacts everything else, why not our birds?  Ah, that's probably a stretch. It probably has something to do with solar flares or something like that.

All I know is one more aspect of my life, that makes it wonderfully enjoyable, has for the moment gone silent. So what has happened to my birds?

It's Jobs,Stupid!

Jobs, jobs, jobs.  It's the Presidential mantra these days.  Pass my jobs bill or I'll run against a do nothing Congress.

This is obviously aimed at the Republicans.  So how do you explain that the Democrats are off on another vacation?  Even more, how do you explain that upon their return the jobs bill will be on the back burner so they can work on a bill to label China as a currency manipulator.  Wow, that should generate millions of jobs in the near future.  Maybe even in time for Christmas.  Right.

So who doesn't get it here?  It could be me, true.  The more I watch this circus the less I understand.  I guess there is no urgency to produce meaningful legislation that all the experts NOT holding office are encouraging.  Repeal some of the more onerous regulations and simplify the tax code.  Why is it that Congress does not want to address these? Probably for the same reason the country is starting into a new fiscal year, for the fourth year in a row, without a budget.  Thank you Senate.  Thank you Democrats.

This means another year of continuing resolutions every couple of months or so.  It will probably also mean more squabbles like the one going on now over disaster aid. Unfortunately the pattern and the outcome are predictable.  Do it our way or we'll close down the government!  Same song, I've lost count of the verse.

Jobs?  Don't hold your breath.  If anyone is wondering why Herman Cain and Ron Paul are resonating with the electorate, this is as good an example as you can get.  It sure isn't anyone from the tea party types who insist on holding us hostage to their ideas nor the President and his temporary measures that only encourages oncoing uncertainty.

You know, Christmas is just around the corner.  There will be a point in time when the government can no longer keep us afloat with extensions of unemployment while they're keeping companies from hiring because of uncertainty.  The shopping season may be dismal.  Food banks are already empty and we have yet to hit the Thanksgiving rush.  People who buy those extra turkey dinners may well be hard pressed to buy their own. It's a reason lay away plans are back.

But vacations are important to our lawmakers.  After all, it takes a lot of energy to sidestep responsibility to the people.

What Happens To The Kids?

Wife disappears, husband becomes person of interest and in-laws feud over custody while things get sorted out.  Or the other way around.  Such stories appear far too frequently.

Usually the one who has disappeared is found at some point in time ~ dead. So what happens to the children?

I don't mean who gets custody, whether it be the spouse or the in-laws.  What happens to them mentally?  In this case I'm reflecting on the Susan Powell case which began shortly before Christmas two years ago.  Her boys were two and four.

It seems husband Josh had an urge to go camping at 12:30 a.m. in December, took the boys with him and returned to find his wife missing.  This is so ludicrous I have trouble getting my head around it but the police have not yet been able to connect husband with wife's disappearance.

But what about the boys?  There must have been strife in the household.  This affects kids.  They often blame themselves when their parents split.  How must they feel when one disappears?  Gone.  Out of their lives.  How does a a 2 and 4 year old absorb this?

Life goes on.  Husband takes the boys and moves in with his father.  Two years later old Dad is arrested himself for having taken secret videos of women and girls, including the boys' mother, doing what they do in a bathroom.  Grandpa has been arrested!  The boys, now 4 and 6, are removed from the home until child welfare decides who should have custody.  Again, how do a now four and six year old process this?

I remember the strangest things from my childhood even now.  How accurate those recollections are I have no idea, but I can remember things from way before school age.  As these boys grow up, what will be embedded in their psyche?

I would suppose studies are made of such children.  To see how they process the events and what effect it has on them.  It seems to me it would be a terrible burden on a child's mind.  Will they roll with it?  Will they be bitter and rebellious?  Only time will tell what sort of citizens they will grow up to be.

It's sad.  They've had a horrendously traumatic start to their lives.  I hope there will be appropriate guidance available to them as they begin to mature and have a better grasp as to what has happened to them.  It's there.  If only in the subconscious or a state they have yet to fully grasp.

It brings to mind a comment made in a F. Scott Fitzgerald novel about the mental decline of a friend:

The change came a long way back-but at first it didn't show. The manner remains intact for some time after the morale cracks.

You just never know if or when someone will crack from something long in their past.  So what will happen to these kids?

The Summer Doldrums

What have I written this week?  Two posts? Man, I just can't get myself psyched up enough to address much of anything.  It's certainly not for a lack of material, that's for sure.  But you know what?  At the moment I'm just plain tired of politics.  And even more tired of complaining.

Is that a refreshing change of pace or what?  I don't do Twitter and very little on Facebook other than an occasional photo and playing the Zoo game.  That is a monumental waste of time but the animals are cute, so what the heck.

So what have I been doing?  Puttering about in the yard.  My acupuncture has gotten me to the point where I'm functioning pretty well.  It's a blessing for the yard, and in a back handed way for my blogging.  It keeps me away from my computer.

I've also been catching up on my spring house cleaning.  I'd like to get it done before the holidays but I'm not pushing it since there's still winterizing the yard and that will take some time.  We've begun pruning. That's a big step!

If I were a modern person I'd be writing all this on either Facebook or Twitter.  I'm anything but a modern person.  I consider it an accomplishment, besides who really cares?

It's hot today.  I'm going to my shop after I write this and work on my chess pieces.  That activity exercises my brain just as much as blogging and puts me in a far better frame of mind.

This too shall probably pass.  With cooler weather coming I'm sure my feisty side will return and I'll be back on my soap box.  There's so much to be said and changing daily. Autumn is officially here.  I'm sure the doldrums will follow summer into the netherworld of things past.  Politics will again spark my interest and I'll be spewing out opinion.  Such is the nature of a blogger.  It permeates one's soul.