When you aren’t working or going to school, it’s easy to not know what day of the week it is, much else is being celebrated. I often don’t know what day of the week it is, though because I blog and pay bills, I’m pretty aware of the day of month it is.
Inauguration
As much as Garry dislikes political mud-slinging, he loves the ceremonies that mark America‘s traditions. For him, an inauguration is not the inauguration of a Democrat or a Republican … it’s the inauguration of an American President and he enjoys it, even if it isn’t a candidate for whom he voted. It’s American, not political.
He wrote something about it on Facebook and at least one person went into a political tirade about how he voted for Obama but wished he’d had another choice. Garry pointed out this wasn’t political. It was a celebration, the peaceful affirmation of our power that is far more American than apple pie.
Granted that other countries now have peaceful transfers of power, but only the U.S. from its birth made this a symbol of what we are as a nation … that no matter how hard-fought the campaign, when the votes are counted, the winner takes his place in the White House without violence or bloodshed. The ballot box is where we settle our differences, not the streets and not with weapons.
My take on this is simple: there are far too many people who have forgotten how to be Americans. They are so wedded to party politics, to a set of “positions,” that they are incapable, even for a single day, of just being Americans.
It seems that these folks are constantly gloating (“my guy is IN and your guy is OUT nyah nyah nyah!”) or whining (“We wuz cheated!”). Whether you fall on the side of the gloaters or whiners, if you want to make any claim to being an American or any kind of patriot, you need to be an American first and foremost, with your political affiliation secondary.
If you cannot do that, you really have no idea what this country is about.
The U.S. government has issued an official response to a petition requesting construction of a Death Star, like the planet-destroying space battle station featured in the film Star Wars.
The petition requested the government begin construction on a Death Star by 2016 to create jobs, explore space and bolster national defence. A serious argument for a science-fiction proposal but that hasn’t stopped the White House from having a laugh.
The response posted on We the People, a website designed to foster engagement with the government through petitions, shoots down all hope for a Star Wars reality from the very beginning.
“This Isn’t the Petition Response You’re Looking For,” reads the title, cheekily echoing a moment from the first film: “These aren’t the droids we’re looking for.”
The response says a Death Star would be too expensive. Building such a station would cost $850,000,000,000,000,000 by one estimate. That’s $850 quadrillion, for the record.
Not to mention, the administration says, it does not support the blowing up of planets.
Even if President Barack Obama was inclined to become more like Darth Vader, Shawcross notes the Death Star didn’t hold up too well under attack.
“Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?”
But wait, look up! The White House points out that we already have a football field-sized example of scientific advancement floating in space. It’s called the International Space Station.
We also have droids and U.S. researchers have designed a robotic arm named after Luke Skywalker. The response encourages Americans to pursue a career in math, science, technology or engineering, saying the Force will be with them.
“Remember, the Death Star’s power to destroy a planet, or even a whole star system, is insignificant next to the power of the Force,” it says.
May the Force be with you, too, light saber-wielding President Obama.
Why would we spend taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a 1-man starship?OFA.BO/yfxWt3
Previously: Apparently $850 quadrillion is too much for the cash-strapped Obama administration to spend on a moon-sized superweapon capable of destroying planets with a sole laser strike.
Responding to an overwhelmingly popular request on the White House‘s website, Paul Shawcross, chief of the Science and Space Branch at the White House Office of Management and Budget, claimed that the $850,000,000,000,000,000 it would take to build a Death Star similar to the ones seen in “Star Wars” and “Return of the Jedi” would be too costly.
Also, the U.S. isn’t currently interested in blowing up any planets, Shawcross said.
“The Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense, but a Death Star isn’t on the horizon,” he wrote to the 34,435 people who signed the petition titled “Secure resources and funding, and begin construction of a Death Star by 2016.”
The response is titled ”This Isn’t the Petition Response You’re Looking For.” Shawcross concluded by suggesting the public steer away from the Dark Side.
“Remember, the Death Star’s power to destroy a planet, or even a whole star system, is insignificant next to the power of the Force,” he wrote.
Predictably, many were disappointed with the White House’s reply.
A serious mistake, Mr. President. You can never have enough planet-sized lasers - nbcnews.to/WZqSvf#starwars
The White House has promised to reply to any petition that accumulates at least 25,000 signatures within 30 days.
May the force be with you.
The most popular open petition that has yet to receive a reply is asking for the administration to “legally recognize Westboro Baptist Church as a hate group.” That petition has garnered 315,549 (and counting) signatures in less than a month.
The first cracks are developing among Republicans over whether to accept a quick deal with President Barack Obama on allowing the top two income tax rates to expire, even as an administration official said the White House was stepping up behind-the-scenes negotiations.
Conservative OklahomaGOP Rep. Tom Cole told GOP colleagues in a private meeting Tuesday that it’s better to make sure that tax cuts for the 98 percent of taxpayers who make less than $200,000 or $250,000 a year are extended than to battle it out with Obama and risk increasing taxes on everyone.
Now that Election Day is over, it is time for a new spirit of bipartisan collaboration — in Washington and in Springfield, a Daily Herald editorial says.
When Rep. Joe Walsh visited with our editorial board a couple of months ago, he predicted, to our surprise, that once the election was over, we’d see a stronger spirit of collaboration in Washington.
We say surprise because if there’s anyone who’s seemed to us to be reflexively obstructive, it has been Walsh, a Tea Party Republican who refused even to attend the president’s State of the Union address. Intransigence, we would have guessed, was his middle name.
But in that thoughtful discussion with our editorial board, Walsh contended that from his perspective, the intransigence of the past two years was necessary because of how huge the debt and the spending had become.
“A line needed to be drawn in the sand. Absolutely,” he said.
But now, even Walsh expressed frustration about Washington’s inability to get anything done. Asked to name the biggest surprise he found when he went to Washington, he said, “How difficult it is to move the ball in any direction.”
He said the past two years have been about saying “No.” But now that “No” has effectively been stated, he added, the next two years should be more collaborative, and he predicted that would the case whether the White House occupant is Barack Obama or Mitt Romney.
“In either scenario,” Walsh said, “you’re going to see a concerted effort to work together.”
If there is anything that encourages us on this, the morning after, it is that even someone as line-in-the-sand as Joe Walsh sees the need for a renewed bipartisanship.
That the public longs for this bipartisanship, there is little doubt.
In the final days of the presidential campaign, the messages (defined no doubt by the candidates’ internal polling) centered around the need to work across the aisle.
The Los Angeles Times reported that Romney told a crowd in Ohio, “You hoped that President Obama would live up to his promise to bring people together to solve big problems, but he hasn’t, and I will.” Obama, the Times said, meanwhile told a crowd in New Hampshire, “If you want to break the gridlock in Congress, you’ll vote for leaders who feel the same way, whether they’re Democrats or Republicans or independents.”
If the politicians are campaigning on bipartisanship, we only hope that now that Election Day has passed, they follow through.
We agree with Walsh that the country has huge problems. The state of Illinois does too.
The only way these problems get solved is through statesmanship, through working together, through collaboration, and yes, through compromise.
To those elected Tuesday, congratulations. The task now is to get something done. We’re counting on you to work in a bipartisan spirit.
As I cruise along the information super highway, I sometimes encounter nifty sites. Some offer pure entertainment, others are potentially useful tools None will change your life, but all of them are likely to enrich it. In the spirit of caring and sharing, here are a bunch of places to spend some time. What you do with them depends on how it fits into your world, but at the very least, you’re going to have a bit of fun.
Are you full of shit? You may be surprised. Don’t depend on subjective opinion. Here’s a scientific tool to measure the percentage of bullshit in your text or anyone else’s text. You can use it to analyze the bullshit content of anything longer than 5 lines, from political speeches to Facebook postings.
Who said that? In how many movies and TV shows will you find the line “Wait in the car?” These and many other critical questions for the movie and television buff can be answers with a few mouse clicks on Subzin.com. You can enter any line or piece of dialogue and Subzin will tell the number of movies and TV shows in which it appears, the as well the name and year of the aforementioned, and exactly the location in the movie where you will find the specified dialogue. It does not have details of the movies or video clips. For these, you will have to search elsewhere.
Among the many relatively unknown services performed by the United States government is that it maintains a wide range of informational websites. This one, which is a virtual museum of the White House. It is a goldmine of miscellaneous information, guaranteed to wow your friends at the next erudite cocktail party you happen to attend. It got a fascinating collection of pictures and mountains of White House information, sure to make you the trivia king or queen of your social group.
Speaking of government websites that have all kinds of cool stuff, drop by:
Among my favorite places to visit on this website is the “Help Wanted” section. If I were younger, I’d check it out. The pay isn’t great, but the benefits are amazing. But best of all, this is perhaps the most intriguing job description I’ve ever encountered. Sorry about the pun. I think I’d really have enjoyed this. It’s not by any means the only job available, but it’s definitely the coolest.
The Professional Trainee (PT) Program is for applicants who have a minimum of a bachelor’s degree but may often lack substantive work experience, and are generally in the 21-25 year age range. Upon entry on duty, PTs are offered the opportunity to gain experience through a series of responsible Headquarters-based assignments that expose them to core aspects of the NCS mission prior to joining the CST program for training and field deployment.
The Clandestine Service (CST) Program is for applicants who have a minimum of a bachelor’s degree and several years of substantive business/work or military experience before applying, and are generally in the 26-35 year age range. There is a 35 year maximum age requirement.
Minimum requirements include a bachelor’s or master’s degree and a strong academic record, with a preferred GPA of 3.0 or better, and a strong interest in international affairs. Candidates must possess solid interpersonal and communications skills, including the ability to write clearly and accurately. Foreign travel and area knowledge, prior residency abroad, cross-cultural sensitivity, and foreign language proficiency (particularly in the critical languages of Arabic, Chinese, Dari, Indonesian, Korean, Pashto, Persian, Russian, Somali, Turkish, Kurdish and Urdu) are highly desirable. Degrees of interest include, but are not limited to, international business, finance or international relations, economics, physical science or nuclear, biological or chemical engineering. Competitive candidates will also possess personality traits that will allow them to be successful Core Collectors, including the ability to work both independently and as part of a team, the ability to “think on their feet”, and the ability to deal effectively with individuals at all levels—often in fast-breaking and rapidly changing situations.
All applicants must successfully complete two personal interviews, a thorough medical and psychological examination, a polygraph interview, and extensive background investigation.
To be considered suitable for Agency employment, applicants must generally not have used illegal drugs within the last twelve months. The issue of illegal drug use prior to twelve months ago is carefully evaluated during the medical and security processing. (Processing generally takes approximately 12 months.)
Operations Officers (OOs) are focused full-time on clandestinely spotting, assessing, developing, recruiting, and handling individuals with access to vital foreign intelligence on the full range of national security issues. This human intelligence plays a critical role in developing and implementing US foreign and national security policy and in protecting US interests. OOs employ sound judgment, high integrity, strong interpersonal skills, and ability to assess the character and motivations of others to establish strong human relationships and trust that provides the foundation needed to acquire high-value intelligence from foreign sources. OOs deal with fast-moving, ambiguous, and unstructured situations by combining their “people and street smarts” with subject matter expertise and knowledge of foreign languages, areas, and cultures. An OOs career can include assignments in the NCSs three key areas of activity—human intelligence collection, counterintelligence, and covert action—on issues of highest interest to US national security, such as international terrorism, weapons proliferation, international crime and narcotics trafficking, and capabilities and intentions of rogue nations. Operations Officers serve approximately 50-70 percent of their time in overseas assignments that range typically from 2-3 years.
Operations Officers are given great amounts of responsibility and trust early in their careers. While they work in teams, they often need to “think on their feet”, using common sense and flexibility to make quick decisions on their own. OOs have demanding responsibilities, often requiring them to work long hours so it is essential that they be psychologically fit, energetic, and able to cope with stress. They must know themselves very well and a sense of humor is also a plus.
Important Notice: Knowledge by non-Agency personnel of your association with the Central Intelligence Agency or the Intelligence Community may limit your ability to perform or preclude you from certain assignments. NCS applicants should therefore endeavor to protect the fact that they have applied and/or are thinking of applying to the NCS. We urge your discretion throughout the entire hiring process to ensure maximum flexibility for your potential NCS career. Further guidance will be provided as competitive applicants move through the hiring steps.
To Apply:
Make a note of the position(s) that interest you, as you can apply for up to four positions in one application. DO NOT submit multiple applications; this will only slow the review of your application, and delay processing. Please read the Application Instructions carefully before you begin the online application process.
Have you forgotten how to twist those strings to make the cat’s cradle? Never knew in the first place? No knowledge is ever lost in this information age.
Revive your youthful skills using these step by step visual instruction. In my opinion, the string from a bakery goodies box is still the finest cat’s cradle string. It’s thin, supple, and it used to contain strudel, Danish pastry, fresh breadrolls and maybe even a high top apple pie. It merely sweetens the enjoyment of a game that requires no electricity, playing field, protective head-gear, or even a specific language. Vision is a prerequisite, as are 10 fingers, two people (I guess that makes 20 fingers evenly distributed between both players) and a long piece of string. Thinner string is better. You don’t need any special length, just as long as it’s big enough to form the cradle.
Welcome to the virtual world. Everything is there, just … virtually. There is something for everyone, something to suit every taste, no matter how bizarre.
It doesn’t matter what you like. It’s out there. You just need to find it. This is not even the tip of the iceberg, just a few sites that I find entertaining. I have a twisted sense of humor, so you may have entirely different tastes … more’s the pity. But if you are sitting out a storm, a piece of string might entertain you for hours. Just a thought.
I wrote this way back in 1993. It was a lifetime ago. The world was different. We were different. We could never have imagined the world in which we now live.
August 1993 – Going to President Clinton’s Post Press Party … Totally Cool!
Licking our collective and individual wounds from the preceding months, we wobbled tentatively into summer. Our first long vacation at the Vineyard in mid-June was splendid. The weather was glowing perfection without a single rainy day to mar its crystalline beauty. Garry darkened into his best-ever sun tan and I turned slightly beige.
The second long vacation in July came and went. We all spent too much money, ate, drank, and made merry, whoever she may be. Just when all were resolved that we had finished the last of the “long ones” at the Vineyard for the year, President Clinton and family chose to visit Martha’s Vineyard for an August holiday … and guess who would cover the story for Channel 7?
Garry could have gotten a swelled head. After all, Channel 7 had just sent him to Rome, now to Martha’s Vineyard. Pretty nice assignments. Except that Garry knew that the reason he and the rest of the crew were chosen for the Vineyard assignment was that they had a place on the Vineyard, a place to stay for which Channel 7 wouldn’t have to pay. That would save Channel 7 megabucks in housing costs for the 11 days of the Clinton family visit. Some things never change, new owners notwithstanding.
Still, whatever the reason, it was a far better assignment to chase around Martha’s Vineyard after the First Family than to run around Boston after the muggers, child molesters, murderers, arsonists, and other scum-of-the-earth types. The hours might be long and the material lean, but the setting was lovely and the story was happy and fun. No crying mothers mourning their victim children. Just rounds of golf, sailing, and celebrities doing the things celebrities do while on vacation.
And so it went. Notwithstanding occasional fits of ill-temper, miscommunication with Boston, and very little real news with which to work plus an average of three live shots a day (straining Garry’s creative story building efforts to the maximum), the weather held, the equipment didn’t break down (discounting the washing machine in the house) and his stories were well-received.
After 12 days of on duty, Garry finally got a couple of days off. I was down from Boston for the weekend, so we hit the “hot spots.” First night of our off time saw the us, the “celebrity couple,” whooping it up at David’s Island House, dancing and singing with Hugh Taylor and David himself, who played some devilishly fine piano. The evening was so much fun that neither of us imagined that the NEXT night would be even better.
When Jack told us there would be a party for the press Thursday evening to which we could bring family and friends, Garry and Don both said they’d rather stay home, sit on the dock and catch some rays. After a quick look at the expressions on the faces of their respective mates, both men did a quick turnaround and decided the party sounded like a really good idea.
Because this was a party being give by The President of the United States, it wasn’t just any old party to which we could just drive up to the door. We had to gather at the Press Center, the Edgartown Elementary School which had served as \ press headquarters during the President’s visit. From there, we’d be loaded into buses and taken, under heavy security, to the actual party. We got on the first bus to leave, which was good since the later buses never left at all and if you didn’t get on the first bus, you didn’t make it to the party.
We had hoped to get a glimpse of the First Family. What we got was a lot more than a glimpse. Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea all came. They stayed for three hours, giving everyone the opportunity to actually talk with them. They were gracious, smiling, friendly, and most importantly, human. The kind of folks that, were they not the First Family would be welcome as friends.
We got pictures, too … Marilyn and Garry with the President, where for once, I look as good as Garry. Another with Jack, Garry, and the President, taken by the White House photographer (to be delivered with Presidential signature and all).
The food was good — ribs and chicken and collard greens. Mashed potatoes, gravy, corn-on-the-cob, corn bread, and salads. Margaritas. Beer. Wine. Warm blueberry cobbler and vanilla ice cream to top it off. Carly Simon sang “Summertime” and the prez played the saxophone. It was really fine. Super fine. I wished I brought my camera. I hadn’t thought they’d let us bring them, but I was wrong … they did. Oh well.
Real food, real people, and at a palatial home of on a high bluff overlooking the sound. Does it get better than this? I don’t think so.
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And that’s the way it was … August, 1993. It wasn’t so long ago … it doesn’t feel so long ago. Yet it was, if not in years, then in the amount that everything has changed.
Everyone is pointing fingers at everyone else: Where did our jobs go?
Hey people, you know perfectly well where our jobs went. They went to the far east, to China, Pakistan, India, Indonesia, Burma, Malaysia … wherever child labor laws are loose or non-existent and people work cheap. The exodus of American jobs began long ago, but became a mighty river under Bush senior, went into higher gear under Clinton (who I loved but IS responsible). Bush II pushed the throttle higher, and although Obama hasn’t made it worse, he also hasn’t stopped it. I’m not sure he could if he wanted to. These are largely corporate decisions, not governmental.
January 2009: President George W. Bush invited President-Elect Barack Obama, former Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter for lunch at the White House. (Photo: Wikipedia)
There’s plenty of blame to go around if you’re big on pointing fingers. Rewarding companies for shipping jobs overseas was an idea so awful that most normal people could see the looming disaster without any special economic education, but we had nothing to say about. No one asked US.
This is a “bottom line” driven society. Until and unless something becomes more important to our nation than maximizing profits, if and when such a miracle should occur, then there is some a very small chance we’ll start to re-employ Americans, maybe even rebuild a few of the dusty, closed factories where we used to work.
Until then … IF then ever arrives … jobs will remain scarce no matter who is in the White House. You can’t fix the economy without places to employ people. We’ve sent our manufacturing base overseas where labor is cheap. You can and should blame the entire government for this one, Democrats and Republicans share in the blame … but mostly, the blame fall solidly on Capitalism implemented without the human cost being calculated as part of the equation.
From records of the National Child Labor Committee (U.S.)
As long as the goal of business isn’t merely making a profit, but making the biggest possible profits, as long as employers feel no responsibility to their workers and do not care whether they live or die, we will continue to have massive unemployment.
It’s not Obama. And sadly, if elected, it wouldn’t be Romney’s fault either. It’s the system itself that’s broken.
It does not have to be this way. Capitalism does not require utter ruthlessness. Profits can be made without completely ignoring any semblance of morality or conscience. But that is the way we do it here … and it no longer works for any but those who own the companies making the big profits.
It sort of worked to some degree as long as we only exploited Americans who at least got jobs as part of the deal, but now that we can exploit anyone anywhere, U.S. workers don’t reap any benefit at all.
Two girls protesting child labour (by calling it child slavery) in the 1909 New York City Labor Day parade. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
You can say whatever you like about our socialist European friends: their systems do calculate the human cost of doing business. We don’t. If you like what you have, keep mouthing the same stupid platitudes and you will get the same, stupid poverty, unemployment, and loss of American prestige on the world stage.
It’s payback time, except guess what? YOU are the one paying the bill, not the guys who ran up the tab. Funny how that’s the way it always seems to work out.
With camera in hand, exploring European lands, cultures, food, and drink...mostly with a plan, but sometimes enjoying the adventure of just getting lost.
