Why is it that, in the interest of one's self, it is so easy to be impatient, rude and inconsiderate towards one(s) that you love the most? It's just not right. I hope I can stop myself from being that way the NEXT time it occurs.
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I know a man who tries too hard
'Cause he wants to be liked
Both near and far
But it's not all that simple
A story to tell
And I'm sure it all started
Way back when
He was only a child
The whole world laying ahead of him
He couldn't get what he craved
No matter how much he tried
An uphill battle awaited
Then something clicked inside
Maybe he's okay
Not quite as bad as he seems
Am I expecting too much
It's not intentionally
Maybe it isn't polite
Looking so critically
Maybe I do it because
He's just not like me
I know a man who talks so much
He's got nothing to say
But it's never enough
And it's like second nature
He's as social can be
But the topic is always 'about me'
From his self-centered view
His egoist perspective
Subject of interest he's found
His world revolving around him
The real one beyond his touch
With real people there too
Please won't you understand I don't want every man
Doing just what I would do or moving the way that I move
or the the way that I sit or stand
Maybe he's okay
Not quite as bad as he seems
Am I expecting too much
It's not intentionally
Maybe it isn't polite
Looking so critically
Maybe I do it because
He's just not like me
(from "Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original by Robin D.G. Kelley)
". . . Valerie W. [Journalist Valerie Wilmer]: Do you believe in God?
Monk: I don't know nothing. Do You?
Valerie W.: No. I do not.
Monk: It's a deep subject, you know, trying to think about it. I kinda go along with you. . . "
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(from http://economywatch.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/07/13728411-weak-jobs-growth-beyond-governments-control?lite By John W. Schoen, NBC News)
". . . No matter who ends up occupying the White House in January, many of the forces that have kept unemployment high and jobs growth slow will be beyond his control.
With employment growth stuck at a slower pace than in any recovery in the past half-century, the presidential campaign now turns on which candidate -- President Barack Obama or former Gov. Mitt Romney -- has the better plan to boost employment. The latest jobs data will do little to change the debate.
The economy added just 96,000 new jobs in August, well below the roughly 130,000 economists had been expecting. Gains in the prior two months were revised down by a combined 41,000. Manufacturers cut 15,000 jobs last month, while another 7,000 government jobs were lost. Temporary employment fell by almost 5,000 workers.
Other recent reports had painted a somewhat brighter picture. Fewer people applied for unemployment benefits last week, and a private survey by payroll processor ADP found that companies created some 200,000 new jobs in August. Another private report showed that service sector companies, such as hotels, retailers, and financial services firms, expanded at a faster rate last month. . .
. . . That uncertainty – and reluctance to hire – will be stoked by a series of other forces holding back the four-year-old recovery:
While subpar economic growth feels like a recession to many Americans, Europeans are coping with the real thing. The economic contraction that began in troubled economies of Greece and Spain is now spreading to Germany, the flywheel of Europe’s economy, the largest in the world. China, along with the developing economies that feed its massive manufacturing machine, is in an economic slowdown that Beijing has so far been unable to reverse.
The budget impasse in the U.S. is due largely to huge, and rising, cost of providing health care and retirement income to an aging population. The dearth of private retirement savings will bring a slowdown in consumer spending as baby boomers continue to tighten their belts. Those trends are irreversible.
With wage growth stagnant, growth in spending remains weak for consumers in every age group. The boom in borrowing during the 2000s helped offset sluggish wage growth. The resulting housing bust destroyed trillions of dollars in household wealth. Though the housing market is beginning to recover, it will take at least a decade for prices to recover to the 2006 peak.
As private employers have slowed the pace of new hires, state and local governments are still shedding workers. The Obama administration’s massive federal stimulus program – now criticized by Republicans for failing to produce the number of jobs originally projected – helped blunt those layoffs. As those funds have dried up, local governments have been hit with lower sales and property tax receipts, cuts in state aid and, in some cases, mandated tax caps.
Even the Federal Reserve – the economic fire brigade of last resort – seems to have run out of tools to fight the fire. Friday's weak jobs report give the central bank more reason for another big money drop known as quantitative easing or QE. But after two rounds of more than $1 trillion in pump-priming, and short-term interest rates already at zero, most economists see diminishing returns from another effort to stimulate growth by pumping more money into the system.
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(from http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/06/13711389-dem-official-arab-americans-got-punched-over-jerusalem-switch?lite) ". . .The Democratic party’s abrupt platform reversal on Jerusalem -- reinstating language describing it as the capital of Israel despite loud objections from the Democratic National Convention floor -- stirred fresh and unexpected controversy Thursday in Charlotte as Arab-American and Muslim party officials expressed anger over how the issue was handled and predicted that it may suppress Democratic votes this fall among constituents in key swing states. “I’m concerned that Arab-Americans will feel they got punched in the solar plexus,” said James Zogby, the president of the Arab-American Institute who serves on the Democratic Party’s platform committee. “This was ham-fisted and a blunder ... They stepped all over the convention the way this was done.”. . . "
and. . .
(from http://mondoweiss.net/2012/05/michael-scheuer-says-israeli-lobby-has-tied-american-govt-down-like-gulliver.html) ". . . Host: Would you change our policy with Israel and Saudi?. . . We can't sir, we can't do either one. The Israeli lobby controls our politics and the Saudi Arabians control the most important reserves of oil. The United States government is like Gulliver, it's strapped to the ground.... We're stuck in the middle east and we'll have to keep taking the pounding we've been taking.... Because we've taken no cognizance of [our enemies' motivation], we've given the next generation away to the Islamists. We've made no dent in the appeal of people who want to get us out of their neighborhood..."
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Wrong?. . . No argument there, Mittster. If the implication is that you could have done it, even after the mess your teammates made. . . you're dead wrong. . .
(from MSNBC.com)
". . . Mitt Romney emerged from debate rehearsals in Vermont today to pick
up some pizzas, and to deliver his own analysis of the first night of
the Democratic National Convention, which he said could not make the
claim Americans were better off after President Obama's first term.
"You've
heard no one stand up and say that people are better off than they were
four years ago," Romney told reporters traveling with him as he picked
up several extra large pies at a pizza joint here. "They really can't
say that. They can't say it in all honesty. Particularly with the news
that has come out this week.". . . "
Maybe if we all lived in the land of make-believe. . .
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(by David Horsey)
"It is not too much of a stretch to say the National Rifle Association profits from mass killings like the slaughter at the theater in Aurora, Colo., and the killings at the Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wis. The NRA is, after all, a fundraising machine that runs on fear and a sense of crisis, even when the fear is false and the crisis manufactured.
A former Republican lawmaker has made public a four-page fundraising letter from the NRA's executive vice-president, Wayne LaPierre, that was sent out to gun enthusiasts just three days after a young man styling himself as the Joker turned a showing of the new Batman movie into a bloody massacre. The Republican whistleblower apparently found the timing of the solicitation just a bit unseemly. At the same time, he insisted on anonymity. Even an ex-officeholder does not want to end up on the NRA's hit list.
In the NRA's defense, such mailings for money generally take weeks to prepare, so it is highly unlikely the letter was sent in response to the Aurora incident. Still, it was convenient timing. In the days after the Joker went wild, sales of firearms and ammunition boomed. The gun-loving populace, it seems, has been convinced by years of NRA propaganda that any mass shooting will be used as an excuse for government agents to start confiscating firearms, so they rushed to stock up before the feds came to their door.
Mr. LaPierre's fundraising missive was yet another example of this fear mongering. In the letter, the NRA leader says President Barack Obama's re-election would lead to "confiscation of our firearms" and, potentially, a "ban on semi-automatic weapons."
Follow @BaltSunLetters for the latest reader letters to The Sun.
"The future of your Second Amendment rights will be at stake," writes Mr. LaPierre. "And nothing less than the future of our country and our freedom will be at stake."
The truth, of course, is that most Democrats have given up the fight to restrict guns, and Mr. Obama has shown no inclination whatsoever to renew that battle. Nevertheless, the NRA needs money, and the money will not come if gun owners do not think they need the lobbying power of the NRA to protect their right to keep and bear arms. In recent years, revenue from NRA membership dues has dropped, as has total income for the organization. So, increasingly, Mr. LaPierre and company have come to depend on contributions from freaked-out gun nuts.
One steady stream of NRA dollars comes from an interesting source. A 1986 law erased the ban on interstate sales of ammunition. Since then, consumers have been encouraged to add a little extra to the total when they buy their bullets online or by mail order. That tip goes to the NRA. Since 1992, these nifty gratuities have reportedly brought in $9.3 million to the organization. That means that every time there is a run on ammo in the wake of a mass shooting, Mr. LaPierre's budget gets a nice boost.
There is a sick symbiosis between the deranged acts of the lone gunmen and the revenue stream of the NRA. In no way can the NRA be blamed for the actions of the shooters, of course, but it sure would be nice to see Mr. LaPierre take a day off from stoking the fear and raising the dough, at least while families mourn the dead."
[Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner David Horsey is a political commentator for the Los Angeles Times. Go to latimes.com/news/politics/topoftheticket/ to see more of his work]
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