A little hint at life in the other Georgia
Christina Davidson, on the road writing for The Atlantic, has a somber piece on the effects of the recession on the people of Millen, Ga., a little town between Augusta and Savannah.
Jobs are disappearing, people are disappearing. The town is drying up. Vera Williams, owner of Vera’s Cafe, faces the prospect of having to close her business.
“Vera feels that God is not only testing her, but testing the whole world. “Love of money–that’s what got us in the state we’re in.” From her perspective, the world has earned the trials and tribulations unleashed by the global economy, but will learn valuable lessons through the experience. “Even though this is a bad time, this is a good time too. Now you learn what you really need.”
It’s worth a read.
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240 comments Add your comment
Goober
June 29th, 2009
4:08 pm
I think most of us can truthfully say that we have more than we need.
I Report :-) You Whine :-(
June 29th, 2009
4:09 pm
Yeah, it’s just the creme del la creme to be unemployed, be serious.
You’re gonna miss capitalism when it’s gone.
Well, maybe not in the state run propaganda business.
Frederick Douglass
June 29th, 2009
4:14 pm
How did things get so bad since Jan.20,2009?
Normal
June 29th, 2009
4:17 pm
Yeah, small towns are doomed. Big business has killed the mon and pop businesses, which was not only the bread and butter of small towns, but their personality, or flavor, if you will…This is the result of capitalism run amok.
GOP is gone
June 29th, 2009
4:17 pm
Ted Haggard is on Oprah in rerun now. What a sham.
RealityKing
June 29th, 2009
4:17 pm
Get ready for Obama’s energy efficient government run healthcare units.., like the ones tens of thousands of elderly Europeans died in a few years back.
Normal
June 29th, 2009
4:20 pm
Frederick, The town I did alot of growing up in, the last time I was there, had two thirds of the towns homes empty, and nearly all of the business, too. That in 2005 when things were still concidered good.
Small towns have been dying for a long, long time…
GOP is gone
June 29th, 2009
4:21 pm
Ted Haggard on his lie about his Meth problem ” now you see how conflicted I was” , no Ted I just see a big fat liar.
Bosch
June 29th, 2009
4:21 pm
Oh RealityKing do tell.
Redneck Convert
June 29th, 2009
4:23 pm
Well, funny how this Obama run the economy into the ground in just six months or so. Things were pretty good under My President. Now I run into little kids trying to sell old used up golf balls on the course I play. Some even try to sell broke-off golf tees. The only thing doing good up my way is the boiled peanut business. No matter where you go in GA somebody’s got a sign up advertizing boiled peanuts. Or the We Bare All places that try to sucker truckers to stop for a few hours.
Anyhow, you libruls voted for this Obama and now you’re getting your comeuppance. Have a good night everybody.
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
4:25 pm
Scanned the article…likened those leaving to the Joads. Oy! Something tells me my rural Southern ire has been roused. We’re such a stolid lot, you know…
Pogo
June 29th, 2009
4:25 pm
Yea Normal, it’s all capitalism’s fault. You are about to see what a delight it is to live in a socialistic society unfettered by the “constraints” of the free market. Of course, you and DB and Amvet are the type that will fit in well because you appear to be people who will readily sell your liberty and your freedom for a government nanny state. Since you spend so much time on this blog you are made to order for socialism. Sit in your little room, the government gives you three squares and a roof over your head and you can tap away on your keyboard on this meaningless blog all day long and you are happy as little mindless liberal clams.
Ga. tech Dad
June 29th, 2009
4:30 pm
Jay, How about your thoughts on the attacks taking place around the Ga. Tech campus? My kids will be walking to and from class before dark and will be carrying protection. What do you think hard working middle class kids should do to protect themselves from street thugs who are basically terrorists?
RealityKing
June 29th, 2009
4:31 pm
More than 37,451 Europeans died in August, 2003. A month in which many people, including government ministers and physicians, are on holiday. Many bodies were not claimed for weeks because relatives were out of town. On 3 September 2003, fifty-seven bodies still left unclaimed in the Paris area were buried.
That shortcomings of the nation’s health system could allow such a death toll is stil a matter of controversy. Many of the editorials(Pepe le Jays) blamed the administration. Many blamed Health Minister for failing to return from vacation when the heat wave became serious, and for blocking emergency measures in public hospitals such as the recalling of physicians. Head of the union of emergency physicians blamed the administration for ignoring warnings from health and emergency professionals and trying to minimize the crisis. But America’s elderly will have no one but themselves to blame..
pat
June 29th, 2009
4:33 pm
Boy that stimulus did a lot of good, didn’t it. Let’s evaulte what it did for the economy. It…, well, then it…., crap, it did nothing. Wow! I could have spent 787 Billion dollars better than that!
RealityKing
June 29th, 2009
4:34 pm
Cap and Trade, 80% CO2 reduction, what a wonderful idea. It’ll only cost an extra $175 per person..
Tricky D
June 29th, 2009
4:35 pm
Yeah Pogo, like your ‘liberty’ and ‘freedom’ wasn’t sold off after 9/11. Trying using liberty to get through TSA, or freedom to drive through a roadblock this weekend. You don’t even have the freedom to make a phone call without it being recorded. Wake up.
godless heathen
June 29th, 2009
4:36 pm
Read the piece. Same story in a lot of small towns. Few or no opportunities unless a big foreign owned car company (non-union) locates nearby. We have always had victims of changing times and the global economy is nothing but changing times.
And all those billions of economic stimulus – won’t a single penny reach Millen, Gerogia.
Normal
June 29th, 2009
4:37 pm
Ga. tech Dad
June 29th, 2009
4:30 pm
———
I recommend a nice 12GA shotgun in stainless steel. Don’t need to learn how to do anything but point and pull the trigger. Be sure to use double aught tho, ’cause it will take out any bystander in the way…
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
4:37 pm
Read the article folks. A waste of words.
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
4:42 pm
godless heathen–yeah, same story, different verse. Outside the Carpetbagger/Scalawag enclaves Uncle Sam’s Oldest Colony is still mired in a pattern of economic exploitation of its natural resources (in this case human resources) to the benefit of the imperialist overlords and once that resource is used up, to hell with them. G-d send the jacquerie!
Normal
June 29th, 2009
4:43 pm
POGO: you and DB and Amvet are the type that will fit in well because you appear to be people who will readily sell your liberty and your freedom for a government nanny state.
—————–
Tell me what freedoms am I losing?
—————-
If the Free Market was really the answer, then where is the level playing field for the Mom’s And Pop’s versus the Walmarts, say?
It took away their right to own a viable business and make a decent living, did it not?
————–
Oh, and just so’s you know, I have a job and I do it so well, I can
come in and out of this blog whenever I want.
ByteMe
June 29th, 2009
4:43 pm
Why is it that every little town in the South has a restaurant named after the woman who runs it? Peggy’s, Vera’s, etc.
And the main course is always fried-whatever-couldn’t-move-fast-enough?
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
4:43 pm
Normal–a switchblade does nicely.
Dusty
June 29th, 2009
4:45 pm
Don’t worry about Millen, GA, Jay. Southerners have learned long ago how to pull themselves out of hard times. It may take a daily diet of collards, cornbread and black eyed peas but they will make it.
Now all those folks sitting around Detroit, Cleveland, and Chicago who are waiting on the government to rescue them might be in for a bit of trouble. They will end up with clean air, free medical care, no taxes, no income, no jobs and the opportunity to buy a car real cheap. Good thing about the car. They might have to live in it.
But dear Christina’s great story MUST take place in the South. Notice her list. Not one place above the Mason Dixon Line.
So, Jay, how’s the economy and life in the other Pennsylvania, say around Pittsburg? Everything peachy keen?
OH, everybody’s moving South? The big secret is OUT! That’s the smartest move anyone can make. U betcha!
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
4:45 pm
ByteMe: Why? “Tradition! Without our traditions out lives would be as shakey as…as a fiddler on the roof.” –Tevye
RealityKing
June 29th, 2009
4:45 pm
As of last Friday, add 12 more Altanta families to Obama’s victim list. I’m not even sure about my own job anymore. What a dismal weekend.., and lead up to America’s independence day. Personally, I blame Jay and his drunken band of clueless liberals..
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
4:46 pm
DUSTY–the last thing we need is more colonists!
@@
June 29th, 2009
4:50 pm
Location, location, location.
Millen sounds like a place where I’d like to pitch my tent — just millin’ around.
RealityKing
June 29th, 2009
4:53 pm
Good thing squirrels and alligators are plentiful these days..
getalife
June 29th, 2009
4:54 pm
There goes that empathy again Jay.
cons lack that DNA.
Just sayin.
ByteMe
June 29th, 2009
4:56 pm
josef: I spent a solid month years ago living with that tradition for lunch. Yuck! Three choices in the town: Peggy’s, Wendy’s (yes, the real one), and DQ. DQ had more flies inside than outside; Peggy’s was fried everything and oozing oil. And now you understand why I can’t even walk into a Wendy’s without getting nauseous. Ate it too many days in a row.
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
4:56 pm
RealityKing–
Good thing squirrels and alligators are plentiful these days..
Yeah, and I’m glad to know that I can go out in the woods and come back with supper.
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
4:58 pm
ByteMe–didn’t nobody tell you that even WE don’t eat it all the time!
Normal
June 29th, 2009
5:00 pm
DUSTY: OH, everybody’s moving South? The big secret is OUT! That’s the smartest move anyone can make. U betcha!
————–
I remember a bumper sticker that said: Welcome to the south. Now go home! Time again, I think…
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
5:01 pm
NORMAL–Flannery O’Connor–”Good Country People,” “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.”
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
5:02 pm
Bumper stickers, one I saw in Louisiana’s oil patch, “Let the Bast*rds freeze to death in the dark!”
Paul
June 29th, 2009
5:03 pm
Just another effect. People live good lives, work hard, treat others decently – then a bunch of immoral, self centered greedy crooks who tell themselves “I didn’t do anything against the law” hose down the economy and the effects are felt in some little town.
Well, one of those bums just got sentenced to 150 years. Shame is, a bunch of the Wall Street guys got bonuses and multimillion dollar severance packages. (and these are the guys who’re gonna run the market trading cap n trade credits? BOHICA).
And some poor woman in a little town’s about to lose her livelihood, with no real prospects in sight.
It’s a shame -
Dusty
June 29th, 2009
5:05 pm
joseph nix,
I like your lines. Did not see them until I had posted. “A little ire aroused” you say? STOLID! Southerners? Shut yo’ mouth, SIR!!
AmVet
June 29th, 2009
5:06 pm
Damn! That little lurking, drive by, never-served, never-will troglodyte says I’m selling my liberty and freedom?
To whom? And for how much? At least I’d like to know.
Harrumph…
At least he put me in good company…
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
5:09 pm
Vignette from the 1970s–the area around the Mobile River had recently been opened up for oil exploitation (previously G-d Allm-ghty had foreseen the geopolitical divisions of the USofA and the oil had stopped at the Louisiana-Mississippi line.) Well a Yankee journalist had come down to do a write up on “the sudden wealth” coming into the area. It was illustrated with a photo of a local country woman with five little piglets in her arms, telling the reporter how “glad they wuz they wouldn’t be et this winter.” My uncle had a hunting cabin in the area and knew the lady. She was a registered nurse, owned a good chunk of the land and its mineral rights and had a brother with his law degree from Duke working to see to it that locals didn’t get entirely screwed. Did any of that make it into the article? Ha!
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
5:10 pm
DUSTY–no, I had not seen your line. Me and you both come up with it? Tells you something, doesn’t it?
Normal
June 29th, 2009
5:11 pm
AM VET: To the likes of POGO, we are the Axis of Evil…Just sayin’
booger
June 29th, 2009
5:12 pm
I agree with Dusty. People in these small southern towns will weather this just fine. I grew up in a small Ga. town a long time ago, but still have family there. I assure you the last thing these people want or need is govt. help, and God forbid a Govt. program.
And Normal, people in small towns love Wal-Mart. In the town where I grew up many years ago, there was one store to buy clothes, mens and womens. Needless to say, in my school a lot of people dressed alike.
Paul
June 29th, 2009
5:13 pm
Hey Normal
thanks for the Ketchup history. Illuminating.
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
5:15 pm
Paul–It’s a shame -
You’re too kind. It’s a crime, a sin and a disgrace. We say we support capitalism, well isn’t that what the Veras of the world are all about? We want corporatism, and since I’m under the fear of being considered hyperbolic if I call it by name…let’s just say this is precisely the line of thought, action and deed that brought the best fed, best educated, and possessor of the world’s largest gold reserves to its knees in the Cono del Sur in the 1950s.
Dusty
June 29th, 2009
5:16 pm
NORMAL,
I have not seen a bumper sticker that said “Welcome to the South, Now go home.”
Where can I get one?
and NORMAL, for goodness sakes, DO NOT READ Flannery O’Connor. If ever there was one with a lose connection in the upper wiring system, she’s it!
College professors love her! Other crazies crave her words. (Sorry , joseph.)
On second thought, you might like her tangled tales of the weird. There’s something for all kinds I suppose.
Paul
June 29th, 2009
5:19 pm
josef
I’m too tired thinking about those bums to even swear at them. So I settled for “immoral, self centered greedy crooks .” Considering what they did and the lives they ruined, you are correct. I am being too nice.
Normal
June 29th, 2009
5:20 pm
PAUL, You’re welcome, but now you see why they have all that katsup at Mickey D’s…
Dusty: Too late! And She’s like a drug. I try to give it up, but I keep going back…
Bosch
June 29th, 2009
5:20 pm
RealityKing,
Got comparative stats on how many people died in the US in August 2003? Good lord, what’s wrong with you?
Bosch
June 29th, 2009
5:22 pm
Dusty,
Flannery O’Connor was brilliant. Good Lord, what’s wrong with you?
Paul
June 29th, 2009
5:23 pm
I would’ve loved to have been a juror at Bernie’s trial. Would’ve gone in for deliberations, then had the jury come out and ask the judge, “Your honor, is the death penalty an option?”
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
5:23 pm
DUSTY–my jury has always been out on Flannery O’Connor. She capitalized on that Outlander belief that the Southern gothic is who we really are, and while I confess a certain morbid interest, I do resent it being used as a sterotype. As for college professors, I went to school Up North and disrupted several literature classes with my cry of “horse sh*t” over some of those per-fessers intepretations!
Normal
June 29th, 2009
5:24 pm
DUSTY: The bumper sticker. I haven’t seen one in a few years, but if you can get some blank bumper sticker paper, print your own. I print my own decals for my model ships and planes, so it oughta work.
Normal
June 29th, 2009
5:25 pm
JOSEF: As for college professors, I went to school Up North and disrupted several literature classes with my cry of “horse sh*t” over some of those per-fessers intepretations!
————————–
I would have loved to see that…
Seek and ye shall Find
June 29th, 2009
5:25 pm
Just another effect. People live good lives, work hard, treat others decently – then a bunch of immoral, self centered greedy crooks who tell themselves “I didn’t do anything against the law” hose down the economy and the effects are felt in some little town.
Well, one of those bums just got sentenced to 150 years. Shame is, a bunch of the Wall Street guys got bonuses and multimillion dollar severance packages. (and these are the guys who’re gonna run the market trading cap n trade credits? BOHICA).
And some poor woman in a little town’s about to lose her livelihood, with no real prospects in sight.
It’s a shame -
It’s the Republican way. The strong will survive and the rest don’t deserve to live. At least, that about sums up what I recall Republicans posting here.
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
5:25 pm
PAUL–yeah, attempt at civility keeps me from saying what I REALLY think and feel.
@@
June 29th, 2009
5:25 pm
Florala, AL, my Mom’s hometown died some thirty years ago. Only thing that’s kept it going is it’s on the way to Florida’s beaches — that an Eglin AFB, some 45 minutes away.
I’d live in that little town too.
My Aunt Ferrlyn who has a beautiful old homestead on the outskirts of town just got a new neighbor. It’s a cement plant.
“Jus lookee here Sweet @@, yore poor Aunt Ferrlyn can’t keep nuthin nice fer my new neighbor’s dust. Can’t be greedy tho….just glad folks got jobs.”
She makes this chipped up salad of dill pickles, onions, tomatoes and cucumbers. I LOVE THAT STUFF!!!! A slice of homemade buttered pound cake toasted to perfection. Once the meal is finished, it’s off to one of two living rooms where she plays the piano for our enjoyment. “Mind you fluff the pillows on the sofa, Sweet @@…..what with all I’ve got to do, I’ll leave the fluffin’ up to you.”
She’s so funny.
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
5:28 pm
Seek and ye shall Find
“It’s the Republican way…”
With all due respect, it’s the American way and is by no means limited by party affiliation…ever looked at just who some of those out to profit and fleeced by Madoff are…? Jus’ sayin’
AmVet
June 29th, 2009
5:29 pm
Normal, that kid has some nerve!
And like a lot of the neo-conned, no cogent arguments, but lotsa pretentious piffle and speaking for others…
Dusty I was forced to read O’Connor’s Wise Blood in college. Jesus freaks. Non-Jesus freaks. Insufferable…
thomas
June 29th, 2009
5:29 pm
i thought someone said that the unemployment would not go above 8%, or that this stimulus bill would be needed or unemployment would go above 8%.
Anyone know the idiot that spoke those words or those similar too?
Seek and ye shall Find
June 29th, 2009
5:30 pm
One of the stores in the small town that I live near still carries a diverse selection of clothing — men’s, women’s and children’s overalls in a range of sizes. What more does one need.
Normal
June 29th, 2009
5:33 pm
AM VET: What ticks me off is he uses the handle of one of the best political cartoons ever. “We has met the enemy and they is us”…Loved that.
————-
Well, it is time for me to lock the doors, turn on the alarm and get.
Gotta go home and try to finish my deck. Vegas is giving odds on who will win…Just sayin’
—————-
Good night, all
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
5:34 pm
@@ been to Florala! Used to spend part of the summer with my Mobile family. Mullet toss?
Dusty
June 29th, 2009
5:34 pm
Dear booger,
I think we know small Southern towns pretty well. That’s why we are so well “brought up” and sensible!! I can’t think of a better place to get a good start.
Now I am getting homesick. Maybe I better reread Thomas Wolf’s “You Can’t Go Home Again’. Maybe we can’t really go home again but it surely is nice to think about it.
Seek and ye shall Find
June 29th, 2009
5:36 pm
josef nix,
with all due respect, I disagree.
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
5:36 pm
AmVet–that’s it! Pretentious piffle! Can I use it?
Paul
June 29th, 2009
5:38 pm
josef nix 5:25
Had a job once where I had a couple younger guys I was responsible for. Was out on a job. One of’em screwed up. With a local police force. I had to go get him. Heard the next day that the nex morning another guy asked him how it went he said “I guess I’m off the hook, Paul didn’t say much, was real quiet.” His friend said “Oh S@#T! If he got real quiet that means he’s really, really pi$$ed! You are so dead.”
I let him sweat for a couple days. Then I told him to think and not be stupid again.
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
5:39 pm
DUSTY–my “urbane” friends thought we were insane when the boys came to live with us that we went to Coosa (and commuted the 75 miles for five years) to raise them in a community which reflected out home values.
Tar Heel Bred bleeds Tar Heel Blue
June 29th, 2009
5:39 pm
It wasn’t “love of money” that us here, it was LOVE OF MONEY THAT WE DIDN’T HAVE (and that good old standby, greed, of course) that got us here. Living on excess credit and encouraging people to borrow way, way, WAY MORE than they could ever afford, that’s what got us here.
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
5:41 pm
Paul–my own kids used to would say, “say something, say anything, just say something.”
AmVet
June 29th, 2009
5:43 pm
josef, as long as you clear it with @@. /sarc/
(I’ve always love alliteration.)
Mullet toss indeed!
I married a girl from Theodore. Loved going to Bayou La Batre and getting that first rate seafood right off the docks…
clyde
June 29th, 2009
5:43 pm
The town I grew up in died a long time ago.There were about 600 residents,3 stores and a restaurant.Today there is nothing.There are maybe 300 people left.The surrounding small towns are all going the same way.When they die they do not recover.It’s simply Millen’s turn to go.America is not a better place for these small town deaths.
Matlida
June 29th, 2009
5:45 pm
“Small towns have been dying for a long, long time…’
Funny how the righties always claim to champion the “small businessman” in their speeches, but do everything to ensure that small businesses never have a level playing field with corporate giants getting corporate welfare in return for big fat campaign donations at every level of our government. OSHA didn’t kill the Mom & Pop shops on Main Street. WalMart and Target, with their cheap, third-world, toxic-paint goods did. Well, with a little help from the people who are stupid enough to think cheap cr@p they don’t need is somehow a “bargain.” Meanwhile, their hourly grunts scraping out a living bleed the taxpayers in PeachCare and food stamps because WallyMaster won’t offer full-time schedules or benefits. Their profits are reinvested, allright… destroying another community somewhere else. THIS is the “Capitalism” some of you champion? Mom & Pop are ashamed of you, but if you can save $1.50 on a family-sized package of corn syrup and hydrogenated fat-laced face fuel, and some cheap plastic lawn toys that won’t make it through August, you think you’re living the American dream. Yuk!
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
5:49 pm
DUSTY–when he heard we’d be leaving to come back South after graduation, on of the aforementioned per-fessers says, “why would you want to do that?” I told him, “just to prove Wolf wrong!”
Have you read Robert Penn Warren’s “A Place to Come to?” or Willie Morris’ “North toward Home?”
@@
June 29th, 2009
5:51 pm
Mullet toss?
Nope! Annual Rattlesnake Rodeo, josef?
For the food connoisseurs here. Last time I was in Florala, I walked across the road to my cousin, Sue Angela’s place to check out her vegetable garden. Newly discovered rutabaga greens — better than any mix or stand alone of collards, turnips or mustard you ever et.
Maybe I like food more than I admit. Naahhhh, just like it when someone else cooks for me.
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
5:53 pm
AmVet–know Theodore, the boy’s mom is buried there and Bayou La Batre–talk about the seafood at the docks…Granddaddy loved oysters and made two trips a year down there and would sit and eat them fresh off the boat with his oyster man…said G-d didn’t mean for you not to eat them straight from the water!
Paul
June 29th, 2009
5:57 pm
@@
Rutabagas. Otherwise known as “Swedes.” I actually had a woman in a grocery store admonish me for using a racial term when I asked the produce guy if they had any…..
Who here is it who mumbles from the peanut gallery about Stratfor? If he pops up, maybe you could invite him to share his thoughts on Stratfor’s latest: The Real Struggle in Iran and Implications for U.S. Dialogue and what he specifically thinks about
“we would make three points. First, there was no democratic uprising of any significance in Iran. Second, there is a major political crisis within the Iranian political elite, the outcome of which probably tilts toward Ahmadinejad but remains uncertain. Third, there will be no change in the substance of Iran’s foreign policy, regardless of the outcome of this fight. The fantasy of a democratic revolution overthrowing the Islamic Republic — and thus solving everyone’s foreign policy problems a la the 1991 Soviet collapse — has passed.
That means that Obama, as the primary player in Iranian foreign affairs, must now define an Iran policy — particularly given Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s meeting in Washington with U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell this Monday. Obama has said that nothing that has happened in Iran makes dialogue impossible, but opening dialogue is easier said than done. The Republicans consistently have opposed an opening to Iran; now they are joined by Democrats, who oppose dialogue with nations they regard as human rights violators. Obama still has room for maneuver, but it is not clear where he thinks he is maneuvering. The Iranians have consistently rejected dialogue if it involves any preconditions. But given the events of the past weeks, and the perceptions about them that have now been locked into the public mind, Obama isn’t going to be able to make many concessions.
It would appear to us that in this, as in many other things, Obama will be following the Bush strategy — namely, criticizing Iran without actually doing anything about it. And so he goes to Moscow more aware than ever that Russia could cause the United States a great deal of pain if it proceeded with weapons transfers to Iran, a country locked in a political crisis and unlikely to emerge from it in a pleasant state of mind.”
Once he reads “continue following the Bush policy” there will likely be no ability for rational discussion.
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
5:58 pm
@@ never tried the rutabaga greens, ‘ll have to give it a try, rutabagas are one of two vegetables I won’t eat the other is hominy…I lie, I don’t eat cooked rutabagas, I’ll sit down with a paring knife and a whole big ole rutabaga raw with salt…
been to the rattlesnake rodeo in Texas, and had it served…really DOES taste like chicken!
Dusty
June 29th, 2009
5:59 pm
Hi boschi.
You been bouncing lotsa soccer balls off your head? U Like Flannery? Those two go together.
The BRAVES WON LAST YESTERDAY! Tra la la la
joseph nix,
You commuted 75 miles for five years for the benefit of your children???
Love makes us do wild and wonderful things, doesn’t it?
I better go feed some hungry “chaps”.. Bye now.
@@
June 29th, 2009
6:00 pm
AmVet:
So what’s it called when you mislead others into thinking it was you who dropped some long diatribe, when in fact, it was someone else’s thoughts you were projecting onto the screen.
SHOWTIME?
Obozo's Teleprompter
June 29th, 2009
6:02 pm
Since my little tard has no idea how to run the economy of the United States, we have decided that you, unemployed shmucks and other assorted hopeless losers, are now the new American success story!
Toiling away in the hardscrabble trying to grow your next meal is very rewarding and fulfilling, isn’t it?
So huddle close together with your loved ones so that the young uns don’t freeze to death, cause we’re shutting your heat off.
We have a planet to save!
Be brave, pioneers!
Allah Akbar!
Frederick Douglass
June 29th, 2009
6:03 pm
The small town I grew up in suffered the same fate as many are facing across Georgia, Wal-Mart moved in, the downtown stores died. However;
today the town is more vibrant than ever before, because the focus
was shifted to tourism. Every store that was vacated because of the
big boxes on the edge of town are filled with a business catering to
the tourist. As a result, the town is probably twice the size it was
when I was a kid there, Millen and some of these other little places
should seek to diversify.
AmVet
June 29th, 2009
6:05 pm
No @@, showtime is telling everyone you’re leaving TWICE and then never leave.
Like the weird aunt at the family reunion, it makes for good conversation though.
I gotta hand it to ya, y’all southern folk will eat damned near anything! But I’ve never been clear if that is a good or very bad thing…
Paul
June 29th, 2009
6:05 pm
Dusty – josef
126 miles a day. Round trip.
Now I’m gonna spoil it for you and tell you I listened to a lot of NPR!
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
6:07 pm
The small town, rural South in literature? None better than the gentle and genteel Miss Eudora Welty! Nothing captures it so well as “Why I Live at the PO” She got her that there Legion d’honneur from them French…
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
6:08 pm
AmVet–as we say in Louisiana, “if it moves, eat it!”
Frederick Douglass
June 29th, 2009
6:10 pm
Hominy is just corn that was soaked in lye, if you eat grits you’ve eaten hominy, just saying.
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
6:11 pm
PAUL–NPR? But of course! So did we…
@@
June 29th, 2009
6:12 pm
josef & Paul:
Rutabagas are among my favorites. I’ve encountered many who refused to taste until they tasted mine. Big, BIG demand for my rutabagas. They’re loaded with everything that’s good for you — vitamins, minerals….yum Yum YUM!!!!!
Paul, it’s Kamchak, the croaker.
It looks like Rafsanjani and Larijani have gotten their slice of the clerical pie. Mousavi appears to be holding out for his sliver.
Facing realities is sucking the wind from Obama’s sails.
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
6:13 pm
Frederick Douglass–don’t eat grits, don’t drink sweetened tea and don’t eat fried chicken. I tell people that’s why I keep and cultivate my Southern dialect! Don’t want waitresses sayin’ “you ain’t from aroun chere ‘er ye?”
Paul
June 29th, 2009
6:16 pm
@@
[[It looks like Rafsanjani and Larijani have gotten their slice of the clerical pie. Mousavi appears to be holding out for his sliver.]]
Even with the conservative, pious Islamic clerics doing Allah’s will, it still comes down to money and power.
Who’da’ thunk?
@@
June 29th, 2009
6:16 pm
NO! AmVet, SHOWTIME is the “original” performance…mine is what you call a walk-on or cameo if you will.
Back to the yardwork.
Paul
June 29th, 2009
6:20 pm
@@
Do you get the Dick Morris newsletters via email? Does it strike you he’s become a bit strident?
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
6:21 pm
@@ and you eat ‘em raw! Same with purple top turnips. When we lived Up North we could find the turnips, but never the greens. They just threw them away! Well, I was in the grocery one day and there was this big bin of turnips with the greens. Just as I was about to dig in, a liver=spotted hand stopped mine and this Alabama drawl you could cut with a butter knife says, “you just hold on there, dahlin, I’m a war bride and this is the first time in 40 years I’ve seen them!”
Another time I was at the store and there was a display of tomatoes. The locals were picking over them talking about how green some of them were. I was loading up as many as I could when behind me I heard, Barbra Anne, come here quick, they got green tomatoes.” This was before “Fried Green Tomatoes” and once the three of us had grabbed them all we noticed the locals standing back staring. “What are you going to do with them?” “Why fry them, what do you think.” They didn’t know what to think, but the Southern accents told them it was probably better not to answer!
Bud Wiser
June 29th, 2009
6:24 pm
Don’t worry little lady, I’m sure that Obowo will rush in and bail you and your little town out of failure.
I wonder wen Obowo will get involved in the Michael Jackson circus?
Do you suppose that Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton want to stuff the carcass, and put it on a glass bubble top train car, and parade it around the country, like James Brown?
getalife
June 29th, 2009
6:27 pm
I said enough with the partisan bs.
So all I can say is:
Good for ya”ll.
I’m hungry
Seek and ye shall Find
June 29th, 2009
6:33 pm
Republicans (at least, the ones that blog here) sure do moan a lot for a group that claims to be so independent and self-sufficient and free of the burden of debt and all. I think they was just pullin’ someone’s fanger with all their talk.
Paul
June 29th, 2009
6:34 pm
getalife
Me, too. Wife just came in, my cucumber plants have exploded (she had one of those ‘how come you plant’em but I gotta pick’em’ looks). Got a pick’em up truck? Take what you want!
AmVet
June 29th, 2009
6:38 pm
josef, and as they said in the military. If it doesn’t move, paint it.
Good old BW, always cheerful, that one…
Matlida
June 29th, 2009
6:38 pm
“I’m sure that Obowo will rush in and bail you and your little town out of failure.”
I don’t know of any small-town folks who want to be bailed out. They want more job opportunities in their towns than the usual three: WalMart, Hardees, and the fertilizer warehouse. They’d like to manufacture quality, American-made goods, or process American-grown crops (without fear the plant and town will be shut down becaues greedy effers couldn’t be bothered with safety regulations), and for “green jobs” to become a reality, not something their legislators fight against. They’d love for the smart kids in the family to have a reason to return to the community after college and populate the neighborhoods, churches, and schools with the next generation. If YOU translate that to mean “wanna bailout,” then you either you don’t know Americans very well, or you’re just an ayyyyyyyyhole.
@@
June 29th, 2009
6:39 pm
No, Paul, I don’t get Morris’ e-mails.
Uh Oh, since Bud mentioned MJ, I’ve just gotta share.
Bush I and Al Sharpton appear to have something in common.
A generation perhaps?
Now I’m out.
Kamchak
June 29th, 2009
6:43 pm
….but does any one remember the kid/bully from ‘The Christmas Story’…the one that Ralphie pummeled?
Anyhoo, there was a little squirt that hung with ‘yellow tooth’…..repeating everything that ‘yellow’ said.
I think his name was Toad.
Lotsa Toads on here.”
“Who here is it who mumbles from the peanut gallery about Stratfor?”
Gee Paul, all this time I just thought you were merely a slitherer outer. The simple fact is you just don’t understand. I don’t care one fig about Stratfor. The (croak)Stratfor(croak) comments are for the benefit for the one here that used a pop culture reference to criticize others for doing exactly what they do.
The only experience that I have personally with Stratfor, is when you used them as a reference for rationalizing torture because of decades long intelligence failures in the Middle East, which I still call BS on that. Stratfor is a for profit intelligence service that contracts to corporations, media outlets and governments. It’s easier for me to see that for profit intel service will tell a client what they want to hear rather than risk losing a lucrative revenue stream. This is the primary reason I stay away from the for profit infotainment industry.
Frederick Douglass
June 29th, 2009
6:49 pm
Bud Wiser, us darkies can sho do sum trifling stuff now can’t we? We haven’t reached the level of the Elvis worshippers yet, and surely
we aren’t intelligent enough to know a UFO when we see one. That old
Obowo can’t possibly do the job Dubya did, for heavens sake he’s a
darkie. Did I miss any time worn cliche that paw-paw passed on to you?
Seek and ye shall Find
June 29th, 2009
6:53 pm
You want economic stimulus right here at home. Well, why not start with getting rid of our dependence on foreign oil. Better yet, let’s get rid of the bulk of our dependence on oil and use locally produced electricity instead. We currently use about 20 million barrels of oil per day and at the bargain basement price of $70 per barrel, that’s a whopping 1.5 billion dollars per day that goes to oil producers. And, that’s just the direct cost for the oil itself. That is just the tip of the soon to be melted iceberg.
I Report (-: You Whine )-:
June 29th, 2009
6:55 pm
(without fear the plant and town will be shut down becaues greedy effers couldn’t be bothered with safety regulations)
There were more people offed in Obozo’s Chicago last weekend than have been killed in the nation’s cornfields all year.
Look at who the libs whine about.
TnGelding
June 29th, 2009
6:56 pm
I Report
You Whine 
June 29th, 2009
4:09 pm
Then why are you self-described capitalists trying to destroy it by withdrawing your participation?
godless heathen
June 29th, 2009
6:59 pm
My Fried Green Tomatoes story. When my dear grandmother moved out of her home (50+ years in the South) she was talking about some ladies she had just met at the Assisted Living. She said, “They seemed nice and like they got some sense except they were frying green tomatoes.”
Kayaker 71
June 29th, 2009
7:08 pm
Fredrick,
I would settle for you and those like you to to get a job. You would be surprised to know that the identification of UFOs, the W putdown and your estimation of how well Mr. Wonderful will do are not nearly as important as a steady income and paying your share of the taxes that all of the rest of us pay. My paw-paw never took a thin dime from anyone. And you know, that might build more character than all of the Steppen Fetchit quotes that you can drag up. We’re pretty tired of paying your bills.
Seek and ye shall Find
June 29th, 2009
7:15 pm
Someone make Whiner a peanut butter sandwich to take to work with him to the Imperial Sugar plant. And, if those two don’t get him, there’s a whole list of other laissez faire thee wells to choose from. Why do Republicans have this peculiar mind set that they need to take preemptive measures in other sovereign countries in order to secure their livlihoods yet they cannot see the need to take preemptive measures domestically in the form of laws to protect lives. They would rather wait until after people like Madoff and companies like Imperial Sugar do their damage and then come in and express their faux grief. Spare me.
Paul
June 29th, 2009
7:21 pm
Kamchak
I just seemed to recall whenever @@ would post something relevant to get opinions on, there’d regularly be someone who never addressed the topic, just mocked the source.
[[The only experience that I have personally with Stratfor, is when you used them as a reference for rationalizing torture because of decades long intelligence failures in the Middle East]]
Didn’t we just have a similar discussion the other day? Questioning, assessing, discussing or analyzing are not rationalizing, advocating or supporting.
The analyst at Stratfor merely laid out how we came to do what we did. By so doing, we can take steps to keep those situations from happening again. If you disagree, fine. Some would be interested in an alternate theory.
They’ve also been cited and linked for their analyses of the historical basis of Democrat and Republican foreign policy views, how Obama and McCain fit, and likely outcomes for either as President.
So far, they’ve been spot on with Pres Obama and the Democratic establishment.
Ummm,. do you know any intel service, consulting firm, market forecaster, financial advisor, etc etc etc who do what they do for free? Even Consumer Reports wants to stay in business, advocate their policy positions and pay their staff.
TNGelding
Note for you downstairs at end of thread.
Seek and ye shall Find
June 29th, 2009
7:23 pm
A little more on the real cost of oil:
…Milton Copulus, the head of the National Defense Council Foundation, has a different view. And as the former principal energy analyst for the Heritage Foundation, a 12-year member of the National Petroleum Council, a Reagan White House alum, and an advisor to half a dozen U.S. Energy Secretaries, various Secretaries of Defense, and two directors of the CIA, he knows his stuff.
After taking into account the direct and indirect costs of oil, the economic costs of oil supply disruption, and military expenditures, he estimates the true cost of oil at a stunning $480 a barrel.
That would make the “real” cost of filling up a family sedan about $220, and filling up a large SUV about $325 (when oil was $10 a barrel cheaper than it is now!).
Due to the enormous military cost of protecting Persian Gulf imports, the hidden cost of oil from that region amounts to $7.41 per gallon of gasoline. The cheapest gas out in my part of the Bay Area is $3.11 a gallon for regular. Add them together, and the true cost of my gas is probably around $10.52 a gallon.
We use 21 million barrels a day of oil. At $480 a barrel, that’s $10 trillion a year draining from the national coffers…
And, that is still not the whole story.
Paul
June 29th, 2009
7:23 pm
Report/Whine
[[There were more people offed in Obozo’s Chicago last weekend than have been killed in the nation’s cornfields all year.]]
A stunning confirmation of the effectiveness of cornfield safety regulations, wouldn’t you say?
Mrs. Godzilla
June 29th, 2009
7:24 pm
There is more than a hint of that life in Georgia and all the other 50 states as well. America must start listening to Americans.
BOSCH
If you’re out there….aren’t you deeply involved in some family eldercare? I could use some helpful hints.
Paul
June 29th, 2009
7:24 pm
Seek
And as long as someone else pays, or costs get buried where people can’t connect the dots, it will continue.
I Report (-: You Whine )-:
June 29th, 2009
7:26 pm
I’d eat a peanut butter sandwich even though peanut butter is nasty and grown by Dhimmy Carter.
I’d tour a sugar factory, hang out for a while, no problem.
I wouldn’t, for any amount of money, stroll through the South or West side of Chicago, at night or day, are you freaking crazy?
Kamchak
June 29th, 2009
7:26 pm
Paul
Yup. NPR is no-profit.
Bud Wiser
June 29th, 2009
7:29 pm
Yeah Matilda, and they all want to run around in the beautiful sunshine sucking down all of the pollution free air, prancing naked through the fields and taking a long drink from a beautiful flowing stream.
Then, they want Obowo to provide for whatever they desire.
And Freddy D., had I said that, no doubt I would have been banned because Jay lives behind the old demwittocrat double standard with the best of them. “Monkey Meat” however, could not have said it any better, right, Jay?
Seek and ye shall Find
June 29th, 2009
7:30 pm
What if your peanut butter had some salmonella or E. Coli and your factory had a little electrical arc that set off a flash fire that melted your skin off your bones. The vultures would all be heard remarking days later, “It tastes like chicken, with just a hint of caramel.”
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
7:30 pm
Kayaker 71–Though no doubt responding to your post @ 7:08 is pointless, honor and dignity demand it. That was uncalled for. You are making assumptions. The overwhelming majority of “those” Americans, the same as the overwhelming majority of all Americans, are hardworking, diligent, productive citizens who get up, go to work, come home and spend as much time with their families as they can, enjoying as much of the good life as they can, and pay their way without taking “a thin dime from anyone.” I don’t know what else your paw paw may have taught you, but mine, whom I honor greatly, taught me that manners supersedes all else and you can say what you have to say and still keep a civil tongue in your mouth.
Paul
June 29th, 2009
7:31 pm
May seem like splitting hairs, but I was speaking of people who seek to provide information and support a business…. without accepting tax dollars or foundation grants to pay their salaries. NPR has masters to satisfy, also. As well as an audience to encourage. Ever listened through their semiannual fund drives? Drive you batty –
And some of their licensing arrangements with some of their staff ought to raise an eyebrow or two on the ‘we’re only in it for the service’ idea.
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
7:34 pm
Ms Godzilla–please understand I mean this sincerely when it comes to advice for elder care: just remember at all times s/he diapered your butt…I know it sounds frivolous, but it helps to put things in perspective…
Paul
June 29th, 2009
7:35 pm
Mrs. Godzilla
Don’t want to but in – but…. Had a course at university from a gentleman who was a national leader in a field known as ‘geriatrics’ – an umbrella term that was short-lived. He tried to recruit some of us into the advanced degree program. Anyhow, one thing he did pass on is the difficulty people have separating their emotions and their need to take care of family from an honest assessment of who is best qualified to provide the care needed. And to recognize when the time comes that in spite of all the love, someone else is probably better qualified. No hard and fast rule – he just pointed it out as one of the most difficult and common things he saw.
hope that helped –
glad you’re back, too -
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
7:38 pm
PAUL–”…now some of the critics will say, a little of the cash has gone astray, but that’s not the point my friend, when the money keeps rolling out, you don’t keep books, you can tell you’ve done well by all the happy grateful looks, accountants only slow things down, figures get in the way…”
Jus’ sayin’
Angry Black Man
June 29th, 2009
7:40 pm
Kayaker 71
June 29th, 2009
7:08 pm
Fredrick,
“I would settle for you and those like you to to get a job. You would be surprised to know that the identification of UFOs, the W putdown and your estimation of how well Mr. Wonderful will do are not nearly as important as a steady income and paying your share of the taxes that all of the rest of us pay. My paw-paw never took a thin dime from anyone. And you know, that might build more character than all of the Steppen Fetchit quotes that you can drag up. We’re pretty tired of paying your bills.”
Pardon me for interrupting, but just what makes you think you’re paying Fred’s bills or even better my bills? I just love how people want to crucify any person of color who “uses the race card”, when you sit there and make an assumption like that. Maybe you need to check to see how many “white” people are on welfare and get assistance from the government. I’m not one of those who sit here and google facts and percentages all day but I’m sure you’ll be fairly surprised by the numbers you find. While you’re worried about paying my bills, I actually work everyday to protect your @$$ and make sure no terrorists enter our country to try to replicate 9/11. Not to mention, without those free-loading, no bill paying n******, the south would not have existed in the first place. I’d love to see some “White” people actually doing manual labor for free. If anything, you should be giving thanks to your ancestors for bringing us here.
wet wiccan
June 29th, 2009
7:42 pm
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
5:01 pm
NORMAL–Flannery O’Connor–”Good Country People,” “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.”
____
MAE WEST: “A hard man is good to find.”
I Report (-: You Whine )-:
June 29th, 2009
7:42 pm
Cling with all your might to your one little disaster, seeker, maybe another one will happen and you will have much to shake in my face, but meanwhile, hundreds if not thousands have been slaughtered in Chicago since then, by those who pay no mind to gun regulations.
What, no tears for homey?
Kayaker 71
June 29th, 2009
7:43 pm
Joseph,
A civil tongue? A civil tongue. There was not a pointless phrase in that post. Manners haven’t worked, billions of dollars in welfare aid have not worked, counseling to prevent out of wedlock pregnancy has not worked, keeping the best and brightest in the black male community out of jail has not worked, killing off more males than the Iraq war has not worked…. what do you suggest besides platitudes, denial and having your head up your a**.
Angry Black Man
June 29th, 2009
7:43 pm
To everyone else,
I appologize for my previous outburst. Some things just tick me off.
Paul
June 29th, 2009
7:43 pm
josef nix
I know… I know…
I go back to a general principle of econ 101: TANSTAAFL. There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. Someone, somewhere pays. And continued payment, even if not for profit, means satisfying an audience. And making sure the donors feel they’re getting something for their money. Even if it isn’t a classic ‘profit.’
I donate to a few charities. Classic nonprofits. They do a lot of good. But if I think they spend too much on staff, on themselves, or start misusing funds to care for the people who need it, I don’t donate.
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
7:44 pm
wet wiccan–”being good had nothing to do with it”–Mae West
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
7:46 pm
Kayaker–yes, a civil tongue.
AmVet
June 29th, 2009
7:47 pm
Wow 71! It is only very occasionally that one sees such proud and open racial bigotry and stereotypes anymore.
We all still have much work to do to make this a land of liberty and justice for all, but clearly some have more work to do than others…
Normal
June 29th, 2009
7:48 pm
Kayaker 71…Bless your pea pickin’ heart, one size too small..Just sayin’
Normal
June 29th, 2009
7:50 pm
Off the subject, but a good bumper sticer, I think…a mind is a terrible thing to waste and a waist is a terrible thing to mind…
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
7:50 pm
Angry Black Man–though I probably would disagree with you on certain points in a different environment than here, quite frankly I found your “outburst” rather restrained coming as it does from one of “those” who goes about his life no differently than anyone else.
Kayaker 71
June 29th, 2009
7:54 pm
Angry Black Man,
Today when I drove into downtown Macon, I counted 36 males sitting on their backsides in the downtown area, some drinking their first beer, all in the age group where they could have a job. Who do you think is paying their bills? You and me. Don’t you get tired of this? You and Frederick might have a job and support your families without help from handouts but there are countless others who do not. BTW, I spent nearly 35 yrs protecting the same Americans that you do. I am not talking about responsible Americans, no matter what their race, who carry their own weight. So get the chip off your shoulder…. all of these non-paying folks are making you look bad.
getalife
June 29th, 2009
7:56 pm
And now for some great news:
http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Iraq/ss/events/iraq/082701iraqplane#photoViewer=/090629/481/19a80800801e4a0cbbd1f15db9fdf622
TW
June 29th, 2009
7:59 pm
Millen? That’s Jenkins Co there, boy! God’s Country – Real America!
Good thing for them God didn’t make Iraqi civilians…being that Jenkins Co was up ‘w’s colon about as much as any of ‘em…
What if it’s not a test from God? What if its really his wrath for being a bunch of evil turds? OMG!!!
Nah…Manteats would have said something had that been the case…
Frederick Douglass
June 29th, 2009
7:59 pm
Kayaker 71, never been on welfare, dad wasn’t on welfare, grandad never
on welfare, great-grandads were all slaves. I’m infinitely smarter than
you, end of story.
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
8:00 pm
PAUL–In relation to charity–I take great pride in being from Mississippi for one reason if no other, the state with the lowest per capita income has the highest percentage of that income donated to charity. Whenever my mother was chided for giving to the beggars, and told “they probably have more than you do” she responded with, “well, I still have something they don’t: pride.”
As you know, in my religious tradition charity takes precedence above all else. I got tickled at one of my fellow “tribesmen” who made the comment, “have you ever noticed that when it comes to taking up a collection, they always come to us first and, of course, we have to put in more so we want look cheap…” Still, though, we do it because “it’s what you’re supposed to do.” Her husband is from Mississippi and, as she said, “he gets hit double hard!”
DoggoneGA
June 29th, 2009
8:02 pm
“Today when I drove into downtown Macon, I counted 36 males sitting on their backsides in the downtown area”
Just in case you don’t know it: the first rule of holes is…when you’re in one STOP DIGGING.
AmVet
June 29th, 2009
8:04 pm
71, keep digging. Assuming you’re white, you’re making the rest of us look bad. Dig?
getalife, not quite true, but I’m reminded of Jerry Ford saying, “Our long national nightmare is over.”
F&cking bloodlusting chickenhawks…
Angry Black Man
June 29th, 2009
8:12 pm
Thanks Josef. I’d be interested in hearing opinions different from mine because, of course, my life and perception is different from those around me. I don’t walk around with a chip on my shoulder because I’ve seen suffering by all races. I find it funny to a point that while growing up, people would make assumptions about me only to find out that my life was often in better shape than their’s was.
Kayaker, how do you know that those guys don’t work. There is such a thing as an off day. Not everyone works mon-fri 8-5. On my off days, I sit up with my friends and do nothing. It’s called relaxing or unwinding. Some days we even hang out in the city or sit on the porch and drink beer and talk about days gone. It’s easy to make assumptions about people. I don’t worry about them simply because, between protecting my family and my country, I don’t have the time or energy. Do you raise those same concerns about the people who collect government subsidies or no bid contracts who sit on their butts all day too? Maybe you could run for office and clean up government welfare?
Kamchak
June 29th, 2009
8:18 pm
“May seem like splitting hairs…”
There’s the slitherer outer we know and love. I used the phrase not for profit for a reason. Consumer Reports and Public Broadcasting paying their employees is not the same as trying to post a profit to satisfy shareholders or bond rating agencies or just to put money in my pocket–but you know that because you are a college educated individual. Yes, I have suffered decades of PBS fundraising and consider it a small price to pay for what I once regarded as the standard to which journalism is measured. When Ken Tomlinson took control of PBS in 2003 that quality was compromised. And while Tomlinson is gone, many of his hires are still there to continue his mission to purge the Corporation for Public Broadcasting of a perceived “liberal bias.”
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
8:19 pm
Too bad Kayaker didn’t come by here over the weekend, he’d have seen at least one sorry, low-down, good for nothing sittin’ on HIS backside. too shiftless to even get up and cut the grass!
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
8:20 pm
oops, left out a key word there, “sorry, low-down, good for nothing WHITE BOY sittin,,,,
Seek and ye shall Find
June 29th, 2009
8:21 pm
Cling with all your might to your one little disaster, seeker, maybe another one will happen and you will have much to shake in my face, but meanwhile, hundreds if not thousands have been slaughtered in Chicago since then, by those who pay no mind to gun regulations.
What, no tears for homey?
I don’t cling to your so-called one little disaster, whiner. I simply provided two examples from the great state of Georgia. Do you want me to start listing them for you and exactly how many lives do I have to list to satisfy your appetite for needless deaths. And, if you are so concerned about violent crime in Chicago, move there and start supporting the local government so they can hire more police.
Normal
June 29th, 2009
8:22 pm
Josef…You talkin’ about me again?
DoggoneGA
June 29th, 2009
8:23 pm
“Too bad Kayaker didn’t come by here over the weekend, he’d have seen at least one sorry, low-down, good for nothing sittin’ on HIS backside. too shiftless to even get up and cut the grass!”
And I’d like to know why HE is sittin’ on HIS backside, posting here instead of being out doing something. It’s ALWAYS amusing when people with nothing better to do than sit around posting on a forum, want to say things about someone else doing exactly the same thing. (or something similar)
Seek and ye shall Find
June 29th, 2009
8:27 pm
Does Kayaker’s boss know that he is wasting time driving around and scoping out young men laying around. Kayaker, did you stop and interview these young men in order to determine just how they acquired their money.
Normal
June 29th, 2009
8:27 pm
AM VET: Yor 6:38…We were always told in the Navy, if it moved salute it…if it didn’t move, paint it gray…
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
8:28 pm
Angry Black Man–a funny for ya…I was at a meeting one night and one of my friends had just presented the case for a reform measure and you could just hear the ever-so-sympathetic liberal white element seeing her black skin and nodding, yes, yes, poor suffering sister. I raised my hand and was told “we don’t need your input here, Mr. Nix.” I burst out laughing. Why? Well, she knew I knew she was from a well-heeled family of professionals and capitalists and, since we were buddies, she knew whatever it was I was about to say was best brought up elsewhere. even if it was to be deilvered against the “Yankee missionaries” she and I both shared a strong dislike of.
I Report (-: You Whine )-:
June 29th, 2009
8:29 pm
And, if you are so concerned about violent crime in Chicago, move there and start supporting the local government so they can hire more police.
Go inspect the sugar factories, fool.
“Police,” what a clown.
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
8:29 pm
NORMAL–If the foo sh*ts, then wear it!
Angry Black Man
June 29th, 2009
8:30 pm
<<< was sitting on his backside in the Atlantic Ocean today doing nothing.
Don’t mention grass Josef. I worked three straight 14 hour days and hit the highway on vacation yesterday after my regular shift. I don’t want to think about what my yard will look like when I get back.
Seek and ye shall Find
June 29th, 2009
8:31 pm
You go inspect them, fool. Now, quit clowning around.
I Report (-: You Whine )-:
June 29th, 2009
8:31 pm
The police in Gwinnet step over the dead bodies so they can shoot their radar guns at people trying to get to work.
Who the f are you fooling?
They are just another tax collection agency.
Kayaker 71
June 29th, 2009
8:32 pm
Joseph,
You know that is not what I talking about. If you are willing to accept irresponsible behavior from people who refuse to work, maybe we can start paying them with your tax dollars. We have dumped BILLIONs of dollars into the welfare system and it is just like pouring water into a hole in the ground. Countless programs have been funded by both political parties to reform the system, all to no avail. Tell me one on-lasting government program that has been successful…. and don’t start with affirmative action. That will show how misinformed you really are.
What is wrong with wanting citizens to be responsible for their own lives without sucking off of the government tit? We are about three generations into this mess and it is no better than it was in 1964.
Frederick Douglass
June 29th, 2009
8:32 pm
Seek and ye shall Find: I’ve got a list of about 350 serial killers you can use, but you have to think exponentially when using it, the deaths
run into the thousands. I left Adolph Hitler off of my list, my calculator doesn’t compute that high.
Angry Black Man
June 29th, 2009
8:35 pm
The more I read from you Josef, I think we’re probably a lot alike. I’m usually the one in meetings that everyone has to give the “shut up” look to. I’ve never been afraid to question anything or anyone. I even got in trouble in high school for correcting a math teacher who was teaching the wrong way to solve a problem in class. My mom still picks on me about that to this day.
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
8:36 pm
Angry Black Man–my philosophy is, why interfere with the hand of G-d! If H- wants it cut, then H- can cut it!
Seek and ye shall Find
June 29th, 2009
8:37 pm
Yet more on the true cost of oil. What a scam. Big oil and their supporters makes Madoff’s actions look like child’s play.
…Ah, everyone’s favorite, the government subsidies.
It’s a surprisingly difficult thing to put a boundary around, because there are so many direct and indirect ways in which the government supports the oil industry, and every study has its own list of things to leave in and things to leave out.
For example, none of the studies I found included the hidden subsidy of leasing public lands to oil companies for next to nothing, which in essence assigns zero value to the oil extracted from the ground, paying the public nothing for the loss of its natural capital.
One 1998 study by the International Center for Technology Assessment (CTA) looked at petroleum industry subsidies, including the percentage depletion allowance and tax-funded programs that directly subsidize oil production and consumption, among other things.
It assessed up to $17.8 billion per year in tax subsidies, plus government program subsidies (such as vehicle R&D programs, highway construction, and environmental cleanup) of between $38 billion and $114.6 billion per year.
They pegged health and social costs at an additional $231.7 billion to $942.9 billion per year, counting factors such as health issues due to pollution, loss of crop yields, and so on.
As for related costs, such as the direct and indirect costs of traffic delays, traffic accidents, subsidized parking and the like, they counted another $191.4 billion to $474.1 billion per year.
Adjusting the estimates to 2006 dollars and rounding, that makes a total of between $68 and $161 billion in government subsidies, between $283 billion and $1,152 billion in health and social costs, and between $233 billion and $579 billion in related costs.
All told, $584 billion on the low side, $1.9 trillion on the high side…
Seek and ye shall Find
June 29th, 2009
8:42 pm
The police in Gwinnet step over the dead bodies so they can shoot their radar guns at people trying to get to work.
Who the f are you fooling?
They are just another tax collection agency.
Talking bad about one of your bastions of all things that is Republican is just so wrong in so many ways. Then again, Republicans are known to shoot anything that’s moving to the left of them. So, in the end, there can be only one. The Republican solution to that dilemma — keep moving to the right. They’re sooooooo clever, these Republicans.
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
8:42 pm
Kayaker 71–We are immeasurably better off than we were in 1964, but it was not the welfare state that brought it to be, it was the opening up of access to venues previously closed so that hard work, diligence and responsibility COULD pay off in attaining the American Dream. I don’t presuppose to speak for “them” here, but the most vociferous critics I have heard yet of the cycle of dependency created by the welfare state have been “them.”
Angry Black Man
June 29th, 2009
8:44 pm
I like that Josef. I may have to borrow that from time to time if you don’t mind.
TUESDAY VANDY GIRL
June 29th, 2009
8:45 pm
I’m sure that obama’s cap and trade lesislation won’t put ANY new obstacles in place for any manufacturer trying to re-open in Milen( a nice little place btw)..nah..in fact milen will have millions of new green jobs, everyone will have a green job..nobody knows what a green job is, but only nasty republicans cast annoying facts at the sainted obama’s lies..er…initiatives.
Seek and ye shall Find
June 29th, 2009
8:45 pm
Frederick Douglass,
Don’t forget to add Reagan and Rumsfeld and Cheney and the Bush family to your list. After all, they may as well be considered serial killers. Just on a global scale and in the name of things like “national security”. Riiiight. I think they just get off on killing.
Normal
June 29th, 2009
8:46 pm
Kayaker, I’ll give you one…The conservation and construction camps of FDR. And by the way, if you want us all to be good, solid, working stiffs, figure out a way to get us the jobs we will need…Just sayin’…
Normal
June 29th, 2009
8:48 pm
VANDY GIRL. right now, to me, a green job is mowing my yard with my electric mower…
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
8:48 pm
Angry Black Man–thanks for the vote of confidence. Yours is company I would like to keep. My boss is always telling me about the mandated meetings: “I have a special assignment for you…” As she says, “thank G-d for ‘duty # 7′” …and other tasks as assigned by principal…” Sometimes, though, I AM required to go…that’s fun!
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
8:50 pm
Angry Black Man–Normal’s trying to make us look bad and claim he’s doing G-d’s work.
Normal
June 29th, 2009
8:51 pm
AQNgry Black man, you really want to get to know Josef, ask him about wine…Just sayin’
—————–
It’s past my bedtime and my keepers want me back in the rubber room, so good night all…
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
8:53 pm
Normal–WPA, “We Piddle Around” and NRA “No Raggedy A**es,” little Depression Era humor from my Yellow Dog Democrat forbearers…
Angry Black Man
June 29th, 2009
8:54 pm
I don’t presuppose to speak for “them” here, but the most vociferous critics I have heard yet of the cycle of dependency created by the welfare state have been “them.”
I couldn’t agree with that more. I personally wish that welfare was never needed, but until people learn to treat people equally without pre-judging, it will be necessary. Coming from NE Alabama, I can attest that welfare is not the best use of public funds, but it is necessary when people can’t compete on a level playing field. It has less to do with color or race but more to do with class. I’ve seen poor white people treated with the same indignation as poor black people. When we decided to start exploiting labor in 3rd world countries, that’s when we made welfare permanent. No one can make a living working at McDonalds and support a family. It’s hard to create a great school system when there’s no tax base to support it. If the town (city) is filled with nothing but people in the lowest socio-economic bracket, it’s next to impossible to make improvements without outside assistance.
Seek and ye shall Find
June 29th, 2009
8:55 pm
…in the rubber room…
Are you a condom inspector.
I Report (-: You Whine )-:
June 29th, 2009
8:55 pm
The cops in Gwinnett are Republicans, eh?
Too scared to take on real crime, so they create a problem called speeding and devote the entire department to courageously prowl the roads in search of criminals………..to tax.
Sort of sounds like Obozo to me.
@@
June 29th, 2009
8:58 pm
I don’t know about Chicago’s crime but their turnover rate for teachers is an abomination.
76% every five years at the high school level!?!
Geez! and here I thought Obama and Ayers had Chicago’s education thingie in hand.
Angry Black Man
June 29th, 2009
9:00 pm
I’m just getting into wine, so maybe I can learn a great deal from Josef. I’ve finally realized that there’s more to alcohol than Budweiser and Jack Daniels (although I will always drink my corn from a jar). I’ve been expanding my beer selections and it’s time to enjoy what wine has to offer.
Kayaker 71
June 29th, 2009
9:04 pm
Joseph, Frederick and Angry Black Man,
I am not so sure that we are that far apart. I would assume that we all have jobs, are responsible citizens who make their own way and ask little to nothing from others, raise our families in a responsible way and pay taxes to support our government. A number of good authors have come forward in the past 10yrs or so, all black, all conservative (yes, there are a few), who are saying much the same things as I have said. Try reading something by Thomas Sowell, Shelby Steele, Juan Williams, John McWorter, Bill Cosby,W.E.B. DuBois, William Rasberry, the economic professor (Williams), Larry Elder….. I have read most everything that each of these people have written and they echo much of what I have posted. And they are black authors, concerned about the same things that I have voiced. You might not agree with them, you might call them Uncle Toms or some other stupid name but they all have a voice of reason. We have a lot of problems in our country, not the least of which is trying to make America a sustainable, viable place where our grandchildren can experience the same great country that we enjoy. For us to succeed, we have to have a responsible citizenry…. we are creeping further away from that as each year passes. By the way, I have earned the right to sit on my backside after practicing medicine for 45 years and retiring at age 70.
Seek and ye shall Find
June 29th, 2009
9:05 pm
Angry Black Man at 8:54. So true. For example, Perdue’s efforts to get a KIA plant here in Georgia will help out a few counties but every county cannot have a KIA plant. So, what do we do to help level the playing field. I mean, Gwinnett County wheeled and dealed to seduce NCR down here from up north but all they did was give up all sorts of tax concessions and shifted burdens on others for those jobs that did nothing but hurt people in another state. Wow. Isn’t that great. Stealing jobs from another state. We need to create jobs and I don’t see much help coming from the trickle down laissez faire crowd. All they seem to be doing is complaining about someone else trying to do something other than complaining.
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
9:10 pm
Angry Black Man–agreed. It’s pretty hard to “pick yourself up by your own bootstraps” when you are barefoot…you bring up the poor white, and I’ll go ahead and add “trash,” that so many posters here just love to villify, you’re from NE Alabama, you will understand well what I’m about to say: by pitting the poor white and the black against each other, the colonialists have been able for the last 150 years to keep their good thing going down here. Neither one has a pot to p**s in or a window to throw it out of and won’t so long as they are kept in this state of mutual antipathy…
Seek and ye shall Find
June 29th, 2009
9:13 pm
Yes, whiner, Gwinnett County is Republican. And, I suspect that more police there are Republican than Democrat but feel free to show me some poll results if you have them.
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
9:13 pm
Angry Black Man @ 9:00–well, you can also ask me about malt liquor and Kools,,,
Angry Black Man
June 29th, 2009
9:14 pm
Seek, you brushed on it, but what good does it do to bring these jobs here if you get nothing from it (the tax breaks). I remember when Mercedes came to Alabama, the state gave up so much in tax incentives and breaks that it seemed as if the citizens were paying to get the chance to apply for a job there. That’s why I laugh when people say that U.S. businessess pay something like a 25% tax rate. The only people paying that rate are the mom and pops that are being run out of business. Every big business deal that’s been made to bring jobs here to GA since I’ve been living here (9yrs) has only been made after the state and/or city has given up most of their potential income in taxes. And when the businesses don’t pay and the citizens can’t pay, what happens… budget deficits, budget cuts, etc… We’ve created this problem by continually electing the fox to guard the hen house.
DebbieDoRight
June 29th, 2009
9:21 pm
They seemed nice and like they got some sense except they were frying green tomatoes.”
Too funny!!!
someone make Whiner a peanut butter sandwich to take to work with him to the Imperial Sugar plant. And, if those two don’t get him, there’s a whole list of other laissez faire thee wells to choose from.
Another funny!!!
Below is the best quote of the day:
Why do Republicans have this peculiar mind set that they need to take preemptive measures in other sovereign countries in order to secure their livlihoods yet they cannot see the need to take preemptive measures domestically in the form of laws to protect lives. They would rather wait until after people like Madoff and companies like Imperial Sugar do their damage and then come in and express their faux grief.
Good News: Madoff got 150 years!!! If he believes in reincarnation, the next time he comes back as soon as he clears the womb; the feds are gonna take his punk azz away again!!! FEDS: “Come on boy, you know what ya did, grab that pacifier and let’s go”. MADOFF: “whhhhiiinnnneeeeeeee”. If there’s any real justice in the world, may he be “visited” every night by a big buck named Bubba, who’s grandmother lost all her savings to Mad Dog Madoff!!!
Bush’s trickle down theory really works!!! All the crap that Madoff did trickled down to his customers!!!! You go Madoff!!! You Go Bush!!!! Eat more pretzels!!!!
Gotta go home and watch some unintelligent TV (getting ready for a llllloooonnnnngggg weekend), or maybe I’ll stop by the movies and catch the 10:00 show. I heard the Transformers were kicking!!! Loved them when I was a kid….had all of them and played with them until the paint came off their little morphing parts!!! Good night everybody c u tomorrow!!!
Angry Black Man
June 29th, 2009
9:21 pm
Josef @ 9:10. That’s what really pisses me off. And if you try to open people’s eyes to that fact, they swear that that’s nowhere near the truth. That’s why I laugh at the idiots that want to be racist but have nothing to be racist for. They can’t get hired but want to be mad at “those” who won’t get hired. They can’t get credit but want to lynch “those” who won’t get credit. Then they say they’re proud of their country and heritage but don’t realize that their country and heritage is up for sale to the highest bidder. The Chinese and Saudi’s own so much of America it’s crazy. I didn’t realize how much until that company from the U.A.E. wanted to buy and run the security at whatever port that was.
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
9:23 pm
The point here IS education, one of my fields, and I’ve got a LOT to say about that one, and I best not say too much here because I raise lots of hackles there, but just suffice it to say that we’ve taken a long walk off a short pier and the idea of any “reform” is out of the question. It’s time to chuck the whole system and start over from scratch.
I Report (-: You Whine )-:
June 29th, 2009
9:25 pm
Seekie- McCain is a “republican” too.
Angry Black Man
June 29th, 2009
9:28 pm
Josef, don’t do the Kools. I’ve heard stories of quite a few survivors of liver transplants but not too many of lung transplants. I keep my vice in liquid form.
Today’s version of education is a joke. How can you expect a student to learn when all you teach is how to take a damned standardized test?
Scooter
June 29th, 2009
9:33 pm
Angry Black Man,
It sounds to me like you are smart and have a good job. Why are you angry? Just asking…. (sorry Normal Just had to borrow that!)
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
9:36 pm
Angry Black Man–I belong to the 40 acres and a mule party myself. I’m writing on it elsewhere, but one of the things that sticks in my craw about all these good, white liberal Yankees is how they fail to understand that their version of history is a study in hypocrisy, presenting themselves as some great liberators, oblivious to the fact that when, afforded the opportunity to “trample out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored” by effecting a land reform which WOULD have given some boots the straps of which could be used to “pull up by” elected not to. I rankle lots of nerves when I, a vociferous Southern pride white, come out in favor of “reparations.” My own “plan” as such was passed down to me via my Confederate Veteran, slave-owning ancestor, who was also an abolitionist…long story, full of its ins and outs, but suffice it to say that he inherited “the problem” and was just as tied to it as were his chattel given the conditions of time and place. His anger, and the anger passed down to me, was the lack of a plan. It’s fine to talk theory, but what are you going to do about it.
Angry Black Man
June 29th, 2009
9:40 pm
It’s just a nickname I got tagged with while going thru the academy for my job. I was told that I would be people’s worst nightmare because at 6′ and over 200lbs with a very strong opinion, I’d be viewed as an angry black man with a gun. I thought it was funny considering I always had a problem with my temper. The only thing that really gets me angry now is stupidity and ignorance.
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
9:42 pm
Angry Black Man–the Kools were another time and another place for me, but I DID enjoy them.
Education and the standardized tests: my girl says, “I’m a top 2% scorere in three languages and you know what that means? I can bubble in in three languages.”
Angry Black Man
June 29th, 2009
9:47 pm
Kayaker @ 9:04. We may indeed be a lot alike, but as responsible citizenry I also think we have to extend some help to those who need it. How can you give an immigrant, someone who is new to this country, more assistance than someone who’s been a part of this country for generations. I may agree with you that just giving out money is not the best practice. If we stop that, then what do we do? I’m a firm believer in teaching a man to fish as opposed to feeding him fish. However, if the streams and lakes are barren, is teaching him to fish really going to help him or do him more harm?
Scooter
June 29th, 2009
9:54 pm
Angry Black Man,
I am glad you are on the right side of the law.(no pun)
Angry Black Man
June 29th, 2009
9:55 pm
Hey Josef, you should have seen the look on people’s faces as I was walking thru Manassas, Antietam, and Gettysburg last month. It was as if they were seeing a ghost. A lone, young black man touring these sights and taking pictures and notes. I am a fan of Civil War Era history. Some of those who were trying to be the “liberators” were nothing of the sort. If they were true “liberators”, we wouldn’t be still fighting that same fight 140 years later.
Angry Black Man
June 29th, 2009
9:56 pm
Awwww scooter thanks. Just don’t break them or else you’ll have to change your opinion of me. LOL!!!!
@@
June 29th, 2009
9:59 pm
Damn!!!!!!
@@
June 29th, 2009
10:01 pm
Oops! (ISH)
TnGelding
June 29th, 2009
10:09 pm
Mission Accomplished!
Fireworks over Baghdad as Iraqis take over cities
BAGHDAD (AP) – Iraqi forces assumed formal control of Baghdad and other cities Tuesday after American troops handed over security in urban areas in a defining step toward ending the U.S. combat role in the country. A countdown clock broadcast on Iraqi TV ticked to zero as the midnight deadline passed for U.S. combat troops to finish their pullback to bases outside cities. “The withdrawal of American troops is completed now from all cities after everything they sacrificed for the sake of security,” said Sadiq al-Rikabi, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. “We are now celebrating the restoration of sovereignty.”
(At least this phase of it. Let’s hope they can make the best of it.)
@@
June 29th, 2009
10:13 pm
Nearly 60% of 8th graders in a Chicago school failed to pass onto the 9th.
Astounding!!!!
60%?!?!?!?
Arne Duncan, former CEO for Chicago Public Schools is now Obama’s Secretary of Education??? We can only hope that it was Arnie’s departure that left that system in such dismal shape.
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
10:15 pm
Angry Black Man–my friend I spoke of earlier really raised some eyebrows when she, a “lesbian separatist, Black nationalist, left wing revolutionary” went to Confederate Memorial Day Services. When pulled on the carpet, her answer was. “if I ever forget that it was with these boys’ blood my freedom was purchased, then I no longer deserve that freedom.” It made me stop and think.
We as a nation have become so skittish of any discussion of that pivotal moment beyond the textbook version of the story. My mother before she died made the comment, “there used to be a time when you couldn’t find a white Southerner who’d acknowledge their family didn’t own slaves. Now you can’t find a one who’ll say their families did. Well, I guess ours must have owned all 4.5 million.” Slavery was a NATIONAL shame, not a regional one, but the South has been made to bear the guilt and the North cheerfully freed of all the profit they made therefrom.
My great-grandfather’s plan? Take the insured value of the chattel property ($1 Billion in 1860 dollars according to Judah Benjamin in his resignation speech from the Senate in 1861), follow the dollars to those insurance companies which never paid up on the losses, take that profit from them, and allocate it to those “insured.” My own plan says to use the same process at work for determining indemnities to the Indian nations for determining current dollar value. The cost to Aetna alone would be staggering, but then, they ARE the ones who made the profit. The good old Southland didn’t have an insurance company one to come through. If the rest of the country had to deal with just how much they have profitted and continue to profit from slavery, they probably wouldn’t be so self-congratulatory…jus’ sayin.
TnGelding
June 29th, 2009
10:15 pm
Angry Black Man
June 29th, 2009
9:47 pm
Obama is the right man at the right time. Too bad it coulodn’t have happened sooner.
As for immigration, we have to stop the illegal and greatly reduce the legal. We have to improve our education so high-tech businesses can’t claim we don’t have qualified workers. That’s one thing we miss from our old military draft system; highly trained, experienced, competent technicians. It probably runs the best tech schools in the world.
TnGelding
June 29th, 2009
10:17 pm
@@
June 29th, 2009
10:13 pm
You can only work with what you have. Still, that number is unacceptable.
TnGelding
June 29th, 2009
10:23 pm
@@
June 29th, 2009
10:13 pm
Where is it written that public schools have to be in class from 8-3, Mon-Fri? Therein lies part of the problem. Also parents that can’t take care of themselve and don’t have a clue about raising children properly.
TnGelding
June 29th, 2009
10:25 pm
A better idea?
AP Interview: Snowe seeks bipartisan health bill
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) – Sen. Olympia Snowe, a key figure in shaping federal health care legislation, said Monday that a government-run plan that would take effect if the private insurance market fails to deliver affordable coverage could bridge the partisan divide that threatens to derail President Barack Obama’s efforts to reform the system. Snowe, R-Maine, said she’s working with Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to establish that kind of a framework in the bill expected to emerge next month from the Senate Finance Committee.
TnGelding
June 29th, 2009
10:28 pm
This should make your day, Reporter:
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKTRE55S5J220090629?sp=true
TnGelding
June 29th, 2009
10:30 pm
If not, this certainly will!
http://www.breitbart.tv/whose-duck-back-there-ringtone-interrupts-obama-during-lgbt-speech/
josef nix
June 29th, 2009
10:32 pm
Angry Black Man–I’ve really enjoyed our exchange this evening and hope we can continue it. Sorry I have to run, but if I don’t get in the bed, that pack of little rug rats in the a.m. will have the advantage!
Angry Black Man
June 29th, 2009
10:36 pm
Joseph, so few people ever acknowledge that the north made off with more $$ from slavery than the south ever did. When the stock market started collapsing, I was hoping and praying that the companies that would be hit worst would be the same companies who gained the most from the proceeds from slavery. To me, it would have been just due. And my trips to the battlefields were for similar purposes of your friend. My history is forever tied to the blood that was spilled on the ground of each and every battle. For me not to acknowledge that is like trying to erase a part of me. However, with all this hoopla arising over the economy and talk of state’s rights, I’ll be damned if people think there will be a best two out of three.
TN-I could preach all day and night about immigration. Illegal immigration is a problem because of legal immigration and open borders. People are led to believe that our problem with illegal immigration comes from the southern border, but that is nowhere near the complete truth.
@@-I’d put less blame on the people running the school system than I’d put on the parents of those children. Not to say that the administration is guilt free, but that thing we call curriculum is complete bs. People are so concerned with passing those standardized tests that they forget to teach the basics that kids need. The parents are more to blame because they don’t hold the people responsible for making sure their kids are taught in school, and they don’t hold their kids responsible for learning.
TnGelding
June 29th, 2009
10:41 pm
Angry Black Man
June 29th, 2009
10:36 pm
Learning begins and ends at home, at least until the children are better educated than you are.
Angry Black Man
June 29th, 2009
10:45 pm
Time to call it a night… Later all.
Angry Black Man
June 29th, 2009
10:47 pm
TN-so true. I have an 11 month old. If nothing else, she’ll be able to teach her math classes since I have a degree in math. But she will not be one of those who’s not learning. I will definitely see to that. Gonna hit the sack. Gotta make a drive back to ATL to see my Braves tomorrow night. Will chat later
TnGelding
June 29th, 2009
10:53 pm
Angry Black Man
June 29th, 2009
10:47 pm
Give her a big hug from us. Good luck and best wishes.
I used to be a big Braves fan, but an even bigger Yankee fan. I was in hog heaven when the Yankees helped open the stadium with exhibition games, even tho it was cold. I lived a few miles from the stadium then, just out of the USAF with a new wife and baby. In my old age I’ve decided I was a sucker. Should have been spending my time and money on participation sports. The strike helped me come to that conclusion, also.
TnGelding
June 29th, 2009
11:41 pm
Where are the insomniacs?
ken
June 30th, 2009
12:59 am
Wall Mart moved in my little town and now I do not get raped by the local merchants. Saves me $$$$$$$$$$.
I Report (-: You Whine )-:
June 30th, 2009
5:55 am
WASHINGTON, June 29 (Reuters) – Republicans in the U.S. Congress, who warn that climate change legislation is the “biggest job-killing bill” ever, see a bright side: Some people who lose their jobs could be Democrat lawmakers who vote for the bill.
“Republican” lawmakers who voted for it losing their jobs goes without saying.
But remember, the libs say losing your job is a wholesome experience.
josef nix
June 30th, 2009
6:47 am
TN Gelding–on the way out the door to my public school job. In school for 8-3? At my school we have an after school program until five four days a week. It is academic in nature and is where we take that extra time our kids, mostly ESOL, need to stay abreast getting the help with homework and special assignments that their parents can’t help with, and at the same time a quiet, structured environment. These kids scored well to outstanding on their CRCT, not that that means much, but it is the yardstick being used to measure “them” against “the others.” The success, if you want to call it that, was that in the after school end they were freed from the curricuulm objectives set by the state for the classroom and we could actually teach them something.
If I had one request of the general public for education, it would be that y’all take the time to go and see what it is that the state is testing these children on, how it’s administered, and the actual content and presentation of the test questions. Talk about the asylum having been taken over by the lunatics! But fear not, the designers and their minions all done gone and bought theyselves one of them thar PhDs from Mail In U and are now “ex-purts” and paid up the wazoo by your tax money
while the poor ole helot down in the lower 40 with the kids can’t even get copy paper that isn’t rationed with Soviet era efficiency…
Nobody cares what the classroom teacher has to say and read over all the reports from the “ex-purts” and see just how often they even acknowledge s/he exists. Oh, from time to time we DO get a menu fixe “survey” to fill out, usually on a computer. And, as I told my principal after dutifully bubbling in and then adding my own comments at length on “an extra sheet of paper,” “Here it is as required, you can check me off the list and then go ahead and trash it now so it won’t reflect on you and save the trouble of sending it on to be trashed elsewhere.”
Oh, well, best not to get too worked up. Gotta get my pennies ready to teach the visual learners to add and subtract up to 20, use manipulatives as the requirements state, just remember that there are no manipulatives available on test day, Verboten!
Y’all have a good day. I will. The little snot-nosed hugs to make it all worthwhile!
TnGelding
June 30th, 2009
7:32 am
ken
June 30th, 2009
12:59 am
And cost America jobs and prosperity.
The Walton fortune shoud be divided among every small businessman they destroyed.
TnGelding
June 30th, 2009
7:34 am
I Report (-: You Whine )-:
June 30th, 2009
5:55 am
For many it is. They thought they were in a groove, but turns out it was a rut.
TnGelding
June 30th, 2009
7:38 am
josef nix
June 30th, 2009
6:47 am
Thanks for the encouraging words about the after school program. Sorry about the administrative deficiences.
TnGelding
June 30th, 2009
7:40 am
Mission accomplished, with great sacrifice:
4 US soldiers killed during Iraq cities pullout
BAGHDAD (AP) – Four U.S. soldiers were killed in combat shortly before the American military completed a withdrawal from Iraq’s cities, and the prime minister assured Iraqis that government forces taking control of urban areas on Tuesday were more than capable of protecting the country. Nouri al-Maliki said in a nationally televised address that “those who think that Iraqis are not able to protect their country and that the withdrawal of foreign forces will create a security vacuum are committing a big mistake.”
Normal
June 30th, 2009
7:46 am
TNGelding: And so it begins…If we are still uninvolved in one month,
I will say mission accomplished, but my gut says this is going to be a civil war… The Sunni and the Shia just have too long a memory and too short a fuse…
I Report :-) You Whine :-(
June 30th, 2009
7:49 am
Rasmussen: Obama Approval Index Falls Below Zero… Developing…
bwa
TnGelding
June 30th, 2009
7:56 am
Normal
June 30th, 2009
7:46 am
I’m afraid you’re right, but maybe sanity will prevail.
I should have added the caveat I had added to an earlier posting on the same subject:
(At least this phase of it. Let’s hope they can make the best of it.)
TnGelding
June 30th, 2009
8:00 am
I Report
You Whine 
June 30th, 2009
7:49 am
Doesn’t mean a damn thing! Obama wil prevail. Americans are a bunch of self-centered, spoiled, lazy sociopaths. Did I mention fickle?
DB, Gwinnettian
June 30th, 2009
8:03 am
Back to Jay’s story-link topic for a moment. I had an odd thought about how this and the previous Jay-post about the SCOTUS decision have one thing in common; not that many people are actually impacted.
In the case of the tiny, dying town, sure it’s heartbreaking, and sure, I’m all for human extensions of assistance to allow people to relocate if necessary and to find work elsewhere if their businesses fail, but small-town failures happen. And when you’re talking about a few hundred here, a few hundred there, it’s really something we should be able to absorb as a great, powerful, wealthy nation.
Likewise, the super-duper hyped White Firefighter Story of 2009 really, as it turns out, isn’t all that important, as I’ve come to learn. Only a teeny-tiny percentage of hiring organizations weight multiple-choice tests so heavily in order to determine who gets promoted and who doesn’t.
So while I try to roll with the punches and the 5-4 Scalito decisions, in the end, we’re still a great, powerful and wealthy nation and this, too, shall be absorbed.
DB, Gwinnettian
June 30th, 2009
8:07 am
“Republican” lawmakers who voted for it losing their jobs goes without saying.
right, Whiner. And Rahm Emmanuel is “goin’ down” for his involvement in the Blagojevich pay-to-play thing. And “we’re going to hate ‘08″. And the McCain/Palin ticket will pull an upset victory.
And a dozen other hilariously epic-fail Whiner predictions I’ve not bothered committing to memory, but maybe I should, because there’s comedy gold in them thar hills.
TnGelding
June 30th, 2009
8:10 am
DB, Gwinnettian
June 30th, 2009
8:03 am
But we’re less great, less powerful and less wealthy than we were 8 years, 5 months and 10 days ago and I’m not sure the tide has turned.
Normal
June 30th, 2009
8:14 am
DB: I will disagree with you about the small towns. Small towns used to be the essence of America, where family values always prevailed. And the pride in ones town. I remember Hinesville GA would lock up the town and follow the High School football team on a road trip. That type of feeling, unity of community is lost forever with the demise of each small town…
I do agree that the rest of it is much ado about nothing…
DB, Gwinnettian
June 30th, 2009
8:27 am
Normal @ 8.14, we probably don’t disagree all that much, actually.
I spent formative years in a rather small town. It’s been decades since then, but when I’ve been back in that area (as family obligations require) there’s been very little if any signs of growth, and some disturbing signs of decay.
It’s clinging to life, with the usual downtown death-rattle and big-box stores on the outskirts sucking whatever oxygen is left.
Yet while I see it for what it is—somewhat pathetic, really, compared to the more powerful burgs I’ve called home since—I wouldn’t trade what I had living there, those years, for anything.
I’m just saying, I am not unsympathetic, not at all. However, small towns—perhaps we should think of them as “startups”, here in America?—have become ghost towns for a lonnng time now. If there’s a way to preserve them and find a way to link them more efficiently with the rest of the world so that they can be more viable, I’m all ears.
Don’t forget, I’m one of those crypto-Commie Euro lovers who sees what small towns are like in places like the UK, Germany, France, etc. and wonders why we don’t have that same love for all of our big cities AND our small towns. I don’t want to write ANY of them off. But as we’re structured, it seems like we have to, no?
headed upstairs…
Normal
June 30th, 2009
8:31 am
DB; When I was five, I was the only American kid in a small German town. Mom would tell me that everytime I would wander aroun the area, she would get phone calls or visits from townsfolk, telling her where I was…talk about “it takes a village”…
wbk
June 30th, 2009
9:10 am
DebbieDoRight
June 29th, 2009
9:21 pm
“they cannot see the need to take preemptive measures domestically in the form of laws to protect lives. ”
Yeah like late term abortions. You liberals have killed more than Hitler or Stalin and you remain self righteous.
sd
June 30th, 2009
9:20 am
I don’t blame the corporations. I blame the consumers.
We ALL bought a bunch of crap from China that we did not need and now we are screwed.
You can blame that on capitalism, but no one was forced to buy that plastic stuff all over your house.
jms
June 30th, 2009
9:28 am
Ga. Tech Dad,
What will condoms do against muggers?
lovelyliz
June 30th, 2009
10:04 am
I don’t know about blaming all this on the love of money. I’d blame it on the love of wealth. Money is based on something, too often these days, wealth is not. Money is liquid capital. Wealth on paper is not, but that is what people were spending and trading on: THIN AIR.
Chris Salzmann
June 30th, 2009
10:33 am
Frederick Douglass June 29th, 2009 4:14 pm SAID: How did things get so bad since Jan.20,2009?
CHRIS SAYS: Here’s a quote from the story that JB was commenting on: “”Most of the manufacturing plants that employed Jenkins County’s industrial workforce of 1,025 closed down between late 2007 and early 2008. “”
Click on the link and read the story before commenting on it. Otherwise you expose yourself for the fool you are.
DB, Gwinnettian
June 30th, 2009
10:40 am
Click on the link and read the story before commenting on it. Otherwise you expose yourself for the fool you are.
Chris, I’m pretty sure you are missing an extra-heavy dosage of snarcasm from Mr. Douglass @ 4.14.
Frederick Douglass
June 30th, 2009
2:52 pm
DB Gwinnettian I like that word snarcasm, because that’s what it was. It’s good to know that I’m recognized as a fool by both the left, and
the right.