We've been talking about the holiday season a lot this past week. It's definitely on our mind, and we know it's on the minds of people all over the world right now.
Something that's also on the minds of many during this time of year is how we can help those in need.
We absolutely support the little red kettles of the Salvation Army, the work of police unions with their Santa Cop programs, and most other holiday programs to help those in need throughout the country. Food banks, homeless shelters, battered family shelters, religious programs for the poor, and many other worthy causes need help throughout the year - but especially during the holiday season.
With that in mind, it's nice for us to see one of our own staff members getting out and helping out too.
This evening, Friday night, if you're near our Lincoln offices, from 10 PM until 1 AM, our web guru and staffer Shawn will be helping out a very worthy cause, the Community Action Partnership, along with a local radio station for the station's annual "Kampout For Kids" event. The Community Action Partnership is a private, non-profit agency that does a lot to help families in need in the area, including giving them food, toys, and clothing, and helping them find gainful employment.
We know that times are tough right now for lots of folks, as we're sure they are for many of our readers. It's not as though many Americans have loads of excess time, or money - or extra resources of any kind, really. Yet we applaud the efforts of any of our staff or readers who are choosing to get out, keep going, and do what they can to help someone less fortunate than they are.
So if you're near Lincoln this weekend, especially the South 40th and Old Cheney Hy-Vee grocery store, stop by the Blaze radio station's "Kampout for Kids" and make a donation, or check out their website. You could even wait until tonight, when Shawn and the old P.O. Pears restaurant crew will be serving up legendary "Jiffy Burgers" to help keep some of the radio station staff and listeners warm - and help earn a few more bucks so that maybe a family in need can also stay warm.
Enjoy your weekend, and your holiday preparations - and thanks for thinking of those less fortunate than you.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Thursday, December 2, 2010
An Elementary Lesson In Unemployment Economics
We apologize if we're a bit brusque today, on the first day of Hanukkah, but we're not in the mood to beat around the bush like Congress is doing right now in Washington.
As we noted yesterday and again today in our links, Congress has once again allowed unemployment benefits to lapse for millions of Americans as we head into the holiday season. This happened in large part because Republican legislators have decided to hold the government hostage in order to get an extension of tax breaks for the richest Americans.
For those Americans who honestly do care about fiscal responsibility, this action only makes Republican members of Congress appear like rich arrogant schoolyard bullies.
It's fiscal hypocrisy in the extreme, the kind that makes ol' Ebenezer Scrooge and the Grinch look like a couple of amateurs.
As we've pointed out before, since unemployment insurance was created, Congress has NEVER refused to extend benefits if unemployment was over 7.2%. Yet Republicans in Congress have now prevented the renewal of those benefits not just once, but MULTIPLE times this year. This in a country where Americans still are seeking work at a rate of one job for every five people who are unemployed.
Still, the alleged fiscally conservative Republican leadership would rather spend nearly $700 Billion over the next ten years - money our country doesn't have - to give tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans (who aren't likely to spend that money anyway), instead of spending around $15 Billion to help out millions of unemployed Americans on a short-term basis. The unemployed will spend that money immediately in order to keep food in their kids' bellies and roofs over their heads - money that will immediately go back into the economy and drive up demand for goods and services, which would create more jobs, adding more money to our tax coffers, reducing our debt.
Simple, basic, elementary school math tells us that when there is only one of something that five people want, four people are going to be left out. No matter how well-educated, or experienced, or well-connected they are, no matter how many resumes they've sent out, or many jobs they've applied for - four of your fellow American citizens, heading into this holiday season, will be without a job, though they desperately want to rejoin the work force.
That same elementary math tells us that we shouldn't be spending $700 Billion we don't have as a handout to people who don't actually need it, and who won't be creating any jobs with that money, anyway. After all, if tax cuts for the wealthy were truthfully such a good job creation method, then after nearly a decade of Bush tax cuts we shouldn't be at nearly ten percent unemployment.
Finally, elementary kindness tells us that, as we sail through Hanukkah, on our way to Christmas and all the other holidays, that this is the time of year when everyone should be thinking about those less fortunate than themselves.
Unfortunately, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, and the rest of the GOP still seem to have hearts three sizes too small.
In the spirit of the holidays, we'll be nice and refrain from commenting on what size we think these actions make their brains appear to be.
As we noted yesterday and again today in our links, Congress has once again allowed unemployment benefits to lapse for millions of Americans as we head into the holiday season. This happened in large part because Republican legislators have decided to hold the government hostage in order to get an extension of tax breaks for the richest Americans.
For those Americans who honestly do care about fiscal responsibility, this action only makes Republican members of Congress appear like rich arrogant schoolyard bullies.
It's fiscal hypocrisy in the extreme, the kind that makes ol' Ebenezer Scrooge and the Grinch look like a couple of amateurs.
As we've pointed out before, since unemployment insurance was created, Congress has NEVER refused to extend benefits if unemployment was over 7.2%. Yet Republicans in Congress have now prevented the renewal of those benefits not just once, but MULTIPLE times this year. This in a country where Americans still are seeking work at a rate of one job for every five people who are unemployed.
Still, the alleged fiscally conservative Republican leadership would rather spend nearly $700 Billion over the next ten years - money our country doesn't have - to give tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans (who aren't likely to spend that money anyway), instead of spending around $15 Billion to help out millions of unemployed Americans on a short-term basis. The unemployed will spend that money immediately in order to keep food in their kids' bellies and roofs over their heads - money that will immediately go back into the economy and drive up demand for goods and services, which would create more jobs, adding more money to our tax coffers, reducing our debt.
Simple, basic, elementary school math tells us that when there is only one of something that five people want, four people are going to be left out. No matter how well-educated, or experienced, or well-connected they are, no matter how many resumes they've sent out, or many jobs they've applied for - four of your fellow American citizens, heading into this holiday season, will be without a job, though they desperately want to rejoin the work force.
That same elementary math tells us that we shouldn't be spending $700 Billion we don't have as a handout to people who don't actually need it, and who won't be creating any jobs with that money, anyway. After all, if tax cuts for the wealthy were truthfully such a good job creation method, then after nearly a decade of Bush tax cuts we shouldn't be at nearly ten percent unemployment.
Finally, elementary kindness tells us that, as we sail through Hanukkah, on our way to Christmas and all the other holidays, that this is the time of year when everyone should be thinking about those less fortunate than themselves.
Unfortunately, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, and the rest of the GOP still seem to have hearts three sizes too small.
In the spirit of the holidays, we'll be nice and refrain from commenting on what size we think these actions make their brains appear to be.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
A Time For Everything
The holiday season always brings certain thoughts to mind that most people don't really consider the rest of the year. 2010 has been no different for us in that respect - and actually began a bit before the holiday season with some things we've been mulling over.
One of those topics happens to be the increasingly common habit of businesses remaining open on the day a holiday is celebrated - the other is "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
Both have some similarities in common.
In the old days, no one asked if someone was gay in the military. If the soldier next to you did his job well, no one cared much. In a similar way, holidays were something for ALL Americans to celebrate, a time for all Americans to - if nothing else - enjoy a day away from work. No one asked if taking a day to spend time with family and friends was a good thing. Everyone knew it was a good thing, including employers.
It was good psychologically as well as physically for nearly everyone in America to share a few days off a year. It wasn't worth it to the bottom line for most businesses to be open for just a few hours, or with a skeleton crew on days most folks weren't going to be out shopping anyway.
In a similar fashion, the incredible amount of added bureaucracy, paperwork, legal problems, unit disruption, and loss of well-trained individuals heaped onto the American military with DADT has been ridiculous.
With the Pentagon study that was released Tuesday on DADT, we hope any final thoughts on at least one of these two topics will be laid to rest.
In short, the Congressionally-mandated, Pentagon study determined that overturning DADT would not cause any widespread or long-lasting disruptions to our military. That doesn't surprise us one bit, because that same study proves that 70% of service members simply don't care what their fellow soldiers' sexual orientation might be. When asked about their experiences serving with someone they thought was gay, an overwhelming 92% said the experience was either “very good,” “good,” or “neither good nor poor.”
Secretary Gates' comments Tuesday at the release of the DADT study were both wise and sensible. In short, he told Congress to either get off their asses and kill DADT in an orderly and sensible manner - or else the courts will likely mandate the end of DADT abruptly at some point in the near future, which would be worse for the military.
We hope Congress will follow the advice of all of the many studies that have been done on DADT, and finally close the topic of gays in the military forever.
As for those Scrooge-like employers in retail settings who choose to force their lowest paid workers to report to work on holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's?
We're afraid that topic will be hanging around for some time to come. Greed seems to rule. At least for now.
Ho, ho, ho.
One of those topics happens to be the increasingly common habit of businesses remaining open on the day a holiday is celebrated - the other is "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
Both have some similarities in common.
In the old days, no one asked if someone was gay in the military. If the soldier next to you did his job well, no one cared much. In a similar way, holidays were something for ALL Americans to celebrate, a time for all Americans to - if nothing else - enjoy a day away from work. No one asked if taking a day to spend time with family and friends was a good thing. Everyone knew it was a good thing, including employers.
It was good psychologically as well as physically for nearly everyone in America to share a few days off a year. It wasn't worth it to the bottom line for most businesses to be open for just a few hours, or with a skeleton crew on days most folks weren't going to be out shopping anyway.
In a similar fashion, the incredible amount of added bureaucracy, paperwork, legal problems, unit disruption, and loss of well-trained individuals heaped onto the American military with DADT has been ridiculous.
With the Pentagon study that was released Tuesday on DADT, we hope any final thoughts on at least one of these two topics will be laid to rest.
In short, the Congressionally-mandated, Pentagon study determined that overturning DADT would not cause any widespread or long-lasting disruptions to our military. That doesn't surprise us one bit, because that same study proves that 70% of service members simply don't care what their fellow soldiers' sexual orientation might be. When asked about their experiences serving with someone they thought was gay, an overwhelming 92% said the experience was either “very good,” “good,” or “neither good nor poor.”
Secretary Gates' comments Tuesday at the release of the DADT study were both wise and sensible. In short, he told Congress to either get off their asses and kill DADT in an orderly and sensible manner - or else the courts will likely mandate the end of DADT abruptly at some point in the near future, which would be worse for the military.
We hope Congress will follow the advice of all of the many studies that have been done on DADT, and finally close the topic of gays in the military forever.
As for those Scrooge-like employers in retail settings who choose to force their lowest paid workers to report to work on holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's?
We're afraid that topic will be hanging around for some time to come. Greed seems to rule. At least for now.
Ho, ho, ho.
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