INTERESTING TIMES

These words were found in my father's handwriting:

THE HAPPY WANDERER

I. I love to go a wandering, along a mountain track,
And as I go I love to sing, my knapsack on my back.

II. I tip my hat to all I meet, and they wave back to me,
And blue birds sing so loud and sweet, from every greenwood tree. 

IIII. Oh may I always wander, until the day I die,
And may I always laugh and sing, beneath God's dear blue sky.


VIVA LA COMPANIE

I. Let every good fellow now join in the song.
Success to each other and pass it along.

II. A friend on your left and a friend on your right
In love and good fellowship now let us unite.

III. Now wider and wider our circle expands,
Let's sing to our comrades in far away lands.

The worst criticism
seeks to have the last word
and leave the rest of us in silence;
the best opens up an exchange
that need never end.
--Critic Rebecca Solnit, quoted in Brainpickings.org

Today on MoveOn they're soliciting for signatures on a petition to make Walmart pay its workers better. Moveon says it's an outrage that Wallyworld employees have to use public services for healthcare because can't afford better. What isn't mentioned is that they spent what they had on vehicles and fuel, guns, alcohol and cigarettes, mobile phones and flatscreens. And a roof over their head.

Minimum wage is law. No company can hire you over the table for anything less. Walmart can pay minimum wage and if people apply for and accept that job, they have made a deal with that company. If they don't like it, they can quit, get another job. If there isn't another job, they can start their own business, or be useful to a family business or take care of an aging elder. They can run for office, start a protest, try and change the minimum wage. There is no shame in doing these things. The shame is in doing nothing. I just don't know how far from nothing this petition is. Having a grievance is not the same as having a solution.

When the economy contracts, families get closer. The resources that we do have get shared with those we care about. The death rate went down in the Great Depression, perhaps for this reason.

I can't get on board with political efforts to increase "jobs" because what "jobs" means is working for large corporations which will strike the best deal they can get for everything including manpower. It's the game, and winning for the 1% means never having to worry about a job. The worker never wins. The worker is a cog in a machine that cares nothing about him and will replace him the moment he begins to crack. The safety net may ease his passage a bit, but it is easy to get caught in.

To be trapped in the safety net is to lose your self respect, to become depressed, to want to die. This may be why so many white American men commit suicide. Middle-aged white guys commit suicide more than anybody else. Perhaps the veterans are driving that statistic.

http://genealogy.az.gov/

Nobody expected it to get so many hits when they put it up last year. You can look up births and deaths in the state of AZ.

Bruises fade and skin heals, but the mind remembers. Physical punishment is still prevalent among US families. This study found the prevalence of physical punishment without "more severe child maltreatment" was 5.9%. Boys get physically punished more than girls, 59.4% to 40.6%. Blacks get beat more than whites. Asians and Pacific Islanders (including native Hawaiians) were the least likely to get whupped by their own parents.

The harsher the physical (or emotional) punishment was, the higher the odds of an axis I or II diagnosis. Axis I diagnoses include major depression, dysthymia, mania, mood disorders, phobias, anxiety disorders, and drug and alcohol abuse or dependence. Axis II diagnoses include several individual personality disorders and cluster A and B disorder diagnoses. The researchers concluded that 2-7% of all mental disease is attributable to childhood abuse.

SOURCE
http://www.medscape.org/viewarticle/767353?src=cmemp
( the stats )

It's generational. I'm not the only one. This makes me feel better. We live in Interesting Times indeed.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/many-gen-x-women-overworked-and-in-debt-take-a-pass-on-parenthood/2011/10/13/gIQA6dHdiL_story.html

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2011/apr/28/east-tennessee-hit-by-rain-hail-multiple-tornadoes/
There's an awesome pic of a storm over Knoxville, TN.

notes from an article in the Boston Globe by Emily Anthes
Inside the bullied brain; The alarming neuroscience of taunting
( notes )

Texas GOP Official Platform Calls for Imprisonment of Homosexuals and Supportive Heterosexuals
http://jaysays.com/2010/06/texas-gop-official-platform-calls-for-imprisonment-of-homosexuals-and-supportive-heterosexuals/
( reaction )