These are only a few quick things I came up with on a search of Google over a month's period of time. I don't care how may laws are made we cannot legislate ethics nor morality.
It matters not whether corruption comes at the hands of leaders in religion, business, political office, education, those receiving government benefits, medical professionals or anyone else. There's far too many screwing the pooch.
There shall come a time in the not too distant future this house of cards will collapse if people don't knock it off!
There's no harm in the bookshop thinking they can make a couple of extra buck$, but doubt it will pan out.
As far as the New England football team.. there's no way this team should get away with this. They've pulled this sort of crap too often not to have some sort of repercussions from it. Otherwise this will signal other teams in the NFL to try and pull off similar monkey shines.
Overall it would call into question what goes on in the field as questionable as what already goes on off of it.
Here are a few select unemployment statistics from February 2015The year I graduated in 1966 the national unemployment rate was 3.8%. Lower then it's been over the last 45 years.
While some of the unemployment is attributable to automation there's not a doubt in my mind trade deals made since that time have a lot to do with the social and economic problems we face today. Starting in the early 70's trade really took off between China and Japan here in the United States. Then in 1994 came along the biggest impact through our signing of the 'North American Free Trade Agreement' (NAFTA). It's been a bumpy ride for American workers ever since, but nothing like we might experience in the future with this current 'Trans-Pacific Partnership' (TPP) agreement.
According to 'Expose The TPP.org' take on this..I hesitated to do a copy/paste but felt they could explain this much better then I. Check out their informative PDF for some of the more gruesome details. It's worth a look.
If your not much into reading check out this video of Senator Elizabeth Warren speaking on the Senate floor 02/26/2015..
The Point Is.. We could argue back and forth all day why poor neighborhoods are in turmoil. Or about raising the minimum wage. Or why workers & new graduates can't find decent wages. Or why Social Security/pensions and other social programs are in the soup. At the end of the day it all boils down to not having enough well paying jobs and plenty of them.
No matter which side of the political aisle, both have been selling out American workers with these UNFAIR trade agreements. To me it's no mystery how the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer. Imagine how much better off our inner cities would be if we manufactured more clothes, footwear, electronics and a whole host of other products within our downtowns like we once did.
People who are too busy working and making money don't have time to protest. People who are too busy working and making money don't rent or lease.. they buy People who are too busy working and making money can afford pensions & taxes that help support Social Security. People who are too busy working and making money can send their kids to better schools. People who are too busy working and making money can afford better medical care. People who are too busy working and making money wouldn't qualify nor have need of taxpayer handouts. People who are too busy working and making money don't risk losing their jobs tangling with the law.
I could go on and on with the list, but almost the entire solution to what ails there are in this country depend on people having the hope and ability to raise themselves up. The only way that can be done is through jobs. These so-called free trade agreements are stifling not only our economy but peoples' hopes and dreams right along with them.
I am not going to update this post whether he is ultimately found to have been intoxicated. Readers can follow this up on their own. What does amuse me is how comments left on these news sites rush to judgment and how partisan politics come into play.
What I will say, it fascinates me how people react.
If it were you or I most people could care less. Most likely no one would leave any comments at all. I've seen this play out countless times. Why do people go all rabid over public figures when they screw up but could care less when someone unknown wrecks? What's with this fascination over one life who seems to matter over that of another?
In the United States, two institutions guide teenagers on the journey to adulthood: college and prison. Sociologist Alice Goffman spent six years in a troubled Philadelphia neighborhood and saw first-hand how teenagers of African-American and Latino backgrounds are funneled down the path to prison — sometimes starting with relatively minor infractions. In an impassioned talk she asks, “Why are we offering only handcuffs and jail time?”
Say what you will, how many of us were forced to grow up this way. I can't imagine what I would have become if I was born of the wrong color or side of the tracks. We can blame this persistent generational cycle on parents or the kids, but at the end of the day.. pointing fingers will not solve these problems.
There's two things worth noting. During the great depression (1933) the unemployment rate was 25%. In the neighborhood where Baltimore blacks are carrying on the unemployment rate is 50+%. The other worth mentioning is how we tend to lock people up in cages like animals. Even animals end up going bonkers w/o someone caring enough to rescue them. For some it's too late but not for all.
It's been said whether you beat an animal or another human long enough they will become hostile. It should be clear by now we can't incarcerate ourselves out of this problem. Now either we can go on doing things the way we always have or consider other options. Any thoughts?
Blogging Side Note
I've posted time and again about a lot of hot button issues that draw my attention and are important to me (such as this one). From time to time I become curious what readers think. This is one of those times
Am I off base with these opinions? Is what I'm posting interesting and/or informative to my readers? If so, why have so few communicated/interacted through comments? Does anyone spend the time to view the videos (such as the one I posted above) long enough to form an opinion?
In-so-much as not participating or becoming interactive with these articles is sending a rather clear message in of itself I suppose. If you check out the other blogs on my sidebar many of those others are fading because they too (like myself) don't have active participants. I strongly urge readers to be interactive (if not with me) at least with these others who have given of their time. Otherwise there will be less and less of them due to the lack of interest. That's not a good thing.
One of the problems of living around a college is student creep. In the past real estate investors were buying homes to rent out to students. Through zoning overlay restrictions this problem has been eliminated. BUT a new problem is now emerging.
Because the college had increased room & board it's now become economically advantageous for parents to buy up homes for their kids while they attend college. This year two more homes on our block were added. Rather then pay room & board some parents have opted to buy a house for their kids while they attend college for the same or less then what room & board expenses would cost.
There's no legal way to restrict private homeowners from who can live in their home. As a result they can collect a few bucks from other students to live there. Thus enabling their mortgage payments to be practically zero. Potentially making not only the costs for living expenses for their kids free but also flipping the property after a few years making it possible to earn a profit.
The Snowball Effect As this neighborhood ages some opt to sell their homes to these parents of students. There is a secondary repercussion. As more and more students occupy these homes other neighbors who become annoyed and can afford to, sellout. This results in a further reduction of property values making these homes even cheaper to buy on the real estate market for the next set of parents. This has been going on for some time.
It is only a matter of time before Allentown's west end will not only be a private extension of the college campus but so too it's tax base which will be reduced due to having lesser property values. We've seen this happen in other Allentown neighborhoods for different reasons, but the results are the same.
To be truthful I was reluctant to post this since it serves to give other people ideas who haven't thought of this. In the end decided to despite the fact I may be shooting myself in the foot in doing so. It seemed like the right thing to let people know. Yeah I'm kinda stupid that way.
Is it just me? To be quite frank I'm not sure what the this guy is even talking about.
It seems with each evolution programmers keep taking away more and more control from users. What annoys me is how programmers assume what I do or do not like is somehow based on my previous user history through some sort of complicated algorithm they devised.
To my simplistic mind a browser should do just that... browse. If I want to take notes or go shopping let me determine how I will ago about doing that. It seems to me rather then making things more simple they are completely headed in the opposite direction.
I find it offensive that these geniuses seem to think I need to conform to their way of thinking rather then they mine. More and more I find I'm being forced to conform to computers (which should make life less complicated) rather then the other way around.
Last week I bought an appliance part. This doesn't necessarily mean I'm interested this week in appliance parts after my purchase. Last week I may have checked out what a home sold for in my neighborhood. It doesn't mean I'm looking to sell or buy. Just because I wanted to find out about a disease doesn't mean I have it or am seeking treatment. Same goes for a myriad of other things I might have browsed around for on the internet in the past. How dare you make these assumptions !
How many of these will be recorded, logged and reported back to hell knows who for what purpose?
