May 10, 2012
 17h12 UTC; THURSDAY, 10 MAY 2012: The preceding (kudos to Pleated-Jeans.com, should they insist on "credit where credit is due") presented as a Public Service Reminder to particularly such overdoing it on the "power of pride" trope vis-a-vis True Patriot Love Thou Dost in Us Command (preferably of xenophobically jingoist sort).
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As for the inspiration of the title of today's post, such was inspired by the "Forward" slogan of President Obama's reelection effort, no doubt challenged just as quickly by his Republican opponent-presumptive Mitt Romney shortly after its unveiling ... itself leaving moi (at mininum) wondering if what conservatives are really calling for when it comes to socioeconomic rescue is a "people-centred" model "born out of the Volk to serve the Volk" essentially, in Afrikaner nationalist stylee--as in a "sponatenous and mighty" whip-round of sorts towards a Reddingsdaad ("rescue pact") based on the creation of "productive capital" to be leveraged as necessary to start or otherwise expand "viable" small business or industrial ventures expected to create jobs and on-the-job training for "REAL AmeriKKKans" translating into incomes and purchasing power as can itself be leveraged over and over into fresh "productive capital" as can be managed according to the doctrine of 'n Volk red homself ("a people rescuing itself") through a central investment fund as would have equity stake in businesses so supported.
(Such was the actual case back in South Africa among Afrikaner nationalists for a decade prior to the 1948 rise of the apartheid regime in its Luscious Glory of racist and socioeconomic segregation and disparity excused as serving God, Country and Race. Its origins were in the 1938 Tweede Trek created to promote Afrikaner Unity and Identity, aided and abetted by an appeal to "rescue" the "sunken materially and spiritually" Afrikaner through ethno-national cohesion and unity rather than State charity or alms to their proper pride of place; within a year or so, the Bloemfontein Ekonomesie Volkskongres, under Afrikaner Broederbond auspices and behind closed doors for the most part, fleshed out the Reddingsdaad's final form being one of "seizing upon the foreign model of capitalism and adapting it to suit our ethnic character"--as in the creation of a new "people's capitalism" [Volkskapitalisme] placing the traditional capitalist emphasis on wealth creation subordinate to one of socioeconomic and moral uplift through jobs creation and training. Itself to be further reinforced through the promotion of various cooperative societies in line with the Afrikaner discipline of Helpmekaar ["helping each other"], such as building societies, savings banks, retail and agricultural cooperatives. The whole being conducted under auspices of the highly-connected Afrikaner life insurer Sanlam managing the Federale Volksbeleggings ["Federal People's Investments"] investment fund created from the original Tweede Trek whipround's proceeds, with popular support for the agenda expected through the Reddingsdaadbond ["Rescue Pact League"], itself created to promote Afrikaner national, cultural and socioeconomic empowerment. Which, by 1948, would be further perfected with Sanlam's creating Bonuskor with an eye to encouraging its policyholders entitled to bonuses on their policies to convert same into Bonuskor shares as would be traded on the Johannesburg bourse.)
So why isn't the GOP openly acknowledging such is their "real" design for saving Our Morally-Superior Economy From Itself, as if a Constitutional Amendment seeking to establish as "irrevocable" an interconnexion of ekonomesie vryheid, &c., with AmeriKKKan National and Sovereign Identity, and further insisting that the defence of one is that of the other, wasn't quite good enough?
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Finally, Real America (unlike the Fox News dissimulation under that appellation, itself masquerading its secret contempt and loathing therefor) has a victory for once: Reversing a previous decision, the nearly-bankrupt United States Postal Service has announced that it will keep country post offices heretofore scheduled for closure or consolidation open--howbeit with reduced staffing and operating hours for the most part, and more than likely involving partnerships with local businesses (the Village Post Office concept, as it were).
Which, come to think of it, is of especial importance what with many rural areas lacking affordable access to high-speed Innerwebz connexions (and "Tea Party" articles of faith essentially excusing such under the banner of Recaliming The AmeriKKKa We Love Deeply and Dearly).
Meanwhile, for such looking to help in the cause of the Socioeconomic Rescue of Real America through the creation of a modest little variety store in some country area otherwise lacking decent retail options, consider the following for starters:
 
As for the notion that American industry faces serious issues getting access to decent loans or credit facilities from mainstream bankers to help with jobs creation and investment in plant and equipment, Mein Innkeeper Friend hath it that such "depends on who you know" as your bankers. Hence, from his own experience as a small businessman, he can tell you that smaller, independent bankers may be easier to deal with than such with offices all over the place, notwithstanding saccharine campaigns from the likes of Bank of AmeriKKKa seeking to gloss over its indiscretions.
Or, alternately, savings and credit unions.
In any case, those "loan brokers" who claim they have "super-secret access" to financing channels otherwise unavailable to small businesses are best avoided: Such are more than likely illegal, what with their charging up-front fees to handle the application, as well as a "deposit" equal to the face value of the desired loan (which, if anything, actually fails to materialise ... and if so, at higher interest rates than mainstream bankers are willing to otherwise charge, such being a sign of possible designs to launder the Immoral Proceeds of Crime and/or Terrorism through "loan agency" fronts for the weird and unwholesome element).
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Meanwhile, if President Obama's associations with the Hollywood element for fundraising and support can be a bone of contention among the Mitt Romney support base (especially the shadowy underworld of the SuperPAC's in their Luscious Glory of secrecy), how do we know the Romney campaign isn't secretly hoping for major support from the more jingoistic Bransoner Muzikschaukultur types, especially considering where the cultural conservatives hope to use Branson as a "more realistically AmeriKKKan defining test" for their concept of Amerikanischer Realkultur? (Recall at this time, reader, that Germany's Nazi regime used the Kraft durch Frude ["Strength Through Joy"] scheme of their Labour Ministry, in its Luscious Glory of promoting labour peace and improving worker productivity through pacification, to promote an idealised German "folk culture" pushing subtle racist and hypernationalist messages through various "folk culture festivals" under its auspices. Not to mention subsidised short-break vacations in German spas and beauty spots.)
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Whence exactly did GOP Presidential wannabe Mitt Romney come up with the notion about creating 500,000 jobs/month being a "normal" pattern of socioeconomic recovery following recessions? Did he actually do careful research, or did he simply pick a number out of thin air for maximum prolefeed value? (By contrast, consider where H.J. Heinz came up with "Heinz 57 Varieties" after he was inspired by an ad card on the Sixth Avenue El in New York City for a shoemakers' advertising their product being available in 21 different styles; thus inspired, Mr. Heinz, ever a shrewd believer in the power of advertising, created the now-famous slogan. As a matter of fact, within a few years of the slogan's first appearence in 1884, Heinz was advertising over 60 different food products under its label, among them ketchup, mustard, pickles, pickle relish, baked beans, soups and canned pasta.)
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Before I go today, just a "heads-up" to the effect where I may be unable to offer a post tomorrow; I have my biennial eye examination under a new opthmatologist, which may or may not involve that legendary bane of eye examinations known as "drops" (as in dilating the pupils of the eyes such so that the inner eye can be more thoroughly examined, with attendant short-term effects upon vision as the effect of the "drops" wears off). Just so you know. In the meantime, remember that I always welcome your comments on these posts, and encourage your (responsible) sharing thereof by e-mail and social media.
REMEMBER THIS, READER: Your comments on, and responsible sharing of, these posts are always welcome and appreciated. And should you ever need to contact me with questions, comments, whatever, please do so through this page; to join our free (howbeit sporadic) e-mail list, just click here. (BTW, we will not sell nor share your e-mail address, and you can always leave at any time.)
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May 9, 2012
see more epicfails18h42 UTC; WEDNESDAY, 9 MAY 2012: For those asking about the inspiration of the title for today's post, reader, there's a Yiddish expression which translates as "making the pig's foot kosher," oft used as a Jewish colloquialism for "attempting the impossible"--which itself alludes to the fact that Jews avoid pork for religious reasons.
The which could be said to apply to "Tea Party" (pseudo)movement and GOP articles of faith intertwined vis-a-vis Indecision 2012 as insist that the State should not have any sort of role to rescue our "morally superior" free-enterprise-driven model of ekonomesie vryheid met Amerikaanse eienskappe, that such needs to be of a "people-centred" model, "born out of the Volk to serve the Volk" essentially--howbeit consistent and compatible with the aforementioned ekonomesie vryheid, &c., such itself being "consistent with AmeriKKKan experience, heritage and conditions."
(As in condoning gross disparities of wealth and mass poverty to be "AmeriKKKan" and yet "Christian," reinforced by a perverto, out of context reading of Divine Writ as is itself perverted in the stylee of Nazi Germany's seeking to rewrite the Bible to conform to its "Holy Blood and Soil" sophistry excusing race mastery as itself excused anti-Semitism.)
************* Before proceeding with the next point, perhaps the following passage from Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four (as in the interrogation between O'Brien and Winston) may want to serve the role of insight: O'Brien was looking down at him [Winston] speculatively. More than ever he had the air of a teacher taking pains with a wayward but promising child.
"There is a Party slogan dealing with the control of the past," he said. "Repeat it, if you please."
"'Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past,'" repeated Winston obediently.
"'Who controls the present controls the past,'" said O'Brien, nodding his head with slow approval. "Is it your opinion, Winston, that the past has real existence?"
Again the feeling of helplessness descended upon Winston. His eyes flitted towards the dial. He not only did not know whether "yes" or "no" was the answer that would save him from pain; he did not even know which answer he believed to be the true one.
O'Brien smiled faintly. "You are no metaphysician, Winston," he said. "Until this moment you had never considered what is meant by existence. I will put it more precisely. Does the past exist concretely, in space? Is there somewhere or other a place, a world of solid objects, where the past is still happening?"
"No."
"Then where does the past exist, if at all?"
"In records. It is written down."
"In records. And --?"
"In the mind. In human memories."
"In memory. Very well, then. We, the Party, control all records, and we control all memories. Then we control the past, do we not?"
"But how can you stop people remembering things?" cried Winston again momentarily forgetting the dial. "It is involuntary. It is outside oneself. How can you control memory? You have not controlled mine!"
O'Brien's manner grew stern again. He laid his hand on the dial."On the contrary," he said, "you have not controlled it. That is what has brought you here. You are here because you have failed in humility, in self-discipline. You would not make the act of submission which is the price of sanity. You preferred to be a lunatic, a minority of one. Only the disciplined mind can see reality, Winston. You believe that reality is something objective, external, existing in its own right. You also believe that the nature of reality is self-evident. When you delude yourself into thinking that you see something, you assume that everyone else sees the same thing as you. But I tell you, Winston, that reality is not external. Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else. Not in the individual mind, which can make mistakes, and in any case soon perishes: only in the mind of the Party, which is collective and immortal. Whatever the Party holds to be the truth, is truth. It is impossible to see reality except by looking through the eyes of the Party. That is the fact that you have got to relearn, Winston. It needs an act of self-destruction, an effort of the will. You must humble yourself before you can become sane." I'm not exactly sure of the specific numbers, but as the numbers of Nazi-era Holocaust survivors--Jews, Catholics, Roma, Russo-Slavs, homosexuals, "mental defectives," the disabled, the war-wounded, Jehovah's Witnesses and others the Nazis regarded as "subhuman" or "life unworthy of life"--goes into inevitable decline the world over, the Holocaust denial crowd, in its Luscious Glory of Nazi appy polly loggia, just can't wait for the last Holocaust survivor (especially if Jewish) to shuffle off its mortal coil and use same as "evidence" that the Holocaust never really happened.
That, and challenging the authenticity of survivors' accounts of Holocaust atrocities in official archives and elsewhere, replete with the usual patsies such extreem elements have about "defective or deficient memories," "inconsistency of accounts," that sort of thing.
Aren't we forgetting George Santayana's maxim about "those who do not recall the past are condemned to repeat it"?
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So much for GOP Presidential wannabe Mitt Romney's once tying down the family dog to the roof of his SUV: A United States Marshal in Ft. Wayne arrested the parental units of four children (ages 4 through 7, inclusive) as were tied down unto the roof of their SUV as it left a liquor store and thus driven for about four blocks before the police noticed something untoward. Both parents face Child Maltreatment charges and the paterfamilias "himself" is charged with Drink Driving.
Imagine how conservative prolefeeders will spin this one out of control....
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Getting back to the greater GOP/"Tea Party" ideal of "people-centred" economic rescue "born out of the Volk to serve the Volk" (cf. the Afrikaner Nationalist socioeconomic agenda in the decade preparatory to the apartheid regime's coming to power down South Africa way in 1948): You can just imagine the most (un)likely template therefor being one based on "gifting" chain letters similar to one Your Correspondent noticed making the rounds a couple years back at the holiday season here in the Minnwissippi, itself rooted in the "Send-A-Dime" chain letters making the rounds in early 1935 before the then-Post Office Department ruled such were a form of Illegal Lottery and shut down several promoters thereof.
(Only this time asking would-be participants to send $20 to the first of three names on a list, duly identified as a "gift" to [theoretically] make such mailable, remove the first such name, move the remaining two up one position each and add yours in the third, open position.)
And you have to wonder just what sort of pains will be taken this time around to avoid letting slip direct "Tea Party" involvement in their ideal for "people-centred economic recovery" as is itself obviously illegal (refer to 18 USC 1302, 1341 and 1343; the last one being included inasmuch as the agency of PayPal could be used in e-mails in furtherance thereof, thus raising questions of Wire Fraud).
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And speaking of PayPal, do make note of the buttons labelled "Donate" throughout the site: Such are not for show of any sort whatsoever; on the contrary, serious purpose is being served thereby--as in opportunity to make a modest little gift of what you may be able to spare in aid of Your Correspondent inasmuch as it's highly unlikely that he may come into money within measurable distance.
Which also explains the Online Mall presence, as if you needed aide-memoire of some sort....
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How many of you have heard some version or another of "the bedbug story," in which some sleeping-car passenger complained of serious bedbug infestations on a journey recent, eventually to receive a polite letter of apology--and, unwittingly, an attached slip to the effect of "Send the standard bedbug letter" as was intended for the secretary?
(Including, perhaps, a Canadian variant involving pre-VIA Rail Canada services on Canadian National in which the apologia is received in both English and French in the same mailing ... and one involving pre-denationalisation services on British Rail, since supplanted by ScotRail's Caledonian Sleeper and the Night Riviera from First Great Western.)
Continuing with an earlier suggestion about a low-cost high-speed passenger rail idea itself inspired by Canadian National's Tempo concept in Southwest Ontario (the above shown ready to leave Windsor for Toronto in 1974) as would essentially use existing track upgraded as necessary, rebuilt road-switcher diesel electrics as motive power (say, an Electro-Motive GP40-2 in its Luscious Glory of ubitquity) and coaches based on established designs, howbeit of aluminum construction to reduce weight and energy consumption: Your Correspondent had this idea the other night about embracing as the ideal coach template for such an analog high-speed rail that known as the "American Flyer" design; as RailwayClassics.com explains the concept:In 1934, the New Haven engaged the services of noted industrial designer Walter Dorwin Teague, who collaborated with Pullman designers to develop a light weight car design for a new fleet of cars that would allow the railroad to improve schedules, reduce maintenance costs and to reduce the growing costs of fuel. The first 50-car order were 92-seat coaches delivered in December of 1937. Utilizing Cor-Ten steel, and weighing in at 100,000 pounds (17 tons less than comparable contemporary cars), these cars featured a tubular cross-section design that was aerodynamically clean with full skirts and windows that were flush to the sides. Vestibules were located at both ends of the cars to facilitate fast loading and unloading. So successful was this design, the New Haven would eventually purchase 205 of these cars.
Pullman Standard's Osgood Bradley plant in Worcester, Massachusetts built over 270 lightweight passenger cars of this design, known as "American Flyer" style cars, named after the O scale American Flyer train sets that were models of this prototype. Which, it turns out, would eventually be embraced by several other railroads (as in the Bangor and Aroostook, Boston and Maine, Kansas City Southern, Seaboard Air Line and St. Louis Southwestern) in a number of interesting permutations, as witness the following specimens (all from the builder's photos):
I'm not exactly sure if the original plans are still around for which to review and perhaps adapt such to the desideratum of this value-for-money high-speed rail approach, in particular aluminum body construction and wide-scale energy efficiency in terms of lighting, power supply and passenger comfort generally. As well as even extending the energy efficiency to the windows, with a slight tint to reduce glare.
So what would you think?
REMEMBER THIS, READER: Your comments on, and responsible sharing of, these posts are always welcome and appreciated. And should you ever need to contact me with questions, comments, whatever, please do so through this page; to join our free (howbeit sporadic) e-mail list, just click here. (BTW, we will not sell nor share your e-mail address, and you can always leave at any time.)
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Posted by Iludium Phosdex.
May 8, 2012
see more Engrish17h UTC; TUESDAY, 8 MAY 2012: The lead-off image may be of scenes from the recent (and so-called) "Pyongyang International Friendship Fair," readers, but can you imagine the likelihood of "Tea Party" Zealots and True Believers holding a so-called "AmeriKKKan Cultural Festival" reeking of such "folk culture festivals" as were endemic in Nazi Germany under Kraft durch Frude auspices (and kept alive in apartheid South Africa for awhile under the Reddingsdaadbond's direction)?
"Think about it."
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While there may be a lot of discussion about the need to improve the public education system in Our Dear Lovely AmeriKKKa (not to mention how best to accomplish it), Your Correspondent needs to ask how would embracing a homeschooling syllabus rooted in apartheid South Africa's "values-driven" syllabus of Christelik Nasionale Onderwys (Christian National Education) actually help matters, especially when the lessons emphasise idealised concepts of "Traditional Christian Values" condoning racism, sexism, nativism, bigotry, xenophobia rivalled only by North Korea, anti-Semitism and gross intolerance at the expense of core skills necessary to job or career success?
And pray, how exactly would emphasising "values" encapsulated into cheap, bumper-sticker slogans as can be parroted on cue at mass rallies and revivalist camp meetings/political rallies in the Nuremburg stylee actually be of value in developing job skills?
Especially when you have "critical thinking" exercises similar to one from an actual apartheid-era South African social studies text noted in Brian Bunting's The Rise of the South African Reich (1967) as had students imagining they were the head of the South African Police in conversation with the Prime Minister explaining the threats posed to South African sovereignty and the apartheid regime from within as much as from without.
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So much for the conservative prolefeed meme that threats to Our National and Sovereign Identity, as much as Our Dear and Cherished Liberties, can exist only from without (in particular Islamist "terrorists"): AddictingInfo.org, in the immortal words of Confidential magazine's slogan "Tells the Facts and Names the Names," reveals 20 threats from within(!!) to Our National and Sovereign Identity, complete with contact information for those wishing to take them to task--preferably in a polite, professional and responsible manner.
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Meanwhile, how do we know such specimens among the more insistent Zealots and True Believers in expecting a spontaneous and sudden creation of private-sector employment "if only companies made reasonable effort to do so on their own initiative and resources" so expect this when bankers are actually unwilling to make finance or credit available to small businesses as could actually hasten jobs creation and investment in new plant and equipment, blaming "new Federal banking laws" or some such patsy to get out of the Common Courtesy of doing their part for ekonomesie vryheid met Amerikaanse eienskappe such as "Tea Party" types insist is essential and integral to Our National and Sovereign Identity as a Peculiar Among the Nations?
Or are "Tea Party" types insisting that the only realistic "economic recovery" they want to see for the Nation is one "born out of the Volk to serve the Volk," as it were (i.e., a "people-centred" approach modelled on the Reddingsdaad such which Afrikaner nationalists were pushing to "save the Afrikaner from himself" in the decade prior to the introduction of the apartheid regime, one based on National Cohesion and Identity as opposed to State charity or assistance and involving what amounts to The Patriot Fund as the avenue for financing "viable" business and industry startups and finance through self-liquidating loans)?
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And how exactly do we know that the Hidden Agenda of the so-called "Veterans for a Strong AmeriKKKa" behind a planned "swift-boating" prolefeed campaign against President Barack Obama's reelection isn't actually one that is closer to North Korea's Songun ("Army First") Doctrine, holding as it does that the needs of the Korean People's Army take precedence over civilian and industrial needs for the time being (howbeit indeterminate) towards the Luscious Glory of the "People-Centred" Socialism Known as Juche, founded on the doctrine that Man is the Master of Everything, and decides Everything?
REMEMBER THIS, READER: Your comments on, and responsible sharing of, these posts are always welcome and appreciated. And should you ever need to contact me with questions, comments, whatever, please do so through this page; to join our free (howbeit sporadic) e-mail list, just click here. (BTW, we will not sell nor share your e-mail address, and you can always leave at any time.)
Also, be aware that Your Correspondent is not responsible for the content of external website links in blog posts, which open in new browser windows for your convenience (and are included only to provide contextual insight and clarity into the topic at hand).
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May 7, 2012
see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!17h26 UTC; MONDAY, 7 MAY 2012: As if the paranoia Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker continues proffering in prolefeed form to save his name and repute in the face of his June 5th recall challenge (tomorrow being the Democratic primaries) wasn't awful and pathetic enow, one needs to consider the prospect of his facing Serious Criminal Charges thanks to the John Doe Investigation, so explaining that Legal Defence Fund of his as is at the heart of a Wisconsin Democratic Party complaint contending that recall campaign contributions were being thus diverted.
Not to mention the clear and present likelihood of Governor Walker's having weird, unhwolesome and perhaps morally-questionable friends and associates, including some with known police records for Crimes of Moral Turpitude seeking in their service for Meneer "Wisconsin IS Open for Business" the prospect of Redemption for Value.
Which, to the credit-rating agencies, could be enough to raise serious red flags to the point of placing the Badger State's sovereign debt on Double-Secret Credit Watch and Ward, to be followed with a shock downgrade in ratings just before the recall elections to a point somewhere in between Junk and Toxic Waste, though not necessarily In Default.
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With the GOP and their conservative prolefeed enablers insisting that those who have incompatible or inadequate job or career skills "aren't making reasonable enough effort to find decent jobs," all the while blaming President Obama's "policies" therefor, may I suggest that about the only such job avenues available to such you're whining about are probably of a questionable, borderline illegal even, sort.
In particular, the likes of "work-from-home" schemes such as those packaged as "merchandise processing manager" (read: fence for possibly stolen merchandise), "mystery shopper" (usually involving MoneyGram and invoking its presence at Walmart locations, supposedly to "test performance") and "payment processor" (usually invoking the names and stylees of well-known companies with a presence in the United States supposedly needing cheap and cheerful ways to send funds back to their overseas HQ because of supposed "high taxes on corporate funds transfers" or "not listed on the Official Companies Register in the United States," as if assuming Our Dear Lovely Nation adopted the British practice of a central corporate registry such as Companies House), the last two known to pay with counterfeit or stolen money orders or cashier's cheques, encashment of which could translate into legal trouble (especially as there are no funds in support thereof) and damage to credit records which could prevent reintegration into the job market.
(BTW, you can check to see if a Postal Money Order in the United States is the real McCoy by way of the Postal Money Order Verification System on freecall 1-866-459-7822; in the case of Canadian Postal Money Orders, their freecall verification line is 1-800-563-0444, or they can be sent to Canada Post Corporation, Ottawa, ON K1A 0B1, with a polite message requesting verification. BTW, postage from the United States to Canada is now 85 cents.)
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Over recent years, various tourist trap businesses, claiming a shortage of dependable teenage and young adults seeking summer work experiences stateside, have turned to the State Department's J-1 Student Visa scheme to hire disadvantaged foreign students for a few months' work experience and travel in the United States, largely to help develop job skills and English-language proficiency. Which, as with any government-sponsored scheme, can be full of potential for abuse and exploitation, which recent policy revisions seek to correct and in some instances prevent.
The which is probably a major bone of umbarge among nativist, xenophobically racist and hyper-nationalist Zealots and True Believers who are forever bellyaching about "good American labour" from especially teenagers "needing to develop healthy work habits and skills" being available, yet somehow being "prevented" from applying for or working in such positions, never mind that employers can't lay off stateside help just to accomodate J-1 visa hires. Hence, their drooling(!!) in their Luscious Glory for some easily-manipulate patsies as can serve as "testers" for the prospect of Unfair Labour Practice and Reverse Bias lawsuits against seasonal employers declining job applications or CV's from qualified stateside applicants in favour of "cheaper" J-1 visa help (never mind that the courts might throw out the case because of the "insincere" tone of the charges, lack of credible substance to the supposed interconnexion, the sheer prolefeed value of the exercise, even the possibility for "jury nullification" being sought vis-a-vis the whole J-1 scheme as "needlessly preventing many millions of good Americans from finding summer work and developing healthy work experience" thereby).
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There goes Walmart's delusional slogan of "Save money. Live better," as is making the prolefeed rounds of late: The May number of Consumer Reports hath results of a consumer survey of 52 leading regional and national supermarket chains ... and among its More Important Findings As Should Be of Concern to the Socially-Aware Consumer is that Walmart scores at or near the bottom in terms of consumer satisfaction when it comes to various metrics of the shopping experience across the board. (Read it for yourself if you don't believe me.)
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Sticking with Consumer Reports for a moment: "Selling It" is a regular feature as appears on the inside back cover of each issue in lieu of outside advertising, which Consumers Union, as publishes Consumer Reports, is against as a matter of editorial policy in the interest of due impartiality, neutrality even. Said feature is aimed at exposing all manner of absurd excesses of advertising and marketing, especially repeated or all-too-frequent use of stock images, absurd-sounding brand names, ambiguous or vague language (including use of Engrish in packaging and/or instructions), unwittingly-deceptive offers and even glowing-sounding claims being deflated by qualifying language such as government-mandated warnings or other disclosures.
On that last area of target, case in point: This month's edition calls out a point-of-sale video ad for Camel Snus proclaiming "Be Free", only to be qualified by the prominent Federally-mandated warning-in-rotation "Smokeless tobacco is addictive." Consumer Reports' rejoinder: "Apparently, freedom is just another word for addiction."
Imagine how "Tea Party" and "9-12" types, or what remains of them (as in the "hard-core" support base), would react thereto.
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Even with gas prices stating to go into retreat approaching the summer driving season thanks to crude oil on the commodities markets falling below $100/bbl. over recent days (mostly thanks to the ongoing European socioeconomic crisis, even considering elections in France [Socialists taking the Presidency] and Greece [no clear winner among the three major parties, and a viable coalition government highly unlikely] yesterday), such should not be a time for complacent "Wise Use" (read: wasteful and profligate) fuel consumption and driving habits reeking of the wasteful; after all, some crisis could shape up suddenly and without warning as could jack up fuel prices just as suddenly, and, like the Scouts, it's best to Be Prepared and conserve fuel all the more. Including such common-sense measures as:
- Maintaining proper tyre pressure;
- Following recommended service schedules for your car (as per the Owner's Manual);
- Changing motor oil and other fluids at recommended intervals;
- Refilling the gas tank only when it gets near empty (and best still, doing so at or near sunrise to minimise vapour loss common with warmer temperatures in the afternoon and evening hours);
- Avoiding wasteful and unnecessary acceleration, especially such intended as exercises in obnoxious machismo;
- Driving at or just under posted speed limits (preferably at 60 mph tops on Interstate highways);
- Switching off the cell phone while driving, except in direst emergencies (in which case you should pull off to the side of the road, switch on the hazard flashers, light road flares and call 911); and
- Taking regular rest breaks every 300 miles (i.e., about every five hours at 60 mph) to stretch the muscles, get some exercise, sip something light and refreshing (avoiding alcohol, caffeine and so-called "energy drinks" if you can help it) ... and if feeling drowsy, pull off at the nearest rest area and get some sleep before returning to the road. (Many states prohibit outright camping in rest areas as opposed to merely parking overnight; check the signs if in doubt.)
Meanwhile, for the British friends of this New Explosion of Pedigreed Bull, I hope your Early May Bank Holiday today was sane and yet enjoyable, especially considering where this year's Spring Bank Holiday, normally May 28th, will be supplanted this year by the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Bank Holiday on June 4th.
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May 6, 2012
see more dog and puppy pictures14h50 UTC; SUNDAY, 6 MAY 2012: Is it just me, or is Bog sending a message upon Wisconsin's electorate, in the form of thunderstorms and all its attendant byproducts (as in heavy rain, flash flooding and damaging wind) this morning, to "stay the course" with belaguered Governor Scott Walker in the recall against him, the first round of which is Tuesday?
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In a related vein: Methinks I have what the GOP/"Tea Party" element is really calling for vis-a-vis socioeconomic recovery upon the Nation, howbeit requiring one to "read between the lines" to understand such in context--viz., nothing less than a "people-centred" approach based on the "help through self-help" model, one "born out of the Volk to serve the Volk" (as it were), essentially requiring the targeted therefor expected to be thus "empowered" to "rely solely on their own tools and resources" lest "enslaving dependency" ensue in the end.
(Provided, however, that such conformed to the disciplines and principles of ekonomesie vryheid met Amerikaanse eienskappe throughout, such expected to be regarded as essential to, and interlocking with, Our National and Sovereign Identity as a Peculiar Among the Nations. When all is said and done here, however, expect such to take the form of no better than "cashflow gifting" scams and games disguised in the interest of a false aura of credibility under such banners as "Aeroplane," "Dinner Party," "Pit Stop," "Friends Helping Friends" and various affinity-related permutations on the meme like "Women Helping Women," "Christians Helping Christians," "Farmers Helping Farmers," &c.)
So how exactly does resort to the illicit (see 18 USC 1302, 1341 and 1343, also 39 USC 3005) become necessary towards a "people-centred self-help" model of economic empowerment?
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With the Elmer Gantryite element likely to epitomise Shylock's famous observation in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice that "the Devil can cite Scripture for his own purpose" all the more vis-a-vis Indecision 2012, ponder what syndicated columnist Leonard Pitts, Jnr., has to say about such invoking Holy Writ for religiopolitical ends in connexion:Sometimes, people hide inside the Bible.
They are doing it now, as gay men and lesbians seek the right to be married.
The latest battleground in that fight is North Carolina, where voters go to the polls Tuesday to render a verdict on Amendment One, which would add to the state constitution the following stipulation: “Marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this state.”
Mind you, the Tarheel State already has a law on the books banning same-sex marriage. The would-be constitutional amendment is meant to double down on exclusion. And if you read the language carefully, you saw what many observers have seen — that it can also be interpreted as denying legal recognition to unmarried heterosexuals.
Not that this holds any sway with those who hide inside the Bible. “God has defined marriage,” said Family Research Council President Tony Perkins in a Sunday sermon quoted in the Charlotte Observer. “It is not up to us to redefine it.” In a letter to the editor, an Observer reader put it thusly: “You either believe (the Bible) or not.”
One wishes those people could spend a little quality time with Matthew Vines.
Vines is a Christian, a 22-year-old Harvard undergrad raised in a conservative evangelical church in Kansas. He is also gay and says he grew up being taught that the Bible condemns his sexual orientation. He took two years off from school to research and study whether or not that assertion is true.
The result is “The Gay Debate: The Bible and Homosexuality.” It’s a video — you can find it online with a simple Google search — of a speech he gave in March at a church in Wichita that has become a minor sensation. Small wonder.
Vines’ speech is a masterwork of scriptural exegesis and a marvel of patient logic, slicing and dicing with surgical precision the claim that homophobia is God ordained. So effective is the video that after viewing it, Sandra Delemares, a Christian blogger from the United Kingdom who had, for years, spoken in staunch opposition to same-sex marriage, wrote that it “revolutionized” her thinking.
Vines points out, for instance, that the frequently quoted condemnation from the Old Testament lawbook of Leviticus (homosexuality is an “abomination”) has no application to Christians, who are bound by the teachings of the New Testament. He explains that St. Paul’s admonitions about the “effeminate” and “abusers of themselves with mankind” stem from modern mistranslations of ancient Greek terminology.
It is fascinating stuff, and there is not nearly enough space here to do it justice, but the salient point is this: Vines is not some godless heathen lobbing bombs at Christianity from outside its walls. No, he lives inside Christianity’s walls, still holds the faith in which he was raised. So this is not an outsider’s attack. It is an insider’s plea.
One hopes that plea is heeded. Vines’ speech is long — a little over an hour — but well worth the time, particularly for those seeking to reconcile first-century faith with 21st-century social concerns.
Many in North Carolina — many around the country — are swimming against the tide of human freedom and blaming God for it. Again, this is not a new thing. We saw it back when God was for segregation and against women’s suffrage.
How convenient it must be to lay your own narrowness and smallness off on God, to accept no responsibility for the niggardly nature of your own soul. Vines’ video is a welcome, overdue and eloquent rebuke of the moral and intellectual laziness of throwing rocks, then hiding inside Scripture. It is a reminder, too.
You don’t go to the Bible to hide. You go there to seek. Meanwhile, the AmeriKKKan Family Association affiliate One Million Moms (you have to wonder if such a stylee is an accurate reflection of its membership and/or support base; IMHO, such is a deliberate prolefeed exercise seeking to exaggerate and mislead the unwary) has renewed its call for a consumer boycott "For My God and My Country" against JCPenney over its supposed "endorsement of homosexuality" in online advertising of late, replete with the demand that JCPenney "remain neutral" when it comes to the Kulturkrieg now supposedly abroad. (Recall where an earlier boycott call against Penney's therefrom over their appointing actress Ellen DeGeneres, herself a known lesbian, backfired.)
*************
Proof that online radio may actually be better than the travesty over the old-school ether waves: Thursday night into Friday mornings (depending on where in the world you may be), Radio Northsea International (RNI) offers a rather interesting Adventure in Listening worth your time called "Night Shift", a hybrid of milder pop disks interspersed with soothing sounds like crashing waves upon the beach, owls hooting in the night, that sort of thing.
*************
Why "reading between the lines" (as in on-screen source disclosures) is all the more important when watching issue/advocacy advertising seeking to "win hearts and minds" over to a particular persepctive in Indecision 2012 especially: An advert from the AmeriKKKan Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA), an industry prolefeed front, duly noted by Your Correspondent making note of how many jobs have been created within the natural gas industry in our "morally superior" society and nation, cites surveys as go back only to 2008 and 2009.
Which raiseth the question: Why quote employment figures from 2008 and 2009 to "win hearts and minds" over to the natural gas industry's perspective when such may not be an accurate reflection of 2012 industry payrolls?
*************
Such advocates of high-speed passenger rail in Our Dearest AmeriKKKa outside the Northeast Corridor wanting to approach such in a cost-efficient manner as makes use of existing and available technologies and trackage (subject to requisite track and signal upgrades), thereby translating into a finished result within measurable distance and with value for money, may want to consider past experience from our Canadian brethren: As in the Tempo Service trains which Canadian National (after 1978, VIA Rail Canada) operated from 1968 until 1983 in the Southwest Ontario Corridor (Toronto-Burlington-Hamilton-London-Windsor/Sarnia), basically an analog high-speed train which used conventional-design coaches of aluminum construction (as also featured disc brakes, microwave ovens in the cafe section and reclining-seat coaches), with rebuilt road-switcher diesel locomotives geared for a top speed of just under 100 mph (to accomodate the train's power requirements--Tempo was designed for Head-End Power [HEP], as in the prime mover also supplying the train's lighting, climate control and general power supply--as well as reduce the need for turnaround at termini).
For those of you needing an idea of what such looked like (via a site called YourRailwayPictures.com, know), 'tis:
Now tell me if this could be a high-speed rail concept worth a fresh new look, especially among such suggesting reinvention of AmeriKKKan passenger rail according to the British free-market-driven model (especially so that based upon "open access"); after all, the coaches would be of established lightweight design, unpainted for the most part on the outside (thereby reducing fuel consumption) ... existing road-switcher motive power could be utilised, with requisite gearing and HEP modifications (not to mention provision for "push-pull" coaches to negate the need for turnaround at termini ... and said coaches could be configured for coach and business class, with provision for a cafe/snack bar as would offer sandwiches, light meals, snacks and beverages.
Such a "back-to-basics" approach might also apply to bilevel-design coaches, as is already the case with Amtrak California; could I be on to something here, or do you have other thoughts in this respect?
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Meet Your Correspondent:
| Iludium Phosdex |
| Winona, Mn (United States Of America) |
Dyslexic. Unemployable because of past psychosexual abuse; hence, dependent upon State charity (and trying to supplement it through the Online Mall on this site). Yet nonetheless opinionate, as carried out in this rather esoterically-inclined blog, this New Explosion of Pedigreed Bull on Teh Innerwebz.
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