"The number of low-income children in California has increased by almost 1.6 million, from 2.77 million to
4.36 million. The number of California?s children in poverty has increased by 850,000, from 1.27 to 2.12 million. One in six poor children in the United States lives in California, compared to about one in 10 two decades ago. The number of poor children in California has grown at a faster pace than the total number of children in the United States. California alone has accounted for all of the net national increase of 800,000 in the number of children in poverty since the late 1970s. California?s child poverty rate has increased by more than
10 percent since 1979. The child poverty rate in California increased from just under 20 percent during the period
1979?1983 to 22 percent during the period from 1996?
2000. During the same averaged time period, the national child poverty rate went from 19 percent to 18 percent."
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Of course it could be said that Gunner was contributing to those statistics...
Right answers on many things, yes indeed. Why? Because old friend..I think. I do not live by emotion.
I should also mention that not only are several of my friends involved in the administration of welfare and other similar programs..but Im not far above that economic strata myself, and a good quantity of my aquaintences are below that poverty line. In fact..Ive been below that poverty level on at least one occasion, and while never having to avail myself of said programs, am intimately familiar with the operation and clientel of said programs.
I dont live in an ivory tower, I live down in the dirt with the rest of the poor bastards. I shop where they shop, I eat what they eat, I have them as neighbors and friends.
I raised a foster son for over 4 yrs, whose parents were druggies, getting welfar for the 5 kids, blowing it on booze and drugs, letting their kids run hungry and wild. They got welfare for the boy, Chris, while I was taking complete financial and social and parental care of him. And guess what..they lived directly across the street. Him with his cases of beer every day, her with her crank and "gentleman" callers, and the steady stream of " 5 minute relatives", and screaming, dirty, lousy children, filled diapers and torn clothing.
Repeated calls to Child Protective Services only resulted in pissed off case workers who frankly told me there was nothing they could do, except make sure the welfare checks kept coming in and the kids had Something to eat.
Chris is now an officer in the Marines, a well thought of and respected one. In the Sandbox btw. He has lost contact with his real parents, but guess what? I get a call every now and then, and a card every Christmas. And a Thanks, Dad when he calls or writes.
Did I also mention that Im a counseler/confessor/father figure for several recovering drug addicts and alchoholics? One of whom was released 7 months ago from her latest prison term for felony drug use. She has been clean now 6 months. I think she will make it this time, thank God.
So put your snide assed comments as far up your colon as you can, and thank the Diety of your choice, you never have to be in their shoes, or in mine, you feeble minded elitest zit.
Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for a happy, socially-responsible, gender neutral, environmentally- friendly celebration of the winter solstice holiday (if you happen to live in the Northern Hemisphere), or of the summer solstice holiday (if you happen to live in the Southern Hemisphere), practiced within the religious or secular traditions of your choice, or non-religious practice of your choice.
Due respect is hereby given to calendars of other cultures that do not celebrate this same solstice.
Similarly, respect is given to the recipients of this greeting regardless of their creed, race, colour, age, sex, physical ability, religious faith, sexual preference, choice of computer platform, and human or non-human companion of choice. By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms.
This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It implies no promise by the wisher, nor his or her retainer(s), to actually implement the wishes referred to. Any wish is void if prohibited by law. Any wish is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher.
Warranty of the wishes is restricted to the legal minimum regarding wishes.
Warranty is restricted solely to the replacement of this wish should it be found in any way wanting.
No responsibility can be accepted for other damage caused by a faulty wish. Issuance of a new wish shall remain at the discretion of the wisher unless compelled by law. 'If you own a gun and have a swimming pool in the yard, the swimming pool is almost 100 times more likely to kill a child than the gun is.'" Steven Levitt, UOC prof.
One in six poor children in the United States lives in
California alone has accounted for all of the net national
California?s child poverty rate has increased by more than
Hey Tommy Boy...show us the cites as to how many of those children have citizen parents, and how many of those are the children of Illegal Aliens, of you would be soooooo kind.
And each and every one of those illegal aliens and their kids gets free food, schooling and medical care.
And please..pleased give us the current definiton of Poverty Level, if you would be so kind.
Gunner
'If you own a gun and have a swimming pool in the yard, the swimming pool is almost 100 times more likely to kill a child than the gun is.'" Steven Levitt, UOC prof.
Translation: we need to be able to *export* stuff as well as import stuff. Apparently just making that simple statement is easy to do - actually putting the plan into operation is a lot, lot tougher.
Consider the idea that maybe we should require wal-mart to *export* an equal dollar amount of goods to china, to offset the goods that they import into the US. Not a quota, not a tarriff - but an offset.
I suspect that if you tried to implement that plan as a politician, the wal-mart execs would see you strung up by your thumbs!
Jim
================================================== please reply to: JRR(zero) at yktvmv (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com ==================================================
I don't care if this was a cut-n-paste deal gunner, it got a laugh out of me. Happy holidays, from NY, the monsoon state.
Jim
================================================== please reply to: JRR(zero) at yktvmv (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com ==================================================
46% of federal revenues for 2003 ($849 billion of $1,836 billion total). That's the largest single source of revenue, and it's roughly six times the total revenue from corporate income taxes ($143 billion for 2003). You may want to factor in Social Security ($727 billion in total receipts, well more than half from individuals, because of the self-employment tax). You can leave it out, but that prompts the question of how the current SS tab will be paid.
It's revealing, though, to put both SS receipts and expenditures aside (it's more-or-less self-funding, anyway) and look at the revenues without it, and where those revenues come from. Then we still have $849 billion in personal income taxes, and $1,109 billion in total federal receipts.
Interesting, huh? It's you and I that are paying for almost all of it, and we're paying most of it directly.
Well, the White House figures don't agree (but then, hardly any economists outside of the administration agree with the White House, for that matter). For 2008, for example, the projection is for $1,175 billion in individual income tax receipts, and $244 billion in corporation income taxes.
In any case, regardless of whose projections you believe, individual income taxes will continue to make or break the federal budget. Corporate taxes are only a small fraction of it.
You can entertain yourself with more White House budget fictions at:
Winter Solstice The solstices and equinoxes are mainly Druid ritual/holidays. They are times when Druids celebrate and feel the changing of the seasons. Scryings and divinings are performed to see what the coming season will bring, and the spells performed depend on the power flows associated with the day and the coming season. Winter Solstice is the shortest day of the year, so spells performed on this day are often ones relating to shortening of time length, coldness, sleep, or other things associated with winter. It is the time when Druids become one with the sleep that is winter. Feel within yourself the changing of the season, the fullness of winter. Any spells that would best utilize the power of the Winter Solstice should be performed on this day. A potent symbol of this day is darkness, the darkness of the longest night of the year. It is often a day of fasting for the Druids. Evening or the time of the setting sun is a good time of day to hold the Winter Solstice observance.
Deep Winter (Yule) Deep Winter is held on second full moon after Samhain (usually the full moon in December). It is a festival held mainly as a brief respite from the monotony of winter and can last for several days. Mistletoe is a common symbol of Deep Winter as this is the time of year it can best be harvested. The foods for the feast are again as many varieties and as much as can be spared. Another name for Deep Winter is the Feast of Longing. A common color associated with Deep Winter is white (for snow).
Gunner
'If you own a gun and have a swimming pool in the yard, the swimming pool is almost 100 times more likely to kill a child than the gun is.'" Steven Levitt, UOC prof.
The National Health Service in the UK is suing many Pharmacuetial cos. in three tranches for overcharging on generic medicines. Apparently in each case several cos. got together and decided how much to charge for drugs etc. I beleive the overcharging could total almost one thousand million pounds.
I don't mind rain. What I mind is the standard NY approach to winter, where you get a *bunch* of snow and then the ground freezes like a rock.
Then the temps go up into the 50s for a day, and you get five inches of rain.
Jim
================================================== please reply to: JRR(zero) at yktvmv (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com ==================================================
Wife and I celebrate winter solstice by painting our naked bodies blue, and cavorting around the neighborhood. Hey, nothing like the old traditions!
:)
Jim
================================================== please reply to: JRR(zero) at yktvmv (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com ==================================================
There was an article about that in the NY times yesterday. Seems like one state wanted to cut down its medicaid costs by importing certain drugs from Canada. The federal government stepped in and nixed it, said that "there was no assurance that the imported drugs would meet the same quality standards."
Which leads to the rather amazing effect where somebody like my neighbor will self-medicate with antibiotics purchased at the pet store. His comment: "what do you think they do at the production lines, say 'ok, this stuff is going for pets, put a bunch of junk and floor sweepings in it now' and from your comments above I would say that he's at least right in that regard. Not that I approve of self-medication, that is.
Jim
================================================== please reply to: JRR(zero) at yktvmv (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com ==================================================
Not really. I think what folks are saying is, they would like the Sherman Anti-Trust Act to be applied to the companies, at least to *some* degree.
Jim
================================================== please reply to: JRR(zero) at yktvmv (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com ==================================================
The US *used* to have a mechanism for dealing with illegal trusts such as that. It was called "Theodore Roosevelt." Nowadays the politicos simply line up to get their cut of the profits.
Jim
================================================== please reply to: JRR(zero) at yktvmv (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com ==================================================
There is no need to *require* anyone to export their goods to elsewhere. The market opportunity itself is inducement enough. The real point is that the government (Ours and theirs) should keep their noses out of it and allow the free market to work. Eliminate all of the layers of regulation around import and export such that a company can sell their products or buy their products from wherever they can get the best return on their investment.
================================================== please reply to: JRR(zero) at yktvmv (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com ==================================================
Yep, same goes for me, for without the rain, we wouldn't have the super sized trees that grow here.
Utah was much like NY, only minus the rain. We didn't see much of that in Utah during the winter. One of my reasons for leaving Utah was winter, how the ground would freeze solid for months, and we'd "enjoy" inversions, some times for months on end. Dirty stinky air, almost as thick as sour cream. The air here in winter is absolutely wonderful, and could be improved only by folks cutting back on their smoldering wood fires. There's almost no traffic where we live. Closest semaphore is about 10 miles away, and then it's a 4 way flashing red one. Love it!
Apparently there is trouble doing the second, because it is simply not happening. Eventually the consumers in the US will all be out of work.
================================================== please reply to: JRR(zero) at yktvmv (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com ==================================================
I do not think that is true. You are pure emotion, very little else. You just fail or refuse to see it.
And the more you reveal about yourself, the more I admire you, and the less I understand your political motivation. Like I said, your motivations are nothing but emotional, rational is not part of it at all.
Yep, no emotion there. :)
And yes, I am thankful for having been lucky enough to not have been in places where others have been. My parents among them, who both were survivors of the Holocaust, so although I have not lived through Hell myself, I have grown up with the stories of it. And because of it, my parents chose to give me an over protective upbringing.
We are all somehow the sum total of our experiences.
Merry Christmas Gunner. May next year release us from these troubled times, which has this country so devided.
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