Most of us think the stock market is the sole indicator of a good or bad economy. However, with so much investment going overseas, it doesn’t tell the whole story. More important is labor statistics. The top retailier, for instance always seems to lead the pack in job creation, but most of it is part time and roughly at minimum wage, but its greatest impact on creating jobs is abroad by importing tons of foreign made goods. There was a time when buying American was the patriotic thing to ...

Though a full third of the nation is poorly educated are they without common sense, too? -- hardly. Common sense, however, is constantly bombarded with the amoral static and sophistry of the right wing, such as: Every one should be free to pursue the American dream of wealth -- without stating the odds are equivalent to winning the lottery -- let alone the ultimate dream of good health, happiness and helping the less fortunate. Fifty percent of Americans own stock therefore com...

Brad Wardell pointed out in one his recent articles on the character of America, that the federal government is but a small part of governance compared to all that is done on state and local levels. This is not an isolated view among conservatives who still carry the vestige of rugged individualism in their hearts pumping through their veins governmental malnutrition as though the US were just any country advocating the law of power, rather than enlightened, constitutional law. That locals have ...

In the fifties the slogan for Big Business was “What’s good for General Motors is good for the country.” The inference, of course, is that the largest company and employer is bound to have a beneficial effect on the economy in profits, growth, improving wages and growth of the middle class to sustain business activity. Today this economic concept is lost. “What’s good for Wal-Mart is not necessarily good for the country.” For the implication here is that this current largest company and emp...

I was embarrassed during the 2000 campaign when the Democrats kept harping on the soaring DOW, which to the average person means very little since the books are always cooked to suit the whims of the time. The millions of modest stockholders that politicians are always heralding possess a piece of the action by pensions mainly in mutual funds which seem never to rise or fall very much. There are scandals, of course, where a corrupt company cajole employees to invest in their employer, such as ...

Those that see in black and white and ignore the grays make for far easier problem-solving. It is no mystery the Bush ‘03 State of The Union offers to “confound the designs of evil men...our calling,... a blessed country is to make the world better.” It is far simpler to accept the statement at face value than to delve into its grays. A pesky liberal, however, is driven by some weird “noble discontent” and expects clarification:  Is evil confined to al Qaeda or to all evil men in the “axis” a...

  As On liners can see from the blurb below, I wrote this where I taught a long time ago to the district superintendent for the express purpose of warding off “get tough,” autocratic process of assessing teachers because administrators aren’t really trained thoroughly on that score — I have the feeling even less so today in many schools. You will see how difficult it is to evaluate teachers, let alone an entire school. This current fetish for tests won’t do it for the simple reason they are...

 D desperation  E  egalitarian’s demise  M moderation or muddling  O omissions  C  calcification  R  rearranging postures  A anything goes to suit the polls  T  terrorized by the right  The democrats are uncomfortable as a minority party even though a majority — not electoral — agrees with their views when they stick by them. Unfortunately, they are obsessed with the hopeless aim of regaining the red states.

 “Yankee Go Home” doesn’t apply to South Korea where only a half year ago its citizens demonstrated against our 37,000 troops stationed there — what with the north’s incessant provocation. After fifty years the south is nevertheless more than a match against its neighbor despite its larger army but poorly equipped. Even though South Korea spends ten times what the north does in armament — $320 per capita, or 3.4 percent of its GNP — it could fortify itself independent of the US, except for a n...

Annually I’m distressed when floods and forest fires wreak terror on our populace and properties. We get all riled up over terrorism but never make any attempt to control these catastrophes. Because of FEMA we tend to think that floods are taken as a matter of course without an effort to begin planning a way to eliminate or at least minimize the devastation by mass projects of strategic dam-building and embankment construction. The US has lost its will to develop safety infrastructure secon...

Some crucial items on the political campaign agenda should cover: 16) Raise the minimum wage rate one dollar each year for the next three years and legislate cost of living index thereafter. 17) Fund a public education overseas TV channel in foreign languages giving an objective account of democracy at work. 18) Develop a peace project for the western hemisphere stressing the need to replace dictatorships and oppression with democratic objectives. 19) Assist in mor...

Some crucial items on the political campaign agenda should cover: 1) A voluntary civilian defense corps made up of primarily school drop-outs, and high school students not college-bound and senior citizens for nominal stipend; this corps would be organized and supervised by local enforcement agencies and paid for by Homeland Security. 2) Incentives should target the national guard to recruit more for the express purpose of border patrol. 3) Appropriations should be increa...

During these primaries the exchange has been more about the economy than the war. The bleak picture the Democratic candidates paint is echoed by many of the Democratic faithful who feel for those affected by job loss and outsourcing. To the Republican faithful, however, this scenario flies in the face of a stock market rebounding that is attributed to the tax cuts. Most Republicans voters are of the unscathed middle class and higher and don’t care about factory-shut downs or the exodus of job...

The old cry that communism equally degrades everyone to little above serfdom could conceivably be apropos to the current economic strategy of corporations in search of minimal labor costs abroad. Conservatives and Clinton Democrats as well argue that it is logical to continue relentlessly free trade since they claim it creates jobs here, too. What they don’t tell you is what kind of jobs are created here. Free trade generates flea markets, dollar store, auto foreign parts outlets, Wal-Marts an...

In the nation’s quest to leave no child behind, the politicians are admitting that indeed there are children left behind. In the spirit of the land of opportunity, the nation is ostensibly bent on bringing up to par the nation’s children by impossible tests that have nothing to do with the reality — a term more than ever blurred by “reality” TV — which everyone knows has to do with the child’s home environment, the child’s DNA, the schooling of the parents, the disrepair of the school attended, ...