>The businesses will take care of the workers if they are successful. That is no longer the case. The business model that prevails in America right now is that labor costs are the best place to gain on the profit vs costs equation. The more successful a business becomes the more likely it will be that they will reduce payroll to further inflate profits for the executive management and shareholders. Not everyone is equipped to become an MBA, nor should they need be in such a vast economic system as the United States. We need burger flippers as well as CEO's and they should and can be paid a wage that is sufficient to live on without derailing the company growth. Most companies only need a single CEO but they always need vastly more labor consistent with the size of the company. If our destiny truly lies in automated personal service delivery and outsourced skilled trades manufacturing then unwed mothers should not be pressured to have children they don't want. Republicans make most of the pro-life arguments but then argue just as fervently for Globalization. Huh? I don't think effective methods of birth control should be blackballed with trumped up allegations of danger. In fact it probably isn't out of line to suggest that if things are really so bad that ones country cannot guarantee its citizens employment consistent with their availability then maybe couples should be limited to one child only! The U.S. displays a shocking lack of ability to learn from history. After decades of a direct correlation between production and profit the U.S. began experimenting with a stock market economy which crashed badly in 1929 and the same dynamic is working again less than 100 years later. The U.S. also experimented with a free labor economy which indirectly led to a Civil War. This Red State/Blue State division is tearing our country apart and when it isn't doing that it definitely inhibits forward progress. The rest of the world is racing by with quality of life improvements for its citizens and we watch as China ascends to the place that we once held as a mover and shaker on the international stage. H

Katlan, Fireman's wife left after some people here basically called her a liar. Some believed her story some didn't and were very rude to her about it. I don't know if the story was true or not but she had been here awhile before all that happened so I don't see any reason why she would have made it up. If I had been treated that way I would have left too. As a matter of fact I don't post here much or even read here like I used to because of some of the mean people who surfaced around that time. Fine if you don't believe what someone posts here but there is no need to be vicious about it. Just Scroll on by.

It's very close -- maybe 7-8 miles as the crow flies, but the trajectory is south, not east/northeast towards me -- a couple of ridges and a creek and a river and a couple of "major" local two-lane highway (Hwy 9, 236) also break the path. Basically, if the fire gets to Boulder Creek and me, half the town will be gone. I can't see that happening, at least not tonight or tomorrow. A remote smaller fire last year just over the ridge, which did not get widely reported, had me more in a tizzy about evacuating...I had the cat carriers out, fire safe in the car, important files in the car, and a gym bag with a couple changes of clothes, as well as a few things for the cats (litter, food, etc.), and a few things for me as well. Not that it would make much difference because my house is at the peak of a canyon/creek "chimney", I did have quite a bit of fire break/ tree clearing done once I kicked the soon-to-be-ex-not-so-DH outta here. He would never do it since he prunes trees for a living and didn't want to "sacrifice" trees at home as well. 'Nuff said... Here's a current fire map, with a little yellow dot at the top right/center showing approximately where I am.

Hi everyone ... if there may have been rumours of my demise, let me assure you that they were wildly exaggerated! I've made some major posts over on Saving and Finance. Covering and picking tomatoes and finishing with the garden. Cleaning and putting away the coverings that I used for the tomatoes. Pitching a number of tomatoes that won't ripen. Does anyone want some sprouted radishes? I think that I have hundreds of little seedlings that have come up after a number of the plants that grew in the spring went to seed: hundreds of pods. I plan to ask a fellow gardener who asked for some radish seeds tomorrow whether he'd like some sprouts to see whether he can bring the radishes to maturity in his house this fall, I plan to bring some in here, and think that I'll cover some of the ones in the garden with bales of straw, to see whether we can keep them surviving in the ground over winter. We had a federal election (with only about 6 weeks of electioneering - can you believe that?) ... not much change from before. So, about 30 million for ... minimal result. I had a substantial dispute with a local Member of Parliament in his campaign office a few days before the election ... about some generous tax benefits to rich guys ... but nuthin fer the rest of us. I said that an announcement that his boss The Prime Minister had made had rubbed salt into what had been an open wound of mine for years. He figures that I should pay taxes on my wages, pension, etc. ... but when his asset grows (doubles, maybe) he shouldn't have to pay tax on the extra income. As an owner of a Wendys, he seems to feel that the little gals who work there for minimum wage (plus a few cents an hour, maybe, if they're lucky), should pay tax on that income. But when the owner of the shop who paid, possibly a million for it ... ... later sells it for 2.5 million ... ... that there should be no tax on the increase (that's his opinion: the law doesn't say that [yet]). I don't suppose he'd be too interested in sharing some of the gain with the hard-working staff who'd helped him build the business. No room here for a full discussion of the systems that caused my open wounds ... but the salt that his boss offered was his plan to pay $750.00 to folks buying their first home, to help them pay closing costs. I said that if someone can't cover closing costs, and have some money for a down payment, as well ... ... that they have no business buying a home ... that they may well end up losing it. I said that it was such an approach to buying houses that triggered the avalanche of financial troubles that has bedevilled the U.S. financial system in the past year and a half - do they want to set such similar troubles in motion here?? But there are many more restrictions here to deter such possible troubles developing. My problems dealt with the exemption from income tax that owners of owner-occupied homes enjoy when selling ... but there's no parallel benefit for people who don't own their homes. A limited number of people (farmers and owners of small businesses) have recently enjoyed a major increase in what was a pretty generous exemption from capital gains tax when they sold their business ... but there was no similar exemption from capital gains tax from others of us who may have built them up. I'll be happy to provide more details to any Canadians who'd like to learn them - just contact me. U.S. folks are welcome, as well, but it'd be of minimal interest to most of you, I think. Some lunches and various activities at church, including "Commitment Sunday". Helping a friend get her computer email working better. I hope that you're all learning some interesting things and enjoying your week. ole joyful