Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Good Morning News with My Cup of Coffee

General Session of China





Not much going on - and I know I said I would not read the news anymore - BUT!

ID theft via credit card on the rise around the country and the newspaper even explained how it was done via the scanning process. We are instructed to not throw ANYTHING with ANY personal information away, but to shred it.

Brittney didn't get hit in the upper lip, looks like a botched surgery.

Angelina & Brad stay pretty much out of the spotlight - besides they are boring, they mainly just raise kids and do movies.

The front page of the local blurb cites statistics that for the first time in more than 40 years, low-income children make up the majority of the public school students in the South.

The editorial about 3 pages in makes a case for relative poverty, stating that kids going to school hungry here are much better off than those in other countries who don't get to go to school and don't get to eat that day.

That is so, however in a country (U.S.) that sends 150 million dollars a month to other countries (that's just the routine aid, not the war coffers & special aid) one would think we could possibly squeeze out a little bit of that to help feed kids here so they could learn. But then, why would they need to learn - we are outsourcing everything! Or, how about that health care for children bill - couldn't we have diverted some of that 150 million over so they wouldn't have to die from an infected tooth spreading sepsis to their little bodies? (Another new article from a few months back.)

Or how about a Country that couldn't spare some change to furnish gas for available buses to evacuate New Orleanians? And how come the New Orleans newspaper is the only paper that seems to be reporting news such as the horrific crime rate, houses that are being bull dozed down against homeowners wishes, and hospitals that still aren't open?

Former employee at Oprah's school in Africa arrested for abuse. Good Lord, poor Oprah, considering her life experiences I'm sure this one has hit her really hard.

Just read another book on Walmart. That did it. I'm all for saving money, but I have decided not to shop there anymore unless its a last resort for a required item not found elsewhere, I do not care to pay a CEO $11.5 million a year so Walmart can continue its sprawl around the world. (I'll have a harder time giving up Sam's Club.)

A Walmart employee here makes on average a whopping $15,300 a year, if Walmart will give them full time hours. This is well below the poverty level if they have a kid. And, they are buying almost exclusively from China - and for several months now I have pretty successfully avoided buying anything that says "made in China" on it.

In fact, I have decided to buy less, and support local business when at all possible. Good gosh, will I have to resist the Starbucks temptation and go a few more blocks for a cup of Joe at the Bad Ass Coffee Company? Yes. Next, there is the problem of making sure what I buy is Fair Trade and that containers are recycle-able.

How the world has changed in the last 20-30 years.

The newspaper reports that China has responded to our requests to stop sending contaminated products to the U.S. by accusing the U.S. of sending them contaminated products and putting the lid on the minuscule amounts of product the we export to them. Come on, China, grow up. Or, are we really poisoning them as well? Is this a new type of cold war?

Locally, property insurance premiums continue to rise, even for those residents out of the flood plain - ours came in at $1775.00 a year for a $35,000 deductible on hurricanes. That SHOULD be against the law.

Well, that about covers it, except for the sports page which I don't read.

Have any of these hit a rant button in you?

9 comments:

Candy Minx said...

Well, yes many of them hit sore spots for me. I work really hard at not buying something made in China for well...for ever...long before Tianemen Square...I knew they don't have the same standards for production that North America manufactureers demand: stainless steel was the main item I noticed...shit stainless steel products made in China. Unfortunately...North America isn't manufacturing many things. Now there is a fun research idea, find out what is still made in America!

Is this a cold war? Sort of Gardenia...only it isn't between different cultures...it's between dominant economies.

The dominant economy is agriculture...and whoever is best at making a profit and making things cheap just like the very first motives behind farming...will be the superpower.

Any group of people who takes free food...grows it, locks it up and sells it back to itself...well what do you expect.

All of our contemporary mindsets are based on this premise that we would lok food up and then sell it back to ourselves. You can get away with slavery, discrimination, greed...all our virtues... after you accomplish such.

Red said...

I was reading on a news blog that most countries in the world are now willing to make sacrifices for the environment... except Italy and Russia. I feel a bit ashamed of my country folk, I have to admit. But then, Italians are all about appearances, and God forbid that they have to make do with a little less...

I also try to avoid "Made in China", "Made in Sri Lanka", "Made in India" and so on because I don't want to encourage companies that make millions (like The Gap) to outsource to a country that then uses children and pays them no money. But would these working children rather have a lousy paid job than no job at all, though?

I saw the Oprah press conference yesterday. She must have been seething about this. Apparently, she has now given each girl at the school a mobile phone with her private number on it. Anything out of the ordinary happens, and they can get in touch with her direct. Star!

tweetey30 said...

This sucks. I dont read the newspapers either but I do watch the local news at noon between listening to my soaps. LOL.. I dont have time to sit and watch them all day long so I do listen to them.

I am also glad I dont live down where you live. It must be beautiful to visit but I dont think I would pay that much for insurance. No thanks.

tshsmom said...

ALL of it enrages me!
The main thing I have against Walmart is the Chinese products. We don't have a Walmart, but the last time I shopped at one, I bought very little. I was shopping for a baby shower gift and couldn't find ANY baby items that weren't made in China.

Don't get me started on insurance companies! They're the biggest gov't subsidized racket in the country! Politicians instantly lose my vote when they say they want to fix our health care system by using insurance companies. I think that most of our elected officials are bought and paid for by the insurance lobbies! :(

Biddie said...

I am going to check labels more...I am not very good at that.
I am all for helping other countries, but I think that we all need more grass roots organizations. We need to make sure that the people in our neighbourhoods have safe housing and food before we can worry about others.
Just my humble opinion.

Heidi Grether said...

I don't get into news rants anymore. It only adds to my stress. Sound selfish? What can I really do to change anything outside of my circle of influence?

I cannot afford to shop at Apple Market. Even produce locally is so expensive.

I believe the greatest battle is spiritual. I try to be like Mother Theresa's teaching of loving one person at a time and hopefully, my life will be somewhat of a light for His glory.

All the other issues are sub-issues. Important, yes. Top of the chart? No.

My father spent his life on a rant about everything that was wrong in the world. He did not change a thing, except to make everyone around him miserable over his constant critisizms and cynicism. I don't want to duplicate him.

Anonymous said...

I just want to cry now.

You have hit several rant buttons. First: why are celebrities news?

Second: I have started buying local grown more than ever and this includes certified humane. I haven't shopped at wal mart in years, and i wont.

I think its a crime how terribly overlooked our best resources are: our kids. We should be pouring money into educational programs left and right. We should have at the least basic healthcare and dentistry for kids. What is wrong with our govt?

Gardenia said...

Ah, hattigrace, that is why I swear off the news. I don't even take the newspaper - but some days I have a slip, LOL.

Perhaps your philosophy is why you always have that lovely smile on your face in the midst of this crazy life.

Vicki said...

I have lots of rants, too.

Thank you Bill and Melinda Gates for all the AIDS money going to African countries. But what about our hungry children in Kentucky & Louisiana? I have first hand experience of the joke of Bush's No Child Left Behind. MY behind!! Again Bill Gates needs to look into how his money is being used to make these little "universities" within our high schools.
I don't like to buy products from China, Mexico or Sri Lanka. My son in law's career with ATL/Phillips was outsourced..uh given to people overseas.
WalMart? Hmm. I have received below poverty wages working at the county hospital in Casper. I was a union member and employed by Safeway Stores and treated terribly. When I go into a Walmart I see employees in wheelchairs, with Downs Syndrome, with limbs that don't move. How many of us work side by side with someone that is mentally/physically/emotionally disabled? Would the better scenario be not being productive and to be housed in an institution? Could it be a starting place, a place to learn, to grow?

And if we spend our time stressing and worrying about these things our blood pressure will remain high, our kidneys will fail, we will need dialysis which we will have to fight to make the insurance companies pay....ohhhh, just don't get me started on insurance companies...