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?