Author: Rev. Joe Dirt

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Ribbon of Highway Endless Skyway: Tribute to Woody Guthrie

woodytributeI’ve had this CD a while, and I have listened to it a couple times.  Those times had been when there were other distractions going on, so I was not really paying that much attention to it.  I was definitely not paying attention to Bob Childers narration.

I recently took a road trip and listened to both CDs all the way through with out interruption.  Most of the music I knew and was familiar to me. Woody’s prose that was narrated was new to me.  I came away with a new and deeper appreciation of the music of Woody Guthrie and of Woody Guthrie as a man.

It did get me to wondering how Woody would be received in the Oklahoma of today.  Would he have the same iconic stature Continue reading “Ribbon of Highway Endless Skyway: Tribute to Woody Guthrie”

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Is this racist?

I don’t like this man. And at the same time I sometimes feel like we see racism where it ain’t.

Howard Cosell (not old enough to remember who this is?) lost his job over a “monkey” remark.

I can see this clip as racist, or given my opionion of Washington in general I can see it as a statement of the reality of the place.

What do you think?

 

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Red Heads and Lime Green VWs

When I think of  my Aunt Gayle I think of a big, lop-sided smile and red hair.  Her hair had been many colors through her life, but mostly it was red.  Folks who knew her called her a lady.  She always presented herself perfectly coiffed and perfectly dressed.  Her manners were in the same mode, but she was as earthy as my father was prudish.  I say earthy, but more in a matter of fact Mother Nature sort of way.  It was a refreshing combination.

Her online handle was Sewing Mama.   She had always sewn, but in the later part of her life she discovered quilting.   She was very good at it, and was widely acknowledged as being so.  She obviously enjoyed the process and the recognition. Continue reading “Red Heads and Lime Green VWs”

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Wealth Distribution in USA

Wealth Distribution in the USA - 2003

Just in case you cannot read the graph which is data on wealth distribution in the USA from 2003.
The top 1% have 25% of the wealth in the USA
The top 5% have 50.7%
The top 10% have 62.9%.
That leaves 90% of us fighting over 37.1% of the pie.
The only country with a worse mal-distribution of wealth is Mexico.

———–

“Wealth is a person’s net worth, expressed as:

wealth  = assets  – liabilities

The word “wealth” is often confused with “income”. These two terms describe different but related things.”

“A study by the World Institute for Development Economics Research at United Nations University reports that the richest 1% of adults alone owned 40% of global assets in the year 2000, and that the richest 10% of adults accounted for 85% of the world total. The bottom half of the world adult population owned barely 1% of global wealth… Moreover, another study found that the richest 2% own more than half of global household assets.”

Source for above – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distribution_of_wealth

As Shakespeare so nicely put it, “There is something rotten in Denmark.”

Since you landed on this page this is an issue that probably concerns you.  Question is now what are you going to do about it?

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Senility

It must be the onset of senility.  I could not remember which way I put the toilet paper on the roller. Do I put in on so it comes over the top, or do I pull from the bottom? In my frustration I just tossed the roll onto the floor. Now the Charmin’ sits on the tiles and mocks me with squeezable soft whispers of, “Geezer…Geezer 

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U.S. expands H-1B fraud case against IT services firm

Gee whiz, what a surprise!

“The indictment charges that the methods used by Vision Systems “have substantially deprived U.S. citizens of employment.”

Link to article below:

U.S. expands H-1B fraud case against IT services firm

I was working at a Fortune 500 financial company.  My consulting firm stop sending over folks as they were paying Indian H1-B workers $20 – $25 an hour less than old consultants were receiving.  Guess whose contract was cut short.  Apparently they had an arrangement to bring over these young workers with a firm in Indian.  No proof, but that was the general supposition.