Category: Rev. Joe Dirt’s Ramblings

The unsolicited, unreasoned, uninformed, unapologetic opinions of Rev. Joe Dirt

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Is the postal crisis real or manufactured?

Is the postal crisis real or manufactured?

Jim Hightower in an article, The Truth About the US Postal Service, on Common Dreams contends that current United States Postal Service crisis is a manufactured crisis.

“The privatizers squawk that USPS has gone some $13 billion in the hole during the past four years… the service actually produced a $700 million operational profit (despite the worst economy since the Great Depression).”

“In 2006, the Bush White House and Congress whacked the post office with the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act — an incredible piece of ugliness requiring the agency to PRE-PAY the health care benefits not only of current employees, but also of all employees who’ll retire during the next 75 years. Yes, that includes employees who’re not yet born! Continue reading “Is the postal crisis real or manufactured?”

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #4,955

…yeah I know you did not ask!

I wonder how much and how many times McDonalds has had to SUPERSIZE the uniforms of the employees in their restaurants over the years.

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A Scary Polls on Yahoo


I don’t know a lot about James Buchanan, but for my money George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan vie for the worst president of all times.

Reagan was a disaster for the common man, promoting the greed of the already rich and powerful.   By ignoring the energy crisis, he has left us decades behind where we need to be in a world where fossils fuels are ruining the environment and oil dependency hampers the economy.  His zest for deregulation has been disastrous Continue reading “A Scary Polls on Yahoo”

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Class Warfare

“There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”

– Warren Buffett, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway

“The American Dream has been under assault for 30 years,” says former President Bill Clinton.

Dateline 13-Sep-2011 (AP):

The Census Bureau reports the number of Americans in poverty jumped to 15.1 percent in 2010, a 27-year high.

About 46.2 million people, or nearly 1 in 6, were in poverty. That’s up from 43.6 million, or 14.3 percent, in 2009. It was the highest level since 1983.

The number of people lacking health insurance increased to 49.9 million, a new high after revisions were made to 2009 figures. Losses were due mostly to working-age Americans who lost employer-provided insurance in the weak economy.

Squeezed by rising living costs, a record number of Americans — nearly 1 in 2 — have fallen into poverty or are scraping by on earnings that classify them as low income.

The latest census data depict a middle class that’s shrinking as unemployment stays high and the government’s safety net frays. The new numbers follow years of stagnating wages for the middle class that have hurt millions of workers and families.

From Census shows 1 in 2 people are poor or low-income

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thoughts # 3,020

…yeah I know you did not ask!

We are born, we live, we die, and then folks pick through our “stuff” buying it for pennies on the dollar.

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Jonathan Swift on Money

From Gulliver’s Travelers

Amazing how little things have changed in the 300 years.

…neither could he comprehend what I meant in saying, they did it for hire. Whereupon I was at much pains to describe to him the use of money, the materials it was made of, and the value of the metals; “that when a YAHOO had got a great store of this precious substance, he was able to purchase whatever he had a mind to; the finest clothing, the noblest houses, great tracts of land, the most costly meats and drinks, and have his choice of the most beautiful females. Therefore since money alone was able to perform all these feats, our YAHOOS thought they could never have enough of it to spend, or to save, as they found themselves inclined, from their natural bent either to profusion or avarice; that the rich man enjoyed the fruit of the poor man’s labour, and the latter were a thousand to one in proportion to the former; that the bulk of our people were forced to live miserably, by labouring every day for small wages, to make a few live plentifully.” Continue reading “Jonathan Swift on Money”

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Jonathan Swift on Lawyers

From Gulliver’s Travelers

(Apologies to my daughter, the attorney.  She does do good work via working with the state DHS)

Amazing how little things have changed in the 300 years.

I assured his honour, “that the law was a science in which I had not much conversed, further than by employing advocates, in vain, upon some injustices that had been done me: however, I would give him all the satisfaction I was able.”

I said, “there was a society of men among us, bred up from their youth in the art of proving, by words multiplied for the purpose, that white is black, and black is white, according as they are paid. To this society all the rest of the people are slaves. For example, if my neighbour has a mind to my cow, he has a lawyer to prove that he ought to have my cow from me. I must then hire another to defend my right, it being against all rules of law that any man should be allowed to speak for himself. Now, in this case, I, who am the right owner, lie under two great disadvantages: first, my lawyer, being practised almost from his cradle in defending falsehood, is quite out of his element when he would be an advocate for justice, which is an unnatural office he always attempts with great awkwardness, if not with ill-will. The second disadvantage is, that my lawyer must proceed with great caution, or else he will be reprimanded by the judges, and abhorred by his Continue reading “Jonathan Swift on Lawyers”

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From Whence Came Valentine’s Day

I do believe it may be time to revive the ancient festival of Lupercalia.

From the Wikipedia article:

Lupercalia was a very ancient, possibly pre-Roman] pastoral festival, observed on February 13 through 15 to avert evil spirits and purify the city, releasing health and fertility. Lupercalia subsumed Febura, an earlier-origin spring cleansing ritual held on the same date, which gives the month of February its name.

Plutarch described Lupercalia:

“Lupercalia, of which many write that it was anciently celebrated by shepherds, and has also some connection with the Arcadian Lycaea. At this time many of the noble youths and of the magistrates run up and down through the city naked, for sport and laughter striking those they meet with shaggy thongs. And many women of rank also purposely get in their way, and like children at school present their hands to be struck, believing that the pregnant will thus be helped in delivery, and the barren to pregnancy.”

Read all about here: Lupercalia

The Wikipedia article on Valentine’s Day  stated there was no connection between the two…despite many authors making the connection.   Pope Gelasius (492 – 496) abolished the festival of Lupercalia . This same Pope established St. Valentine’s Day in 496.   Since I really do not have a dog in this fight, I am going with Valentine’s Day stemming from the abolishment of Lupercalia.  Besides Garrison Keillor reported it as so.