Category: Rev. Joe Dirt’s Ramblings

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

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Made in America: small businesses buck the offshoring trend

Link to an article about small companies that have decided that off-shoring manufacturing is not that good a deal. Labor may be cheap, but the quality and deadlines are not there.

Made in America: small businesses buck the offshoring trend

All I can say is hip hip hooray…maybe some more American companies will see the light.   I detailed in another article my trials and tribulations trying to find a pair of work gloves NOT made in China.  I did finally find a pair made in Pakistan. That is not the USA,  but I would rather it be Pakistan than China.

I am still waiting for someone to explain to me why they are selling frozen vegetables from China. I’ve gotten where I check the “where from” on the package and if it is not USA or at least this hemisphere I put it back in the freezer.

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One Pie, 9 Pieces to the Rich, 1 Piece for the Rest of Us

And this folks is why I am so disillusioned and angry at the Right and our buffoons in Congress…

This chart is all over the Internet.  To me numbers seem to ring true, but I really do not know.  Best I could find out this is the original article from whence this chart came.  Note: Original article is no longer available.

Right now, I am buying the figures.

   Programs at risk vs Tax breaks for the wealthy

Click on image to get a more readable size

Random thought…I used to have to go to the downtown area of any major city to see crazy, psychotic people wondering around. Now days all I have to do is turn on CSPAN.

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Have You Hugged A Teacher Lately?

For a nation concerned with being competitive with the rest of the world we are doing all we can do to gut that competitiveness by gutting education. We refuse to tax those who could afford it, instead we want to gut, gut, and gut a little more in all pursuit of of some idealogical fantansy.

Having dated a school teacher for the last 3 years, I am not sure why anyone stays in the professional. I understand the burn out rate early in the career is high. I’m sure folks get into teaching for many reasons, and I know for many that reason is a need for a socially significant profession. We should reward folks for these occupation.

From what I hear teaching has turned into a bureaucratic nightmare. Plus teaching has become an exercise in teaching to standardized tests.

Below is a link to an excellent article and retro video about this issue.

Have You Hugged A Teacher Lately?

If you do a Google search on Teacher Burnout, I came up with close to 200,000 hits.

A couple of interesting quotes from the article:

“Nearly half of all teachers quit during their first five years, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, but the numbers alone don’t convey the full severity of the problem.”

“It is often the best qualified teachers who leave first because they have the easiest time finding employment in other fields.”

Yet there is a group of politicians (and citizens) trying to make them the scapegoat for our financial problems.  Shame on them.

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The Mind, A Terrible Thing to Waste

My sadistic girlfriend gave to me for Christmas, The Mensa Puzzle Calendar. It has one brain teasing puzzle for every day of the year.  That is three hundred and sixty five chances to feel stupid.

A recent puzzle, titled Language Barrier, asked this:

Remove one letter from each word below the rearrange the remaining letters to form the name of a language.

1.      pliant

2.      wheels

3.      hiding

4.      whereby

5.      helpings

6.      sideshow

The calendar is at work and sometimes I have an opportunity to work the puzzles and sometimes I just casually look at them.  That day, a Friday was the latter. Continue reading “The Mind, A Terrible Thing to Waste”

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NRA – Arms Manufacturer Lobbying Arm

I looked and looked online trying to find the funding sources for the National Rifle Association (NRA).  I did not have a lot of luck.

Here is an article from Mother Jones that sheds some light on that murky subject.

Who Does the NRA Advocate For?

To answer their question…it is not the average gun owner, but the corporations that funnel money to them.

It is past time for sensible gun regulation in this country.

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No More Teddy Bears

No more candle light vigils.  No more piles of teddy bears.  No more stacks of flowers.  No more fences covered with ribbons.  No more platitudes or speeches of remembrance.  We react compassionately to tragic events after the fact.  They fade from memory and we fail to act to prevent the next one.

There were probably a multitude of factors that collided in the Tucson shooting that left 6 dead and many more wounded.

First, it is much, much too easy to get guns in this country.  I read recently that there are 85 guns for every 100 people in the US.  If they were evenly distributed that would be almost be a gun for every man, woman and child in the US.

Secondly, access to health care in this country is atrocious Continue reading “No More Teddy Bears”

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Dick Cheney’s Heart

Cheney says he may have to have heart transplant — Link removed

To belabor the obvious:  We can only regret he did not do that a few years earlier!

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Pesto

My girlfriend, “I just love this pesto shit.”

So I asked, “What sort of animal shits pesto?”

She replied, “I don’t care, I just love this shit.”

When she read the post she thought she should have said, “I don’t know, but I want one for a pet.  I just love this shit.”

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Kissed by Stephen Hawking

I am probably the only person on the planet who has been kissed by Stephen Hawking… in a dream.  Let me allow that to sink in for a minute, after all I am still trying to get over it myself.

In my dream I was at a house that was my parents, but not like any house they have ever lived in.  Stephen was tooling around his wheel chair.  Continue reading “Kissed by Stephen Hawking”