Thompson *cough* apologizes

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(Just a little clarification to my post on watching Hotel Rwanda and Schindler’s List–I didn’t mean that I don’t recommend the movies, but rather, I don’t recommend watching them both on a weekend. They’re both very well done, but graphically depict the dark side. )

Tommy Thompson’s son has tried to remove the boot from his mouth, but failed miserably.  The President deserves an apology.  And no, Thompson’s son is not suffering more than anyone else.

Social Security going up by 1.7 percent

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…your grocery bill, gas bill, etc. will go up by 25 percent…/snark

Link.

See, this is what I don’t get–they were just saying not two months ago that this was one of the worst droughts on record and our grocery bills were going to be severely affected–but this article states that food prices have pretty much stayed the same.

Ahem.

Like I’ve noted in my personal grocery bills, I’ve seen several items jump $1 or $2 per item in a month’s time, which really adds up if you’re on a restricted budget, as folks on S.S. are.  They know that every time there’s a S.S. increase, it isn’t enough, and the prices will go up accordingly.  (No, I’m not on S.S. or disability.)

I’ve done a quick search of several articles, and they all insist, via the Consumer Price Index that grocery prices have remained the same.

I looked up the table they publish:  http://www.bls.gov/cpi/cpid11av.pdf for the 2010-2011 price list…and somebody ain’t telling the truth, here…

You have to scroll down to get specifics, and looking at something that most poor folks purchase: ground beef went up 11%.  Eleven freaking percent in one year!  White bread 5%; Cereal 3%; Bacon 13%; Fresh Fish and Seafood 8%; Eggs 9% Milk 9%; Potatoes 12%; Coffee 14%;  Butter 14%; Peanut Butter 6%….and non-food:  fuel oil 30%; water and sewage 5%; motor fuel 26% and on…

(note that medical care only went up 3%…well, now, the oil companies aren’t getting nearly as much attention from the politicos as the medical community’s medical costs increases…hmmm…twenty-six percent should garner a little more attention, dontcha think?)

But they’ll give you a 1% increase…

…so you can try to make that can of dog food go a little further…after all, the top 1% need those tax breaks so they can…feed and house their horses…and  John McCain needs another house…

 

Whitley County tea party billboard

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<sigh> from people who claim environmentalists are scary, scary people….

….the Whitley County *cough* Patriots put up billboards that implicitly compare Barack Obama as a terrorist who needs to be “taken out”.

Link here:  http://www.wsbt.com/news/wsbt-tea-partiers-forced-to-move-controversial-antiobama-billboard-20121016,0,4031528.story

All that’s missing is the bulls-eye that Sarah Palin had painted on Gabby Giffords’ head…

 

Weekend

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I checked out videos of Hotel Rwanda and Schindler’s List from the library for the weekend.

Yeah, it’s not something I would recommend…pretty depressing.

I go round and round about what pushes people to treat another human being as “cockroaches” (Rwanda) or “vermin” (Nazi Germany).

I used to think of it like psychiatry has promoted–these folks were abused as children, therefore, they acted out their anger.  But then I realized that there are many people who are abused who do not go on to hurt others–they go on to be good parents, wives/husbands, citizens, etc.

So, then I go back to the start and ask again why some folks grow up to be bullies and others don’t?

I mean, in Schindler’s List, Goeth, a high raking officer, was clearly mentally ill by being torn between loving his Jewish maid, whom he said he wanted to grow old with, but beating her because she was a Jewish “bitch”.  He randomly would shoot people for no reason at all.  He had a Jewish woman engineer shot because she was telling him that the concrete foundation they had poured for a building was not level and it needed to be re-poured.  After she was shot, he  told them to tear up the foundation and redo it like she said.  Just craziness.

But none of what happened in Rwanda and Nazi Germany could have been possible without people going along with it.  People who fed their hatred and jealousy and fear.  People who loved having power over others.

I’m reminded of the Native American story of the Grandfather and the grandson.  The grandson had told his grandfather that he had two wolves inside him:  one was dark that was mean, hateful, selfish, greedy; and the other was Light that was kind, loving, compassionate, and generous.  He asked his grandfather which wolf would win, and the grandfather replied, “Whichever one you feed.”