Archive for October, 2009

Thoughts on the occasion of the October moon

Saturday, October 31st, 2009

Halloween, the day when many an American parent will suit up the little ones in black robes, matching 17th century conical hats, and over-sized warty noses, sending them off to delight the neighbors with this impersonation of a witch, as traditionally represented from 17th century Austrian paintings of the Hexensabbat right up through Disney’s “Snow […]

Washington still successful in blocking wide recovery

Friday, October 30th, 2009

The U.S. economy grew by 3.5 percent from July to September, the Commerce Department reports. But, contradictorily, unemployment continued to rise, to a 26-year high of 9.8 percent. Since the recession began in 2007, the U.S. has lost 7.2 million jobs. Unemployment has risen more than 2 percentage points since President Obama took office in […]

It came down to one Marine

Sunday, October 25th, 2009

It’s hard to envision — or, for the dwindling few, to remember — what the world looked like on Oct. 26, 1942, when a few thousand United States Marines stood essentially stranded on the God-forsaken jungle island of Guadalcanal, placed like a speed bump at the end of the long blue-water slot between New Guinea […]

The stimulus is working! It’s working!

Friday, October 23rd, 2009

Speaking before a carefully hand-picked audience — most of the 500 tickets to the gathering in the Lawlor Events Center at the University of Nevada, Reno were distributed through the office of Majority Leader Harry Reid — Vice President Joe Biden assured Northern Nevadans Friday that the Obama administration’s $787 billion economic stimulus plan has […]

Tortoise breeding endangers Fish & Wildlife jobs

Sunday, October 18th, 2009

Clark County commissioners voted last week to stop picking up and caring for unwanted pet Mojave Desert tortoises as of the end of the year. The county has been funding the care of the cast-off tortoises at a 220-acre conservation center operated by state and federal agencies.

The check is in the mail

Saturday, October 17th, 2009

There’s a recession on. Energy prices are down, and the official cost of living with them. Therefore, you might expect government payments that carry “cost-of-living adjustments” to be dropping, helping to ease the deficit. Not so. When the cost of living goes up, payments to Social Security recipients — among others — also go up. […]

The goons find new ways to keep busy

Sunday, October 11th, 2009

Delinda Epstein, 51, was living in a townhouse in the swanky Las Vegas suburb of Summerlin, a few years ago. She owned a brand new truck, worked as an administrator for a Henderson construction company. But she lost her job in the recession. She lost her truck and had to move into a smaller apartment […]

Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize. Honest.

Saturday, October 10th, 2009

On Friday, President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. Here’s where I’m supposed to establish I’m not some kind of grumpy, sour-grapes Obama-hater by saying all Americans should share some national pride in the Norwegian committee’s decision to honor our freshman president’s efforts and intentions, blah blah blah.

Quick: what steps would extend the recession indefinitely?

Sunday, October 4th, 2009

“Consumers’ confidence in the economy falls in September as Americans’ worries about job security offset any enthusiasm about the rally in the stock market,” read the Sept. 29 news flash. How come? The big bankers running our economy — it’s essentially the same gang under Barack Obama that it was under George W. Bush, make […]

If none of them wear uniforms, aren’t they all ‘civilians’?

Thursday, October 1st, 2009

In my opinion, we shouldn’t have troops in Afghanistan. The country can’t be conquered or held, because it’s not a country. It’s a mountain range sparsely settled by a loose coalition of anarchist goatherds and opium farmers.