Random rant: unemployment, the media and just general bitching

Normally I try to make a blog entry that is something worth
reading but Nah, not today.

This is just a random and slightly pissed off rant today.

Someone's probably already said this and probably far more
eloquently than I ever could but here's my two cents worth
on a few subjects...

The media drives me nuts with their blow dried hair and
$10,000 + smiles when they start yapping about how
unemployment is up or down on any given day. All they are
quoting is how many people are drawing their
unemployment benefits!

Not how many people are stuck sitting around the house
or at some job center looking at some highly bored and employed
person telling them that either they are under qualified, over
qualified, or that no one is hiring. Period.

How about all the people that aren't drawing the benefits anymore?

Take a look at this from CNN (the irony is not lost on me here)...

Unemployment state by state

*sarcasm by the gallon*
Gee, that doesn't look too very bad does it? And that's just
the ones drawing their benefits right now. Like I said, what
about the poor (literally) bastards not drawing anything now?!?

And then they (the media talking heads) go on to quote the
latest figures on "new jobs" that have been created... They
don't bother to mention that most of these new jobs are flippin'
burgers at some fast food joint, bagging groceries, or playing greeter
at the newest Wal-Mart for just over minimum wage if they're lucky.

*sarcasm by the gallon*
Oh yeah, real career potential there!

You might be saying, But Shadow, they've got jobs at least.

HAH!

A job is something that you mostly hate but at least make
enough money at not to need to go to a food bank and ask
for a handout! Or worse ask for the whole $10 worth of food
stamps they'll allow you since that $8,999 a year you make is
$10 too much meaning you can supposedly afford food.
Meanwhile you get to stand next to a yuppie soccer mom sucking
down a cup of Starbucks latte yakking on her cell phone while
you try to decide if a can of SPAM is in your budget for the month!

And that's another thing I'm kinda pissed about...

I've seen at least two idjits floppin' their gums grinning like
loons on the tube remarking that SPAM sales are on the rise.
No, really? Ya think it might have something to do with the
general price of food that might make someone start buying it
now?!? or maybe it might be the next generation of head-for-the-hills
survivalists that used to be one of those soccer moms.

SPAM, everything-but-the-oink in a can. Well, I guess it's a step
above rationalizing chowing down on a can of Alpo...

Speaking of these new survivalists, Kids, you're taking it a
step too far. I can understand wanting to make a break from
your old spend, spend, spend lifestyle but going to the opposite
extreme is no better. Going from cell phones, TV, and the
internet to a wood burning stove, and reading by candle light,
and hiding in the woods is silly in the extreme. Survival doesn't
mean living like Grizzly Adams.

And now for the political aspect of my ranting...

To all 2008 presidential candidates and their supporters,
Shut up for a change, please. Most of us are sick and tired
of hearing and reading about your newest scandals and half
baked shit stirring comments. We don't particularly care what
church you go to and we don't really care if you go out and
pretend to be like the "common" people and drink beer and
munch pizza. The only decent candidates are about 200 years
in the grave and none of you currently running can change that.

Ok, I'm done for now.

what, you think there's more?!?

Sheesh.. Give 'em a paragraph and they expect a book...

A fine display of hypocrisy

Early this morning I caught a spot on the local TV news out of
Memphis regarding an ongoing problem with their “adult oriented
businesses” (Read: topless bars).

Here are two links to stories on the subject, I’ll add more later
as they become available.

County Calls For Stricter Laws On Strip Clubs

Norm Brewer Commentary: December 5, 2007

Now my complaint here is the hypocrisy involved in it. They
claim they don’t want the strip clubs and related crime problems.
However, they do want the revenue generated from the sales of
beer in the clubs.

Excuse me?! You want money from people, mostly men, sitting
around slurping beer watching women wearing goofy outfits strip
naked but you aren’t prepared to deal with the problems their
drunken behavior causes?!

WTF?

Memphis has always struck me as a city that is highly confused
as to what it wants to be when it grows up. They claim they want
to keep the small town friendliness attitude and retain their
Christian morals and values. Yet at the same time they want to be
a big city on par with L.A. or New York. I’m sorry but it doesn’t work
that way. Whenever you have a big city’s benefits you are going to
have it’s related problems.

With strip clubs those problems will be, by default, prostitution,
drugs, and horny drunks. Which would rather leave you a choice to
make. Refuse to allow such clubs and look for revenue elsewhere or
get your hands dirty and deal with the problems your greed caused.

Manufactured vs handmade (What two little boys taught me)

I don’t know how many people are aware of the little fact

that on weekends I set up a little table in town to make a
few sales and socialize a bit. Most of the time it is more an
excuse to get out of the house for a few hours than an attempt
at selling anything. Sometimes it can be just a quiet boring
day and sometimes it can be a busy profitable one. I’ll admit
that there are times when dealing the public can drive me batty,
there’s always someone that thinks haggling is the fine art of giving
an insult in the attempt to get a better deal. And it also gives
me a chance to see how a lot of people see the world around them.

One Saturday morning a few weeks ago I had my table set
up and was relaxing in my beat up old camper’s chair when
a pair of little boys rolled up on their bikes. We chatted and they
asked questions about the knives and other little oddities I keep
on the table. One of them asked how much for this one little knife…

The look on their faces when I told them fifteen dollars was
both funny and a little irksome. I made it so I know how much
work was involved. They didn’t. That was when it occurred to
me why so many people never do understand why a hand crafted
item cost so much more than the stuff they pick up at Wal-Mart
or some other modern store.

People have gotten used to paying a much smaller price for
their goods without realizing why those goods cost so relatively
little. In a manufacturing plant the items are produced by mass
production, and all of them look and feel pretty much the same.
Hand made items can only be created one at a time and while
you may be able to make two similar items they will still both
be utterly unique.

The other thing is quality, there are high quality mass produced
items but there is also a lot of mass produced junk floating around
the market place as well. I won’t say that there aren’t poorly made
hand made items, there are. When I first started learning to make
knives I made a few stinkers but they are things I keep to remind
myself how to not make a knife. On occasion I’ll still screw one up
but those don’t leave my shop unless it is going to end up being used
to weed the garden.

But I digress…

Most hand crafted items are usually higher quality than a lot of
factory made items. Which is usually better, an apple pie fresh
out of the store freezer or one that was fresh made by a good cook?
(betcha never thought of an apple pie as hand crafted before! lol)

At any rate, my point is that with mass produced items, the
people making them don’t really care that much about an
individual item on the production line, One of humpteen thousand
usually. With a hand made item, the person making it takes
greater care with each item made and more actual time in making it.

New and improved, My butt! (literally)

And now a break from the normally serious tone into the

realms of an Al Bundy-esque rant…

There is one thing that most people in the Western world
are familiar with and use daily, or nearly so. Toilet paper.

Yes, I said toilet paper.

A far cry from the Sears and Roebuck catalog of old and
far less rough than a corn cob of even older times.
(Unless you buy that cheap generic stuff.)

At any rate we had a pack sitting on the top shelf for a while
that kind of got pushed back every month as new TP was
bought to replace used TP. One month I noticed that they
came out with new packaging proclaiming “New and Improved!”
but I noticed a distinct difference once the new was set near the old.

Their improvements appeared to be a change of color on the
packaging and making the text bi-lingual, English and Spanish.
What, no French?!? The Canadians engaged in a TP boycott or
something?!? Did they decide that snow was a better substitute?!?

But(t) I digress…

The other improvements were to make the rolls smaller as
well as shorter. Ok, since when is less merchandise for the
same price an improvement? Oh, that’s right, the improvement
is their cash flow! I guess customer satisfaction got flushed
on this particular business decision.

To the left the “New and Improved and the the right the Old and Unimproved version

And yes, I have the dimensions (as opposed to dementia)
of both the old and new.

Old and Unimproved packs Dimensions:
12 Rolls, 198 2-ply sheets per roll, 297 Sq Ft,
4.5 x 4.0 inches per sheet

New and Improved packs Dimensions:
12 Rolls, 176 2-ply sheets per roll, 250.5 Sq Ft,
4.27 x 4.0 inches per sheet

I could go on but… Aww, just flush it!