Weekly Comments Archive
Archived Issue
Sunday, February 10, 2013
ISSUE #746
The State of the Nation: not so good

We’re going to give President Obama another chance Tuesday night to say something about jobs and the economy. Maybe he’ll take a hint from President Roosevelt in 1935 when he “dug up three new initials for a new unemployment work program” (the Works Progress Administration). The aim of the WPA was that people receiving relief would instead be  doing some useful work that would help the country.

President Obama might propose spending more money for teachers and federal workers and windmills, but I doubt he’ll offer any plans that will put folks receiving food stamps and welfare to work doing something productive. What about the 8 million receiving disability payments? That’s double what it was a few years ago, and yet no one at OSHA has been fired. Seriously, we have the safest work environment in history. How do so many get mangled and beat up so horribly they can’t recover and return to work?

I read that young folks today are running up debt at such a high rate they will likely still be deep in debt when they die.  And contrasted to the older generation, they don’t seem to care. Now where would they get the idea that “spending doesn’t matter?”

Remember last week when we were all joking about the Super Bowl power outage? Everyone’s saying, we can’t let anything that bad happen again. Well, next year the Super Bowl will be played in New Jersey. Outdoors. If you think a 30-minute lights-out delay is the worst that can happen, how about a blizzard?

Did you watch the Grammys? Sure glad CBS sent a memo telling those wayward kids how to dress for TV.  Some of the female singing stars were upset because they had to buy underwear. Entertainers who are mad at the CBS dress code are demanding that from now on the Grammys be shown on HBO. I was wondering, what would CBS do if Lady Gaga showed up, shall we say, out-of-code? Turn off the lights?

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:
“The rest of the country knows the condition of the country, for they live in it… but (Congress) has no idea what is going on in America. So the President has to tell ‘em.” 
WA #371, Feb. 2, 1930
 “(President) Roosevelt stepped to the microphone last night and knocked another home run… Some people spend a lifetime juggling with words, with not an idea in a carload… He took a dry subject and made everybody understand it.” DT #2061, March 13, 1933
“There is not a single person that knows any more about what (this year) has in store for us than a billy goat. Ten million people have gone without work for three years just listening to ‘big men’ solve their problems.” DT #2000, Jan. 1, 1933
 “We ain’t getting anywhere, but we are having lots of fun thinking we are.” DT #1308, Oct. 2, 1930

X

    Contact Randall Reeder