Shadow of Diogenes

The 3 States With Highest Unemployment Rate

Well is any economic news good of late ? I have been doing some pieces on it and quite honestly it gets depressing toponder it, but the recession is hurting a lot of people across our country. Locally The State newspaper reports that the Renfro Sock Factory in Whitmire, South Carolina is closing and 570 workers are soon to be out of work. In a town like Whitmire (a few thousand population) this is devastating new and it produces a mood of hopelessness. This town is less than 30 miles from my home town of Union. Obama cannot turn it around by himself - Congress needs to help him and keep partisan politics out of it. In some places this recession is a depression and you can believe it ! Oh and before I forget those three states with the highest unemployment rates are : Michigan, Rhode Island and you guessed it -South Carolina. The national unemployment rate is 7.2% . South Carolina stands at 9.5%.

From An Antique Land (Poem)

On the road

I chanced upon a man

From an antique land

Who spoke words I could not understand.

His eyes were full of fear

And he was ravaged tears,

But he spoke words I could not understand.

I left him alone

On the road -

This brittle man

From an antique land. 

 

 

 

Fiction Question of the Day

(Q)  Can you name a bad book (fiction in this instance) that was written by a great author ? Give it some thought. Even great authors cannot write good book after good book. It's impossible.

Unemployed

I read today in an article on the Reuters website that over 11,000,000 Americans are unemployed. I have always been fortunate in that I always had a job and I have never been laid off or fired either. The old Protestant work ethic was imbued in me early on in my life by my grand mother and mother. Granny said, "The world don't owe you a living". I believe that to be true to this day. However, now millions of hard working Americans are out of work and cannot find work. And the sad prospect is that more will join those eleven million before the situation improves. On unemployed man in Kansas called it an "economic sunami".  This bad economy has a trickle down effect - it causes problems in marriages and loss of self respect in people who have worked hard all of their lives. It is like a scar across the face of the land that will not go away. UNEMPLOYED.

Haiku # 012909 (Poem)

Beneath blue skies

Sheltered by palm trees,

Ecstasy.

Haiku # 012809 (Poem)

in the jungle

rain falling,

monks sitting.

Bad Economic News

We all know that our country and the rest of the nations of the world are in serious economic difficulties. The recession is touching every corner of America and we can blame the Republicans and the Democrats and greedy and incompetent business gurus for it all if we so choose. (Why are they called "experts" if they have produced such woefull results ?) Think about it folks. That being said, I just read in the Wall Street Journal that almost two million jobs were lost in the USA in the last four months of 2008 ! Does that bother you like it bothers me ? And it is getting worse.

Question of the Day

(Q)  In the workplace do you encounter more bosses who are bitches or bastards ? Please elucidate.

Jamaica Music Trivia

The first Billboard Top 40 hit by a Jamaican artist was "My Boy Lollipop" (1964) by Millie Small . The song was recorded in London, England and actually reached # 1 in Ireland. Popular music legend has it that Rod Stewart played the harmonica solo on this song, but in fact it was played by Pete Hogman. Ernest Ranglin (a Ska legend) played guitar on it.

Haiku # 012609 (Poem)

sexy black Caribbean woman

laying in the sun,

shivering in Duluth.