The Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health (SCMH) and the College of Occupational Therapists have published a joint paper arguing that the government risks writing off people with mental health problems during the recession if it doesnt take action on employment support immediately.
The paper, Vocational Rehabilitation: what is it, who can deliver it and who pays? claims there is a serious shortage of professionals with the skills they need to offer expert help to people who need it most. It says that without expert advisers trained to assess the employment needs of people with mental illness and to offer necessary support once jobs are found, the government will fail to keep its promise to help millions of people with mental health problems long term employment.
The paper follows a joint call from four mental health organisations last week after the Queens speech for the government to ensure that any welfare reform measures in the speech give the best possible support for people with mental health problems to find and keep jobs.
In a joint statement, Dinesh Bhugra, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Paul Farmer, chief executive of Mind, Angela Greatley, chief executive of Sainsbury Centre, and Paul Jenkins, chief executive of Rethink, said: People with mental health problems will be one of the largest groups affected by the welfare reform agenda. Support should be offered to everyone, no matter what mental health problem they have, with a minimal threat of benefit penalties. Failing to follow the evidence or taking too punitive an approach to those with these problems will seriously undermine the governments ambition to reduce the overall number of long term unemployed.
Launching todays paper Bob Grove, Sainsbury Centres employment programme director, said he welcomed the governments Improving Health and Work strategy with plans for a new Fit for Work service, electronic fit notes and more help for small employers announced recently. However, he cautioned: They need people with the right skills to make a difference.
The last recession created a lost generation of workers who were written off as incapable of work, he said. We must not let this happen again. The real test of welfare-to-work is whether employers recruit and retain people with disabilities in tough times.
Julia Scott, chief executive of the College of Occupational Therapists, said: There are not enough occupational therapists to respond to the anticipated level of demand and the government needs to invest in training more occupational therapists in order to ensure it has a suitably qualified workforce in place to deliver on the improving Health and Work agenda.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Work and Pensions said: Poor mental health has become a key challenge for DWP and for government. It is the single biggest cause of both sickness absence and claims for incapacity benefits. This is why we are working hard across government to bring health and employment services closer together, support employers and healthcare professionals and tackle stigma and discrimination in the workplace.
The spokeswoman said the government had made good progress already and that its response (Improving health and work: changing lives) to Dame Carol Blacks review of the health of Britains working age population moved us further forward and the publication of a National Strategy for Mental Health and Employment in spring 2009.
She added that this would help us to focus on how mental health provision can be better tailored and integrated to help people find, stay in or return to work quickly.
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Eriksson) would rather watch rainbows and musicals than be at school and is infatuated with his athletic classmate and neighbour Ste (Derek Kwan) who has to deal with a drug-dealing brother and abusive, alcoholic father at home. Their sassy neighbour Leah (Sophie Lloyd — formerly fashion editor of SH Mag) has been kicked out of every school in the area, has a drug problem and can't stop listening to her mom's Cass Elliott records. Meanwhile, Jamie's feisty mother Sandra (Christy Shapiro) juggles her job as a barmaid and her ever-changing string of lovers, the latest of whom is Tony (JP Lopez) who is younger than her and a neo-hippie.
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Last summer, Big Fella and I and another couple had dinner at a steak place, where I ordered my steak at 148 degrees.
"Is 146 or 150 okay, or does it need to be 148 exactly?" asked the server. It's a good question. I like that temperature so the meat is juicy and pink, without a bloody flavor. Temperatures down to 143 give a good result, but above is too done and the meat is chewy and gray.
It seemed like a helpful gesture and a clear mandate for the kitchen, but my friend said, "Are you crazy? They're back there laughing their heads off, probably spitting on your steak."
I'm so naïve. Is it true? I asked some cooks around town.
Andy Hunter at The Acorn: "I'll cook a steak any way someone wants. Even when I get upset about outlandish requests, there's a door between the kitchen and the dining room. I would make fun of you from behind the door. "
Alan Horsnell at Ombi: "We have a list of meat temperatures, and according to it, your steak is near medium and that's how I'd cook it. The more information we have as cooks about what your preferences are, the more likely we are to nail it."
Brian Uhl at Cabana: "I'd probably get a chuckle out of it. We don't use a thermometer, and to be honest, I don't think you'd find many places that do, because you don't want to pierce the steak."
Uhl added that the Cabana kitchen has also been asked for salmon at 135 degrees. Is this something I should know about? Cooks and chefs, be brutally honest: Is a specific temperature request your fondest hope or an eye-rolling annoyance.
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he outcome of Sunday’s vote was the second blow dealt to the president in a year, after voters rejected last December his plan to alter the Constitution to give himself more power. Although it was unclear whether the results would slow his Socialist-inspired revolution or check his power, they could complicate his ambitions to amend the Constitution to allow him to run again.
Mr. Chávez, who has been in power for 10 years, has focused on raising political consciousness across disenfranchised parts of society. Now, voters in a sizable part of Venezuela sent him a message that they wanted not a monopoly on power, but solutions to economic and social ills that are glaringly apparent on their streets.
Though Mr. Chávez’s allies won 17 of the 22 states in Sunday’s vote, his opponents did well in some poor urban areas, and in states like Zulia, where much of Venezuela’s oil is produced; Carabobo, the home of auto manufacturers and petrochemical plants; and Táchira, rich in agriculture and cattle. Mr. Chávez framed the elections as a plebiscite on his evolving revolutionary ideology, but voters appeared to focus on more mundane concerns like inflation, which at more than 30 percent is the highest rate in Latin America, and fears that an economic boom might be sputtering to an end as oil prices plunge, forcing Mr. Chávez to reconsider his spending plans.
Violent crime, an Achilles’ heel for Mr. Chávez, also weighed heavily on voters. While his government no longer releases detailed homicide statistics, private organizations here put the murder rate in Caracas at about 130 per 100,000, about four times the rate in Medellín, Colombia.
In Petare, a sprawling area of slums on the eastern fringe of Caracas, long lines at polling stations snaked into alleyways on Sunday as voters delivered the area, part of a municipality long considered a Chávez bulwark, to Carlos Ocariz, a mild-mannered 37-year-old engineer.
“We punctured the myth that only Chávez can be a champion of the poor,” said Eduardo Ramírez, 61, a political activist in Petare who campaigned for Mr. Ocariz.
“Chávez’s rhetoric is one thing,” he said, “but the reality is another when he does nothing to stop the bloodshed on our doorstep.”
The defeat in some of the slums of Caracas irked Mr. Chávez to the point that he went on state television Monday night, chafing at the election results. Warning the opposition, he said, “Don’t think you control Petare.”
Among the pro-Chávez candidates who lost were members of the president’s inner circle, including Mario Silva, the host of La Hojilla (translation: The Razorblade), a program on state television used to attack Mr. Chávez’s opponents. Sometimes Mr. Silva played taped recordings of opponents’ intimate cellphone conversations or aired their instant-messaging transcripts.
With Mr. Silva trailing in polls ahead of the election, Mr. Chávez threatened to mobilize tanks in Carabobo State in the event of his ally’s defeat, one of many of his menacing comments that linger, as if to remind voters of the vulnerability of their democracy to threats and intimidation.
During the campaign, Mr. Chávez called opponents “traitors” and “swine,” and his government blacklisted almost 300 candidates, preventing them from running in what has been argued to be a violation of the Constitution.
Of course, there are other ways to view the electoral results, since Mr. Chávez’s candidates won most of the states up for grabs.
Even if many of those states have limited political and economic clout, Mr. Chávez remains by far the dominant and most popular figure in Venezuelan politics. The purse strings of public finances throughout the country still rest largely in his hands. His loyalists still control the National Assembly and the Supreme Court.
Moreover, Mr. Chávez has used his decree powers to create laws allowing him to appoint new regional leaders with their own budgets, a move that would deal a blow to the new governors in the opposition. Still, the president’s critics celebrated chiseling away at his power. “Winning the majority of state governorships but losing the key ones cannot be spun as a victory by a man who campaigned as if his life depended on it,” said Pedro Mario Burelli, a former director of Venezuela’s state oil company, Pdvsa.
Another way of viewing the results is to look at a post-election map of Venezuela. Most states are colored red, the color of Mr. Chávez’s Socialist party. Opposition footholds are blue.
The president’s candidates won in the largely rural red states. But in a shift that may point to further erosion of Mr. Chávez’s clout, Venezuela’s cities, and more important, its slums, are in play. How else to explain the victory of the opposition in most of Caracas?
Luís Pedro España, an economist who studies poverty issues, said poor voters here who voted for Mr. Chávez’s opponents had the same access to information, and many of the same complaints about public services, as neighbors in wealthier districts.
“The more modern part of the country wants political change,” he said.
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Support Full Civil Unions and Federal Rights for LGBT Couples: Barack Obama supports full civil unions that give same-sex couples legal rights and privileges equal to those of married couples. Obama also believes we need to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and enact legislation that would ensure that the 1,100+ federal legal rights and benefits currently provided on the basis of marital status are extended to same-sex couples in civil unions and other legally-recognized unions. These rights and benefits include the right to assist a loved one in times of emergency, the right to equal health insurance and other employment benefits, and property rights.
Oppose a Constitutional Ban on Same-Sex Marriage: Barack Obama voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment in 2006 which would have defined marriage as between a man and a woman and prevented judicial extension of marriage-like rights to same-sex or other unmarried couples.
Repeal Don't Ask-Don't Tell: Barack Obama agrees with former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff John Shalikashvili and other military experts that we need to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. The key test for military service should be patriotism, a sense of duty, and a willingness to serve. Discrimination should be prohibited. The U.S. government has spent millions of dollars replacing troops kicked out of the military because of their sexual orientation. Additionally, more than 300 language experts have been fired under this policy, including more than 50 who are fluent in Arabic. Obama will work with military leaders to repeal the current policy and ensure it helps accomplish our national defense goals.
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Authoritative public sentiments have always been there, have they not? From the Declaration of Independence's majestic prose to the preamble of our Constitution which begins with "We the People of the United States ..." to Lincoln's Gettysburg Address "toward a new birth of freedom ... for a government of the people, by the people and for the people" to the last words of the pledge of allegiance -- "with liberty and justice for all."
Sentiments remain mere words; heralding hopes, wishes and poignant nods. Unless they are grounded in reality, behavior, respect, attitude, and renewal, they become the words of controlling processes, pacifying the resigned, fortifying the concentrators of abusive power, and ever manipulating the trusting populace by the latest politicians climbing up the electoral hills.
The Nader/Gonzalez independent ticket set standards for presidential campaigns that were authentic, honest, factual, far-seeing, and committed to a deliberate, deep democracy that creates high expectations and dedicated actions from the people themselves. Democracy is revered all over the world because it brings the best out of people. But the people have to want it, to work for it, and to use it daily in its many splendid varieties.
Elections are a temptation for abstraction, soaring rhetoric without roots in the daily experience of those who are impoverished, ailing, defrauded, and indebted. The vast majority of citizens are marginalized and excluded from the freedom to participate in power -- to paraphrase Marcus Cicero.
Our campaign started with the realities of our country on the ground where the people live, work, and raise their families. Politics must never be an abstraction. For if allowed to be such, it will be a mirage that stokes the hopeful emotions while detaching people from a critical recognition that they and only they -- individually and organized -- can make their representatives truly their representatives, dutifully producing more leaders. Leaders who cannot betray the trust of the people, and that of their children and grandchildren, know from whence they came.
It is with these thoughts that all of us at the Nader/Gonzalez campaign headquarters tender our gratitude to all who stood with us. We thank your enlightened self-interest, your awareness of the necessity for enlightened communities from the neighborhoods and workplaces all the way to our national government. We must make this government a tribune of peace, justice and freedom throughout this tormented world of ours.
While I was campaigning in Syracuse, New York this October in a city beset with hard times, a middle-aged blue-collar worker with calloused hands approached me after our discussion and said, "I'm voting for myself, which is why I'm voting for you." I took that declaration as a serious trusteeship and later on the campaign trail turned it into a basic question: "Isn't it about time that we all voted for ourselves?" Isn't it about time that we planned our futures rather than ceding that essential function of citizenship to giant rootless corporations?
What follows is a summary of what we achieved together through the Presidential campaign of 2008, despite being obstructed by the Democrats' and Republicans' ballot access hurdles and traps, despite being excluded from speaking to tens of millions of Americans through the Presidential debates (polls repeatedly showed the people wanted us -- by name -- included), and despite being willfully ignored by the national television and national newspaper/magazine media. These achievements represent persistence, stamina, and the willpower to penetrate this political bigotry so as to give choice to those voters who knew we were running.
We believe history will treat the Nader/Gonzalez initiative kindly in part because its reading of the necessities of the American people was accurate as was its condemnation of the concentrated powers that have for so long denied them livelihoods of decency, security and voice.
We thank you who made all this possible. Looking forward, we thank all who will make the campaign's legacy proliferate through all seasons at all times wherever human beings seek the fulfillment of their human possibilities.
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Authoritative public sentiments have always been there, have they not? From the Declaration of Independence's majestic prose to the preamble of our Constitution which begins with "We the People of the United States ..." to Lincoln's Gettysburg Address "toward a new birth of freedom ... for a government of the people, by the people and for the people" to the last words of the pledge of allegiance -- "with liberty and justice for all."
Sentiments remain mere words; heralding hopes, wishes and poignant nods. Unless they are grounded in reality, behavior, respect, attitude, and renewal, they become the words of controlling processes, pacifying the resigned, fortifying the concentrators of abusive power, and ever manipulating the trusting populace by the latest politicians climbing up the electoral hills.
The Nader/Gonzalez independent ticket set standards for presidential campaigns that were authentic, honest, factual, far-seeing, and committed to a deliberate, deep democracy that creates high expectations and dedicated actions from the people themselves. Democracy is revered all over the world because it brings the best out of people. But the people have to want it, to work for it, and to use it daily in its many splendid varieties.
Elections are a temptation for abstraction, soaring rhetoric without roots in the daily experience of those who are impoverished, ailing, defrauded, and indebted. The vast majority of citizens are marginalized and excluded from the freedom to participate in power -- to paraphrase Marcus Cicero.
Our campaign started with the realities of our country on the ground where the people live, work, and raise their families. Politics must never be an abstraction. For if allowed to be such, it will be a mirage that stokes the hopeful emotions while detaching people from a critical recognition that they and only they -- individually and organized -- can make their representatives truly their representatives, dutifully producing more leaders. Leaders who cannot betray the trust of the people, and that of their children and grandchildren, know from whence they came.
It is with these thoughts that all of us at the Nader/Gonzalez campaign headquarters tender our gratitude to all who stood with us. We thank your enlightened self-interest, your awareness of the necessity for enlightened communities from the neighborhoods and workplaces all the way to our national government. We must make this government a tribune of peace, justice and freedom throughout this tormented world of ours.
While I was campaigning in Syracuse, New York this October in a city beset with hard times, a middle-aged blue-collar worker with calloused hands approached me after our discussion and said, "I'm voting for myself, which is why I'm voting for you." I took that declaration as a serious trusteeship and later on the campaign trail turned it into a basic question: "Isn't it about time that we all voted for ourselves?" Isn't it about time that we planned our futures rather than ceding that essential function of citizenship to giant rootless corporations?
What follows is a summary of what we achieved together through the Presidential campaign of 2008, despite being obstructed by the Democrats' and Republicans' ballot access hurdles and traps, despite being excluded from speaking to tens of millions of Americans through the Presidential debates (polls repeatedly showed the people wanted us -- by name -- included), and despite being willfully ignored by the national television and national newspaper/magazine media. These achievements represent persistence, stamina, and the willpower to penetrate this political bigotry so as to give choice to those voters who knew we were running.
We believe history will treat the Nader/Gonzalez initiative kindly in part because its reading of the necessities of the American people was accurate as was its condemnation of the concentrated powers that have for so long denied them livelihoods of decency, security and voice.
We thank you who made all this possible. Looking forward, we thank all who will make the campaign's legacy proliferate through all seasons at all times wherever human beings seek the fulfillment of their human possibilities.
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After the lecture and seeing some of the exhibits (hands on) in the museum, Dr. Hanchett led us on a walking tour of Charlotte. We went into the Bank of America building which houses an impressive traveling art exhibit which is open to the public. We visited the Mint Museum of Craft and Design where I had to fight back the tears. In my day, this building (Mint) housed Montaldo's department store. My grandmother and great-aunt, Love, both worked there. When I was young (12-13 years old probably), every Saturday, my girlfriend and I would take the bus downtown (today, it is referred to as UPtown). We would go to Montaldo's and visit my grandmother aunt, go to Woolworth's to buy some Tangee lipstick (remember that???), down to Trade Street where my grandfather worked at Stein's Men's Clothing and he would always give me some money and take us to lunch (probably Tanner's hot dogs) and then we'd go to the Carolina Theatre to watch Elvis gyrate!! Such wonderful memories plus Montaldo's is where my wedding dress was purchased!! The walking tour was quite interesting though and we saw things that I wouldn't normally see and learned a little history about my hometown.
If you have guests visiting, I would highly recommend the Levine Museum!! Even if you don't have guests, go yourself! I know I will go back. And, perhaps take a little walking stroll myself to see what else I uncover down .... opps, UPtown.
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Interagency Statement on Meeting the Needs of Creditworthy Borrowers
The Department of the Treasury, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Federal Reserve have recently put into place several programs designed to promote financial stability and to mitigate procyclical effects of the current market conditions. These programs make new capital widely available to U.S. financial institutions, broaden and increase the guarantees on bank deposit accounts and certain liabilities, and provide backup liquidity to U.S. banking organizations. These efforts are designed to strengthen the capital foundation of our financial system and improve the overall functioning of credit markets.
The ongoing financial and economic stress has highlighted the crucial role that prudent bank lending practices play in promoting the nations economic welfare. The recent policy actions are designed to help support responsible lending activities of banking organizations, enhance their ability to fund such lending, and enable banking organizations to better meet the credit needs of households and business. At this critical time, it is imperative that all banking organizations and their regulators work together to ensure that the needs of creditworthy borrowers are met. As discussed below, to support this objective, consistent with safety and soundness principles and existing supervisory standards, each individual banking organization needs to ensure the adequacy of its capital base, engage in appropriate loss mitigation strategies and foreclosure prevention, and reassess the incentive implications of its compensation policies.
Lending to creditworthy borrowers
The agencies expect all banking organizations to fulfill their fundamental role in the economy as intermediaries of credit to businesses, consumers, and other creditworthy borrowers. Moreover, as a result of problems in financial markets, the economy will likely become increasingly reliant on banking organizations to provide credit formerly provided or facilitated by purchasers of securities. Lending to creditworthy borrowers provides sustainable returns for the lending organization and is constructive for the economy as a whole.
It is essential that banking organizations provide credit in a manner consistent with prudent lending practices and continue to ensure that they consider new lending opportunities on the basis of realistic asset valuations and a balanced assessment of borrowers repayment capacities. However, if underwriting standards tighten excessively or banking organizations retreat from making sound credit decisions, the current market conditions may be exacerbated, leading to slower growth and potential damage to the economy as well as the long-term interests and profitability of individual banking organizations. Banking organizations should strive to maintain healthy credit relationships with businesses, consumers, and other creditworthy borrowers to enhance their own financial well-being as well as to promote a sound economy. The agencies have directed supervisory staffs to be mindful of the procyclical effects of an excessive tightening of credit availability and to encourage banking organizations to practice economically viable and appropriate lending activities.
Strengthening capital
Maintaining a strong capital position complements and facilitates a banking organizations capacity and willingness to lend and bolsters its ability to withstand uncertain market conditions. Banking organizations should focus on effective and efficient capital planning and longer-term capital maintenance. An effective capital planning process requires a banking organization to assess both the risks to which it is exposed and the risk management processes in place to manage and mitigate those risks; evaluate its capital adequacy relative to its risks; and consider the potential impact on earnings and capital from economic downturns. Further, an effective capital planning process requires a banking organization to recognize losses on bank assets and activities in a timely manner; maintain adequate loan loss provisions; and adhere to prudent dividend policies.
In particular, in setting dividend levels, a banking organization should consider its ongoing earnings capacity, the adequacy of its loan loss allowance, and the overall effect that a dividend payout would have on its cost of funding, its capital position, and, consequently, its ability to serve the expected needs of creditworthy borrowers. Banking organizations should not maintain a level of cash dividends that is inconsistent with the organizations capital position, that could weaken the organizations overall financial health, or that could impair its ability to meet the needs of creditworthy borrowers. Supervisors will continue to review the dividend policies of individual banking organizations and will take action when dividend policies are found to be inconsistent with sound capital and lending policies.
Working with mortgage borrowers
The agencies expect banking organizations to work with existing borrowers to avoid preventable foreclosures, which can be costly to both the organizations and to the communities they serve, and to mitigate other potential mortgage-related losses. To this end, banking organizations need to ensure that their mortgage servicing operations are sufficiently funded and staffed to work with borrowers while implementing effective risk-mitigation measures.
Given escalating mortgage foreclosures, the agencies urge all lenders and servicers to adopt systematic, proactive, and streamlined mortgage loan modification protocols and to review troubled loans using these protocols. Lenders and servicers should first determine whether a loan modification would enhance the net present value of the loan before proceeding to foreclosure, and they should ensure that loans currently in foreclosure have been subject to such analysis. Such practices are not only consistent with sound risk management but are also in the long-term interests of lenders and servicers, as well as borrowers.
Systematic efforts to address delinquent mortgages should seek to achieve modifications that result in mortgages that borrowers will be able to sustain over the remaining maturity of their loan. Supervisors will fully support banking organizations as they work to implement effective and sound loan modification programs. Banking organizations that experience challenges in implementing loss mitigation efforts on their mortgage portfolios or in making new loans to borrowers should work with their primary supervisors to address specific situations.
Structuring compensation
Poorly-designed management compensation policies can create perverse incentives that can ultimately jeopardize the health of the banking organization. Management compensation policies should be aligned with the long-term prudential interests of the institution, should provide appropriate incentives for safe and sound behavior, and should structure compensation to prevent short-term payments for transactions with long-term horizons. Management compensation practices should balance the ongoing earnings capacity and financial resources of the banking organization, such as capital levels and reserves, with the need to retain and provide proper incentives for strong management. Further, it is important for banking organizations to have independent risk management and control functions.
The agencies expect banking organizations to regularly review their management compensation policies to ensure they are consistent with the longer-run objectives of the organization and sound lending and risk management practices.
The agencies will continue to take steps to promote programs that foster financial stability and mitigate procyclical effects of the current market conditions. However, regardless of their participation in particular programs, all banking organizations are expected to adhere to the principles in this statement. We will work with banking organizations to facilitate their active participation in those programs, consistent with safe and sound banking practices, and thus to support their central role in providing credit to support the health of the U.S. economy.
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A vial of cyanide.
Wendy just has to know: "Queen Kristina,did you buy anything else at the husband and wife store, you didn't share on your blog?"
Wendy, in material items, I only purchased the coupon book and the temple card. But I did buy something much more valuable. The Lord's approval.
Wendy also asked the burning question: "OK, I have another one, if the church made a statement that blogging was addictive, and to stop, could you?"
Would I have to stop if I converted to Catholicism? No blogging makes me sad. :(
My favorite fudge maker, Jill asked: "Oh kind, wise and beautiful Queen Kristina,
What color is gravity?
What is the square root of 7,921?
If a plane leaves Boston at 3:00 flying west and a train leaves San Francisco at 3:05 traveling east and the flight attendants finish passing out the peanuts and drinks 45 minutes after takeoff but 2 hours before the train reaches Reno and the in flight movie runs 123 minutes and the train is delayed for 23 minutes while a herd of sheep crosses the tracks, what time would it be in Paris?"
Oh, Jill. Did you somehow sneak one of those annoying Netflix commercials into the questions?
Gravity is colorless, the square root of 7,921 is 89, and it would be time to zzzzzzzzzzzz. I'm sorry, I fell asleep reading your last question.
Mommy Madness asked: "Queen Kristina, Did you ever intend, when you first started, for your blog to be what it is today?"
MM, I had no idea it would be what it is today. I am completely surprised. I thought it would be like Dooce on the first day! Imagine my shock and sadness when I only had one comment, not the 5,769 comments I was expecting. But somehow, I managed to forge ahead. (I honestly had no idea. I was blessed with awesomeness and humility, and amazing blog readers.)
*Stay tuned for the final installation on Friday. Do you think I could be nominated for Best Post Miniseries, at the Blog Emmys.
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Election returns election returnsI thought frantically. I gotta see if my boy won.
I realized that it was election day, not the morning after. I turned off the television and went back to sleep. I kept waking up periodically, excited about getting out to vote.
Finally at 6am I got up. I woke up J, too.
Come on, we have to go vote, I said nudging him.
He looked at me through barely opened eyes, fluffed his pillow and then turned his head the other way. ll vote after work, he yawned.
No, now, this morning or you may never get in!I dont want to go this morning. I began to beat him with a pillow. Five minutes later I jump in the shower. I remember he never changed his voting location to where we have lived for the last four years; he has still been voting inside the city because he likes the city more.
I go back into the bedroom to confront J.
Did you change your voting location?No, I like voting in the city. I begin to snap him with the towel; when Im tired of that I revert back to the pillow.
I jump on Facebook real quck to remind each of my nephews to make sure my mom makes it to the polls.
At 6:40 Im out the door. I walk into the polling place at 6:45 and see a long line of neighbors out to vote.
Merde.
I call James to see if I was in the right place and he scrounges into the bedroom trash can for my polling post card. Im in the right place, section A.
Deux fois merde!
I stand in line, worrying Im going to miss my bus and my Starbucks free coffee. I make small talk with people around me; although we are all there to vote no one brings up who they will vote for. Instead we talk about how we love our street, the view of old town square from where we live, and the quietness of the area. I wave to friends/neighbors who beat me to the punch. One neighbor is there with her son, voting in his first election. Another neighbor is the ex mayor of a village four miles over.
I turn on NPR and they talk about the long lines expected at polls. Yeah, nice to know that.
At 7:35 I finally get to vote. Temps environ fichu! This dude was slow exiting his booth and then he was slow to move out the way. I was one of a few black people there to vote in this building. Yeah, I know, were moving everywhere, I think. Aint life a bitch. Hes still standing in my way looking lost, I look at him as I would the town idiot. I know its early but dang, gotta get to work.
I vote! Im out the door. (insert Hallelujah chorus here) I rush home and J is ready to drive me to work so he can go vote.
Huh?
I thought you were going to wait until after work.Just come on.
I get to work and, as you know, libraries are polling places. People are lined up outside the door and milling about. Its too many people to see this early. But I rush past them and come in to work.
I drop off mini cupcakes in my old department. They want to see my voting sticker.
Yes, I voted, I said flashing them. I leave rolling my eyes. As if they wouldnt eat my cupcakes if I didnt vote.
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A vial of cyanide.
Wendy just has to know: "Queen Kristina,did you buy anything else at the husband and wife store, you didn't share on your blog?"
Wendy, in material items, I only purchased the coupon book and the temple card. But I did buy something much more valuable. The Lord's approval.
Wendy also asked the burning question: "OK, I have another one, if the church made a statement that blogging was addictive, and to stop, could you?"
Would I have to stop if I converted to Catholicism? No blogging makes me sad. :(
My favorite fudge maker, Jill asked: "Oh kind, wise and beautiful Queen Kristina,
What color is gravity?
What is the square root of 7,921?
If a plane leaves Boston at 3:00 flying west and a train leaves San Francisco at 3:05 traveling east and the flight attendants finish passing out the peanuts and drinks 45 minutes after takeoff but 2 hours before the train reaches Reno and the in flight movie runs 123 minutes and the train is delayed for 23 minutes while a herd of sheep crosses the tracks, what time would it be in Paris?"
Oh, Jill. Did you somehow sneak one of those annoying Netflix commercials into the questions?
Gravity is colorless, the square root of 7,921 is 89, and it would be time to zzzzzzzzzzzz. I'm sorry, I fell asleep reading your last question.
Mommy Madness asked: "Queen Kristina, Did you ever intend, when you first started, for your blog to be what it is today?"
MM, I had no idea it would be what it is today. I am completely surprised. I thought it would be like Dooce on the first day! Imagine my shock and sadness when I only had one comment, not the 5,769 comments I was expecting. But somehow, I managed to forge ahead. (I honestly had no idea. I was blessed with awesomeness and humility, and amazing blog readers.)
*Stay tuned for the final installation on Friday. Do you think I could be nominated for Best Post Miniseries, at the Blog Emmys.
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- Mood:hangry
- Music:Bob Sinclar
Mr Campbell is no doubt an intelligent man but fronting a debate such as this isnt his forte.
As for the contest between the contestants it was rather a dull affair rather like one of those heavyweight boxing fights where the combatants plod around the ring with hardly a clean punch being landed.
Helen Clark now past her peak used to be a formidable debater in a forum such as this one. But with 27 years of political baggage to lug around now she isnt as sharp as she used to be. She would prefer for Key to indulge her and make it a cleaner slugfest than the debate tonight but Key has in both the TV debates so far skilfully blunted her attacks by sounding firm, reasonable and forward looking and not playing her game.
Clark is more and more sounding like a testy old school teacher whose modus operandi is to put others down as much as possible.
The result? Not much in it but to take the debate in the context of the overall election campaign with National well ahead in the polls the Prime Minister had to get a standing eight count on Key at least. Because she didnt do so Key will be the much happier of two right now.
A final word about the set TV3 used. It was plain awful and so were the lecterns.
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- Mood:normal
- Music:Britney Spear
Elsewhere in the world of glitter and glam, here comes one of those stories we're typically a little surprised to read. This must happen all the time out in LA, but because this writer is in Chicago and is a semi-professional director (emphasis on the "semi-"), it's always bizarre to see someone just to decide to become a feature film director. But such is the case with fashion designer Tom Ford, who starts production on his first film, A Single Man, a period piece adaptation of Christopher Isherwood's novel, on Monday morning. We think Ford is great and all, and we recognize his many years as being a creative director for Gucci, but we're not quite sure how you move from this world of fabrics and into visual storytelling. Well, yeah, other than the obvious, that he's Tom Ford and he can do whatever he pleases at the snap of his fingers (today, film director! tomorrow, he would like to ride on the back of a real life unicorn!). Anxious to see how it all turns out.
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- Mood:More emotions
- Music:PaPa RoAch
I've added a new label so it should be easy to find our other posts with recipes for making your own cleaners. See below the sigline of this post, click on "Make Your Own Cleaners" and that should bring up most of them. I've also played around with Amazon's carosel widget (because it's fun) and put the main ingredients you'll need in one place- above. If you can find them in your local store, it's probably cheaper that way, but if you can't...
Questions asked since last time:
Q. Do you have a frugal source for spray bottles and the like?
A. No, and I haven't been happy with most of them- they clog up, break, and disappoint me. I suspect it's worth it to pay more for a sturdier spray bottle, but I still haven't liked most of the ones we've tried.
Discoveries since last post:
Castile soap is a good substitute for the Fels Naptha, and you can get it unscented (see above- Amazon carries Dr. Bronners, currently on sale, and eligible for free shipping). Caveat- Dr. Bronner was an, um, interesting fellow, and reading the labels on his products is sort of like being shouted at by the kindly old New Age Hippie up the street- you know the one, the sixties weren't very good for him, were they?
You can make dry laundry soap instead of liquid- way easier:
1 Bar Fels Naptha or Castile Soap, Grated - we use an old metal cheese grater.
1 1/2 to 2 Cups Washing Soda (Arm and Hammer makes it. You find it in the laundry or cleaning section of your grocer's. This is a GREAT cleaner, and we use it for several things. It's just Sodium Carbonate, which is what the Rendezvous Ph Up pool cleaner pictured above is as well- check out your local pool supply store and read labels)
1 1/2 to two Cups Borax (I've only seen 20 Mule Team brand- this is a mineral, which is why you'll see it in so many 'green' cleaning recipes)
Put this in a glass jar with a lid, shake it well. Write on it with a permanent marker (or use tape to attach a label)- "Laundry Soap, 1 Tablespoon or less!" Put a rubber band around the jar and put a measuring spoon in that rubber band to make sure nobody overuses it.
This does work in front loaders, that's what we have.
WE're cool with unscented, but if you like scent, try sprinkling a few drops of lavender and/orange oil in the jar and then shake it up really well.
Dishwasher:
1 Tablespoon Washing soda; 1 Tablespoon Borax- put these in your soap dispenser. If you use rinses, put white vinegar in the rinse cup.
Toilet bowl cleaner: put 1/4 cup of borax into the toilet bowl and let it sit half an hour. Scrub and rinse. Add a couple drops of pine oil for added disinfectant and to make you feel better about not using a toxic cleaner.:) (not, however, if you're allergic to pine)
Home-made all purpose cleaner
1 tsp. Borax
1/2 tsp. Washing Soda
2 Tbsp. vinegar
1/2 tsp. liquid dish soap (or dissolve a teaspoon of the castile soap)
2 cups really hot water
Mix everything but the water into a jar. Gradually add the water, stirring or shaking gently until everything is thoroughly dissolved (that's why you need the water hot). When you are sure it is completely dissolved add 2-4 drops of essential oils. Pine oil makes it smell like pine-sol or other pine cleaners.
Add a few drops of your favorite essential oils if you like.
I like using these homemade cleaners because they are nontoxic cleaners, presumably safer for children (who do most of the cleaning around here).
It's cheaper than most cleaners and works just as well.
Something else we did when the oldest five Progeny were younger- using the clean and green books above, we put together different cleaners, and then I let them choose their own essential oils so that the cleaning products they used were personalized to make the person using them happy. Jenny really liked a strong, clean scent, so she used tea tree oils, Rosemary, and Pine. I like lavender and orange. Pip liked cinnamon and orange (clean your sink with a mixture of baking soda, salt, enough cinnamon to smell it, and a drop or two of orange oil).
This made cleaning chores just a little bit more pleasant and fun.
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- Mood:smile
- Music:Tokio Hotel
I've added a new label so it should be easy to find our other posts with recipes for making your own cleaners. See below the sigline of this post, click on "Make Your Own Cleaners" and that should bring up most of them. I've also played around with Amazon's carosel widget (because it's fun) and put the main ingredients you'll need in one place- above. If you can find them in your local store, it's probably cheaper that way, but if you can't...
Questions asked since last time:
Q. Do you have a frugal source for spray bottles and the like?
A. No, and I haven't been happy with most of them- they clog up, break, and disappoint me. I suspect it's worth it to pay more for a sturdier spray bottle, but I still haven't liked most of the ones we've tried.
Discoveries since last post:
Castile soap is a good substitute for the Fels Naptha, and you can get it unscented (see above- Amazon carries Dr. Bronners, currently on sale, and eligible for free shipping). Caveat- Dr. Bronner was an, um, interesting fellow, and reading the labels on his products is sort of like being shouted at by the kindly old New Age Hippie up the street- you know the one, the sixties weren't very good for him, were they?
You can make dry laundry soap instead of liquid- way easier:
1 Bar Fels Naptha or Castile Soap, Grated - we use an old metal cheese grater.
1 1/2 to 2 Cups Washing Soda (Arm and Hammer makes it. You find it in the laundry or cleaning section of your grocer's. This is a GREAT cleaner, and we use it for several things. It's just Sodium Carbonate, which is what the Rendezvous Ph Up pool cleaner pictured above is as well- check out your local pool supply store and read labels)
1 1/2 to two Cups Borax (I've only seen 20 Mule Team brand- this is a mineral, which is why you'll see it in so many 'green' cleaning recipes)
Put this in a glass jar with a lid, shake it well. Write on it with a permanent marker (or use tape to attach a label)- "Laundry Soap, 1 Tablespoon or less!" Put a rubber band around the jar and put a measuring spoon in that rubber band to make sure nobody overuses it.
This does work in front loaders, that's what we have.
WE're cool with unscented, but if you like scent, try sprinkling a few drops of lavender and/orange oil in the jar and then shake it up really well.
Dishwasher:
1 Tablespoon Washing soda; 1 Tablespoon Borax- put these in your soap dispenser. If you use rinses, put white vinegar in the rinse cup.
Toilet bowl cleaner: put 1/4 cup of borax into the toilet bowl and let it sit half an hour. Scrub and rinse. Add a couple drops of pine oil for added disinfectant and to make you feel better about not using a toxic cleaner.:) (not, however, if you're allergic to pine)
Home-made all purpose cleaner
1 tsp. Borax
1/2 tsp. Washing Soda
2 Tbsp. vinegar
1/2 tsp. liquid dish soap (or dissolve a teaspoon of the castile soap)
2 cups really hot water
Mix everything but the water into a jar. Gradually add the water, stirring or shaking gently until everything is thoroughly dissolved (that's why you need the water hot). When you are sure it is completely dissolved add 2-4 drops of essential oils. Pine oil makes it smell like pine-sol or other pine cleaners.
Add a few drops of your favorite essential oils if you like.
I like using these homemade cleaners because they are nontoxic cleaners, presumably safer for children (who do most of the cleaning around here).
It's cheaper than most cleaners and works just as well.
Something else we did when the oldest five Progeny were younger- using the clean and green books above, we put together different cleaners, and then I let them choose their own essential oils so that the cleaning products they used were personalized to make the person using them happy. Jenny really liked a strong, clean scent, so she used tea tree oils, Rosemary, and Pine. I like lavender and orange. Pip liked cinnamon and orange (clean your sink with a mixture of baking soda, salt, enough cinnamon to smell it, and a drop or two of orange oil).
This made cleaning chores just a little bit more pleasant and fun.
Similar posts: blow job party
- Mood:lol
- Music:Russel Simins
You have to wonder as well what kind of impact the histrionics of the media can have on a crisis such as this. Todays edition of The Observer includes a twelve page section on the financial crisis, which includes a mixture of thoughtful criticism (such as a Will Hutton article arguing for a pan-European intervention analogous to the Paulson plan) and generic puff. Much of it, however, seems to be fuelled by a belief - widely spread - that this crisis marks the end of the particular phase of capitalism that began under Reagan and Thatcher, and the start of something new. Even national European leaders have been expressing the idea that this represents the supposed collapse of something called Anglo-Saxon capitalism.
Maybe so, but Im impressed that these journalists, many of whom had no interest in economics a couple of months ago, have such access to the future that they can tell us how the world will be so different from now on. The same blanket assumptions that painted everything as rosy a few years back seem to now be fuelling a terminal apocalypticism.
The inanity of this black and white doom-mongering is perhaps best shown by another piece in same pull-out, entitled How to Spot a Recession. This informs us that a sharp rise in Viagra sales in the Square Mile of London shows how the crisis is emasculating city traders, that a growth in the sale of espresso machines shows how people are opting for a DIY caffeine fix, and that music website thefilter.com is reporting a rising interest in the music of Arch miserabilist Morrissey, a fitting soundtrack for all of us depressed by the credit crunch. Sorry: but can someone tell me when rising espresso machine sales and music downloads started to count as evidence of a nation plunging into misery and poverty? If the economy was booming and Viagra sales were still up, would this not have been used to show how the horrendous salaries of big city traders was being wasted in orgies of excess? This was the sort of tendentious misreading of facts that wrote into the history books the story that Wall Street bankers during the Great Depression embarked upon a vast wave of suicides, when no such thing happened.
Because the economy is going south, so the logic seems to go, every economic indicator must in some way reflect the crisis. Hair shirts for all. Underpinning this is some sort of deep human need to abstract events into fixed and immutable black and white principles when, as the wise Buddhists say, nothing is fixed or immutable. Because speculative trading has so spectacularly failed and the state needs to intervene, every former assumption we had about the world is wrong.
But this desire to talk about bland and largely meaningless abstractions rather than what is actually happening and what we can do about it, and to assess everything in binary terms, is exactly what got us into this mess in the first place. The foreign policy adventurism that generated the oil spike (and presumably helped collapse the housing bubble) was driven by the current Presidents statements about the universal desire for . The errors of deregulation in the financial sector, especially the Glass-Steagall repeal, were driven by equally fatuous statements that the market could solve any problem as long as its limitless energies were not constrained by government on our backs.
As this crisis grows more damaging, we run the risk of throwing the baby out with the bathwater by buying into principles that are at 180 degrees to the foolish excesses of the era of Gordon Gekko. We run the risk of seeing one utopian construct - faith in markets - being replaced by another: faith in the state.
As well as personal crimes which should be punished, we clearly face systemic problems which need to be addressed. At the centre of them is the precise way in which trading operates within our financial system and our dangerous exposure to the centralised decisions of a very small number of ultra-rich individuals. But I'm not sure it helps to talk about these problems in simplistic terms of versus , versus , and so on, except to show that the old-fashioned market mantras were naive or cynical. The left has spent a generation attacking the right wing for this kind of deceptive abstraction, but it is certainly no less susceptible to it.
For instance, is not exactly the enemy. The problem was the crudely self-interested way in which a few key sectors were deregulated to the benefit of special interest groups high finance being chief among them. Increasing the amount of regulation in the telecoms sector or airlines is not going to help the economy recover, and increasing the authority of the state across the board could lead to its unwanted involvement in areas of your life that have no bearing whatsoever on the economic context. Similarly, deficit spending is not necessarily the problem or the solution: it depends whether you spend the money on fruitful, constructive enterprises, or absurd, wasteful, destructive things, and it depends on the impact of that spending on inflation and other issues. And the state is not the solution any more than it was the problem during the last twenty years: sometimes state action works well, when the market does not operate effectively to preserve a perceived sense of public good; sometimes it doesnt, often because it, too, is made up people who can err or be tempted like the rest of us. We live in a mixed economy, and that's where we should stay. The debate should be over specific policies, not fundamentals.
I suppose the reason why the news media seem so particularly vulnerable to this is because of their attempt to segment the market and keep feeding their audiences information they think they want to hear. But now more than ever, we need intelligent, thoughtful, engaged, and perceptive reporters, who are willing to look at the details and how they work. Join the res publica, the world of civic minded people trying to better their society, and raise the standard of debate.
If, as I suspect may be the case, it turns out to be impossible to free yourself from all fixed and tyrannical principles, the best of our public servants would do well to temper their beliefs with the Rooseveltian method: pragmatism. Try and see what works in each situation and keep their minds open, question assumptions rather than trying to adduce generic principles about the way the world is that will only create more problems for us to fix in the future.
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- Mood:Very good
- Music:Limp Bizkit
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