Journal zogger's Journal: Ahh, nice pretty green shoots... 10
Ahh, what a lovely little plant. Here I was worried this garden was toast, but now I see this little green shoot of progress.
Let me bend over so that I make look closer at this little lovely and see what we have growing here. It looks to be a sprout from those "new and improved magic hybrid garden seeds", that must be it, that pack that came from that helpful man in the nice suit that stopped by one day and sold to me, he said it would save my garden..then he drove off fast before I got a chance to thank him.
Well, looks like it worked! Yes, 99 bucks for a packet of seeds *does* seem expensive, but nothing good was growing here for some years now and he was just so sincere and knowledgeable..knew just all about gardening, all the fancy words and stuff in latin that I don't know what they mean but sure sound complex and impressive..all scientifical and all.. he said he represented the official best government approved gardening science..so it must be OK, I trust them..he even flashed me some sort of government "official magical garden" badge....means he is "regulated" somehow.. approved...and the seed package is stamped with a "seal of approval, guaranteed"! thingee.. and I noticed *all* my neighbors on the block bought some, too, they all bought the new magic hybrid seeds for their dried up gardens as well..so it just *must* be OK then...I mean, *everyone* is doing it...and they were telling people about these new magical seeds on the TV news...
Anyway, good, the seeds are finally sprouting and are now growing! My garden is saved! All our gardens are saved! I need to get much closer though, need to see these new hybrids, see what they look like...maybe I can figure out what fruit or vegetable they are supposed to be...odd..the seed packet here isn't real clear on that
Anyway, let me look closer, now that they have sprouted.....
Ouch! Hey, a spike! The dang thing is covered in sharp pickers like a cactus! What's up with that?? Ewww, now I am getting all itchy! ***^%!!ing shiny leaves, should have seen those.. scratch scratch scratch.... Hey, this plant is growing like crazy, looks like a kudzu vine! OMG! sniff..sniff.. feeling a little woozy here, need to sit down maybe..and...and... what's that odd smell..sniff.. sorta like tomatoes a little..noo..shoot! I've smelled that before! AAAAKKK! Deadly nightshade!
But are the seeds fertile? (Score:2)
Are the seeds fertile, or are they "terminator seeds" so you can't grow another crop without laying out another $99?
Number 9 made me laugh (Score:2)
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The sky is green with a hint of blue!
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Don't think "welfare", think "feudalism".
I'm going to try for a moment to be "politically neutral" and talk about what happens, not Democrat vs Republican, Liberal vs Conservative. I won't fully succeed, but I'll try.
Most of the world's history has been spent in feudal states.
Most of the world's history has been spent with little-to-no-progress, because those on top like being on top, and keep things exactly as they are. (Here's one place where I'll fail to be neutral, because I'd describe this situation
ugh (Score:1)
The days when blue collar workers could live the American Dream are gone and they are not going to come back.
This is unbelievably sad. With this holding mostly true for white collar workers as well now, the American Dream is almost completely dead. Killed by those who don't believe in it (on the Left), and by those (on the Right) who do but not in a way that expands it and leaves some of it for the rest of us.
The United States of America is very quickly becoming a socialist welfare state.
That's certainly wh
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> killed by left and right...
I always identified myself as a hardline moderate - a staunch middle-of-the-road-er. These days, I feel that the political spectrum in the US has shifted in such a bizarre way that it has moved people like us, as my brother says, "raised as Republicans in the 50's and 60's." and turned us into Liberals. As perhaps scant evidence, in almost any modern discourse, "Liberal" has become almost a curse, anathema. The only person allowed to wear the "Liberal" badge publicly with
the count (Score:1)
Good question, I was guessing at the answer myself, here is the wikipedia write up on it
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discouraged_worker [wikipedia.org]
They do sort of leave out the pure underground black market economy though, such as it is. There is also a rather large gray market economy, where a worker will be semi legally working under the aegis of phony identification/using someone else's SS number, etc. That is probably a large number. It is still someone working, but it skews the stats because we don't know how long
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I took link #14 to the BoLS site, and it appears that this number (of "discouraged workers") is an extrapolation from a "household survey". Nice.
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They have been decent for some people, but depend on almost a ponzi scheme to work. And if they are based on stocks, it is ponzi scheme compounded by the "greater fool" theory, since dividends fell so much out of favor.
Sure, they might issue you some notes with numbers on them, after they get pushed into a corner and the only thing they have left is zimbabwe styled hyper inflation. You'll get "paid back" then..won't be worth nuthin' though...
So, I agree, letting someone else handle all your loot for most o