Young black workers were affected by many factors. An "anti acting white culture", poverty left over from slavery, systemic racism in hiring, promotion, and housing.. and most significantly for the last two generations has been the "drug war".

In some states, almost ALL people incarcerated for drug crimes are black- yet the majority of people committing drug crimes are white. Blacks are more likely to be stopped-- then to be searched when stopped- then to be a arrested if something is found- then to be convicted when tried- and finally to be sentenced to much longer sentences when convicted.

Quote:
According to the Sentencing Project's website, the rate of incarceration for white Connecticut residents in 2005 was 211 per 100,000 people; for black residents it was 2,532 per 100,000. The Sentencing Project reports that the national incarceration rate for whites in 2005 was 412 per 100,000, and the rate for blacks was 2,290 per 100,000 people.

Also according to the Sentencing Project's web site, in seven states (Iowa, Vermont, New Jersey, Connecticut, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and South Dakota) the black to white incarceration ratio is greater than 10 to one.

1. about one in every 33 black men was a sentenced prisoner and the rate for white men was about one in every 205, for Hispanic men about one in every 79; and

2. black men represented the largest proportion of sentenced male inmates at yearend 2006 (38%); white men made up 34%; and Hispanic men, 21%.

More reading here...
http://www.cga.ct.gov/2008/rpt...

http://www.americanprogress.or...

http://socialistworker.org/blo...

I have a friend who has a misdemeanor and she has a struggle even getting minimum wage jobs. With improved access to people's records even minor crimes become life sentences and create a strong push towards living poverty or turning to crime.

However, I don't think it's being used more as a "filter" at this point. There are 7 employees and 6 jobs. Any kind of criminal record at all is used to select which of the 6 will be hired.

I think that's a biased way of looking at it but - if you related it to GDP size, it would be unbiased and the results might be similar.

And you are ignore Clinton's accounting games. Seriously- the deficit went up under him- he just found a way to shift the deficit to social security. WIthout the funny accounting his deficit was about 7T. This means that Bush Jr's actually went from 8T to 13T and Obama's from 13T to 19T. (which would make your percentages smaller for Bush and Obama but larger for Clinton).

But anyway, relating the deficit to GDP each presidents GDP at start of office and total deficit at end of term has been...

1980 3T, Deficit 100% of GDP when he started office.
1988 5T Deficit 120% of GDP when he started office.
1992 6.5T Deficit 107% of GDP when he started office.
2000 10T, Deficit 130% of GDP when he started office.
2008 15T, Deficit 113% of GDP (but two more years to go).

Tolkien may have reinvented the world, or he may have read it and forgot it and then reinvented it (as he said himself when asked).

The word "Hobbit" appeared as a fantastic creature name in 1854.
---
http://blog.oxforddictionaries...

Then, after Tolkienâ(TM)s death, an example of the word did turn up, in a long list of âsupernatural beingsâ(TM) appearing in the so-called Denham Tracts, compiled by the Yorkshire merchant M. A. Denham (1800 or 1801-1859). Denham was an amateur folklorist who published many books and pamphlets, including twenty Minor Tracts on Folklore (1849-c.1854). The majority of these Tracts were collected in an edition prepared for the Folklore Society in the 1890s, and the word hobbit appears in the second volume (1895) of this edition.

The discovery of the word in the Denham Tracts was reported in The Times on 31 May 1977. The article records that Tolkien, when asked whence he had got the name, âreplied that he could not remember: perhaps he invented it; or âoeI may have picked it up from a nineteenth century sourceâ.â(TM) (Perhaps Tolkien still recalled that exchange of letters in 1938.) The Times writer rather boldly asserted that this ânineteenth century sourceâ(TM) had now been identified as Tolkienâ(TM)s inspiration. But could Tolkien have read the relevant Denham Tract? It certainly seems an unlikely origin for âburied childhood memoriesâ(TM).

They are really making a movie based on that tract.

It has one of the actresses from game of thrones and it's being done serious or so serious it's camp. Chic was contacted and approved of the film. It's out this fall.

I think the trailer is on youtube now.

I ran two MA campaigns on the warden. The second one, the players didn't see the rules or know they were on the warden- they were in the "City of Metal" campaign.

I've run my dnd games through the decks of the Warden as well.

I hate that I missed the MA kickstarter project.

I've been running dnd since 1978. Successful career, grandkids, retired early-- and still run two games a month for 13 people from age 9 to 56.

They've invented adblock detectors.

They don't show the video unless you allow the ad to show.

So at the least, the game rachets up a notch.
At the worst, adblock's days are numbered.

---

TV used to have 52 minutes of content for 8 commercials.

Now it has 42 minutes of content for 18 commercials.
And in some cases 39 minutes of content for 23 minutes of content (by over laying the credits of the prior show with commercials).

I mostly just don't watch it any more.

But I've also gotten really good at not seeing the commercials. At first I had to try but now it's like I can sort of go blind and deaf to the commercials until the show comes back on.

at 2am for complaints by the neighbors about loud arguing.

We were apparently loudly with the DM's interpretation that a polymorphed ogre into a flower was "as tough as an ogre" -- as in it could still inflict 1d10 damage to us while polymorphed into a flower instead of merely still having 20 hit points.

Ah... good times.

I think it's more likely that more people are becoming obese because of exactly one factor: age. They are living artificially prolonged lifetimes due to access to adequate food and to medicine. It's easier to get fat when you are 50 than when you are 30 because of the natural changes in your metabolism.

There were multiple strong recessions and stagflation during the 50 years.

Strong recessions are part of the normal business cycle and we really shouldn't have printed so much funny money since 2000 trying to prevent them.

Here's info on the 1970's and 1980's recessions

quote...
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1973-75 Recession
This period stood apart from many other U.S. recessions as it was marked distinctly by stagflation â" the combination of high unemployment and high inflation. The United States faced a surge in oil prices due to OAPECâ(TM)s (Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries) oil embargo, combined with increased spending due to the Vietnam War and a stock market crash after the collapse of the Bretton Woods monetary relation system, officially putting an end to the economic boom which followed WWII. Unemployment peaked at 9% and, although the recession is recognized as having ended in 1975, the country experienced low economic growth for years afterwards.

Early 1980â(TM)s Recession
In the late 1970â(TM)s, inflation was on the rise in the United States, in part left over from the 1973 recession. As a result, the Federal Reserve tightened monetary policy considerably, in turn causing investment purchases to drop as capital became less available. By winter of 1982, however, inflation continued to drop and unemployment rose for several years.

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It's reasonable to think that globalization of labor would have probably depressed wages for a couple generations regardless of the approach we took. However, the policy changes you mention have exacerbated it. Automation and robotics are small now but are going to dominate employment within our lifetime which will be a paradigm shift.

Otherwise, I agree strongly with your general view and point.

To be fair, it's hard to change much while you need 60 votes in the senate to get anything to pass.

I'm glad he spent his political capital on the ACA. I'm disappointed and curious about why he didn't shut down Guantanamo . He's made a lot of "small" liberal progress on over a hundred issues but his hands are tied by the party of "no no no no no no no no no no no no no NO NO no no no!"

http://www.westegg.com/inflati...
What cost $100 in 1980 would cost $278.44 in 2013.

So Reagan's increase was about the same as Obama's.
And a lot of Reagan's increase ALSO came from unrealistically high defense spending and tax cuts on the wealthy.

What cost $100 in 1988 would cost $193.96 in 2013.
Bush's deficit increase was also about the same as Obama's increase.

Clinton used funny accounting tricks and gutted social security to balance the books. Actually he increased the deficit about 2T when you remove the accounting tricks.
What cost $100 in 1992 would cost $163.61 in 2013.
So his increase was about 3T about half of Obama's.

What cost $100 in 1992 would cost $122.42 in 2000.
Bush Jr increased the deficit by 7T. Currently still a record.

And bush's tax cuts account for 30% of the deficit. Obama is responsible for not allowing them to lapse. Defense spending the size of the next 25 nations combined accounts for another 40% of the deficit and *modest* cuts would have reduced the deficit by 1T. And we'd have still been spending more than china, russia, and all of europe combined. All of the rest of government accounts for the other 30%. Notably, the ACA is only a miniscule part of the deficit. The vast majority of it is bills from prior administrations that are difficult to stop- and impossible to stop with the republican dominated congress passing bills which only increase costs.

But Obama could have allowed the tax cuts to lapse and he'd be at about $4T. A *REAL* failure of spine there. And that's been the biggest gap. Let's rate them by spine.

Bush Jr., Spine of Titanium.
Bush Sr., Spine of Steel (and it cost him the election)
Clinton, Spine of Iron
Reagan, Spine of Wood (really- he basically went "Guns AND Butter)
Obama, Spine of Silly Putty

Hate him or love him- Bush got what he wanted. But he had the largest deficit adjusted for inflation and his policies are responsible for 1T to 2T of Obama's deficits (before Obama had a chance to allow them to lapse).

It's a bit of a potemkin high tho.

There is a historically high unemployment and underemployment among everyone under 30. And fairly high unemployment in the 30-34 group too. 34-50 is doing pretty well. Then you see unemployment rising above the historical baseline again. Mostly due to age discrimination.

I voted for reagan but unfortunately, he wasn't really a conservative. He abandoned conservative fiscal principles and started the country on a sugar high.

And the war on drugs was and has been a complete failure which as a bonus increased facism while decreasing privacy and freedom in this country enormously.

I have $2000 dollars ready to send to help him unlock his money!

A 10 second warning counter has been shown to be more effective. But those cost money and don't generate money.

Still, red light cameras do serve a safety purpose. While increasing the number of accidents, they do decrease the fatality of accidents. Translating 40mph tbone collisions into 20mph rear end collisions.