dagblog - Comments for "Welcome to the welfare states of America"

Here's Duncan Black

Flavius — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 03:36:42 +0000

In reply to It's ironic that because of

Here's Duncan Black today.

Normally it's a bit of a joke, but sometimes I do despair reading through the comments sections of newspapers. Can so many people lack any empathy or sympathy for anybody? Have their lives been utterly mistake and tragedy free?

That's what I find even sadder..

If 538 or so politicos have become heartless ,so be it. At least theoretically one of these days there might be a Washington Spring and we might choose a different 538 .But if 'we the people' have become heartless we just might have the representatives we deserve.

hee hee hee what an image;

artappraiser — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 21:19:38 +0000

In reply to I don't know why that scares

hee hee hee what an image; it's even funny to think of him tending a rose garden much less working in the fields....

or how bout this one--Newt scrubbing the floor of an orphanage/school on his hands and knees with a scrub brush?

It's ironic that because of

Aunt Sam — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 18:40:56 +0000

In reply to Glad you find it useful.The

It's ironic that because of the wealth and privileges, that for the most part, We, The People, have made possible for most of the politicos, they are now so removed from the majority of us that they are unable/refuse to identify with the masses.

If only, like some slum landlords have had to endure living in the squalor of their properties, these politicians and their families had to live within the same means as those who they demean and dismiss.

Sadly, they appear not only to be able to have their 'cake' and eat it too - they begrudge allowing the crumbs to be shared with those in need of the most minimal sustenance.

Perhaps the greatest irony of all is that it's our money they spend on their 'cakes' and we just keep electing those who use and abuse their positions in public office. Ah yes, is this the government we deserve?!?

I don't know why that scares

Verified Atheist — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 11:57:30 +0000

In reply to Glad you find it useful.The

I don't know why that scares you. I think it'd be great if Gingrich went down to Alabama and harvested those crops.

Glad you find it useful.The

Flavius — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 09:36:52 +0000

In reply to Interesting that over fifty

Glad you find it useful.The information, and more, was all in a recent issue of the Nation but spread over several separate articles. It seemed to me that the numbers, when isolated this way, speak for themselves. And what they say ( to me) is that rather than indulging ourselves in overly generous social programs,,we aren't doing the minimum to qualify as a compassionate country.

But that's just my reaction. I'm afraid that, Gingrich for example, would take those same numbers and argue the opposite:we're still too generous, ruining our moral fibre by allowing too many to dodge their responsibility to take care of themselves. Ought to get down to Alabama and harvest the crops left in the fields because of the exodous of the illegals. Or to the Central Valley and replace the Mexicans there. Getting soft..

Sad

Interesting that over fifty

Aunt Sam — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 04:16:21 +0000

In reply to Welcome to the welfare states of America

Interesting that over fifty percent of Congress is in the one percent for income. The rich get richer, but the question is, 'Is it fair to assert that they are at least partially responsible for the poor getting poorer?'

This type of post is what I consider, Need To Know! Will copy and pass on.

Appreciate.

I'm sorry, but I don't

Richard the Electrician — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 03:57:08 +0000

In reply to No she didn't go to bed

I'm sorry, but I don't accept, in these times of struggle, that these people go on well-publicized vacations to Hawaii that cost (according to public records) $4 million dollars.

From Wikipedia: Michelle

Richard the Electrician — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 03:54:10 +0000

In reply to I'll check her bio.

From Wikipedia:

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson was born on January 17, 1964, in Chicago, Illinois, to Fraser Robinson III,^[3] a city water plant employee and Democratic precinct captain, and Marian (née Shields), a secretary at Spiegel's catalog store.^[4] Her mother was a full-time homemaker until Michelle entered high school.^[5] The Robinson and Shields families can trace their roots^[6] to pre-Civil War African Americans in the American South. Specifically, her roots can be traced to the Gullah people from South Carolina's Lowcountry region.^[7] Her paternal great-great grandfather, Jim Robinson, was an American slave in the state of South Carolina,^[8]^[9] where some of her paternal family still reside.^[10]^[11] Her maternal great-great-great grandmother, Melvinia Shields, also a slave, became pregnant by a white man. His name and the nature of their union have been lost. She gave birth to Michelle's biracial maternal great-great grandfather, Dolphus T. Shields.^[12]

Michelle grew up in a two-story house on Euclid Street in Chicago's South Shore community area. Her parents rented a small apartment on the house's second floor from her great-aunt, who lived downstairs.^[4]^[13]^[14]^[15] She was raised in what she describes as a "conventional" home, with "the mother at home, the father works, you have dinner around the table".^[16] The family entertained together by playing games such as Monopoly and by reading.^[17] They attended services at nearby South Shore Methodist Church.^[13] The Robinsons used to vacation in a rustic cabin in White Cloud, Michigan.^[13] She and her brother, Craig (who is 21 months older), skipped the second grade. By sixth grade, Michelle joined a gifted class at Bryn Mawr Elementary School (later renamed Bouchet Academy).^[18]

She attended Whitney Young High School,^[19] Chicago's first magnet high school, where she was a classmate of Jesse Jackson's daughter Santita.^[17] The round trip commute from the Robinsons' South Side home to the Near West Side, where the school was located, took three hours.^[20] She was on the honor roll for four years, took advanced placement classes, a member of the National Honor Society and served as student council treasurer.^[4] Obama graduated in 1981 as the salutatorian of her class.^[20]

Michelle was inspired to follow her brother to Princeton University;^[5] he graduated in 1983. At Princeton, she challenged the teaching methodology for French because she felt that it should be more conversational.^[21] As part of her requirements for graduation, she wrote a thesis entitled "Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community."^[22]^[23] "I remember being shocked," she says, "by college students who drove BMWs. I didn't even know parents who drove BMWs."^[20] While at Princeton, she got involved with the Third World Center (now known as the Carl A. Fields Center), an academic and cultural group that supported minority students, running their day care center which also included after school tutoring.^[24] Robinson majored in sociology and minored in African American studies and graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in 1985.^[4]^[25] She earned her Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from Harvard Law School in 1988.^[26] At Harvard she participated in demonstrations advocating the hiring of professors who were members of minorities^[27] and worked for the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, assisting low-income tenants with housing cases.^[28] She is the third First Lady with a postgraduate degree, after her two immediate predecessors, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Laura Bush.^[29] In July 2008, Obama accepted the invitation to become an honorary member of the 100-year-old black sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha, which had no active undergraduate chapter at Princeton when she attended.^[30]

No she didn't go to bed

Flavius — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 03:52:49 +0000

In reply to I'll check her bio.

No she didn't go to bed hungry. Her father worked for the city water dept and was a democratic party precinct captain. Her mother stayed at home until the Michelle started high school. So they had enough money to afford her mother to do that.

Some other items from Wikipedia. Michelle and her now- basketball- coach brother both skipped second grade. So her mother probably tutored them. Her great great grandparents on both sides were slaves. Pretty likely it took several generations before they were able to avoid going to bed hungry.

Stay well.

I'll check her bio.

Flavius — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 03:42:28 +0000

In reply to Yeah, sure she did. And cows

I'll check her bio.