Misery Index-Nevada-worst and last

MSN Money lists by state the top home foreclosure rates and bankruptcy filings.
It is no surprise Nevada is number one in both.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Banking/BankruptcyGuide/the-misery-index.aspx

Yesterday a report released by our very own State legislative task force, New Academy Of Health found that Nevadans wear their seat belts more than anyone else in the US!
Isn't that marvelous?
We all know why! Police in our state are aggressive in giving tickets to anyone with a Nevada plate-our income is way down. Tickets start at 65.00

But wait!
That was the only GOOD news for Nevada in this report.

Nevada has the WORST graduation rates in the country.
The worst record of providing immunizations for children.
The worst rate of nurse per patient ratio.
46th in providing preventative medical and dental care for children.
Last for providing medical care to low income families.
State health spending was 1.9 percent of the gross state product, or 48th worst in the nation.

Our Gov. Jim Gibbons won his election, not for the people of the state, for big business.
Nevada has been notorious for treating citizens in an abusive and cavalier manner. After all, people are considered worker bees. Just like the old west-
Where the general store owned all the employees? Indentured servitude was a way of life.
Worker bees come and go health and well being are not considerations.

This is why Jim Gibbons has no compunction cutting services to the poor, disabled and elderly to almost non-existent levels.
It is also why he doesn't lose sleep over cutting education budgets 45%.

While the Las Vegas Review Journal purports to be the paper of the people, the circulation is dwindling rapidly because the only people willing to buy it are the right fringed lunatics it speaks to-
In fact, the dirty little secret of the Las Vegas Review Journal is you can buy the Sunday paper(2.50) at the dollar store for a buck !
If you are considering a move here, unless you are part of that top 10% income bracket remember what happened to those seeking riches during the gold rush days-
many died, abandoned , destitute and often having been cheated out of every dollar they possessed.
The west hasn't changed much, here in Nevada.

Credit Unions-Next in the house of cards

This didn't exactly make the headlines yesterday. I am surprised it didn't happen sooner.

Which Network services your credit union?.

I have a feeling this is only the beginning.

U.S. Moves to Bail Out Credit Union Network

Wall Street Journal

Falling in love with a house

Dreaming of living in sunny Florida, I came across this house for rent and instantly fell in love with it.

A classic old Floridian home with hardwood floors and screened in porch.

Contentment settles on me just dreaming about it.

CNN's fairy tale version of economic crisis

CNN encapsulates the financial meltdown in a thousand words or less-blaming the subprime borrowers (firstof course). The greed and lack of restraint on wall street-bush give to the rich policies aren't in this fairy tale-Let's make the peasants the villians.

CNN lead in:

How a 'perfect storm' led to the economic crisis
Story Highlights
Firms are cutting jobs, credit is frozen and billion-dollar bailouts are being doled out
Experts trace the crisis to a housing bubble from earlier this decade
A confluence of greed, lack of regulation and reckless borrowing played a role
(interestingly this isn't attributed to Bush or Wall Street greed)

Republicans-Like Flying Monkeys-stupid and scary

Those of you who armchair the economy like the Republicans are doing need to settle down.

Most of us don't understand economic theory anymore than we do black holes in the universe.

We can foist our ignorant opinions on any polite listener(and believe me, you will be lucky to find one) but we are in uncharted territory here and we have some of the best minds in our country working on it.

This team work concept of Obama's doesn't sit well with the school bullies.

They don't want to take their toys and go home because they aren't allowed to cheat at the game anymore and twist arms, yelling, "say uncle".

Instead they have found a new venue for their bullying-

They call it "conscience" and the collective conscience is "stupid is as stupid does" These guys want to make sure (if they have the opportunity to destroy whatever possible success the Americans have of getting out of this mess-)that everyone knows they didn't vote for the aftermath of their destruction.

Do you understand that how that works? The GOP are using that airtime telling everyone they could not vote it. Need more tax cuts for their rich friends.(Like that worked). Doing everything to obstruct it-

to replace it with the same presents to their rich friends and corporations that got us here.

Hey, armchair economic experts-lets try something new. Not listening to your same old tired rhetoric full of hostility and resistance.

Let's give this a chance.

Or aren't you scared enough yet? Is that what we need to do to get you to build instead of rip apart?

Make you so scared you are ready to wet your pants?

How the New Generation Shares-A telling moment

A silly but telling incident happened at my school yesterday. I am still shaking my head. Be mindful of this generation of teachers-twenty-somethings-
Someone placed about ten cases of snack foods on the "share table" in the teacher's lounge.No note had been left.
Another teacher and I were speculating and decided maybe the guy was there to fill the snack machine.
When we returned for lunch about an hour later, people were walking out with cases of snack foods. Each one held over fifty bags.
People were eating lunch and had cases sitting by their feet.
So I asked them,
"What are the snacks for"
Reply, "We can have them"
me, "Are you guys taking them all?" "You aren't planning on sharing them or dividing them up?"
Reply-"no"
Another reply-"well, there weren't any instructions or rules"
Off they walked/
These were teachers-role models for children.
You don't want to hear the rest of my teacherly-motherly-little lecture.

The snack dates expired and were placed on the table for the teachers to enjoy. The principal had to send an e-mail out that sounded like a parent to a child-"These are for teachers, they are to share-please bring them back"

The parallel to wall street greed struck me. Have we taught this generation anything is okay unless 1) explicit rules exist and 2) someone better be there to enforce it
because it doesn't count if no one says anything?
I find it an interesting consideration.

Choosing Our Precipice

Our choice of precipice is about the only independant act we have nowadays.

If we choose to do nothing we allow ourselves to play the victim.

We have been making that choice for eight years.

A fat lot of good it did us.

Welcome to the hood. The neighborhood of victimhood.

Doing nothing and saying nothing does not make us any less responsible for our condition today.