Quote of the week: ''The theme of covert tensions, overcome by right thinking and positive attitude, continues in the 12-minute video entitled You've Picked a Great Place to Work. Here various associates testify to the 'Essential feeling of family for which Wal-Mart is so well known.' It all leads to the conclusion that we don't need a union.'' (describing the authors orientation to her job at Wal-Mart) from Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich.
Boot-camps for delinquent adolescents. What a joke. They are dangerous, ineffective, humiliating, demeaning, and most of the staff are ex-military junkies, more bent on power than they are compassion. The tactics used are barbaric remnants of a bye-gone age, when it was thought yelling obscenities at someone would build character. It didn't work then, it doesn't work now. If yelling and screaming at someone helped them to become model citizens, delinquents wouldn't be delinquents. Most have had plenty of cussing and yelling at them since early age. By boot-camp logic, they should be model citizens. Is this the kind of nonsense you would use to raise your own child? Boot-camps are a sorry masquerade for rehabilitation. They were created to gain votes rather than help adolescents.
A special thanks to someone from Peever, South Dakota. It was nice hearing from you. I get a lot of things in the mail, usually not quite so nice. Last week someone sent me an autograph of George W. I didn't quite know what to do with it, so I gave it to my dog. A week or so before, I got this package that looked suspicious, so I filled the bathtub with water and stuck it in. Wouldn't you know it, it was some cookies from my mom. That's kind of how life has been going around here. I hope it's better in Peever, South Dakota.
Here's the thing: In a world filled with exciting possibilities, how is it I ended up in Galesburg?
Glimpse of God:--
A water lily.--
A sunrise.--
A sunset.--
An unexpected hello.--
An 85-year-old volunteer.--
The ocean--
Mountains.--
A redwood tree.--
Someone busting their butt for minimum wage.
''I cried out to my fellow employees, Just exactly how long are you going to put up with the bullshit being spread around here? That very next week I had to wear my hip-boots to work.'' from Heaven is Paved With a Lot of Bull, by The Peever.
The drugging of America: Drug dealers come in all sizes and shapes. You find some on street corners, others are hiding in fancy offices or behind pharmacy counters. More legal drugs are sold daily in this country, and more money made, than all illicit drugs combined. It seems a new drug comes out almost weekly. A lady recently reported that her prescriptions cost her $350 per month in the states. She bought the same thing over the internet from Canada for $46. Welcome to capitalism gone amok. The current largest legal drug being pushed: Prozac. If you're feeling blue, do we have a deal for you. You must be experiencing a ''chemical imbalance.'' Your brain may be out of balance, probably because your whole life is out of balance. Your imbalance more likely resides in how you are dealing with life than it does in your genes.
Watch out for:--
McDonald's Bagel Breakfast Sandwiches: 690 calories, 38 grams of fat, 275 mg of cholesterol.--
Pizza Hut's Big New Yorker Pizza: Two slices contain 760 calories, 18 grams saturated fat.--
Burger King French Fries, King size order: 540 calories, 25 grams of fat, 16 of them saturated and trans fats.--
Denny's Grand Slam: 50 grams fat, 14 saturated, 460 mg cholesterol, and 800 calories.--
Quaker 100% Natural Oats and Honey Granola: As much fat as a McDonald's Hamburger.