Garrison Keillor quote

"Choose to be cheerful."

Air Travel on Thanksgiving

Flying on Thanksgiving Day was, pardon the pun, a breeze.  

I flew from Philadelphia to Seattle, Washington, via JFK in New York.

No lines at the airports.  No delays.  An empty seat beside me.  Good fares.

I'll do it again next year.

Fukushima Today:

When will the site be safe?

"The consensus is that the site will not be completely safe until the molten fuel in three reactor basements has been removed – a dangerous process expected to take about 40 years."

What's the major concern now?

"Water. This summer, Tepco finally admitted that as much as 300 tons of contaminated ground water was seeping into the Pacific Ocean every day."

From The Christian Science Monitor

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2013/1005/Fukushima-101-5-questions-answered-about-Japan-s-crippled-nuclear-reactors

Alternative to Google

If you want to use a search engine other than Google, one alternative is DuckDuckGo.  It promises anonymous searches with  no tracking and no filter bubble.  I have found it quite satisfactory.

The Economy

Editorial cartoonist Signe Wilkinson  correctly shows who is benefiting from the "economic recovery."
http://www.gocomics.com/signewilkinson/2013/09/12

Photos of War

We need to know what war really looks like.

A book and short video by war photographers focusing on generally unseen photographs of the war in Iraq:  

http://www.guns.com/2013/08/02/unbelievable-photos-for-iraq-and-afghanistan-show-true-colors-of-war-video/

Don't be put off by the site.  The video is good and the book looks amazing.

Did you ever work for minimum wage?

I did, while working my way through college.  That was back in the 60s, when minimum wage, adjusted for inflation, was $8.41 per hour in today's dollars.   Were I working my way through college today, I would have a harder time, earning only $7.25 per hour (today's minimum wage).  http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/07/sixties_budget_plan.html


Working 40 hours a week with only 2 weeks off for (unpaid) vacation, with no holidays nor sick days (rather unrealistic), I would earn $3,610 above the poverty level for a single person.  But, for a 2 person household, say I had a child to support, my income would be $210 below poverty level.  (The earned income tax credit would help some.)


How can we justify a minimum wage that is $1.26 lower than it was 35 years ago?