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Job Growth at Halt in U.S. – Worst Showing in 11 Months – NYTimes.com
2 SepThe number of long-term unemployed — people out of work for 27 weeks or more — remained about the same as in July, at 6 million, as did the median duration of unemployment, at 19.6 weeks compared with 19.7 weeks in July.
The general unemployment rate, which counts only people who looked for work in the previous four weeks, held steady at 9.1 percent. But a broader measure that includes people who have looked for work in the last year and people who were involuntarily working part-time instead of full-time, fell to 16.1 percent from 16.3 percent. The percent of working-age adults who were employed, already at its lowest rate since 1983, ticked down from 58.6 percent to 58.5 percent.
via Job Growth at Halt in U.S. – Worst Showing in 11 Months – NYTimes.com.
Tea-Party Values, Many are Fine
24 AugEconomist her Gintis recently reviewed a favorite Tea-Party tract, Williard Skousen’s The Five Thousand Year Leap: Twenty-Eight Great Ideas That Are Changing the World. Gintis concludes:
I was prepared to dislike this book, but was pleasantly surprised at how ecumenical a message Skousen has to offer. Moreover, the book is easy to read and hence will be accessible to the common citizen and voter who may, if lucky, get to read one or two books a year such deep subjects as the nature of American society.
Here’s some of those 28 great ideas:
(2) A Free People Cannot Survive Under a Republican Constitution Unless They Remain Virtuous and Morally Strong;
(6) All Men Are Created Equal;
(11) The Majority of the People may Alter or Abolish a Government Which has Become Tyrannical;
(14) Life and Liberty are Secure Only so Long as the Right to Property is Secure;
(16) The Government Should be Separated into Three Branches–Legislative, Executive, and Judicial;
(17) A System of Checks and Balances Should be Adopted to Prevent the Abuse of Power;
(19) Only Limited and Carefully Defined Powers Should be Delegated to Government, All Other Being Retained in the People; Continue reading
Born, and Evolved, to Run – NYTimes.com
23 AugWhat’s the political equivalent of running barefoot?
We also went to Africa and went to people who’d never worn shoes. What we discovered was that people who run barefoot tend to run differently than people who wear modern shoes; they run in a much lighter and gentler way because it would hurt to run the way people do in shoes.
Ambitions as Deep as Their Pockets – NYTimes.com
1 AugIf anyone thinks of the new explorers as grown-up children playing with expensive toys, ocean veterans reply that there is ample scientific justification for creating new technologies that can regularly plumb the full depth of the ocean, which covers more than 70 percent of the planet yet remains poorly explored.
Seeding Deep Democracy
17 JulScientist, activist, author Vandana Shiva talks about the importance of saving non-GMO seeds and her concept of ‘Earth Democracy.’
We need people living on the land, because that’s where the resilience is. Cities are rigid and inflexible.
Apples top most pesticide-contaminated list
13 JunApples are at the top of the list of produce most contaminated with pesticides in a report published today by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a public health advocacy group.
Strawberries are high on the list (#3), as are imported grapes (#7). Onions are the lowest in pesticides.
via Apples top most pesticide-contaminated list – USATODAY.com.
Truth and Traditions 