They don't take into account the number of people that have dropped off the unemployment insurance rosters, either because they have exhausted their benefits or they have given up trying to find work. Add to that the number that have had to take part time jobs just to keep food on the table. Plus the graduates that are just entering the "full time" work force, but can't find a job and don't qualify for unemployment insurance benefits. The "2000" number is a net after effect number, if you look at the gross numbers for the chronically unemployed you will find it to be VERY gross indeed.

I do! A deep jolly belly laugh that shakes the house. The kids love it, after the initial shock of the house quake wears off of course. It sends rabbits racing for their burrows and brings reindeer running to see what is the matter. But I digress.

The light must not have been too bright, it took the police 6 months to find them. Not exactly what I would call a "beacon".

So that would mean that all the purse snatchers that get a purse with money are being told by god that "they are doing a great job! Keep it up!"

Nope, seeing more get laid off. I have been sitting on my backside for the better part of a month, waiting on new contracts and parts to arrive. If they thought they could replace me on the dime, I'm sure I would be out right now. That's one advantage to being a niche skill in a niche market, job security even in a bad economy, knock on wood.

Here in the south they still sell "heirloom" crop seeds, which are suppose to be completely unmodified and from original stock. But you pay a premium price to get this stock seed and if the farmer next to you is growing GMO crops, there is still a chance of a little crossover in the following years. I'm still replanting the beans, peas, and corn that have been passed down through my family for the last 6 or so generations, why buy new when you produce your own seeds?

Interesting, we are coming closer on this but I believe our division still lies in the different way we define "basic rights" vs. "rights".

Society doesn't assign or determine the basic rights of sentient beings, we have those rights upon birth regardless of the society, time, or place where we are born. The fact that we are intelligent and self aware affords us those rights, society may remove them, but they can't give them. Rights however are given by society and don't exist without that society, and are therefore different in different societies.

In the "dark ages" people were aware of these basic rights just as much as they are today, but the groups in power (mostly the church and/or the royal family) often met those people that exercised those rights with the canes and the sword. So, in effect, removing those rights from the lower class. The Christian church also sought to suppress those rights by making it a religious crime for anyone outside of the clergy to be able to read the "holy" manuscripts.

"I think that it is a sign of society's progress... what is and is not considered a basic right (and who such rights are rightly afforded to). "

The fact that these "rights" should be rightly afforded to some and not others proves that they aren't basic rights, but societal rights. Basic rights are rights that are the same for every man and women, regardless of any external situation.

One day health care may be a right of all Americans, just as it is in many other countries of the world today, but it will never be a basic right. And I fear when that day comes, unless they have found an incredible new method of applying it, it will send us into and economic tailspin just as it has the European countries. The plan we have at the moment doesn't address the economic fallout, but instead pushes it down the line for someone else to figure out when it is too late.

Hehe...(tosses gloves aside, dives into a box looking for pictures)

To be continued.....

Why was the ship ON the highway? This could turn into a Ray Stevens song real quick!

Sounds like a great time, and some beautiful pictures (hint hint).