Me? I'm hangin'. Just chillin' in my little corner of the world. Paying attention to the headlines and assimilating what they mean or might mean but not really, if I'm honest, affected. Selfish? Perhaps, but what can I do about any of it, really?
With what happened in Germany on New Year's Day when reports have it that hundreds if not as many as a thousand men formed groups that surrounded and attacked young women, some of those women claiming they were raped, I am very glad some here in the US are calling for a slow-down in immigration from the Middle East. I never used to think that being soft-hearted directly correlates to being soft-headed but given what unfolded in Germany, perhaps it does. Of course the government can only do so much, then it devolves on the individual to behave respectfully toward their host and that host's 'family'.
Unfortunately for those young women, they're women, a lower form of life according to the Koran and Islamic teaching. If boys are taught from the time they're knee-high to a cricket that they, being male, are the superior being, that women have less value than a goat, and that any woman not 'properly dressed' head to toe in a burqa and hijab is a whore, what can you expect? As for those men, if they are from the Middle East and North Africa - bastions of Islam society - how can you expect better? They have never learned better because they were never taught better. That's why the same kind of group grope has taken place again and again against female journalists.
Unfortunately, it's often not 'just' a grope, which is demeaning enough in itself, thank you. In many cases it's a rape or a gang rape. Remember Lara Logan, the 60 Minutes journalist who was gang raped while covering the protests in Tahrir Square? That happened in 2011 and the after-effects of that assault have landed her in the hospital as recently as last year.
There have been others, she's not alone, because as a woman she is fair game to these * ahem * men. Although I have a hard time calling someone a 'man' simply because he has a penis and knows how to use it. A man does not take by force what he can gain by guile and as part of a mob of other vermin who are beating a woman into submission a scum with a penis does not qualify or rise to the level of a 'man'. He is less than vermin. At least the vermin are clear in what they want whereas the goal of the scum is cloudy, at best.
I hardly think the EU or the US will hold classes for all these migrants, requiring them to learn about Western culture, gender equality, and all the niceties of How to Behave in Polite Society. Like don't presume to think that a Western woman who wears her hair down, loose and uncovered is a whore, or has less value than a goat. After all, I think it's assumed that when one visits another person's home, one will behave and mind their manners.
Most of the immigrants do seem to get it, but some don't and it's the some who taint the most, which is regrettable. Perhaps those who do should take control of those who don't, take them aside and teach them proper behavior. That would solve a lot of problems.
Closer to home, Obie-One is punishing the innocent because of the guilty. Impugning the honesty, integrity and ethics of the law abiding while doing absolutely nothing about the criminal element. Does anyone with a brain for an instant think that the punks and hoods and vermin who commit gun crimes are going to pay attention to these new rules Obie-One has laid down?
Oh, yeah, I can see it now. All the gang-bangers of the Bloods, the Crips and MS-13 get wind of these new rules, they look at each other in surprise. "What were we thinking?" They'll all lay down their guns, throw open the doors to the arsenal so the police can come in and collect the hoard of weapons, and start attending Sunday school. Right.
Well, life goes on, the world continues to spin, and nothing else will change. The gang-bangers will still gang-bang, gun crimes will still happen and the new rules will have zero effect on anyone but the law abiding. Fortunately, I don't have any intent to do anything significant with my guns. I'll take them out and clean them this weekend, and then put them away again.
The jobs report came out and they're still spewing happy crap. Yes, the economy is chugging along and, perhaps, the number of gainfully employed is growing, but I have a hard time believing it.
What's reported in the news is the BLS's (Bureau of Labor Statistics) U-3 rate. That's the report of the new jobs created, jobs filled, and active workers and is around 5%. However! The rate they don't report is the more telling of the two. The U-6 is the data for the under-employed, the discouraged, and those people only marginally tied to the workforce.
If you're into 'bureaucratese', here's the blurb that describes the differences between the U-1 to U-3 and U-4 to U-6 datasets:
Alternative Measures of Labor Underutilization for States, Fourth Quarter of 2014 through Third Quarter of 2015 Averages
Six alternative measures of labor underutilization have long been available on a monthly basis from the Current Population Survey (CPS) for the United States as a whole. They are published in the Bureau of Labor Statistics' monthly Employment Situation news release. (See table 15.) The official concept of unemployment (as measured in the CPS by U-3 in the U-1 to U-6 range of alternatives) includes all jobless persons who are available to take a job and have actively sought work in the past four weeks. This concept has been thoroughly reviewed and validated since the inception of the CPS in 1940. The other measures are provided to data users and analysts who want more narrowly (U-1 and U-2) or broadly (U-4 through U-6) defined measures...The six state measures are based on the same definitions as those published for the United States:
- U-1, persons unemployed 15 weeks or longer, as a percent of the civilian labor force;
- U-2, job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs, as a percent of the civilian labor force;
- U-3, total unemployed, as a percent of the civilian labor force (this is the definition used for the official unemployment rate);
- U-4, total unemployed plus discouraged workers, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus discouraged workers;
- U-5, total unemployed, plus discouraged workers, plus all other marginally attached workers, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers; and
- U-6, total unemployed, plus all marginally attached workers, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers.
If you care, or are at all interested, here's the link to Table 15, referenced above:
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t15.htm
As you can see, the official unemployment rate is 5% while the total unemployment rate is 9.9%. So what's real?
Looking at the further definitions below the linked chart, the honest-if-the-government-would-be-honest unemployment rate is about 6.1% - which is not that bad. Of course, that's assuming these data crunchers haven't massaged or fondled or played with the numbers. Which they may have done to give us a happy crap picture. After all, isn't that what good statisticians do, play with numbers to draw the picture they want to draw?
At the end of the day, though, since I'm on the bright side of the fence between employed and unemployed, I'll go with the better number. I'm working and, so far as I can see, will be for a while, and that's good for me. I'll take it.
And, speaking of that, it's past time for me to be getting ready to go to my job. I'll leave it here and wish you a happy day, free of anything remotely unpleasant. Keep your fingers and toes crossed for me - I have bought my first ever Powerball tickets today and hope to retire to Bedlam on Sunday morning after I check them against the draw.
Best~
Philippa
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