Last night we met the kids and g'kids for paleo pizza. OK, one of the three couples involved had paleo while the other two ordered what was clearly so far off the approved list of ingredients that I'm wondering if they made it home without having coronaries.
The official occasion was Jason's first birthday (a year ago already??) but mostly it was another opportunity to be together as a family. During the course of conversation I mentioned that I'd seen an ad on TV for a safety razor and found the idea intriguing. None of my kids had any idea what I was talking about.
THIS, people, is what's wrong with America.
And as I've learned from a little surfing since then, there's a retro movement afoot, with a resurgence in the use of safety razors and mix-your-own shaving creme. I may jump on the former for economic reasons. Cheap razors (Bic, et al) tear up my face, the more expensive ones are more expensive, and the notion of ever-increasing numbers of blades crammed into a plastic head never made any sense to me. Plus, you can never get the crud rinsed out from between them.
Dropped Pam off at the airport at 4:30 this morning for her 6:00 flight through Chicago to Grand Rapids where she'll spend the next five days visiting her mom. Nobody would voluntarily visit Michigan this time of year but her new 5x8 schedule begins the day after she gets back so this was her last opportunity to put together a string of days without using paid leave.
I have ambitious plans during her absence, but we'll see how much of that actually gets done. I already got the four new rose bushes planted (that's the kind of thing we do in December in the desert) and hope to have the water lilies divided and re-potted very soon. Mostly, it's about not sitting down. It's amazing how fast the time disappears while I'm sitting doing nothing. But if I just keep moving, never mind the pace, I'm equally surprised at how much I can get done in a day.
There's a sermon illustration in there somewhere.
As reported, 1.3 million Americans will lose unemployment benefits beginning today because Congress failed to renew a federal long-term benefits package. Passed in 2008 during the depths of the recession and renewed 11 times since then, this federally funded program has provided a check to those who have used up the 26 weeks of state-funded aid, paying out to 99 weeks, or just under two years. At $300 per week per unemployed individual, the end of the program will save the federal govt. an estimated $25 billion in 2014. The Senate looks like it will pass a short-term extension of the program when they return in January, making it retroactive to today, but it's unclear how the House will respond.
If not now, when? When is the right time to end a program like this, knowing that some people will always lose out, will get caught without either job or govt. check. How long, broad, and deep does a recovery have to be before a temporary program ends? To come at it from the other direction, if there are people who, after any degree of recovery, are still unemployed at the end of 99 weeks, shouldn't we extend the program to, say, 125 weeks? Why is 99 the right number, and not either too long or too short?
Human nature tends toward a sense of entitlement, and that only grows stronger as time and benefits progress. And we can never expect the media to respond to a move like this with, "Well it's about time!"
So is it?
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