Weekly unemployment claims are up 17,000 from the previous week’s unrevised figure of 457,000. The 4-week moving average was 473,750, a decrease of 7,750 from the previous week.
Commentary
Rev-Up Time for the Flagler Youth Orchestra
They’re practicing as I’m writing–the Flagler Youth Orchestra’s four music teachers (Jonathan May, Jack Jeffe, Justin McCulough and Linda VavBuren–in preparation for tonight’s inaugural concert of the new season: the quartet is putting on a few pieces of its own for the occasion, including, from what I hear, a Christmassy jaunt or two. It’s barely […]
Soldiers, Kids Reunite, but Cameras Exploit
In one video, Army Master Sgt. Joseph Myers walks unannounced into his 10-year-old daughter Hanna’s classroom in Texas after a long deployment. In split seconds Hanna’s expression goes from blank to shock to joy to meltdown. She barely manages to make it toward her father’s embrace. In another, at a Jacksonville Jaguars football game last […]
Forget Obama’s. What About Sadie’s Vietnam?
Sadie’s relationship with Vietnam was a complete surprise. But it explains an adolescence rife with post-traumatic stress disorder and reenactments of napping through napalm.
Unemployment: 10.2%. Corporate Profits: Up 10.6%
Corporate profits, which logged some record-breaking soars during the Bush years, are back to their not-so-old form, outgunning the unemployment rate.
The Twisted Reality of War’s Homecoming Videos
Soldiers’ “surprise” homecomings are the new voyeurism, and soldiers’ children and wives the most exploited victims.
South of the Border, Where Drug Policy Makes Sense
On Aug. 20, Mexico for a few days became the most enlightened nation in the western hemisphere regarding drug policy. That day, a law took effect decriminalizing possession of small quantities of drugs. All drugs. South of the border you can carry up to 5 grams of marijuana (four joints’ worth), half a gram of […]
Nuclear’s Glowing, False New Dawn
Besides radioactive waste with nowhere to go, the nuclear power industry is releasing a rich array of glowing falsehoods about the supposed promise of nuclear power.
Prejudice Guides Speculation Over Fort Hood Killings
Even in the United States, land of diversity and individualism, there’s still nothing like race and ancestry to imprison you in other people’s dumbest assumptions and cruelest distortions. An American – American-born, American-bred, American-educated – is suspected of having committed the mass killing that resulted in the death of 13 people at Fort Hood on […]
“60 Minutes”‘ $60 Billion Lie About Medicare
I haven’t watched CBS’ “60 Minutes” in years. But it was one of those stories that stops you in your tracks: Medicare fraud is “a $60 billion crime.” Medicare is the $456 billion government health insurance program serving 46 million elderly Americans. Its credibility as a government-run program is at the heart of the health-care […]