Homeless Patriot

Happy New Year

noreply@blogger.com (TM9000) — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 19:36:00 +0000

January 1, 2013 - Happy New Year to everyone. May you find peace, heatlth, happiness and safety. May you find your true home. Enjoy "Homeward Bound," by Simon & Garfunkel.

Video Demonstrates Sure-Fire Tricks You Can Bet On

noreply@blogger.com (T.Mannis) — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 23:22:00 +0000

I am not a gambling man. In fact, I run away from poker games when money is on the table. I'm in no hurry to give my money away after being humiliating by a display of my own card playing inadequacies. HOWEVER, here are "10 bets you will never lose." That's not my promise, and it's not a guarantee. It's the title of the video below. If it's legal to gamble where you are, you might want to practice these tricks. Who knows? You might start winning cash. Just watch your back as you walk off with your pile of winnings.

Christmas In Jail (Video)

noreply@blogger.com (T.Mannis) — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 19:21:00 +0000

The Youngsters

Here's a fun novelty song by The Youngsters, a West Coast doo wop group that formed at Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles in 1955.

It's called "Christmas In Jail" and was released in 1956 as the flip side of "Dreamy Eyes." More about The Youngers at ColorRadio.com. You can check out the video of Dreamy Eyes here.

"The Youngsters didn't make much of a dent in the Los Angeles R&B scene," notes Marv Goldberg, "in spite of having some half-dozen releases (under four different group names)." But man, they had a fun sound.

Video: NY Cops Brutalize Defenseless Homeless Man in Brooklyn Synagogue

noreply@blogger.com (T.Mannis) — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 21:31:00 +0000

Oct. 15, 2012 - A homeless man was brutally beaten by officers of NYPD's 71st Precinct on October 8 when they assumed wrongly that he was trespassing at the Aliya (Alternative Learning Institute for Young Adults). The learning center is an outreach center for troubled youth in a synagogue located in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. The officers assumed that the homeless man, Ehud H. Halevi, did not have permission to be on Aliya's property - even though he did.

"Two officers from the 71st precinct, one male and one female, arrived and woke the man," reports CrownHeights.info.

"Confused as to why he was being accosted by police, the man refused the officers’ attempts to escort him outside, insisting that he had permission to be there and asking that they allow him to prove it. His pleas fell on deaf ears, and they proceeded to place him under arrest."

Eventually, as you see in the video, four officers were involved in the beating and the arrest of Halevi. Once subdued (see 3:25 into the video) by the four, seven more officers run into the room, for a total of 11 cops. At about 4:05, Halevi is handcuffed and lifted from the floor to stand up. He was then led out of the room.

At this point, I'll add, the officers may have had the right to be suspicious of Halevi's claim to have permission to be on the property. However, what happened next cannot be justified. Granted, Halevi resisted arrest, but the immediate and brutal reaction by the police officers seems excessive. Shirtless, shoeless and with no visible weapon, it seems unreasonable to think that officers thought he was armed.

"When he resisted arrest," says CrownHeights.info, "the male officer flew into a rage and began to beat the defenseless man. As can be seen in the video below, the officer assumed a boxing stance and then lurched towards his victim, pummeling him from all sides."

I hope there is a full and thorough investigation of this incident and that the officers get the punishment they deserve. The video clearly shows an overreaction by the police. Think of this: If you are defending yourself in a fight, the law will punished you if you use excessive force. The police should be held to the same standard.

Illinois To Donate Surplus Clothing To Homeless

noreply@blogger.com (T.Mannis) — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 17:05:00 +0000

Oct. 13, 2012 - Illinois says it will give away $1 million worth of surplus clothing and other items to homeless people. The surplus items will be distributed to organizations that help homeless people. The AP reports today that the Illinois Department of Central Management Services will donate items that "include boots, coats, sleeping bags and other winter gear. The department is responsible for disposing of surplus state and federal property. Details of the clothing donation will be announced next week."

CONFUSING NUMBERS:
The AP report included a puzzling figure. It said that "Officials say there are more than 15,000 homeless people in Illinois. The figure is based on a 2011 federal report." AP did not name that report, and the number sounded low to Homeless Patriot, so we sniffed around a bit.

The Chicago Coalition for the Homeless (CCH) website says that Chicago Public Schools (CPS) "identified a record 17,255 homeless students in 2011-12, a 10.7% increase from the prior year’s record."

WOW. That's confusing: AP says that its unnamed "federal report" said there are "15,000 homeless people in Illinois" but that's 2,255 fewer than CPS says there were in Chicago alone. CCH also says that, according to the Illinois State Board of Education, public schools across the state "identified 42,800 homeless students" in the 2010-11 school year. That's a whopping 27,800 more the total number of homeless in Illinois that AP reported.

Bottom Line: Information about the numbers of homeless people are (a) difficult to find, (b) probably misreported sometimes for political reasons, (c) constantly changing as people go into and out of homelessness, (d) defined differently by different entities, sometimes for political reasons.

Street Art: Goin' For Broke

noreply@blogger.com (T.Mannis) — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 18:35:00 +0000

Some nice street art spotted in Chicago on July 11, 2012 and photographed by T.H. Mannis. This was seen near 1800 N. Milwaukee Avenue. Click image to enlarge it.

Photo: Chicago, Da City Dat Works

noreply@blogger.com (T.Mannis) — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 18:16:00 +0000

A homeless man sleeps on bus stop bench in Chicago, near 1900 N. Milwaukee Avenue. Photo taken July 11, 2012 by T.H. Mannis. Graffiti added with Corel Paint Shop Pro XI.

Obama Sides With Big Tobacco to Kill Roll-Your-Own Cigarette Stores

noreply@blogger.com (T.Mannis) — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 01:43:00 +0000

July 7, 2012 - Operators of roll-your-own cigarette stores will be forced out of business last night at the stroke of midnight. You can thank President Obama for that, friends. You see, on July 6 he signed a federal transportation bill into law, and tucked quietly within that bill was a section that sided with Big Tobacco companies to drive the competition of small businesses into the ash tray of history. It's all about the definition of what these little businesses are - and the taxes they're required to pay as a result.

A roll-your-own-cigarette operation
Photo: News-Herald.com

"A few paragraphs added to the transportation bill changed the definition of a cigarette manufacturer," reports The Las Vegas Review-Journal, "to cover thousands of roll-your-own operations nationwide. The move, backed by major tobacco companies, is aimed at boosting tax revenues."

Low-income smokers know all too well that this means the loss of a low-cost alternative to expensive, pre-rolled cigarettes. Add to that the already obscenely high taxes on cigarettes in most cities, counties and states and the average Joe is the one who gets hit the hardest. This will not help the unemployment numbers, either: Consider the thousands of people nationwide - shop owners and the folks who work for them - who will lose their jobs because of this.

This is not the first time that the Obama Administration has attacked roll-your-own tobacco stores. In late September, 2010, a part of the Treasury Department called the "Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau" (TTB) ruled that shops with roll-your-own tobacco machines should be legally classified as cigarette manufacturers and would need to get a permit and adhere to strict government regulations. The News-Herald (Ohio) reported in 2010 that "roll-your-own machines throughout the country are being shut down. One local business was affected when its machines were shut down late last week."

"Since 2009," reports Times Free Press, "when Congress imposed different taxes on ready-made cigarettes than loose tobacco, roll-your-own stores have spread like weeds. The stores allow smokers to buy their own tobacco and rent rolling machines in the stores to make their own smokes, cutting their tax bill and cost of smoking nearly in half."

A provision in the bill that was just signed - and goes into effect at midnight - will finally force the roll-your-own stores to pay the federal "manufacturer" tax that most (if not all) of them have not paid since that September, 2010 reclassification. Most say they cannot afford the tax and it will force them to close.

Big Tobacco wins another one. The little guy and small businesses lose again.

Updated: Violent Crime Down, Poverty Up: Two Big Liberal Lies Blown To Bits

noreply@blogger.com (T.Mannis) — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 07:35:00 +0000

June 11, 2012 - The FBI said this week that violent crime in the U.S. declined for the fifth year in row. In 2011, reports Reuters, "the number of murders dropped to the lowest in more than four decades, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Monday."

Violent crime rates in the U.S., including murder, rape, robbery and assault, "dropped 4 percent in 2011 from the previous year, according to the FBI's Preliminary Annual Uniform Crime Report," said the report. The FBI will issue its final report in the fall.

Well, well, well. I wonder how my liberal friends are coping with this news. Those FBI stats must be making them crazy.

In fact, the FBI's statistics completely blow apart two of the biggest lies. Needless to say, nobody in left-leaning mainstream media is mentioning concealed-carry as a possible factor in the lower murder rates. That leaves it to me, I guess.

LIE NUMBER ONE:
"Allowing Concealed Carry Will Take Us Back To The Wild West"

All but one of the United States have legalized some form of "concealed carry," which allows citizens to have a firearm with them outside of their homes. Illinois is the only holdout left that does not respect its people enough to let them protect themselves against bad guys who possess illegal firearms.

Shortly before Wisconsin became the 49th state to legalize concealed carry last fall, a lot of liberals in the Badger State went into panic mode. It became legal there on November 1, 2011.

I spent five months in Wisconsin last year, July through December. That summer, one of my liberal acquaintance there said to me, "Oh my God, it's crazy," she said to me, "It's gonna be like the wild wild west! Can you imagine road rage with guns?" I laughed and pointed out that her feared scenario had not happened in the 48 states that already allowed concealed carry, and that violent crime and robbery had actually stayed the same or, more often, declined after those states legalized it. Her response was to roll her eyes and become semi-comatose in a deeper state of paranoid confusion.

In late November, about three weeks after concealed carry became legal in Wisconsin, I ran into Miss Liberal again. "Have you seen any good gun fights on the streets," I asked her, barely containing my laughter.

Her response, as before, was to roll her eyes and become semi-comatose in a deeper state of paranoid confusion. It has now been over half a year since Wisconsin allowed concealed carry, and I am not aware of any statewide increase in gun violence there. (Are you?)

The classic “blood running in the gutters” and “dead cops everywhere” hysterical pontifications of the anti-gun crowd have been proven to be nothing more than noxious and provably untrue rhetoric....When a gunfight erupts you don’t have six minutes to wait for police to arrive. You don’t have six seconds. You are lucky if you have six-tenths of a second in some cases. In order to achieve the little temporary safety you call for, we would all have to sacrifice a significant degree of personal liberty. I prefer not to live in a police state, and prefer to provide for my own safety. I also advocate that others provide for theirs, and for the safety of the general public in the process. ~ Seth Richardson, The Broadside

Although gun ownership is way up, liberals are confronted with the inconvenient fact that gun-related homicides keep going down. The fact that it is more difficult for the bad guys to victimize Americans surely has been a contributing factor in the declining crime rates nationwide.

LIE NUMBER TWO:
"Poverty Increases Violent Crime"

Liberals have long insisted that high rates of violent crime are caused by higher rates of poverty. Yet, here we are in the Great Recession, with high unemployment (over 8 percent nationally for three years, higher in many states) ... but violence crime has declined. Americans' families' wealth declined by 40 percent. This week, along with the FBI report of declining violent crime, came reports that many American families have seen their wealth all but wiped out.

"The recent recession wiped out nearly two decades of Americans’ wealth," reports The Washington Post this week, "according to government data released Monday, with middle-class families bearing the brunt of the decline. The Federal Reserve said the median net worth of families plunged by 39 percent in just three years..." That's not all. In just one recent year, the U.S. poverty rate jumped from 14.3 percent in 2009 to 15.1 percent in 2010 according to the U.S. Census. A brief post at The National Journal last week gives a nice "snapshot" of the Census data, including these highlights:

Between 2007 and 2010, the share of Americans living in poverty increased by 2.6 percent. In 2007, 12.5 percent of the U.S. population lived in poverty.
The 2010 poverty rate (15.1 percent) was the highest since 1993.
Although the rate is not the highest it’s ever been, the number of people (46.2 million) living in poverty is.

In September, 2010 the Christian Science Monitor reported about the decline of violent crime and pondered the relationship to increasing poverty.

"Poverty rate rose in 2009, but the FBI's new crime numbers show another big decline, especially in violent crime. The ties between poverty and crime may not be so obvious after all," repored CSM. "The report marks the third straight year of falling crime rates – a period that roughly overlaps with the recession. At the least, the trends show that America, for all its Hollywood violence fantasies and its occasional mass murders, remains at heart an orderly republic, where police, judicial jurisdictions, and even vigilant neighbors keep a reasonable check on society's darker inclinations – even when the society itself is strained." (My emphasis added.)

MORE POVERTY + MORE GUNS = LOWER MURDER RATE?

Liberals have been lying to you for decades about the correlation between crime and poverty. In summary, the connection ain't necessarily so. Even though, as the National Journal noted last week, there are more Americans living in poverty than ever, the FBI is telling us that the murder rate nationwide is the lowest it's been since 1968.

The Left has also lied about the effects of allowing citizens to carry guns for protection. And what happened between 1968 and 2011? The restrictive Gun Control Act of 1968, passed by Congress, "included prohibitions on mail order firearm sales, sales between residents of different states, recordkeeping on ammunition that can be used in a handgun, and prohibition of importation of firearms not considered 'sporting' by the Treasury Department (BATF)." However, state legislatures have gone the opposite direction, allowing various forms of concealed carry until, in 2012, only Illinois denies its residents full Second Amendment rights. The states, in their wisdom, knew that an armed citizenry is a safer citizenry.

Don't believe me? I'm just the messenger, folks. If you have any arguments you should contact the FBI and the Federal Reserve Bank. They've got a lot more statistics they'd love to share with you.

Of course, there are hot spots and exceptions, tragic islands of violence that some liberals will point to as "proof" that guns must be banned from everyone's hands. Chicago's violent gang problem is one such example. The gangs have long been a problem there, but 2012 has seen a sharp increase in gun-related homicide from a year ago. What the anti-gun liberals conveniently ignore, of course, is the obvious fact that the shootings are done by criminals doing criminal things with guns that are almost always stolen and/or not registered. The insane drive-by shootings that hurt so many Chicagoans are not done by law abiding citizens with their registered firearms.

Let me leave you with a quote from James H. Miller, President, Wisconsin Policy Research Institute (WPRI). In 2006, while the concealed carry debate was in full swing in Wisconsin, the WPRI issued a report titled "Concealed Carry Legislation: An Examination of the Facts." In that paper, Miller wrote a "Report From The President," in which he said, "We know that criminals will always carry firearms with or without legislation. It is the people who obey and respect our laws who will benefit from concealed carry." Indeed, Miller's words have been shown to be true.

Update/Addendum, 21 July 2012:

Wiegman

I came across an interesting (albeit less-than-comprehensive) research paper titled "Impact of Concealed Carry Weapon Laws on Crime Rates" (pdf) by Prof. Kenneth M. Wiegman for an "Introduction to Criminal Justice" course at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. The paper essentially destroys anti-concealed carry argument that it will increase violent crime.

The paper, dated 7 December 2009, is only 4 1/2 pages in length (not counting the cover page and a citations page). Prof. Wiegman holds a Master of Science in Criminal Justice. He began his paper with this:

"Concealed carry weapon laws have been unsuccessful in significantly affecting the rates of violent crime in states where they have been enacted."

However, that is not a bad conclusion for proponents of concealed carry. That statement certainly contradicts the frantic screams of the anti-gun crowd, who have long said that concealed carry would increase crime, and here is Prof. Wiegman saying that they have not "significantly" affected the rates of violent crime - up or down. He ended his paper with this (my emphasis added):

"In conclusion, there is no significant change on crime rates when concealed carry weapon laws are passed. These studies show that by slightly changing the criteria, altering the filtering of the data used in the analysis, or using different analysis techniques, different results can be produced that indicate that the crime rates either increased or decreased after the law was implemented in comparison to what it was before. In fact, many of the studies on the effects of concealed carry weapon laws are based in part on the data Lott collected, differing only in analyzation approach and/or additional updates in data collection; all of them produced different results. If concealed carry weapon laws had a major impact on crimes, it would be easy to see the change in the rates. In reality, though, there are many factors that effect crime rates, and concealed carry weapon laws are just a minor one."

Some anti-concealed carry folks might use Wiegman's paper as ammunition (pardon the pun). However, his conclusion is neither pro nor con. If anything, it vindicates the pro-concealed carry position by saying that it does not increase violent crime.

Related:

Does poverty and unemployment increase crime? stephenfranks.co.nz
Obama Admits Plans for Gun Control ammoland.com
Progress In Right To Carry (illustrated) gunnuttery.com
Gun crime statistics by US state: latest data guardian.co.uk
When liberals lie about guns salon.com
Why are rates of violence and theft dropping in the recession? tnr.com
Too Bad for Liberals: Unemployment, Gun Ownership Up, Crime Down capitolcommentary.com
Concealed Carry Permits Are Life Savers HumanEvents.com
FBI violent-crime rates show safer nation with more gun owners WashingtonTimes.com

Is Your Home Environment Really As Clean As Possible?

noreply@blogger.com (T.Mannis) — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 09:22:00 +0000

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Wave Home Solutions for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

If you're lucky enough to have a place to call home, unlike me, you know that keeping your living space clean is important. You dust, you vacuum, you sweep and scrub, but keeping your home environment healthy and fresh is a never-ending process. Not only that, but all that scrubbing and sweeping does nothing to clean the air you breathe and the water you and your family drink.

Look, I don't own a home. Heck, I don't even rent. After all, that's why the name of this blog is "HOMELESS Patriot." Yep, I'm living temporarily in a run-down apartment that a buddy owns, no rent. There is no air filtration, and so there is always dust settling on everything. Humidity is a problem now that the sticky Chicago summer is upon us. The tap water is okay for bathing, but it tastes horrible and I always wonder what kind of chemicals and micro-organisms are it in. Ugh.

However, IF I owned the place that I'm couch surfing in these days, I would definitely turn to Wave Home Solutions for relief. Boy, that would be nice!

Wave Home Solutions has you covered for water, air, ventilation and energy consumption challenges. The WAVE home ventilation system beats dehumidifiers. It provides excellent moisture control (important for mold and fungus) as well as what they call "healthy air exchanges." Another advantage: It's done without any messy buckets of water, yucky filters or hot energy chugging motors. Remember that dehumidifiers simply recycle the same old stale air over and over, and do not actually clean the air.

WAVE Air Purifiers remove and destroy biological and chemical contaminants in your home's air by using a natural ultraviolet (UV) purification process that combines two UV rays. You are your family spend a lot of time inside, which means you could be breathing in dangerous indoor air toxins that could cause illnesses. This modern technology removes the mold, viruses, influenza, bacteria, pollen, dust mites and chemical contaminants from the air you breathe in your own home everyday.

It only requires one WAVE Ventilation to give your entire home excellent moisture control. That includes your basement, any crawl spaces, and all upper levels. Those old-fashioned, messy dehumidifiers can only affect a small, specific area, which means you need more than one to accomplish what a single WAVE system provides more effectively. A WAVE Ventilation unit removes moisture from deep within your home's structure. That can help prevent expensive home repairs. Dehumidifiers do not provide the air circulation needed to dry out the structure of your home.

The water you drink is vitally important to your health. Salt-based water softeners can't match the purification provided by the HydroCare Dual Action Water system by WAVE Home Solutions. It solves the problem of limescale, but it is very different from salt and chemical water softener systems. Water softener systems only remove the minerals that classify water as “hard,” but they replace those with sodium. (Why add sodium to you drinking water?)

In contrast, the HydroCare Dual Action Water system combines the most advanced water conditioning for elimination of limescale and the most effective purification technologies in to one system. All of this helps to provide healthier, cleaner and fresher tasting water. It's an easy solution that is effective and environmentally friendly. Water as it should be!

All of this can be achieved economically, too, because the products WAVE offers are environmentally friendly, energy saving, affordable, maintenance free with extended warranties and guaranteed to create a healthy, comfortable, energy-saving home.

Sounds worthy looking into, now, doesn't it? Click on the "Visit Sponsor's Site" button below for more info.

Obama Ignores D-Day, So Let's Watch President Reagan's Great Speech

noreply@blogger.com (T.Mannis) — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 20:11:00 +0000

Obama Does Not Care

June 6, 2012 - Comrade Barack Obama is in California today, ignoring observances of the Normandy Invasion (D-Day). Obama couldn't care less about the sacrifices of American and Allied soldiers who fought the Nazis in World War Two. Obama cares nothing about a battle that saved civilization, in which more American men died in one afternoon than in the entire Iraq War.

"Instead of scheduling a brief event to mark the 68th anniversary of America’s brutal landing on the shores of Normandy," reports RedAlertPolitics.com, "Obama is already on his way to San Francisco, where he will hold two fundraisers before moving on to Beverly Hills to stage two more.

Obama failed to mark D-Day with either a speech or a written proclamation both last year or the year before. He did give a speech in 2009, the 65th anniversary of the event." That is shameful and inexcusable.

But don't worry. Here is how a REAL president and patriot remembered it: President Ronald Reagan's incredible speech, delivered at both a White House ceremony and at Point-du-Hoc, France on June 6, 1984.

In Italy, Thousands of Families Left Homeless by Earthquake

noreply@blogger.com (T.Mannis) — Tue, 22 May 2012 01:17:00 +0000

Image: Reuters/Giorgio Benvenuti via www.abc.net.au

May 21, 2012 - Yesterday's 6.0 magnitude earthquake in Italy's Emilia-Romagna region [map] has left at least 4,000 people homeless. The quake struck at around 4:00 a.m. local time. At least seven people are known to have died as a result of the earthquake. (Video report below.)

ABC Australia reports: "Thousands of people sheltered in cars and tent cities in north-east Italy overnight after a deadly earthquake caused massive damage to homes on Sunday, May 20. The magnitiude-6.0 quake .... reduced homes and historic buildings to rubble around the city of Ferrara."

Image: www.inquisitr.com

The shaking continues. Nerves are frayed. "Many people in the region slept in cars overnight," reports Tripoli Post, "with over 100 aftershocks coming in the 24 hours that followed Sunday's earthquake that took place early Sunday morning at 4.05, and which measured 5.9 on the Richter scale. The shocks are a reminder of the twenty nightmare seconds when the first earthquake struck."

Rhode Island Senate Approves "Homeless Bill of Rights"

noreply@blogger.com (T.Mannis) — Thu, 03 May 2012 21:28:00 +0000

May 3, 2012 - The State Senate of Rhode Island approved legislation that would give homeless people greater protections against discrimination. However, it still needs to pass in the Rhode Island House of Representatives to become law.

CBS News reports that the Senate voted 33-to-2 to pass a "Homeless Bill of Rights" on Wednesday. "The legislation now moves to the House," says CBS. "The bill specifically guarantees homeless people equal access to voting, housing, public buildings, public transportation, social services, employment and law enforcement.... The Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless says about 4,400 people in the state experienced homelessness at some point in 2010.

Rhode Island would be the first state in the U.S. to adopt such legislation if it is approved by the state's House of Representatives, where it will go to the House Judiciary committee to be vetted for any potential constitutional problems.

WPRI.com reports that the bill includes the following rights for homeless people:

The right to be free from searches or detention
The right not to face discrimination while seeking or maintaining employment due to lack of a permanent mailing address
The right not to be criminally sanctioned for unobtrusively sleeping in a public place
The right to emergency medical care
The right to vote, register to vote and receive documentation needed to prove identity for voting
The right to protection from disclosure to law enforcement agencies
The right to confidentiality of personal records and information
The right to a reasonable expectation of privacy of personal property

Updated: How Being a Bit Pushy On Friday the 13th Got Me a Job

noreply@blogger.com (T.Mannis) — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 23:27:00 +0000

Update/Followup: This job did not last long, but I think the message in the original post is still valid. Although the employer misrepresented himself to me (in my opinion), you should not be afraid to be politely assertive.

The job did not work out. I was promised $247 per week for training. When I interviewed, everyone in the office was wearing jeans and t-shirts on a busy weekday. When I showed up for my first day of work, I was dressed in jeans and t-shirt to fit in with my new coworkers. Again, they were all in jeans and t-shirts. After a couple of hours, the boss told me I need to wear a jacket and tie. "But everyone is wearing jeans and t-shirts," I said. "Well," he said to me, "we're business casual here." Later that day, he told me I could work from home and he would send me a check for the "day and a half that you were trained." Crazy, right? Needless to say, I went home and no longer consider myself to be associated with that company. Crazy. Here's the original post, which I wrote and published before I found out that my new employer is (in my opinion) a lunatic.

Never give up!

April 13, 2012 - After a very long stint of unemployment, I was just told that I could start work tomorrow. I interviewed for the job on Wednesday. The company is a small real estate company on Chicago's North Side, easy to get to for me by bus.

I was initially told that the interview would last 30 minutes at most. However, moments after sitting down with the manager, a small crisis interrupted our conversation. One of the staff did something incorrectly and needed the boss's help. This unexpected situation might have caused many people in my position to become uncomfortable, but to be honest I enjoyed it.

The tense moments for the boss and the employee provide me with a first-hand glimpse of the company's culture. Most interviews, of course, are controlled and quiet. Not this one. For me, it was great to see how the boss, who I will call "Bob," reacted to an employee's screw up. He was gracious and kind, and helped her with patience. "That's the kind of guy I want to work with," I thought, sitting there patiently.

My patience during all of this made a good impression on Bob, and he said so. I went into the interview resolved to be myself, which I was, not pretending to be something or someone that I am not (being a fake always comes back to bite you). Many of the jobs I've had in the past help me bring related skills and knowledge to this one, so I felt confident as I sat in the hot seat.

A fascinating photo of my
right hand on a keyboard

I left their offices feeling good about the interview, but one never really knows. Perhaps, I thought, the next person he interviews might be so impressive that Bob could forget about me. There would still be a second interview to pass, I was told, and so I was on pins and needles until 5:15 this afternoon... when Bob phoned me.

By the end of the interview, he was all but saying that I was hired - but stopped short of actually offering me the job. Late this afternoon, the suspense was killing me. I would have gone crazy over the weekend not knowing. So, I decided to break one of the rules of interviewing: I phoned to ask whether I would be called in for a second interview. I left a message with the receptionist, and Bob returned my call half an hour later.

What I said to Bob was, to sum it up, was that I had several freelance writing opportunities and that I was just hoping to find out if I would get that second interview, so that I could know whether or not to take the writing gigs.

"Would you rather do the freelance stuff or this?" Bob asked.

"I'd rather work with you guys," I said, "I would do the freelance jobs only if there was nothing else for me."

"Well," he said, "as I told you, I'm sure you could do this job and your personality would fit in here." Then he dropped the bomb on me. "Can you start tomorrow at 10 a.m.?"

I thanked him profusely and said yes, then thanked him some more. I realized I was gushing like a school girl who was just asked to the prom, so I bit my lip.

"See you tomorrow," he said. Wow. That simple.

The lessons from this, I think, are this: Be yourself in an interview. Stay calm under pressure, and if the interview is interrupted you should calmly and silently observe it. Finally, don't be afraid to follow up with an email or phone call to say that you are still very interested in working for the company you interviewed with. I would say that this should be used carefully, since appearing to be pushy could blow whatever chance you might have had. However, I gauged Bob's personality to be the type that would understand my eagerness, which he did.

If you are job hunting, I wish you the best in your quest.

Helping Those In Need With the Gift of Vision, One Sight Needs Your Help

noreply@blogger.com (T.Mannis) — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 01:13:00 +0000

The gift of sight is precious indeed, but many people around the world, including right here in North America, do not have access to eye checkups or to needed glasses. OneSight has helped more than seven million people on five continents and in hundreds of communities across North America see clearly." Great cause, right? Right!

Well, a friend of mine, Tim, is an optometrist who donates his time to helping people with free eye examinations and eye wear. He will be traveling to a remote part of northwestern India in mid-April to join other eye care professionals to give people free vision care.

&amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://onesight.donordrive.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;participantID=3356"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Make a Donation!&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt;

It's part of an effort by "One Sight," which is "a non-profit organization dedicated to improving vision for those in need in North America and in developing countries around the world.

PLEASE consider donating a buck or two to Tim's fundraising effort, which goes into the greater pot for One Sight's campaign. You can click the cool widget to the left here, or go directly to his donation page here: http://onesight.donordrive.com

From the One Sight website:

"Poor vision impedes a child's ability to learn in school and robs an adult of independence, mobility and quality of life. OneSight is dedicated to improving vision for those in need worldwide through outreach, research and education. Luxottica generously covers all of OneSight's administrative overhead, so your donation will directly support OneSight's vision care programs around the world and right in your own community. If you would like to support OneSight by creating your own personal fundraising campaign unrelated to any of the listed events, click here."

U.S. Homeless Rates Still Alarmingly High

noreply@blogger.com (T.Mannis) — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 00:24:00 +0000

Photo by Neema Sadeghi (mediaroots.org)

March 24, 2012 - "An estimated 600,000 Americans are currently homeless, including nearly 70,000 veterans, according to the recently released The State of Homelessness in America from the National Alliance to End Homelessness. That's a small drop-off from 2009, but U.S. rates are alarmingly high: 21 homeless per 10,000 people across the country." So says a disturbing - and very interesting - article published on March 24, 2012 on The Atlantic Cities website.

With the help of his colleague Charlotta Mellander, Richard Florida took "a quick look at the factors that might be associated with the rate of homelessness across metros, including crime, weather, and economic conditions."

Florida notes that that "correlation does not imply causation" and that some factors - not taken into account by their study - "might also come into play." He goes on to say that their analysis challenges widely held but false beliefs ("myths") about homelessness.

Florida says that they "found no correlation between homelessness and the share of African-Americans in a population, while the correlation between homelessness and the percent of Hispanics was positive (.34)."

However, that is starkly contradicted by a study released this month that states, "The stark reality is that black Americans are greatly overrepresented in U.S. homelessness and poverty statistics when compared to whites." That study, from The Institute for Children, Poverty, and Homelessness (ICPH), says that a number of factors "leave blacks more likely to have smaller financial reserves to fall back on in emergency situations; reside in poor, segregated, and unsafe neighborhoods that lack community resources; and experience homelessness."

Prison Stories–The Squirrel

noreply@blogger.com (T.Mannis) — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 21:06:00 +0000

This is the first installment of "Prison Stories–The Squirrel," a series of blog posts that author Paul Lemmen describes as "what is hoped will be a long-running series of occasional articles based on my experiences in detention and eventual incarceration in a Federal prison." Paul's blog, "An Ex-Con's View," is gritty, it's dark, and yet reaffirming and hopeful. Here is an excerpt from "Prison Stories–The Squirrel:"

Newly arrived at Federal Prison Camp-Pensacola located in sunny Pensacola, Florida at a Naval Base known as Saufley Field, the former locale where all naval aviators received their basic flight training, I was assigned to a bed in what had formerly been a barracks for said aviators in training.

Twelve inmates in a room that formerly had been the assigned billet of two fledgling aviators. On the second floor (thank God not the third) I stayed there only two weeks in April of 2009 before being re-assigned to a dorm with only one floor and given a lower bunk designation due to my heart condition.

FPC-Pensacola is a minimum security work camp. All inmates are assigned to jobs ranging from menial ones like lawn care up to facilities support like librarian or electrician. All cooking, cleaning, maintaining and support functions are done by inmates. Work crews are also transported each day to NAS-Pensacola and Eglin AFB for infrastructure maintenance jobs. Most inmates earn about $.17 an hour unless they are the lucky few with friends that can get them into AmeriCorp positions where those elite inmates earn over $500 a month.

All funds earned by inmates are deposited in their inmate account and can only be spent to pay fines and restitution (a minimum per month set by the BOP), purchase telephone time, pay for emails ($.05 each) and purchase basic hygiene products, treats, stationary, stamps, etc. from the canteen.

During the first several weeks all new inmates are assigned to cleanup and raking of the compound while the camp staff determine their talents from their records and past employment in the civilian world.

The majority of inmates in a minimum security camp are non-violent offenders with a low criminal history score (meaning usually no prior felony convictions or other criminal convictions of a serious nature), or a long term inmate approaching the statutory end of sentence with good behavior while incarcerated. In my instance, I was a non-violent offender whose criminal history score (zero, the lowest possible) was due to the fact that this was my first (please God, the only) incarceration and all previous criminal prosecutions in the ten years prior to the “instant offense” were “adjudication withheld” findings, having a zero offense score.

It was during this opening phase of my stay at FPC-Pensacola that I met an inmate I’ll call “Joe”. Joe was also a “new” inmate, being newly transferred in from the medium security prison he had spent the previous 42 years in. Joe was now and old man in a wheelchair. He had only 18 more months on his sentence for cocaine possession with intent to distribute. He had spent the previous 20 years paralyzed from the waist down and in a wheelchair following an incident where he was thrown over the railing on the second tier during a prison riot.
Read the rest of "Prison Stories-The Squirrel" at An Ex-Con's View...

Homeless Hotspots, A Good Idea Long Overdue, Sadly Killed

noreply@blogger.com (T.Mannis) — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 02:55:00 +0000

March 14, 2012 - A clever marketing scheme turned some selected homeless people into walking Wi-Fi "Homeless Hotspots." Participants wear "MiFi" devices, turning them into two-legged mobile wi-fi transceivers. It has, briefly, provided an innovative way for some homeless folks to make a few honest bucks, while providing a way for pedestrians to connect to the Internet on the fly. The suggested fee for the Homeless Hotspots is $2.00 for 15 minutes, but customers can negotiate a lower fee on a per case basis.

It is also a clever marketing gimmick by New York-based marketing firm BBH, which operated what they called a "charitable experiment" at the "South by Southwest" tech and arts festival (SXSWi) in Austin, Texas this week. BBH has called the MiFi operation a kind of replacement of the homeless newspapers that are sold on the streets of some cities. That's a bad analogy except that it does allow the homeless participants to make some money by hawking something on the public way. Nevertheless, it quickly became controversial, and was objected to as dehumanizing and "insulting" to the homeless.

I believe that the objections, which seemed to come mostly from folks who have never been homeless themselves, was misplaced. I say this as somebody who has been homeless, albeit briefly, and who is still desperately seeking employment and a more stable housing situation. More about that later.

The "Homeless Hotspots" has been criticized as "insulting" by idiots (yes, "idiots") like Patrick Jones of Buzz60. Jones, who looks like his mother still helps him put his socks on, doesn't like the idea of people actually doing something to earn a little pocket change.

"Money makes the world go 'round," says Jones, "but is it worth being treated like a transmission tower?"

Jones is one of those morons who, apparently, looks down on anybody who actually works for their money. His criticism is poorly considered. The so-called Homeless Hotspots are not treated "like a transmission tower" any more than a waiter is treated like a food vending machine. But Jones had more stupidity to spew.

"I mean," Jones blathered on, "would a company that really cares ask someone to wear a shirt that reads 'I'm a 4G hotspot?' instead of 'I'm holding a 4G hotspot' assuming that company actually considers you human?" Seriously, what an ignorant, elitist a-hole.

Here's the deal: While homeless last summer, I became friends with quite a few homeless folks in Madison, Wisconsin. A little newspaper called "Street Pulse" that is written and sold by homeless people gives those people a sense of purpose and dignity, and a way to make enough money to buy a burger and a soda and maybe some fries. They love that paper, and the camaraderie that comes with it. They stand on the sidewalk, sometimes for 10 hours a day, hawking it to passersby. Perhaps one in 500 people who walk past them will stop and buy the paper for the suggested price of $1.00. The vendors pay 25 cents per copy, and they get to keep 75 cents per sale.

Patrick Jones would probably call selling Street Pulse dehumanizing. He would say that the vendors are treated like newspaper vending machines. He would probably think that the non-profit group behind Street Pulse does not consider its vendors to be human. But I know, from talking to the vendors and from sitting in on more than half a dozen Street Pulse staff meetings, that just the opposite is true.

I've never met one of the Human Hotspots, but I'm betting that they were given a renewed sense of pride in knowing that they were working for money. $2.00 is much more than 75 cents. What snot nosed jerks like Patrick Jones don't understand is that work gives one a sense of contributing, of somehow being part of society. Jones is, apparently, too proud to do anything like sell a service or product on the street because it is beneath him.

Believe me, I am not the only one who feels this way about elitists who criticize occupations that they consider too lowly for human participation. Ironically, it is people like Patrick Jones who are guilty of dehumanizing the homeless by mocking what they do, even when what they do is an honest method of making a buck.

Sadly, because of the whiny outcry of the armchair critics, the program will be ended. A report by The Daily Mail (UK) says that marketing firm BBH "has been forced to back off the controversial plan." The Daily Mail quotes Emma Cookson, chairman of BBH as saying, "We have no definite, specific future plans yet, in New York City or elsewhere. This was an initial trial program," and, "We are now listening carefully to the high level of feedback."

Here's some feedback for you, Ms. Cookson: Don't kill this idea. It has merit. Perhaps the initial execution was flawed, but I think you're on to something good.

Related articles:

Some Homeless Forced to Eat Rats, Live in Sewers

noreply@blogger.com (T.Mannis) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 22:51:00 +0000

Welcome to America (photo source: MrConservative)

The America that many of us think of does not include a desperate, daily struggle to survive. Even with the horrid economy that we are enduring, most Americans are getting by, going to work and then going home. Those who are lucky enough to have a job and a place to live tend to look the other way when it comes to those less fortunate than themselves.

"You might not want to read this article if you have a weak stomach," starts a blog post at MrConservative. "Most Americans have absolutely no idea what is going on in the dark corners of America and when people find out the truth it can come as quite a shock. Many of you will not believe some of the things Americans are doing just to survive." Then, as promised, MrConservative get to the shocking grist of his post.

"Some families are living in sewers and drain tunnels, some families are living in tents," MrConservative wrote, "some families are living in their cars, some families will make ketchup soup for dinner tonight and some families are even eating rats."

I do believe it. I've seen this kind of urban survival in practice firsthand, still do nearly every day. At 56, I went homeless briefly in July 2011 and have been living in temporary shelters since. I am still looking for work and wonder where my next meal will come from.

As of this writing, I am down to $120 total and have no income other than the occasional donation or small payments from ads on this and my other blogs. I used to do high level administrative support for Fortune 500 companies in downtown Chicago. Since last July, I have gotten to know quite a few homeless people. Some are living under bridges, in cardboard boxes in alleys, or drifting from shelter to shelter. A surprising number of those I have encountered are ordinary people who had good jobs until 2008, 2009, 2010 when the bad economy finally overwhelmed them.

While none of the homeless folks I've gotten to know have said that they've eaten rats, it's not hard for me to imagine a situation in which somebody would do that.

Consider: You're homeless, you don't qualify for government benefits (or they've run out or you've been denied benefits for various bureaucratic reasons), you have no money with with to buy food, and you desperately need to eat something. There, over in the corner, is a rat. It's meat, after all, isn't it? A can of Sterno and a cheap frying pan pulled from a dumpster and you're cooking dinner. (Is eating a freshly slaughtered, nicely cooked rat really any worse than eating putrid food pulled from a dumpster?)

A tent city in Sacramento CA (obrag.org)

"Some homeless shelters in America are so overloaded that they are actually sending people out to live in the woods," MrConservative continued.

It's unsettling, but I know this to be true. I spent several months in Madison, Wisconsin after becoming homeless last summer. I went there because the streets are cleaner and safer than in Chicago, plus it's my home town and so I didn't have to learn my way around an unfamiliar city. A number of the homeless that I met there had come up from Janesville, just down the highway, where the homeless shelters are overflowing. Some of the Janesville homeless hiked up to Madison, where there are more shelters.

The shelters in Madison, however, were already full, and so the Janesville homeless exodus added to the number of homeless people living on the streets of Madison. Several homeless men I encountered told me that they were living in the woods, pitching tents and unrolling sleeping bags at night rather than returning to the shelters. Sometimes the shelters were already full by the time they would arrive, or the men simply did not feel safe or became too depressed in them. That happened to me: On my first night in Madison, I slept in a shelter in the basement of a church on the Capitol Square. It was depressing in a way that I cannot put into words. I opted to sleep on a bus stop bench the following several nights rather than return there.

"As you read this," wrote MrConservative, "there are close to 50 million Americans that are living below the poverty line, and that number rises a little bit more every single day. America was once known as the greatest nation on earth, but now there is decay and economic despair almost everywhere you look.... As the economy continues to decline, the suffering that we see all around us is going to get a lot worse, and that is a very frightening thing to think about."

The blog is called "MrConservative" for a reason. He gets political, and his February 19 post is no exception. "Yes, I have written many times about how the U.S. government is absolutely drowning in debt and cannot afford to be giving out so much money," he wrote. "There are millions upon millions of Americans that are barely hanging on and there are no jobs for them. The suffering that those families are going through is very real. Millions of other families are trying to get by on the incomes they pull in from part-time jobs. According to Gallup, the percentage of Americans that are working part-time jobs but that would like full-time jobs is now higher than it has been at any other time in the last two years. The number of the “working poor” just continues to increase, but most Americans don’t have much sympathy for them because they 'have jobs'." Also be sure to read MrConservative's post, "18 Statistics That Prove That The Economy Has Not Improved Since Barack Obama Became President."

Here's a news flash for those who have jobs: How many pay checks, or tax increases, are you from considering filet of rat for dinner?

Philly Homeless Get 'Dinner With Dignity' but Health Dept Wants Changes

noreply@blogger.com (T.Mannis) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 03:24:00 +0000

Bill Golderer, of Broad Street Ministry (philly.com)

Most of us have seen it: A poor person digging through a trash can or dumpster, hoping to find something to eat. Perhaps some of you have done that. It is humiliating for the hungry person who does it. It is also dangerous, because you don't know what kind of dreadful illness might be contracted.

A non-profit group in Philadelphia is doing its part to help those who are forced to scrounge for food.

The food and kindness are served up at Broad Street Ministry, a "broad-minded Christian community." For those in Philly, they are located at 315 South Broad Street (across from the University of the Arts and the Kimmel Center for Performing arts-between Spruce and Pine). BSM's website says that "Philadelphia is experiencing an alarming upturn in homelessness among men, women and children. Shelters are running beyond capacity and many of the most vulnerable of our city will not brave the existing shelter system out of fear or due to mental illness. There is a need for a creative response to this chronic problem."

Sadly, however, the group's efforts are not without controversy, as we learn in two excellent reports. The first one comes from the Philadelphia Daily News website (philly.com);

"There is nothing dignified about fishing food scraps from the trash," writes Ronnie Polaneczky, Daily News Columnist. "Or lining up with others on Logan Circle hoping that the soup being ladled by Good Samaritans won't run out before everyone's bowl is filled. The search for food is demoralizing and terrifying, as the homeless deal with the fallout of lives in which they belong nowhere and, often, to no one. So it's miraculous that, at least twice a week, hundreds of homeless men and women enjoy a dignified dining experience on South Broad Street, within steps of the gleaming Suzanne Roberts Theatre and the equally shiny Kimmel Center. They sit on comfortable chairs at cloth-covered tables and eat hearty meals served on real plates, with real silverware and real cups. They are offered second and third helpings and are encouraged to take extra fruit and bread when they leave."

Despite that need, there are those who would try to thwart the good efforts of Broad Street Ministry. Polaneczky reports that Philadelphia's Health Commissioner Don Schwarz has proposed "regulations that would require those Good Samaritans to obtain 'outdoor feeding' permits from the city, and to use department-inspected commercial kitchens to prepare the food they serve." You can read more of Polaneczky's February 14, 2012 column at philly.com.

The other, equally informative article is found at NewsWorks.com. Writer Carolyn Beeler notes that the City of Philadelphia "might soon require those who hand out food to the homeless to obtain permits.
A draft regulation adopted by the board of health Thursday evening would require kitchens where food is prepared to be inspected, and for at least one volunteer trained in safe food handling to be on site when food is served." According to Beeler, Commissioner Schwarz "said the board realized after Occupy Philadelphia set up camp near City Hall that it had no authority to ensure the food being passed out there was prepared safely, and wanted to mandate education efforts. Both the permits and training would be free."

I hope that Philadelphia's Department of Health can work out an arrangement that is reasonable and that will not force Broad Street Ministry to stop their outdoor food program. In fairness, though, it must be said that food prepared in an unsanitary manner in somebody's kitchen can be just as dangerous as food found in a dumpster. Under the proposed rule, reports Beeler, "groups would be required to have a hand-washing station on location. They would have to notify the health department when applying for permits where and when they plan to serve food for the next year and what kind of food it might be."

That does not sound unreasonable to me. I'm inclined to think that Commissioner Schwarz has only the best of intentions, and it is no more unreasonable to mandate food safety education for groups such as Broad Street Ministry as it is for licensed restaurants. It would be a terrible irony if dozens of homeless hungry people became seriously ill, perhaps fatally, by food poisoning that could have been easily avoided with a little bit of free training.

Did Marx Really Call Religion 'The Opiate of the People?'

noreply@blogger.com (T.Mannis) — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:13:00 +0000

Many people quote Karl Marx as saying, “Religion is the opiate of the masses.” But did he really say that? Well, yes and no. He never used that exact phrase, but that hasn't stopped millions of people from using that "quote" as an argument against religion. But there is more to this, as we'll see here.

Listserve.com tried to set the record straight, but they actually add to the confusion with this entry on their website:

"What he actually said: 'Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.' The bastardized quote makes more sense when it’s placed in context with Marx’s poetic words."

To read that excerpt, you could easily get the incorrect impression that Karl Marx was actually not so anti-religion after all. Listserve.com, ironically, omitted the "context" to which they themselves referred to. They presented only a very small excerpt of what Marx actually wrote in 1844.

Let's look at the "context" that listserve.com left out.
For that, we turn to the fourth paragraph of the introduction to Marx's "Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right," published as an essay in "Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher" in Paris, February 1844 (my emphasis added):

Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.

The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo.

Criticism has plucked the imaginary flowers on the chain not in order that man shall continue to bear that chain without fantasy or consolation, but so that he shall throw off the chain and pluck the living flower. The criticism of religion disillusions man, so that he will think, act, and fashion his reality like a man who has discarded his illusions and regained his senses, so that he will move around himself as his own true Sun. Religion is only the illusory Sun which revolves around man as long as he does not revolve around himself.

It is, therefore, the task of history, once the other-world of truth has vanished, to establish the truth of this world. It is the immediate task of philosophy, which is in the service of history, to unmask self-estrangement in its unholy forms once the holy form of human self-estrangement has been unmasked. Thus, the criticism of Heaven turns into the criticism of Earth, the criticism of religion into the criticism of law, and the criticism of theology into the criticism of politics.

Marx had more to say about religion in his introduction. A little over half-way through, he wrote this (my emphasis added):

To be radical is to grasp the root of the matter. But, for man, the root is man himself. The evident proof of the radicalism of German theory, and hence of its practical energy, is that is proceeds from a resolute positive abolition of religion. The criticism of religion ends with the teaching that man is the highest essence for man – hence, with the categoric imperative to overthrow all relations in which man is a debased, enslaved, abandoned, despicable essence...

Marxism debased, enslaved and abandoned millions

From these passages it is clear that Karl Marx was no friend of religion, organized or otherwise.

Marx made no bones about calling for the abolishing of religion, calling it a "chain" on people, and for the replacement of the worship of God with the worship of Man ("man is the highest essence for man").

Marx said that religion has treated people as "a debased, enslaved, abandoned, despicable essence."

So, Marx did not say or write "Religion is the opiate of the masses," but he did write that it "is the opium of the people." While that's not the same phrase verbatim, it's very close and has exactly the same meaning. Marx essentially said that religion was used to cover up the hurt and pain of reality, and that often the misery was caused by religion itself by causing people to loath themselves ("self-estrangement in its unholy forms") and that religion is "illusory happiness."

Of course, Marx never said or wrote that communism is the hallucinogen of the masses, with its false promise of illusory Utopian happiness in which people are debased, enslaved and abandoned by the despicable essence of collectivist statism. Marx may or may not have been able to anticipate that the philosophy that would be named for him would itself become a religion (watch this video).

Marx had hoped to write a full critical analysis of Hegel's "Philosophy of Right," but that project was never completed. His introduction to his critique is brief (5,614 words, or 8.5 pages), and worth reading (you can read the entire text of Hegel's "Philosophy of Right" as a pdf).

Chicago Is Deadliest City for Children

noreply@blogger.com (T.Mannis) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 03:57:00 +0000

Chicago: Not child-friendly

February 2, 2012 - Chicago - "Since 2008, more than 530 youth have been killed in Chicago," says the kicker in a stunning article at the Chicago Reporter, "with nearly 80 percent of the homicides occurring in 22 African-American or Latino community areas on the city’s South, Southwest and West sides."

Chicago's overall murder rate is horrible. Recently, Chicago officials bragged that the local murder rate was down, but that's a bit like a pest control guy bragging that the dozen rats he killed today has reduced the local vermin population.

In fact, according to a recent report at bet.com, Chicago (again) has the highest murder rate in the U.S.

While any death is tragic, it's especially hard to accept when the victim is somebody still in the innocence of youth, caught in the crossfire, while doing no wrong.

This speaks to the lousy cultural values of so many parents in Chicago.

It speaks to the lousy way in which the "leadership" of Chicago (all Democrats, by the way, for many decades now) have mishandled the schools and cynically used children and education as political footballs - without any real regard for their well-being.

This speaks volumes. It speaks in a roar so loud that most Chicagoans have become deaf to it. It tells of a national culture in decay, in which the moral compass cannot find true north. "The city that works" just ain't working like it should.

Killer Cold Wave Europe Hits Homeless Hardest | At Least 60 Dead So Far

noreply@blogger.com (T.Mannis) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 03:52:00 +0000

AP photo via Huffinton Post

January 31, 2012 - Europe - Despite the misplaced belief in global warming, cold reality has frozen much of Europe over the past week.

According to a report at Time.com today, a harsh cold spell in Europe "has left at least 58 people dead over the past week, including dozens who were homeless. Hundreds have sought medical help for hypothermia and frostbite, while snow and ice disrupted traffic, cut off power and forced schools to close. Temperatures have plunged to minus minus 17 F [minus 27 C] in some parts of the region, and authorities are urging people to stay indoors or dress warmly." (Watch the AccuWeather Europe weather forecast.)

The United Kingdom was hit by Arctic temperatures, too. "Severe weather alert as snow and freezing temperatures forecast," was a headline on The Telegraph website. The subhead was no less gloomy: "Snow showers and freezing temperatures could cause icy conditions on roads in parts of Britain, forecasters have warned." The Telegraph says that the Met Office warned of temperatures that would drop to "as low as -6C (21.2F) tomorrow and on Thursday, when daytime maximums will be no more than 3C (37.4F). Severe weather warnings for ice were also issued for last night and this morning across eastern parts of England and Scotland, and Northern Ireland, south-west England and south Wales."

Despite public pleas from governments for people to exercise caution in the dangerous cold, says Time, "more than 540 people have been hospitalized with hypothermia and frostbite, Ukrainian health officials said. Ukraine's 1+1 channel broadcast footage of a man being treated for frostbite in his toes, which had turned completely black. "I drank and fell asleep on the bench. I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't feel my feet," the unidentified man said from a hospital bed."

Walgreens Works to Make Prescriptions Affordable for Low-Income Families and Individuals

noreply@blogger.com (T.Mannis) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 23:01:00 +0000

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Walgreens for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Times are tough these days, and everyone is looking for ways to save money on prescription medications. That's why I like the whole idea of the Prescription Savings Club at Walgreensso much.

According to Walgreens, a full year membership in the program costs only $10.00 and covers "everyone in your immediate family, including a spouse, dependents 22 and younger and pets. Individuals may join for $5." Some of the many benefits included are discounts on flu shots, pet prescriptions (yes, pets!), nebulizers and diabetic supplies.

In a time when everybody wants to get the most for their money, the Prescription Savings Club at Walgreens is good to know about. The low cost of joining is great, of course, but what does the program include? Quite a lot, it turns out. Bot the family membership and the individual membership include discounts on over 8,000 brand name and generic medications commonly prescribed "to treat a wide range of medical conditions" such as high blood pressure, diabetes and cholesterol.

The family membership covers all of the people in your immediate family (spouse, dependents under the age of 23, and even pets). If your grandmother is living with you, however, you needn't worry: Walgreens says that " additional adult family members living in the same household, like a parent or grandparent" can enroll separately for only $5.00.

The Prescription Savings Club at Walgreens includes a wide variety of medications, including many preventative and "lifestyle" medications. Most chronic conditions are included, and "all drug classes are represented."

As if the great discounts on medications weren't enough, the Prescription Savings Club at Walgreens even lets you get bonuses when you buy Walgreens brand products and photofinishing services.

Walgreens is showing its commitment to providing Americans with low-cost, high quality medications with their Prescription Savings Club at Walgreens. I don't know about you, but I like to support any merchant that goes the extra mile to give that kind of service. Please show your support for Walgreens and stay updated about this and more by "liking" Walgreens on Facebook and following Walgreens on Twitter.

The Forgotten: Elderly Homeless, Poor, Hungry

noreply@blogger.com (T.Mannis) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 19:42:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia I wanted to share this post with you. It's from "The Adventures of Homeless Girl" blog, and the information is at once depressing but important. Sorry to spoil you caramel soy mocha latte moment, but this is reality. Look out the window. See that old guy sitting on the park bench? Yah, this is about him and tens of thousand like him.

The post, titled "The Forgotten: The Impoverished Homeless Elderly," is a guest post on "Homeless Girl" by Amber Paley." She "blogs about the elderly homeless and those in poverty, Amber also writes about nursing home abuse."

It is difficult for the government to get a definite count of the homeless in the United States. In order to get a general idea, the government does “single night counts.” In 2008, a single night count indicated 664,000 homeless people in the United States. It is unclear what percentage of people over 65 are homeless, but a 1996 Urban Institute study estimated that about 8 percent of the homeless are elderly; and in 2008, for every 1 elderly homeless person in a shelter, there were 22 severely impoverished elderly people. Continued at The Adventures of Homeless Girl...

Consider this: The numbers cited above are from 1996 and 2008, before the Obama Economy and several years of unemployment hovering around 9%. Since 2008, of course, there are more people who are "elderly," and more people of all ages who have become or are on the verge of homelessness.