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Carol Johnson Duhart | on January 23rd, 2012 | Personal
There’s a sea change out there. More and more products are being made in America. People are rummaging through flea markets looking for old Sunbeams, old clothing, old appliances. Then there’s Etsy and Ebay, where people are making things in spare rooms and on spare time.. There’s the “Buy Local” movements, “Farm Local” movements built around the idea of sustainable, healthy food. But the one thing they have in common: the revival of American productivity.
Several things are coming together to make this happen. One is the green movement, with the emphasis on saving energy. Manufacturing local saves energy costs. When both the source of material and the demand for a product are close to each other, less energy is expended. Local manufacture can also efficiently use recycled and reused material, keeping it out of landfills. There’s the fact that too many places with foreign manufacture do so without much regard for the health of the planet, let alone the health of the workers.
Another thing that is a factor is the hidden costs of offshoring and outshoring and being noticed. Stagnant wages due to lack of opportunity, increased social welfare costs when people can’t get a job that pays enough to buy a home or pay for their own needs, let alone wants. There’s the dependency on imported expertise which means that if enough people are lured back one way or another, America wouldn’t be able to sustain itself on local talent. There’s also the realization that quality suffers in an environment where there isn’t any standards, where the workers are unhappy, and transparency is lacking.
‘Made In America’ Makes A Comeback
Blog Home » Made in U.S.A., News, Videos » Made in America is Making a Comeback Posted on 06/17/11 | by Marcel | in Made in U.S.A., News, Videos U.S. exports hit a record $173 billion in March, up 15% from a year-ago and 37% from 2009. The good times for “Made in America” are just getting started, according to a new study from The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In fact, BCG predicts 2015 will be a tipping point of sorts, when global manufacturers will view the U.S. as equal to if not better-than China.
http://buyamericanprogram.com/
Carol Johnson Duhart | on January 23rd, 2012 | Personal
While Aquarius is already a few days old, (January 20-February 18) today is the Chinese New Year, the year of the Water Dragon.
Aquarius is called the “Water Bearer” even though it is an air sign. But the reason for this is that Aquarius’s water is actually the sparking water of knowledge that refreshes, Or the froth of ideology.
There is also an old metaphysical term called “chemicalization”. This means that things often get very agitated as the end of the old nears. In other words, outdated things need a “last stand” before they go away. That’s also Aquarius’s job, creating that very chemicalization so that the past can truly go away.
Aquarius virtues are inclusiveness, innovation, independence and a love for technology.
Aquarius vices are: ideological rigidness, cult mentality. Ideas over people, or inspite of what happens to them. Eugenics. Communism are two examples of ideas that were pursued despite all of the harm in a cause of an ideal.
There is also an old metaphysical term called “chemicalization”. This means that things often get very agitated as the end of the old nears. In other words, outdated things need a “last stand” before they go away. That’s also Aquarius’s job, creating that very chemicalization so that the past can truly go away.
And speaking of Aquarius, have we entered the Age of Aquarius yet? Ages are more like seasons: while there may be a point where it officially so, the transition on both sides is considerable. Leaves begin to change in late August, and blooms sprout in early March, and so it is with Ages and their manifestation. I say we will get there in a century, as the old racial-sexual-social barriers erode and the world is finally massively literate and connected. But there’s a lot of work ahead-wiring the world and then entering places not now in the conversation and communication in. It hasn’t and won’t be an easy path to get there. It means a massive rise in living standards in a lot of places that haven’t had it. It means massive investments in infrastructure, in running water, in teachers and arable land and far less in the toys of conquest. So things will get better. But it will be a bumpy ride to get there. And in this month, we get to see some of the future.
Xin Nian Kuai Le..Happy New Year. Happy Aquarius.
Carol Johnson Duhart | on January 22nd, 2012 | The Other Blogs
(Courtesy Christian Science Monitor)
Newt wins. I never thought I would say those words. As someone who remembers Newt’s antics back in the 1990′s, I can only hold my breath and wonder just when he self-destructs in some spectacular manner. While the people of South Carolina don’t care, I imagine Republicans elsewhere must be wondering if another shoe will drop-a long-term groupie or some financial shenagans that make Mitt’s money weaseling look positively frugal.
The people who won the South Carolina primary for him-only 10% of his voters were under 40. Talk about out of touch to say the least with economic and social realities-snowbird whites who live in gated communities, elderly locals who resent the changes in society. Talk about the cranky vote. Angry and uninspiring and out of touch never Presidential elections. Ask McCain, snoozing his way through what will be his last term, ending not in a blaze of glory but with reciminations between him and the Palin grifter.
So the Romneybot will need some rebooting. And will Reboot in a nasty way. Romney is of the class that’s used to getting is way, and if they don’t, they get really nasty. There was no way he could get at war hero McCain back in 2008, but Newt just might have enough ammo for a fulll-scale assault, fair or foul.
It should be interesting.
Carol Johnson Duhart | on January 20th, 2012 | Personal
I now use remanufactured ink cartridges, and buy used instead of new for furniture and other matters.
R8FZ7K39ZX4Y
Carol Johnson Duhart | on January 19th, 2012 | Personal
As I look at my computer, I see the temperature is 37 degrees and cloudy with snow threatened later today. Unlike Seattle, we’ll get a dusting-and that’s really all we’ve gotten here in Cincinnati so far. Just a dusting. On one hand, I’m pretty satisfied with a dusting-no travel worries, and I don’t have to worry much about snow boots. A dusting is pretty to look at-it makes for a nice white accent.
But there’s nothing like a real snow to bring out the beauty of winter.
Carol Johnson Duhart | on January 18th, 2012 | Authors
Keep the Net Free and Open
Carol Johnson Duhart | on January 15th, 2012 | Authors
http://www.civilrightsmuseum.org/
The Lorraine Motel, where King was shot, is now the Civil Rights Museum-they need money! They also need a better webmaster, and if they can’t afford one, one should volunteer their services!
Carol Johnson Duhart | on January 14th, 2012 | Authors
- Compare and Contrast: NH Democratic Primary in 2008
- Democrats 22 pledged delegates, 8 unpledged
- Candidate Vote % Delegates
- Hillary Rodham Clinton 112,404 39.1% 9
- Barack Obama 104,815 36.5 9
- John Edwards 48,699 16.9 4
- Bill Richardson 13,269 4.6 0 (dropped out in Iowa)
- Dennis J. Kucinich 3,891 1.4 0 (dropped out in Iowa)
- Joseph R. Biden Jr. 638 0.2 0 (dropped out in Iowa)
- Mike Gravel 404 0.1 0 (dropped out in Iowa)
- Christopher J. Dodd 205 0.1 0 (dropped out in Iowa)
- Others 3,217 1.1 0
- 100% reporting
The 2012 Republican Primary: New Hampshire
| Mitt Romney |
97,532 |
39.3% |
| Ron Paul |
56,848 |
22.9% |
| Jon Huntsman |
41,945 |
16.9% |
| Newt Gingrich |
23,411 |
9.4% |
| Rick Santorum |
23,362 |
9.4% |
| Rick Perry |
1,766 |
0.7% |
| Michele Bachmann
|
349 |
0.1% |
| Other |
3272 |
1.3% |
Total:248485
The two top Dems in 2008 combined were over 200k votes, with the third place finisher, John Edwards, got 7,000 more votes than 2012 third place finisher, Jon Huntsman. The entire 2012 Republican field barely gets over 200k votes, and not even the winner, Mitt gets 100k votes.
| 2008 Results |
| John McCain |
88,571 |
37.01% |
| Mitt Romney |
75,546 |
31.57% |
| Mike Huckabee |
26,859 |
11.22 |
| Rudy Giuliani |
20,439 |
8.54% |
| Ron Paul |
18,308 |
7.65% |
| Fred Thompson |
2,894 |
1.21% |
| Duncan Hunter |
1,225 |
0.51% |
| Alan Keyes |
203 |
0.08% |
| Write-in candidates |
4,691 |
1.96% |
| Total |
239,315 |
100% |
Carol Johnson Duhart | on January 14th, 2012 | Personal
Right Now, I’m listening to Christmas Music even though Christmas has passed. What about you, do you listen to Holiday Music before or after a specific holiday, and if so, Why? It’s bleak in January, and I think Christmas passes too fast, so I keep the tree up until the First of February. In earlier years, I would put my tree up in the beginning of November for the same reason.
Now I know that some people hate seeing holiday stuff very early, and at times it seems like holidays are increasingly merging into each other, but that’s a situation where people are exposed whether or not they want to be. But at home?
Also check out the poll on the sidebar as well.
http://38.107.220.224:8092 (Christmas Smooth Jazz)
http://www.halloweenradio.net/streaming/halloweenradio.pls (Halloween)
Carol Johnson Duhart | on January 9th, 2012 | Personal
Why when I see him, I see a guy stuck in 1972, with the polyester vibe? Back then, the look of white angry people was polyester and artificial to a fault: hair laquered into immovability, white buck shoes polished to a sheen, blue jean look polyester pants with an immovable crease. The difference between hippie and anti-hippie was that hippies would actually wear something that moved and felt soft to the touch. And hippies were touchable, even huggable, in their bare feet and twenty strands of beads. The polyester people were not huggable in the least, and gave off the smell of resentment. Even the clothes they wore were hard and stiff and could sometimes stand up in a corner.
Now, in 2012, we see these same people, or their children, now sitting in scooters with that same resentment on their faces: only the clothes have changed. But society changed even more, demographically and politically. The hippies got the last laugh on many issues, and the blacks/browns/yellows are now ascending.
Indeed, this whole Republican campaign is one long primal scream to get back to 1972, and the frustration that simply saying so cannot turn back the clock to those days. That they can’t simply wish away Barack Obama, or open gays, or anything else they like: that the mere expression of disapproval is not enough to cow those other people anymore. The open racism is one symbol of the primal scream: Santorum with his sexual obsessions is another. The open war-mongering from Perry. But the passionless Romney is the last. That there isn’t more talented and passionate and competent candidates is that the politics of the embittered primal scream doesn’t appeal to them. They know that there is no turning back the clock, just adjusting to change, and until the primary voters come to that, they can’t win. So why try?
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