AmeriCorps/Nonprofit Blog
I am so poor! I'm not quite sure what happened, exactly. I don't feel that I splurged unnecessarily. I guess between moving and what not... and I have bought a few things for Habitat lately. Well, whatever the reason, I cannot wait until I get paid on Thursday.
Wait, wait, wait a moment. Hold on. NPR just reported that Kerry said in some speech that he were president, he still would have gone to war, even knowing that there were no weapons. He just would have done it smarter than Bush.
WE DIDN'T NEED TO GO TO WAR! He has to know that. So why in the world is he taking this position? I've given Kerry a lot of slack. I have backed him up for many inane things he has said. But this is unbelievable.
I'm just going to have to take off my Kerry-Edwards bumper sticker. I'm completely at a loss, though. I don't want to vote for Bush, Kerry, or Nader. There is no candidate for me.
What is wrong with our country? I love it, don't get me wrong, but there are some seriously messed up people in charge--and trying to take charge--of the U.S.
Very, very, very disheartening. I may have to write Kerry a letter.
Good morning, Worcester Mass! I had the happy task this morning of calling the church group scheduled for Saturday--to cancel them.
Sigh.
Luckily I got an answering machine so that I didn't have to take to a "real" person. No one has ever been less than understanding, but still, it's not a fun part of my job.
It's Day 3 of having no network access. Which means it's Day 3 of Jenny finding random odd tasks to do in order to keep busy.
Giddyup.
My shift at the shelter last night was wonderfully uneventful. For most of the evening it was just Liz and Nicky--one child per PAL. We played with Play-doh and played outside and all around had a delightful time. They are the cutest kids.
I had ridden my bike to the shelter to get some exercise and save some gas(!), but when I hopped on my bike to go home, my rear tire was flat. So, what takes about ten or fifteen minutes on a bike took FORTY minutes to walk home, bike in tow. And in the dark. Alas, the days are growing shorter.
Tomorrow I get paid, thank the federal government, because I literally cannot afford to do laundry (and believe me, I need to do laundry).
The network is back up! Hooray! I can do work. Finally.
Oh, Kerry update. Turns out his quotes was horribly taken out of context. And normally I wouldn't be surprised--most of the media is dreadfully unresponsible about things like that. But it I heard this misquote on NPR. Tsk, tsk, tsk.
Thank you, Rebecca, for sending me the NY Times article that straightened me out. I feel much relieved.
I got paid! Wahoo! I can pay bills and do laundry.
I read a commentary on Slate.com this morning about Kerry's supposed "flip-flopping" on the issue of war and Iraq that has greatly put me at ease--or rather, back to my original thoughts about Kerry's stance. It's a good essay. You can read it by clicking here.
I am so tired of spin. I realize that it's a large part of what makes the political world go round, but it would be so refreshing if someone would just sit down, stare into a camara, and tell the simple truth. But that's almost political suicide, I know. Even if one person tells things straight, it's going to be bent and refracted by everyone else.
As for this Google Dutch trade thing--OK, I know that I know nothing about this. I'll put that up front. But it seems to me, from listening to all the coverage of this, that it's the investment banks, and the market bigwigs who really don't like it. And I think some of the negative criticism of Google's decision is just petulance on their part: Google is attempting to keep them from cornering the Google market. Google advocates fairness, and the market wants no part of it. That's how it appears to me, anyway.
But I am admittedly biased in all things!
The Center of Budget and Policy Priorities released the results of a study that analyzes the affects that repealing the estate tax would have on charitable giving. Turns out that the Bush Administration's arguement that repealing the tax would lead to an increase in charitable giving (because there would be more money available to give) was false. I won't go into the details (click here to read the summary of the report) but in short: repealing the tax would decrease the incentive to make donations because it would take away the tax incentive. "A reduction of 6 percent to 11 percent would shirnk charitable contributions by approximately $11 billion to $21 billion."
The non-profit community cannot afford the loss of that much money, meaning the government would have to pick up the slack of lost services--meaning more money would be spent by a government that was bringing in less money.
And my favorite example of government's supreme (un)intelligence and (lack) of logic:
The Department of Homeland Security announced that refugees from the island of Monserrat in the Caribbean would be sent back to their home. These people were here as temporary disaster victims due to a volcanoe making life difficult back home. It has been determined that the volcanoe will not be ceasing its unrulyness any time soon. Thus it is not a temporary disaster; thus the refugees cannont be classified as temporary. And thus, they have to go back home.
Bravo! And why may I ask, does the Department of Homeland Security have the authority to do this? It doesn't seem to me that the status of these refugees needs to be a concern to Tom Ridge.
