I normally only publish on Mondays (comments on the news), Wednesdays (recycling old posts) and Saturdays (substantial new pieces). A couple things happened this morning that seem to me urgent enough to warrant an off-schedule post.
I’d invite e-mail subscribers to hold on to their e-mail copy of this post, and will explain why.
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Give from abundance • Out on a limb
Kathleen Parker says Democrats are pushing the minimum wage increase in a “desperate” effort to boost turnout at the midterm elections, whereas the proposal stands no chance of passing Congress.
As a policy of The William Tell Show, I’m more interested in an issue’s substance than in who will win.
The minimum wage increase may not be a good idea, but relates to numerous issues of personal concern to me.
Continue reading * Make ’em all taxpayers
Update 02/28/14 here.
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Tuesday 2014-02-11. My prospect for the City job fell through this morning.
Some may find this story TMI, but I will get it out more quickly if I don’t try to trim it. To cut to the chase, click here.
The listing came up in my search engine results, probably in August, that the City was accepting applications for the title of Secretary II. Interested people could first apply, then take the appropriate exams, and if they passed they would be put on an eligibility list for positions with this title throughout City government. The work site for any position could be anywhere.
In September I took and passed those exams.
Continue reading * Job search update, 03/03/14
Efforts to dialogue with Dan Rodricks’ position (that is, take it seriously) led to a lot of confusion and self-doubt in my prayer time Friday morning 10/25/13.
The past week’s instability in my support system had forced me to ask for and accept significant (by my standards) amounts of money from acquaintances who had never donated to me before. It was as if the Cosmos was retaliating for things I said in “Chaos overwhelms the poor.” Am I a panhandler already myself? Is there any shame in that? Am I in any way a better investment than the drunks who panhandle on the street?
Continue reading * (3) Baby steps
(Originally published 08/14/13 at Trojan Horse Productions.)
Prayer for myself often takes the form of imagining myself climbing up a ladder out of a pit, the pit being my current circumstances of poverty and homelessness. Getting out at the top represents a return to the normal life of the American mainstream. I didn’t start with a ladder in there, but I decided to add one to symbolize the various structures and tools that others have made available to me — and eliminate the possibility of clawing at loose earth.
Here begins a list of “rungs” on the ladder that I’ve become aware I need to “overcome.” Each one takes effort, exertion, to get over. I will update this list from time to time as I learn of others.
| 1. | Fear of the unknown. See From my diary: Learning to pray. |
| 2. | Jealousy of others who seem to be prospering more quickly than I am. Details here. |
| 3. | Times of despair. I guess, from time to time, they’ll happen. Details here. |
| 4. | Incidents of utter selfishness. Details here. |
| 5. | Moments of unusual hardship and sacrifice. Details here. |
| 6. | Cut loose the losers. Continue reading o Jacob’s Ladder 08/14/13 |
(Originally published 06/06/13 at Trojan Horse Productions.)
This has been a very heavy day, and there’s a lot here. For the moment, at least, I will not try to organize this.
Darkness at times appears to serve Light; destruction, to serve creation.
It is a rude awakening for me to have to revisit the world of infantile self-centeredness, apparently to have to re-learn correctly this time (at age 57!) some things I didn’t learn correctly on the first go-round.
A world where it is correct for me to want things only for “Me, me, me!”
Continue reading * Me, me, me.
Proverbs 30:15: “The leech has two daughters. Their names are ‘Gimme’ and ‘Gimme.’”
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Saturday 05/12/12, 3:00 p.m. — I tired today of strangers asking me for things when I was on smoke breaks out in front of the library.
Other homeless guys have talked with me about this in the past, expressing similar frustrations.
People talk about “What goes around comes around,” but when it comes to this stuff, I don’t see it. In my years in the ’hood (Barclay area, 2006-2011) I got the definite impression that it’s always the exact same individuals asking, asking, asking, and the “blessing” never gets passed on, nor do they ever give back.
They’ll bleed you dry.
Continue reading * Gimme
(Originally published 09/18/2012 at Trojan Horse Productions.)
First, let me say I believe the Republicans nominated the right person. Second, I have no special mission here to post things that put Mitt Romney in a bad light. I also am not keen on secret taping of anyone. (Remember Linda Tripp?)
Those things said, this report gives me lots of mixed feelings.
And my “facts” are certainly subject to correction.
I find it hard to believe 47% of Americans pay no income taxes. For the past several years I have had income so low as to have no income tax obligation, so that I get a complete refund of all taxes withheld; but one has to have a REALLY low income for that to happen, and with the U.S. median household income at roughly $50,000/year, I have to believe most of the folk in that lower 50% face some income tax liability.
The characterization of people who work full-time as “dependent” is questionable.
And I would look forward to polling or other public opinion research to verify what portion of this 47% hold to “entitlement” or “victim” mentalities. Such data will be much harder to come by during the current controversy. Please note that I myself speak to those frames of mind in this blog.
Not all the 47% will vote for Obama. They include a disproportionate number of folk who don’t vote at all, including convicted felons who cannot vote. And I have to assume a significant portion of the 47% have been Romney supporters all along.
Postscript, 09/20/12:
This article helps some, but I want still more information. How many of those who don’t pay income tax, support Romney?
(Reblogged 05/18/17.)
talk show host, on air talent, radio talk show, the homeless blogger
(Originally published 10/17/2012 at Trojan Horse Productions.)
Without in any way defending the candidate, I have scratched my head all along at the controversy surrounding his tax returns. What about yours? What about mine? Is there no end to the invasion of privacy?
So he may have taken fewer deductions than he was entitled to. Tsk tsk.
A feature of his 2011 tax return that the media reported, but that the media and his opponents have otherwise ignored: he gave 30% of his income to charity.
30%.
How much did you give?
More than that, since job creation is a central issue in this Presidential race: a sizeable portion of that 30% went directly into jobs creation.
For the past four decades, the “marshmallow test” has served as a classic experimental measure of children’s self-control: will a preschooler eat one of the fluffy white confections now or hold out for two later?
Now a new study demonstrates that being able to delay gratification is influenced as much by the environment as by innate ability. Children who experienced reliable interactions immediately before the marshmallow task waited on average four times longer—12 versus three minutes—than youngsters in similar but unreliable situations.
The article explores the issues in some depth.
(Reblogged 09/22/16.)
The Homeless Blogger 