Bidden or Not Bidden

We ask why there is violence in our schools, but we've systematically removed God from our schools.
—Mike Huckabee

Like so many, I am reeling from what happened in Newtown, Connecticut, today. I can hardly put two thoughts together, but as a Christian, I just have to respond to the statement Mike Huckabee made today.

Mr. Huckabee, if your God can be so easily removed from the public schools, or from anywhere, then you're doing it wrong.

If your God wasn't right there, feeling every shudder of terror and grief at Sandy Hook Elementary School this morning, then you're doing it wrong. Seriously.

This horror did not happen because the people of this nation do not believe as you do. Or as I do. Harsh, vindictive indifference to human suffering is not God's way. The Good News is that, in the midst of all the questions and all the anguish, God is with us. God suffers with us. Always.

Bidden or unbidden, God is present.
—Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus

Manufacturing Wages, R.I.P.

Adam Davidson investigates manufacturers’ claims that they “can’t hire people with the right skills,” and finds what they really mean is they can’t do so at the rock-bottom wages they want to offer.

Clinton freed trade to the extent that manufacturing wages are third-world wages, wherever the manufacturing is done.

Clinton’s “constituents”—the multinational corporations—surely thank him for his service.  The American people need to hire a lobbyist.

Welfare State? Not So Much

Paul Krugman shows a graph of government transfer payments to individuals, other than medicare and medicaid:  It shows that such payments shoot up during recessions, when people are out of work, then drop back down as the economy picks up.  Currently about 8% of GDP.  

This certainly only measures transfers to the poor, elderly, and working class.  Welfare for the rich wouldn’t be included.

Weak Dollar Helps Whom?

Paul Krugman tells us,

“a fall in the dollar . . . wouldn’t be a terrible thing and might actually help the economy.”

By help, he means help U.S. workers work longer hours for less buying power, to better compete with third-world workers.

With help like this, who needs enemies?

Krugman does make the point, “the unemployed don’t hire lobbyists,” the root of the government’s inaction to correct the long-term unemployment situation.

The American people do need to hire public-interest lobbyists—on each and every one of the issues that wealth hires lobbyists for.