The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Schmoozing: POTUS and the other G7 leaders, wandering in a field in Bavaria. There’s a metaphor here somewhere…
For once, I have an SC-heavy list of suggestions:
- Former police officer who shot Walter Scott indicted for murder — This SC story is leading newspaper sites as far away as London. This one’s from The Guardian. For the Charleston version, click here.
- SC abortion numbers decline nearly 12 per cent in 5 years — Whichever side of the fence you’re on, that’s a good thing right?
- Franklin Graham urges boycott of gay-friendly companies — You know what? In that picture, he looks older than I ever remember his Dad looking…
- Innovista Greene Street project breaks ground this week — I’m glad to see this finally get under way — this was always supposed to be the centerpiece, sort of the Main Street of Innovista, a pedestrian friendly boulevard running from the center of the USC campus down to a riverfront park. Thanks to the penny tax, it’s now on track.
- US strategy on Iraq ‘not yet complete’ – Obama — That’s what he said at the G-7 summit. You know why it’s G-7? ‘Cause we kicked out Russia. Meanwhile, that new guy seeking the Democratic nomination for president thinks we’ve been way too mean to the Russians over Ukraine. Really.
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Notice how POTUS has the Sinatra thing going on with the coat over the shoulder. Those other world leaders are pretty stiff, huh?
Ring-A-Ding-Ding!
There was a photo in the New York Times or The State this morning, of POTUS sitting with Merkel: he had a tie on and she was wearing an open-necked white blouse. She is not a slave to fashion, much like her ever-practical countrymen and women. One might have thought she’d don a dirndl, but she’s an Ossi, not an Alpine sort….
I like the picture of him on this page. He certainly seems to enjoy being president more than most presidents in my lifetime.
I wonder if any of the politicians in the photo had the thought of doing the Sound of Music intro thing when Julie Andrews spun around with her arms open wide.
I probably would not have been able to resist doing that once.
The University of Ulm, where we have gone the last three summers, has a perfect swath of alpine meadow cut into a forested hillside. Yes, indeed, one has strongly considered running up, arms outstretched…one grew up playing the album over and over and over….and watching the film on its annual rerun on TV. Folks used to have to wait for films to be shown. none of this here on demand stuff, streaming….
I just have to say that I just bought a dishwasher and clothes dryer from Jeffers-McGill and paid 2/3s of what Lowe’s was going to charge me, not counting the fifty bucks or so worth of hoses and stuff Lowe’s was going to sell me that Bosch already has built in, according to the Jeffers-McGill guy. The local guy is selling me the top-of-the line Bosch for what Lowe’s wanted for the next to the bottom level one.
Shopping locally is often the more economical choice, as well as the communitarian choice!
In sports news:
1. Tiger Woods shot an 85 over the weekend, which was the worst score ever for him in his professional career. The chances of him passing Nicklaus on the major wins list is growing ever slimmer.
2. Some horse ran real fast and got the triple crown for the first time in a long time. Millions of people pretended to care about horse-racing for one day. Kind of cool, I guess, but no one really follows horse racing.
More people in my Facebook feed follow horse racing than golf..
Franklin Graham has halitosis of the soul sometimes.
Yes, indeed.
I was proud of him.
Yes, that’s the Christian thing to do, um hmmm–have you seen the lovely ad? B/c I believe Jesus was all about the sentiment behind the ad and not about the sentiment behind Graham’s actions or words!
I’ll ignore your judgment. It’s not you I am to please.
So cite to me where Jesus decried homosexuality?
I sure can cite where He embraced the outcasts. He was harsh on moneylenders in the temple, Pharisees…
Why exactly does the Graham ministry have so much wealth? Wouldn’t Jesus have been using those assets to do the Lord’s work?
That raises an interesting question: Who, in this situation, is the outcast? 40 years ago, it would have been gay people, no question.
Who is the outcast now?
I believe a lot of Evangelicals think it’s them, but they would like to cast out gays, at least those who are not ever so sorry for being gay, and certainly any who want to make a lifelong commitment to one another.
Outside the media reality, I believe gays still face a lot of discrimination and oppobrium. I do not see that Christians get anywhere near as much, and then only b/c they are sticking their noses in others business, and trying to establish a theocracy.
Turns out his new bank is LGBT supportive as well.
I really dislike boycotts like this – in either direction. They’re so tiresome. Everything that you do in life does not have to signal tacit approval or disapproval. For instance, the coffee I like to drink does not have a politically significant meaning to me. If the company that makes the coffee I like has different political leanings than me….that’s ok.
It’s like the the people who boycotted Chick-fil-A. In Bryan’s world, it’s ok to eat a chicken sandwich from someone who doesn’t exactly share your beliefs on every issue. You’re simply purchasing a chicken sandwich from them, not living with them. It’s a transaction. You give me chicken, and I’ll give you money. Let’s leave the politics out of it.
Graham should have left this alone. I get that people want to “stand on principle”, but where you bank is just where you bank. It’s not who you are.
Yeah, but the personal is political for those on the margins, for sure.
I just had to stop with the boycotts b/c so few places meet my political critieria…..
but I do buy organic fair trade coffee beans—save the rainforest and thus the song birds…
Criteria….I was using the Portuguese spelling….
Kathryn, you’re mentioning buying local a good deal now. Does this mean you’ve stopped ordering routinely from Amazon?
As I wrote, I buy locally when I can w/o having to drive all over looking for it. Big box stores don’t count as local, imho. I buy big box stuff a lot from Amazon, still, and all those things I can’t consistently find locally, like fragrance free skin products, eyelid scrubs, etc., and shoes and clothing in my size.
Amazon is the place to go for things like printer cables and USB chargers. Best Buy sells a 9 foot HDMI cable for $70 when you can buy an equivalent one on Amazon for $10.
Yes, it pays to check Amazon first!!!
We don’t boycott anything. It’s too restricting, and if we tried to honor all boycotts about things we consider important, we’d find it difficult to shop anywhere.
Instead, we try to support businesses we think are doing good things. Kathryn’s fair trade approach is an example. If we have a choice, we’ll support the more socially responsible business.
We much prefer small, local businesses over the Wal-Marts, but sometimes it’s difficult to find such a place. There are virtually no small hardware stores left on our side of town.
Oops. Forgot to close my italics.
Well, my appliances from Jeffers-McGill came today (Lowe’s wasn’t going to be able to get me the dryer for another two weeks, and the dishwasher came in two days’ less time than Lowe’s, even though J-M had to order it!). I then shopped for the odds and ends I needed at the Cayce Ace, b/c I am annoyed with Lowe’s–how many phone calls and emails does it take when you order something online–AND I’d have had to go into the store to order and pay for the connecting up of the dishwasher—I don’t even know if they could have connected the dryer—it has a steam feature. Cayce Ace had what I needed, half the distance away, and helpful staff! It’s a locally owned franchise….
That said, I buy a lot from Amazon–excellent customer service in my experience, plus the price and selection is excellent. I have sensitive skin, and I can’t find the fragrance free versions of products reliably locally….I also have big feet, long legs, etc. If it’s something very specific, and I know it will be hard to buy locally, I buy online, especially from nice retailers like Amazon and Nordstrom and Zappos (now owned by Amazon)
Same here. If I can’t find it locally from a small business, I usually go Amazon or ebay. I haven’t bought a pair of boots from anyone except Zappos in about 6 years.
Which is why a lot of the big boxes are hurting–not show-rooming–just lousy customer service and inflexible policies!
I prefer whatever place can supply the product.
I recently bought an expensive lawnmower from Lowes. The customer service was EXCELLENT. The assistant manager went out of his way to help me with several things that were above and beyond – even getting me a rebate that was – by the letter of law had expired – but he worked it out so I did get it after all – when he didn’t have to do so. (I also wrote a letter to his boss at corporate complimenting the efforts of this particular employee)
I thought I had caused him a lot of trouble – in the end – he ended up giving me an accessory for my mower free of charge because he had made me wait too long (he really hadn’t at all).
So as usual, my experience was totally the opposite of Kathryn’s.
I agree Bryan – I am not much of a boycott supporter either.
But I was happy for Graham in this particular instance.
Well, and LGBT supportive in a less mainstream way, too!
“Thanks to the penny tax, it’s now on track.”
Yes, and the roads are still crumbling apparently. It’s amazing how these multi-million dollar projects are kicking into gear but the fixes that were supposed to be critical don’t seem to be on the table yet.
Another 280k jobs added. This is turning into a strong recovery, finally. If only the obstructionists in the GOP would work with POTUS we could have an amazing economy. But no. It’s more and more cuts of government workers that creates this huge, and unnecessary drag on the economy. The Dems, including Hillary, need to hit hard on what is so very obvious: the GOP is a job killing machine.
“Another 280k jobs added. This is turning into a strong recovery, finally.”
First quarter GDP contracted by -0.7%.
But yeah, sure. Higher taxes are exactly what we need right now to really get this economy moving. We should also increase fuel costs because of global warming. That will really help get the economy revved into high gear.
“It’s more and more cuts of government workers that creates this huge, and unnecessary drag on the economy.”
1. Please specifically identify government agencies at either the state or federal level have had “more and more cuts of government workers” in the last year.
2. Which state or federal government agencies would you like to see hire more employees?
DHEC was slashed. DOT is muddling through with low funding. Not many projects getting built. Nationally DOT is suffering likewise. The IRS has been cut. The military is down from Iraq/Afghanistan highs. That’s a good thing but the slack is not taken up by other agencies.
Sure there may be some small amount of growth overall in the size of government of late but my point is public sector growth is far less than what is needed when the economy slumps. That’s Keynian Economic 101. And that also affects the GDP growth rate.
Speaking of GDP, it’s not realistic to expect 4+ growth rates anymore. The aging, and slowly growing, population ensures growth cannot be equal to the heady days of the 60s. Even during the booming economies of Reagan and Clinton overall growth rates were below 4% for their entire presidencies. Of course that doesn’t stop the Reagan groupies from cherry picking his best years.
As for your second question the DOT at both the state and federal level need a huge increase in funding to alleviate the poor state of our highways.
“but the slack is not taken up by other agencies”… So government agencies exist to provide full employment? That’s their priority?
Anyway, negative GDP is never – ever – a good thing. Yes, interest rates are very low, but wow, that’s a problem for us all. Another reality of this economic cycle is that the jobs have not, and will not, recover to levels seen before. Therefore, it is interesting to me that we had both strong job growth and negative GDP. Almost leads me to want to call the market top right here.
This has been a couple of years, but we had a speaker at a Rotary meeting a couple of years back who made a good case for what Bud is saying. He was an economist who worked for one of the big banks. Can’t remember his name.
What I remember is that he was NOT a guy I’d expect to be a big “grow government” guy, but he said that the economy would have been a lot better if not for slower growth in public sector jobs. He said the private sector was producing jobs at a good rate, but all the austerity measures in state governments were holding things back.
Wish I’d saved my notes or remembered his name…
It wasn’t so much that he was a pure Keynesian or anything, but he was simply making the point that a lot of people work for the government, to the point that when job growth is slower there, it slows down the rest of the economy…
Billy Graham once said,the biggest mistake and regret of his life was getting involved in politics.Religion has destroyed politics.Since Reagan was elected, there have been no men of substance running for office,and partisanship is long gone,no matter how hard you try to fool yourself.They’re all on the take from the same benefactors. There’s no point in voting,anymore.It’s a done deal,beforehand.
Reagan was an actor playing the part of President. He was good at reading lines written for him by others. It’s likely that he was experiencing the onset of dementia/Alzheimer’s for much of his second term.
Agreed,but I think the onset was noticeable when he was running for the first term.He was so popular it was disturbing.For me,that’s when real politics ended.
I’ve been a big Buckminster Fuller fan since EXPO 67,and I think he was right w/this one-
‘By 2000, politics will simply fade away. We will not see any political parties.’