India and many other countries just hit the lottery. In addition to being able to conveniently rid themselves of many of their homeless, they are getting a bonus check from the US government this year for the tsunami disaster. OK, folks, it seems to have trouble sinking in: GOVERNMENT MONEY means YOUR TAX DOLLARS AND MINE get to be spent taking care of India's problems, as usual. But added to that is the UN's criticism that the aid is "stingy". Apparently, they won't be happy until the ...

Jobs with Justice has voted Walmart, the United States' leading retailer and leading employer, the "Grinch of the Year" for 2004. Despite nearly $9 billion in annual profits, many of its workers are eligible for food stamps, and its employees seek nearly $86 million in state aid due to inadequate wages and benefits. The source article can be found at www.truthout.org . The article also details another of WalMart's tactics, one I can verify. In stores that are not open 24 hours, employees are...

I rambled over to one of my favorite "conspiracy theory" sites, www.truthout.org , to see what I could see about an unrelated story, and uncovered the following "proof" of Ohio voting fraud. I do not stand by the story's veracity, but simply offer it as a further "talking point" for debate on JoeUser, as we have a number of able, competent debaters who may wish to handle the "latest". I also stand by my original contention that if there WAS such massive fraud in Ohio, we are so far gone as to n...

Well, not having TV in our household,   I am a little slow on things. So it wasn't until yesterday evening that I received the news that Reggie White passed away. While he was a great human being, there are a lot of questions that arise in the passing of one so young (43). I am sure the questions will arise as to whether he used any "performance enhancing" drugs, and no, I don't feel ashamed to speculate myself. Of particular concern should be the year when he was declared out for the ye...

I have a confession to make; I have actually, and recently, wished someone would die. And I don't have a whole lot of remorse about it. It all started last week when I decided to call up a friend (and former pastor) back in Nevada. This man and his family have spent the last half year struggling with his daughter's Leukemia. The treatments are going well, and she's on track back to being her former self, which is wonderful. He let me know, however, that my mother had been calling him, pest...

Well, I was glad I posted my Christmas message when I did. I was unaware until the end of the day on Dec. 22 that the library was closed Dec 23 (Thursday), so this is the first time in nearly a week that I've been able to get online. I wasn't able to get a morning paper route with the Amarillo paper; such a route would have given us a little extra where the current route puts us just about square with bills, so we have to get on with selling our Olds with the broken transmission (I had origin...

I recently archived an article that talked about a recent popular kids' cartoon, and its alleged homosexual agenda. Frankly, in the area of TV watching, I consider myself to be an uderprude; however, I didn't see it! I also didn't see the alleged sexually subversives in "the Lion King", or "Aladdin", or anything else that so many have seen fit to rant about. Is this wrong? Sometimes, I think, it's very easy to put onesself in a hypercritical state and overemphasize and over analyze thin...

Those who know me know me as a dove, generally. I believe war to be morally reprehensible, and live in the hope that we can one day find ourselves able to find a less utterly stupid way to solve our problems by training our young men of unknown political affiliations to get out on a field and point lethal weapons at others in the hopes of terminating their life. But I live in a world of reality, not idealism, and that's just not the way things work. I have nothing but respect for the soldi...

Well, the election results are cold and hard, and it's all over but the suing. The Democratic and Republican parties can take a well deserved break. But, the brief respite for third parties should be over immediately following the holiday season. We have much serious work to be undertaken between now and November 2006, if we have hope of being taken seriously. Third parties usually enter people's minds immediately following the party primaries when they realize their favorite candidate didn't...

In iamheather's piece "He's Just a Child!", Link , she details a confrontation with a rather disagreeable neighbour. Sadly, the neighbour's attitude seems to be the prevailing one among a society today that has come to despise children (as we discovered in Pahrump, Nevada, when, time after time, we were denied housing because of having children). As one who grew up being puniched for my loquacious nature (the most poignant example I can remember is of my stepmom pinning colthespins to my mo...

I wanted to write a Christmas message to all of you on JoeUser, to hopefully give each of you a little holiday cheer. This past year was a year of ups and downs for us. I started out the year 760 feet below the surface of Death Valley in the colemanite mine, while living in Pahrump, Nevada. As the year progressed, I moved on to a brief stint as a plumber, through a horrible period of unemployment, and onto my current "career" as a paper carrier/handyman. I discovered JoeUser during the sum...

Yet another gem courtesy of yahoo's "Oddly enough" section that bears commenting. The italicized text is copied below for your convenience, but the gist of it is that San Antonio strippers will have to carry stripping permits on their person while they are dancing. I have decided to apply my entreprenurial skills to this endeavour. I propose a line of "permit pasties" and g-strings with the permits embroidered on to meet the criteria of this law. However, as with many products, much market ...

Yet another gem courtesy of yahoo's "Oddly enough" section that bears commenting. The italicized text is copied below for your convenience, but the gist of it is that San Antonio strippers will have to carry stripping permits on their person while they are dancing. I have decided to apply my entreprenurial skills to this endeavour. I propose a line of "permit pasties" and g-strings with the permits embroidered on to meet the criteria of this law. However, as with many products, much market ...

I was reading an article in the paper on our state senator's proposals for Texas' educational system. EVERY ONE of his proposals revolved around a tax increase. Sadly, this senator was allegedly a Republican. As a private citizen, I base my budget off of my income. I do not spend as I damn well see fit and approach my employer demanding a raise. I expect my government to do the same. Another thought that came to mind is that this is yet another example of the fact that the "small governmen...