Tar Heel Tavern #44
This week's edition of the Tar Heel Tavern can be seen at Pratie Place. Don't miss Jane's offering of free downloadable Holiday music while you're visiting her site.
Bora asks:
How would mandatory blogging (in schools) affect the level of reading and writing among the kids?
Dave hopes that during this season, people will think about what it is to resurrect, and why it is important to allow others to resurrect.
Other Places
+ Because I enjoyed it so much and because it is tied in with the Christmas theme, I am linking Benny's post as an honorary Tar-Heeler.
+ I laughed at Rising Hegemon's spoof on Fox News' Christmas wars. [Related: "Five to the Egg Noggin" photo] This is waaaaay too close to reality! When I think of the American minds bamboozled by the 'fair and balanced' Fox News, I think: "Oh - the HumeHannity!" (credit for "humehannity" goes to Anonymoses).
+ A big shout-out to the community of Steubenville, Ohio today, for the work they've supported at the Unity Kitchen (Urban Mission) They're not even close to making ends meet, but they're doing what I consider to be God's work. Committed to serving the low income population without regard for age, race, nationality, gender, religious belief or other distinguishing characteristics, volunteers gave 52,868 hours of service to Urban Mission in 2004. The Steubenville-Weirton area of Ohio/West Virginia, posted the second to the largest unemployment increase (+2.5 points) in the nation in 2003. They experienced large declines in manufacturing employment over the year, contributing to increased unemployment. See "The Economy At A Glance" [US Dept of Labor]. In October of 2005 there was a whopping 7.4 rate of unemployment in the area with a
very sad and revealing -12.8% in the 12-month percentage change in Manufacturing. These are the kinds of communities in most need of government attention, and the thought of the recent "belt-tightening" news from Congress has to make this community feel like a noose has been tightened around their necks.
See a related story - The Glory and the Gutting: Steeler Nation and the Humiliation of Pittsburgh by Charles McCollester (director of the Pennsylvania Center for the Study of Labor Relations at Indiana University of Pennsylvania):
The steel rust-belt area from Youngstown, Ohio to Johnstown, Pennsylvania, centered in Pittsburgh and strewn with once mighty but now financially broken towns like Aliquippa, Braddock, Newcastle, Steubenville, Sharon, McKees Rocks, and Duquesne, is sinking into spiritual and financial bankruptcy. Workshops have given way to prisons and malls. Now gambling is hailed as economic salvation by the elites who presided over the region’s economic collapse.