Blood Tests For Mental Illnesses?

Thought I'd share this article; very interesting:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23337532/

Devastating Job Losses

This past week, a report was released by the "American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition," and much of the info was published in the Plain Dealer, showing how devastating the job losses have been between 2000 and 2007. Michigan suffered the most, with the loss of 431,000 jobs, which represented a drop of more than 9%. Ohio was next, with the loss of 209,000 jobs, or 3.7%. The Ohio number is the largest seven year percentage drop in employment since the Great Depression!!! During the period, Ohio lost more than 23% of it's manufacturing jobs!!!

Specifically, the metro regions of Ohio that saw the largest percentage drop in manufacturing employment were:
Springfield-46.9%
Sandusky-36.5%
Steubenville(OH)/Weirton(WV)-31.4%
Dayton-31.2%
Lima-30.7%
Canton-30.6%
Youngstown-27.3%
Mansfield-25.7%
Cleveland-25.2% (48,800 jobs)
Columbus-24.4%
Toledo-22.6%
Cincinnati-18.4%
Akron-17.5% (10,000 jobs)

They've Got Us Over A "Barrel"

Well, in case you haven't noticed, the oil and gasoline barons of greed are at it again. Even though it is winter, they're at it hot and heavy. Even though gasoline supplies nationally are at 14 year highs, according to an energy analyst with National City Private Client Group in Cleveland, and demand, that word one often hears from the free marketers, is flat, the futures traders have prices soaring. We may well look back at three dollars a gallon as cheap. The reasons given are more nonsense: A small refinery in Texas was closed Monday because of an explosion, Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, civil unrest in Nigeria, and "rumors" that OPEC may cut production.

Someone in this nation of ours is going to have to step up to the plate and deliver a hit for the rest of us, before these greedy animals detroy us completely. There's barely a whimper from Democrats

On "Borrowed" Time

Here is a link to a really telling article about people borrowing from their retirement savings to live today. In a competitive society like ours (that's NOT necessarily meant to be a knock), we have loads of choices to make; the television ad shows the latest model car or truck and we'd all like to have one; we look in the newspaper and there's an ad for the latest computer, and we want that, too; and we see the billboard on the nearby highway advertising a great vacation package, and yes, we want that, too. Living within our means is not always easy. In the past few decades, Americans have put billions upon billions on plastic. Now, in many cases, with soaring energy prices, fueled by wealthy greedy investors and the related higher costs for just about everything else; essentially stagnant wages; and cuts in benefits, the bills are coming due and many folks can't meet the payments. Stop and think for a moment. If you lost your job tomorrow, or if you had to take a substantial pay cut/benefit reduction, how would you fare in the aftermath?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23241606/

Suburban Food Stamp Use Rises

A recent report has shown a significant increase in the percentage of suburban Cleveland households receiving food stamps. Food stamp use has largely been seen, and pretty much confined to, American inner cities, but this report shows how increasing poverty has now passed the road sign saying, "Now Entering Suburbia." Between 2002 and 2007, the overall number of Cuyahoga County residents receiving food stamps increased 40%, so that now 14% of all county residents received federal food stamps. The biggest increase came not in Cleveland proper, but in suburban Cleveland, where the number of people receiving stamps doubled in that time period. At the same time, the percentage of people in Cleveland proper receiving food stamps increased from 21% to 26%. I would have to believe that Cleveland is not alone in this disturbing trend, but that many American urban areas are seeing a similar rise in poverty, especially those areas where manufacturing jobs have been disappearing faster than chocolate-walnut brownies at a picnic. All the while, federal statistics show the wealthiest Americans receiving an increasing share of overall national income.

Housing News

Well the situation gets uglier and uglier.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23170733/

Plain Dealer Endorsements

Since I do a good many political blogs, here is a link to the (Cleveland) Plain Dealer endorsements. For readers, some will agree, some will disagree, and others won't give a ...darn. I haven't truly decided yet in the Democratic race, but I probably "lean" toward McCain in the Republican race. I'm a big believer in ideas being put forth in campaigns, and while I most certainly won't be voting for a Republican for president in '08, McCain will have good people around him, and he's not afraid to say when he basically agrees with the "other side," although this outreach on some issues has obviously gotten him into trouble with a fair number of conservatives. So we'll have to see if he continues to be his own man with this genuine outreach, or whether he will become just another politician as he tries to court the staunchly conservative wing of the Republican Party. Personally, I don't have to agree with everything a candidate favors in order to respect them. Naturally, all of us have certain issues dear to our hearts, and those issues tip any balance we may have toward one candidate or another. In '08, it is my fervent belief that we've got to change the business and wealth dominated policies of the country for the sake of average people, and we can only do that by electing a Democrat as president, and by electing more Democrats to Congress. This system is out of balance, and balance needs to be restored. For you Republicans, fear not, because if what I've just written comes true, then eventually Democrats will go too far in some things, and we'll need Republicans to come back. Anyway:


http://blog.cleveland.com/openers/2008/02/plain_dealer_endorses_obama_mc.html#obama

Some Flu Info

Here are some links regarding the flu:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23075303/

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22883889/

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22952528/

Some Health Info

This article has some good points, but in the last point in the article, who wears pajamas?

http://health.msn.com/health-topics/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100188830&GT1=10914

Why Do We Have Election Days?

Americans have become notorious for not voting in great numbers. Now, I'd like for everyone to vote, too, but some of the stuff we've done is pure nonsense, in my opinion, and it calls results into question. First, why we vote on Tuesdays is beyond me. I've never researched it, but why anyone picked that day of the week I'm not sure. A couple of centuries ago, the vast bulk of the American population was involved in agriculture. Now, farming during some parts of the year was a seven day a week job, so maybe picking Tuesday was just as good as any other day, and with most elections held in November, most farming and harvesting was done by that time of year, so any day of the week was fine.

Later, as more and more Americans took jobs in some sort of manufacturing or affiliated industries, weekdays were almost always workdays. Gradually, participation in elections dwindled, although I'm not trying to suggest that was the only for the decline. I guess it was in the 1970s that a movement developed to hold elections on either Saturdays or Sundays, or both. Well that idea terrified the upper income folks who feared that more working class people would vote on weekends, than on Tuesdays. I recall one of the arguments against two day elections being the cost. No one ever said democracy was cheap, but at times we sure try to skimp on our elections. Of course, the huge sums donated to the candidates by various interests, including labor, while seemingly deplored by many, just goes on and on. Anyway, I like the idea of two day/weekend elections, and yes, it WILL cost more. And yes, more people work on weekends than back in the 1970s, but weekdays are still the typical workdays for the majority of folks.

Now, while I'm open to persuasion, I do NOT like this early voting in many states. Some have said that it helps alieviate the hassle of election day voting, and I do not doubt that, but at what price? If Joe Schmo is running for dogcatcher and lots of people vote early for him; then a story breaks near the election that old Joe was involved in some scandal, you can't get those votes back. To me, this entire enterprise in trying to build up election numbers like this is NOT good. Further, how does anyone know the people sending in ballots or voting online are really the people who are registered to vote, or that even the actual voters haven't been "persuaded" by someone to vote a particular way? This all is deeply disturbing for the validity of elections in my opinion. So why do we have election days?

An Expanded Stimulus Plan

Here is a link to an article about the Senate plan to stimulate the economy. The problem I have with this plan is that they want to raise the income limit substantially from the House-passed version (So $300,000 dollar incomes are the middle and low incomes suggested by Bernanke?). To me, shame on the Senate Democrats for allowing this in the package. They should have held their ground to see if the Republicans could take the heat for holding up such an important piece of legislation. In an election year, I'll bet they can't! So,


http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/category/topicarticle.aspx?feed=AP&Date=20080131&ID=8024968&topic=TOPIC_ECONOMIC_INDICATORS&isub=3

The "Eyes" Have It, Genetically Speaking

This is an interesting article, especially for people who like genealogy and genetics. I thought I'd pass it along.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22934464/wid/11915773?GT1=10815