Don't mess with my hat

One of my favorite TV shows growing up was Kung Fu. At a young age, I was attracted to the theme of the show, which was essentially this: Peace and harmony are what we should all strive for, but if you keep messing with my hat I am going to take you down.

Most well-adjusted folks would prefer avoiding conflicts. Most people want to respect nature and journey through life without being hassled. But like the David Carradine character in Kung Fu, everyone has a breaking point where their principles and ideals are put aside.

Even countries snap. Fly planes into our buildings and we're going to launch wars, regardless of whether there is a direct connection or not to the provocation. America has a kind, charitable heart, but it can also rape the land, spit out the weak and reach levels of violence that are unmatched. We don't treat the elderly particularly well, and of late, we don't seem to even value the average worker. It can be a dog-eat-dog society, particularly in bad times.

Individuals are the same way. You see some pretty ruthless acts of revenge in the workplace. You want to get along with your boss and coworkers, but sometimes it's impossible to turn the other cheek. So you defend yourself when your back is to the wall.

And, as we get close to Thanksgiving when we're suppose to lighten up, how many family members are at each others' throats because someone didn't get their fair share of the inheritance or forgot a birthday? Everyone has something that acts as a trigger, I guess.

I have had pets that have been pretty passive. All they wanted to do is play, eat and sleep. Of course, every now and then someone will push an animal. I recall my dog running around a park many years ago in Salisbury, Md. She approached a man fishing by a stream. The man's first reaction was to swing his fishing pole wildly at my dog, even though the dog did not provoke him. She was simply greeting him. The dog then switched gears and was about to go Kung Fu on the dude. I grabbed her before there was further escalation.

As I get older, I seek peace in my life even more. Total tranquility, however, isn't easy to attain. While I watch the world spin, I am tweaked by reports of violence, stupidity, greed and bullying. Even though my days are spent in relative solitude since being laid off from a rather large company last year, it seems someone is always trying to mess with my hat.

Seeking the skinny on Florida

What's going on in Florida? Every time I explore the possibility of moving back to The Sunshine State, I learn of something new that squashes my enthusiasm.

Northern Virginia isn't a cheap place to live. And we're currently existing on one income since my layoff last year. This is suppose to be an area with a fair number of jobs, but I have found it very difficult to get a foot in the door in any industry related to what I did as a newspaper editor for 29 years. I've tried public relations firms, college communications departments and a host of specialty publications in an around D.C. Still, no viable offers that would allow us to continue to live in this pricey part of country for very long.

In the past, when the going got tough, I got going - to Florida - as I mentioned in prior posts. The sun, warmth and adventure of living near the Florida Keys and Miami was just what the doctor ordered early in my adult life. My brand-new townhouse in Homestead, Fla., cost a grand total of $39,000, so the mortgage was affordable, even with a skimpy paycheck.

But now, more than 25 years later, Florida doesn't seem so inviting. While the recession has dropped the price of housing, many of the homes for sale have been gutted by previous owners who were foreclosed upon. And there are a ton of foreclosure properties there, many of which are in a state of disrepair. Condo fees are through the roof because there are fewer occupied units to share the overall costs. Single-family homes are falling apart...at least the ones I could afford.

In addition, there is flood insurance to contend with. And in some areas, hurricane insurance (which is separate from flood and homeowner's insurance) would cost more than the monthly mortgage payment.

Renting isn't a great option either. Rents aren't that much cheaper than here, at least not in the bigger cities.

When I lived in Florida, alligators were mostly confined to the Everglades. Now they're showing up in supermarket parking lots and in people's kitchens on a regular basis throughout the state.

But the one thing that never changes in Florida is the crime rate. Gosh, even in relatively small towns like Lakeland, the crime stats are overwhelming compared to where I live in Loudoun County, Va.

Many folks on online forums say that moving to Florida without a job these days is death sentence. This is amazing since Florida had always been a place where you could go with a few hundred bucks in your wallet and eventually get a job, apartment and begin to build a modest life. Apparently, this is no longer the case and could land you on a park bench or homeless shelter in a hurry, particularly at my age.

Tampa, the area of the state I would like to live in, seems to have a fair number of jobs on web sites like Craigslist.com. Of course, with CList, you never know how many of those listings are actually legitimate. I have applied to a lot of jobs in Florida in the last year and not one has responded in a positive or informative manner. Most don't reply at all. I have also contacted real estate agents who never return my calls or answer my e-mails. Very strange. Florida is still attached to the mainland last time I checked on Google Earth.

Still, the lure of sunshine and warmth is mighty strong, especially when it appears that finding a decent-paying job in Northern Virginia isn't as easy as I thought it would be while another winter approaches. I like it here in the Commonwealth - went to college in the southern part of the state and worked at three different newspapers here - but am getting the feeling certain forces are telling me it's time to leave. Where to go is the big question right now. We like our native New York but can't afford the area around NYC. We enjoy states like North Carolina and Georgia but have been unable to find jobs there. We've heard that it's difficult to find work if you're applying from out of state. If that is the case, then we need to pick an area and try our best to find something once there. A risky proposition in this recession.

You can buy a short-sale house in Florida for the price of the average car in Loudoun County. (We have an inordinate number of BMWs, Caddies, Jaguars, etc. here.) I want to move to a place where I am relatively certain I won't be homeless by age 60. But without jobs, I am not so certain the low-cost of housing would be much of an advantage in Florida. It's great that Florida doesn't have a state income tax, but you have to have an income in order for that to be a plus.

I'd love to hear from anyone who might stumble upon this blog and who is living in Florida. Contact me if you care to share the real story about the current state of the state. Perhaps the picture I am getting is skewed by distance and online forums which tend to be overly negative. If there still are opportunities in Florida, I'd appreciate hearing about them.

Disappointed to see the Octoidiot on the home page of The New York Times web site today. Seems even the most reputable of news organizations are lowering their standards these days.

OMG! He's making sense...somewhat

Was listening to Rush Limbaugh talking about the economy today - specifically about jobs and the so-called summit President Obama is finally going to hold in December to address unemployment.

As Rush said, until small businesses are given a tax break and other incentives, they won't be hiring at a rate high enough to get most people back to work. And because small businesses employ most people in this country, any further delay in helping these companies will just bury us deeper into this recession. No hiring, no jobs. No jobs, no buying of goods and services. No consumers equals more economic pain for a growing number of people and companies. Even the government suffers because there isn't enough tax money coming in. And when the government suffers, that means no new roads. No new schools or research funding for diseases. The domino effect is endless.

So Limbaugh's focusing on building the private sector as solution, rather than politicians randomly pumping more stimulus money in the economy and into government jobs, is probably a pretty logical approach.

But here's the problem with Rush. Like others who are either liberal or conservative, he's one-dimensional. He doesn't take a fair and holistic approach to solving all that is wrong. He has an agenda. He's a rich guy trying to protect every penny he has and pretty much admits that on his radio show each day. I get no sense from him that he is ever willing to carry his fair share of the load. That is not to say some of his ideas aren't on target. It just means he's unable to stray very far from his core beliefs and seems proud of it. In that way, he's very much like Obama. Their solutions come from preconceived notions that don't address the whole problem.

Yes, what we need is someone to fight for small businesses. I have personal friends who own small businesses who all say the same thing - they need a break, mainly from taxes, in order to hire. But we also need someone to come down hard on corporations that abuse the system. That won't be Limbaugh. He won't attack corporate America or Wall Street when they go astray. He won't stand up for laid off workers who were let go unfairly or approve of regulations that prevent corporate misdeeds. He's not a true friend of the underdog, although he pretends to be in order to build an audience. Like many hardened conservatives, he blindly supports greed and cares only for those who are able to help themselves. And those right-wing blind spots have gotten us into as much of a mess as liberals who want to tax the heck out of small businesses.

It seems we need some sort of hybrid leader who isn't wed to one ideology. We need someone who doesn't have a personal agenda and isn't motivated by political incentives. We need someone to diagnose the unemployment problem and then proceed with fixing it like a surgeon repairs a heart. It shouldn't matter what one's personal beliefs are. The only thing that should matter is saving the patient - being open minded to all solutions and then taking a course of action that is intellectually correct. A solution that will help blue and white-collar workers, and business owners who are willing to play more fairly.

If a business is given a tax break or other government incentives, then it needs to be more accountable and not lay off workers on a whim or pad CEO bonuses. Those in a position to hire must do so if the obstacles are cleared. If they don't abide by some sense of fairness, or if they continue to freeze average salaries while CEOs are pampered in Palm Springs, then those incentives should be forfeited and those business should be left to fail. No more bailing out massive companies that don't put a priority on their employees.

If we continue on a black or white path - this selfish, egotistical way of doing things - then we will have no one to blame but ourselves when this country collapses. If we don't somehow get smarter people with more accurate morale compasses into leadership positions, I believe capitalism will become extinct or so mutated that we won't recognize it.

Summits are only as good as the people attending them. Consensus can be a deceptive thing and it can be weighted one way or another depending on the invitation list. If the unemployment summit produces more of the same old solutions, I believe we will be looking at 13% unemployment by next November. Then Rush Limbaugh will really have something to talk about.

A chance encounter

Ran into someone this morning from USA Today who got laid off from the newspaper at the same time I did last year. Neither of us previously knew the other had been laid off. We worked in different departments and only crossed paths on rare occasion in an office building that housed hundreds of employees. But seeing a familiar face today from the old stomping grounds was an unexpectedly positive experience.

He was at the paper for 23 years. I was there 13 years. He worked in production. I was an editor in the newsroom. But we were both part of the same overall "family." So when we saw each other in a coffee shop, it was like seeing fellow survivor of a plane crash on a deserted island a year after the wreck. You're just happy to see someone, anyone, alive.

We're both surviving but are without full-time jobs. Sadly, his house was foreclosed upon. I worry about the future every day, of course. Both of us agreed that we lost a part of our identities when we were removed from the family about a year ago. It's natural to feel a loss of more than just income when one loses a long-time job through no fault of their own. We know, in the dying newspaper field, resuming our careers is a long shot.

I think the brief coincidental encounter did both of us some good on another rainy Northern Virginia day. It reminded me that others were cutoff from their friends, livelihoods and identities on that December day in 2008. In some strange way, it was good to reconnect with a person who was in the same downed plane - to see another person on an island that often feels lifeless. From his expressions and body language, I think the feeling was mutual.

Newsprint still works for historic events

The Killeen Daily Herald set single-copy sales records in the aftermath of the Fort Hood shootings last week. You hear this quite often, after a tragedy or other big news event, that newspapers still sell out quickly. A Yankees World Series win meant big sales for the New York papers. Last year's presidential election was a banner day for national print publications like USA Today.

Yet, we also hear that the newspaper business is dying. Being a layoff victim of that industry, I often feel there is no future for print publications. But then along comes these big news days and customers flock to the stands to read all about the good, bad or ugly. And while readers also go the the news web sites, they seem to have a insatiable desire to feel paper in their hands when it comes to historic events.

I think there is a lesson for publishers and journalists in this phenomenon.

Jobs, war, meds and more

A recent article in the Fort Worth Star Telegram explained why being out of work now is tougher than it was in the early 1980s. While unemployment benefits are better in 2009, the chances of returning to work are worse, according to the article.

In another article in the Star Telegram, there are predictions that unemployment will remain high for several more years. Here's that story: http://www.star-telegram.com/461/story/1750451.html

So the stimulus money that was suppose to cap unemployment at around 8 percent hasn't worked. The wars that we were suppose to end and stop paying for once we got rid of President Bush are still raging on and may escalate in Afghanistan.

And all I hear President Obama and other Washington politicians talking about is health insurance.

I have lost a lot of faith in Obama. Smart guy who seems to be losing perspective rapidly. He's becoming a one-trick pony, which is not what we need right now. Personally, I don't want to see him on anymore golf courses or dates with Michelle on Broadway until he starts making progress to ease the unemployment problem and ends wars in two countries. If Bush was pulling this crap, everyone, including the media, would be screaming.

While medical insurance might eventually be reformed, is actual health care going to be improved? Are doctors going to start learning how to not shuttle patients through like they're on an assembly line? Are medical people going listen to patients and stop making diagnoses that are, in a word, wrong?

Mainstream doctors are far too quick to hand out antibiotics (which are actually far more dangerous than advertised) to the sick and Prozac to the emotionally troubled. My cat's vet spends more time with him than my doctors do with me, and offers more alternatives.

Many more folks might soon have insurance, but what kind of service and care are going to await all these new patients?

Pet peeve of the day. It would be a relief if media people stopped using the meaningless phrase, "on the ground." This started at the beginning of the Iraq war, when it was somewhat relevant in a military sense, but has now worked its way into almost every talking-head conversation that takes place about politics, Wall Street, real estate, sports, poker, baking...you name it. It's become filler. Needless drama. We don't need to hear that political advisers are "on the ground" in Iowa or students are "on the ground" at recess. Where else would they be?

In the grand scheme of things, this is fairly trivial stuff that I don't usually comment on here. But in light of all the Michael Jackson news this year, I can't help but wonder what's going on with former baseball star Sammy Sosa. Why is his skin turning so light as seen in the photo above (left) that is circulating around the Internet? Explanations seem to range from some sort of skin reconditioning to the aftermath of alleged steroid use. Or is he just going MJ?

Sniper faces the needle tonight

John Allen Muhammad is scheduled to die by lethal injection tonight at a state prison in Jarratt, Va. I have written about this case before so I won't rehash it.

The Supreme Court rejected an appeal, so there isn't much left to prevent the execution. Virginia is one of the top three death penalty states and, regardless of which party is in power, governors don't often step in at the 11th hour to save a convicted felon here.

Locally, there is a lot being written in the newspapers and talked about on radio and TV today. The sniper attacks occurred about a year after 9/11, so folks were already on edge from the nearby Pentagon tragedy being fresh in their memories. Many felt the sniper attacks were another sign that the world was going to Hell.