This is the real unemployment number. Yep, one in six Americans are out of work or are severely underemployed. Yet, the government wants the public to focus on the misleading 10.2% number it released on Friday - not that the lesser number is anything to feel good about. Read the whole truth here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/07/business/economy/07econ.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1257606205-mqGmdpcBD0gTILkBBxWlIg

And just to dispel the notion that it's easy to find a job in areas like Washington, D.C., take a look at this article. Even jobs at the mall are hard to come by. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/06/AR2009110603958.html?hpid=newswell

However one wants to juggle statistics, there is no escaping the fact that most employers aren't hiring and some are getting ready for more layoffs. Those layoff victims from severely failing industries virtually have no hope of being rehired. Those wanting to transition to other careers have to get in line behind the folks who already have experience in those fields. After a certain age that just doesn't become a feasible wait.

While statistics show that those who are over 50 are less likely to lose their jobs than younger workers (probably due to the last-hired first fired protocol some businesses use), other stats indicate that if you are in the minority of older workers who get the boot, your chances of reentering the workplace are extremely poor. One article I read recently said that those who are 30something and in hiring positions don't like hiring their "parents."

In light of these facts, I can't help thinking about my layoff at USA Today last year and how it was particularly cruel. The search for viable work goes on, of course, but the odds are getting worse by the day according to the unemployment numbers, trends and the many first-hand tales being told by average Joes who have been looking for work longer than me.

Alleged Fort Hood gunman went to Va. Tech

A lot has been written about the Fort Hood (Texas) shootings in the last 24 hours. I can't really add much to the conversation about the horror of what occurred there.

But there is something that caught my eye. The alleged gunman is a graduate of Virginia Tech.

There have been so many tragedies connected to that university in the last three years that it's getting hard to keep track. Of course, April 16, 2007, when 32 students were gunned down, remains the darkest day in that school's history and is something that I have personal ties to.

There have been other tragic connections to Tech in recent months and years, including a murder near campus a few months prior to the April 16 massacre.

Last year, there was a beheading on campus. Yes, someone was killed right out in the open.

Recently, a student from VT disappeared after a Metallica concert at the University of Virginia. She has not been found.

And in 2008, two students from Virginia Tech were murdered while camping.

Throw in Michael Vick's (a former star football player at VT) horrendous dog-fighting conviction, and it's getting a little hard to comprehend how many high-profile crimes have been related to Virginia Tech in some way in a very short period of time. That is not to say these things are not just simply coincidences. Probably are. Still, I am unaware of any other university that is in national headlines as often as Tech has been since 2007. At least not for this type of stuff.

Blacksburg, Va., where the Virginia Tech is located, is a very small town in the middle of nowhere. The closest city of any mentionable size is Roanoke, about 30 miles away. Many of Tech's students are from Northern Virginia and the D.C. suburbs, about a four-hour drive.

Thirty years ago, Va. Tech was where state students went who didn't have the grades (or money) for the University of Virginia. But now Tech is considered an academically competitive school. It's known for its strong engineering program, powerhouse football team and its tight-knit community. In addition, Tech alumni, students and educators are fiercely protective of their school's image and loyal to a point of being a bit unsettling to "outsiders."

Unfortunately, and for whatever reason, Tech is also associated with some pretty horrific events in recent years. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the accused gunman at Fort Hood, is just the latest name in the news to be connected to the school. It's getting odd, to say the least.

More than financial help is needed

When I first heard about the shooting in an Orlando, Fla., office building today, the first thing that came to mind was whether the gunman might be a recently terminated employee. Sure enough, Jason Rodriguez, 40, who killed one person and injured five others, was an engineer who was let go from his job two years ago. The termination, however, appears to have been performance related rather than a layoff due to the economy. Here's the story: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/os-shooting-reported-downtown-orlando-20091106,0,7958763.story

While there are allegations that Rodriguez was emotionally unstable, one has to wonder about the millions of out-of-work people who might be in need of more than just financial assistance as jobs continue to dry up. Emotional issues are bound to arise for longtime unemployed people. A little awareness now might go a long way in preventing future workplace tragedies, domestic violence and other mental health disorders brought on by a dismal economy.

Unemployment increases to 10.2%

The news today is worse than expected. Unemployment jumped the 10 percent mark. The unemployment rate only measures the number of people actively seeking work. Many have stopped looking for a job for various reasons. And many more have become underemployed and are hanging on by a thread. They are not counted in the unemployment figures. They have little hope of returning to once vibrant careers.

Meanwhile, layoffs continue. Businesses are still closing. Borders books announced this week that it will close many of its smaller stores. Storefronts remain empty. The newspaper business, the profession I worked in for 29 years, continues to get rid of journalists, ad reps, circulation managers and others.

It's hard to see anything positive happening in this so-called economic recovery.

Update: Read more about the real number of out of work or underemployed people at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/07/business/economy/07econ.html?_r=1&hp

Dumbing down, fattening up of young people

Even the U.S. Army doesn't want most of America's young people. The Army is rejecting most would-be recruits because they are too dumb and/or too fat. When teenagers can't even qualify to go get shot at in Afghanistan or Iraq, something is seriously wrong with the way kids are being raised and educated these days. Here's the story: http://www.sphere.com/2009/11/03/70-percent-of-young-americans-are-unfit-for-military-duty/?icid=main|main|dl1|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sphere.com%2F2009%2F11%2F03%2F70-percent-of-young-americans-are-unfit-for-military-duty%2F

Wondering what 2012 will really bring

Get ready for a barrage of movies, television shows and magazine articles relating to the end of the world. According to some, the Maya calendar, which expires in 2012, is a predictor of global doom. Don't doubt for a second that Hollywood won't jump all over this far-out theory.

I don't believe the end of the world will come in one swift impact by an asteroid or an all-out nuclear exchange. I think the end days will come slowly, with different species going extinct and storms worsening and man's collective soul weakening. If you concur, then you might even speculate that the end times have already begun.

Of course, it's not as sexy to make a movie about something that might take thousands of years to play out.

I often wonder what the end will look like? Will it be a mass exodus of mankind? Or will we be taken one by one, act by act, in a methodical way? Perhaps the bees will disappear, then the vegetation. Or maybe we will just get tired of being tired. Lose our drive, until we no longer innovate. Without innovation, will we be able to conquer future pandemics or escape to other planets when the sun finally calls it quits?

We live in troubled economic times with people losing everything they have ever had, including a sense of themselves. With each loss - a job, a house, a loved one - comes a sense of things disappearing on us lately. Eventually, spirits are broken, which explains in part why there is so much depression in the world. One's life can only be dismantled so much before it become unrecognizable and impossible to rebuild. Some are able to remain positive through all of the darkness, but many are succumbing to the endless stream of bad news. I am hearing a lot of down voices of late.

I have bounced back from several tragedies in my life, but admittedly know that with each reconstruction comes an underlying loss of energy to rebuild again if need be. It's like asking folks in New Orleans to bounce back from five consecutive Katrina's. Yeah, we all treasure New Orleans as a unique American city, but at some point our will would be broken and we'd have to abandon the city if disasters kept occurring there. And when we do that we are, in a sense, at an end.

Some say that 2012 will only be the end of a certain phase of mankind and that we will enter a new age. If that's true, I say bring it on because what is happening now isn't working. Everything from global warming to uncontrolled greed is governing this planet. Heck, we're running out of drinking water and some believe there will be no more seafood in the oceans in 50 years. And these are fairly smart people predicting this stuff. So I would say we need a collective adjustment of our consciousness, not to mention our intellect, to extricate ourselves from the messes we're creating.

While the environment and collapsing economy get a lot of attention, I believe we are failing as a species in small ways that are equally troubling. Just in my lifetime I have seen a decay in the quality of life in this country. While technology has improved in areas such as health care, a decline in service has been abundant. Remember when doctors came to your house when you were sick and they weren't racing the clock to get to their next patient? Was kind of nice and reassuring, and might have even helped in the healing process. In fact, I'd sacrifice the fancy thermometers to go back to doctors making house calls.

Remember when there was a difference between Republicans and Democrats?

Remember when strangers made conversation while standing in line and didn't have a cellphones attached to their ears?

Remember when employers were loyal to good employees, which in turn created a vibrant economy? Wasn't that long ago that we actually manufactured stuff in this country.

Remember when substance scored more points than style?

There is a lot that I do hope goes extinct in 2012.

Veal, for instance, is a product we can do without. What a horrendous, over-the-top abuse of our dominance over animals. Where shall we draw the line when it comes to satisfying our every craving? In the minds of some, there are no lines. Of course, there is also a thing called karma.

The word "like" needs to be banned from the vocabulary of females under the age of 25. OK, by comparison to other problems, this one is fairly minor. But damn, have you heard how 16-year-old girls speak these days? I think it might take some realignment of the planets to solve this problem!

Realty TV needs to be less about trivial people and their idiotic problems and more about real issues such as putting an end to domestic violence, corporate greed and corrupt politicians.

I was watching an interview of a senior scientist the other night who was expressing his disappointment with our inability to cure cancer. According to this scientist, all the information we need to beat cancer is currently in our possession. The pieces to the puzzle are there. But because of the way research is at the mercy of big business (including drug companies, HMOs, etc.) and money is misspent on a host of unproductive ventures, it might be many more decades before a cure is available. Government, of course, isn't helping matters. It seems a cure for cancer is like anything else. Everyone with a title has a hand in the pot, so nothing truly ever gets done in a timely or efficient fashion. Maybe this too shall pass.

If 2012 doesn't lead to massive tidal waves and earthquakes, I do hope we can improve as a species and a culture. We've become too reliant on technology to solve our problems and are losing our connection to a more powerful source that lies within all of us. Science can help but it can't solve all of our problems, especially when science is profit-driven.

We've become too entitled. Our values are slipping to the point where the nuts often run the nuthouses (this is seen in workplaces, schools and other institutions) - where perceptions and instant gratification are more important than hard work and integrity. Those who are trying to make a difference are being crushed by the masses of people who just want to tune into Survivor and catch the latest sale at mall.

It's fun to watch a special-effects movie every now and then. The graphic eye-candy is quite astonishing. But I wonder if Hollywood would dare make a film that touches on what needs to change in 2012, if not sooner -- changes that don't involve exploding pyramids and bridges? I wonder if anyone would go watch a movie about spiritual transformation and heightened awareness? Or will these types of movies become extinct along with other art forms and societal values?

December of 2012, when some say the world will end, isn't that far off. Even closer, and more realistic, are personal catastrophes about to happen if we don't break this cycle of business as usual in this country. America is no longer top dog when it comes to influencing the global economy. China has passed us by while we were eating Cheetos and watching American Idol. We can't keep treating ourselves and each other like crap and expect things to work out.

I don't know if the Maya calendar has any meaning whatsoever, but I do have an increasing feeling that we've lost our way or are at the end of a journey. I don't think we necessarily need to go backwards. Instead, I think we need to reach higher, move forward, but in smarter ways. Can we do that, however, while being force fed things we don't really need in our lives? Can we become more technologically advanced and intellectually competetive while also nurturing our collective awareness of where we are on this planet?

Virginia election a wake-up call

Republicans swept the three top offices in Virginia tonight.

My take on that is that we've reached a point where voters will give the boot to incumbent parties if unemployment continues to climb each year. Even in a relatively prosperous state like Virginia - a state that has been turning more Democrat in the last decade - jobs are the No. 1 issue according to the polls.

This is a state that voted for President Obama last November but tonight elected Bob McDonnell as governor by a 20-point margin over the Democrat, Creigh Deeds. And while the Commonwealth has done better than many states in retaining jobs, the fact remains that far too many folks are unemployed or are living in fear of becoming jobless soon. A lot of people are also underemployed, which is an under-reported but nonetheless growing problem in the higher-cost-of-living parts of the state.

I don't think the answer to unemployment lies with either party. But I am relatively certain that incumbents will continue to fall in future elections if people continue to lose jobs or are unable to get back to work at a reasonably similar level to their prior positions.

Whether you believed him or not, McDonnell was not shy about calling himself the jobs candidate during the campaign. Now we will see if he truly becomes the jobs governor. We already know from his own words that he's not a proponent of taking federal money to help extend unemployment benefits in the state, which is disturbing to say the least. But most unemployed people would gladly trade a state benefits check for paycheck.

The clock is ticking for many jobless Virginians. Time has expired for some who have lost their homes, and others are looking for cheaper digs in other states while they still have a few bucks in the bank.

The Republicans are now in the hot seat and must fix the problem if they want to remain in office. The Obama administration needs to step up efforts nationally to get people back to work or else face many more political casualties during next year's mid-term elections.

The Virginian elections were an unmistakable warning shot fired by citizens who are growing tired of change that hasn't really changed anything. Unemployment continues to climb, we're still pouring billions into war and bailed-out corporations are still handing out millions of dollars in bonuses while laying off workers.

It appears to a growing number of voters that politicians in Richmond and Washington aren't feeling their pain. Tonight, the tables were turned.

Candidate calls annoying voters

I will be glad when Election Day passes. Our home phone has not stop ringing in the last few days. Seems local and state candidates think they can win the favor of voters by calling day and night with automated messages about their campaigns. These calls are annoying and seem to do nothing other than turn people sour on the candidates. Do these campaign gurus really think that voters are going to be swayed by these hit-and-run recorded calls? If anything, candidates are going to lose votes by pestering people in their homes with shallow political messages.