Alan Keyes vs. Barack Obama?

Ah, someone is suggesting a few approaches that may help. Thanks!

I'm particularly fond of the "address the complexities of individual situations in a manner that hasn't yet been appraoched on a broad scale" suggestion.

That's absolutely what I felt was missing during my say in the Hotel Hell. Nobody wanted to be responsible for doing something that wasn't done -- something that was out of the ordinary -- because nobody had any real individual authority to effect change in the life of the "client".

If what was keeping the client unemployed was lack of mobility, no one really had the authority to sign for a bus pass. Oh, they probably could have, but that would have been against "policy". If what was keeping the client out of work was special to that client, nobody wanted to be "the only one" following some innovative means of assisting that person.

Because if we help Poor Bugger A this way, everyone's gonna expect it. Poor Bugger B's gonna want the same treatment. Equal treatment under law means equally mediocre treatment in practice.

But people are unemployed (or even "unemployable") for different reasons. Sometimes is health, sometimes it's attitude, sometimes it's lack of resources, sometimes it's lack of motivation.

Perhaps the people who design these plans feel that invididualized treatment of the causes of unemployed would "cost too much", but really, what is the total cost of cookie-cutter treatment if it produces "lifers"? How much (in the big picture) could the state have saved (in fiscal terms and in terms of human collateral) had it taken an individualized approach to the 40-year-old man's case? If they'd just listened to the birds singing for a minute, instead of their "policies" and suggested an individualized plan of treatment?

And I say treatment because the whole thing sure feels like an illness in need of treatment, more than just some kind of social phenomenon.

Maybe if each social worker had a bit of a discretionary budget that could be used in innovative ways by that worker? Maybe if the "clients" had some say in their own get-to-work plans?

I don't know. Something's gotta give, though, or the cost of doing biznih will continue to rise as the "next generation" walks into the older generation's shoes.

 

Touro

Mr Cross,

Nice to see another Conservative Touro person here Dean Luchins must be having a fit

Mike Wallin
Past President
Touro College Republicans
Youth For Reagan

 

"Reagan Youth"

"Reagan Youth" always had a more realistic ring about it to me....

 

Operation Wino Storm

Here is a simple way to get the bums off the streets. It would only cost a few bucks for cheep booze and shopping carts and the transport planes to Iraq, soon they will be panhandling over there and leave the rest of us alone . I humbly call it "Operation Wino Storm" . First we offer a free shopping cart full of "thunderbird" or "Ripple" and then we put them on a C-130 cargo plane as the plane fills up with panhandlers we fly them to Iraq and they can beg for change there greatly reducing the amount of people asking me for spare change on my way to school

 

Re: Operation Wino Storm

Finally a sensible idea.

 

Re: Operation Wino Storm

There but for the grace of God go I.

 

I knew a single mother with no education or skills that managed to get a government job a few miles out of a small town.

She needed a few hundred dollars to get her car running and could not get it from welfare. Result - no job.

I guess she could have spent 2 hours daily walking down a busy highway but probably didn't consider it an option.

What welfare workers seem to forget is that their clients have probably tapped out all the favours from family and friends and that there are no options left. The friend that has driven her to the grocery store for the last 2 years doesn't want more.

Welfare is all about warehousing and nothing about solutions.

 

I think the expression penny smart and dollar stupid was invented for just such situations. I saw it again and again when I was on the dole. The system as it existed then (don't know about now) was a collection of catch-22's. (Can't find a job because you can't afford to go to interviews or go about handing around resumes, can't afford these things because you don't have a job....)

As I've said already, I am not unappreciative that society had in place a safety net to catch me and mine when we needed it most. But nothing in the system seemed engineered to get me out of the hole. I had to do it without assistance.

And I don't project my ability to do it onto others. It took brass ones. There are plenty of reasons why not everyone has brass ones.

 

All,

Here is a link to the interview with Allan Keyes on NPR’s All Things Considered (Monday August 9th). He tries very hard to explain why what he is doing is selfless and why what Hillary Clinton did was opportunistic.

http://www.npr.org/rundowns/segment.php?wfId=3841747

I’ll withhold my analysis and let folks judge for themselves. As I've said... should be fun to watch.

Have a good morning,
Tony

 

GETTING RIDICULOUS!

Ebay gone wild selling napkin with Keyes' sweat! Current bid as of this post, $465! I'm a political items collector but will pass on this one!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=39723&item=3924884114&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

 

Its a mad, mad, mad, mad world...

Huh?? Again, I like Keyes (although I don’t approve of his running in IL)… but selling sweaty napkins. I’ll bet the campaign reform law didn’t see that one coming. Just more proof that the Apocalypse is upon us.

Cheers,
Tony