It's Armistice Day

Today is 11-11-11. For out friends across the sea that's 11-11-11. On this day in 1918, an armistice between the Germany Empire and the Allied Powers ended hostilities on the Western Front. As Germany was the last of the Central Powers still fighting, this essentially ended the Great War. In many countries, today is a holiday. In the US, we call it Veteran's Day. In most countries, today is the day that they remember those who died in war. In the US, Memorial Day, under various names, was already set aside for that purpose and Armistice Day eventually evolved into a day to recognise the service of living veterans.

Something in the neighborhood of sixty five million people served in the combined militaries of all the countries invoved in World War One. Today, only two are alive. When they are gone, the great War will truely have passed into history. The only vet whose service can be verified by records is Florence Green, who served in the Women's Royal Air Force during the last months of the war. In the US we have Andy Rasch, who claims to have run away at age sixteen and joined the Navy when we entered the war. It would be churlish to deny his his moment, so let's raise a glass to Andy and Florence.

And let's see that our living veterans get a fair shake for their service.

You guys are the best

I want to thank all of the people who have responded kindly to our plight: the retweeters, the bloggers, Facebookians, new customers, and those who dropped a kind word. It makes things a lot less painful to know that there are people like you out there.

I've just been Borazed

It's kind of like being Pharangulated, but it doesn't sound quite as dirty.

Welcome everyone.

The silver lining

An upside to begging is that today has been the blog's best trafficked day in months. And Saturdays are usually the slowest days. I wonder what will happen if I beg again on Monday.

We're broke

I didn't want to write this, but it is finally time to surrender my pride and start begging.

Tessa and I are unemployed, over 55, and broke. It's been over four years since I had a full-time job and almost three since she has. I had a part time-job for one of those years and we have both had some contract work as writers, but that has been drying up. We've gone through our savings. We've gone through my inheritance. We've gone through my 401k. Now we're only a few months away from finishing off her 401k. Our next step will be selling our house.

About eight years ago, Tessa started making some soaps and balms for her belly dancing friends. I already had a business license under the name Howling Pig, so I drew up a cute logo for her and she used that as her brand name. Tessa's real strength is in blending scents; the soap was just a medium to make the world a better-smelling place. Her friends loved her products and, encouraged, she started making lotions and body sprays and selling them at belly dancing events. We began talking about Howling Pig as something we might develop into a source of supplemental income for our retirement.

By 2008, I only had a part-time, contract job and Tessa was unhappy and feeling trapped in her full time job. We decided to take a shot at turning Howling Pig into something serious. We built a website, bought some equipment, applied to fairs, bought a tent, had cards and a sign printed, and filed the appropriate tax paperwork with the state. We also decided to sell at a weekly farmers' market. Two weeks after our first market, the stock market tanked. Three months after that, Tessa was laid off when her company decided to move their operations to China.

As I mentioned, we have had some writing jobs since then, but our only regular income has been from Howling Pig. And there hasn't been much of that. The Pig brings in about a tenth of what we need to keep going. In 2009, we thought that if we maintained a presence, we would build a customer base and things would be okay when the economy recovered. It actually looked like that was starting to happen during the first half of 2010. April looked good. May was our best month to date. Then June happened. As soon as the Republicans decided on their election strategy of deficit fear, business went flat and then went down hill. Most market vendors and small businesses I know have experienced the same thing. Gifts and small luxuries are an easy thing for the middle class to give up when they are fearing economic Armageddon.

So, here's the deal. I could put up a PayPal button and ask for direct donations--I probably will, soon. But that's only a temporary fix. I'm sure our online friends would help us cover the bills for a month or two, but what we need is a regular income. I need a job. I'm an experienced writer (help files, documentation, light marketing, UI text), but I'm essentially unemployable (over 55, over-educated, unemployed for over four years, and a resume that looks like an explosion at the jigsaw puzzle factory). Still, the best situation would be if I could get a regular job while Tessa gives Howling Pig a little longer. If anyone has connections in Seattle that need a smart guy, who is a fast learner, and has an amazing skill set and broad knowledge base, please point them at me.

There is something else you can do that is good for you and for us. Buy our stuff. Really. Tessa's scents are unique and wonderful. All of her products are gentle, simple, cruelty free (plant-based ingredients and no animal testing, unless I count), and labeled with an attractive and amusing pig. We're into gift season, now. Buy some for your friends. Buy some for your family. Buy some for yourself. You'll get to do a good deed, you'll get something wonderful in return, and we'll get to remain part of the middle class and keep our house.

Please use your Facebook, Google+, Twitter, or blog to point people at the business website. Thanks. I love you all.

I vote for number three

Republican Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin issued a statement today explaining why the state's strict new voter ID law is no problem.

There are more photo ID’s currently issued than there are registered voters in Wisconsin.

As I see it, this statement can be interpreted several ways:

1. Walker thinks everyone in Wisconsin already has an ID.
   
2. Walker thinks people who don't vote also don't drive.
   
3. Walker thinks sixteen year olds can vote.
   
4. Walker is dumb as a post and believes all of the above.
   
5. Walker believes we're dumb as posts and will believe one of the above.
   
6. Walker is play a dog whistle game with the paranoid right and wants them to think Democrats have been stockpiling multiple IDs to commit massive voter fraud.

Obviously, he hates freedom

Ronald Reagan was once the president of that Screen Actors' Guild, so it is safe to say he's the favorite labor leader of conservative Americans. But if such a thing even exists, who would you say is the conservative movement's second favorite labor leader? Take a minute. I'll give you a clue. Probably only older conservatives will know the name--cold war conservatives. If you said the man who Reagan called "one of the world’s greatest labor leaders," anti-Soviet activist, Solidarność leader, and eventually president of Poland Lech Wałęsa, buy yourself a drink.

Now, of all living labor leaders, who would be the most problematic one to join the Occupy Wall Street protesters? If you said the man who Reagan called "one of the world’s greatest labor leaders," anti-Soviet activist, Solidarność leader, and eventually president of Poland Lech Wałęsa--well, you dont deserve another drink, because it was a gimmee, but put a paper unbrella in that drink because that's who's flying to New York this week.

"How could I not respond," Walesa told a Polish newspaper Wednesday. "The thousands of people gathered near Wall Street are worried about the fate of their future, the fate of their country. This is something I understand."

A former shipyard worker who led Poland's successful revolt against Soviet communism, Walesa said "capitalism is in crisis" and not just in America.

"This is a worldwide problem," he told the Lublin-based Dziennik Wschodni newspaper. "The Wall Street protesters have focused a magnifying glass on the problem."

About that King quote

Rep. Peter King (R-NY), the former IRA supporter whose main claim to fame these days is holding endless hearings to demonize American Muslims, does not like the Occupy Wall Street protesters. That hardly makes him unique among Republicans. GOP presidential contenders, talking heads and members of Congress have been lining up to condemn the protesters. But something King said the other day has me curious. Appearing on Laura Ingraham's radio show, after calling the protesters "anarchists," "anti-American," and a "ragtag mob," King went on to say this:

We have to be careful not to allow this to get any legitimacy. I'm taking this seriously in that I'm old enough to remember what happened in the 1960s when the left-wing took to the streets and somehow the media glorified them and it ended up shaping policy. We can't allow that to happen.

That comment has been floating around FaceBook today in poster form. Notice, he's not talking about the culture of sixties protest. He's not upset about drugs, sex, and rock and roll. He's talking about the actual policies that the sixties protesters pushed into the mainstream.

I need to ask you Mr. King, which of those policies do you think were so bad. Was it ending segregation and expanding equality for African Americans? Was it allowing younger people to vote? Maybe it was equal pay for women. Or cleaning up our air and water. Or perhaps it was the demand that we end a pointless war that had already killed and maimed tens of thousands of young Americans and appeared unwinnable. Which of those things do you find so horrible Mr. King?

My wife says--and I agree--that many middle aged conservatives seem to be motivated by nothing more than bitterness over their experiences in the sixties and seventies. They were out of step with the prevailing culture of that time and they want to retroactively take revenge on it by undoing the accomplishments of those years. They pretend that there are principles behind their actions, but it's really just emotional payback for some. In the same interview, King called the protesters "a bunch of angry 1960s do-overs." It looks to me like it is King who wants a do-over on the sixties.

Why would a conservative be against that?

The often confused Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) thinks President Obama's jobs plan is a secret plot to keep gays from getting married, or something like that.

This may be, uh-uh, something nice he’s throwing out for uh gay folks that are living together so he can tell them actually you’re better off not getting married, uh because there’s a marriage penalty here.

Or maybe it's an attack on straight marriage.

If you’re the head of a single household, you have an exemptions at $225,000. If you're all other cases $200,000. So it really penalizes married individuals ... But if you want to get divorced it is good news for you

No, it's definitely about the gays.

Now, of course, the founders, uh they all understood marriage to be between a man and a woman and um that's the way the history of the country's been.

Or, whatever.

This president, according to the power to, as the old saying goes, the power to tax, the power to destroy, takes a shot at uh conven-- traditional, conventional marriage.

Since Gohmert has so much trouble keeping even one thought clear in his head, I suppose it would be futile to point out that it is congress--specifically, his branch of congress--that has the power to tax (and destroy) and not the president.

Stop the presses!

OMG! Sudden, breaking, really, really, REALLY important news!! Chris Christie still isn't running for president!!!

We now return you to stuff that matters.