Mid-term elections are over. Prayer and mortification for 2008 can begin. Michael "The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese." - GK Chesterton

What seeds you see planted by media and political rhetoric? What truth is 'in the air', eh? Truth is, most don't want any real truth; and even less about He Who is the Only Reality in truth. I only see more of the same barbarisms over and over, with no end; and even 'better' barbarisms in sight. Fr. Pavone's optimism is fine, but the bureaucracies of this whole cultural melange are essentially owned by the culture of death. I have a funny feeling that we will end up at the bottom of the slippery slope before enough seed can be placed for the Water of Life to reach them. And, at that bottom we may meet Christ come back to exact justice for giving His mercy so futilely, waiting for hearts to change. Somewhere along the line, we failed to draw the line and make our stand; 'here they stop, and no farther will they go'. America, blessed, last best hope for humanity - we fail, all fail. I remain your obedient servant, but God's first, Pristinus Sapienter (wljewell @mail.catholicexchange.com or ...yahoo.com)

gk, You do have a way with words - I came out feeling I had to hocker one . . . Obama, 'my' senator, is one more chip off the old so-called progressive so-called liberal block. McCain is a cheap bully who hides behind his prior long term as a POW. Giuliani will do well if we can just get criminals into crime and someone to bomb buildings - he hasn't proved much else. Hillary? Hillary? Gore? Gore? (We could go on in that vein with Kerry?, et al but I ran out of emphaticoes in the hernia torquing misogynist lingo) . . . I say - - - (heralds and trumpets) - - -

MARY KOCHAN FOR PRESIDENT IN 2008!

aka as 'Joe User' and 'Maria Lupina', the worthy Mrs. Kochan can take on these lesser creatures while teaching her grandchildren how a brownie can be like the Eucharist. I remain your obedient servant, but God's first, Pristinus Sapienter (wljewell @mail.catholicexchange.com or ...yahoo.com)

O-Bam-Bam is offered to the Afri-Amer empowerment voting bloc (as contrasted to whites voting as a racist bloc) as some kind of 'new messiah' (as he, a la McCain, sees himself). However, he is really nothing more (ain't much less to go) than a glorified rubber-stamp of liberal Democratic interests. By inference - not much different from Al 'Somebody Named Gore Invented Everything' Gore. Like Gore, he may have brains, but he sure doesn't seem to use them to lead in any direction any sensible person should want to go. Then again, I think that 'sensible' has something to do with faithful Judeao-Christian morality. He appeals to women, most especially, much as does Oprah. He offers a secular 'feel-good' 'faith'. In fact, expect Oprah to put twenty million behind him, should he decide he should be President. (She already thinks that he should be; testimony to 'bloc' and the political penury of the Democratic Party . . . though, the Republicans may not be far behind.) I can't run - I'm the lady Mary's campaign 'go-fer'. I remain your obedient servant, but God's first, Pristinus Sapienter (wljewell @mail.catholicexchange.com or ...yahoo.com)

"Mid-term elections are over. Prayer and mortification for 2008 can begin." It isn't just the end of the mid-term elections that should impel prayer and mortification. And one need not contemplate November 2008 to find a need. In the Middle Ages the Saracens were sometimes called "The hammer of God" wrecking the wrath of God on the faithless pseudo-Christians. Beware it does not happen again. Old Sigma

From where does an increase in the minimum wage come? Where do the entry level jobs go when the minimum wage rises? My parents always thoguht min wage increases were the union's gift but I saw the gain eroded in the blink of an eye by price increases. If you want to increase the minimum wage earned, increase the minimum education acquired. I do not want a command economy to wreck what little freedom there remains. Old Sigma

Sigma, My 'anon' crack was tongue in cheek - then, the other cheek . . . Minimum wage might work as a second-year-on-the-job thing, whereby the first year the employer and employee bargain on functions and income. Both will know what can come by the anniversary of that first year. Then both have some hunch and can make a decision about whether the job/worker is for them. Even in this, that minimum wage should be a calculation based on wage at the end of the first year; the employer might bump the wages of his best entry-level recruits. This might be, say, a mandated fifty percent pay hike. This recognizes that there are risks to hiring at even low levels of pay; in turn, the solid worker has some productive ideas about how to get that first year pay at a decent level by pay-hike-calculation time. I remain your obedient servant, but God's first, Pristinus Sapienter (wljewell @mail.catholicexchange.com or ...yahoo.com)

Remember, the 50% is based on an initial negotiated wage (plus any mutually satisfying increases within the year). The employer does know what he is in for a year hence from hiring. Maybe, the actual one-year-aniiversary-increase can be part of their negotiations(?). Floor, then, might be 20%. Yes, such year would be probationary as well as 'entry'. Both would be alert to 1) as employer, note value and 2) as employee, seek the best way to give value. Such an alert outlook may also foster valuable communication as the year goes along. As an added plus for many, the employer has to be more proprietorial than bureaucratic, and the employee will find a proprietorial superior much more 'superior' as his authority. I remain your obedient servant, but God's first, Pristinus Sapienter (wljewell @mail.catholicexchange.com or ...yahoo.com)

Future loutishness cannot withstand a year of scrutiny by some guy whose own (budgeted/accounted) money is on the table. The candidate will give himself away - for better or for worse - well before the year is out. Then again, given a whole year of each other, the employer may guide the lout out of his natural doltishness; the employee has to consider if he really wants to have to start at the 'entry'/bottom level some other place. Apprenticeship in most fields is precluded by our modern education system (so-called as it may be, even as a vocational service.) Most 'masters' are too busy with long schedules of production to so mentor as an apprentice requires. Any master requiring three years to detect lack of talent just ain't no master. Most trades journeymen can pick out a misplaced soul in a week. Further, our economy had become one of bureaucratic rather than proprietorial interests. Again, for better or for worse, no master-apprentice work relationship is possible outside full proprietorial standards and expectations all around. The arrangement of the probationary year gives bureaucratic management a means to perform in proprietorial and masterful ways, as the worker has a year to fit in as a virtual apprentice. Government involvement? Can any of these egos stay out of anything? They would have minimum impact on the economy and the jobs by simply fostering a long-term trial scheme for jobs that had any mandated wage floor kicking in only after the employer knows what he is getting with his employee. * I remain your obedient servant, but God's first, Pristinus Sapienter (wljewell @mail.catholicexchange.com or ...yahoo.com)

P.S.: "Any master requiring three years to detect lack of talent just ain't no master. Most trades journeymen can pick out a misplaced soul in a week."

I would agree if the field of endeavour were rather smaller than larger. How long is a medical internship, ordinarily? Excuse me for splitting the thread of this response, please. I do not see where a mandated floor will do any good. It is a "feel-good" sort of action by politicians pandering for re-election. As more people become economically sophisticated this sort of deception will pass. Unfortunately, great damage is being done meanwhile.

Regards,

Old Sigma

I am from AZ and McCain is not the answer. The general population of the U.S. is worried about so many inconsequential things (see "American Idol") that we are missing our country seeping down the drain. Multi-millionaires in congress from both sides will not represent us. It may be time to trash the two-party system before they sell us to China.

Brother Roy, If you "have no sympathies of any race color or creed" what did you mean by "A new race of people are coming and will rule this nation and you and I will be a very deprived minority."

Regards,

Old Sigma

PS for CE Technical Support: The navigation options (1 2 Next, etc) for a long thread need to appear at the top of the thread as well as at the bottom.