Huluhae endorses Kucinich for President '04

NayNay's Huluhae Page
Vote Dennis Kucinich President '04

Crazed Ramblings from my Mind:

Jaimee Kitten!

Say hello to the newest member of our family, and the newest member of team kitty. Little Jaimee is so adorable! Her purr has no off switch, I swear. She looks like a mini-Sammy, too.

Hey ladies! Having trouble losing those last fifteen stubborn pounds? Sick of low-fat, low-carb, low-taste, dessert-free diets that seem to do nothing to tone your thickening waistline? Then get a job as a substitute daycare provider. An eight hour day will give you all the exercise you could possibly need. First, spend your mornings strength training with infants and toddlers. Pick them up to change their diapers, pick them up to stop their crying, pick them up to rock them to sleep, and pick them up because they're just so darned cute. Then, for your cardiovascular workout, be sure to spend a couple of hours each day chasing four and five year olds around a playground. That weight will drop off in no time!

Well, I've learned something really fascinating tonite. The word heighth, which I always used to mean height compared between two or more people, as in my heighth is less than hers, is considered archaic. Imagine that. Now I'm wondering if I should continue to use it for the old-timey feel. Probably, since I like it, and I'm used to it. Maybe it should be added to the recycled words list.

My how time flies. It's already been a month since our wedding reception and I am just now getting pictures of that on here. It was thrown by Matt's parents and was a very beautiful affair. His mom did all the planning, and it turned out fabulous. The highlights were getting to meet members of the Kazmar-MacLagan clan I had never seen, a huge cake, and of course, presents! Hey, I'm just a big kid at heart, I love unwrapping presents. Click here for page one, here for page two, and here for page three.

Nay's Recipe Corner

I've never skiied the Andes Mountains, or snorkled along the Great Barrier Reef, but when it comes to new foods I'm the most adventuresome person I know. Here's a quick and tasty treat that I came up with the other day. At least I thought it was tasty. Matt took one look at it and refused to try it. I really don't blame him, it doesn't look like anything you'd serve to company. First, slice a kiano, also known as an African horned melon, open over a bowl. Marvel at the jelly-like consistency. Now, you're supposed to carefully scoop out the fruit with a spoon, but I find that rather boring. Instead, do like I did and stab your spoon into the fruit one good time to make a hole, then squeeze the fruit into the bowl. Laugh like a child, it's funny! Now slice a banana into it. Squirt some honey in there. I happen to like honey so I used a lot. You might hate honey and decide not to use any. I really don't care how you decide to do it. Stir it up a tad and add some ground cinnamon on top. Mmm boy! That there's some good eatin'!

Matt's Rant!

Guest section by Matt

Other thoughts on this whole offshoring/outsourcing mess.

Dubya says that small businesses employ more people total than large businesses, so gub'mint should be encouraging small business growth with the typical tax incentives and what not. Of course, in typical Dubya fashion, he is not seeing the forest for the trees.

Factories, corporations, schools, and other large businesses are the core of any successful town or city. Small business see the bulk of their revenues come from customers who are the employees of these large companies in town.

How should the partnership between large corporations and small businesses work? Take 2 towns. One has a factory that builds cars. The other has a major office for a large insurer. People buy cars (indirectly) from the factory in the first town. So, money from the 2nd town flows to the first town. Of course, people need insurance for their cars, so they buy from the company in the second town. Money flows back to the second town. The employees of the factory and corp use their money to buy goods and services from the local merchants.

See, the thing is, large corporations have the ability to move goods and services around that small businesses lack. This is a simplistic example of free trade.

Unfortunately, I think Dubya only sees the simple example of free trade and assumes it works for all nations. That's why he is desperately trying to solve America's employment woes with more free trade agreements - and claiming that he has confidence in America's ability to be competitive. In my honest opinion, product wise we are the best, but we can't compete on cost.

Free trade within a country versus free trade between countries are two totally different concepts. Within a country such as the United States, costs of living are fairly similar throughout the nation, as are the laws regarding employment, pollution, etc. so free trade does not disadvantage the worker. Also, if there is a job shortage in one part of the United States, it is easy enough to move to a different city. Free trade between nations usually does not take place on a level playing field.

Take the example of the textile worker in the rural Southeast United States. A nice home is $75000 or less. Property taxes are next to nothing. I figure I could make $10 an hour there and live happily. That's about what the textile mills were paying. Also, the mills are subject to OSHA standards, pollution regulations, etc. Compare that to China or Indonesia. People work in sweat shops with no standards for anything, you get hurt, you get fired. No medical insurance or any other benefits. Wages are $.25 per hour. Obviously, it is much cheaper to do business in China. So what happens because of free trade? All the textile jobs go to this other country. So it is with all manufacturing these days. An American worker/factory cannot compete on cost with a Chinese worker/factory. So the end result? Massive unemployment in those factory cities.

In my simplistic free trade example, I mentioned a car maker and an insurance company. Now this car factory is in Mexico. All the workers from the factory are unemployed. They can't afford insurance, so they drop it. The support industries, the small businesses, in the town close down. Poverty skyrockets.

So what happens next? Because the factories are closing down and a lot less people have money, the insurance company sees its revenue drop off. So what do they do in this free trade environment? The call up the local offshorer, outsource their IT, claims, and actuarial services to India and lay off half their local staff. Now the same thing that happens in the factory town happens in the corp town.

Meanwhile the CEOs of both the car maker and the insurer are enjoying record salaries as their workers hope to sell their homes before foreclosure and small business owners are declaring bankruptcy.

None of this would happen if the cost for the Chinese worker/factory were the same as the American worker/factory or if the Indian developer needed the same as an American worker to live comfortably.

So the end result of Offshoring/Free trade? Massive poverty for America (and Europe), still massive poverty in China and Indonesia (you don't think that $.25 is a living wage even for China do you? haha), and the CEOs, executives, and bought politicians laughing all the way to the bank (which incidentally outsourced most operations to India.)

Of course, Dubya, with his dubious education, doesn't see it that way. He ponders, why isn't free trade making everyone as rich as my pals? Or maybe not since he doesn't read newspapers or watch the news.

Stop the cycle! Buy American (its still possible) and don't do business with companies that offshore - and for chrissakes, vote for candidates that works for FAIR trade laws that benefit the American working family.

Fact! Opinion! Whatever!

I have a bone to pick with womens' jeans manufacturers. I'd like to know what the hell have they been smoking to come up with their ridiculous excuse for a sizing system. When Matt buys jeans all he has to worry about is finding a pair that fits his waist and inseam size. A thirty inch waist is a thirty inch waist, no matter what brand. Another complaint I have is why can't womens' pants have a more reasonable length to their inseams? I went through every store in two malls trying to find a pair of jeans that fit well and they all have inseams that would drag the ground if I didn't roll the cuffs halfway up my leg. I'm sure there is the occasional woman who needs a 35 inch inseam but trust me, there aren't too many out there. Most woman are my height give or take a couple of inches. A comfortable inseam for me is 30 to 31 inches. Sure, rolling up the cuffs is okay for casual, dry weather days, but on wet sloppy rainy days, or days I have to look presentable I don't want to look like a little girl playing dress-up in her mommy's closet. The solutions are simple, use waist and inseams measurements for jeans and other pants, and don't market the majority of them with a 35 inch inseam. Trust me, I'm not the only woman who'll be much happier.

I'd love to hear from you! Please Sign my Guest Book

Links!

This is my best friend, Rachel's, permanent site. Be sure to sign her guestbook!
My other site, NayNay's MST3K Page
Daily Dirt, one of my favorite websites.
Interesting alternate news site. Don't get all your news from Fox.
Satellite News, a great Mystery Science Theater Site.

Email Reneé with questions, comments or suggestions to

Updated 10-18-2003 @ midnite central time.
Next Scheduled Update Monday October 27th
I love you, Matt