Since that doesn't include people who have stopped looking for work, recent college graduates and people who are getting like 15 hours a week at Wal-Mart, what do you think the real number is? #unemployment
@eatsshootsleaves: You are correct with the 17% number. Clinton changed the way unemployment is calculated. So the bs that we haven't seen an unemployment rate this high in 20+ years doesn't mean shit because the definition of unemployment has changed dramatically since then. #unemployment
@momof3wildkids: To essentially state the the statistic is meaningless is utter foolishness. Yes, the calculation was changed in '94. It was also changed in '67 and '76. But it doesn't make this calculation worthless. Maybe you could show us how you backtested your numbers before calling these ones bs.
*The '94 change said that workers must have sought work in the prior year.
**Even though this calculation attempts to address it, it undercounts the hidden economy, illegal aliens, etc., which, whether you like it or not, are part of how we should measure our economic vitality. #unemployment
@Treece: I didn't do the calculations, it is part of what Mr.Momof3 does to make a living. I agree with the hidden economy part.
The calculations also do not take into account business owners who are no longer able to take a salary or have closed down their business. Small business owners or the self-employed are not eligible for unemployment. #unemployment
@momof3wildkids: Stop talking about shit you don't understand. Unemployment insurance is an employer tax, not an employee one. This means that small business owners (typically S corps) usually don't report their own wages and pay unemployment insurance on themselves. Hence, they don't qualify. If the business were an C corp (yes, in most cases a bad idea for a small business owner), and they paid unemployment insurance on their own wages, they might qualify, depending on how/why the business shut down.
None of this means that anyone was out to stick it to small business owners. This helps them because they don't want to pay unemployment insurance on their most highly compensated employee. So, please stop bending scraps of information to reinforce your own very poorly informed worldview. It is very unhelpful. #unemployment
@Treece: I am not being clear apparently. I am merely saying that the current number of 10.2% is not accurate at all as it doesn't truly reflect all the people who are unemployed. The current unemployment number has been compared to unemployment numbers from the early 80's in the news today. We are talking about apples and oranges as far as numbers go.
I may no mention of "sticking it to small business owners." There are plenty of other ways small business owners have gotten the shaft, but not being reflected in the unemployment numbers is not one of them. #unemployment
Typical coastal elitists. I gotta tell you, Real Americans in the trailer parks of Idaho and the suburbs of South Carolina truly feel the pain of 9/11 unlike you guys. Remember kids: No one is a patriot until you want to hurt the Indian guy sitting next to you on a plane. So, sorry New Yorkers, but your savvy pragmatism, geographical knowledge and cultural sensitivity won't get you into the Kingdom of Heaven. Rejoice in hating a muslin or two (just about any random brown-skinned person will do, really) for Freedom (but really mostly for funsies), and I'll personally welcome you in.
I'm glad I don't have TV. That was a bad 13 months living in DC. 9/11, local postal workers dying of anthrax, co-workers on Cipro. Oh, and then the sniper attacks when everyone was crouching behind their cars whenever they went to fill up their gas tanks. I'm surprised all my hair didn't go white. I wish there was a more tasteful remembrance.
One thing I've learned about grieving is that you cannot tell anyone how they should or should not go about it. I think it's unfair to surmise that airing this is a stunt or wrong to watch. Everyone needs different ways to process those horrific events (though that day, clearly, is not something that can ever be fully processed). If someone wants to talk, not talk, cry, laugh, throw things, shut down, reflect, or celebrate, then they need to do that. That being said, this is not your way to do it. Fine. I get that. But some people, like myself, need to watch the coverage. Others might think that my watching is unhealthy or morbid or disrespectful. I find it cathartic. I'm glad it's accessible and I will continue to watch it every year.
@SerleBird: You have a point, and this sounds like a genuine form of grieving for you--and that's what 9/11 should be about, people discussing their genuine reactions and not just their poser I'm-sadder-than-you sentiments or exploitative slogans and flag-waving (but I digress).
I just wish newscasters in general would show the footage more responsibly and not just slip it in between the weather report on 9/11. It's very loaded footage and captures the deaths of thousands of people, even if from afar. There are many well-made documentaries about 9/11. Maybe the footage should be relegated there.
@Rhymenocerous: Days like this really bring out the biggest douches of my FB "friends" list. If I see one more "Let's Roll" I am cancelling my account.
@PrissyCatheadBiscuit: Oh man, I didn't get a single "Let's roll"! Your friends are cooler than mine. Although, there is one I found particularly annoying, from the mother of a six-year-old:
can't believe its been 8 years. My smart little man is starting to understand the significance of what happened. He said this morning with a solemn tone "It's a sad sad day, isn't it mama?"
Way to undermine your sorrow by bragging about your stupid kid.
Is there at last one thing left here that we don't make fun of? Wow! I guess everyone that mocked me for not having a sense of humor didn't lose a gf, or a wife or a friend that day. Or didn't live 3 blocks away as I did. Fuck you! Seriously! Go! Fuck! Yourselves!
@NowAvailableinExtraStrength: Or, perhaps, some people commenting here worked in 7 World Trade and lost a friend in the South Tower that day and choose to try to make innocuous jokes rather than revisit the exact emotions felt on that day.
You'd look like less of an asshole if you were i-screaming at someone who wrote "hahaha, people died and it was funny!" but I've not seen that comment here. In fact, the worst comments I've seen on this post wished cancer and rape on children. Now that guy/gal, total fuckface if you ask me.
@Richard Petty Bourgeoisie: Agreed. Dude needs to dial it back to regular strength. Maybe instead of honoring his 9/11 memories by reading snarky ol' Gawker, should stay tuned to MSNBC or go for some PTSD counseling.
Didn't the Columbine killers express these kind of violent wishes upon others in their writings, too?
@if_i_only_had_a_heart: Aww. In this long train of comments, your simple, elegant four words struck my heart.
(I apologize in advance for an uncharacteristic lack of snark)
Worked in lower midtown, company had a large window that captured it all, formerly "just strange" coworker was oddly jubilant during the whole thing (And I know that shock can garner a strange reaction in some people), but he ticked off the event like the scoring of a baseball game "And now this happened! And so did this! The Pentagon! The Capital evacuated!" he then grabbed a camera and took play-by-play pictures of the towers burning, smoldering, collapsing and proceeded to put out a sign up sheet for those of us who wanted copies for our uh, families, who were out of town. As if they were going to miss it.
It was one of those things that happened that you didn't really understand the gravity of until you thought about it later at home, once you had a chance to digest and review it. Meaning, "Wow, John was being such a weird assface today! He's no longer welcome to the doughnuts in the break room. Everyone take two." Like that, but more awkward and unforgiving.
What exactly is the problem with watching history as it happened and feeling the sadness? No, no--much better to distance ourselves from tragedy and get on with really important stuff--like Project Runway and Conde Nast. I mean, you can never have too much Anna Wintour.
@TheBusinessGuy: No, actually, repeatedly reliving an event, over and over, is the definition of PTSD. It is what happens when we cannot process that sadness, shock, that drop in my stomach that happens whenever I see video of the burning towers, and so instead sink into confused numbness and agitation, unable to get on with life. No one is saying forget, but that is not the same as relive. Again. And again. And again.
@Gabriel Snyder: But there is an element of choice here about reliving it via the video that isn't there when someone spontaneously and involuntarily relives, say, a firefight in 'Nam. And there is nothing wrong with that choice being available to those of us who haven't been able to process the horror, or, in years to come, never witnessed it in the first place and ought to know about it. You have a remote control. Watch it, don't watch it, but let's not tuck it away in the back of the history closet, never to be brought out again.
@TheBusinessGuy: Hand out free DVDs. Put the footage online somewhere. But the ritual reliving of the morning, minute by minute, doesn't help anyone "process" anything. And, yeah, you can change the channel (I did) but as long as MSNBC thinks of themselves as a broadcasting outfit, they should end this stunt.
@Gabriel Snyder: repeatedly reliving an event, over and over, is the definition of PTSD
But the ritual reliving of the morning, minute by minute, doesn't help anyone "process" anything.
Pretty declarative stuff, there. And especially risky since you could be shown to be wrong on the second claim by just one person -- one -- who thinks that an occasional review of the footage is a good way of being reminded of what actually happened that day on a public scale...as distinct from all the other things that people talk about when they use the term "9/11."
I watch it every year. It's important to remember exactly what you felt on that day in 2001 - the confusion, the horror, the uncertainty. The best thing we can do to honor the fallen on that day is to remember EXACTLY what happen.
Let's all wish horrible things on Richard Petty whose tasteless comment makes me personally wanna find him, put a loaded gun in his mouth and pull the trigger twice!
@NowAvailableinExtraStrength: I'm all for that, but I don't want to be "over-the-top." I respect the restraint you showed below when wishing (a) a slow, painful death for him, (b) cancer for his children and (c) rape for his daughter.
Again, I'm with you in terms of wishing horrible things on him, but I don't want to offend you. How far is too far?
11/06/09
11/06/09
11/06/09
Yikes. #unemployment
11/06/09
I sense a conspiracy.
[www.guttmacher.org] #unemployment
11/06/09
11/06/09
*The '94 change said that workers must have sought work in the prior year.
**Even though this calculation attempts to address it, it undercounts the hidden economy, illegal aliens, etc., which, whether you like it or not, are part of how we should measure our economic vitality. #unemployment
11/06/09
The calculations also do not take into account business owners who are no longer able to take a salary or have closed down their business. Small business owners or the self-employed are not eligible for unemployment. #unemployment
11/06/09
None of this means that anyone was out to stick it to small business owners. This helps them because they don't want to pay unemployment insurance on their most highly compensated employee. So, please stop bending scraps of information to reinforce your own very poorly informed worldview. It is very unhelpful. #unemployment
11/06/09
I may no mention of "sticking it to small business owners." There are plenty of other ways small business owners have gotten the shaft, but not being reflected in the unemployment numbers is not one of them. #unemployment
11/06/09
11/06/09
10/13/09
10/13/09
09/11/09
09/11/09
That's a metaphor for something right there, but I don't know what.
09/11/09
09/11/09
09/11/09
I just wish newscasters in general would show the footage more responsibly and not just slip it in between the weather report on 9/11. It's very loaded footage and captures the deaths of thousands of people, even if from afar. There are many well-made documentaries about 9/11. Maybe the footage should be relegated there.
09/11/09
What, exactly, is the point? To let the rest of us know that you didn't forget? To remind us? Sad face.
09/11/09
9/11 is kind of like having a baby. Always there to remind you how much time has passed.
09/11/09
09/11/09
09/11/09
09/11/09
can't believe its been 8 years. My smart little man is starting to understand the significance of what happened. He said this morning with a solemn tone "It's a sad sad day, isn't it mama?"
Way to undermine your sorrow by bragging about your stupid kid.
09/11/09
Because some of us LOST PEOPLE. Whom we loved. Deeply. And so that is my "status".
09/11/09
Seriously, though, find a better way to honor people than a fucking facebook status.
09/11/09
09/11/09
You'd look like less of an asshole if you were i-screaming at someone who wrote "hahaha, people died and it was funny!" but I've not seen that comment here. In fact, the worst comments I've seen on this post wished cancer and rape on children. Now that guy/gal, total fuckface if you ask me.
09/11/09
09/11/09
Didn't the Columbine killers express these kind of violent wishes upon others in their writings, too?
09/11/09
09/11/09
(I apologize in advance for an uncharacteristic lack of snark)
09/11/09
Worked in lower midtown, company had a large window that captured it all, formerly "just strange" coworker was oddly jubilant during the whole thing (And I know that shock can garner a strange reaction in some people), but he ticked off the event like the scoring of a baseball game "And now this happened! And so did this! The Pentagon! The Capital evacuated!" he then grabbed a camera and took play-by-play pictures of the towers burning, smoldering, collapsing and proceeded to put out a sign up sheet for those of us who wanted copies for our uh, families, who were out of town. As if they were going to miss it.
No one spoke to him much after that.
09/11/09
09/11/09
09/11/09
09/11/09
09/11/09
09/11/09
09/11/09
09/11/09
But the ritual reliving of the morning, minute by minute, doesn't help anyone "process" anything.
Pretty declarative stuff, there. And especially risky since you could be shown to be wrong on the second claim by just one person -- one -- who thinks that an occasional review of the footage is a good way of being reminded of what actually happened that day on a public scale...as distinct from all the other things that people talk about when they use the term "9/11."
09/11/09
Never forget...
09/11/09
09/11/09
Again, I'm with you in terms of wishing horrible things on him, but I don't want to offend you. How far is too far?
09/11/09