Actually, do you find anything wrong with the family in the picture?



The Duggar Family, before the latest arrival Photo by: Beth Hall / AP




The photo is of the Duggar family of Arkansas.  This photo was taken after the birth of their 17th child.  This month the Duggars gave birth to their 18th child, Jordyn-Grace, by C-section.  You may view the current family photo here.

The children seem happy enough in the photo.  I wonder what mom is telling her son.  Perhaps that he is going to be in charge of his sister some day.  You see, that's how the Duggar's work.  How else could parents take care of 17-18 children on their own, while home schooling and running their own "church?"  The kids work on a sort of buddy system where each older child plays parent/teacher to a younger sibling.   According to their mom, Michelle, on a CNN American Morning interview in 2005,  "They help them with their little phonics lessons and games during the day and help them practice their music lessons. They will play with them or help them pick out the color of their outfit that they want to wear that day, and just all of those types of things."  

I thought being a parent and making the choice to have a family was the responsibility of the parent's?  This little army of children doesn't seem to ever get to be children in my book.  Of course, someday they will get to venture out.  And there are worse things that could be happening to these children.  But should that even be said? 

Who supports the family financially?  In part, their show on TLC.  Right...their family is a regular little television production.  There are a few other families like this on TLC, Little People, Big World with the Roloff's comes to mind.  I've never seen the Duggar's but I have seen the Roloff's.  Talk about one messed up, spoiled, dysfunctional family (in my view) from the way they are portrayed on their television show.  I can see why the families are tempted to sign on to these shows in the first place.  That income must be a great help when the families are in need.  See, you tune into a show like this out of curiosity to see what it must be like to go through life like the Roloff family, a family of part little people and part regular sized people.  But then TLC literally turns them into entertainment instead.  But when you start seeing the families now living in their mansions, taking out-of-this-world trips and doing all sorts of odd things after they were saying they were struggling, the shows are not "reality" anymore. "The Greatest Show On Earth" comes to mind instead.  Now is that what is wanted for these 18 children?


For those of you wondering, The Duggars are said to be conservative Baptists who endorse the Quiverfull movement.

That may be the newest trend for restaurants if they take the lead of one Upper West Side NY Japanese eatery.

But I'll get to that in a minute.

Chic European restaurants normally serve smaller portions.  That's just the way it's always been.  It's not all you can eat.  It's about presentation, moderation and grazing. 

This fill your plate up attitude had to have started here in the U.S. as a way to do just that...cover up your plate to make it look like you were getting more, don't you think?  Fill your plate with cheaper food, like fries, or salad, or a vegetable.  Then it just went out of control.  Suddenly everyone became a "hungry man."  We were all expected to be Paul Bunyan or something and eat the steak, including the grizzle.  And then, the food became expensive. 

Then the actual plates themselves started becoming a little smaller.  The slice of cheese on the fish sandwich became a third of a slice instead of a full slice.  Little cuts here and there.

Now about the clean plate club.   That NY restaurant?  They are going to start charging a "surcharge" of 3% if you don't finish what you take on your all-you-can-eat plate.  I suppose it will spread like wildfire to other restaurants soon enough. 

That'll teach ya.

"At Hayashi Ya Japanese restaurant on the Upper West Side it's all you can eat for $26.95, unless your eyes are bigger than your stomach and then -- like the sign says -- it will cost you extra.

When asked if he had ever been hit with a 3 percent charge for packing some stuff up and taking it home, Gene Nadelson of Sheepshead Bay laughed.

"No, we are trying to finish everything here," Nadelson said.

Patrons said they don't mind the surcharge because it helps with their waistline. The manager said he implemented the extra cost two years ago to help with the restaurant's bottom line.

The manager told CBS 2 HD the main motivation for the charge is to eliminate waste. And cost. "


Click to continue

 

Why should we bail out failing auto plants?

Ford proves their is such a thing as an efficient auto plant:



Ford's most advanced assembly plant - Camacari, Brazil


Let the greedy auto plants file bankruptcy.

Let them restructure.

Let them fix their own mess.

H/T Pensamientos

What's a killer horse?  Horses that aren't in the best of shape that are auctioned off, shipped, under poor conditions (such as not being fed) to Canada or Mexico...slaughtered, and then exported to Europe or Asia where the practice of eating horse meat is common place.

Why is it that when an animal is going off to be slaughtered, we allow it to be traumatized are starved? 

"We're doing them a favor by buying horses that might otherwise be neglected," Barnes said. "The big misconception animal rights people have is that all horses that go to slaughter are good, useable horses or pets ... when actually they're animals you can't do much with."

Click to read the article

 

Have you seen those people on the sides of the streets wearing the sandwich board signs that are four feet tall for going out of business sales?  We’ve seen them in past years when stores have gone under.  Currently I’ve seen them near Southridge mall.  Those are liquidator signs. 

Those signs make everything sound really cheap.  Well, beware when you actually go in and look over the product.  Some of that merchandise may actually have been marked up by the liquidator.

"Contrary to popular belief, liquidation sales aren't a great deal for the consumer," said retail industry analyst Stephen Baker of the NPD Group. "The liquidator is there to make money."

[…]

Despite what the public might think, Baker said liquidators rarely sell merchandise at a loss, even near the end of the sale. He said there are other ways to sell it off, like to overseas markets hungry for merchandise. So rather than trying to empty a store to the bare walls, Baker explained that going-out-of-business sales are more of a play upon human psychology.

Continue article HERE

 

 

"Retail is all about excitement, to get people into a store and get them into a mood to spend "

 

But I have never heard of Spiders being used for money...

Have you?

Well, "David Thorne" seems to think spiders are a replacement for money.

You've got to read this ...from beginning to end.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Subject: Overdue account

"Dear David,

Our records indicate that your account is overdue by the amount of $233.95. If you have already made this payment please contact us within the next 7 days to confirm payment has been applied to your account and is no longer outstanding.

Yours sincerely, Jane Gilles"



CONTINUED at

GEEKOLOGIE

 

Wasn’t that what the Beatles were in the first place? 

Avant-garde?

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band?  Magical Mystery Tour?  Abbey Road?  Not avant-garde?

I can’t wait to hear “Carnival of Light.”  Just some warming up of instruments perhaps?

Paul…we liked you…just the way you were.  Just tell us you found a jam session.

"I said it would be great to put this on because it would show we were working with really avant-garde stuff," McCartney told Radio 4's Front Row culture show in an interview to be broadcast on Thursday.

[...]

"Hit a drum then wander on to the piano, hit a few notes, just wander around. So that's what we did and then put a bit of an echo on it. It's very free."

Read the complete article HERE



Looks like the divorce and the economy may have given McCartney a reason to need a few bucks.

I call this avant-garde...

Way to go Wal-Mart!

With the economy the way it’s going, we should be thinking “buy American” more than ever.