100 Years Ago!

The Year 1909 – This will boggle your mind, I know it did mine!

The year is 1909; 100 years ago. What a difference a century makes!

Here are some statistics for the year 1909:

Average life expectancy was just 47 years
Fuel for gas driven cars was sold in drug stores only
Only 14% of homes had a bathtub
Only 8% of homes had a telephone

There were only 8,000 cars and 144 miles of paved road
The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph

The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower

The average wage in 1909 was 22 cents per hour
The average worker made $200-$400 per year
A competent accountant could expect to earn $2,000 per year,
a dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 & $4,000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year

More than 95% of all births took place at home

90% of all doctors had NO college education
Instead they attended so called medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press and by the government as substandard

Sugar cost 4 cents per pound
Eggs were 14 cents per dozen
Coffee was 15 cents per pound

Most women only washed their hair once a month and used Borax or egg yolks for shampoo

Canada passed a law that prohibited poor people from entering into their country for any reason

Five leading causes of death were:
1. Pneumonia & Influenza
2. Tuberculosis
3. Diarrhea
4. Heart Disease
5. Stroke

The American Flag had 45 stars

The population of Las Vegas was only 30!!

Crossword puzzles, canned beer & iced tea hadn’t yet been invented

There was no Mother’s Day or Father’s Day

Two out of ten adults couldn’t read or write and
only 6% of all Americans had graduated from high school
18% of households had at least one full-time servant or domestic helper

There were about 230 reported murders in the entire USA!

95% of the taxes we have now did not exist in 1909 (nor did we have anything like social security, medicare, free universal public education, public hospitals…)

LOST

A  woman  in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She lowered her altitude and  spotted a man in a boat below. She shouted to  him,  “Excuse me, can you help me? I  promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don’t know where I  am.”

The man consulted his portable  GPS and replied, “You’re in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above  ground elevation of 2,346 feet above sea level. You are at 31 degrees,  14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west  longitude.

“She rolled her eyes and said,  “You must be an Obama Democrat.”
“I am,”replied the man. “How did  you know?”

“Well,” answered the balloonist,  “everything you told me is technically correct. But I have no idea what to  do with your information, and I’m still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been  much help to me.”

The man smiled and responded,  “You must be a Republican.”
“I am,” replied the balloonist.  “How did you know?”

“Well,” said the man, “you don’t  know where you are or where you are going. You’ve risen to where you are  due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise you have no idea  how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. You’re in exactly  the same position you were in before we met, but somehow, now it’s my  fault.”
“Return to your own self, enter  into your own heart, learn the value of your soul, ponder what you were,  are, should have been and can be.”

Behind the scenes at two remote border crossings

CNN.com is reporting the wackiest story I’ve read in awhile:

“The Department of Homeland Security (had) announced it was spending $31 million to enhance and upgrade two remote border crossings — just 12 miles apart — on the border between Montana and the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The spending was lauded by Montana’s two senators, even though only an average of 22 cars a day traveled through these border posts.”

So Drew Griffin and his CNN crew hopped a plane to Billings, Montana and drove six hours to Scobey and Whitetail. “It was a drive punctuated with glimpses of cows and antelopes but few people,” according to Griffin.

Yet, sure enough, Montana’s two Democratic Senators: Max Baucus, Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Jon Tester, a member of the Homeland Security Committee, proudly”… took credit for convincing the DHS to give these towns millions for border crossings, bragging in a joint press release that they pressured the agency.”

I’m not making this up. Read it for yourself (link below) and if you’re as pissed as I am that this is happening, contact Janet Napolitano at DHS (http://www.dhs.gov/xutil/contactus.shtm) and demand that she follow through on her promise to investigate. Better yet, demand that the grants be rescinded and reallocated to something that will actually enhance our national security.

This is a democracy: tag, you’re it.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/09/17/border.security/index.html?eref=igoogle_cnn

The President’s Speech to School Children

I watched the speech on C-Span this morning (refreshingly sans network news comments), followed by call-ins from students, teachers, and “all others.” Don’t know about you but I agree with all of the callers: It was inspirational.

More than that, it was terrific to see so many students sit quietly in an auditorium and, with rapped attention, listen to every word a politician said. Those same students cheered wildly as one of their own introduced our president. It brought tears to my eyes.

President Obama’s message included some of the language he used during the campaign about how his Mother got him up at 4:30 in the morning to tutor him. The speech centered around a message that school takes work and that it’s worth it because you need an education if you want to succeed in life. It was a straight forward pep rally message but coming from our president, and more importantly, from our first African-American president, was a welcome message to teens at risk of dropping out, turning to drugs and crime, and/or just putting forth the minimum to get by.

I sincerely hope that we have not become so cynical that such a basic and inspiring message is scrutinized for hidden messages.

The Press

The mainstream press gives way too much coverage to wingnuts. They put them on the air or give them inches in print every time they throw a tantrum. If they would ignore them, they’d go away.

So, mainstream press, your job is to report. Taking dictation from wingnuts and publishing it isn’t reporting. That requires getting the facts. Yeh, I know, that would take some work. But that’s your job. It’s what you’re getting paid to do.

While I’m at it: the press is NOT liberal. Facts are NOT liberal. They’re just facts. You know, those things you’re supposed to be reporting.

Health Care

I just don’t get it. We have publicly funded fire fighting, police, education, hospitals, housing, etc., etc., etc. So what’s different about publicly funded health care? I mean, Americans 65 & older who use Medicare universally like it. Even the wingnuts who are opposed to “government health care” love Medicare.

I’m thinking that our President just needs to ask the American people, If you could buy into Medicare before you’re 65, would you? The answer to that question would surely reveal a lot.