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Penny_From_Eugene's comments:
on Checking Credit
I really would like to know what my credit score or credit history, filled with potential errors that arise from mis-reporting by businesses, and mis-filing by the credit bureaus (Who are given too much influence over our lives), has to do with my ability to accurately and courteously ring up a customer's books at a bookstore, or to do any particular job.
Indeed, my credit history really has no more to do with my ability to do any given job than my medical history does.
I AM still looking for a job, after 21 months, and I know that in the past I have been passed over in favour of other candidates due to my credit report. No employer needs to know whether I have been late with the payment on my personal loan at the credit union, or missed a payment to EWEB (thank you California for causing our electric rates to get jacked up -- remember their flirtation with deregulation?).
Furthermore, my credit was okay until shortly after I became unemployed. Being unemployed is what ruined it -- I was forced to choose between paying a credit card bill, or payine EWEB, choose between making the car payment or paying the doctor's office (sort of important for an asthmatic to be able to continue seeing her doctor, you know).
posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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on Kicking the Kicker?
I could see changing or eliminating the Kicker if the want-wits is Salem could get their collective heads out of their collective butts and not only eliminate the corporate kicker (which looks like corporate welfare to us working class), but also LOWER the income tax rates imposed against the working class who do most of the living and working and dying in this state.
I don't really expect that, as no one in Salem gives a fig about us, except when they are trying to get (or avoid LOSING) our vote come election day.
Our state government (both the legislature and the executive) is so screwed up that they even deny unemployment to those who are trying to better themselves by going back to school, which in turn would likely place the newly-trained graduates into a higher tax bracket than we would be in as burger-flippers (an honest job, worthy of respect).
posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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on Kicking the Kicker?
I could see changing or eliminating the Kicker if the want-wits is Salem could get their collective heads out of their collective butts and not only eliminate the CORPORATE KICKER (since it is essentially corporate welfare) and LOWER the income tax rates imposed against the working class who do most of the living and working and dying in this state.
I don't really expect that, as no one in Salem gives a fig about us, except when they are trying to get (or avoid LOSING) our vote come election day.
Our state government (both the legislature and the executive) is so screwed up that they even deny unemployment to those who are trying to better themselves by going back to school, which in turn would likely place the newly-trained graduates into a higher tax bracket than we would be in as burger-flippers (an honest job, worthy of respect).
posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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on As We Are: Teen Parents
Ironically, my own mother was a teen mother when I was born; she happened to have the distinction over some of the present-day teen moms of being married to my father. This was in 1963 that they married, and 1964 when I was born. (Yes, I am well past the age of being a teen parent; in fact I have no children of my own.)
What I want to know, and maybe someone has already asked this, is if these "babies having babies" have ever been exposed to sex education. I mean REAL SEX ED, where they would have learned what causes babies, how babies are born, and the fact that a baby is statistically unlikely to "make" the father of the baby stay with them. In many cases, an unwed couple that conceives leads to a baby born to a single mother who winds up struggling all her life, unless she gives the baby up for adoption. This is difficult enough for a woman who has a partner, let alone a young girl who gets pregnant by a boy who then disappears -- never to be found -- upon learning that she is expecting. Once the boy disappears, full consent for the adoption is just about impossible, since he needs to sign away his parental rights in order for the adoption to proceed, unless they are severed in a court room -- yet another difficult step for a teen who just gave birth to deal with.
posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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on RX: Health Care by Christmas?
Why is everyone so scandalized by the idea of a) a public option and b) a single-payer system (a la Medicare, Britain's National Health System, Canada's, many European nations)?
If we have a single payer system, then there would be less confusion about where to send the claims (whether filed by the physician or dentist, or filed by the patient).
If we have a public option, then those who are happy with their present coverage can stay where they are, as President Obama has said many times (some people just can't hear it unless it comes out of the mouth of some syndicated radio blow-hard such as Limbaugh the pain-pill addict or O'Reilly the Republican mouthpiece), and the rest of us who wish to change can do so, especially if we can get better coverage for less money.
Abolishing the exclusion for "pre-existing conditions" is a must, as well. Do you know that the leading cause of death is life? Yes, every one of us who is alive right now is doomed to die. Thus, an unscrupulous insurance company could deny benefits on the basis of 'life' being a pre-existing condition. We MUST do away with excluding pre-existing conditions, as the roots of many illnesses are hidden during childhood. Many people who have asthma, for example, are exposed to environmental factors that lead to it early in life, only to be diagnosed in their 20's 30's and 40's. In fact, many transpeople have feelings during childhood, but do not know what to do about their feelings until they are older, sometimes in their teens (the lucky ones) or in their 30's (the less fortunate). Transgender issues have been covered on this show, Think Out Loud, as well as To The Best of Our Knowledge, Talk of the Nation, and This American Life.
Finally, we must include coverage for ALL procedures. Yes, abortion too, which must be maintained as safe and legal, and hopefully rare. But we will have a much better chance at keeping abortion rare if we can have REAL sex ed in school -- teach teenagers where babies come from and how to prevent it. Yes, teach abstinence, but not as a standalone form of birth control, but as a first option, then teach our children that if they choose NOT to say 'no' how they can best protect themselves and their partners.
(Sorry if my comment seems a bit circuitous, I tried to get everything in about health care/health insurance reform.)
posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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on Your State of the Union
My own state of the union is horrid. I have been unemployed for nearly 21 months, and it seems no one wants to hire an experienced employee. I'm 45 and getting very discouraged with the "system" which seems to be broken beyond repair.
As you may imagine, the state of my union is discouraged, disgusted and dismayed.
And here's the kicker: In a state where discriminating on the basis of gender identity is just as unlawful as age discrimination, I am a transperson.
posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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on Facebook Comes to Prineville
So, is Fakebook going to be granted property tax waivers for some amount of time, the way our idiot city council did here in Eugene in order to attract Hyundai (which became Hynix) who bailed and eliminated 1400-1500 jobs the minute their waivers expired?
I'm sorry, but I see Fakebook (as well as Twitter and My Space) to be enormous time-sucks. I have yet to find anyone worthy of following on Twitter...who really gives a rat's caboose what some random teenager or pop tart (Britney, for example) is doing right now? Why should I waste my time following the tweets of someone who is famous for being famous? (Can you hear me now, Paris?)
posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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on Kicking the Kicker?
I could see changing or eliminating the Kicker if the want-wits is Salem could get their collective heads out of their collective butts and LOWER the income tax rates imposed against the working class who do most of the living and working and dying in this state.
I don't really expect that, as no one in Salem gives a fig about us, except when they are trying to get (or avoid LOSING) our vote come election day.
Our state government (both the legislature and the executive) is so screwed up that they even deny unemployment to those who are trying to better themselves by going back to school, which in turn would likely place the newly-trained graduates into a higher tax bracket than we would be in as burger-flippers (an honest job, worthy of respect).
posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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on Urban Chickens
Well, uncommonsense, I, too, enjoy a good L&O minimarathon, but the information I was citing about the inadmissibility of such evidence was not from an episode of L&O (or even the earlier LA LAW), but from an actual case that I read about in a college text. It likely also appeared in the news, so in a way it was "ripped (dsh-dsh!) from the headlines."
I am glad that we are able to have an intelligent and spirited debate about this, and if I can find that textbook again, I will add the case citation.
posted 3 years, 6 months ago
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on Urban Chickens
To the lady who was confronted at her door after a city inspector peeked over her fence: Did the city inspector have a WARRANT? If not, any evidence gathered would be inadmissible, under the 4th Amendment. Criminal cases have been tossed out and had evidence gathered by such method excluded.
posted 3 years, 6 months ago
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on As We Are: Child Free
My partner and I are childfree, not childless, by choice. We chose not to increase the biological burden on the planet, and further tax the limited resources. In addition, as I am a Transwoman, I never had a uterus, and made the conscious decision not to "bank" sperm before becoming liberated from my testicles.
Penny From Eugene
posted 3 years, 7 months ago
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