Working for a living

Here's a brain teaser. If the workforce loses a bunch of jobs and no one reports it, did anyone really lose their job?

I've seen this item being tossed around a couple different columns, but haven't seen a hard news story about it until today. You know times must be tough if the guys who track layoffs are getting laid off.

But I guess the question is: Why does the government feel it's expendable to not track the number of people getting laid off, and from where. The gist of the article says it's due to budget reasons, and the money used to fund the layoff-tracker could be used for training people for new jobs...yet, I can't help but think "Wouldn't it be a smart think to know ahead of time how many people will be looking for retraining?" Personally, I get this vision of the federal government being told how bad the economy is and the government is plugging its ears, going "La la la. I can't hear you. La la la" while thinking everything will be okay.

Somehow.

Speaking of changing jobs

He's down, but did you really think he was out?

Trent Lott, who effectively replaced Eminem as America's whitest bad boy with his kudos to Strom Thurmond's 1948 bid to keep America separate but equal, lands back on his feet, poised to get the chairmanship of the U.S. Senate's Rules and Administration Committee. Go ahead, read what the committee does and have a giggle or two at his new "power" job. Yep, get exposed as a racist and land with a cushy, no-stress job figuring out what to do with the Senate restaurant. Hmm, it appears he will have access to legislation regarding presidential elections and "memorials." Interesting.

Which leads nicely into this

Rounding out the "shocked and appalled" triad of the evening is this story from way back in 2002 (Dec. 29) about...err, heritage.

Frankly, I can't see how anyone would be proud of this as their heritage, fondly remembering an entity hell bent on destroying the Union and holding on to slavery as a distinct way of life. But apparently there's a market for this stuff, which is both sad and horrifying at once, like knowing Trent Lott still has a job and hundreds of thousands of Americans ran out of unemployment benefits just after Christmas.

America: It's heartbreaking, but it's never boring.