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Saturday, April 13, 2013

Daily Kos: A reflection on work, employment and aging

Daily Kos: A reflection on work, employment and aging:


A reflection on work, employment and aging

This Saturday reflection will begin about the particulars of my personal situation, but I will use that as a starting point for a broader reflection on public policy and attitudes.
In less than 6 weeks I will turn 67.  I had retired from teaching, but at the request of friends stepped in to a challenging high needs middle school in DC.  It was stretching me, but I had to leave it to care for my spouse in the early days of her cancer treatment.
We are now rapidly reaching the point where she will not need as much close attention from me.  It will be sufficient to have her dressed and in her back brace ("Gregor") -  she could if necessary take a cab to work and then have me pick her up in the evening.  Thus I have embarked on an active job search.
Search is the operable word.  I am looking, I am applying, but so far with little positive response.
There is the reality of my age.  For any kind of position, people perhaps legitimately have doubts about my


another RNC fail?

just in to my email inbox is the daily Political Playbook email from Mike Allen of Politico, from which I quote the following, without comment:
REPUBLICAN REBOOT - "RNC's celeb plan falls flat in Hollywood," by James Hohmann in L.A .: The RNC met "this week in the most touristy part of Tinseltown, but it's apparent the 'Celebrity Task Force' recommended by last month's 'autopsy' report isn't going to happen. The proposed task force was the most mocked of 219 suggestions from a five-member committee tasked with looking into why the party fared so poorly in 2012. 'The Party is seen as old and detached from pop culture, the group said. 'Establish an RNC Celebrity Task Force of personalities in the entertainment industry to host events for the RNC and allow donors to participate in entertainment events as a way to attract younger voters.' ... 'I don't know,' [RNC Chair Reince Priebus] said when asked ... if the party will ever implement the task force. ..."There [was] a decided lack of star power at the committee's four-day spring meeting despite the locale. ... The schedule of closed-press breakout sessions focused on issues like 'working with minority media,' 'how to say what we mean and show that we care,' as well as "taking the