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Labor Day Open Thread

By TChris, Section Blog Related
Posted on Mon Sep 04, 2006 at 10:12:09 AM EST
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by TChris

Who works on Labor Day? Baseball players and a ton of other people. Those who aren't stuck at work can read the official (i.e., boring) History of Labor Day at the Department of Labor's website. The Department of Labor, you will be reassured to see, is "in the 21st century." The rest of the administration should try to catch up.

Livelier versions of Labor Day's origin can be found here and (surprisingly) here.

If you aren't working today (or if you're at work but slacking), here's a place to converse.

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    • Labor Day Open Thread | 10 comments (10 topical)
    Re: Labor Day Open Thread (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Sep 04, 2006 at 10:38:47 AM EST
    I'm working on my own stuff at home. The regular work week is for paying the bills, and days like this are for doing the work that really matters to me.* I bet that's a common feeling. * I.e., Web site maintenance, writing, and wondering if I'm being silly in starting a blog too. (Everyone else has one!)

    Re: Labor Day Open Thread (none / 0) (#2)
    by Sumner on Mon Sep 04, 2006 at 11:23:21 AM EST
    A true champion, Steve Irwin showed us living in the largest sense of the word. His death while doing what he loved the most, should serve to immortalize his legend. My sincerest condolences to his wife Terri, daughter Bindi and son Robert. My favorite clips of the family among those which I have saved, include Terri's giving birth to Bindi, and a clip of the two rolling down sand dunes with Terri exclaiming that sand had gone where sand did not usually go. Steve Irwin included his family completely in his adventurous life. Irwin's love of all life was seldom marched by anyone. It is difficult to imagine anyone taking the plight of whales (for instance), more seriously than did Steve Irwin. OMG we will miss him.

    Re: Labor Day Open Thread (none / 0) (#3)
    by jen on Mon Sep 04, 2006 at 12:17:08 PM EST
    Open threads are all well and good if my comments show up before it falls off the board :/ Charges Dismissed Against Tucson Humanitarians
    September 1st, 2006 Tucson, AZ: In a late afternoon ruling on Friday, September 1st U.S. District Judge Raner C. Collins dismissed all charges against Shanti Sellz and Daniel Strauss, two volunteers with the Tucson-based humanitarian group No More Deaths
    http://www.nomoredeaths.org/

    Re: Labor Day Open Thread (none / 0) (#4)
    by squeaky on Mon Sep 04, 2006 at 12:27:22 PM EST
    More from Craig Murray on his stint as British Ambassador to Uzbekistan:
    It said that the man's fingernails had been pulled out, that he had been beaten and that the line around his torso showed he had been immersed in hot liquid. He had been boiled alive. That was my welcome to Uzbekistan, a U.S. and British ally in the war on terror. Trying to tell the truth about the country cost me my job. Continuing to tell the truth about it dragged me into the Kafkaesque world of official censorship and gave me a taste of the kind of character assassination of which I once thought only a government like Uzbekistan's was capable.
    WaPo via War & Peace

    Re: Labor Day Open Thread (none / 0) (#5)
    by Madison Guy on Mon Sep 04, 2006 at 01:49:04 PM EST
    Some Labor Day thoughts about working Americans, politicians and media: My 1981 photo illustrating the two Americas seems more relevant than ever, in a country more economically divided than it was even during the Reagan recession. Labor Day: Thinking about the two Americas. The media sure aren't helping.

    Re: Labor Day Open Thread (none / 0) (#6)
    by Che's Lounge on Mon Sep 04, 2006 at 02:59:38 PM EST
    Sumner, Well spoken about Steve Irwin. His death was as unique as his life. It was a one in a billion occurrence, as far as the outcome. Condolences to his wife and children. We share your loss. Oh BTW the corporations have mechanized our electoral system. Our elections get curiouser and curiouser. This next one should be interesting, as exit polls apparently have lost their usual 98% accuracy for some reason.

    Re: Labor Day Open Thread (none / 0) (#7)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Sep 04, 2006 at 03:17:23 PM EST
    Did anyone catch this story about a "civil registry" for accused (not convicted) sex offenders in Ohio? I have to admit that I was completely stunned when I read about the details. Story is here: Plan gains to publicly identify accused Is there any chance this would pass Constitutional muster?

    Re: Labor Day Open Thread (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Sep 04, 2006 at 05:38:05 PM EST
    We live in a world that likes to focus on flash...the best news is breaking news that portrays the latest tragedy...whether that be a plane crash, a shooting, or any of a number of calamities. At the same time, slower burning, less inflammatory catastrophes unfold at a reliably steady pace each day. The question is what makes one the focus of near obsessive attention and the other an item to be placed obscurely on the back burner? A new article points to a classic example of this phenomenon...the expansion of humanity...around the waist. While we do see an occasional news piece on the topic, it rarely breaches the psyche to the same degree that, for example, the number of U.S. troop fatalities in Iraq has achieved. Clearly, many Americans could cite the number of troops lost but only perhaps a handful could offer the statistics on deaths attributed to obesity. www.thoughttheater.com">here

    Re: Labor Day Open Thread (none / 0) (#9)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Sep 04, 2006 at 06:11:13 PM EST
    pluto's revenge: 50 friends and collegues of clyde trombaugh, the man who discovered pluto, gathered at the u of new mexico campus to protest the iau's demotion of pluto from planetdom. meanwhile, over 300 space physicists and nasa scientists have signed a petition calling for a re-examination of the iau's definition, in light of the fact that less than 475 of the 10,000 iau members actually participated in the now-famous decision to demote pluto. these pieces and more pluto platitudes are perusable at skippy. . .

    Re: Labor Day Open Thread (none / 0) (#10)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Sep 05, 2006 at 03:07:02 PM EST
    RIP Steve (crocs rule)Irwin. The world needs more "Barm Pots" like you. And of man's labours, I recently watched a National Geographic documentary on the Oresund Bridge/Tunnel, a ten mile link twixt Denmark and Sweden. A truly amazing "must see" piece of civil engineering, watch it if ever you have the chance. If three billion dollars are to be spent, better on projects like this than other things that cross my mind.

    Labor Day Open Thread | 10 comments (10 topical)