What Is Labor Day

What Is Labor Day

The Labor Day holiday is almost upon us and the networks are likely to spend it talking about vacation, barbequing and holiday sales instead of examining the 2009 victories of the labor unions. In fact, all year they avoided talking about the many recent blessings organized labor has enjoyed. The United Auto Workers (UAW), which donated more than 99 percent of its $25.4 million to Democratic federal candidates in the past 20 years, had a particularly good year, at least compared to other stakeholders as General Motors and Chrysler struggled and were forced into a government-managed bankruptcy by the White House.

Those auto company bailouts and bankruptcies were major stories this year, yet the network news media rarely discussed union causes of the car companies' inability to compete, and the high cost of union labor compared to non-union labor. In fact, in some cases the UAW was portrayed to evoke sympathy from viewers.

NBC's Lester Holt said that the UAW had "made major concessions," on May 29 which would save GM $1.3 billion a year. CBS described it as "swallowing a bitter pill." That's a surprising choice of words since, when all was said and done, the UAW's health fund ended up with 17.5 percent of GM shares and 55 percent of Chrysler shares. What were those "major concessions?" Hans Bader at the Competitive Enterprise Institute cited the Washington Post, which described them as "‘painful' only by the peculiar standards of Big Three labor:"

Michael Jackson Funeral

Michael Jackson Funeral

It was a much smaller gathering, but those who turned up for the Michael Jackson "private" funeral and burial Thursday at Forest Lawn Cemetery - burial place for the stars! - in Glendale, Calif. - were quite as star-studded a group as the big memorial at the Staples Center. Elizabeth Taylor, Macaulay Culkin, Barry Bonds, Corey Feldman, Mila Kunis, Lisa Presley and Chris Tucker all showed up, as we could see from the expensive and well-lit television feed provided by the Jackson family. And eventually, so did members of the Jackson family.

The rest of the Jackson 5 are somehow bound to dress alike in dark suits and armbands. They sit together as if they have no families of their own. Janet Jackson played the role of widow and sat with them. The Jackson children, now out of the shadow, were minus their scarves and masks, and just fanned themselves with the program awaiting its start. On the ground, Gladys Knight reportedly sang "His Eye is on the Sparrow" and Clifton Davis sang "Never Can Say Goodbye," which was true enough to explain the delay in the service.

What was supposed to be a sunset service started an hour late. It had been 70 days since the death, it would wait another 60 minutes. The Jackson family pulled the feed (with a card that said THE END) as the body was removed from the hearse to keep some semblance of privacy for the actual service. The news organizations hung around anyway, with an overhead shot taken by some apparently stationary helicopter.

The Flowers Of Life

The Flowers Of Life

Cultivating Life: Lotus flowers add new dimension to aquatic garden In Buddhism the lotus represents purity of body, speech and mind, floating above the muddy waters of attachment and desire -- pretty heady stuff for a plant that prefers to grow in the thick mud of shallow ponds, lakes and drainage ditches throughout India and other parts of Asia. This perennial aquatic known for its magnificent, spice-scented flowers has a North American cousin that is hardy as far north as Canada. The two plants are so closely related that hybridizers have been producing exquisite crosses between the two for many years.

Lotuses come in three sizes: large, semi-dwarf and dwarf. They are vigorous growers, and the large varieties require a lot of space. For patios, smaller spaces and backyard water features, dwarf varieties are the way to go. Richard Koogle of Lilypons Water Gardens in Adamstown, Md., showed me how to create a water container featuring a dwarf lotus. Although he had several potted lotuses, he explained that they are available from mail-order sources as dormant tubers in the early spring. First, choose a container that can hold water. The lotus plant will remain in a 6-inch pot that is placed in the container of water, so the container must be deep enough to let the lotus pot sit 4 to 5 inches below the surface of the water.

Lotuses love warm water to get growing in the spring, but as the summer progresses they prefer to sit in water that does not get hot. Koogle recommended using bricks in the spring to raise the plant's pot closer to the surface where the water is warm. Then remove bricks as the season progresses and the plant starts growing. After the lotus is positioned in the container, add one or two other aquatic plants for interest. Aquatic marginal plants (plants that naturally grow at the sides of ponds) are perfect companion plants for lotus in a container. We chose a water chestnut and a corkscrew rush, also in pots. We positioned them in the container alongside the dwarf lotus and propped up with bricks as well.