And that’s fitting because more recently, May Day has  been an international day of celebration for the labor movement.  People seem to know about and celebrate May Day everywhere in the world except where it began:  right here in the USA.  That’s right, May Day is as American as apple pie and baseball.

May Day is  commemoration of the 1886 Haymarket Massacre in Chicago. Workers across the country were demonstrating, demanding an 8 hour day.  Tens of thousands of workers assembled in Haymarket Square in Chicago on May 1, 1886.  Someone threw a bomb, police began shooting, people died.   In commemoration of this, all over the world May 1 became a day honoring labor.  Except here. That’s because a certain element has done everything they can to erase its real meaning.  Early on, May 1 was promoted as “Americanization Day” by the  Veterans of Foreign Wars and other groups as a day to celebrate anti-Communism. In 1949, Americanization Day was renamed “Loyalty Day.” In 1958, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower proclaimed May 1 “Law Day”.  Anything to make folks forget about those dirty hippies union members, I guess.

By the way, in 1938, the 8 hour day was added to the Fair Labor Standards Act and became the law of the land.

Happy May Day!

Well, yeah.  That might be close to correct.  But so what?  The implication of course, is that somehow, something that the Kenyan, socialist usurper has done has caused gas to go up to $3.85 a gallon.  Oooh!  That Obama! [shakes fist at sky].  But…um, wasn’t something else going on in the beginning of 2009 when Obama became president?  Let’s take a look:

Oh yeah – the lesser depression!  Well, gee.  Prices were all hitting about rock bottom then, weren’t they?  And what was the price of gas just before the banks killed the economy?  About what it is right now:

Now I know perfectly well that things like this bumper sticker are not supposed to be true, just “truthy” to a certain type of person, in the hopes that it manipulates a few into voting against their own best interests.  But it’s kind of sad.  Sad that this kind of thing has already started more than 6 months before the election.

It’s going to be a long, stupid summer.

“Two years after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico, touching off the worst offshore spill in U.S. history, research into the disaster’s environmental effects is turning up ailing fish that bear hallmarks of diseases tied to petroleum and other pollutants….

Gulf of Mexico fishermen, scientists and seafood processors …are finding disturbing numbers of mutated shrimp, crab and fish that they believe are deformed by chemicals released during BP’s 2010 oil disaster.  …The dispersants are known to be  mutagenic, a disturbing fact that could be evidenced in the seafood deformities…[The] signs of malignant impact on the regional ecosystem are ominous: horribly mutated shrimp, fish with oozing sores, underdeveloped blue crabs lacking claws, eyeless crabs and shrimp – and interviewees’ fingers point towards BP’s oil pollution disaster as being the cause.”

Clearly, we are victims of over-regulation. DRILL BABY DRILL!

Self-portrait. Holding camera at arm's length. Never a good idea.

This weekend was the first trip to Rehoboth of the beach season.  Brenda, Frannie, and I drove down Friday evening, and we got back Sunday evening.,  The weather was perfect.  Low 80s, sunny, blue skies.  We even got a little sunburn.  On Saturday morning we walked to the beach from the Outlet mall – a little over 2 miles.  Sunday we rode bikes from the condo.  That went a bit better, because, you know, no dog.  Rehoboth was surprisingly full of people.  Not like mid season, but still lots of umbrellas and people running around like it was some month after April.  Being a real man and not a wimp, I of course, went into the water.  It was cold.  Stupid cold.  Something like Lake Superior.  But there were lots of little kids out there – kids who have not yet developed nerve endings.  Sunday we stopped for lunch at Go Fish.  Yum.  It’s going to be a great summer!

Walking to the beach from the Outlet Mall.

Lunch at Go Fish

In America, Easter is kind of a mashup of the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day after his crucifixion, and a Northern European/Germanic celebration of a spring-like fertility goddess or perhaps a goddess of the rising sun, involving rabbits and decorated eggs.   Easter is a “movable feast” meaning it is not fixed to the calendar.  It is celebrated the first Sunday after the full moon (the Paschal Full Moon) following the northern hemisphere’s vernal equinox (spring).

Anyway, I’ll have another cup of coffee to wash down some of Brenda’s Deviled eggs!  Hope you all have a great Easter!

You tube also had a pretty good one:

You listen.

Ever wonder where all the crazy laws featuring union-busting, undermining environmental protection, tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy, “stand your ground,” and etc. come from that seem to pop up all across the county at the same time?  Nobel Prize winning economist, NYT columnist, and the smartest guy on the internet, Paul Krugman explains all.

And sorry about the lack of posting lately.  Lots of stuff going on, and then there’s the laziness.  But anyone reading this can post something.  Feel free.  If you forgot your password, email me.  And I’ll try to get back to posting on a more regular basis.