30 percent of adults receiving gov. assistance are disabled

Many disabled need help on stairs.

Among the 46.0 million adults who received income-based government assistance in 2011, 30.4 percent of them had a disability, according to a report released today from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The report, Disability Characteristics of Income-Based Government Assistance Recipients in the United States: 2011, offers information about the occurrence of disabilities among people 18 and older who received income-based government assistance. The information is based on data from the 2011 American Community Survey.

“On average, people with disabilities have lower employment and earnings; therefore, understanding what assistance people with disabilities receive may help governments better coordinate and administer their programs,” said Bernice Boursiquot, a Census Bureau statistician and co-author of the report.

People with a disability include those having vision, hearing, cognitive, ambulatory, self-care or independent living difficulties. Among recipients of public assistance, 18.2 percent had difficulty walking or climbing stairs, 14.6 percent had trouble leaving home to go shopping or visit the doctor without assistance, and 14.2 percent encountered trouble with memory, concentration, or making decisions.

This report also found that 22 states had disability rates above the national estimate of 30.4 percent among those receiving assistance. In comparison, 15 states had rates below the national estimate. States west of the Appalachian Mountains had higher rates of disability among recipients of income-based assistance. In comparison, states in the Southwest and along the Eastern Seaboard had lower rates.

West Virginia, Kentucky and Arkansas were three of the top five states for disability prevalence in the total population, as well as in the total population receiving government assistance. In West Virginia, 26.8 percent of people with disabilities reported having ambulatory difficulty, defined as severe difficulties walking or climbing stairs.

(Photo by Tomi Johnson)

Jesse Jackson, Jr. had no problem squandering contributor's money

2000 photo of JJJ

I chuckled to myself when my husband handed me a page I had saved from the February 2000 edition of The Costco Connection Magazine featuring Jesse Jackson, Jr. Thirteen years ago, author Beth Grubb was touting a new book Jackson had co-written with his father, Jesse Jackson, Sr., entitled It's About the Money. The article was named "A Penny Saved."

The article was subtitled, "Two national leaders share their knowledge of how to build wealth one day at a time." A used copy of the book is selling for $.01 plus shipping on Amazon.com.

Grubb quoted Jackson, Jr. from the book: "My wife, Sandi, and I seldom go to a movie theater at $8 a ticket. Instead, we wait until the movie comes out on video and rent it for $3. That saves $13, which goes into a mutual fund for our daughter's college education. Because my heart is with my daughter, I'm willing to put my treasury where my heart is."

Former U.S. Congressman Jackson, Jr., however, has been recently convicted of putting $750k in his personal piggy bank and buying frivolous things with money taken from his political campaign coffers. A gold Rolex, Michael Jackson memorabilia, furs, and kid's furniture were not good investments for voters in the Illinois 2nd District.

While Jackson, Jr. saved $13 of his own money on a DVD, prosecutors stated that he used campaign cash to make more than 3,100 personal purchases, including $60,857 in restaurants, nightclubs, and lounges. He and his family lived large off other people's money. What more can you expect from religious folks who own beer franchises, you might ask yourself.

Political campaign contributors, beware! Jackson has admitted that he has lived off his constituents for years and used campaign funds illegally. Although each state monitors how campaign finances are spent, the record keeping is submitted by the political candidate running for office.  Jackson and his wife were caught and will have to pay, but the funds will not be returned to donors. To add insult to injury, the federal case brought against Jackson and his wife, Sandi, was paid for by taxpayers!

My opinion: take a look at a politician's record keeping and submitted statements which are public record to see how past donations were spent, and beware of those giving financial advice, especially politicians who make rhyming speeches and whose initials are JJJ.

Four Bs of happiness on Valentine's Day

Be cheerful and keep smiling, no matter what life throws at you.

Be kind to others who also are searching for happiness.

Be ready to bounce back and try love again when rejection raises its ugly head.

Be sure that when God closes one door, another one will open. Knock, and go in.

Tomi Johnson 

The god of violence in Dorner, Vesey, and Brown

During Black History Month, my gut is telling me that the same god that created Denmark Vesey, John Brown, and Christopher Dorner are one in the same - the god of freedom from racism reacting in destructive force.

All three males were created to believe that men have inalienable rights - those of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In each case, these three men were enslaved to the belief that injustices were heaped on defenseless blacks and themselves and that some higher power was motivating them to act to overcome evil through violence.

In their own minds, they were acting out in holy wars with predictable consequences. The pendulum swings backwards.

Christopher Dorner was Christ in name only, for he did not forgive his enemies. A person who proclaimed himself not to be a religious being, he self-defined himself in his last writings as moral. His career and life changed after becoming a whistleblower, stating that a female police officer kicked a mentally retarded man without provocation.

If those are Dorner's charred remains recovered by police, it will become a fact that he fought to his death to clear his name, knowing that officers retaliate and commit violent acts against the guilty and the innocent alike. One of his last acts, however, was to let a boy scout leader and his dog go free and unharmed while he drove a stolen car into a gun battle.

May God have mercy on his soul and receive him unto Himself.

Revision: May God have mercy on his soul and the souls he took with him. May they be received by Him who forgives all. 

Buddhists define love as freedom

"... Buddhist love includes those forms of love that are characterized by freedom. Love that involves clinging, lust, confusion, neediness, fear, or grasping to self would, in Buddhist terms, be seen as expressions of bondage and limitation...to love only in optimal conditions is not real love."Gil Fronsdal

How do you define love?

Thought for today: Time is...

"Time is not a river. Time is a pendulum."

Arna Bontemps, from introduction to "Black Thunder" - 1936

Photo by Tomi Johnson

Beautiful snow: Boston digs out from 25-30 inches

"Aside from playing in the snow and taking pics, 

 there was nothing else to do except bake sweets on Day 2. 

  A magnificent day!  

 The city got shoveled out pretty quickly on Day 3.  

  It was a warmer day so more people were out and even returning to normalcy, such as going to Starbucks and grocery shopping."

Content and photos by Rossana,  recorded in Boston after February 8-9, 2013 blizzard.

Will complaining about misleading ads work???

After searching for pots and pans, I read a Bloomingdale's ad which looked like a real good deal - Cuisinart Contour Stainless Steel 13-PC Cookware set for $199! Regular price - $540. One Day Sale!

Found out from Cuisinart's corporate office - product division - and their website, however, that $199 is the regular price, and stores can advertise whatever price they want. Bed Bath & Beyond also has it for $199. Bloomingdale's salesman said it would ring up $540 the day after the sale...

Seem unfair? Should I trust Bloomingdale's sales catalog?

Waiting for a response from Bloomingdale's as to whether this is false advertising.

Black History Month: biblical inspiration...

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
2 Corinthians 4:8-9