Short Bio~Hokule'a Kealoha is the Nom De Plume of a writer that formerly lived in Hawaii and is now living a life of adventure on the highways and byways of the American South . I am a Born Again follower of Jesus, as well as a wife, mother of cats and dogs,jeweler, entreprenuer, photographer and pilgrim...
Age~ Old enough to know better
Status~ Newly Single after 13 years of marriage,fur mom to the loving and devoted mini ShihTzu doggie Annabelle, born 6-11-2007 RIP 2-25-09, and the beautiful Abigail born 2-14-09
Hair Color~ natural brown/grey
Mood~ I ALWAYS have a mood, try me...
Loving~ Jesus, Hawaii, my furry friend, Abigail, my Pen Pals, Jewelry ,Blogging ,Writing anything,my Ipod,and being outdoors surrounded by my wonderful natural surroundings
The Birthplace of the Behemoth, Sam Walton's 5 and 10, on the Bentonville Square Bentonville AR
Revelation 18:10-20
“Alas! Alas! You great city, you mighty city, Babylon! For in a single hour your judgment has come.”
And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore,cargo of gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, scarlet cloth, all kinds of scented wood, all kinds of articles of ivory, all kinds of articles of costly wood, bronze, iron and marble,cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and slaves, that is, human souls.
“The fruit for which your soul longed has gone from you, and all your delicacies and your splendors are lost to you, never to be found again!”
The merchants of these wares, who gained wealth from her, will stand far off, in fear of her torment, weeping and mourning aloud,
“Alas, alas, for the great city that was clothed in fine linen, in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold, with jewels, and with pearls! For in a single hour all this wealth has been laid waste.”
And all shipmasters and seafaring men, sailors and all whose trade is on the sea, stood far off18and cried out as they saw the smoke of her burning,
“What city was like the great city?”
And they threw dust on their heads as they wept and mourned, crying out,
“Alas, alas, for the great city where all who had ships at sea grew rich by her wealth! For in a single hour she has been laid waste. Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, for God has given judgment for you against her!”
BENTONVILLE, Ark. -- The big announcement from Wal-Mart Tuesday, cutting around 800 of its employees at the Bentonville home office, has left many people in northwest Arkansas stunned. While the number is large, it could've been much worse.
Many are worried that the Wal-Mart layoffs would have a domino effect on the vendor community.
International Operations Are Staying Strong At Walmart
But what 40/29 News learned at a Bentonville Chamber of Commerce luncheon Wednesday is that Wal-Mart's organizational changes surprisingly won't be affecting its suppliers.
"They'll have to do different things within their environment to be able to service Wal-Mart, but overall, I don't see them cutting down on who they have in northwest Arkansas," said Ed Clifford, president and CEO of the Bentonville-Bella Vista Chamber of Commerce.
The reason for this is because the jobs that were cut from Wal-Mart for the most part aren't sales related.
The jobs that were cut mainly involve the areas that deal with new store expansion, which the company will be slowing.
For the most part, vendors said they won't feel the repercussions immediately, but they know they're not immune.
"The internal restructure of Wal-Mart hasn't affected any of the partners that we work with directly, so I feel that our company is safe right now. However, with the economy the way it is, I think everybody's nervous at this point," said Robin Foshee, a vendor for Coty beauty line.
But some suppliers did cut their workforce even before Wal-Mart's move Tuesday.
Gary Lowe worked for Genius Products, a DVD distributor. He was laid-off two weeks ago.
"They eliminated some positions to cut costs, about a 17 percent reduction overall," said Lowe.
So he's networking with other vendors to hopefully land a job.
But with the hundreds of people laid off Tuesday from Wal-Mart, he said it's going to be even harder.
"It puts some more competition out there on the market for jobs. I mean, more bodies for the same number or fewer jobs right now," said Lowe.
Lowe said he's not too worried. He said he got a pretty good severance package.
Those who were laid off from Wal-Mart will only be receiving severance pay until April.
Wal-Mart says they will allow its former employees to take jobs with vendors immediately, instead of waiting a year to apply.
But the problem is, because of the economy, many of these vendors currently have hiring freezes..
Yeah, this wont affect suppliers, but the earthquake that rumbled though Benton county is effecting everyone. I was driving by the Home Office in the early afternoon and saw people with cardboard boxes out in the parking lot, I knew that something big had happened.
I was running errands and my last stop was an employment agency that was sending my resume to a business that needs an administrator. I wanted to meet this lady, her predecessor had been let go... and I had never met her. We discussed that the release of 800 middle and upper management types will only add to my difficulties with finding employment.
The attached article shows the ignorance of a lot of people. One persons job loss effects dozens of people. Its a cumulative affect. You aren't working so you don't go out to eat or shop which means retail and entertainment workers are affected and so on and so on. High rollers have a larger affect on the economy and tend to touch more people. Already I have seen the home of a man who was in Marketing go up for sale yesterday, He has a large family...what will they do?
Truth is that a lot of folks that came here will go back where they came from. They came when Wal mart hired them. I hear comments all of the time people would rather go "home". I know that a lot of vendor folks have actually done this once the vendor office closed. This area has built up with the idea that the Big Three employers WalMart Tyson and JB Hunt would continue to grow and expand. To have a lull in this growth is problematic... The extra houses wont sell, the empty vendor office space gets cheaper and cheaper... Already we have a 10 year glut of housing and excess retail space. Stores and business are folding up... This boom town may be going bust all around me
People are afraid. Businesses are in a panic. Like the scripture people are running around with their hands over their mouths gasping for air.
I am wondering how much of the panic is made by the news media? Many of the positions that WalMart eliminated they had been wanting to eliminate for a long time... So is housecleaning in a business necessary, you betcha. But its not the end of the world.
So if each business just held on to one job they were going to eliminate, this recession would end. If the banks would just stop foreclosing on homes for a two month period home prices would stabilize. Can people stop looking only to themselves can big business quit looking for every last buck, perhaps a lot of the misery would be resolved.
But I think we all can agree that the watchword of the world is grasping greed. We have only to look at the so called "stimulus" plan. So much for change... those greedy guts in Washington couldnt wait to spend all of that money... much of it will have little effect on the economy...
My hope is that it will have a phycological effect on the nation. It certainly has on the want ads. The pages for our area went from 4 to 8 pages, I responded to a dozen ads we shall see what happens
If you had said to me 10 years ago that the demand for containerized freight would shrink by double digits, that Wal Mart would stop growing... I would have laughed. But then I couldnt fathom that I would be living here in the land of Wal Mart Home Office
Winter Storm, the Ice Storm of 2009, Bella Vista AR
Post Started 1-23-09
America, in the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.
Barak Obama inaugural address 2009
The common outcry,which is justly made on behalf of human rights- for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family,to culture- is false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fundimental right and condition for all other personal rights, is not defended with maximum determination
Pope John Paul II
It was amazing, the crowds the party... I kept wondering if John MC Cain would have had such a party in the face of impending economic disaster. Not that President Obama has a lot of say in that.
Neither does he control the emotions of the masses. Not since the Death of Princess Diana or Pope John-Paul II has the world just stopped and watched the TV the spectacle unfold. a peaceful transfer of the worlds greatest seat of power. This election had huge repercussions for the entire world. The transfer is over and the business is beginning.
The storms our new president brought up in his address are here and more are coming. I fear that the economic storm is digging in for a long stay. The storms of Preservation of Life are breaking with the repeal of the ban on Federal funding for embryonic stem cell reaserch... for the appointment of rabidly pro choice (pro death) people to his administration, lavish appropreations to entities like Planned Parenthood included in the Stimulus package... with the abominable "Freedom of Choice" Act, that will effectively override Right to Life legislation through out the 50 States. This is moving through Committe right now.
Then there is the storm of Jihad. Frankly I fear that we will see the signs of this storm too late. Because after all under September skies as blue as anyone has ever seen four airliners were turned into flying bombs and changed this nation for ever. Im sorry sir...I dont believe that its wrong or against our values to defend this nation. I believe if there were extremes in methodology it was because we are playing the war game by rules we hardly knew and even less understood. I can only hope that Mr. Obama is right that we can somehow deal with the people that hate us and want us dead or converted to Islam ratonally. I have seen no sign that the radical Islamist care what we think or about what we have to say. The world doesnt care what we think, all we have to do is look at the situation in Gaza. Its like they self destruct. They have this deranged hatred of Israel, was sending rockets in killing people and when they go in to put a stop to it they are castigated as the evil ones.
Was Guantanimo wrong? I dont know enough about each case to say anything about holding the men there but I do know from soilders that were stationed there that they had good food and every comfort that could be provided under the circumstances I dont feel the situation amounted to cruelty. However I dont want those men housed in a prison near me, Im sure a lot of people feel this way as well. It will be interesting to see what they deside to do with the detainees.
I appreciate Mr. Obama's call to service and his call to ending our time "of childish things". I have felt for a long time that the financial debacle of my marriage...consuming Woody's retirement and Woody choosing not to work when he could have given it a better shot, was "childish". We certainly have put that lifestyle away and even though I am still not employed I feel much more satisfied with my life now that I am standing on my own.
One of the things that I have thought about regarding the change of leadership and the change of really the way of life for most people in the country in recent months is tha this is a wake up call to perhaps look beyond the materiel, and think about the relational and spiritual areas of life. For those that see the ascendancy of Mr. Obama as the rise of the Anti-Christ...(I have actually heard this) the situation is a call to prayer and conservative activisim. The financial difficulties encourage people to focus on relationship. I am already seeing this among my friends and I think this is a really great thing. Hard times in the past set the stage for the Greatest Generation, and the legacy of service and action that they brought to the world.
The coming storms are likely to be more difficult than we can imagine. I just know that He Who Calmed the Storm, will be with us too and we can trust him to see us through to the Storm's Clearing
Let it be said of us While we walked among the living Let it be said of us By the ones we leave behind Let it be said of us That we lived to be a blessing for life
Let it be said of us That we gave to reach the dying Let it be said of us By the fruit we leave behind Let it be said of us That our legacy is blessing for life
This day You set life, you set death right before us, This day Every blessing and curse is a choice now And we will choose to be a blessing for life
Let it be said of us That our hearts belonged to Jesus Let it be said of us That we spoke the words of life Let it be said of us That our heritage is blessing for life
For your Kingdom, for our Children For the sake of every nation
Let it be said of us While we walked among the living Let it be said of us By the ones we leave behind Let it be said of us That we lived to be a blessing for life
A aging barn Hwy 42 in Oldham Co Kentucky. As prices rise for maitenence, farms like this are being left for ruin and later sold for development. This horse farm was prosperous until recently but has fallen on hard times and I think it will be just a matter of time before it is sold off for development
Pray for Women in Chronic Poverty With gas averaging $4.00 a gallon, middle class households may be pinched, but families below the poverty line are squeezed. Yet compare the plight of the poor in our country to the desperate situation of victims of chronic poverty resulting from war, famine, natural disasters and dictatorships. The order to help the poor in Matthew 25 is not to be taken lightly, even in bad economies.
The Center for Global Development recently analyzed aid and economic growth in poor nations, concluding that foreign aid that rises above 8 percent of the gross domestic product of a country actually has a negative effect, causing stagnant growth and worse conditions for the poor. Their takeaway is that we should help, but not help too much.
People want to pull themselves out of poverty. It feels good to be able to earn a living. Perhaps some of the anger directed at the U.S. in third world countries can be traced to our “excessive” generosity? Already, there are many organizations that are dedicated to helping spread local solutions to poverty: It may not be Lent, but for the poor, it is always Lent. Those to whom much has been given, much is expected. excerpt from a recent newsletter from Secretum Meum Mihi
45 million in U.S. are uninsured Some 15.3 percent of Americans had no public or private health insurance in 2007, down from 15.8 percent in 2006, according to the latest U.S. figures released on Monday. A total of 45.7 million people were uninsured, down from 47 million.
"It's not perhaps the best use of the money that is being spent. And there are a lot people who feel that and would actually like to see coming out of the current campaign in the U.S. proposals for a universal health insurance MSNBC Source,
There are no "poor" people in this country, look at Africa, now thats poor. Those lazy people in ....(fill in the blank, I have heard people use every local in the country)...they just dont work hard enough...have too many kids... have the welfare mentality and so on.
Eze 16:49 "Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.
John 12:8 (...and Jesus replied...)"The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me."
I stand here guilty. I am sitting in the lap of luxury thinking about the future and know that we have a lot of work to do in this country. I listened to some of the speaches at the DNC convention and will tune into the RNC convention when it comes and I know that they will bang the drum about poverty and the healthcare issue. Its getting very bad out there and I wonder how people are managing.
They arent. I am in the process of looking at homes in our area to possible buy and cannot believe how many are available for low and getting lower prices. Truth is some of them look like the people just walked away from them. I wonder where they went. I know that rents are way up and there are not many available units in decent places. Thats why I am hoping to buy something.
I saw this presentation and it really put into perspective how people are having to live. There are a lot of polititicians and media people who are saying "well people just have to budget and decide if a flat screen tv or cel phone are more important than healthcare insurance." That is not the reality of poverty in America. Lets be honest, people are in a huge bind, and while I am not a supporter of huge government handouts I do believe that people have a fundimental right to healthcare.
I love the rich white guys on TV and radio talking about how our grandparents didnt have insurance and they paid for the doctors visits out of pocket. Not true. The poor people...most people didnt call a doctor, they called an undertaker, as people died quickly from the most basic things that today's medical establishment can easily cure...for a price. Medical care costs 1000 times more now than it did 75 years ago and care now is more assessable than ever. Is it moral to deny life to someone because they dont make enough money at their crummy job? I also think that that there are a lot of hurdles facing the poor and the working poor that they and the rest of us have to try to leap over everyday, but many are not making it and the destruction that is being left behind in peoples lives is staggering.
What do you leave out of your budget? What do you do without?. Do without too much and the authorities will come and take your kids away. I personally know people who had to live in their cars, because they couldnt pay the rent on their income. These were 40 hour a week working people. One little thing happened and it blew them out of the financial water and they found themselves homeless.
I think the economy/low wage no insurance jobs/healcare issue affects every aspect of life. The cry of "we are too fat as a nation" is answered by the studies that show a direct corelation between income levels and obesety. The poorer you are the fatter you are. The rising costs of healthcare insurance for employers means fewer of us get insured every year. Less preventative treatment is paid for out of pocket because, lets face it, paying the rent comes first. Kids get the nationalized medical plan if their parents know about it and if their doctors accept it. Ah there's the rub..If
And so on. Healthcare insurance needs to be universal, not dependent on employer generosity...There needs to be a gap plan for working people 55 to 65, the largest group of working adults that have marginal (due to preexisting conditions)or no insurance coverage at all. They face the loss of what ever they have saved for retirement due to paying for treatment, and that creates the additional problem of one more seinor that has nothing for their retirement except Social Security. Its not always laziness that causes these issues as the pundits say...sometimes its just a fact, there was no extra money to save up for the future...the future came suddenly like a bad dream.
Whoever the next President is must take a hard look at the situation domestically. One of my biggest disappointments with Pres Bush was how little work was done on the domestic front. He wasted opportunities to work on reforming Social Security, Health Care management and the Immigration mess...The war while necessary has been badly managed and has had a blank check. There has been little accountability on either side of the Aisle in Congress for the financial situation in our country. Little wonder that speculators feel that now is the time to run up the prices of commodities... As American's wages stagnate and the average person falls futher and futher behind, the only intervention of the goverment it seems can pull up the runaway horse of inflation and stagnation. Im no economist, but everytime I go to the market and I see women struggling to get what they need for their families . Yes I know that there are the five dollar coffee addicts and the ladies that surf the shopping channels, but frankly there is less and less of this, and we all know it.
I dont have the answer. As a business owner I believe in a free market and dont want the government telling me what I can or cant charge. As a Christian I feel that poverty is all of our problem. As a woman that is aging and facing a retirement that is likely going to befunded only by Social Security, I am concerned about what happens to the elderly today as it has a direct impact on my future tomorrow.
I am watching the candidates closely, listening for any sign that business as usual is over. With the resounding call for change I see little of substantive ideas from either side. Its going to be a rough ride ahead for the working man and woman in the years to come, I just pray that we dont forget the less fortunate in our scramble to keep our heads above water
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