Couldn’t Help But Notice (111907)
The assertion I made last Friday (first item at link) is worth repeating, in light of this: Now I’m really starting to wonder if the list of audience questions for Hillary Clinton that aren’t planted is shorter than the list of those that are.
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Speaking of plants — “….. planting kids in front of trucks carrying military equipment or pouring concrete on railroad tracks isn’t winning over people in the Pacific Northwest …..” Gosh, I would hope not.
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John Fund has the latest on where the Divisiveness Movement, masqerading as “diversity,” has taken us:
Sen. Lamar Alexander, a moderate Republican from Tennessee, is dumbstruck that legislation he views as simple common sense would be blocked. He noted that the full Senate passed his amendment to shield the Salvation Army by 75-19 last month, and the House followed suit with a 218-186 vote just this month. “I cannot imagine that the framers of the 1964 Civil Rights Act intended to say that it’s discrimination for a shoe shop owner to say to his or her employee, ‘I want you to be able to speak America’s common language on the job,’ ” he told the Senate last Thursday.
But that’s exactly what the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is trying to do. In March the EEOC sued the Salvation Army because its thrift store in Framingham, Mass., required its employees to speak English on the job. The requirement was clearly posted and employees were given a year to learn the language. The EEOC claimed the store had fired two Hispanic employees for continuing to speak Spanish on the job. It said that the firings violated the law because the English-only policy was not “relevant” to job performance or safety.
….. Sen. Alexander says that if that’s the case, “thousands of small businesses across America will have to show there is some special reason to justify requiring their employees to speak our country’s common language on the job.” He notes that the number of EEOC actions against English-only policies grew to some 200 last year from 32 a decade ago.
Over in the House, Democratic Hispanic congresspersons are holding up legislation unless what Alexander wants goes away. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is siding with the anti-assimilation extremists.
The issue of whether requiring English to be spoken on the job is reasonable should bubble up to, and be asked of, Democratic presidential candidates. Will it happen?
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About Christmas-season spending: Maybe you knew this, but I suspect most people don’t –
The Ad Age link also notes that the growth of gift-card giving means that the reality is even better than it looks (bold is mine):
Consumer research also has gotten dicey as people buy more gifts that aren’t always counted in holiday-sales data. “The whole gift-card craze has lengthened the time the season’s revenue is realized,” said Phil Rist, exec VP-strategic initiatives at Ohio-based Big Research, which has a contract with the NRF. “And if the gift card is for a movie theater or a day spa or iTunes, those aren’t traditional holiday retailers.”
The National Retail Federation is predicting a 4% sales increase this year (before considering inflation).
Update: More on gift cards –
Gift Card Boom
New research shows that 57% of consumers plan to buy gift cards, while 88% of buyers said they will purchase two or more gift cards this holiday season. Nearly 19% said they would purchase more than six gift cards this holiday season. According to the National Retail Federation annual “Gift Card Survey,” sales will total $26.3 billion this holiday season, compared to $24.8 billion in 2006. Additionally, the average consumer will spend $156 on gift cards this year compared to $146 during the 2006 holiday season and $117 for the 2005 holiday season.
