Personal Musings category archive

. . . is home on leave.

I hope to see him this weekend, before he goes back to finish being S(pl)urged.

Yeah, he’s one of those whose 12 month deployment turned into a 15 month deployment as the Current Federal Administrator continues to be, like Mike Nelson, trapped in the giant kelp.

Unlike Mike Nelson, of course, the Current Federal Administrator chose to swim into the giant kelp, dragging the rest of us with him.

Via, God help me, AARP.

I went to the local Radio Slum today and, on my way back, I’m sitting happily in the left turn lane.

The light turns green.

And the bozo in the straight through lane to my right turns left, nearly hitting me. Had I not laid on my horn (and I can count the number of times I hit my horn in a year on two hands–well, maybe two hands and a foot), the oblivious selfish auld phart probably would have hit me. He still managed to cut me off.

Then he proceeds to drive ten miles per hour under the speed limit ahead of me for the next mile and a half until he turns off at the Senior Center or the therapy site or whatever.

But that was nothing like this, what happened a few miles up the road from me.

Difference between ordinary ignorance and wingnut ignorance.

Via Atrios.

It came to me this morning as I was cooking breakfast.

It’s a game.

They sit there in their easy chairs, punching buttons.

Avatars move about the screen. It doesn’t matter what happens to the avatars because, you see, they are inexhaustible. New ones leap up when old ones are gone.

The power pills give the gamer eternal life.

And the avatars, well, they have no personal lives. They exist only to be manipulated.

There need be no reason for the game.

The game exists for its own sake.

It exists only to give the gamers the thrill of control, the illusion of mastery.

And, as it is fantasy, rules and laws don’t mattter. The gamer can do whatever he wants, because, after all, it’s his game.

Any hack or cheat he can get away with is okay, because, you see, he is in charge and no one and nothing else matters–not lives, not laws, not right and wrong.

Here’s where they hang out.

My friends, we are being gamed every day.

Waist deep in the Big Muddy . . .

Blackwater USA is an out-of-control outfit indifferent to Iraqi civilian casualties, according to a critical report released Monday by a key congressional committee.

Among the most serious charges against the prominent security firm is that Blackwater contractors sought to cover up a June 2005 shooting of an Iraqi man and the company paid, with State Department approval, the families of others inadvertently killed by its guards.

Blackwater has had to fire dozens of guards over the past three years for problems ranging from misuse of weapons, alcohol and drug violations, inappropriate conduct and violent behavior, says the 15-page report from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Just after the report was released, The Associated Press learned the Federal Bureau of Investigation is sending a team to Iraq to investigate an incident that has angered the Iraqi government.

The founders learned that the Hessians could not be trusted. Neither can modern mercenaries.

. . . and the big fool says, “Push on.”

For three summers while I was in college, I worked for the local health department, performing clerical duties and pulling a mobile clinic from place to place–four different locations every week.

The health department had four bathrooms in the waiting area: two labelled “Men” and two labelled “Women,” two in the front of the room and two in the back.

Klutz that I am, it took me a while to realize that, only a few years before, one was labelled, “White Men,” one was labelled “Colored Men,” and–oh, well, you get the picture (yeah, there were two unlabelled water fountains, also).

Dick Polman’s blog post brought those memories back to me.

In the end, the first nationwide strike against General Motors Corp. in 37 years came because the United Auto Workers want something that GM will find difficult to promise: Job security.

A basic principal of labor relations is that unions are the creation of management.

Companies who treat their people decent do not have labor problems.

Yet, it is characteristic of American industry to view unions as the enemy.

Why is that?

Perhaps it is because, when unions hold fast, they bring the incompetence of management to the surface, for all to see.

This is certainly what is happening in the General Motors strike.

Why is GM in such bad shape?

Because of incompetent management.

Incompetent management that gave away the store to the union back in the 50s and 60s when the Big Three were still the Big Three.

Incompetent management that hailed “concealed window wipers” as a great advance even as Honda brought out the 40 plus miles per gallon Civic in the early 70s.

Incompetent management that put all its chips in the storage area of the elephant Tahoe even as fuel prices rocketed to the skies in the 2000s.

Incompetent management that gives itself huge bonuses for its own incompetence even as the elevator falls to the basement.

And, of course, the persons who should pay for this are, needless to say, not the incompetent managers.

There will likely be no winners in the GM strike. If the company goes under, though, remember this: it will not be the fault of the persons who build the vehicles.

It will be fault of the empty suits who have run ran the company into the ground.

Addendum, Later That Same Evening:

Will Bunch.

Addendum, 9/25/2007:

Will Bunch, again.

Yesterday, the Fluffia Philadelphia Eagles’s Donovan McNabb had a perfect passing game, according the the NFL’s quarterback rating system. (No, I’m not an Eagles fan. I’m a Redskins fan, so life has no meaning for me. But I do like and respect McNabb, who has more class than do 50 Eagles fans in a bucket.)

The rating for a perfect passing game is 158.3.

158.3?

So I did a little research (that means two minutes of Googling) to find out how those crazy quarterback ratings work.

The best explanation I found was here (the site includes a spreadsheet you can download to see the formula in action).

There used to be a radio host in these parts who was fond of saying, “You can’t retire FROM something. You must retire TO something.”

This was confirmed today by a person of my acquaintance who is so bored with retirement that he’s planning to go back to college and get his degree in history.

Among other things, he said that, “You can’t watch daytime television. There’s nothing on.”

Richard Blair has the evidence.

There has been a lot of fuss today regarding the demonstration at Jena, Louisiana.

I heard one of the citizens of Jena (obviously white–don’t ask me how I know, I know) saying that he didn’t understand what the fuss was about.

And that, my friends, is precisely what the fuss was about.

I was brought up in the Southern Baptist Church.

I am still very much a Baptist, though I happen to attend a Methodist church now.

Baptist beliefs are, I fear, much misunderstood, primarily due to the antics of those who call themselves “Baptists.” Heck, any group of nutcakes who wants to start up some kind of wierd little sect seems to want to call themselves “The So-and-So Baptist Church of the Such-and-Such.”

There are six basic tenets of being a Baptist. Four of them are pretty much standard Christian stuff: the Trinity, the Virgin Birth, and so on.

Two of them are unique:

• Baptism of the Believer: One cannot be baptised unless he or she is able to profess faith. In other words, infant baptism is out (sorry, Methodists).
• Priesthood of the Believer: Though this is fundamental to Protestantism, Baptists take if much farther than anyone else. In the Baptist persuasion, the believer is in charge; the congregation is next, and so on. (I’m a very strong proponent of “priesthood of the believer,” but that’s another story.)

Furthermore, Baptists do not believe in creeds. No true Baptist Church ever repeats a creed.

For, you see, if you are repeating a creed, you are repeating beliefs imposed on you by someone else, thereby violating the principal of “priesthood of the believer.”

The little Baptist Church that I was raised in is a member of the Accomack Baptist Association, which, in turn, is a member of the Baptist General Association of Virginia (BGAV), which, in turn, is a member of the Southern Baptist Convention. (The land on which it stands was donated by one of my ancestors shortly after the unpleasantness of 1781.)

The missionary who founded the church (I believe his name was Elijah Lewis, but I am far from my sources), spent large amounts of time in jail for the crime of . . .

. . . being a Baptist.

A further fundamental principal of Baptists in America is separation of church and state. This dates back to Roger Williams’s founding of Rhode Island, which he founded because he was hounded out of the Massachusetts Bay Colony because of his religion.

Now, of course, the Southern Baptist Convention has fallen into the hands of the pharisees.

The little church in which I grew up has trouble finding pastors because it has (gasp!) women deacons (in the Baptist Church, the Board of Deacons is sort of like the Parish Council, the Board of Trustees, and the Administrative Council all rolled into one–they are the governing body of the church)

So, where am I headed with this?

To here. Give it a a read.

And think seriously about why the Founders decreed that Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion.

I’ve mentioned Swampwater before. (By the way, the link is to Wikepedia–it might be interesting to investigate the edits to the article.)

Apparently they played Sergeant Rock one time too many:

The Iraqi government said today it has revoked the license of Blackwater USA, a private security company that guards U.S. Embassy personnel in Iraq, following a shootout in downtown Baghdad on Sunday that left at least nine people dead.

Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul-Karim Khalaf called the episode the “last and the biggest mistake” committed by Blackwater, whose black sports utility vehicles and agile “Little Bird” helicopters escort diplomatic convoys throughout Baghdad.

He said the decision of the Iraqi government meant that Blackwater “cannot work in Iraq any longer, it will be illegal for them to work here.”

“Security contracts do not allow them to shoot people randomly,” Brig. Gen. Khalaf said. “They are here to protect personnel, not shoot people without reason.”

We shall see whether or not the Iraqi (it is to laugh) government’s declaration has any weight. (Given that the Iraqi government doesn’t even run the blinking Green Zone, let alone Iraqi, well, you figure out the odds.)

It is not good to turn over our security, or the security of our personnel, to persons who are accountable, not to the United States of America, but to some private entity who considers itself accountable to no one.

Addendum, Moments Later:

Brendan has more.

So does Upyernoz.

Addendum, Later That Same Week:

Brendan has even more and Will Bunch weighs in.

Yes, when I was young, that’s what they were called.

DPs.

Displaced Persons.

Now it’s more fashionable to call them refugees.

The Current Federal Administration has created a bumper crop of them in Iraq, but has failed to accept responsibility for its actions.

(And this surprise us how?)

Trudy Rubin discusses the harvest and the craven, despicable failure of the Current Federal Administration to see to the safety of those Iraqis who have aided it (emphasis added):

When President Bush spoke to the nation about Iraq last week he predicted that if American troops left soon, “Iraq could face a humanitarian nightmare.”

He’s right. Things could get worse. But Iraqis already face a humanitarian nightmare as millions of refugees flee their homes to escape ethnic cleansing. More than 2 million are displaced within Iraq, and 2.2 million have poured into neighboring countries, according to U.N. agencies. That’s around a sixth of Iraq’s entire population, many living in desperate conditions, with tens of thousands still escaping monthly.

This is a refugee crisis of a magnitude that can destabilize the entire region. So why didn’t it rate a mention in the president’s speech?

“I’m very puzzled by why it’s gotten such short shrift,” says Kenneth Bacon, president of Refugees International, one of the few international aid agencies addressing the problem.

But we know the reason. As Bacon points out, administration policy is to stabilize Iraq so refugees can go home. Meantime – with stability still a mirage – refugee flows are on the rise as the desperate run for their lives.

This refugee crisis creates a security threat to the region – and a moral challenge to the United States. Among the current and potential refugees are thousands of Iraqis who have been threatened with death because they worked with U.S. officials. Many have risked their lives to help Americans, yet the United States has been pitifully slow in helping those under direct threat. In July, the U.S. ambassador to Baghdad, Ryan Crocker, urged the administration to grant immigrant visas to all embassy staff members in need, after nine U.S. embassy employees had been killed, including a married couple who were kidnapped and executed.

And, of course, as long as the Current Federal Administration continues to play its tune that “Everything is coming out roses!” over there, innocents will continue to die.

For a lie.

But there seem to have been. They date from Lee Iaccoca’s leadership of Chrysler; his acquaintance with Carroll Shelby dated from his days at Ford.

This is a Dodge Rampage.

I use my digital camera frequently on the job. I commonly take 200 to 300 pictures a day when I’m on the jobsite as I work to document procedures and processes at the cooling tower place.

When I started this gig, I switched to rechargeable batteries because I was going through two sets of alkaline batteries every three days.

Normally, I get my rechargeables at Radio Slum, because it’s convenient, because I’ve always gotten value for my dollar there, and because I worked there for a while and have fond memories of that experience.

Frankly, Radio Slum rechargeables wear like iron.

Recently, though, I broke down and bought some store-branded AAs at a major hardware chain, because I wanted some extras and because the store was on my way (I won’t mention their name, but if you have four of them and a wildcard, you have an unbeatable poker hand). On the side of the batteries was written, “15-minute recharge.”

What should have been written was, “15-minute discharge.”

They lasted for three charges. Now they have to be “dispose(d) of properly.”

Back to the Shack.

Ted Sorensen summarizes the accomplishments of the Current Federal Administrator (I shamelessly stole this from Steve over at All Spin Zone.):

We remain essentially a nation under siege. The threat of another terrorist attack upon our homeland has not been reduced by all the new layers of porous bureaucracy that proved their ineptitude in New Orleans; nor by all the needless, mindless curbs on our personal liberties and privacy; nor by expensive new weaponry that is utterly useless in stopping a fanatic willing to blow himself up for his cause. Indeed, our vulnerability to another attack has only been worsened in the years since the attacks of September 11th—worsened by our government convincing more than 1 billion Muslims that we are prejudiced against their faith, dismissive of international law, and indifferent to the deaths of their innocent children; worsened by our failure to understand their culture or to provide a safe haven for the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees displaced by a war we started; worsened by our failure to continue our indispensable role in the Middle East peace process.

We have adopted some of the most indefensible tactics of our enemies, including torture and indefinite detention.

We have degraded our military.

We have treated our most serious adversaries, such as Iran and North Korea, in the most juvenile manner—by giving them the silent treatment. In so doing, we have weakened, not strengthened, our bargaining position and our leadership.

At home, as health care costs have grown and coverage disappeared, we have done nothing but coddle the insurance, pharmaceutical, and health care industries that feed the problem.

As global warming worsens, we have done nothing but deny the obvious and give regulatory favors to polluters.

As growing economic inequality tarnishes our democracy, we have done nothing but carve out more tax breaks for the rich.

During these last several years, our nation has been bitterly divided and deceived by illicit actions in high places, by violations of federal, constitutional, and international law. I do not favor further widening the nation’s wounds, now or next year, through continuous investigations, indictments, and impeachments. I am confident that history will hold these malefactors accountable for their deeds, and the country will move on.

The American Medical Association today backed off calling excessive video-game playing a formal psychiatric addiction, saying instead that more research is needed.

A report prepared for the AMA’s annual policy meeting had sought to strongly encourage that video-game addiction be included in a widely used diagnostic manual of psychiatric illnesses.

AMA delegates instead adopted a watered-down measure declaring that while overuse of video games and online games can be a problem for children and adults, calling it a formal addiction would be premature.

In a word, crap.

Not every bad behavior is an addiction.

Sometimes, it’s just bad behavior.

Calling bad behavior “addictions” accomplishes one thing. It gives the persons indulging in those behaviors an excuse to say, “It’s not my fault.”

Give me a break.

So Mr. Libby has been sentenced to 2 1/2 years soft labor (emphasis added):

Defense attorneys countered that Libby deserved probation. Theodore V. Wells Jr., the lead defense attorney, implored Walton to “take into account his entire life and his service to the country.” Wells argued that “it is entirely appropriate for a sentencing judge to take into consideration the good works and the good deeds that a person has done. . . . To take into consideration such personal public service, community service, is not in any way to give someone a break because of his or her status.”

Let us look critically at the Republican concept of good works and good deeds:

Lie to the court and to the authorities; violate the principles of truth, justice, and the American way; be complicit in efforts that ended the career of a competent public servant; and, very likely, cover up your boss’s roll in the whole thing.

Yeah, that’s good works and good deeds.

Bush style.

Addendum, Later that Same Evening:

Attytood.

Addendum, 6/6/2007

Susie.

Steven Chapman (who, thankfully, is not from these parts) in today’s local rag:

There are lots of theories on how to succeed in business. But here’s one that never occurred to me: Poison your customers.

This strategy sounds counterintuitive, since the dead don’t do much buying, but some people think it accounts for periodic outbreaks of food-borne illness. They say you can’t trust the private sector to keep pathogens out of our food, making it incumbent on the federal government to protect us.

The recent episode of lethal pet food is Exhibit A in this case. Adulterated wheat flour made its way from China to factories in the United States and Canada that produce food for dogs and cats. The contamination killed or sickened thousands of animals, and led to the recall of more than 100 brands of pet food.

Many liberals, however, insist that the only remedy is more regulation. “If we expect to have our spinach uncontaminated, our pet food safe, Congress has to give the FDA more resources,” says Donald Kennedy, former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.

But this case also shows that, when a product goes wrong, everyone in the supply chain has a big stake in making it right. Chinese exporters stand to lose a vast amount of sales if they don’t raise their safety standards. Pet-food-makers face rejection from retailers unless they can show their products pose no danger. Stores that sell tainted goods will send their patrons to the competition.

So, following this logic, the thing to do is to wait until after some folks are dead before ensuring that the food and drug supplies are safe.

Frankly, Mr. Chapman’s misty-eyed bleeding-heart view of business ethics pretty much ignores history–but that’s a pretty common thing these days among those who call themselves “conservative.”

A century ago, American meat packers poisoned American soldiers in the “rotten meat” scandal.

More recently, Enron staffers joked about forest fires while manipulating electricity for California to drive up prices.

Just today, this headline: “Ex-China drug regulator to be executed” for accepting bribes to approve adulterated products.

And those are just a few examples that come to mind without any research.

Mr. Chapman may be somewhat right. No doubt, as these fine, upstanding business persons went about their way, they did not actually intend to harm anyone. They just wanted to cut costs and increase their profit margins.

And to hell with the rest of us.

I grew up on one.

Family farm, that is.

It’s no longer a family farm. We rent it to a large scale farmer who rents many farms–the economics of farming are such that no one could make it on 53 arable acres any more–unless they are 53 acres of chicken coops.

Despite the wild representations of the anti-inheritance tax crowd, family farms are pretty much a thing of the past.

At the same time, I’m certainly no fan of the extreme “animal rights” types who would have us survive on a diet of tofu. (Check out my recipes category–see what I mean.)

But this is one darn good piece of video. And it does contain some truth that those who think that steak somehow just appears out of nowhere wrapped in cellophane in the Safeway meat aisle really need to know.

Even with the editorializing, which lumps good producers with bad, it’s a great piece of satire.

With a tip to Andrew Sullivan.