I've done yearly recaps before, so this year I thought I'd venture really far out on a very tiny limb and take a shot at predicting the future. Just in case you were wondering, this is not one of my strong suits. It's not even a weak suit, but I'm not going to let that stop me. Here are 9 predictions for 2009:
The hardest prediction is whether or not all the lawsuits challenging Obama to prove his natural-born citizenship will hit paydirt and keep him out of the presidency.
I predict that Barack Obama will be sworn in and be allowed to remain our President for the full term.
I predict that VP Joe Biden, when first allowed out in public, will say something really stupid that will embarrass President Obama, whereupon Biden will be kept under wraps for the six months following The Incident.
I predict that terrorists and/or rogue Islamofanatic states will test Obama's mettle with an attack against America or her interests. Yes, I know Joe Biden predicted this during the campaign, but it's the one thing he said that I believe is right.
I predict that Obama's response to the mettle-testing will be some wussified action.
I predict that Vladimir Putin's Russia will invade another of the former Soviet states with impunity.
I predict that it will be cold this winter.
I predict that it will be hot this summer.
I predict that the polar bears will not die off.
I predict that in 2009 I will get a day job that doesn't hurt my feet.
Now all that remains is to see if I'm any good at this.
Happy New Year!
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Elderly Woman Puts Squeeze on Naked Intruder
Fox 12 News in Oregon reported today on how an elderly woman handled a naked intruder.
Ladies, if you ever find yourself in this situation, follow "Jennifer's" lead, and the naked man should flee.
Ladies, if you ever find yourself in this situation, follow "Jennifer's" lead, and the naked man should flee.
"Gunman" Shoots 2 Israelis in Denmark
The AP reported today on a shooting in Denmark.
A gunman shot and wounded two Israelis working at a packed central Denmark shopping mall Wednesday, police said.
Police spokesman Lars Thede said it was not immediately clear whether the Israelis were targeted because of their nationality. A video surveillance camera showed a swarthy man with a dark mustache and dark hair in his mid-20s pulling out a gun before opening fire.
"A gunman... swarthy." Nice, specific description.
"... not immediately clear whether the Israelis were targeted because of their nationality." Oh yeah? Is that right?
The men, who were selling hair care products, had been harassed by a group of youths in recent days, Denmark's Ritzau news agency said. The nature of the harassment was not immediately known. According to the B.T. newspaper's Web site, a man shouted something in a Middle Eastern language and opened fire.
Nothing to see here, folks. Just your average, run-of-the-mill Jew-shooting. Move along.
It's disgusting.
A gunman shot and wounded two Israelis working at a packed central Denmark shopping mall Wednesday, police said.
Police spokesman Lars Thede said it was not immediately clear whether the Israelis were targeted because of their nationality. A video surveillance camera showed a swarthy man with a dark mustache and dark hair in his mid-20s pulling out a gun before opening fire.
"A gunman... swarthy." Nice, specific description.
"... not immediately clear whether the Israelis were targeted because of their nationality." Oh yeah? Is that right?
The men, who were selling hair care products, had been harassed by a group of youths in recent days, Denmark's Ritzau news agency said. The nature of the harassment was not immediately known. According to the B.T. newspaper's Web site, a man shouted something in a Middle Eastern language and opened fire.
Nothing to see here, folks. Just your average, run-of-the-mill Jew-shooting. Move along.
It's disgusting.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Tolerating Tolerance
I spotted this over at Malott's Blog today, and couldn't resist.
I think this guy has the "tolerance" mindset down pat.
I think this guy has the "tolerance" mindset down pat.
Feeling 90
Yes, that's how old I feel after a full-day shift at the shoe store. And I walk like it, too. Sunday, I only worked for 4 hours, and I felt 70. So young!
I take multiple pairs of shoes to work, so I can switch. My slip-on (backless) boots have cushioned insoles, so they're comfortable for a while, and then the balls of my feet start feeling like they're building a hot spot, so I switch to another flatter pair. I have some decorated ballet flats, but they don't have any cushioning, so after a couple hours in them, my heels get that pounded-with-boards feeling.
I'd wear comfortable shoes, but this is a SHOE STORE, and most industrial-strength comfortable shoes are ugly. Not at all the thing to wear when you're trying to convey trust to customers in your sense of shoe fashion.
On my first long day at work, I bought a pair of comfortable-but-stylish shoes that we sell (employee discount), but those started rubbing my achilles tendon, and I had to resort to band-aids.
A couple days ago, I bought a pair of Dr. Scholl's gel inserts, since they worked so well for my mom on our trip, and I put them inside the decorated ballet flats. But that lifted my feet just high enough that the backs of those shoes now rub on my achilles tendon, and my band-aids weren't quite in the right spot, so now I have a hefty blister on my right heel. At the end of my shift, I put on my open-back slippers, which I had brought to work for driving home in, and wore them around the mall and out to my car. I didn't care how silly I looked.
Today was my day off. I put a couple band-aids over the blister and wore socks and sneakers. Nothing stylish or painful for me today, thank you. I even walked like a normal person my age!
For my feet and achey leg joints, this job is going to be one of sheer endurance. But for the rest of me, it's great. I get to talk to people and help them find the right shoes (or commiserate with them when the right ones aren't there in their size). I learned a little more Spanish, when I asked a co-worker how I can say, "May I help you?" It's, "¿Necesito ayudo?" Or is it, "¿Necesita ayuda?" I don't know. I'll have to ask again. I'll also have to ask how to say, "I don't know." Every time I try to think of it in Spanish, I get the Polish instead: "Nie wiem." It's a serious gap in my Spanish education.
But there was one family of women that came to check out (I'm now getting my first cash-handling experience since I sold milk on the sixth grade lunch court and had to balance my cash box), and when I told them their total was $19.69, I heard one of the younger ones tell the older one, "... dix-neuf...." It was strange to hear French from them, because they looked Asian but not quite Philippino, so I asked where they were from, and they said, "Tahiti." I've been there!
I got to use my rusty French on them for a few minutes and also count back the change ("trente-et-un cents"). The younger one told me I retained my French very well, which made me feel good. Finally! A chance to have my schoolgirl foreign language be useful in a normal setting.
I got so used to greeting customers with a variation of, "What can I help you find today?" that on Christmas Eve, when I was walking through the mall after my shift, I saw a father and his little son come in through one of the main mall entrances, and I almost walked up to them and asked them that question. But I stopped myself in time, before I said anything inappropriate.
So that's what I've been up to and why I haven't been blogging much. It's hard to do anything when I get home besides sit down and put my feet up and take my glucosamine. Besides, everybody knows 90-year-olds don't blog...
I take multiple pairs of shoes to work, so I can switch. My slip-on (backless) boots have cushioned insoles, so they're comfortable for a while, and then the balls of my feet start feeling like they're building a hot spot, so I switch to another flatter pair. I have some decorated ballet flats, but they don't have any cushioning, so after a couple hours in them, my heels get that pounded-with-boards feeling.
I'd wear comfortable shoes, but this is a SHOE STORE, and most industrial-strength comfortable shoes are ugly. Not at all the thing to wear when you're trying to convey trust to customers in your sense of shoe fashion.
On my first long day at work, I bought a pair of comfortable-but-stylish shoes that we sell (employee discount), but those started rubbing my achilles tendon, and I had to resort to band-aids.
A couple days ago, I bought a pair of Dr. Scholl's gel inserts, since they worked so well for my mom on our trip, and I put them inside the decorated ballet flats. But that lifted my feet just high enough that the backs of those shoes now rub on my achilles tendon, and my band-aids weren't quite in the right spot, so now I have a hefty blister on my right heel. At the end of my shift, I put on my open-back slippers, which I had brought to work for driving home in, and wore them around the mall and out to my car. I didn't care how silly I looked.
Today was my day off. I put a couple band-aids over the blister and wore socks and sneakers. Nothing stylish or painful for me today, thank you. I even walked like a normal person my age!
For my feet and achey leg joints, this job is going to be one of sheer endurance. But for the rest of me, it's great. I get to talk to people and help them find the right shoes (or commiserate with them when the right ones aren't there in their size). I learned a little more Spanish, when I asked a co-worker how I can say, "May I help you?" It's, "¿Necesito ayudo?" Or is it, "¿Necesita ayuda?" I don't know. I'll have to ask again. I'll also have to ask how to say, "I don't know." Every time I try to think of it in Spanish, I get the Polish instead: "Nie wiem." It's a serious gap in my Spanish education.
But there was one family of women that came to check out (I'm now getting my first cash-handling experience since I sold milk on the sixth grade lunch court and had to balance my cash box), and when I told them their total was $19.69, I heard one of the younger ones tell the older one, "... dix-neuf...." It was strange to hear French from them, because they looked Asian but not quite Philippino, so I asked where they were from, and they said, "Tahiti." I've been there!
I got to use my rusty French on them for a few minutes and also count back the change ("trente-et-un cents"). The younger one told me I retained my French very well, which made me feel good. Finally! A chance to have my schoolgirl foreign language be useful in a normal setting.
I got so used to greeting customers with a variation of, "What can I help you find today?" that on Christmas Eve, when I was walking through the mall after my shift, I saw a father and his little son come in through one of the main mall entrances, and I almost walked up to them and asked them that question. But I stopped myself in time, before I said anything inappropriate.
So that's what I've been up to and why I haven't been blogging much. It's hard to do anything when I get home besides sit down and put my feet up and take my glucosamine. Besides, everybody knows 90-year-olds don't blog...
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Eartha Kitt, R.I.P
Eartha Kitt passed away today after battling colon cancer. Such a shame!
I first saw her on the Batman TV series, where she played Catwoman. Most of the men I know think that Julie Newmar was the best Catwoman. Yes, she was hot, but Eartha Kitt was absolutely and completely feline. Julie Newmar didn't hold a candle to Eartha Kitt's Catwoman, and don't try to argue with me, because you won't win.
This is a 1962 performance of her singing her hit song, "C'est si Bon." After watching her, it comes as no surprise that she would have been chosen to be Catwoman on the Batman TV series. My daughter bought "the llama movie," The Emperor's New Groove, when it came out on DVD, and I was delighted to hear Eartha Kitt as Yzma, the evil villain woman. She seemed to enjoy the role immensely. It was good to see that she was still working and not hiding away the way some actresses have done as they aged.
In the end--outside of faith--what counts is that a person can find joy in bringing joy to others. Eartha Kitt appears to have done just that. She will be missed.
Wikipedia's entry for Eartha Kitt.
Niki D'Andrea's review of Eartha Kitt's live performance this past May in Phoenix (this review is where I found the C'est si Bon video).
A Merry Christmas
I've been feeling some (self-imposed) pressure to post pictures of my Christmas tree, after Bekah the Christmas tree extremist and Christina the normal person with only one tree posted pictures of theirs. The problem is that I'm at the opposite end of the spectrum as Bekah.
I didn't get a real Christmas tree this year, since I have a table-top fake tree with bendable wire branches and pre-loaded white lights. But I wasn't sure if the tree was in the black-widow-infested shed or in the storage unit, and I was too busy (or too intimidated by the prospect of black widows) to go looking for it.
I started my shoe store job this past Sunday, at which time I discovered that if you're on your feet all day for hours at a time with only a 45-minute break for lunch, your feet end the day feeling as though they've been pounded on the bottom with boards. It makes you want to sit and put your feet up, not venture outside to face vermin while you're armed only with a broom.
My job itself is fun (if I'm not thinking about my feet). It's the kind of work that someone with OCD tendencies can excel at, and I've confirmed that I have a mild case of it. When I'm not helping customers find shoes or telling them about our sale, my task is to straighten out the shoes. They're displayed in boxes. The left shoe needs to be turned with the sole against the left side of the box, and the right shoe should ideally be on the right with the top of the shoe showing (if it fits that way) and the toe pointed toward the floor. That way, the customer can easily see what the shoe looks like.
But customers take the shoes out of the boxes to look at them or try them on, and when they (hopefully) put them back, they don't do it the right way. That's OK, though, because I've been reminded of my late mother-in-law's philosophy of Christmas gift giving: She had fun shopping for us, and then we could take the receipt to the store and get what we really liked. Everybody would win that way. So at the store, the customers get to shop to their heart's content, and then I'll straighten up the boxes when they've finished. It's all good.
Until I finish my shift and don't know how I can make my feet walk me out to my car. They do, but as I mentioned, there's nothing left for finding the tree.
There was one year, when the kids were in their early teens, when I waited just a day too long to buy a real tree. The trees had been in the lot one day, and then they were gone when I showed up to buy one. So I took the fake ficus tree (made with real wood trunks) downstairs, and we hung ornaments on it and put the presents around it.
Another year, when it was their dad's turn to have them for Christmas, I didn't even buy a tree. When they came back to my house and we exchanged gifts, I draped a tablecloth over the foos-ball table in the dining room, and we put the presents on the floor in front of it.
So my kids don't really expect much from me, and this year they weren't disappointed. This was our Christmas tree:
The blue pot in the middle, with the red bow on it, is a real tree. It's just not very big. Its (his) name is Sammy Seed-sa, and he's our avocado seed that sprouted. He had a central stem and root, but I broke the end of the root off one time when I was giving him fresh water, and the tip of the stem withered. Then some of the other nubs in the core of the seed sprouted upward, while the root got about a dozen new shoots, and when he seemed strong enough with four burgeoning "trunks," my daughter planted Sammy in a new pot.
You can't get much less of a Christmas tree than this without dispensing of the whole tree idea entirely. But we liked our festive Sammy just the same.
After our ham dinner, the three of us (my daughter, my son, and I) spent the evening playing Mexican Train Dominos. It couldn't have been better, even with a genuine Christmas tree.
I didn't get a real Christmas tree this year, since I have a table-top fake tree with bendable wire branches and pre-loaded white lights. But I wasn't sure if the tree was in the black-widow-infested shed or in the storage unit, and I was too busy (or too intimidated by the prospect of black widows) to go looking for it.
I started my shoe store job this past Sunday, at which time I discovered that if you're on your feet all day for hours at a time with only a 45-minute break for lunch, your feet end the day feeling as though they've been pounded on the bottom with boards. It makes you want to sit and put your feet up, not venture outside to face vermin while you're armed only with a broom.
My job itself is fun (if I'm not thinking about my feet). It's the kind of work that someone with OCD tendencies can excel at, and I've confirmed that I have a mild case of it. When I'm not helping customers find shoes or telling them about our sale, my task is to straighten out the shoes. They're displayed in boxes. The left shoe needs to be turned with the sole against the left side of the box, and the right shoe should ideally be on the right with the top of the shoe showing (if it fits that way) and the toe pointed toward the floor. That way, the customer can easily see what the shoe looks like.
But customers take the shoes out of the boxes to look at them or try them on, and when they (hopefully) put them back, they don't do it the right way. That's OK, though, because I've been reminded of my late mother-in-law's philosophy of Christmas gift giving: She had fun shopping for us, and then we could take the receipt to the store and get what we really liked. Everybody would win that way. So at the store, the customers get to shop to their heart's content, and then I'll straighten up the boxes when they've finished. It's all good.
Until I finish my shift and don't know how I can make my feet walk me out to my car. They do, but as I mentioned, there's nothing left for finding the tree.
There was one year, when the kids were in their early teens, when I waited just a day too long to buy a real tree. The trees had been in the lot one day, and then they were gone when I showed up to buy one. So I took the fake ficus tree (made with real wood trunks) downstairs, and we hung ornaments on it and put the presents around it.
Another year, when it was their dad's turn to have them for Christmas, I didn't even buy a tree. When they came back to my house and we exchanged gifts, I draped a tablecloth over the foos-ball table in the dining room, and we put the presents on the floor in front of it.
So my kids don't really expect much from me, and this year they weren't disappointed. This was our Christmas tree:
The blue pot in the middle, with the red bow on it, is a real tree. It's just not very big. Its (his) name is Sammy Seed-sa, and he's our avocado seed that sprouted. He had a central stem and root, but I broke the end of the root off one time when I was giving him fresh water, and the tip of the stem withered. Then some of the other nubs in the core of the seed sprouted upward, while the root got about a dozen new shoots, and when he seemed strong enough with four burgeoning "trunks," my daughter planted Sammy in a new pot.
You can't get much less of a Christmas tree than this without dispensing of the whole tree idea entirely. But we liked our festive Sammy just the same.
After our ham dinner, the three of us (my daughter, my son, and I) spent the evening playing Mexican Train Dominos. It couldn't have been better, even with a genuine Christmas tree.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
New Music Site
Hugh Hewitt, as any of his regular radio show listeners can attest, cannot be trusted to know about music (or movies, but that's another subject). When he isn't busy hosting his evening radio show, he teaches Constitutional Law at a California university law school and works as an attorney specializing in Endangered Species Act litigation (on the side of property owners).
None of that says, "Music."
But one thing Hugh likes to do is help other people find success. In that vein, he has started a music website, Amaze.fm, which provides a vehicle for independent artists to have their music heard.
Not being much more musical than Hugh is, I have no songs to contribute to the site, but I love to listen. The "Charts" (actually one chart, as near as I can tell) list the popularity of the songs, and whichever song is in the number 1 position during Hugh's Friday radio show gets played in its entirety on the air nationwide. Sometime Friday night, they reset the charts for the following week.
A lot of the bands are Christian. A lot of them aren't. The last couple weeks, The Neighborhood Bullys have had many of their songs near the top of the charts, though they're too "Rock" for my taste. I think they're more of a guys' band.
Here are some of the songs I like, though I don't necessarily like all the songs by these artists:
For Country fans, I have two choices:
Perry L Nunley's Redneck Date is good fun.
Paul Evans' Endlessly is a sad, haunting song for the heartbroken.
If you're looking for female vocalists, here's a variety:
Rebecca Elliott's Lullabye was written for an organization helping orphanages in Ukraine. It's piano and vocals.
Lynne Timmes' I Travel Light is contemporary pop. Her voice reminds me of someone I can't quite put my finger on right now.
Lara Swinarton's So I Can Breathe is different from the kind of music I usually listen to, but it's grown on me.
For contemporary Christian rock try these:
The Reel's Come Alive rocks without being too heavy.
The J Band's Take Our Turn is a catchy, fun song. I love it. Unfortunately, this song doesn't come up on the list of "other songs by this artist" when you're playing one of their other songs, but you can find it on the artist's page.
The Great Upset's Omega is my favorite song on amaze.fm. This song has an intriguing atmosphere and harmonies that blend into the instruments.
I also like The Great Upset's I Had My Reasons. This song is quieter--more acoustic--than the others, and I really like the vocals.
So that's my introduction for you to amaze.fm, and I invite you to visit. They have a Search box, where you can search by Genre, by Artist (but if you're new to the site, you have no idea who the artists are), and by "Sounds Like." Plus you can let them give you random songs (that's how I found some of these songs), or just go through the charts and listen to what other people like.
Hugh Hewitt, you had a great idea this time.
None of that says, "Music."
But one thing Hugh likes to do is help other people find success. In that vein, he has started a music website, Amaze.fm, which provides a vehicle for independent artists to have their music heard.
Not being much more musical than Hugh is, I have no songs to contribute to the site, but I love to listen. The "Charts" (actually one chart, as near as I can tell) list the popularity of the songs, and whichever song is in the number 1 position during Hugh's Friday radio show gets played in its entirety on the air nationwide. Sometime Friday night, they reset the charts for the following week.
A lot of the bands are Christian. A lot of them aren't. The last couple weeks, The Neighborhood Bullys have had many of their songs near the top of the charts, though they're too "Rock" for my taste. I think they're more of a guys' band.
Here are some of the songs I like, though I don't necessarily like all the songs by these artists:
For Country fans, I have two choices:
Perry L Nunley's Redneck Date is good fun.
Paul Evans' Endlessly is a sad, haunting song for the heartbroken.
If you're looking for female vocalists, here's a variety:
Rebecca Elliott's Lullabye was written for an organization helping orphanages in Ukraine. It's piano and vocals.
Lynne Timmes' I Travel Light is contemporary pop. Her voice reminds me of someone I can't quite put my finger on right now.
Lara Swinarton's So I Can Breathe is different from the kind of music I usually listen to, but it's grown on me.
For contemporary Christian rock try these:
The Reel's Come Alive rocks without being too heavy.
The J Band's Take Our Turn is a catchy, fun song. I love it. Unfortunately, this song doesn't come up on the list of "other songs by this artist" when you're playing one of their other songs, but you can find it on the artist's page.
The Great Upset's Omega is my favorite song on amaze.fm. This song has an intriguing atmosphere and harmonies that blend into the instruments.
I also like The Great Upset's I Had My Reasons. This song is quieter--more acoustic--than the others, and I really like the vocals.
So that's my introduction for you to amaze.fm, and I invite you to visit. They have a Search box, where you can search by Genre, by Artist (but if you're new to the site, you have no idea who the artists are), and by "Sounds Like." Plus you can let them give you random songs (that's how I found some of these songs), or just go through the charts and listen to what other people like.
Hugh Hewitt, you had a great idea this time.
Christmas Tidings
I saw this when I was visiting Tsofah's blog this morning. It should become a classic. (Note: replaced it with another version after the original disappeared from YouTube. This one works for now (12/22).)
And in other Christmas news, I had to stop at the mall today. Yes, the Saturday before Christmas!
My daughter's friend (she's my friend too, but by saying she's my daughter's friend, it places her age better), the one who had boyfriend trouble (they broke up this summer) and dog trouble, is staying with us now. She had been at her mom's house, but that wasn't working out very well, so I let her move back in here.
She has a job at one of the shoe stores in the mall, and she was headed for the bus stop to go to work, when she called me to say she missed the bus. She got caught at a red light, and the bus left the stop just as the light turned green for her. So I drove over to pick her up and take her to work. On the way to the bus stop, I was behind another bus (not hers), and a car-carrier semi was in the lane next to me. Normally I can squeeze around a stopped bus, but the car-carrier decided to move over into my lane right at that moment, and I decided stopping was the better part of valor. He pulled back into his own lane just before he side-swiped me.
At our mall, one of the anchor stores has been empty for a few years. It used to be a May Company that became a Robinsons-May that got bought out by Macy's that already had two stores (one for men's clothes and housewares, and the other for women's clothes) in our mall, so the store became a gaping hole at one end of the mall, surrounded by oodles of empty parking. The bottom floor of that store was used as a furniture store for a while, but they went out of business. Now it's used every October as a Halloween costume store that blows away on the wind as soon as soon as November comes around.
Today, there was a line to get into the mall parking entrance closest to the shoe store, which took me past the empty department store, and people were even parked around that store. I crept my way to the drop-off place, let our friend out, and headed over to the exit where I had come in. But it was clear that I wouldn't get out that way anytime soon. I cut across some empty parking spots at the far end of the empty store's parking area, and drove back along the mall to the other (occupied) end. It took a while, with frequent stops to let shoppers cross ahead of me, but I made it to the road that leads away from the mall and back to the freeway home.
I had meant to go to the shoe store with my friend to find out my work hours for this week that starts tomorrow. Yes, I will be temporarily gainfully employed at the shoe store through the first week of January, or until they don't need me anymore.
I'd already met my friend's boss, and we liked each other just fine. A few weeks ago, when they had three openings there (it helps to have an inside source), I applied and filled out their computer "no wrong answer" test that has questions like, "Have you ever stolen anything?" and, "Have you ever taken your employer's property home because they don't pay you enough, so you deserve it?" Ummm.... Let me think...
But there was a computer glitch that very week that lost the notification from headquarters to the store about the results of my "no wrong answer" test, so I didn't get hired then.
But my friend kept telling her boss she should hire me and that I indeed wanted the job, so yesterday I got a call from the boss informing me that someone flaked out on them and would I be interested? Yes, I would. So she got my identifying information and re-entered it, so that this morning my "no wrong answer" test results would be sent back to the store. She needed to know my previous plans for the week, so she knew when to schedule me. I stopped at the store yesterday (parking nightmare, but not as bad as today) and went over my plans with her(church Sunday morning, haircut Monday evening). I told her I wanted Christmas off, and she said they were closed, and I said, "I know."
So that's why I even vaguely considered looking for a parking spot today: because I prefer face-to-face conversations to phone calls. But given the parking situation, I decided to just go home and wait for her to call me. Which she did. I'll be working about 30 - 35 hours this week making actual income.
Who'da thought? Me, the mall, and Christmas week, all at the same time. Amazing.
And in other Christmas news, I had to stop at the mall today. Yes, the Saturday before Christmas!
My daughter's friend (she's my friend too, but by saying she's my daughter's friend, it places her age better), the one who had boyfriend trouble (they broke up this summer) and dog trouble, is staying with us now. She had been at her mom's house, but that wasn't working out very well, so I let her move back in here.
She has a job at one of the shoe stores in the mall, and she was headed for the bus stop to go to work, when she called me to say she missed the bus. She got caught at a red light, and the bus left the stop just as the light turned green for her. So I drove over to pick her up and take her to work. On the way to the bus stop, I was behind another bus (not hers), and a car-carrier semi was in the lane next to me. Normally I can squeeze around a stopped bus, but the car-carrier decided to move over into my lane right at that moment, and I decided stopping was the better part of valor. He pulled back into his own lane just before he side-swiped me.
At our mall, one of the anchor stores has been empty for a few years. It used to be a May Company that became a Robinsons-May that got bought out by Macy's that already had two stores (one for men's clothes and housewares, and the other for women's clothes) in our mall, so the store became a gaping hole at one end of the mall, surrounded by oodles of empty parking. The bottom floor of that store was used as a furniture store for a while, but they went out of business. Now it's used every October as a Halloween costume store that blows away on the wind as soon as soon as November comes around.
Today, there was a line to get into the mall parking entrance closest to the shoe store, which took me past the empty department store, and people were even parked around that store. I crept my way to the drop-off place, let our friend out, and headed over to the exit where I had come in. But it was clear that I wouldn't get out that way anytime soon. I cut across some empty parking spots at the far end of the empty store's parking area, and drove back along the mall to the other (occupied) end. It took a while, with frequent stops to let shoppers cross ahead of me, but I made it to the road that leads away from the mall and back to the freeway home.
I had meant to go to the shoe store with my friend to find out my work hours for this week that starts tomorrow. Yes, I will be temporarily gainfully employed at the shoe store through the first week of January, or until they don't need me anymore.
I'd already met my friend's boss, and we liked each other just fine. A few weeks ago, when they had three openings there (it helps to have an inside source), I applied and filled out their computer "no wrong answer" test that has questions like, "Have you ever stolen anything?" and, "Have you ever taken your employer's property home because they don't pay you enough, so you deserve it?" Ummm.... Let me think...
But there was a computer glitch that very week that lost the notification from headquarters to the store about the results of my "no wrong answer" test, so I didn't get hired then.
But my friend kept telling her boss she should hire me and that I indeed wanted the job, so yesterday I got a call from the boss informing me that someone flaked out on them and would I be interested? Yes, I would. So she got my identifying information and re-entered it, so that this morning my "no wrong answer" test results would be sent back to the store. She needed to know my previous plans for the week, so she knew when to schedule me. I stopped at the store yesterday (parking nightmare, but not as bad as today) and went over my plans with her(church Sunday morning, haircut Monday evening). I told her I wanted Christmas off, and she said they were closed, and I said, "I know."
So that's why I even vaguely considered looking for a parking spot today: because I prefer face-to-face conversations to phone calls. But given the parking situation, I decided to just go home and wait for her to call me. Which she did. I'll be working about 30 - 35 hours this week making actual income.
Who'da thought? Me, the mall, and Christmas week, all at the same time. Amazing.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Cheating and the Cheating Cheats Who Do It
Ann Coulter is in fine form in her column this week.
It's bad enough that the Republican Party can't prevent Democrats from voting in its primaries and saddling us with The New York Times' favorite Republican as our presidential nominee. If the Republican Party can't protect an election won by the incumbent U.S. senator in Minnesota, there is no point in donating to the Republican Party.
The day after the November election, Republican Sen. Norm Coleman had won his re-election to the U.S. Senate, beating challenger Al Franken by 725 votes.
Then one heavily Democratic town miraculously discovered 100 missing ballots. And, in another marvel, they were all for Al Franken! It was like a completely evil version of a Christmas miracle.
As strange as it was that all 100 post-election, "discovered" ballots would be for one candidate, it was even stranger that the official time stamp for the miracle ballots printed out by the voting machine on the miracle ballots showed that the votes had been cast on Nov. 2 -- two days before the election.
Those votes were accepted as valid.
Then another 400-odd statistically improbable "corrections" were made in other Democratic strongholds until -- by the end of election week -- Coleman's lead had been whittled down to a mere 215 votes.
The counting isn't over in Minnesota yet, and it won't be until the Democrats in charge of the elections can make the votes come out on Franken's side. The instant that happens, the election will be declared certified and Franken will be the winner.
Surely I jest, right?
Coulter describes other examples of Democrats doing the same or worse. There are even two cases where the Democrat-controlled Congress (the Senate in 1974 and the House in 1984) refused to accept the certified results that gave the election to Republicans and overturned the election in favor of the Democratic candidate.
So don't be surprised when, despite Norm Coleman's 725-vote win on election day, Al Franken jets off to Washington DC to take the Minnesota Senate seat. It won't be fair, but that's what cheating cheaters do.
It's bad enough that the Republican Party can't prevent Democrats from voting in its primaries and saddling us with The New York Times' favorite Republican as our presidential nominee. If the Republican Party can't protect an election won by the incumbent U.S. senator in Minnesota, there is no point in donating to the Republican Party.
The day after the November election, Republican Sen. Norm Coleman had won his re-election to the U.S. Senate, beating challenger Al Franken by 725 votes.
Then one heavily Democratic town miraculously discovered 100 missing ballots. And, in another marvel, they were all for Al Franken! It was like a completely evil version of a Christmas miracle.
As strange as it was that all 100 post-election, "discovered" ballots would be for one candidate, it was even stranger that the official time stamp for the miracle ballots printed out by the voting machine on the miracle ballots showed that the votes had been cast on Nov. 2 -- two days before the election.
Those votes were accepted as valid.
Then another 400-odd statistically improbable "corrections" were made in other Democratic strongholds until -- by the end of election week -- Coleman's lead had been whittled down to a mere 215 votes.
The counting isn't over in Minnesota yet, and it won't be until the Democrats in charge of the elections can make the votes come out on Franken's side. The instant that happens, the election will be declared certified and Franken will be the winner.
Surely I jest, right?
Coulter describes other examples of Democrats doing the same or worse. There are even two cases where the Democrat-controlled Congress (the Senate in 1974 and the House in 1984) refused to accept the certified results that gave the election to Republicans and overturned the election in favor of the Democratic candidate.
So don't be surprised when, despite Norm Coleman's 725-vote win on election day, Al Franken jets off to Washington DC to take the Minnesota Senate seat. It won't be fair, but that's what cheating cheaters do.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
For the Ladies
I was hanging out at Barnes & Noble a couple weeks ago, and as I often do, I took a look at what the guy next to me was reading. I asked him about it, and he recommended that I read it. He said a woman at the bookstore told him about it. The book is The Gift of Fear.
The title comes from the kind of fear that's a gift because it protects you from harm.
The man told me (from the book) about how bad guys will persistently refuse to accept "no" from a woman as a way of testing her to see if she will give in. If she does, he wins and she's under his control. And I recalled a time a man came up to a friend and me and kept pressing my friend to go to an event he was going to. As I watched, I had the feeling that he was a predator who sensed weakness in her and exploited it. She later backed out of the event and didn't go.
This morning when I was at the library I checked out the book. It opens with the story of what happened to a woman who ignored her fear-driven intuition and then how she saved her life by paying attention to it. The author, Gavin de Becker, describes each of the warning signs she ignored, and he discusses the ways we show (usually in retrospect) that we knew all along there was trouble coming.
He admits that men often don't understand women's fears:
I have a message for women who feel forced to defend their safety concerns: tell Mister I-Know-Everything-About-Danger that he has nothing to contribute to the topic of your personal safety. Tell him that your survival instinct is a gift from nature that knows a lot more about your safety than he does.
[M]en and women live in different worlds. At core, men are afraid women wil laugh at them, while at core, women are afraid men will kill them.
There's more in the book than just this. It talks about avoiding workplace violence and about violent children and other issues. It can be enough to make you afraid to go outside your house.
But after talking, over the last several years, with young women my daughter's age, I've found myself telling them to trust their instincts about men and the situations they find themselves in. They get a bad feeling about someone and then let logic talk them out of getting the heck out of there. And it's not just young women. People of any age are at risk of ignoring what their intuition (men, please read, "gut") tells them to do.
In spite of the chance that this book could raise your level of alarm, it has valuable information that could save your life or your well-being. I recommend it.
The title comes from the kind of fear that's a gift because it protects you from harm.
The man told me (from the book) about how bad guys will persistently refuse to accept "no" from a woman as a way of testing her to see if she will give in. If she does, he wins and she's under his control. And I recalled a time a man came up to a friend and me and kept pressing my friend to go to an event he was going to. As I watched, I had the feeling that he was a predator who sensed weakness in her and exploited it. She later backed out of the event and didn't go.
This morning when I was at the library I checked out the book. It opens with the story of what happened to a woman who ignored her fear-driven intuition and then how she saved her life by paying attention to it. The author, Gavin de Becker, describes each of the warning signs she ignored, and he discusses the ways we show (usually in retrospect) that we knew all along there was trouble coming.
He admits that men often don't understand women's fears:
I have a message for women who feel forced to defend their safety concerns: tell Mister I-Know-Everything-About-Danger that he has nothing to contribute to the topic of your personal safety. Tell him that your survival instinct is a gift from nature that knows a lot more about your safety than he does.
[M]en and women live in different worlds. At core, men are afraid women wil laugh at them, while at core, women are afraid men will kill them.
There's more in the book than just this. It talks about avoiding workplace violence and about violent children and other issues. It can be enough to make you afraid to go outside your house.
But after talking, over the last several years, with young women my daughter's age, I've found myself telling them to trust their instincts about men and the situations they find themselves in. They get a bad feeling about someone and then let logic talk them out of getting the heck out of there. And it's not just young women. People of any age are at risk of ignoring what their intuition (men, please read, "gut") tells them to do.
In spite of the chance that this book could raise your level of alarm, it has valuable information that could save your life or your well-being. I recommend it.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Poetic Justice
I went to summer school right after seventh grade, my first year in Junior High. It wasn't to make up any classes, but to take a couple extras that have turned out to be just about the best classes I've taken.
I didn't go to summer school very often. I think I went after fifth grade, when I took some sort of craft class and learned how to embroider. That was nice to learn, but it didn't lead me to any kind of greatness.
My seventh grade summer school classes were: How to Study, and Typing. The studying class didn't turn out the way I expected. It wasn't about managing your time, rather it taught us the tools that were available to help us. We learned the Dewey Decimal System and how to use the card catalog at the library to find books that would be our resources when we wrote papers. We learned about the Periodical Index for looking up articles in magazines. And they took us to the library to practice.
They also told us some helpful tips on how to improve our odds when we're taking tests: how to know whether you're better off guessing or leaving a question blank, and if you should guess, how to have a better chance of guessing right. For essay questions, they advised us to organize our answers well--the typical "Say what you're going to say, say it, then say what you said" approach to writing an essay. Our teacher said that sometimes, even when you don't know what you're talking about, when your answer is structured well, they think you must have it right and you get a better score. I remembered that tip.
We even had an assignment in that class to "buy" three stocks and track their progress over the course of the class. Since summer was just getting started, I bought Coke, figuring the demand would only go up by August, and I bought Gerber, because babies always need to eat. I don't remember my third stock, but by the end of class I had made a bit of money on my "investments."
I haven't done much with the stock market, in terms of buying individual stocks, but the rest of the studying class has done well for me, with all the research papers I had to write all through school and especially while I was getting my degree.
The typing class gave me a head start over a lot of the other kids, who didn't take Typing until ninth grade. But I didn't get very fast, since I didn't type every day.
My poor mother, who is a very light sleeper, was subjected to much misery when I was in high school. I'd write my essays and term papers long-hand on the day before it was due, and then I'd start typing on the electric typewriter: CLACK! CLACK! CLACK! CLACK! DING!
By one or two in the morning, my mom would come down the hall in her nightgown and bathrobe, shoo me away from the typewriter, and start typing at about double my speed or more. She said that if she typed it, she'd get to sleep a lot faster than if she let me keep plugging away (with proper form) at my pitiful speed.
Eventually, I got married, moved to California, and had to do all my typing for myself. And after I started working in the computer industry and writing romance novels and short stories in my spare time, my typing speed improved to the point that my mom would have been able to stay in bed if I'd typed that fast in high school.
This week, though, the shoe is on the other foot. My daughter's English final set of assignments is due no later than 6:00 tonight, and as she optimistically described what she had to do and how long she expected each one to take, I could see some serious disappointment written on the wall.
One of her assignments was to type up her structured journal assignments from about a dozen essays she had to read this semester. It was already written out long-hand, and I couldn't see how she'd have time to finish the rest of her papers and the journal in time. So I suggested that I could type up her journal while she worked on her research paper. It wasn't cheating, just like it hadn't been cheating when my mom typed up my papers way back when.
She had some of it started, so last night I picked up where she left off, and the two of us worked until three in the morning, got up at 8:00, and started working again. We both finished around 4:00pm and fought with the printer a bit, but we got her work printed, and she's off to turn it all in at school before the deadline.
My wrists ache.
Mom, this is for you! Thank you for all the typing you did for me. I guess it's my turn now.
I didn't go to summer school very often. I think I went after fifth grade, when I took some sort of craft class and learned how to embroider. That was nice to learn, but it didn't lead me to any kind of greatness.
My seventh grade summer school classes were: How to Study, and Typing. The studying class didn't turn out the way I expected. It wasn't about managing your time, rather it taught us the tools that were available to help us. We learned the Dewey Decimal System and how to use the card catalog at the library to find books that would be our resources when we wrote papers. We learned about the Periodical Index for looking up articles in magazines. And they took us to the library to practice.
They also told us some helpful tips on how to improve our odds when we're taking tests: how to know whether you're better off guessing or leaving a question blank, and if you should guess, how to have a better chance of guessing right. For essay questions, they advised us to organize our answers well--the typical "Say what you're going to say, say it, then say what you said" approach to writing an essay. Our teacher said that sometimes, even when you don't know what you're talking about, when your answer is structured well, they think you must have it right and you get a better score. I remembered that tip.
We even had an assignment in that class to "buy" three stocks and track their progress over the course of the class. Since summer was just getting started, I bought Coke, figuring the demand would only go up by August, and I bought Gerber, because babies always need to eat. I don't remember my third stock, but by the end of class I had made a bit of money on my "investments."
I haven't done much with the stock market, in terms of buying individual stocks, but the rest of the studying class has done well for me, with all the research papers I had to write all through school and especially while I was getting my degree.
The typing class gave me a head start over a lot of the other kids, who didn't take Typing until ninth grade. But I didn't get very fast, since I didn't type every day.
My poor mother, who is a very light sleeper, was subjected to much misery when I was in high school. I'd write my essays and term papers long-hand on the day before it was due, and then I'd start typing on the electric typewriter: CLACK! CLACK! CLACK! CLACK! DING!
By one or two in the morning, my mom would come down the hall in her nightgown and bathrobe, shoo me away from the typewriter, and start typing at about double my speed or more. She said that if she typed it, she'd get to sleep a lot faster than if she let me keep plugging away (with proper form) at my pitiful speed.
Eventually, I got married, moved to California, and had to do all my typing for myself. And after I started working in the computer industry and writing romance novels and short stories in my spare time, my typing speed improved to the point that my mom would have been able to stay in bed if I'd typed that fast in high school.
This week, though, the shoe is on the other foot. My daughter's English final set of assignments is due no later than 6:00 tonight, and as she optimistically described what she had to do and how long she expected each one to take, I could see some serious disappointment written on the wall.
One of her assignments was to type up her structured journal assignments from about a dozen essays she had to read this semester. It was already written out long-hand, and I couldn't see how she'd have time to finish the rest of her papers and the journal in time. So I suggested that I could type up her journal while she worked on her research paper. It wasn't cheating, just like it hadn't been cheating when my mom typed up my papers way back when.
She had some of it started, so last night I picked up where she left off, and the two of us worked until three in the morning, got up at 8:00, and started working again. We both finished around 4:00pm and fought with the printer a bit, but we got her work printed, and she's off to turn it all in at school before the deadline.
My wrists ache.
Mom, this is for you! Thank you for all the typing you did for me. I guess it's my turn now.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Adam Walsh Murder Solved
The AP reported today that the Adam Walsh murder has officially been solved.
A serial killer who died more than a decade ago is the person who decapitated the 6-year-old son of "America's Most Wanted" host John Walsh in 1981, police in Florida said Tuesday. The announcement brought to a close a case that has vexed the Walsh family for more than two decades, launched the television show about the nation's most notorious criminals and inspired changes in how authorities search for missing children.
"Who could take a 6-year-old and murder and decapitate him? Who?" an emotional John Walsh said at Tuesday's news conference. "We needed to know. We needed to know. And today we know. The not knowing has been a torture, but that journey's over."
Police named Ottis Toole, saying he was long the prime suspect in the case and that they had conclusively linked him to the killing. They declined to be specific about their evidence and did not note any DNA proof of the crime, but said an extensive review of the case file pointed only to Toole, as John Walsh long contended.
Adam's death, and his father's activism on his behalf, helped put faces on milk cartons, shopping bags and mailbox flyers, started fingerprinting programs and increased security at schools and stores. It spurred the creation of missing persons units at every large police department.
This gives closure--finally--to John and Reve Walsh.
A serial killer who died more than a decade ago is the person who decapitated the 6-year-old son of "America's Most Wanted" host John Walsh in 1981, police in Florida said Tuesday. The announcement brought to a close a case that has vexed the Walsh family for more than two decades, launched the television show about the nation's most notorious criminals and inspired changes in how authorities search for missing children.
"Who could take a 6-year-old and murder and decapitate him? Who?" an emotional John Walsh said at Tuesday's news conference. "We needed to know. We needed to know. And today we know. The not knowing has been a torture, but that journey's over."
Police named Ottis Toole, saying he was long the prime suspect in the case and that they had conclusively linked him to the killing. They declined to be specific about their evidence and did not note any DNA proof of the crime, but said an extensive review of the case file pointed only to Toole, as John Walsh long contended.
Adam's death, and his father's activism on his behalf, helped put faces on milk cartons, shopping bags and mailbox flyers, started fingerprinting programs and increased security at schools and stores. It spurred the creation of missing persons units at every large police department.
This gives closure--finally--to John and Reve Walsh.
NASA Stuff
Mon cher Paw sent me the link to this video over at Open Culture. The notes say, "Astronaut Don Pettit created this remarkable video of the aurora borealis (otherwise known as The Northern Lights)... by stitching together a large sequence of still images that he took from space." The thing in the upper left is part of the International Space Station.
But as cool as that is, NASA informed me today that there's "a giant breach in Earth's magnetic field." I find this alarming. At least I think I would, if I were sure I understood what they're saying.
NASA's five THEMIS spacecraft have discovered a breach in Earth's magnetic field ten times larger than anything previously thought to exist. Solar wind can flow in through the opening to "load up" the magnetosphere for powerful geomagnetic storms.
Not knowing if "powerful geomagnetic storms" are a problem, I looked it up and found this description:
"A G4 [second highest rating on NOAA scale] geomagnetic storm can affect power systems with possible widespread voltage control problems, and some protective systems will mistakenly trip out key assets from the grid. Spacecraft operations may experience surface charging and tracking problems, which may require corrections for orientation problems. Other systems affected include satellite navigation, which may be degraded for hours, and low-frequency radio navigation can also be disrupted."
OK. That sounds like a bad thing. Back to NASA:
But the breach itself is not the biggest surprise. Researchers are even more amazed at the strange and unexpected way it forms, overturning long-held ideas of space physics.
"At first I didn't believe it," says THEMIS project scientist David Sibeck of the Goddard Space Flight Center. "This finding fundamentally alters our understanding of the solar wind-magnetosphere interaction."
The magnetosphere is a bubble of magnetism that surrounds Earth and protects us from solar wind.
The big discovery came on June 3, 2007, when the five probes serendipitously flew through the breach just as it was opening. Onboard sensors recorded a torrent of solar wind particles streaming into the magnetosphere, signaling an event of unexpected size and importance.
"The opening was huge—four times wider than Earth itself," says Wenhui Li, a space physicist at the University of New Hampshire who has been analyzing the data.
The event began with little warning when a gentle gust of solar wind delivered a bundle of magnetic fields from the Sun to Earth. Like an octopus wrapping its tentacles around a big clam, solar magnetic fields draped themselves around the magnetosphere and cracked it open. The cracking was accomplished by means of a process called "magnetic reconnection." High above Earth's poles, solar and terrestrial magnetic fields linked up (reconnected) to form conduits for solar wind. Conduits over the Arctic and Antarctic quickly expanded; within minutes they overlapped over Earth's equator to create the biggest magnetic breach ever recorded by Earth-orbiting spacecraft.
I understand octopus tentacles around a big clam. It's the part about north-pointing and south-pointing magnetic fields, later in the article, that started to lose me. But they summed things up pretty well.
The years ahead could be especially lively.
Is "lively" meant in the same way that Mel Gibson's character, Lt. Col. Moore, in We Were Soldiers said things were getting "sporty" when they were being all shot to heck?
Raeder explains: "We're entering Solar Cycle 24. For reasons not fully understood, CMEs in even-numbered solar cycles (like 24) tend to hit Earth with a leading edge that is magnetized north. Such a CME should open a breach and load the magnetosphere with plasma just before the storm gets underway. It's the perfect sequence for a really big event."
Sibeck agrees. "This could result in stronger geomagnetic storms than we have seen in many years."
Oh, great. For some reason, though, the NASA types don't seem to be alarmed by this. They're such geeks, getting excited about all the new things they're learning, when these geomagnetic storms risk affecting the power grid and satellite systems.
The good news from this discovery is that we can probably expect more appearances of the Northern Lights.
But as cool as that is, NASA informed me today that there's "a giant breach in Earth's magnetic field." I find this alarming. At least I think I would, if I were sure I understood what they're saying.
NASA's five THEMIS spacecraft have discovered a breach in Earth's magnetic field ten times larger than anything previously thought to exist. Solar wind can flow in through the opening to "load up" the magnetosphere for powerful geomagnetic storms.
Not knowing if "powerful geomagnetic storms" are a problem, I looked it up and found this description:
"A G4 [second highest rating on NOAA scale] geomagnetic storm can affect power systems with possible widespread voltage control problems, and some protective systems will mistakenly trip out key assets from the grid. Spacecraft operations may experience surface charging and tracking problems, which may require corrections for orientation problems. Other systems affected include satellite navigation, which may be degraded for hours, and low-frequency radio navigation can also be disrupted."
OK. That sounds like a bad thing. Back to NASA:
But the breach itself is not the biggest surprise. Researchers are even more amazed at the strange and unexpected way it forms, overturning long-held ideas of space physics.
"At first I didn't believe it," says THEMIS project scientist David Sibeck of the Goddard Space Flight Center. "This finding fundamentally alters our understanding of the solar wind-magnetosphere interaction."
The magnetosphere is a bubble of magnetism that surrounds Earth and protects us from solar wind.
The big discovery came on June 3, 2007, when the five probes serendipitously flew through the breach just as it was opening. Onboard sensors recorded a torrent of solar wind particles streaming into the magnetosphere, signaling an event of unexpected size and importance.
"The opening was huge—four times wider than Earth itself," says Wenhui Li, a space physicist at the University of New Hampshire who has been analyzing the data.
The event began with little warning when a gentle gust of solar wind delivered a bundle of magnetic fields from the Sun to Earth. Like an octopus wrapping its tentacles around a big clam, solar magnetic fields draped themselves around the magnetosphere and cracked it open. The cracking was accomplished by means of a process called "magnetic reconnection." High above Earth's poles, solar and terrestrial magnetic fields linked up (reconnected) to form conduits for solar wind. Conduits over the Arctic and Antarctic quickly expanded; within minutes they overlapped over Earth's equator to create the biggest magnetic breach ever recorded by Earth-orbiting spacecraft.
I understand octopus tentacles around a big clam. It's the part about north-pointing and south-pointing magnetic fields, later in the article, that started to lose me. But they summed things up pretty well.
The years ahead could be especially lively.
Is "lively" meant in the same way that Mel Gibson's character, Lt. Col. Moore, in We Were Soldiers said things were getting "sporty" when they were being all shot to heck?
Raeder explains: "We're entering Solar Cycle 24. For reasons not fully understood, CMEs in even-numbered solar cycles (like 24) tend to hit Earth with a leading edge that is magnetized north. Such a CME should open a breach and load the magnetosphere with plasma just before the storm gets underway. It's the perfect sequence for a really big event."
Sibeck agrees. "This could result in stronger geomagnetic storms than we have seen in many years."
Oh, great. For some reason, though, the NASA types don't seem to be alarmed by this. They're such geeks, getting excited about all the new things they're learning, when these geomagnetic storms risk affecting the power grid and satellite systems.
The good news from this discovery is that we can probably expect more appearances of the Northern Lights.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Not Spilling the Beans
This is hard. I'm so excited, because I have the perfect Christmas present for my mom and sister and brother. But I can't blog about it, because then they'd know what they're getting.
Man, I hate having to keep my mouth shut!
Man, I hate having to keep my mouth shut!
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Done With School for Now
My Medical Assistant (Front Office) class (mentioned here, here, and here) ended today with a potluck and the awarding of certificates. There were a few special certificates.
The Happy Face Award went to the lady in the next row over who, even with her foot in one of those ugly medical boots because of tendon troubles, had an endlessly sunny disposition. Yes, sunnier than mine!
The Team Player Award went to two people, one on each half of the room. It wasn't intended to be a this-half/that-half kind of award. It just worked out that there was a helper on each side. I was one of the Team Players!
After class, I hung around to ask our Fearless Leader a couple questions, and then I got to talking to one of the ladies who had arrived for the next class. I asked her what she brought to her potluck, and she said Venetian Bread, which is a rolled-up pizza that looked like a regular loaf of fresh-baked bread.
I gave her my email address so she could send me the recipe, and she asked about what class I was finishing. During the course of our conversation she said she's a nurse working at a dermatologist's office, and they hire Medical Assistants who can do both front and back office work. I suggested that if they wanted a front-office-only assistant who could free up the other assistants to do more back-office work, I'm there for them, and she seemed to think that could be a good idea. And while I was saying that, my teacher (who was behind the nurse) gave me a thumbs-up signal. I'm encouraged.
Then when I got home later in the afternoon, there was a new message on my answering machine (no, it couldn't have been the nurse, because I didn't give her my phone number). It was the city calling to ask me if I might want to come in and interview for a job I interviewed for back in August. They have another opening, and I had the second highest score on the exam from before. I'll call them tomorrow and say yes.
I hadn't been looking very hard for a job while I was in school, because it was a day class, and a temp day job would interfere. But now that it's over, I'll be looking everywhere I can think of, medical or not. We'll have to wait and see who wins the prize of being able to hire the Team Player Award winner for Teams 2 - 4.
The Happy Face Award went to the lady in the next row over who, even with her foot in one of those ugly medical boots because of tendon troubles, had an endlessly sunny disposition. Yes, sunnier than mine!
The Team Player Award went to two people, one on each half of the room. It wasn't intended to be a this-half/that-half kind of award. It just worked out that there was a helper on each side. I was one of the Team Players!
After class, I hung around to ask our Fearless Leader a couple questions, and then I got to talking to one of the ladies who had arrived for the next class. I asked her what she brought to her potluck, and she said Venetian Bread, which is a rolled-up pizza that looked like a regular loaf of fresh-baked bread.
I gave her my email address so she could send me the recipe, and she asked about what class I was finishing. During the course of our conversation she said she's a nurse working at a dermatologist's office, and they hire Medical Assistants who can do both front and back office work. I suggested that if they wanted a front-office-only assistant who could free up the other assistants to do more back-office work, I'm there for them, and she seemed to think that could be a good idea. And while I was saying that, my teacher (who was behind the nurse) gave me a thumbs-up signal. I'm encouraged.
Then when I got home later in the afternoon, there was a new message on my answering machine (no, it couldn't have been the nurse, because I didn't give her my phone number). It was the city calling to ask me if I might want to come in and interview for a job I interviewed for back in August. They have another opening, and I had the second highest score on the exam from before. I'll call them tomorrow and say yes.
I hadn't been looking very hard for a job while I was in school, because it was a day class, and a temp day job would interfere. But now that it's over, I'll be looking everywhere I can think of, medical or not. We'll have to wait and see who wins the prize of being able to hire the Team Player Award winner for Teams 2 - 4.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Progress in Malawi
I have a World Vision child in Malawi. She was born the day after 9/11.
Recently I got a letter from the World Vision director in my girl's area, telling me about the progress there:
Through your financial contribution, deep wells fitted with pumps have been drilled in [the area]. Generally, the people of [the area] are able to access clean and safe water through these deep wells. In the past, they used to draw their drinking water from unprotected wells and rivers. Due to this intervention, incidences of diarrhea and cholera diseases have been greatly reduced. While in the past families were spending more time nursing diarrhea and cholera patients, families are now spending this time on productive and development activities. As most families are able to access clean water within reach, less time is spent on drawing water.
The ADP [Area Development Program] has also constructed school blocks in the area through your sponsorship contribution. As a result, school enrolment for boys and girls has increased. The school drop out has reduced. Boys and girls are now motivated to attend school because they are now learning in a decent environment. Most adults that never had the privilege of going to school when they were young, are now able to read and write as a result of attending the adult literacy classes that the program introduced in the area. Members of this community, are always thanking you in absentia for changing their living conditions and giving them hope in life.
Once again, I wish to thank you for your continued support and I would like to assure you that we will continue to use the financial assistance to address the real development needs of the children and the entire community, to the Glory of God.
I know I can't be the only person helping out in my little girl's community. There must be plenty of others. It sure is good, though, to read about all the changes they're making because enough people cared to help, to the Glory of God.
Next, when I get a job and pay off my bills, I plan on sponsoring a boy in Zimbabwe. I found out not long ago that World Vision has sponsorships available there too. I hope they'll be able to save some communities amidst the destruction of that country by its usurping "leader," the evil Robert Mugabe.
Recently I got a letter from the World Vision director in my girl's area, telling me about the progress there:
Through your financial contribution, deep wells fitted with pumps have been drilled in [the area]. Generally, the people of [the area] are able to access clean and safe water through these deep wells. In the past, they used to draw their drinking water from unprotected wells and rivers. Due to this intervention, incidences of diarrhea and cholera diseases have been greatly reduced. While in the past families were spending more time nursing diarrhea and cholera patients, families are now spending this time on productive and development activities. As most families are able to access clean water within reach, less time is spent on drawing water.
The ADP [Area Development Program] has also constructed school blocks in the area through your sponsorship contribution. As a result, school enrolment for boys and girls has increased. The school drop out has reduced. Boys and girls are now motivated to attend school because they are now learning in a decent environment. Most adults that never had the privilege of going to school when they were young, are now able to read and write as a result of attending the adult literacy classes that the program introduced in the area. Members of this community, are always thanking you in absentia for changing their living conditions and giving them hope in life.
Once again, I wish to thank you for your continued support and I would like to assure you that we will continue to use the financial assistance to address the real development needs of the children and the entire community, to the Glory of God.
I know I can't be the only person helping out in my little girl's community. There must be plenty of others. It sure is good, though, to read about all the changes they're making because enough people cared to help, to the Glory of God.
Next, when I get a job and pay off my bills, I plan on sponsoring a boy in Zimbabwe. I found out not long ago that World Vision has sponsorships available there too. I hope they'll be able to save some communities amidst the destruction of that country by its usurping "leader," the evil Robert Mugabe.
Collapse in Zimbabwe
Just when you think things can't possibly get worse in Zimbabwe, they do. First, the least bad news:
The Economic Times (India) reported Saturday that Zimbabwe has to print ever-larger denominations of currency.
Inflation-wracked Zimbabwe plans to introduce a 200 million dollar note just days after a 100 million dollar note came into circulation, the government announced on Saturday.
The 200 million dollar note, announced in a notice in the government gazette, will bring to 28 the number of notes put into circulation by the central bank this year alone, as the country struggles with the world's highest inflation rate of 231 million percent.
On Thursday the central bank introduced 100 million, 50 million and 10 million dollar notes while at the same time increasing withdrawal limits for individuals and companies.
The 100 million dollar note is worth only about 14 US dollars, and its value erodes by the day.
Did you catch that inflation rate? 231 million percent.
Now for the really bad news.
The Telegraph (UK) reported Saturday that Zimbabwe is undergoing a cholera epidemic.
When cholera first began rampaging through Zimbabwe's impoverished towns and cities, Robert Mugabe's government tried to play down the epidemic. According to official figures, it has now killed almost 600 people, and this week, the authorities finally gave in and appealed for international help. Health minister David Parirenyatwa admitted: "Our central hospitals are literally not functioning."
But openness is not the norm for officials in Harare, Zimbabwe's capital. At the Budiriro Polyclinic, in the high-density western suburbs, the fence has been covered in plastic sheeting to stop people seeing in. Outside the barrier, more than 50 relatives wait anxiously for news of their loved ones.
"No matter how much medicine they bring, they are not going to contain this cholera, because they are treating the symptoms rather than the disease," says Tongesai, a well-educated man in his mid-30s whose younger brother was admitted earlier in the day. "The cholera is coming from the water, which is contaminated. It is not the boreholes that are bringing in the contaminated water, but the water from the city. That water is now getting to the people without being treated, and that is how people get cholera. It is tantamount to drinking raw sewage." And this is why Mugabe's government bears ultimate responsibility for the suffering of its people.
It's not just cholera, however. The AP reported Monday that the entire health care system is collapsing.
Thousands of Zimbabweans are dying, uncounted and out of sight in a silent emergency as hospitals shut, clinics run out of drugs and most cannot afford private medical care, health groups say.
Even as deaths from a cholera epidemic climbed into the hundreds, international and local organizations say many more are dying needlessly in a disaster critics blame on President Robert Mugabe's government.
The toll will never be known, according to Itai Rusike, executive director of the Community Working Group on Health—a civil society network grouping 35 national organizations.
"Zimbabwe used to have one of the best surveillance systems in the region," Rusike said in a telephone interview. "But phones are not working, nurses are not there, so their information system has collapsed. ... It is very difficult to tell how many people have died."
"These are symptoms of a failed state," he said in a telephone interview. "Nothing is working."
The British charity Oxfam agreed with estimates of thousands of unreported deaths due to the collapse of the health system and says the situation will get worse with the onset of the rainy season, which lasts until February.
The Times Online (UK) reported Saturday on widespread famine in Zimbabwe.
Father Peter stopped his truck beside a cluster of thatched mud huts deep in the arid, baking bushland of western Zimbabwe. A stick-thin woman, barefoot and dressed in rags, approached with her two young children.
“Please. We’re desperate for food,” she told him, and lifted up her children’s filthy T-shirts. Their stomachs and belly buttons were grotesquely distended by kwashiorkor, a condition caused by severe malnutrition that just a few years ago was unheard of in this once bountiful country.
The woman said she and her family were living off nuts and berries, for which they spent hours foraging in the bush each day. She showed us where her husband had buried their eldest daughter, who had died two months ago aged 12 after eating berries that caused severe stomach pains and made her vomit. “This is madness – madness,” Father Peter, visibly upset, said.
Calls are coming for Mugabe's removal from power. From the Archbishop of York, from Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu. But those calls haven't changed anything.
The Economic Times (India) reported Saturday that Zimbabwe has to print ever-larger denominations of currency.
Inflation-wracked Zimbabwe plans to introduce a 200 million dollar note just days after a 100 million dollar note came into circulation, the government announced on Saturday.
The 200 million dollar note, announced in a notice in the government gazette, will bring to 28 the number of notes put into circulation by the central bank this year alone, as the country struggles with the world's highest inflation rate of 231 million percent.
On Thursday the central bank introduced 100 million, 50 million and 10 million dollar notes while at the same time increasing withdrawal limits for individuals and companies.
The 100 million dollar note is worth only about 14 US dollars, and its value erodes by the day.
Did you catch that inflation rate? 231 million percent.
Now for the really bad news.
The Telegraph (UK) reported Saturday that Zimbabwe is undergoing a cholera epidemic.
When cholera first began rampaging through Zimbabwe's impoverished towns and cities, Robert Mugabe's government tried to play down the epidemic. According to official figures, it has now killed almost 600 people, and this week, the authorities finally gave in and appealed for international help. Health minister David Parirenyatwa admitted: "Our central hospitals are literally not functioning."
But openness is not the norm for officials in Harare, Zimbabwe's capital. At the Budiriro Polyclinic, in the high-density western suburbs, the fence has been covered in plastic sheeting to stop people seeing in. Outside the barrier, more than 50 relatives wait anxiously for news of their loved ones.
"No matter how much medicine they bring, they are not going to contain this cholera, because they are treating the symptoms rather than the disease," says Tongesai, a well-educated man in his mid-30s whose younger brother was admitted earlier in the day. "The cholera is coming from the water, which is contaminated. It is not the boreholes that are bringing in the contaminated water, but the water from the city. That water is now getting to the people without being treated, and that is how people get cholera. It is tantamount to drinking raw sewage." And this is why Mugabe's government bears ultimate responsibility for the suffering of its people.
It's not just cholera, however. The AP reported Monday that the entire health care system is collapsing.
Thousands of Zimbabweans are dying, uncounted and out of sight in a silent emergency as hospitals shut, clinics run out of drugs and most cannot afford private medical care, health groups say.
Even as deaths from a cholera epidemic climbed into the hundreds, international and local organizations say many more are dying needlessly in a disaster critics blame on President Robert Mugabe's government.
The toll will never be known, according to Itai Rusike, executive director of the Community Working Group on Health—a civil society network grouping 35 national organizations.
"Zimbabwe used to have one of the best surveillance systems in the region," Rusike said in a telephone interview. "But phones are not working, nurses are not there, so their information system has collapsed. ... It is very difficult to tell how many people have died."
"These are symptoms of a failed state," he said in a telephone interview. "Nothing is working."
The British charity Oxfam agreed with estimates of thousands of unreported deaths due to the collapse of the health system and says the situation will get worse with the onset of the rainy season, which lasts until February.
The Times Online (UK) reported Saturday on widespread famine in Zimbabwe.
Father Peter stopped his truck beside a cluster of thatched mud huts deep in the arid, baking bushland of western Zimbabwe. A stick-thin woman, barefoot and dressed in rags, approached with her two young children.
“Please. We’re desperate for food,” she told him, and lifted up her children’s filthy T-shirts. Their stomachs and belly buttons were grotesquely distended by kwashiorkor, a condition caused by severe malnutrition that just a few years ago was unheard of in this once bountiful country.
The woman said she and her family were living off nuts and berries, for which they spent hours foraging in the bush each day. She showed us where her husband had buried their eldest daughter, who had died two months ago aged 12 after eating berries that caused severe stomach pains and made her vomit. “This is madness – madness,” Father Peter, visibly upset, said.
Calls are coming for Mugabe's removal from power. From the Archbishop of York, from Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu. But those calls haven't changed anything.
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Two Questions
I got this in an email from my mom.
Life really boils down to two questions:
1. Do I get a dog?
2. Do I have children?
Of course, I noticed the obvious lack of question 3: Do I get a cat? Considering that the cats my then-husband and I had long ago totally shredded a couch and a rocking chair, I seriously suspect the creator of the email is involved in a cover-up for the feline species. And Google is in on the conspiracy as well, because I have been unable to find similar images with cats as the perpetrators. But I did find this:
In a Roadfood.com forum, one reader asked for advice:
since there are so many animal lovers here on roadfood, i thought i'd ask for some advice.
my thoughtful boyfriend noticed i've been missing having a cat (my beloved Moonpie developed cancer, and i had to put her down 2 years ago). he brought me a beautiful female kitten from a neighbor's litter.... here's the problem: she bites and chews anything and everything! my limbs (her favorite), the couch, my magazines and library books, the window screens, my expensive mattress, etc.... i've had quite a few cats, and raised all of them from kittens, and never had this problem before. HELP! anyone out there have an aggressive, destructive cat who they successfully trained? thank you all...
The poor, beleaguered cat owner received the following reply:
I also have this problem only it's with my dog he chews and eats everything.... I can solve your cat problem ...send me your cat.
Life really boils down to two questions:
1. Do I get a dog?
2. Do I have children?
Of course, I noticed the obvious lack of question 3: Do I get a cat? Considering that the cats my then-husband and I had long ago totally shredded a couch and a rocking chair, I seriously suspect the creator of the email is involved in a cover-up for the feline species. And Google is in on the conspiracy as well, because I have been unable to find similar images with cats as the perpetrators. But I did find this:
In a Roadfood.com forum, one reader asked for advice:
since there are so many animal lovers here on roadfood, i thought i'd ask for some advice.
my thoughtful boyfriend noticed i've been missing having a cat (my beloved Moonpie developed cancer, and i had to put her down 2 years ago). he brought me a beautiful female kitten from a neighbor's litter.... here's the problem: she bites and chews anything and everything! my limbs (her favorite), the couch, my magazines and library books, the window screens, my expensive mattress, etc.... i've had quite a few cats, and raised all of them from kittens, and never had this problem before. HELP! anyone out there have an aggressive, destructive cat who they successfully trained? thank you all...
The poor, beleaguered cat owner received the following reply:
I also have this problem only it's with my dog he chews and eats everything.... I can solve your cat problem ...send me your cat.
Watching TV
The weekend before the presidential election, I finally got around to canceling my cable TV service. With Project Runway over for good, there was no reason to continue paying for shows I never watched.
They said they'd schedule someone to disconnect my service, and I hoped they wouldn't do it before the election returns were in. So I continued to watch, knowing it was free. The election came and went, and still the TV channels kept showing up. But just as I was starting to think they had forgotten about me, since it was a week and a half after I called, while I was in the middle of watching Brit Hume's Special Report, the TV turned to snow. Before the Fox News All-Star segment of the show!
I resigned myself to TV silence.
Of course, we still had the DVD player and the VCR (whose remote control had collected a layer of dust), and that's the way I wanted it.
My daughter, however, is more enamored with television than her mother, so she started the TV remote at channel 2 and worked her way up the stations, only to discover that starting around channel 60, the snow started showing signs of movement. Channel 61 was a hazily watchable Cartoon Network, and Channel 62 was clear, as were 63 through 67 plus 70, and then the snow was back to stay.
That gave us cartoons, Country Music TV, SciFi, a Spanish channel that sometimes shows travel programs and other times shows really bad wrestling, the Food Network, a shopping channel, a music video channel, and CSPAN-2.
So, when I got bored, I turned on CMT and discovered the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader selection process as a reality show. They had a marathon leading up to nearly the last episode, and I followed the girls' trials and heartaches as they got cut. Some of the girls who were cut didn't dance well enough or kick high enough, one had some risque photos on her My Space page that could have embarrassed the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader organization, and one had hips that were too well-rounded to look good in the DCC uniform. At long last, though, they had their team.
We got used to watching our limited number of shows, but then my daughter wanted to see if the TV remote could find more stations, so she hit the search button on the remote. Instead of finding more, it lost everything we had, and we were back to snow everywhere. So sad.
Back to movies again. Then at Sparks from the Anvil, Wordsmith posted a couple clips from the 1973 version of the Three Musketeers. Classic! I had that movie and the Four Musketeers, and those clips got me in the mood to watch the whole thing.
But it wasn't on my DVD rack. So I looked through the VHS tapes in the plastic boxes I hide under the coffee table. No Musketeers there either! In my distress, I was comforted by the VHS version of Harvey, so we loaded that into the VCR, dusted off the remote, and started watching.
It was getting late, and we were sleepy, so we stopped the movie. As soon as we did, the Food Network showed up on the TV! We flipped through the channels on the VCR remote and had the same set that we had after they turned off the cable.
So now we're back in business with a handful of free TV channels, only now we have to turn on the VCR, push play, then push stop in order for the TV to show up. Sometimes, like when it's that Redneck Wedding show or that scary guy on the Food Network, it's not worth the effort.
But you can be sure we won't be pushing the search button on the VCR remote.
They said they'd schedule someone to disconnect my service, and I hoped they wouldn't do it before the election returns were in. So I continued to watch, knowing it was free. The election came and went, and still the TV channels kept showing up. But just as I was starting to think they had forgotten about me, since it was a week and a half after I called, while I was in the middle of watching Brit Hume's Special Report, the TV turned to snow. Before the Fox News All-Star segment of the show!
I resigned myself to TV silence.
Of course, we still had the DVD player and the VCR (whose remote control had collected a layer of dust), and that's the way I wanted it.
My daughter, however, is more enamored with television than her mother, so she started the TV remote at channel 2 and worked her way up the stations, only to discover that starting around channel 60, the snow started showing signs of movement. Channel 61 was a hazily watchable Cartoon Network, and Channel 62 was clear, as were 63 through 67 plus 70, and then the snow was back to stay.
That gave us cartoons, Country Music TV, SciFi, a Spanish channel that sometimes shows travel programs and other times shows really bad wrestling, the Food Network, a shopping channel, a music video channel, and CSPAN-2.
So, when I got bored, I turned on CMT and discovered the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader selection process as a reality show. They had a marathon leading up to nearly the last episode, and I followed the girls' trials and heartaches as they got cut. Some of the girls who were cut didn't dance well enough or kick high enough, one had some risque photos on her My Space page that could have embarrassed the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader organization, and one had hips that were too well-rounded to look good in the DCC uniform. At long last, though, they had their team.
We got used to watching our limited number of shows, but then my daughter wanted to see if the TV remote could find more stations, so she hit the search button on the remote. Instead of finding more, it lost everything we had, and we were back to snow everywhere. So sad.
Back to movies again. Then at Sparks from the Anvil, Wordsmith posted a couple clips from the 1973 version of the Three Musketeers. Classic! I had that movie and the Four Musketeers, and those clips got me in the mood to watch the whole thing.
But it wasn't on my DVD rack. So I looked through the VHS tapes in the plastic boxes I hide under the coffee table. No Musketeers there either! In my distress, I was comforted by the VHS version of Harvey, so we loaded that into the VCR, dusted off the remote, and started watching.
It was getting late, and we were sleepy, so we stopped the movie. As soon as we did, the Food Network showed up on the TV! We flipped through the channels on the VCR remote and had the same set that we had after they turned off the cable.
So now we're back in business with a handful of free TV channels, only now we have to turn on the VCR, push play, then push stop in order for the TV to show up. Sometimes, like when it's that Redneck Wedding show or that scary guy on the Food Network, it's not worth the effort.
But you can be sure we won't be pushing the search button on the VCR remote.
Saturday, December 06, 2008
Boy Terrorists in UK
Photo uncredited by the Daily Mail
The Daily Mail (UK) reported yesterday on a novel use of Great Britain's anti-terror laws.
They creep around in the dark spreading misery, rumour and secrets from inside Westminster.
Even so, paperboys and girls are hardly likely to pose a threat to national security.
One local council, however, thought it necessary to use swingeing anti-terror laws against them.
Cambridgeshire County Council used the controversial Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) to spy on eight paperboys thought to be working without permits.
It sent undercover council officers to lurk outside a Spar in the village of Melbourn and take notes on the movements of the boys.
The evidence was used in a criminal prosecution of the shop's owners for employing five of the boys without the correct documentation.
Cambridgeshire's approach is just the latest example of local authorities using the RIPA for minor misdemeanours.
The police motto there apparently is, "We spy on you because we can." It could happen here too.
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
UAW Spends Money To Get Yours
This is disgusting. Amanda Carpenter reported today that the United Auto Workers (UAW) is planning ads in favor of the auto-maker bailout.
The United Auto Workers are among the biggest cheerleaders for the auto bailout. Their members say they must have the tax dollars in order to keep their jobs.
So how is it that the UAW has enough money to run TV ads for the bailout? UAW President Ron Gettlefinger said his union was going to start running advertisements in Maine, Kentucky, Indiana and Minnesota to "put a face" on the bailout and encourage Congress to pass it.
They should be too ashamed to even show their face over this. They'll be spending millions of dollars to try to convince you and me that we need to give our tax dollars to save their butts--because they don't have enough money.
The Big Three auto makers have cut their CEO salaries to $1 per year (Ford will do this if they take bailout money). What are the chances the UAW bosses will do the same and also give their political and other slush funds back to their members to allow for salary cuts to save jobs? Anyone?
I thought not. The unions don't really care about any jobs but their own. It's time to let the Big Three go into bankruptcy, reorganize, and come out without the UAW anvil hanging around their necks. Then maybe--just maybe--the American auto industry might have a chance to make a viable comeback.
No bailout for the Big Three, and especially not for the UAW!
The United Auto Workers are among the biggest cheerleaders for the auto bailout. Their members say they must have the tax dollars in order to keep their jobs.
So how is it that the UAW has enough money to run TV ads for the bailout? UAW President Ron Gettlefinger said his union was going to start running advertisements in Maine, Kentucky, Indiana and Minnesota to "put a face" on the bailout and encourage Congress to pass it.
They should be too ashamed to even show their face over this. They'll be spending millions of dollars to try to convince you and me that we need to give our tax dollars to save their butts--because they don't have enough money.
The Big Three auto makers have cut their CEO salaries to $1 per year (Ford will do this if they take bailout money). What are the chances the UAW bosses will do the same and also give their political and other slush funds back to their members to allow for salary cuts to save jobs? Anyone?
I thought not. The unions don't really care about any jobs but their own. It's time to let the Big Three go into bankruptcy, reorganize, and come out without the UAW anvil hanging around their necks. Then maybe--just maybe--the American auto industry might have a chance to make a viable comeback.
No bailout for the Big Three, and especially not for the UAW!
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Quote of the Day
Most people on the left are not opposed to freedom. They are just in favor of all sorts of things that are incompatible with freedom.
--- Thomas Sowell
He explains himself here.
--- Thomas Sowell
He explains himself here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)