Friday, June 29, 2007
Mayor Street: Chased out of iPhone Line by Irate Constituents
Heh.
Of course, all the local Democratic sycophants, news channels are falling all over themselves to fawn over him and his new iPhone.
I didn't put a stopwatch to it, but it seems that Street's iPhone got at least as much play as the London bombs, and perhaps even more so.
As for the iPhone: yeah, they got the user interface right like they usually do, but have they built a cellphone that doesn't fundamentally suck at being a telephone?
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Posted By: geekWithA.45  
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Another Random Quote...
This was from a vendor over lunch, who was talking about the shamnesty bill before it was killed (again).
"I swear, I'm getting ready to go clean my musket..."
And _I_ swear, I did nothing to invite the comment, whatsoever.
Honest injun.
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Sometimes, you just have to STFU...
Because the alternative is to throw aside the roughspun cloak, leap upon the table, and start hewing heads with a battle axe. {For those of you who don't get it, that's a Neil Stephenson reference, who was in turn referencing Tolkien }
So there I am, sitting in a meeting @ a client site, which in this case happens to be a medical facility.
You know, medical facilities? Where medical screwups kill 70k people a year? Which is more than double the murders in the US? But I digress. Most of the deadly screwups are drug related, but those that aren't are infection related.
I'm zen extensioning {I can take this for precisely one more moment. I can take this for precisely one more moment...} my way through a chunk of the meeting that doesn't concern me, when I have to summon all my my jedi powers to hide an "urk".
The topic had drifted to the cleaning staff, who was basically doing a half assed job.
"Well", opined one woman, "those people don't make much. Perhaps if they made more, they might take their job more seriously".
Urk.
Freaking Urk.
Swiftly googling "hospital cleaning staff payscale", I see that they're getting somewhere in the neighborhood of $8-$11/hr, which is, adjusting for inflation, about the same as the crappy factory job I had that paid for my college education.
In what world does that logic hold? In what world would I, in the role of someone who might pay a wage, ever be motivated to pay out more because folks were doing a half assed job? In what would should I have any reason to believe that paying them more would result in a job competently done?
Mentioning this to gwa9, she reported that she'd overheard the janitorial staff bitching and moaning the staff room about how they feel fully justified in doing a poor job, because they aren't paid enough.
Well, if they do a half assed job for $11, what suggests they'd do any different a job for $22? $44? $88?
In this sort of non competetive environment of entitlement, even the merely competent, doing a mediocre job can distinguish himself from the rest.
Here's the thing though: if a guy actually DOES distinguish himself, even to the point of mediocrity, we damned well better recognize and reward him, in some tangible, substantial way. If we don't, sooner or later he's going to realize that he's busting his butt for exactly the same pay as the slacker next to him.
These days, even merely competent guys are worth the effort.
Of course, if you _really_ want people to sit up and pay attention, you carefully track performance over time, fire the low tail of the distribution, (because you really can't demote people: they'll scheme vengeance...more nonsense than it's worth) and then call a meeting. During this meeting, you publicly promote the high tail of the distribution, and have a shill draw attention to the fact that there's a lot of missing folks.
But no one really does that anymore, and in our full employment environment, its damned hard to find even half assed workers. (Yes: 4.5% unemployment is FULL employment, because about 5% of the work age population is fundamentally unemployable)
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
A Hasty Dispatch...
I'm @ HQ today, and folks have been following the immigration cloture vote.
People are pissed.
A perfectly ordinary guy, who is a complete stranger to the circles we spin in, actually asked, "What the hell man? What do we have to do to get {our government} under control? What do we have to do to get them to listen? Armed insurrection?"
Now, in the interest of peace and sanity, I checked the guy out, and he has no intention of going out to carry through on his intemperate utterance, but in a moment of exasperation, the thought crossed the mind of a perfectly ordinary, peacable citizen.
People are thoroughly disgusted, and completely dismayed that they'd go ahead and do this given the broad call not too, as is backed up by a 14% congressional approval.
I don't even want to peek at what the habitual hotheads are saying.
Sigh.
We live in interesting times, and they're gonna get a whole lot more interesting.
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Monday, June 25, 2007
Victory For Free Speech, Sorta....
Some segments of McCain-Fiengold struck down, under certain circumstances.
The reason I'm not all that excited is because the ruling is excessively lawerly, and fails to fundamentally deal with the fact that Congress Shall Make No Freaking Law...abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press;
This crap never should have made it this, far, should have been shot down in flames just on the face of it, and should not be subject to parsing the minutiae of who said what, paid for what, or whether the speaker's paperwork is in order.
Nonetheless, as an incremental suck reduction excercise, it'll do.
It sucks less today than it did yesterday, and that's a good thing.
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Ignorant Americans...
Think communist symbols are trivial fashion statements, devoid of content or significance. At worst, communism is just an alternative life style, like being a vegan, right?
Enlightened Americans know better, and would no sooner wear a Communist Star than a Nazi Swastika.
And yet, Cameron Diaz had to go all the way to Peru for someone to call her on it.
Quote:
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A prominent Peruvian human rights activist said the star of There's Something About Mary should have been a little more aware of local sensitivities when picking her accessories.
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You know what? Communism is universally offensive, everywhere, and not just where a commie insurgency killed 700,000 people.
Every. Frickin'. Where.
In the 20th century, the leading cause of non-natural death was to be killed by your own communist government. Credible figures puts the toll at 120 million, making the universally reviled Nazis, with their toll of 12 million look like rank amateurs.
Isn't it amazing, in these politically correct days, when people fall all over themselves restraining their speech and deeds based on some abstract, theoretical that someone, somewhere might be offended, that wearing Red Stars and Che images is both hunky & dory?
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Recently, I responded to someone who was wondering if he over reacted. His 22 year old GFW brother threw a red faced tantrum upon hearing the news that he'd bought an AR, saying that he thought he should get out of the car, presumably so as not to be contaminated by the fearsome "assault weapon" owning sibling. The fellow pulled over and obliged him.
I said:
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[clapping]
You know what, people have the right not to like guns, and they have the right to tell you about it, but throwing a red faced tantrum and carrying on like they're in some sort of a conflict resolution excercise is bizarre and out of line. Carrying on as if you'd just told him that you'd eaten a baby for lunch is just....well, there's no need that any of us should tolerate that sort of treatment.
If we're ever to realized the goal of (re) normalizing gun ownership, we need to stop giving the opposite position a free pass, and stop accepting rejection of an armed citizenry as "just another valid and legitimate position among many", as if that position had equal moral weight with our own.
It does not carry equal weight. It is inferior in every way.
The paradigms are mutually exclusive. They cannot be co-equal. One must be dominant, and it must be ours.
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The same thing holds for a lot of things that we tolerate. Yes, people have the right to wear offensive symbols, and make offensive speech, but they are not excused from its consequences, the least of which is being let out of the car when you demand it, or being told how morally deficient you are.
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
*GiggleSnort*
James Lileks gives gun advice
And it's not bad advice, really.
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Friday, June 22, 2007
BTW...
Y'all should be reading Michael Yon.
There's a perfectly huge multi front battle against Al-Q going on in Iraq right now, the biggest fight since we got there.
CNN is dimly aware of this, but yesterday's newspaper didn't mention it it all.
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Hillary and Boxer: "Legislative Fix" for Freedom of Speech
Oddly enough, I rarely listen to talk radio. Once in a blue, I flip between the Sirius Right & Left talk stations to see what's on people's minds.
{Summary: The Leftist stations have better jokes and sound effects, but are incoherent on the issues, the Rightist stations tend to actually make sense, except when dealing with the religiously driven red herrings, or engaging in splashy over the top clownery }
Nonetheless, I consider it a sacred right of free speech for any and all teams to use the airwaves for that purpose.
Freedom is not a problem that needs to be fixed.
Except in the minds of statist thugs.
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Hasta La See Ya, and don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out...
Michael Bloomberg has renounced his flag of convenience membership in the GOP.
A lifelong Democrat, his membership in the GOP was a purely tactical (and shrewd) move because he couldn't find a place on the Democratic ticket. He then essentially bought the NYC mayoralty, outspending his Dem opponent 5:1 out of his own pocket.
Good riddance, you statist, socialist prick.
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Checkin' In...
[montyPython]I'm not dead yet![/montyPython]
Sorry I've not blogged a whole lot recently. This week I was outta town on biz, last week I was outta town on biz, the week before that, I was dealing with a sudden disruption in out supply chain for a critical item...{"You wanna order what? We don't make that anymore...."}, well you get the idea.
Here's a quick roundup:
Central Wisconsin in Summer:
Beautiful! I'll have to go back one of these days.
Fred Announces His Candidacy:
Yay! Praise a Diety! Any Diety!
Subversive 4th of July Picnic Thing I'm Working On:
Our neighborhood has had an Independence Day block party for something like 50 years running. This year, I'm reviving a bit of good, clean American fun from our past: the shooting gallery. I'll post up "the kit" as it comes together, but the basic idea is you obtain some airsoft rifles, safety glasses, use a sheet as a backstop, and some netting to make a tent to contain the airshot. Plinking session's in the AM, tin can duels right after lunch, and bullseye shooting contest is in the afternoon.
Child Herding:
My 6 y.o. came bounding in today, all excited to show me the digital pet she had bought with her very own money that she had earned. Boo had lost her digital pet, which became a teachable moment about taking good care of her stuff. Pulling out the $3 grandpop had given her a few days earlier, she asked if she could buy a new one. We told her that digital pets were about $14, and that she'd have to save up. She went off to think about it, and realized that randomly getting bux from grandpop wasn't exactly a reliable or predictable source of income, so she came back and challenged us on it.
And then a lightbulb went on. Kids are notorious for getting up early. I am notorious for being dead slug meat until I have my coffee. Boo now makes the morning coffee, 50 cents a pot.
The kid worked, and earned, and saved, and delayed gratification, not spending her money at the dollar and candy store when here younger sister did, sustaining her attention for nearly a month until she had scrimped up enough.
I'm so proud of her.
Speaking of Child Herding....
I know I'm not the only person who thinks this way, but for the record, dont'cha think the whole Paris Hilton thing could have been avoided if her parents had justifiably spanked her ass when she was 3?
Also, has it occurred to anyone else that her whole fear of being photographed on the can is ludicrous? Face it, Paris, that horse left the barn years ago, and it's still floating around the net to this very day.
Political Take:
So, America's disgust with the administration and congress is thorough, universal and bipartisan.
About freaking time.
It's ironic that both halves of the 2 Americas have come to the same conclusion, for very different reasons, and it's pretty much the only thing we agree on.
Harry Reid:
Living proof that the skills needed to attain powerful position in no way implies competence in any other realm, or even a firm grasp on reality. Watching Senator Surrender beclown himself was fun at first, but now it's getting old.
More later, as time allows.
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Sunday, June 03, 2007
Amusing Sig Line...
NickFixit of the Samurai appliance repair forum offers us this bit of wisdom in his sig line:
Quote:
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" Giving numerical data to Sears management is like giving a monkey a machine gun. No one knows for certain what will happen, but you can be sure of two things... It will be real messy, and only the monkey will be unharmed"
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
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