Newsweek actually posted something worth reading this week. That is shocking enough in itself, since Newsweek long ago ceased to be about disseminating useful information and insightful opinion and became a propaganda shop for the political left, but what's even more stunning is that it was written by Fineman. He must have forgotten his meds.
You can't argue with the central point in Fineman's piece, though, which is that Barack Obama still believes that he can just 'show up' and that this is sufficient enough to have whatever piece of nonsense he wants enacted this week magically appear. When, surprise!, this strategy doesn't work, he simply shows up again...and again...and again. I thought George W. Bush was supposed to be the inflexible one who was incapable of learning from his mistakes? Perhaps Barack Obama needs a little lesson in Ben Franklin conventional wisdom: the very definition of insanity is repeating the same actions and expecting a different result.
Just because you've spent 30 hours on television this week beating a dead horse (several of them, actually), Mr. President, it doesn't necessarily follow that another 30 hours will get you any better results. This is one of those times when twice as much effort just means a much deeper hole.
This president is way too enamored of himself, the sound of his own voice, and his teleprompter, and it shows. You can't turn the TV set on without Barack Obama's face showing up everywhere. If he isn't making yet one more canned speech on health care, he's making another on an esoteric point of foreign policy which makes even less sense than the previous one. I've got news for you, Barry: you're not that handsome, and you're not quite as awesome as you think you are. It's bad enough half the evening news is devoted to you, and now I have to have my commercials invaded by you as well? I've just recently seen a commercial where people are still trying to flog crap (a set of collectible plates? Gimme a break!) with your visage on it six times in the same day. I see more of you than I do of myself.
I've had an idea. It has been rattling around inside my brain for several weeks now, and I gave voice to it over on someone else's blog (the incomparable JammieWearingFool).
Whenever Barack Obama shows up on TV, turn the set off. Don't watch. Talk to your wife, help your kids with their homework, take up needlepoint, finish that book you've been reading. Just don't watch Barack Obama. You'll be much happier, you'll reconnect with your family. Since he's on TV 11 hours a day, you'll save loads of money on electricity and help save Mother Earth while you're at it.
Very soon, them Nielsen people will begin to figure something out; TV sets all over America mysteriously turn off when President Hopenchanger shows up. They'll tell the networks who hate it when people turn off TV's (that means less ad money). If Nielsen tells them people tune out when The Obamatard shows up they will soon refuse to put the President on screen morning, noon and night. This means less of that annoying buzzing sound that comes from the TV set when Obama is talking. The lesson will begin to sink in for Obama, slowly because he's a democrat and kinda slow: less talk, less mug on TV, less hard-sell marketing, maybe more real, hands-on work (the first real work he's ever done in his life, perhaps?).
All I know is that if you wanted to give the nation a small morale boost without having to spend a single dime of taxpayer money, here's your opportunity.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Friday, September 25, 2009
Bad Economy? The 'Problem' of Immigration?
The three or four people who read this regularly will recall, fondly (I hope), the little blurb I recently posted about my new job: selling energy door-to-door.
Today, as I was making my appointed rounds, I found myself becoming slowly aware of two truly stunning concepts.
The first is that despite what some people say, the economy is actually chugging along quite nicely, thank you. How do I know? When people can sell electricity door-to-door -- and there's a market for it -- and customers love it (and they're buying it by the megawatt, incidentally), something good economically must be happening. Someone must be using all of this electricity for more than just running a laptop or recharging a cellphone, after all. And since I speak almost exclusively to small business owners, one might assume that small business is indeed thriving. It may not be roaring along at the level it was, say, five years ago, but it's surviving this economic downturn rather well. The 'For Lease' signs notwithstanding, the strong are, indeed, surviving and growing.
Not only that, but it's not unusual for me to find similar businesses located within short walking distance to one another engaged in friendly competition, both buying new energy plans and newly-generated, green energy (which is a bit more expensive). Both businessmen may be locked in the death struggle that is capitalism in tooth and claw, but both would seem to be doing rather well. I've seen it every day this week; on the same thoroughfare, it's not unusual to see five laundromats, four nail salons, three liquor stores, and a variety of other outlets selling everything from knit goods to produce all within a few blocks of one another.
I should think the 'bad economy' is a misnomer. Business, apparently is humming along...for everyone but Wall Street, of course. This economic 'crisis' is not one of actual commerce, to judge from the activity I've seen, but rather because some fool with a Harvard MBA can't balance his checkbook without a massive dose of low-interest credit. The Hungarian ex-pat with a small bar-and-grill is happy as a clam. Small business is alive and well, at least in the areas of Staten Island and Brooklyn I've been in recently.
The second thing I've noticed is the business owners, themselves. Every day I speak to Russians, Arabs, Indians, Chinese, Koreans, Mexicans, Czechs, Poles, Nigerians and Salvadorans. And where am I speaking to them? In their offices. The ones tucked into little corners in the back of the bodega, small restaurant or coffee house. They own the businesses I'm supplying.
The Little Guy is suffering? Tell these people. They're working. Well. They may not be Donald Trump-wealthy, but they ain't collecting welfare, either.
The American Dream is lost? Let me introduce you to the man who told me how he worked as a non-union carpenter and janitor for 12 years, and saved his pennies, so that he could open his own cleaning company...with 24 employees. How about I introduce you to the Korean woman, missing a finger on one hand, who somehow managed to parlay the veritable fortune she must have made cutting hair into her own beauty salon. You'd be shocked to learn that not only do many of these people own one going enterprise, but they often own multiple concerns. I spoke to a Polish man just yesterday who owns...wait for it...five tanning salons. And he started out by driving a cab and knowing very little English.
You'd be flabbergasted to learn that these people not only (usually) own their businesses free and clear --most don't believe in 'credit' -- but that they very often employ 10 or more people, and they spend an average of $60,000 year on energy bills. Let me repeat that: $60,000 a year on energy (electricity and natural gas) alone. That's before you factor in that they're renting in New York City -- one of the most expensive commercial real estate markets in the solar system, and paying the New York State minimum wage of $7.75 -- which is higher than the federal rate.
How did this happen? I thought all these immigrants were downtrodden victims of destructive capitalism, American racism, and a society that abuses them and takes advantage of them. Apparently no one told them. If someone did tell them, they didn't listen. They have grabbed capitalism by the horns. They seem to have emerged none the worse for wear for having been chambermaids, busboys, landscapers, pizza makers and street vendors.
I have a new-found respect for these people. They certainly have shamed me. I had thought I was industrious. They leave me in the dust.
I used to think that because I wore a tie to work and rubbed elbows with a higher-class (supposedly) of individual, that I was somehow better than these people. Not in the sense that I'm a superior human being, but that I was of a higher social class, and was destined to be much wealthier than they could imagine. My eyes have been opened; these people are better human beings than I am. I have never considered myself lazy, but these folks would work circles around me. They can think circles around me; one gentlemen divided 19,268 kilowatt hours (the amount of juice he used) by the total price he paid for it ($768.00), to four decimal points, in his head to arrive at the average cost of a kilowatt hour before I had finished tapping the numbers into my calculator.
These people are sharp. Very sharp. And for the record, no --- he was not Asian.
Anyone who says that immigration (we're talking legal, not illegal, immigration) is bad had better come meet some of these folks. Anyone who says the great box stores are pushing the 'Mom and Pop' out of business ought to see how these people operate.
They'd perhaps shut their pieholes about 'American' this-that-and-the-other, if they did. I know I will. I've just realized that in many ways, these immigrants are more quintessentially American than I am, the native son.
It's an experience I have enjoyed, and have learned from. I suggest that everyone take the opportunity, whenever they can, to avail themselves of the experience. It's both fascinating and humbling.
Today, as I was making my appointed rounds, I found myself becoming slowly aware of two truly stunning concepts.
The first is that despite what some people say, the economy is actually chugging along quite nicely, thank you. How do I know? When people can sell electricity door-to-door -- and there's a market for it -- and customers love it (and they're buying it by the megawatt, incidentally), something good economically must be happening. Someone must be using all of this electricity for more than just running a laptop or recharging a cellphone, after all. And since I speak almost exclusively to small business owners, one might assume that small business is indeed thriving. It may not be roaring along at the level it was, say, five years ago, but it's surviving this economic downturn rather well. The 'For Lease' signs notwithstanding, the strong are, indeed, surviving and growing.
Not only that, but it's not unusual for me to find similar businesses located within short walking distance to one another engaged in friendly competition, both buying new energy plans and newly-generated, green energy (which is a bit more expensive). Both businessmen may be locked in the death struggle that is capitalism in tooth and claw, but both would seem to be doing rather well. I've seen it every day this week; on the same thoroughfare, it's not unusual to see five laundromats, four nail salons, three liquor stores, and a variety of other outlets selling everything from knit goods to produce all within a few blocks of one another.
I should think the 'bad economy' is a misnomer. Business, apparently is humming along...for everyone but Wall Street, of course. This economic 'crisis' is not one of actual commerce, to judge from the activity I've seen, but rather because some fool with a Harvard MBA can't balance his checkbook without a massive dose of low-interest credit. The Hungarian ex-pat with a small bar-and-grill is happy as a clam. Small business is alive and well, at least in the areas of Staten Island and Brooklyn I've been in recently.
The second thing I've noticed is the business owners, themselves. Every day I speak to Russians, Arabs, Indians, Chinese, Koreans, Mexicans, Czechs, Poles, Nigerians and Salvadorans. And where am I speaking to them? In their offices. The ones tucked into little corners in the back of the bodega, small restaurant or coffee house. They own the businesses I'm supplying.
The Little Guy is suffering? Tell these people. They're working. Well. They may not be Donald Trump-wealthy, but they ain't collecting welfare, either.
The American Dream is lost? Let me introduce you to the man who told me how he worked as a non-union carpenter and janitor for 12 years, and saved his pennies, so that he could open his own cleaning company...with 24 employees. How about I introduce you to the Korean woman, missing a finger on one hand, who somehow managed to parlay the veritable fortune she must have made cutting hair into her own beauty salon. You'd be shocked to learn that not only do many of these people own one going enterprise, but they often own multiple concerns. I spoke to a Polish man just yesterday who owns...wait for it...five tanning salons. And he started out by driving a cab and knowing very little English.
You'd be flabbergasted to learn that these people not only (usually) own their businesses free and clear --most don't believe in 'credit' -- but that they very often employ 10 or more people, and they spend an average of $60,000 year on energy bills. Let me repeat that: $60,000 a year on energy (electricity and natural gas) alone. That's before you factor in that they're renting in New York City -- one of the most expensive commercial real estate markets in the solar system, and paying the New York State minimum wage of $7.75 -- which is higher than the federal rate.
How did this happen? I thought all these immigrants were downtrodden victims of destructive capitalism, American racism, and a society that abuses them and takes advantage of them. Apparently no one told them. If someone did tell them, they didn't listen. They have grabbed capitalism by the horns. They seem to have emerged none the worse for wear for having been chambermaids, busboys, landscapers, pizza makers and street vendors.
I have a new-found respect for these people. They certainly have shamed me. I had thought I was industrious. They leave me in the dust.
I used to think that because I wore a tie to work and rubbed elbows with a higher-class (supposedly) of individual, that I was somehow better than these people. Not in the sense that I'm a superior human being, but that I was of a higher social class, and was destined to be much wealthier than they could imagine. My eyes have been opened; these people are better human beings than I am. I have never considered myself lazy, but these folks would work circles around me. They can think circles around me; one gentlemen divided 19,268 kilowatt hours (the amount of juice he used) by the total price he paid for it ($768.00), to four decimal points, in his head to arrive at the average cost of a kilowatt hour before I had finished tapping the numbers into my calculator.
These people are sharp. Very sharp. And for the record, no --- he was not Asian.
Anyone who says that immigration (we're talking legal, not illegal, immigration) is bad had better come meet some of these folks. Anyone who says the great box stores are pushing the 'Mom and Pop' out of business ought to see how these people operate.
They'd perhaps shut their pieholes about 'American' this-that-and-the-other, if they did. I know I will. I've just realized that in many ways, these immigrants are more quintessentially American than I am, the native son.
It's an experience I have enjoyed, and have learned from. I suggest that everyone take the opportunity, whenever they can, to avail themselves of the experience. It's both fascinating and humbling.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Youth is Wasted on the Stupid...
Re: The G20 riots in Pittsburgh. Here's a report from the Associated Press.
Look, we all know that people have the right to assemble and protest, and as long as no laws are broken, all the better. I don't have an issue with college idiots gathering to protest capitalism (it's their prerogative, even if they're seriously misguided) as much as I wonder about just what the hell these people are thinking. I mean, don't they teach them anything about irony in college?
Here you have a mass of people who are protesting the very system that allows them to protest. What's more, I wonder how many of them notice how stupid it is to protest the capitalist system while most, if not all of them, are carrying cell phones, taking photographs of each other, videotaping the event, texting their friends during the marches, Twittering, wearing Urban Guerrilla chic (the de rigeur black clothing, Che Guevara tees and balaclavas, produced in China by people making 4 cents an hour), attending a protest that was most certainly organized using the printing press, the Internet, cell phones, Blackberries, and i-phones. Oh, and the first establishment to have it's windows broken is the Starbucks or McDonald's where a great many of the protesters probably had their double-caramel mocchiata, or Egg McMuffin a few hours before they decided the store was an evil threat to World Peace.
These kids mostly go to these things to play at revolutionary. They are (mistakenly) attracted by the supposed romance of the disaffected, but deeply concerned figure, striking a blow for equality, fairness and The Masses. You just know the great majority of these idiots come from solidly middle-class families (Marx's bourgeoisie), many of whom pay exorbitant amounts of cash to send them to a so-called 'institution of higher learning'. There, they are constantly bombarded with nonsense disguised as scholarship and indoctrinated by aging hippies. Breaking a store window or chucking rocks at police cars is not legitimate protest; it's destruction of property and assault with a deadly weapon. But no worries; they're insured, right? Oh wait! Insurance is another product of wicked, insensitive, eco-deadly capitalism, isn't it?
Those aging hippies, incidentally, are the ones who once believed they could stop a war and bring social justice by dropping acid, blowing up government buildings, and adopting a hedonistic lifestyle. How well did that work out for them?
It seems to me that if you wish to 'change the world' you could find better role models than Professor Smith, who's only claim to fame was that he managed to become stoned enough to get lost on the way to Woodstock...somewhere in Iowa, But he'll still tell you that he sat front row-center for the event, anyway. Baby Boomer's can't help themselves; they all claim to have been there, and they feel as if they're some kind of outcast amongst their peers if they can't claim to have actually attended. It's one of the reasons I'd be happy to vote for any Health care plan that promises to euthanize anyone born between 1946 and 1960 -- and then harvest their organs.
Anyway, back to these kids...
If one of my retarded offspring showed up at one of these events, I would break a Starbuck's window myself -- by tossing him right through it. Then I'd disown the little bastard and tell him to make his own way in the world. Since he's so much smarter and caring than the rest of us, this should be no problem whatsoever. Let's see how big an issue he has with capitalism when he has to feed himself with his own resources. That revolutionary bullshit would fly right out of his head.
Civilized people don't behave this way (note: The Tea Party protesters don't entice the police with riot gear to fire tear gas at them, nor do they organize marches without getting the legal permission and permits to do so), and they also don't miss the blaring stupidity inherent in a 'movement' which couldn't possibly exist without the underpinnings and products of both capitalism and democracy -- the very things these drooling nose pickers are protesting.
It's hard to take you seriously, Children, when I'm laughing at you. Grow up.
Look, we all know that people have the right to assemble and protest, and as long as no laws are broken, all the better. I don't have an issue with college idiots gathering to protest capitalism (it's their prerogative, even if they're seriously misguided) as much as I wonder about just what the hell these people are thinking. I mean, don't they teach them anything about irony in college?
Here you have a mass of people who are protesting the very system that allows them to protest. What's more, I wonder how many of them notice how stupid it is to protest the capitalist system while most, if not all of them, are carrying cell phones, taking photographs of each other, videotaping the event, texting their friends during the marches, Twittering, wearing Urban Guerrilla chic (the de rigeur black clothing, Che Guevara tees and balaclavas, produced in China by people making 4 cents an hour), attending a protest that was most certainly organized using the printing press, the Internet, cell phones, Blackberries, and i-phones. Oh, and the first establishment to have it's windows broken is the Starbucks or McDonald's where a great many of the protesters probably had their double-caramel mocchiata, or Egg McMuffin a few hours before they decided the store was an evil threat to World Peace.
These kids mostly go to these things to play at revolutionary. They are (mistakenly) attracted by the supposed romance of the disaffected, but deeply concerned figure, striking a blow for equality, fairness and The Masses. You just know the great majority of these idiots come from solidly middle-class families (Marx's bourgeoisie), many of whom pay exorbitant amounts of cash to send them to a so-called 'institution of higher learning'. There, they are constantly bombarded with nonsense disguised as scholarship and indoctrinated by aging hippies. Breaking a store window or chucking rocks at police cars is not legitimate protest; it's destruction of property and assault with a deadly weapon. But no worries; they're insured, right? Oh wait! Insurance is another product of wicked, insensitive, eco-deadly capitalism, isn't it?
Those aging hippies, incidentally, are the ones who once believed they could stop a war and bring social justice by dropping acid, blowing up government buildings, and adopting a hedonistic lifestyle. How well did that work out for them?
It seems to me that if you wish to 'change the world' you could find better role models than Professor Smith, who's only claim to fame was that he managed to become stoned enough to get lost on the way to Woodstock...somewhere in Iowa, But he'll still tell you that he sat front row-center for the event, anyway. Baby Boomer's can't help themselves; they all claim to have been there, and they feel as if they're some kind of outcast amongst their peers if they can't claim to have actually attended. It's one of the reasons I'd be happy to vote for any Health care plan that promises to euthanize anyone born between 1946 and 1960 -- and then harvest their organs.
Anyway, back to these kids...
If one of my retarded offspring showed up at one of these events, I would break a Starbuck's window myself -- by tossing him right through it. Then I'd disown the little bastard and tell him to make his own way in the world. Since he's so much smarter and caring than the rest of us, this should be no problem whatsoever. Let's see how big an issue he has with capitalism when he has to feed himself with his own resources. That revolutionary bullshit would fly right out of his head.
Civilized people don't behave this way (note: The Tea Party protesters don't entice the police with riot gear to fire tear gas at them, nor do they organize marches without getting the legal permission and permits to do so), and they also don't miss the blaring stupidity inherent in a 'movement' which couldn't possibly exist without the underpinnings and products of both capitalism and democracy -- the very things these drooling nose pickers are protesting.
It's hard to take you seriously, Children, when I'm laughing at you. Grow up.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Oh Yeah, That New Job Thingy...
Okay, I've told you I would tell you all about my new job. You're going to be a) surprised that people actually do this for a living, and b) laughing your ass off...until I tell you just how much money can be made on it (well, I won't exactly tell you, I'll just say this; a fucking shitload of money can be made doing this!)
I sell energy.
Door-to-door.
(Pause for laughter)
Laugh if you will, ye of little imagination and less ambition! You'd be positively shocked if you saw just exactly how this is done, and how relatively easy it is to do, and even more, how excited your potential customers are by the prospect.
It basically works like this:
The New York State legislature fucked up (that is, they actually did something right) a while back and did something useful; it de-regulated the energy market in the State. No more one-energy-company-towns. No more monopolies on energy production and vending. The public now has a choice between competing producers (alas, there are no competing distributors, but that is a different story).
I work for an energy company. This energy company produces energy, both electricity and natural gas. It produces these commodities in the traditional ways, and it also produces it in more environmentally-friendly ways. I, and people like me, are given instructions on how we generate energy, how it gets sold and distributed, and then we're taught how to make sales.
Now, I've never sold anything in my life. Imagine my surprise when I was informed that all the other people in the classroom with me had never sold anything either. Not a single professional salesperson in the room. This may sound ludicrous, but there is a keen and cunning logic behind it.
Salespeople, even the really good ones, pick up very bad habits in the course of their careers. These involve cutting corners, sometimes ethical lapses, and various attempts to 'game the system' for personal gain. The idea behind hiring people with absolutely no sales background whatsoever, is so that when you teach them how to present your product to the public, they have no preconceived notions and no bad habits. They can be taught the proper ethical regime pertaining to sales.
Then you send them out to pound the pavement. Hit every business in your local area. Canvass the residential neighborhoods. Learn to network, how to develop leads, and how to make a professional presentation without having to resort to Powerpoint and 16-color pie charts.
And it works. Well. I've already met several people who have less than six months to a year on the job and have already roped in contracts that have brought them very hefty paychecks.
It's difficult work; you're on your feet all day, every day. If you're not willing to hustle (as in get up early, be diligent and work hard) you're not going to be very successful. Some days are very good (you get the contracts, you develop a lead, or better yet, you've learned something new), and some days are pretty bad (all have happened to me, thus far: you didn't drum up any business, you've been harangued by a Vietnamese man wielding a meat clever because the last energy company who came through screwed him over, you walk into a local restaurant and begin your sales routine while half a dozen guys from the old-monopoly energy company are standing in line behind you...waiting to order their lunch...and you just know they want to kick your ass).
I'm just getting started, and so I know I will have to walk before I run. But I can already say this about it: it has sitting behind a desk, collecting cubicle-slave's wages beat by a far god damned sight.
I sell energy.
Door-to-door.
(Pause for laughter)
Laugh if you will, ye of little imagination and less ambition! You'd be positively shocked if you saw just exactly how this is done, and how relatively easy it is to do, and even more, how excited your potential customers are by the prospect.
It basically works like this:
The New York State legislature fucked up (that is, they actually did something right) a while back and did something useful; it de-regulated the energy market in the State. No more one-energy-company-towns. No more monopolies on energy production and vending. The public now has a choice between competing producers (alas, there are no competing distributors, but that is a different story).
I work for an energy company. This energy company produces energy, both electricity and natural gas. It produces these commodities in the traditional ways, and it also produces it in more environmentally-friendly ways. I, and people like me, are given instructions on how we generate energy, how it gets sold and distributed, and then we're taught how to make sales.
Now, I've never sold anything in my life. Imagine my surprise when I was informed that all the other people in the classroom with me had never sold anything either. Not a single professional salesperson in the room. This may sound ludicrous, but there is a keen and cunning logic behind it.
Salespeople, even the really good ones, pick up very bad habits in the course of their careers. These involve cutting corners, sometimes ethical lapses, and various attempts to 'game the system' for personal gain. The idea behind hiring people with absolutely no sales background whatsoever, is so that when you teach them how to present your product to the public, they have no preconceived notions and no bad habits. They can be taught the proper ethical regime pertaining to sales.
Then you send them out to pound the pavement. Hit every business in your local area. Canvass the residential neighborhoods. Learn to network, how to develop leads, and how to make a professional presentation without having to resort to Powerpoint and 16-color pie charts.
And it works. Well. I've already met several people who have less than six months to a year on the job and have already roped in contracts that have brought them very hefty paychecks.
It's difficult work; you're on your feet all day, every day. If you're not willing to hustle (as in get up early, be diligent and work hard) you're not going to be very successful. Some days are very good (you get the contracts, you develop a lead, or better yet, you've learned something new), and some days are pretty bad (all have happened to me, thus far: you didn't drum up any business, you've been harangued by a Vietnamese man wielding a meat clever because the last energy company who came through screwed him over, you walk into a local restaurant and begin your sales routine while half a dozen guys from the old-monopoly energy company are standing in line behind you...waiting to order their lunch...and you just know they want to kick your ass).
I'm just getting started, and so I know I will have to walk before I run. But I can already say this about it: it has sitting behind a desk, collecting cubicle-slave's wages beat by a far god damned sight.
I Wanted to Puke...
Despite my best efforts to avoid it, I have been exposed to what President Numbnuts had to say t the Useless Nations....err...United Nations today.
I have never been sicker in my life.
I was only half-listening, admittedly, because the image of the abused wife crept into my head and would not go away.
There She is, with blackened eyes and broken teeth, a flattened nose and pouchy cheeks, still asking, nay begging Him to take her back. Protesting her love and devotion despite a bloody nose, apologizing for everything from having burnt the Rice-A-Roni to the sky being a certain shade of blue. If only she could truly make Him see how much She loves Him, She thinks, He will.
President Odickhead was just that pathetic today. I'm surprised that he didn't accept responsibility for American complicity in the existence of Typhoid, Bubonic plague, and Pop Tarts.
And even though Pop Tarts are pretty good, he'd still find a reason to apologize for them being full of icky sugar, mass-produced in smoke-belching factories staffed by little pink elves earning slave's wages.
That's when it wasn't all about Him, of course.
Yeah, he's closed Gitmo. He's ending the War in Iraq. He's fighting the 'good' fight on global warming. Only a matter of time before he claims credit for the Internet, too, just like another self-possessed moron we're all familiar with.
But at least Khaddafi showed up and provided some comic relief.
I have never been sicker in my life.
I was only half-listening, admittedly, because the image of the abused wife crept into my head and would not go away.
There She is, with blackened eyes and broken teeth, a flattened nose and pouchy cheeks, still asking, nay begging Him to take her back. Protesting her love and devotion despite a bloody nose, apologizing for everything from having burnt the Rice-A-Roni to the sky being a certain shade of blue. If only she could truly make Him see how much She loves Him, She thinks, He will.
President Odickhead was just that pathetic today. I'm surprised that he didn't accept responsibility for American complicity in the existence of Typhoid, Bubonic plague, and Pop Tarts.
And even though Pop Tarts are pretty good, he'd still find a reason to apologize for them being full of icky sugar, mass-produced in smoke-belching factories staffed by little pink elves earning slave's wages.
That's when it wasn't all about Him, of course.
Yeah, he's closed Gitmo. He's ending the War in Iraq. He's fighting the 'good' fight on global warming. Only a matter of time before he claims credit for the Internet, too, just like another self-possessed moron we're all familiar with.
But at least Khaddafi showed up and provided some comic relief.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Remembering 'Diversity Training'...
Five Feet of Fury posts this article about complaints of racism in Canada's Department of Justice, and the predictable reaction to the complaint: mandatory diversity training.
Having been a victim of mandatory diversity training myself, a flood of unpleasant memories overcame me, and the anger that was present after 16-hours-over-two-days of that hell has returned.
That's right: anger. I remember thinking at the time that attending this class might, at least, be educational and make me a better manager. It did no such thing. Instead, it made me furious, it reinforced some negative stereotypes about certain minority groups, it made me wonder why some people view the world as they do, and then it made me physically ill.
The very idea of Diversity Training is predicated upon two contradictory premises that one is expected to believe are both absolutely true;
A. That white male culture is inherently racist, sexist and homophobic.
B. That selected classes of minorities are innocent victims. Always.
I shan't bore you with details, but after about two hours of this 'training' I was thoroughly convinced of the following;
1. Diversity training is a sham; it exists as a method by which large corporations (and now it seems, government offices) try to avoid or lessen the impact of, lawsuits,
2. Companies and contractors that provide this service are simply taking advantage of a niche market created by the irrational guilt of white liberals, the undirected rage of certain subsets of minorities, and the fear that boards of directors have of the courtroom,
3. Diversity training is deliberate psychological torture which is designed to put White Heterosexual Christian Man in his place by placing him in a room with a bunch of angry 'others' who are encouraged, nay emboldened, to revile him with the worst invective, dressed up in polite language and under the guise of a learning exercise. The giveaway is always the point in the exercise where the instructor/inquisitor rolls out some version of the "you are a racist, but don't mean to be, or even realize you are; it a reflexive, and unconscious behavior which is deeply-rooted in your culture" routine. There it is: you're a racist, even when you aren't one -- you just don't realize it, and you can't help yourself.
4. Some people are just incessant whiners with no sense of objectivity, or any ability to be truthful with themselves about themselves. Everything must be someone else's fault. The worst offenders cannot explain the reason why they whine, they just do, or rather, believe they should. Even when given the opportunity to explain their concerns in a supposedly-open forum where no one will retaliate (theoretically) against them, many seem unable to elaborate on their grievances, or the basis for those grievances and accusations. Everything eventually boils down to 'feelings'. Even the most successful minorities in the room seem to harbor these feelings which can't be explained.
5. I heard more overt racism and hatred in a Diversity Training class than I ever heard in the office. In fact, I heard more of it inside that classroom than I did as a child growing up in Brooklyn in the 1970's. Even more than in the schoolyard or the Subway! And none of it was spouted by a straight, White Guy.
Do racism, sexism, bigotry of all sorts, exist? Sure they do. Despite the best efforts of mankind, they will never disappear. Do white men walk into the office everyday thinking "Which nigger/queer/Jew/woman/cripple can I fuck with today?" Hell, no. Do white men walk into the office thinking "My culture is superior to all others, and I will make sure those nasty subhumans know it!" Try again.
People who think that way, incidentally, hardly ever gain a position within a company from whence they can act upon that kind of thinking for the very reason that business is a co-operative effort and, as a manager, you need to keep your worker bees relatively happy in order to maintain your corner office. Those who can't look past their prejudices and who hold such notions very quickly fail or get tagged as 'not a team player'.
What does happen, in my experience (nearly two decades on Wall Street) is that it is the White Males who happen to be the ones who work the hardest. It's White Males who have the desire to succeed in the world of ruthless competition, and who are usually willing to go the extra mile and take on extra work, work overtime, or who actually spend their own time trying to figure out solutions to the problems of their jobs.
It's also been my experience that in recent years, it has been White Females who have been moving into the ranks of middle and upper management in astounding numbers. I've worked for female bosses before, and the overwhelming majority were just as tough, smart and competent as their male predecessors, and sometime, even tougher (I believe in the adage that to succeed in a 'man's world', a woman probably has to behave twice as manly). In any case, it reveals an interesting dilemma that was amply illustrated in the last election; on the list of 'most worthy victims' who comes first -- the black guy or the white woman?
Hell, I've worked for more openly-homosexual managers (of both sexes, or is it three nowadays?) than I care to count or to remember!
Perhaps the whining pansies who have made Diversity Training a standard feature on the list of bullshit-every-white guy-must-endure-to-continue-to-collect-a-paycheck might want to re-think this Blame-the-White-Guy routine? But then again, thinking was never the strong suit of those who accuse others of racism and hide behind their own while they do it.
In the meantime, Diversity Training is a nothing more than a safety valve; it allows minorities to believe their concerns are being taken seriously, it keeps the CEO out of the courtroom, saves the shareholder money, it gives the appearance that Straight White Men are being chastised.
Having been a victim of mandatory diversity training myself, a flood of unpleasant memories overcame me, and the anger that was present after 16-hours-over-two-days of that hell has returned.
That's right: anger. I remember thinking at the time that attending this class might, at least, be educational and make me a better manager. It did no such thing. Instead, it made me furious, it reinforced some negative stereotypes about certain minority groups, it made me wonder why some people view the world as they do, and then it made me physically ill.
The very idea of Diversity Training is predicated upon two contradictory premises that one is expected to believe are both absolutely true;
A. That white male culture is inherently racist, sexist and homophobic.
B. That selected classes of minorities are innocent victims. Always.
I shan't bore you with details, but after about two hours of this 'training' I was thoroughly convinced of the following;
1. Diversity training is a sham; it exists as a method by which large corporations (and now it seems, government offices) try to avoid or lessen the impact of, lawsuits,
2. Companies and contractors that provide this service are simply taking advantage of a niche market created by the irrational guilt of white liberals, the undirected rage of certain subsets of minorities, and the fear that boards of directors have of the courtroom,
3. Diversity training is deliberate psychological torture which is designed to put White Heterosexual Christian Man in his place by placing him in a room with a bunch of angry 'others' who are encouraged, nay emboldened, to revile him with the worst invective, dressed up in polite language and under the guise of a learning exercise. The giveaway is always the point in the exercise where the instructor/inquisitor rolls out some version of the "you are a racist, but don't mean to be, or even realize you are; it a reflexive, and unconscious behavior which is deeply-rooted in your culture" routine. There it is: you're a racist, even when you aren't one -- you just don't realize it, and you can't help yourself.
4. Some people are just incessant whiners with no sense of objectivity, or any ability to be truthful with themselves about themselves. Everything must be someone else's fault. The worst offenders cannot explain the reason why they whine, they just do, or rather, believe they should. Even when given the opportunity to explain their concerns in a supposedly-open forum where no one will retaliate (theoretically) against them, many seem unable to elaborate on their grievances, or the basis for those grievances and accusations. Everything eventually boils down to 'feelings'. Even the most successful minorities in the room seem to harbor these feelings which can't be explained.
5. I heard more overt racism and hatred in a Diversity Training class than I ever heard in the office. In fact, I heard more of it inside that classroom than I did as a child growing up in Brooklyn in the 1970's. Even more than in the schoolyard or the Subway! And none of it was spouted by a straight, White Guy.
Do racism, sexism, bigotry of all sorts, exist? Sure they do. Despite the best efforts of mankind, they will never disappear. Do white men walk into the office everyday thinking "Which nigger/queer/Jew/woman/cripple can I fuck with today?" Hell, no. Do white men walk into the office thinking "My culture is superior to all others, and I will make sure those nasty subhumans know it!" Try again.
People who think that way, incidentally, hardly ever gain a position within a company from whence they can act upon that kind of thinking for the very reason that business is a co-operative effort and, as a manager, you need to keep your worker bees relatively happy in order to maintain your corner office. Those who can't look past their prejudices and who hold such notions very quickly fail or get tagged as 'not a team player'.
What does happen, in my experience (nearly two decades on Wall Street) is that it is the White Males who happen to be the ones who work the hardest. It's White Males who have the desire to succeed in the world of ruthless competition, and who are usually willing to go the extra mile and take on extra work, work overtime, or who actually spend their own time trying to figure out solutions to the problems of their jobs.
It's also been my experience that in recent years, it has been White Females who have been moving into the ranks of middle and upper management in astounding numbers. I've worked for female bosses before, and the overwhelming majority were just as tough, smart and competent as their male predecessors, and sometime, even tougher (I believe in the adage that to succeed in a 'man's world', a woman probably has to behave twice as manly). In any case, it reveals an interesting dilemma that was amply illustrated in the last election; on the list of 'most worthy victims' who comes first -- the black guy or the white woman?
Hell, I've worked for more openly-homosexual managers (of both sexes, or is it three nowadays?) than I care to count or to remember!
Perhaps the whining pansies who have made Diversity Training a standard feature on the list of bullshit-every-white guy-must-endure-to-continue-to-collect-a-paycheck might want to re-think this Blame-the-White-Guy routine? But then again, thinking was never the strong suit of those who accuse others of racism and hide behind their own while they do it.
In the meantime, Diversity Training is a nothing more than a safety valve; it allows minorities to believe their concerns are being taken seriously, it keeps the CEO out of the courtroom, saves the shareholder money, it gives the appearance that Straight White Men are being chastised.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
The Lunatic Has a New Job...
Finally!
After having doors slammed in my face, after hearing "you're over qualified" for the last two years, after all the turmoil of chasing contract work that is more work and less contract, I've finally landed a decent job. And the best part? It's private sector! I was scared sh*tless about perhaps having to bow to necessity and take a government make-work job, but that has been avoided.
I'll tell you all about it when I've gotten somewhat established.
I just knew something was going to work for me today when I walked into that interview and saw about 30 well-endowed and good-to-look at females roaming the place in business-casual!
After having doors slammed in my face, after hearing "you're over qualified" for the last two years, after all the turmoil of chasing contract work that is more work and less contract, I've finally landed a decent job. And the best part? It's private sector! I was scared sh*tless about perhaps having to bow to necessity and take a government make-work job, but that has been avoided.
I'll tell you all about it when I've gotten somewhat established.
I just knew something was going to work for me today when I walked into that interview and saw about 30 well-endowed and good-to-look at females roaming the place in business-casual!
Monday, September 14, 2009
Maureen Dowd Calls Everyone a Racist...
Par for the course. Here's her Sunday offering, another tour de force of liberal (small 'l' intentional) crapspeak.
More and more I am convinced that Maureen Dowd is not a journalist, but rather a very bitter life support system for a vagina that no one wants anymore.
More and more I am convinced that Maureen Dowd is not a journalist, but rather a very bitter life support system for a vagina that no one wants anymore.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Why Islam Will Never Rule Anything...
From the New York Times, this article on the difficulties of exercising in a hijab.
These types of stories are ample proof that despite the best efforts of Bin Laden, Khomieni or any other crackpot with a beard and turbin, of just why Islam will never rule anything.
It lives, it breathes, it flourishes in the past. It is unable to reconcile modern life, society, culture and technology with what is at heart a desert goat-herding nomad mindset, without twisting itself into logical and theological knots over 'problems' like this one.
They may outbreed us westerners, but they will never outlast us. They will be unable to maintain the technologically-advanced world that we might leave behind. It will rust, it will decay, and the Islamic world will eventually either starve to death, or kill itself with sectarian violence ignited because someone dared to ask whether it was really necessary to wear a Hijab while "Sweatin' to the Oldies".
(H/T to the Closet Conservative)
These types of stories are ample proof that despite the best efforts of Bin Laden, Khomieni or any other crackpot with a beard and turbin, of just why Islam will never rule anything.
It lives, it breathes, it flourishes in the past. It is unable to reconcile modern life, society, culture and technology with what is at heart a desert goat-herding nomad mindset, without twisting itself into logical and theological knots over 'problems' like this one.
They may outbreed us westerners, but they will never outlast us. They will be unable to maintain the technologically-advanced world that we might leave behind. It will rust, it will decay, and the Islamic world will eventually either starve to death, or kill itself with sectarian violence ignited because someone dared to ask whether it was really necessary to wear a Hijab while "Sweatin' to the Oldies".
(H/T to the Closet Conservative)
Why Thomas Friedman Should Be Electricuted..On Pay-per-View...
Because the asshole actually had the audacity to write this in favor/defense of totalitarianism, and as an argument for why it should be tried here:
"One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks. But when it is led by a reasonably enlightened group of people, as China is today, it can also have great advantages. That one party can just impose the politically difficult but critically important policies needed to move a society forward in the 21st century."
Thomas Friedman has just spelled out what he and his leftist retards are all about. It's not about you. It never is. It's about them; about them being in charge, about them being the directing brains of society, about them validating their oooh-sooo-enlightened-yet-always-failing ideas, and therefore validating their own high opinions of themselves. Friedman and his cohorts, the Pelosis, Reids, Clintons, Obamas, Kerrys, et. al. are the enlightened group of people and they mean to attain the power to tell you what to do with every minute of every day...because they have bestowed that right upon themselves for no other reason than that they believe themselves to be your superior. In every way.
If you have not realized this before, you've just gotten it from the horse's ass...err...mouth.
If you still don't get it after reading that, then perhaps we should make sure we've got enough power for a bunch of electrocutions.
Friedman, incidentally, was one of the first people to scream about democracy, civil liberties and freedom when it came to the Patriot Act, wiretaps and enhanced interrogations. Apparently, all those things are quite alright when it's the right people (Clintons, Obamas, that is, people who who share the same delusions about enlightenment and politics as you do) who have the power to use them. Friedman and the rest of this bunch don't care about liberty; for them, liberty is the right to undermine the republic and the ideals upon which it is based for their own selfish ends.
"One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks. But when it is led by a reasonably enlightened group of people, as China is today, it can also have great advantages. That one party can just impose the politically difficult but critically important policies needed to move a society forward in the 21st century."
Thomas Friedman has just spelled out what he and his leftist retards are all about. It's not about you. It never is. It's about them; about them being in charge, about them being the directing brains of society, about them validating their oooh-sooo-enlightened-yet-always-failing ideas, and therefore validating their own high opinions of themselves. Friedman and his cohorts, the Pelosis, Reids, Clintons, Obamas, Kerrys, et. al. are the enlightened group of people and they mean to attain the power to tell you what to do with every minute of every day...because they have bestowed that right upon themselves for no other reason than that they believe themselves to be your superior. In every way.
If you have not realized this before, you've just gotten it from the horse's ass...err...mouth.
If you still don't get it after reading that, then perhaps we should make sure we've got enough power for a bunch of electrocutions.
Friedman, incidentally, was one of the first people to scream about democracy, civil liberties and freedom when it came to the Patriot Act, wiretaps and enhanced interrogations. Apparently, all those things are quite alright when it's the right people (Clintons, Obamas, that is, people who who share the same delusions about enlightenment and politics as you do) who have the power to use them. Friedman and the rest of this bunch don't care about liberty; for them, liberty is the right to undermine the republic and the ideals upon which it is based for their own selfish ends.
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