Imagine seeing the following ad.
Help Wanted
Small non profit is looking for someone to work crappy hours, often on call and with short notice. You will be receiving very little pay with no benefits. Training is poor and inadequate, the equipment you will be using is old and out of date- and any attempt to upgrade it will be met with icy silence. Your supervisors have no management training or management skills. We have no human resources nor do we see any need for that. You will be required to be loyal and obedient. If not, we will use gossip and innuendo to make disciplinary decisions. Your immediate supervisor is sleeping with a co-workers son. The director of our firm is sleeping with one of your co-workers. We treat our clients and our staff poorly because we can. We have no competition and a captive stream of drug addicted clients paid for with taxpayer funds. This will be one of the most dysfunctional environments you will ever work in. Our employee turnover rate is around 50%. Despite all of that, we are a really great place to work! Come join our team. Please call 000-0000 for an application.
How could anyone in their right mind pass that gig up? Had I known all of that back in January, I would never have applied. I am amazed I made it as long as I did.
The reason you don't read about people and bad jobs is because quite often- it's all very hard to sort out. What exactly is a bad job? If you've been breathing air for long, chances are, you've worked a shitty job or two.
As I scroll my memory banks, I think I have worked at least 30 jobs and certainly no less. A lot of these jobs were college and part time jobs. My first job was picking up range balls at age 12. By the age of 15, I had worked as a janitor at a clothing store and as a dishwasher. I was a bag boy and a freight thrower for Albertson's grocery in college. I also worked as a drill hand in the oil fields, a bowling alley attendant, a gas station attendant, and a truck driver and deliveryman. Later on as a young adult I worked as a Deputy Sheriff. (Both apprentice and then paid) I worked as an advanced EMT, on a golf course part time, and even as a loan officer for ITT Financial Services in Las Vegas. *The most crooked job I ever worked. I also worked at the Flamingo in Vegas. Eventually I landed on law enforcement. I worked a total of 24 paid years, 16 of them as management. The last 7 years I spent as Chief of Police managing a department of 17 employees serving a town of about 8000 people. I refer to that town lovingly as, Moonbat City. It is a very wealthy, liberal town. I retired in 2007, meaning I could not go on. Physically and spiritually I was ill. I was drinking way too heavily and I was depressed. I was overweight, I smoked, I had health problems, and I was getting divorced. I knew it was time to say goodbye. That's just how it was.
It is those last 7 years, and then the intervening 5 years that I want to talk about. That's where I learned the important stuff. You can't connect the dots until you've lived through them. Please endure a quick list of credentials, qualifiers.
I've had literally thousands of hours of college and on the job training. I probably had 1000 hours of management training and then another 500 hours in Northwest Traffic Institute's Command College. That specialized training, coupled with my 17 years experience, left me barely adequate to run the police department. For seven years, I felt like I was hanging by a thread. During my time as Chief, I thought I was doing a good job. Passable job, maybe. Our ego tricks us into a state of unconsciousness. Tells us we are good and deserving. That of course, is bullshit.
Nobody is born a leader despite what your mother or your 5th grade teacher might have told you. Leadership is an acquired skill. Leadership requires being a decent human being first- and then learning the skills of effective leadership. If you have no empathy, no sense of fair play or you are a dishonest person - it will not matter how many initials you have behind your name. You will not be an effective leader. People may fear you but they will not like you. And the only people that work for hostage takers- are obedient servants. Our world is awash with both. Just look at our dysfunctional President.
If all managers asked these five basic questions of themselves- they would be light years ahead of their competition. Is what I am doing ethically, morally, and legally right? Is it fair? Is it the right thing to do for everyone involved? People just want to be treated fairly and decently.
I'm not kidding. I have found one, maybe two men that actually live to those standards. I would crawl over barbed wire to go to work for them but that's no longer possible.
Our bad management problem is steeped in ego, our culture, and ultimately, our moral decay. Since retiring in 2007, all I've found is bad management. It's like an epidemic- like obesity in this country. How do I know what bad management is? Because I've been a bad manager. I know one when I see one.
Oddly enough you can't be a good manager until you realize that you are inadequately prepared to manage people. Just because you can kiss the owners ass and land a promotion does not mean you are prepared to be a leader. Often, it just means that you were more desperate than your co-workers. Once in awhile, people get promoted on merit. But merit doesn't translate to people handling skills. I am amazed at how long bad managers can find a way to cling to their jobs. How do you know you are a bad manager? Good managers always ask first, "what did I do wrong here?" Often the issue ends there.
Bad managers never do that. They always seek to blame others. Bad managers can always find something wrong with others while absolving themselves of any guilt in the matter. Good managers take responsibility for employee errors and because they can- they will often find the good in employees. They improve. Admitting your own mistakes makes you much more tolerable of others' mistakes.
Employees do not come to work hoping to make mistakes.They do the best that they can. Often I have found that improperly trained employees make mistakes. Improperly trained employees are almost always- management's fault. I learned that truth when as a manager- I began to ritualistically ask myself, did we fail to train here? Did we forget to explain this? Time and time again, we had.
After 40 years in the workplace, I know a little something about the difference between good management and bad management. I've worked for both and I've been both. Bad managers are everywhere. Good managers are rare.
Why is that? This epidemic of poor leadership...where does it come from? I have a theory that I think makes a lot of sense. It actually speaks volumes about something I mentioned earlier. It is about morality, ethics, human decency, and doing what's right. It about empathy and a sense of fair play. It's really about self-less behavior. It's about humility. We don't teach those important things anymore. I dare you to find those important things in any curricula of any prep school, high school, or college. And if you don't have those values- you're going to suck as a boss and as a human being. I don't care how many years you spend in management training.
If you don't teach those core values- then by extension- nobody thinks they are important.
So how do I know all of that? I've been living it. I've been working for these unconscious, self centered hostage takers since I made my escape in 2007. My best friend tells me that's the way it is. The new status quo. Horrible bosses, obedient and disposable workers. Managers bent on ego, power, and money. Rarely do managers seek to improve the lives of their workers with new equipment, new efficiencies, a sense of fair play, or some sort of due process. He says that's Idaho. The great at will state where employers can fire you without giving any valid reason at all.
Maybe that's just the current culture. The haves are crushing the have nots. The haves definitely have the upper hand. So how do you know you are about to take a bad job? There are some clues...
If the plant and facility are run down and in disrepair. If everything is done as cheaply as possible. If the equipment is old and not updated then you know management does not care about it's employees. That's a place that shows no signs of being progressive. If there is little training or inadequate trainers and training, employees will make mistakes and likely be blamed for them. Here's another couple of very good indicators for a toxic work environment. Normal, national job loss and turnover runs at about 5% annually but can be as high as10%. (Maybe higher in the restaurant or fast food biz) If you are about to take a job that is experiencing turnover and job losses that are in the 10% range or greater annually- be extremely wary. This is a bad workplace. Almost always and without exception- high turnover is an excellent sign that this is a bad place to work. If you don't mind potentially damaging garbage on your resume- go ahead and take your chances.
If all of the subordinates working at a place are extremely obedient or scared. Or if they treat the clientele poorly. Dysfunctional belief systems are always a reflection of the boss. Employees mirror their bosses behavior. They will behave in a fashion consistent with their boss. So if they treat people poorly- its because the boss condones it. That's been my experience anyway.
In 2007, I promised my sponsor- Father Des- that I would go into service work. He died a month later. If I can summarize my life of service work since then- I would have to do so using the movie, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." I laughed out loud as I watched clips from this movie. This one seemed most appropriate. Damnit Des, at least I tried. It's time to say uncle.
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Thursday, September 13, 2012
He Who Panics First, Panics Best
It's time to panic if you have not done so already. Single file and calmly, please.
First my qualifiers. I am a self taught investor who invested for 25 years. I made more than I lost. I never did anything too exotic with options. No futures. Insurance bets, mostly. Some fantastic out of the money options for a few big scores. A lot of options expired worthless.
Since 2007, the stock market has been dead money. That's when I folded up my tent and went away for good. Bought gold and silver.
This is a zombie market. QE3 to infinity was announced today. I can honestly say, all of the foreseeable good news has now been priced in. The game is over. What is left is this. The white Obama or the black Obama will get elected.
Then the fiscal cliff arrives. We have no solution for 220 trillion dollars worth of entitlements and a 16.4 trillion dollar debt ceiling. You cannot turn an economy around with no jobs or jobs paying 9 bucks an hour. Then the Obamacare tax hits. Of course, there will be inflation which the government will do its best to lie about. Soaring food costs with five dollar gas, six dollar diesel will arrive as the commodities markets price in the new and diluting dollar. In the end, hyperinflation will occur. And the greatest show on earth will have to reset.
The stock market will eventually collapse as it becomes diluted with worthless dollars and no buyers. There are no jobs and what jobs there are- are being reset at lower salaries. The whole world is hemorrhaging and our government's only answer is to keep taking on more debt. To keep doing what we know doesn't work hoping for a different result. People are about to lose their investments. The government and the bankers will seize it to pay their debts. Eventually people will realize that they can live with out stock certificates, much like Holland learned that they could survive without tulip bulbs.
In short, I see absolutely nothing on the horizon which will end this economic fiasco. This is a battleship trying to turn in a bathtub. Be prepared. It will come quickly.
It's time to panic. Sometimes the last people don't make it out.
First my qualifiers. I am a self taught investor who invested for 25 years. I made more than I lost. I never did anything too exotic with options. No futures. Insurance bets, mostly. Some fantastic out of the money options for a few big scores. A lot of options expired worthless.
Since 2007, the stock market has been dead money. That's when I folded up my tent and went away for good. Bought gold and silver.
This is a zombie market. QE3 to infinity was announced today. I can honestly say, all of the foreseeable good news has now been priced in. The game is over. What is left is this. The white Obama or the black Obama will get elected.
Then the fiscal cliff arrives. We have no solution for 220 trillion dollars worth of entitlements and a 16.4 trillion dollar debt ceiling. You cannot turn an economy around with no jobs or jobs paying 9 bucks an hour. Then the Obamacare tax hits. Of course, there will be inflation which the government will do its best to lie about. Soaring food costs with five dollar gas, six dollar diesel will arrive as the commodities markets price in the new and diluting dollar. In the end, hyperinflation will occur. And the greatest show on earth will have to reset.
The stock market will eventually collapse as it becomes diluted with worthless dollars and no buyers. There are no jobs and what jobs there are- are being reset at lower salaries. The whole world is hemorrhaging and our government's only answer is to keep taking on more debt. To keep doing what we know doesn't work hoping for a different result. People are about to lose their investments. The government and the bankers will seize it to pay their debts. Eventually people will realize that they can live with out stock certificates, much like Holland learned that they could survive without tulip bulbs.
In short, I see absolutely nothing on the horizon which will end this economic fiasco. This is a battleship trying to turn in a bathtub. Be prepared. It will come quickly.
It's time to panic. Sometimes the last people don't make it out.
Bernanke Screws the Pooch! Welcome to the Idiocracy
Stolen from a commenter at ZeroHedge. It's great.
new Count de Money
"Since everything we tried hasn't worked up to this point, the obvious solution is to do more of what hasn't worked." Asshole.
Tinfoil hat wearers rejoice! Bernanke has officially screwed the pooch, economically ruining this country. There is no going back. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/bernanke-unleashes-path-new-all-time-highs-precious-metals
QE3, or QE4 if you include Operation Twist, is the last ditch effort by the central bank to undo what it has already done. It has ruined the world's economies. We are all drowning in a sea debt.
This is the final countdown to hyperinflation. If you have not gotten your precious metals now- you will have nothing to barter with. You will have no wealth. Precious metals will not be getting cheaper. They are the counterweight to a currency that continues to lose value. They can only go up in value relative to worthless dollars. Precious metals ARE MONEY.
For years I have been on this site saying that economically, the world is toast. M.I.T. genius, Ben Shalom Bernanke, has finally admitted that the only course of action left for the FED (which is desperately clinging to survival) is to counterfeit and print currency. This is the stall tactic that has been employed for four years while our debt pile continues to grow. It can't and won't work. It can only get worse. At some point, all those trillions in debt simply won't be paid. That's called a default.
The only way out- was the Iceland way out. But our bought and paid for cowardly politicians- just couldn't find a way to let banks dissolve. Now we shall all dissolve together.
new Count de Money
Tinfoil hat wearers rejoice! Bernanke has officially screwed the pooch, economically ruining this country. There is no going back. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/bernanke-unleashes-path-new-all-time-highs-precious-metals
QE3, or QE4 if you include Operation Twist, is the last ditch effort by the central bank to undo what it has already done. It has ruined the world's economies. We are all drowning in a sea debt.
This is the final countdown to hyperinflation. If you have not gotten your precious metals now- you will have nothing to barter with. You will have no wealth. Precious metals will not be getting cheaper. They are the counterweight to a currency that continues to lose value. They can only go up in value relative to worthless dollars. Precious metals ARE MONEY.
For years I have been on this site saying that economically, the world is toast. M.I.T. genius, Ben Shalom Bernanke, has finally admitted that the only course of action left for the FED (which is desperately clinging to survival) is to counterfeit and print currency. This is the stall tactic that has been employed for four years while our debt pile continues to grow. It can't and won't work. It can only get worse. At some point, all those trillions in debt simply won't be paid. That's called a default.
The only way out- was the Iceland way out. But our bought and paid for cowardly politicians- just couldn't find a way to let banks dissolve. Now we shall all dissolve together.
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Criminals Kill Innocent Americans, Obama Apologizes to Killers*Updated
Update. The "Innocence of Muslims" trailers on You Tube are allegedly the cause of the murderous behavior from followers of Islam. The trailers are poorly done and really represent free speech at it's worst. But that's free speech. It can be nasty. It is no excuse for murdering people- nor should the first thing out of Obama's mouth be an apology. Who speaks for the millions of Americans who don't condone malicious attacks like those found in those trailers?
I am so sick of this bastard. Really. I am so beyond party bashing- I simply have never witnessed a more inappropriate cowardly human being- pretending to do a job.
Islam and some of the sick bastards that practice this cowardly religion think it's ok to kill people simply because Americans exercise free speech when we say, maybe, Islam sucks. In fact, maybe Mohammad was full of shit.
I've read the Quran. I wouldn't be a member of that religion under any circumstances. It's not a religion. It's a philosophy of hate.
I'm not sure whether these statements are inaccurate or not. I'm not sure whether it is foreign press propaganda being espoused here that says the motive behind the embassy killings- was the badmouthing of Islam. Maybe it wasn't. Who knows. What I am positive about is this.
This type of incident does not entitle those mideast bastards to kill a few Americans. That Obama has Hillary craft an apology for free speech defies all common sense and essentially condones the killings.
I am fucking outraged at the lack of leadership in this country. I would gladly exchange this coward in the White House for the life of any person serving this country who was killed on foreign soil.
What I am going to do here is link an article from Ben Stein. Ben uses this incident to wax poetic for Romney. Our next ineffective leader. http://spectator.org/archives/2012/09/12/what-romney-should-have-said
I am so sick of this bastard. Really. I am so beyond party bashing- I simply have never witnessed a more inappropriate cowardly human being- pretending to do a job.
Islam and some of the sick bastards that practice this cowardly religion think it's ok to kill people simply because Americans exercise free speech when we say, maybe, Islam sucks. In fact, maybe Mohammad was full of shit.
I've read the Quran. I wouldn't be a member of that religion under any circumstances. It's not a religion. It's a philosophy of hate.
I'm not sure whether these statements are inaccurate or not. I'm not sure whether it is foreign press propaganda being espoused here that says the motive behind the embassy killings- was the badmouthing of Islam. Maybe it wasn't. Who knows. What I am positive about is this.
This type of incident does not entitle those mideast bastards to kill a few Americans. That Obama has Hillary craft an apology for free speech defies all common sense and essentially condones the killings.
I am fucking outraged at the lack of leadership in this country. I would gladly exchange this coward in the White House for the life of any person serving this country who was killed on foreign soil.
What I am going to do here is link an article from Ben Stein. Ben uses this incident to wax poetic for Romney. Our next ineffective leader. http://spectator.org/archives/2012/09/12/what-romney-should-have-said
Frankenstein Government Announces New Hours of Operation
Due to high consumer demand, Frankenstein Government will now remain open around the clock, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
These hours are effective immediately and will coincide with a number of events this fall, the least of which will be the Foodstamp President getting kicked the fuck out of our house. The White House will probably be a downgrade, like a HUD home, for Romney.
Soon this will all be over. Like a bad dream. Until then, I have two words. Gary Johnson. Vote well or not at all.
These hours are effective immediately and will coincide with a number of events this fall, the least of which will be the Foodstamp President getting kicked the fuck out of our house. The White House will probably be a downgrade, like a HUD home, for Romney.
Soon this will all be over. Like a bad dream. Until then, I have two words. Gary Johnson. Vote well or not at all.
Hyundai Elantra Snubs Corn Gas
I first saw the re-designed Hyundai Elantra in 2011. I loved the look of the car. In addition to it's great looks, it was allegedly getting 40 MPG which was nearly 4 times what I was getting in my 11 MPG Ford F-250 truck.
Base priced at around 15 grand or so, I set my sights on obtaining an Elantra. Unfortunately, my home town Hyundai dealer also fell in love with the Elantra which made it virtually impossible to get one for less than 19k. So in November and December, I played back and forth with two Hyundai dealers in Salt Lake City until I got what I wanted.
That was a black Hyundai Elantra with a six speed manual transmission, air conditioning, cruise control, and Sirius radio because I travel all over the western U.S. and commute 40 miles a day. I loved the two tone brown interior and got that- rather than the usual gray. Out Ken Garff's door at 15,866.
The Elantra was supposed to get 40 MPG on the highway. I never obtained that kind of mileage. The best I could do was 35 MPG combined highway and city driving- which was still a helluva lot better than the Ford F250.
Then out of the blue, a couple months ago, a dealer rep called me. He told me that I would get 40 MPG with no problem (especially since I had the manual trans.) if I switched to straight gas- no ethanol. Days later, I met a guy at the mall driving an Elantra who said he got 43 MPG on the interstate while driving out west. I suspected that kind of mileage was possible especially if someone had stumbled into a gas station serving up real, unadulterated, fossil fuel. So...
I have never been a fan of ethanol. It takes more energy to produce it than it allegedly saves. I have always suspected that corn gas was essentially useless- serving no real purpose other than wasting space in my gas tank. Oddly enough, high fructose corn syrup which is in virtually everything we eat, has the same impact on the human body. It is useless and makes us fat. Like the Elantra, we should snub it also. Finding 100% real gas was kind of difficult at first-but after a few internet searches- I found two fuel dealers in Boise that don't like corn gas either.
On Saturday, I paid one dime a gallon more and bought my first tank of real gas. My mileage immediately shot up to 39 MPG combined city and highway. I am looking forward to using up this entire tank of gas up because it still had two gallons of the corn gas in it when I filled up.
So for an extra dollar, I am going to get an additional 40 or 50 miles per tank. That's a deal that's hard to beat. With the drought this year, it may be that real gas soon becomes cheaper than corn gas anyway. We'll see.
Base priced at around 15 grand or so, I set my sights on obtaining an Elantra. Unfortunately, my home town Hyundai dealer also fell in love with the Elantra which made it virtually impossible to get one for less than 19k. So in November and December, I played back and forth with two Hyundai dealers in Salt Lake City until I got what I wanted.
That was a black Hyundai Elantra with a six speed manual transmission, air conditioning, cruise control, and Sirius radio because I travel all over the western U.S. and commute 40 miles a day. I loved the two tone brown interior and got that- rather than the usual gray. Out Ken Garff's door at 15,866.
The Elantra was supposed to get 40 MPG on the highway. I never obtained that kind of mileage. The best I could do was 35 MPG combined highway and city driving- which was still a helluva lot better than the Ford F250.
Then out of the blue, a couple months ago, a dealer rep called me. He told me that I would get 40 MPG with no problem (especially since I had the manual trans.) if I switched to straight gas- no ethanol. Days later, I met a guy at the mall driving an Elantra who said he got 43 MPG on the interstate while driving out west. I suspected that kind of mileage was possible especially if someone had stumbled into a gas station serving up real, unadulterated, fossil fuel. So...
I have never been a fan of ethanol. It takes more energy to produce it than it allegedly saves. I have always suspected that corn gas was essentially useless- serving no real purpose other than wasting space in my gas tank. Oddly enough, high fructose corn syrup which is in virtually everything we eat, has the same impact on the human body. It is useless and makes us fat. Like the Elantra, we should snub it also. Finding 100% real gas was kind of difficult at first-but after a few internet searches- I found two fuel dealers in Boise that don't like corn gas either.
On Saturday, I paid one dime a gallon more and bought my first tank of real gas. My mileage immediately shot up to 39 MPG combined city and highway. I am looking forward to using up this entire tank of gas up because it still had two gallons of the corn gas in it when I filled up.
So for an extra dollar, I am going to get an additional 40 or 50 miles per tank. That's a deal that's hard to beat. With the drought this year, it may be that real gas soon becomes cheaper than corn gas anyway. We'll see.
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Frankenstein Government Still Attracting High Brow Types
The readers of Frankenstein Government have one thing in common. Uncanny intelligence coupled with intuitive logic.
You may not have to dress up to read this blog, but it doesn't hurt. This ain't the fucking dollar store. So in that "circumlocuous" fashion that has made this blog so brilliant- let the buffoonery begin.
(I am proud that the spell checker does not recognize the word, "circumlocuous.")
Years ago, I worked with this Moonbat city clerk who had perfected a couple of useful people skills. Predominantly, she was the absolute U.S. champion in terms of ass kissing and brown nosing. In fact, that woman elevated ass kissing to such lofty and stratospheric levels- that she was able to eliminate all of her detractors (one of them being me) and become city manager where she dwells to this very day. She currently makes six figures while accomplishing virtually nothing- except making her subordinates kiss her ass in some form of city government apprenticeship that never ends. But the main reason that I mention her here- is that she had this odd habit of using giant words during our city staff meetings on Tuesdays. I think she figured that using at least one giant word each week at the staff meeting would help her sound really smart to those of us who would unwittingly become her subordinates one day.
Now I know what salmagundi is and what pusillanimous means. But I would never walk into a staff meeting and use those kinds of words.
When I was a kid growing up in Butte and used a word with two or three syllables that nobody recognized, maybe like the word "vagina" for instance, my friends would look at me like I had just been dropped off from some far away planet. Quite possibly, one of those friends might pipe up and say, "Who says shit like that? "Va...gi...nahhh." Not only was the public isolation and embarrassment severe, but every once in awhile your friends might turn on you and beat you up.
I saw that happen to Frankie Lombardi one time. We were in the 7th grade. He had used the word salmagundi in public and that is why I mention it here. I don't think it was that particular word necessarily- that set that horrible chain of events into motion that day. Instead, I think that the kids were just sick of Frankie and his high brow vocabulary. They beat him bad. He was so scared of those kids after that day that I once heard Frankie describe spaghetti as long, skinny noodles covered with sauce rather than risk another ass whipping. So I knew the possibilities early on. Start using vocabulary and big words that people do not recognize- and risk greeting the pavement with your face.
Oddly, a few people fall through the cracks. I don't know precisely where they come from but I know this. They say and use humongous words and get away with it. There is no way that these people could be from the west. I think they are probably folks from the northeast or lawyers. They use words like "arbitrary" or "capricious" or in some stern lawyer voice say stupid things like, "That bond amount is absolutely draconian, your honor."
This is the very shit I used to hear the Moonbat city clerk say. Someone should have beat her up a long time ago.
So everyday, I read "naked capitalism." Every blog on there reminds me of Frankie. Written by some woman with a pen name of "Yves." Rhymes with Jeeves. Heh. She would not have lasted five seconds in Butte. http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/
I like to think that I attract the best and the brightest not because I can use a big word here or there- but because the people who read this blog know the inherent dangers. They understand. They don't want to me to wind up like Frankie. Or worse.
You may not have to dress up to read this blog, but it doesn't hurt. This ain't the fucking dollar store. So in that "circumlocuous" fashion that has made this blog so brilliant- let the buffoonery begin.
(I am proud that the spell checker does not recognize the word, "circumlocuous.")
Years ago, I worked with this Moonbat city clerk who had perfected a couple of useful people skills. Predominantly, she was the absolute U.S. champion in terms of ass kissing and brown nosing. In fact, that woman elevated ass kissing to such lofty and stratospheric levels- that she was able to eliminate all of her detractors (one of them being me) and become city manager where she dwells to this very day. She currently makes six figures while accomplishing virtually nothing- except making her subordinates kiss her ass in some form of city government apprenticeship that never ends. But the main reason that I mention her here- is that she had this odd habit of using giant words during our city staff meetings on Tuesdays. I think she figured that using at least one giant word each week at the staff meeting would help her sound really smart to those of us who would unwittingly become her subordinates one day.
Now I know what salmagundi is and what pusillanimous means. But I would never walk into a staff meeting and use those kinds of words.
When I was a kid growing up in Butte and used a word with two or three syllables that nobody recognized, maybe like the word "vagina" for instance, my friends would look at me like I had just been dropped off from some far away planet. Quite possibly, one of those friends might pipe up and say, "Who says shit like that? "Va...gi...nahhh." Not only was the public isolation and embarrassment severe, but every once in awhile your friends might turn on you and beat you up.
I saw that happen to Frankie Lombardi one time. We were in the 7th grade. He had used the word salmagundi in public and that is why I mention it here. I don't think it was that particular word necessarily- that set that horrible chain of events into motion that day. Instead, I think that the kids were just sick of Frankie and his high brow vocabulary. They beat him bad. He was so scared of those kids after that day that I once heard Frankie describe spaghetti as long, skinny noodles covered with sauce rather than risk another ass whipping. So I knew the possibilities early on. Start using vocabulary and big words that people do not recognize- and risk greeting the pavement with your face.
Oddly, a few people fall through the cracks. I don't know precisely where they come from but I know this. They say and use humongous words and get away with it. There is no way that these people could be from the west. I think they are probably folks from the northeast or lawyers. They use words like "arbitrary" or "capricious" or in some stern lawyer voice say stupid things like, "That bond amount is absolutely draconian, your honor."
This is the very shit I used to hear the Moonbat city clerk say. Someone should have beat her up a long time ago.
So everyday, I read "naked capitalism." Every blog on there reminds me of Frankie. Written by some woman with a pen name of "Yves." Rhymes with Jeeves. Heh. She would not have lasted five seconds in Butte. http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/
I like to think that I attract the best and the brightest not because I can use a big word here or there- but because the people who read this blog know the inherent dangers. They understand. They don't want to me to wind up like Frankie. Or worse.
Dreams From My Other Father, Frank Marshall Davis*Updated
The facial similarities between Obama and communist, Frank Marshall Davis, are hard to ignore.
Update. The NY Times is getting into the fray. They are running an ad promoting the idea that Davis is in fact, Obama's father. Bloomberg writers are highly critical of the ad. This is what happens when while falling all over yourselves in a media love affair- nobody checks into or properly vets a candidate. Rather than do some investigative reporting in 2007- all the media can do now is spew venom whenever someone attacks our food stamp President. http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-09-11/new-york-post-runs-boldest-anti-obama-ad-yet
Obama's mother, Stanley Anne Dunham, was certainly no choir girl either. She conceived Obama about a month before turning 18. Odd too, that Ms. Dunham traveled in the same cities as those Davis haunted.
How does the whole birth certificate thing figure in? I dunno, but I think Obama knows the truth.
I'd love a DNA test to settle this once and for all. Until then- check out this site and view the side by side photos of Obama and Frank Marshall Davis. Ok to put tinfoil hat on before viewing. http://www.obamasrealfather.com/frank-marshall-davis/
Update. The NY Times is getting into the fray. They are running an ad promoting the idea that Davis is in fact, Obama's father. Bloomberg writers are highly critical of the ad. This is what happens when while falling all over yourselves in a media love affair- nobody checks into or properly vets a candidate. Rather than do some investigative reporting in 2007- all the media can do now is spew venom whenever someone attacks our food stamp President. http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-09-11/new-york-post-runs-boldest-anti-obama-ad-yet
Obama's mother, Stanley Anne Dunham, was certainly no choir girl either. She conceived Obama about a month before turning 18. Odd too, that Ms. Dunham traveled in the same cities as those Davis haunted.
How does the whole birth certificate thing figure in? I dunno, but I think Obama knows the truth.
I'd love a DNA test to settle this once and for all. Until then- check out this site and view the side by side photos of Obama and Frank Marshall Davis. Ok to put tinfoil hat on before viewing. http://www.obamasrealfather.com/frank-marshall-davis/
Sunday, September 9, 2012
The Food Stamp Presidents
Bush-Clinton-Bush-Obama and 24 years worth of banker congressional lackeys. Give them all credit. Each of them had a hand in this mess.
How can a Rhodes scholar, two Yale grads, a Harvard grad, and 24 years worth of lawyers masquerading as Congressmen- all conspire to turn our country into a Banana Republic?
Aren't these people the best and the brightest? No, quite clearly they are not. The last great President that this country had was Ronald Reagan. And you know what made him really great? The thing that he possessed that none of these other shitbags even think about? Well aside from the fact he apparently had a better education from Eureka college...
He had vast amounts of moral courage- and values. He talked about the decay of the American family. He pulled us out of one of the worst recessions ever. Was he perfect? No of course not...but compared to the last 24 years worth of "leadership" Reagan looks like pure genius.
I swear to the Almighty, I will not vote for one more piece of shit lawyer or elite banker. Vote well or not at all.
More on the latest food stamp President from the Wall St. Journal.
The number for August reflects only people who have actively applied for a job in the past four weeks, either by interview or by filling an application form. But when the average period of unemployment is nearly 40 weeks, it is unrealistic to expect everyone who needs a job to keep seeking work consistently for months on end. You don't have to be lazy to recoil from the heartbreaking futility of knocking, week after week, on closed doors.
How many people
are out of work but not counted as unemployed because they hadn't
sought work in the past four weeks? Eight million. This is the sort of
distressing number that turns up when you look beyond the headline
number.
Here's another one: 96,000—that's how many new jobs were added last month, well short of the anemic 125,000 predicted by analysts, and dramatically less than the (still paltry) 139,000 the economy had been averaging in 2012.
The alarming numbers proliferate the deeper you look: 40.7% of the people counted as unemployed have been out of work for 27 weeks or more—that's 5.2 million "long-term" unemployed. Fewer Americans are at work today than in April 2000, even though the population since then has grown by 31 million.
We are still almost five million payrolls shy of where we were at the end of 2007, when the recession began. Think about that when you hear the Obama administration's talk of an economic recovery.
The key indicator of our employment health, in all the statistics, is what the government calls U-6. This is the number who have applied for work in the past six months and includes people who are involuntary part-time workers—government-speak for those individuals whose jobs have been cut back to two or three days a week.
They are
working part-time only because they've been unable to find full-time
work. This involuntary army of what's called "underutilized labor" has
been hovering for months at about 15% of the workforce. Include the
eight million who have simply given up looking, and the real
unemployment rate is closer to 19%.
In short, the president's ill-designed stimulus program was a failure. For all our other national concerns, and the red herrings that typically swim in electoral waters, American voters refuse to be distracted from the No. 1 issue: the economy. And even many of those who have jobs are hurting, because annual wage increases have dropped to an average of 1.6%, the lowest in the past 30 years. Adjusting for inflation, wages are contracting.
The best single indicator of how confident workers are about their jobs is reflected in how they cling to them. The so-called quit rate has sagged to the lowest in years.
Older Americans can't afford to quit. Ironically, since the recession began, employment in the age group of 55 and older is up 3.9 million, even as total employment is down by five million. These citizens hope to retire with dignity, but they feel the need to bolster savings as a salve for the stomach-churning decline in their net worth, 75% of which has come from the fall in the value of their home equity.
The baby-boomer population postponing its exit from the workforce in a recession creates a huge bottleneck that blocks youth employment. Displaced young workers now face double-digit unemployment and more life at home with their parents.
Many young couples decide that they can't afford to start a family, and as a consequence the birthrate has just hit a 25-year low of 1.87%. Nor are young workers' prospects very good. Layoff announcements have risen from year-ago levels and hiring plans have dropped sharply. People are not going to swallow talk of recovery until hiring is occurring at a pace to bring at least 300,000 more hires per month than the economy has been averaging for the past two years.
Furthermore, the jobs that are available are mostly not good ones. More than 40% of the new private-sector jobs are in low-paying categories such as health care, leisure activities, bars and restaurants.
We are experiencing, in effect, a modern-day depression. Consider two indicators: First, food stamps: More than 45 million Americans are in the program! An almost incredible record. It's 15% of the population compared with the 7.9% participation from 1970-2000. Food-stamp enrollment has been rising at a rate of 400,000 per month over the past four years.
Second, Social Security disability—another record. More than 11 million Americans are collecting federal disability checks. Half of these beneficiaries have signed on since President Obama took office more than three years ago.
These dependent millions are the invisible counterparts of the soup kitchens and bread lines of the 1930s, invisible because they get their checks in the mail. But it doesn't take away from the fact that millions of people who had good private-sector jobs now have to rely on welfare for life support.
How can a Rhodes scholar, two Yale grads, a Harvard grad, and 24 years worth of lawyers masquerading as Congressmen- all conspire to turn our country into a Banana Republic?
Aren't these people the best and the brightest? No, quite clearly they are not. The last great President that this country had was Ronald Reagan. And you know what made him really great? The thing that he possessed that none of these other shitbags even think about? Well aside from the fact he apparently had a better education from Eureka college...
He had vast amounts of moral courage- and values. He talked about the decay of the American family. He pulled us out of one of the worst recessions ever. Was he perfect? No of course not...but compared to the last 24 years worth of "leadership" Reagan looks like pure genius.
I swear to the Almighty, I will not vote for one more piece of shit lawyer or elite banker. Vote well or not at all.
More on the latest food stamp President from the Wall St. Journal.
By MORTIMER ZUCKERMAN
Don't be fooled by the headline unemployment number of 8.1% announced on Friday. The reason the number dropped to 8.1% from 8.3% in July was not because more jobs were created, but because more people quit looking for work.The number for August reflects only people who have actively applied for a job in the past four weeks, either by interview or by filling an application form. But when the average period of unemployment is nearly 40 weeks, it is unrealistic to expect everyone who needs a job to keep seeking work consistently for months on end. You don't have to be lazy to recoil from the heartbreaking futility of knocking, week after week, on closed doors.
Related Video
Assistant editorial page editor James Freeman
on the August jobs report and how it gels with President Obama's speech
last night. Credit: Associated Press
Here's another one: 96,000—that's how many new jobs were added last month, well short of the anemic 125,000 predicted by analysts, and dramatically less than the (still paltry) 139,000 the economy had been averaging in 2012.
The alarming numbers proliferate the deeper you look: 40.7% of the people counted as unemployed have been out of work for 27 weeks or more—that's 5.2 million "long-term" unemployed. Fewer Americans are at work today than in April 2000, even though the population since then has grown by 31 million.
We are still almost five million payrolls shy of where we were at the end of 2007, when the recession began. Think about that when you hear the Obama administration's talk of an economic recovery.
The key indicator of our employment health, in all the statistics, is what the government calls U-6. This is the number who have applied for work in the past six months and includes people who are involuntary part-time workers—government-speak for those individuals whose jobs have been cut back to two or three days a week.
Bloomberg A recruiter, left, talks to a job seeker during a career fair in Houston in August.
In short, the president's ill-designed stimulus program was a failure. For all our other national concerns, and the red herrings that typically swim in electoral waters, American voters refuse to be distracted from the No. 1 issue: the economy. And even many of those who have jobs are hurting, because annual wage increases have dropped to an average of 1.6%, the lowest in the past 30 years. Adjusting for inflation, wages are contracting.
The best single indicator of how confident workers are about their jobs is reflected in how they cling to them. The so-called quit rate has sagged to the lowest in years.
Older Americans can't afford to quit. Ironically, since the recession began, employment in the age group of 55 and older is up 3.9 million, even as total employment is down by five million. These citizens hope to retire with dignity, but they feel the need to bolster savings as a salve for the stomach-churning decline in their net worth, 75% of which has come from the fall in the value of their home equity.
The baby-boomer population postponing its exit from the workforce in a recession creates a huge bottleneck that blocks youth employment. Displaced young workers now face double-digit unemployment and more life at home with their parents.
Many young couples decide that they can't afford to start a family, and as a consequence the birthrate has just hit a 25-year low of 1.87%. Nor are young workers' prospects very good. Layoff announcements have risen from year-ago levels and hiring plans have dropped sharply. People are not going to swallow talk of recovery until hiring is occurring at a pace to bring at least 300,000 more hires per month than the economy has been averaging for the past two years.
Furthermore, the jobs that are available are mostly not good ones. More than 40% of the new private-sector jobs are in low-paying categories such as health care, leisure activities, bars and restaurants.
We are experiencing, in effect, a modern-day depression. Consider two indicators: First, food stamps: More than 45 million Americans are in the program! An almost incredible record. It's 15% of the population compared with the 7.9% participation from 1970-2000. Food-stamp enrollment has been rising at a rate of 400,000 per month over the past four years.
Second, Social Security disability—another record. More than 11 million Americans are collecting federal disability checks. Half of these beneficiaries have signed on since President Obama took office more than three years ago.
These dependent millions are the invisible counterparts of the soup kitchens and bread lines of the 1930s, invisible because they get their checks in the mail. But it doesn't take away from the fact that millions of people who had good private-sector jobs now have to rely on welfare for life support.
I, Moron- The Sunday Collage
Have you ever had one of those weeks when you were absolutely positive that the worldwide village idiot Olympics were being held in your city?
That's how my week went. By this morning, I had to ask myself the appropriate question.
Was it me, or was it them? I had to be honest with myself. I landed on them. And as I crept up the passenger side of a Jeep Cherokee on the four laner yesterday in heavy traffic, I watched as a woman put makeup on while gazing into her mirror and steering with her wrists. I knew this week was truly something special.
The morons have landed.
The difference between myself and most idiots- is that I know I am an idiot. This gives me a huge leg up on the competition. It allows me to attain a level of consciousness and in fact- it is my secret weapon. It is a weapon that not one person has ever tried to wrestle from my grasp.
I am not kidding you when I tell you- that I have had a number of former prison inmates who I work with (voluntarily) tell me what's wrong with me and how I should live my life. I cannot begin to describe that level of unconsciousness. I often look at them in awe and disbelief. I have everything I want and probably more than I deserve. I am happy.
I think, and this is how my simple mind works, that I'm probably not going to ask some guy doing a seven year stretch for robbery- for pointers on how to live my life. Here is the really, really interesting part. These people rarely- if ever- think there is something wrong with them. I am not kidding. Even after a seven year pit stop. They all think that they are smarter, wiser than the next guy. But it's not just them. It's a cultural epidemic. Just look at our current "leadership."
I might very well have not discovered the depths of my own idiocy without the help of Tolle's, "A New Earth." It's like a Chilton's Repair Guide for Morons, insert year. I actually cringed as I read parts of that book.
That type of critical thinking- the mere possibility that you might be a moron- is forever lost on our culture. They see nothing useful in it. Everyone these days, apparently comes pre packaged with all of the self intelligence they will ever need. Thus they spend their time on the remaining critical life tasks. Fiddling with cellphones and dusting blush on in traffic. Fighting for the closest parking spot at the gym. Asking stupid questions in class and yes...there are stupid questions. Wearing earbuds. Watching garbage on television. Isolating themselves from others as they go about fulfilling their own wants and desires. Never coming to the aid of another.
But every once in a great while- I stumble onto a complete idiot like me. Someone actually mulling over the outlandish possibility that they might be the problem. When that happens- it's like a great reunion. Two people willing to admit that yes, they have never felt quite right in this meat suit that adorns the exterior. That they have always felt just a little uncomfortable around others and have recently become willing to accept that something must change and improve within them.
Father Des would say, in a world where everyone thinks that they have the credentials to teach- finally a student has arrived.
And when you find someone like that- oh so rare- I often stop to consider the larger possibilities. How far might we evolve as a culture if all of our people realized that indeed- they were morons? Idiots like us. There's just no telling what we could achieve.
That's how my week went. By this morning, I had to ask myself the appropriate question.
 |
| Stolen From Another Blog |
The morons have landed.
The difference between myself and most idiots- is that I know I am an idiot. This gives me a huge leg up on the competition. It allows me to attain a level of consciousness and in fact- it is my secret weapon. It is a weapon that not one person has ever tried to wrestle from my grasp.
I am not kidding you when I tell you- that I have had a number of former prison inmates who I work with (voluntarily) tell me what's wrong with me and how I should live my life. I cannot begin to describe that level of unconsciousness. I often look at them in awe and disbelief. I have everything I want and probably more than I deserve. I am happy.
I think, and this is how my simple mind works, that I'm probably not going to ask some guy doing a seven year stretch for robbery- for pointers on how to live my life. Here is the really, really interesting part. These people rarely- if ever- think there is something wrong with them. I am not kidding. Even after a seven year pit stop. They all think that they are smarter, wiser than the next guy. But it's not just them. It's a cultural epidemic. Just look at our current "leadership."
I might very well have not discovered the depths of my own idiocy without the help of Tolle's, "A New Earth." It's like a Chilton's Repair Guide for Morons, insert year. I actually cringed as I read parts of that book.
That type of critical thinking- the mere possibility that you might be a moron- is forever lost on our culture. They see nothing useful in it. Everyone these days, apparently comes pre packaged with all of the self intelligence they will ever need. Thus they spend their time on the remaining critical life tasks. Fiddling with cellphones and dusting blush on in traffic. Fighting for the closest parking spot at the gym. Asking stupid questions in class and yes...there are stupid questions. Wearing earbuds. Watching garbage on television. Isolating themselves from others as they go about fulfilling their own wants and desires. Never coming to the aid of another.
But every once in a great while- I stumble onto a complete idiot like me. Someone actually mulling over the outlandish possibility that they might be the problem. When that happens- it's like a great reunion. Two people willing to admit that yes, they have never felt quite right in this meat suit that adorns the exterior. That they have always felt just a little uncomfortable around others and have recently become willing to accept that something must change and improve within them.
Father Des would say, in a world where everyone thinks that they have the credentials to teach- finally a student has arrived.
And when you find someone like that- oh so rare- I often stop to consider the larger possibilities. How far might we evolve as a culture if all of our people realized that indeed- they were morons? Idiots like us. There's just no telling what we could achieve.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)