Quote time

   I don't like ass kissers, flag wavers, or team players.  I like people who buck
the system.  Individualists.  I often warn kids: “Somewhere along the way, someone is
going to tell you `there is no “I” in team.'  What you should tell them is, `Maybe
not, but there is an “I” in independence, individuality, and integrity.'”

    Avoid teams at all cost.  Keep your circle small.  Never join a group that has a
name.  If they say “We're the So-and-Sos” take a walk.  And if, somehow you must join,
if it's unavoidable, such as a union or trade association, go ahead and join.  But
don't participate; it will be your death.  And if they tell you you're not a team
player, just congratulate them on being so observant.

                -George Carlin
                -from
                “When will Jesus bring the pork chops?”

The American Scream

The friend i was speaking of in my earlier post (minimum rage) had said something else to depressed me that I had almost forgotten about.  That she was thinking about giving up one or both of her jobs and trying to get on at Wal-Mart.  The dream is still alive I guess.  Is this the best the American people can hope for in today’s world, a slim chance to get a low-paying no room for advancement 38 hour a week position at Wal-Mart?  What a time to be alive. 

A few years ago when the automobile industry imploded, a lot of the blame was heaped on the auto workers union.  Although some of their benefits were a bit outrageous, i doubt that they were as big a part of the problem as the exorbitant executive salaries that permeate American corporations.  Even if some of their demands were over the top, they are almost justified in light of all the abuses carried out against workers for so many years.  Union auto workers were among the highest paid of the working class and blaming them for the meltdown sent a loud and clear message to America, that it is too much to hope for to expect to earn a higher standard of living if you are a simple working class person.  That the idea of being able to comfortably buy a home or send your children to college is out of reach.  Why should it be so unfathomable that a lowly worker could make a better than average living for themselves  even in the richest country on earth.  That the best they can hope for is a lifetime of hard work for low pay and endless struggle and debt.

The problem is that management seems to only see the labor force as a huge financial burden rather than an asset.  As if the products construct themselves so they have no idea why they have to pay all these workers so much money.  I saw the same attitudes while working construction a few years ago.  there was never a contractor who ever made even a single dime on any job.  They just could not understand why they had to pay their employees so much.  Meanwhile the company owners tried to outdo each other in seeing who could buy the most expensive truck.  They also had new motorcycles, boats, their kids and wives had new vehicles, the wives were also on the company payroll (even though they never came in or did any work).  But they never made a dime because they had to pay their employees so much!  These same so highly paid employees wore rags to work and drove old rusted out beater 72 ford pick-ups that only black magic could keep running.  most of these poor saps never even saw their paychecks as their wives would start arriving at the office Thursday afternoon to sit and gossip in their cars while waiting for their husbands checks to come in.  Work hard all week and go home on Friday and be given an allowance by your own non-working wife.  What a time to be alive.

The majority of the taxation of America seems to be the sole burden of the middle class as well.  You can’t tax the poor, at least not much- they don’t have any money.  The wealthy can pay sleazy lawyers and accountants to shelter and hide most of their assets so no luck there.  Companies are given huge tax breaks by local and state governments in exchange for moving  to or staying in a particular area to provide jobs for workers which they can then tax.  (free land is also usually provided)  So now the working people of this country not only pay their own fair share of taxes, they get to make up the difference for corporate welfare that is doled out while the wealthy and their companies skate home free. 

Like I also said in that earlier post, the highest paid employees in a company produce no goods or any services that a consumer  would pay for.  Yet their salaries are drawn off profits from the goods and services provided by the working class.  Sounds like welfare to me.

Freedom Mosque

The whole mosque at ground zero controversy has brought up two major points to me.  It started out “cultural center” in the media then went to “victory mosque” then finally “terror mosque”.  Personally I don’t have a problem with the proposed cultural center or its location.  It’s not like it is on the actual site ( like the multi-religious center at the Pentagon, which has operated since reconstruction was completed).  So if a mosque, all be part-time one is at one ground zero why not both?  The one at new the New York site is around a corner and down the block, how far away is far enough? 

All this is just a precursor  to what I think will be the real fight once the New York memorial is completed.  You know there will a Christian cross at the site and a Star of  David  for the Christians and Jews who died there, but what about a Islamic Crescent  for the Muslim victims of the attack.  If people don’t want a mosque two blocks away are they going to tolerate Islamic symbols on the site itself.  Muslims died in the buildings as well and they are just as dead as the people of other religions and I’m sure they will want their family members memorialized as well.  Did other religious groups who had victims in the Oklahoma City bombing want to tare down churches near the site because it was a southern Baptist who blew up the building?  I do not recall that happening.

On the other side the whacked-out Florida preacher that had planned to burn Korans on September eleventh may have made a point without even knowing it.  In the America I live in, as ridiculous as this idea was, most reasonable people would consider this a form of free speech.  But trying to burn a Koran or criticize a Muslim or Islam is likely to get you killed.  The founder of the New York mosque is unwilling to move his project because he’s afraid it will incite violence from the radicals.  this raises the question is Islam and freedom really compatible?  If you have to tiptoe around and be careful about what you say or do for fear of upsetting a bunch of radicals, that is no way to live in any society.  All fanatics must learn that nothing anyone says or tries to burn gives them the right to kill people or blow things up just because you disagree with them.  Compromising and putting up with ridiculous people, acts, and statements is the price of living in this country.

Despicable PG&E

Headline news reported the other day that TRN an industry watchdog group is accusing energy giant PG&E of serious misconduct in relation to the disastrous pipeline explosion two weeks ago.   Four people were killed and three more are “still missing” (let’s just call it seven, from the video i saw I do not think they will find the last three) dozens of houses were burned to the ground, and some of the evacuees who were lucky enough not to lose every thing in the fire were later victims of looters while being kept away from there homes by police.  Then I saw a news crawl that governor Schwarzenegger wants to declare the site a federal disaster area to pay for the cleanup.

The charges are that PG&E received a five million dollar rate hike to pay for repairing the gas main that failed, then turned around and gave the repair money out as executive bonuses.  PG&E then asked the state for more time and another five million dollars to make the repairs they should have already made.  I can only guess that they must have rum out of money before they ran out of executives.  The explosion and resulting fire were so huge that at first it was reported that an airliner had gone down in the neighborhood on approach to LAX.  It took emergency responders two days to put out the fire, and police kept even people who lost nothing to the fire out of the area.  Police kept out the residents but apparently  allowed in all the looters who felt like wondering through the neighborhood.  One couple not only had their jewelry stolen, but their passports and social security cards as well.  My advice to that couple is to go ahead and change your names now, it will only get tougher the more your identity is stolen. avoid the rush.

What I would do.  This is a new feature for this blog where I not only write about a travesty of justice, I will also write about what I would do to bring about a just resolution to the matter if it were up to me.  And they better pray it is never up to me.  First PG&E would pay for the whole cleanup and rebuild, no federal money!  Next, every executive that took a bonus from the rate hike meant for repairs would be charged with arson and murder.  Over and over again companies rip off consumers, poison their employees and customers all while getting huge tax breaks and free land from local governments just to do business in their states.  Nothing is ever done to correct these travesties or to prevent them from happening again.  There is a lot wrong with the Chinese government, but they know how to deal with corruption and restore the confidence of the public.  Remember when tainted baby formula turned up?  The Chinese took their head of the Chinese equivalent of the FDA out of his office and shot him within a month.  If we created a few examples like these some of these abuses would clear up pretty quickly