Minimum Rage

An unusual thing happened to me a few days ago. I was waiting
on a friend just inside one of the “big box store” chains that quickly
choke their way across America, When a young lady, walked over to me
and asked me if I needed any help. This was not unusual. I explained
to her that I was only waiting for someone and trying to make a call.
She continued to speak to me, (this was unusual) first about what
phone service I used then about her family, the high cost of living,
and her job at this location and another one. Both of course part-
time and wholly inadequate to provide a reasonable living.

Work soon interrupted and I was sorry that I did not get to
say goodbye. It has been awhile since an attractive young woman has
taken the time to speak with me when she did not have to (sad- I know).
As I left I tried to determine her motives for such an act, and contrary
to my normal paranoia the only sensible conclusion I could arrive at is
that she simply wanted someone to talk to, or more to the point, listen
to her.

This has stuck with me for several days as I knew how she or
anyone else who struggles this way on a daily basis would feel. Having
money alone will not make you happy, but it can make life so much easier.
Not having to worry constantly about how you will make it day to day can
lift the despair that can make the burdens of life seem so endless and
so tiring, as if nothing will ever change or get better and all you want
is to see some way out. But things do get better, at least on some level
and you push through even if they do not because you have no choice.

Here is a young women who is only trying to support herself and her
family, most likely working over forty hours per week but because it is
for two different companies she will never see a dime of overtime or
benefits that any full time employee would expect and by law be entitled
too. I know people will say “it's just business, it's just capitalism,
they have to make a profit.” I know all the arguments, but it just feels
wrong. And in most of my experience if it feels wrong it is wrong. Do
the profits and the executive salaries have to be so high.

Meanwhile the the nearly all millionaire Congress proposes that
“We should get rid of the minimum wage, it will help business.” I don't
know if it will help business but it will surely help business owners
and most likely stock holders, though I'm almost certain the woman I
spoke with owned no stocks. I am sure that this policy would hurt the
poor, who could expect huge pay cuts or to be fired so that they could
hire cheaper employees. The best case scenario I could foresee is that
all future hires would make $2.78 per hour. This would hurt business
in the long run as you try to imagine how much an employee earning this
rate would care about good customer service. They could make as much
selling lemonade on a street corner so what is it to them if they get fired.

Maybe all these companies that give only 32 to 38 hours a week
to get the maximum amount of work from employees without having to pay
for overtime or benefits, should pay into a general fund that could
provide some overtime and/or benefits to those workers who work over
forty hours a week and would normally be entitled to if it were for a
single company. Most people would see this as welfare (which it is not)
and Hating welfare is easy because they think of it as people who live
off the hard work of others. The same could be said about most corporate
managers. They preform no valuable services for the customer nor do
they produce any usable products that consumers would buy yet they take
generous salaries from the profits of the hard work done by others who
earn much less. By this definition alone, corporate executives are on
public assistance.

Graham, Crackers?

Occasionally I will read the newspaper column written by the Reverend
Billy Graham. I know what you are thinking, Yeeelch! Newspaper!, but I can't
help myself as it is a holdover from my youth when my dear grandmother used
to force me to sit absolutely still while she read his articles to me against
my will. A few times I actually agreed with him, but normally I was merely
indifferent.

However, as in the case of his column of Wednesday, August 11th 2010
the only conclusion I could reach is that Rev. Graham had lost his mind.
Someone had written in to say that the kindest, most thoughtful person they
knew said she was an atheist They went on to say that they had thought that
one would have to know God in order to behave like this but now no longer
thought that this was necessarily true.

I was fine up to this point, then he offered his answer and immediately
offended me like no other time before

“If your friend comes to Christ someday, she will be an even better
person than she is now.”

Alright, hold the presses. (literally) I have a slight problem with
this. To say that someone you do not know would automatically be a better
person just for accepting a religion, in my opinion is unreasonable and wholly
inaccurate. I've known way to many Christians to fall for that one. Now some
would say that those weren't REAL Christians. If this is the case then I
surmise that only about ten to twenty percent of Christians are REAL Christians.
His statement amounts to the opinion that the worst Christian is a better person
than the best Atheist. The fact is most of the worst people I've ever known
couldn't stop talking about their religion or God as if doing so excused the
most abhorrent of behaviors. To be fair I'm sure there are plenty of truly rotten
atheists as well. He then surprisingly ads

“Perhaps she simply has a sunny personality, as some people do.”

Wow. This one really caught me off guard. I don't think he is even trying on this one. This is an prime example of over simplification on a grand scale, and completely unworthy of the reverend's intellect. Maybe Stalin had a sunny personality as well, jovially sending his enemies off to the gulag, but it would not have made him a better person or even to seem like one.

And then the finale; “She's not this way because she's an atheist-”
Agreed. "In fact she's this way in spite of her atheism.” Disagreed. Completely.


And then; “because a true atheist has no real reason to believe in
right and wrong, or to behave sacrificially toward others.”

Hmmm. How about behaving that way simply because it is the right thing
to do. I would sooner question the character of someone who behaves this way
out of the fear of punishment only, than someone who has nothing to lose either
way. I have often wondered about this, is it really kindness if it is done
simply for self-preservation. Are you a better person if you do right and
sacrifice only because you are afraid of the alternative, rather than the
belief that it is the right thing to do? Can you sincerely love a God out of
the fear of the consequences without it breeding even a hint of resentment? Why
would an intelligent God want your worship or love under such duress in the
first place? Having questions about organized religion is nothing new, and it
has rarely made much sense to me. Why want to be worshiped at all? Why punish
when you could teach? If the goal is to become better people, wouldn't learning
be better than torment. (I feel the same way about prison, I do not see it as
rehabilitation or punishment, but simply prevention) Maybe separating yourself
from the rest of humanity through negative behavior is its own punishment.
Maybe I'm not smart enough to understand all this but I assume we all have a
conscience for a reason. More on this subject later.

Queso addendum

Guess what happened again. Go ahead. Guess. I dare you. I suppose
it is really my fault for going back there and/or trusting them to get it
right. You would think that the process of having to give your order two or
three times would ensure that you got what you wanted, but it seems to not be
enough.

My favorite insult to injury is the sign at the drive through that
states “Please have your money ready.” Oh yeah, thats the bug in the system.
It's never that they do not have any food ready (lets run a special on this
item and then not order or make any extra!”) The food is screwed up regularly,
but when was the last time you screwed up paying? When was the last time you
accidentally paid in Rupees. Or half-shillings. Maybe you had a pocket full
of left over Confederate dollars from your last trip backwards in time.

Normally I would just toss the garbage rather than waste the time and
fuel to take it back. This time I was determined to make them eat it,
figuratively if not literally. The exchange took no less than three employees.
And what did I get for my time and trouble you did not ask? A coupon for my
next visit? A couple of their famous hot apple pies for my inconvenience?
Nope. All I got was their sincerest heartfelt apology.

No queso (or 'an overreaction')

Fast food has never been the pinnacle of fine dining, (only now it just costs as much) but the current crop of low waged and even lower I.q.'ed grill jockeys is letting down those of us who hold the lowest of expectations. Getting away with anything even close to the correct order is tantamount to winning the million dollar lottery. The employee's ability to symmetrically stack two burger patties is apparently immediate grounds for dismissal. Company policies such as cheating every fourth customer out of their french fries go a long way toward increasing profit margins, but not nearly as much as the eight-and-a- half dollar sack lunch. Making sure the employee operating the register speaks only a modicum of English not only multiplies confusion and errors( seeing to it that in all fairness no one leaves happy) but keeps time consuming complaints to a minimum.
Order a breakfast sandwich of sausage, egg, and no cheese and you get wild
variations of sausage and cheese; egg and cheese; or just sausage but with entirely
different bread types, usually the most sweetly disgusting choice available- the pancake like cakes soaked with baked in syrup. Yum! It is though they are part of some kind of government subsidy plan and must give away a certain quota of extra salty non-dairy cheese-like squares or face an extremely high monetary penalty. At least that is what I was beginning to believe after being wronged yet again. In a flagrant disregard for customer service that made the manager of the restaurant shake her head in disbelief, the special ticket indicating “no cheese” was actually stuck INTO the unwanted cheese-like product. However all my fears were allayed when the manager turned to the kitchen staff and yelled out “NO QUESO!”.

Oily Sheen

         How will we ever recover from such a disgusting blight that has been
 forced on the American people for so long now.  This oily Sheen causes nothing
 but pain and suffering and no good could ever come from such an abomination. 
It is ugly, it stinks, and it continues to befoul and poison everything it touches,
yet there seems to be no way of stopping or ridding ourselves of it.

 Its latest victim? 
The Colorado system of justice.
The oily Sheen I refer to here of course is not the BP gulf spill, but the
sleazy, oily actor known to us all as Charlie Sheen. How many chances does one
person get?  How much justice can seven hundred thousand an episode buy?  All
you want in this country apparently if you are rich and/or famous.  How many
times has he been arrested for DUI?  For domestic violence?  For cavorting with
prostitutes?  Frankly, I do not know nor care, and I'm not going to waste my
time researching it, but it seems like a lot to me.


     Oily Sheen was set to plead guilty to a felony and receive a 30-day(suggested)
jail sentence, but refused the deal when he learned he would not be allowed to
smoke in jail. So the great state of Colorado backed down to the power of the
oily Sheen and offered him a misdemeanor charge with no jail time, anger
management classes(ha!), and 30 days rehab.  With the 90 days oily Sheen has
already spent in rehab awaiting his day in court, it will probably be time served.
Even if it isn't, 30 days in a five star resort for beating up your wife hardly
seems like the kind of justice you or I could expect, but if it was, I think I
could finally start to see the benefits to being married.  Oh, to have such choices
in life! 

    Some justice has been delivered though in the form of a couple of luxury automobiles
belonging to oily Sheen being driven to the nearest cliff side and then pushed off. 
the police seem to think it was an “inside job” but oily Sheen claims to have know
idea how it keeps happening.  To which everyone else screams “It's your wife stupid!”
Don't worry about it though, a half hour or so on the set will pay for both cars lost
so he will be okay.  The whole incident will no doubt leave shame and dishonor the
Colorado system of justice with the taint of a black cancerous blotch that no amount
of Dawn can disperse.