Boring Blog

I decided my blog is boring. It needs to be redesigned and re-purposed. I won't have much time to attend to this project so it may take some time, but I need to make something new and different. Perhaps I will just create another blog from scratch. I'll have to think about it and experiment when time allows.

More Fun with Employment

OK, I've been here for a year. Here is a contract job in a government funded non-profit. The pay is lousy, the benefits are paltry, the commute is an hour plus drive each way. On the job, I wait for people. I think my job should be called "senior waiter". Well, maybe not. "Waiter" implies "to wait on", as opposed to the defacto "to wait for". So maybe "senior waitee" is better.

However, looking at it from a larger perspective, it doesn't really matter. I will be leaving here shortly. After 10 years of contract work, watching my pay rate go down, down, down, the almost unthinkable has happened. I have been offered a direct position. The pay is much more, the benefits are fabulously better, the commute will involve leaving the car in the driveway while I walk to the train. On the job I suspect there will be very little waiting if history can be any judge at all.

Onward, upward, forward.

Nippon Nightmare

It is not easy to take all this in, to comprehend it, to fathom it. Japan has suffered a triple blow. Disastrous, catastrophic earthquakes certainly have happened many times before in many places, even recently. Chile, Haiti, New Zealand, just to name a few. And also recently there was the tsunami that destroyed much and killed many along the coastline of Indonesia and around the adjacent Indian Ocean. But now Japan has suffered not only the earthquake, but also the concurrent tsunami, and to cap it off the Fukushima Daiichi cataclysm.

As did many, I watched some of the videos captured by the people in Japan who were not crushed or swept away. The power of nature is astounding and impressive and the vulnerability of people to natural forces is astounding and terrifying. More terrifying is the vulnerability of people to their own errors.

And now the numbers in Japan are truly awful. More than 18000 people believed to have been killed in this disaster. Meanwhile, radiation is showing up many miles from the reactors. And we hear that in hard hit areas where food is scarce, with a plethora of vending machines all around, not one has been broken into.

Japan will recover. It will take time, it will be costly, but Japan knows how to recover. They have been through this before.

Here with little chance of being there

Last year at this time I was in Pennsylvania, a situation I wrote about in this blog. I was there for a job which ran from late April through October. Shortly before I left there I was able to arrange another job back in Massachusetts which ran from November through the middle of April this year, when I was laid off.

So right around the same time I was offered the job in PA last year, lo and behold another job posting this year for a virtually identical job to the one I was doing last year came across the wires. The same recruiter contacted me about it and I said yeah let's do it! The job I had in Pennsylvania was a good one and I found places to stay with friendly and interesting people in the quaint little historic towns of Millersville and then Marietta, which came to feel like a second home.

So I called my former manager and told him I was eager to come down again. Things looked good. Then it became apparent things were not so good. The job was being promoted by other recruiters at half the rate I got last year. Last year before I left GSK outsourced their entire security team, laying off everyone in that department, and one of my friends there who was a business analyst I learned earlier this year had been laid off as well. So GSK is evidently pinching pennies along with the rest of them.

Another former employer, Teradyne, evidently now is outsourcing the entire documentation department they have had in place for many years. So that will put several more writers back in circulation as competition for every job heats up more and more each day.

Meanwhile unemployment benefits are running out for many people who are desperately trying to find jobs. And Congress is one vote short of approving benefit extensions because it will add to the federal debt. They can't approve something that we don't have the money for. Sounds reasonable. So if I don't have the money to pay my mortgage, I shouldn't pay it. There goes my house. If in order to pay the mortgage I have to forgo paying the exorbitant electric bill, I shouldn't pay that. There goes my ability to live in my house. If in order to live somewhere I can't pay for medical insurance which is required here in Massachusetts, I shouldn't pay for that. There goes my ability to see my doctor after I am forced into a restricted network plan.

You know something, Congress? If you don't have the money to help me, I don't have the money to help you. If I don't have an income, why should you have one?

Massachusetts Democrats and Elections

Faux pas #1

In 2004, Senator John Kerry was running for president. To many, his chances of winning looked good. Good enough that the possible consequence of him leaving his senatorial post began to rattle the nerves of Democrats. At that time, the law allowed the governor to appoint a senator if the seat became vacant. And who was governor in 2004? Mitt Romney, a Republican.

However, the state leglislature was dominated then as it is now by Democrats. What did they do? Take precautionary measures. Change the law so the governor no longer had the option of appointing a U.S. senator. Give the choice to the people! Hold a special election! A good populist move.

Next we have 2009. Senator Kennedy, in failing health, resigns. But Romney is no longer governor. Deval Patrick is governor and he is a Democrat. So it is safe to let the governor appoint a new senator, but wait! He can't! The law was changed to hold a special election! But that can't happen for a few months, and in the meantime the Democrats are one vote short of a super majority in Washington D.C. One vote short and that won't get resolved until the special election to be held between 145 and 160 days after the seat becomes vacant. Now the Democrats may not be able to ram their agenda down the national throat.

But there is a solution! Change the law again! Give appointment power back to the governor! So that is what the Democrats did. The day was saved!

Unfortunately, in spite of all this chicanery, the Democrats proved to be true to their tradition. Their agenda went nowhere.

Faux pas #2

The economy tanked in a very big way. On a massive, even worldwide scale. No matter who made this all happen, the Democrats were in control and had the power to start bailing out the sinking ship. So what did they do? They bailed out the banks who lied, cheated, and purloined on a gigantic scale. In Massachusetts of course they couldn't raid the treasury, so in the midst of very high unemployment and foreclosure rates, they raised the sales tax.

Faux pas #3

Massachusetts has long been dominated by Democrats. Next to the governor, the single most powerful person in the state is the speaker of the house. So for a long time the speaker has been a Democrat. They say power corrupts, and they appear to be right. Three speakers have left in disgrace: Charlie Flaherty, Tom Finneran, Sal DiMasi, in that order. DiMasi is under indictment, along with fellow Democrats former state senator Dianne Wilkerson and Boston Councilman Chuck Turner.

Special Election

So when the special election finally came around after a Democrat was safely installed as interim senator, the Democrat nominee, current Attorney General Martha Coakley, seemed a sure winner. The only competition was an upstart Republican state senator from Wrentham that no one ever heard of, named Scott Brown. But he was no danger to Democrat hegemony in Massachusetts. The voters of Massachusetts haven't voted for a Republican senator for something like 42 years! Why would they do that now? Why indeed.

Iran

So Iran has been caught with a secret nuclear lab under a mountain. We are shocked, shocked that they would do such a thing. Imagine any country having nuclear power, shocking!

For the record, let me say I don't like nuclear weapons. I understand why they were developed, but it was all based on a very cynical and fatalistic view of the world. And now Iran has a not so secret nuclear lab. Not so secret because the US has known about it for months. Only now we feel this renewed sense of outrage. Now I will not say anything in favor of the current regime in Iran, but all the same I feel inclined to take a contrary position to the whining of the west.

The US has had an openly hostile relationship with Iran for many years. After the shah was kicked out the first time, the CIA orchestrated a coup to oust the elected prime minister Mossadegh, so the shah could be reinstalled. Jimmy Carter made the serious error of lionizing the shah in spite of the popular discontent in Iran with the shah. When the shah was kicked out the second time, Jimmy Carter invited him here. Was the Iranian reaction really such a surprise?

More recently, the US invaded and overthrew governments in both Iraq, Iran's neighbor to the west, and in Afghanistan, Iran's neighbor to the east. So the US military is facing Iran on two fronts.

The US is the only country in the world to have used nuclear weapons against another country. The US is hostile toward Iran. The US has interfered in Iran's politics. The US takes out governments on both sides of Iran. The US is outraged that Iran is doing anything with nuclear power, even though Iran says it is for peaceful purposes. Yes, it might well be a lie, but it might not be. And who else is outraged? The nuclear armed UK. The nuclear armed France. The nuclear armed Israel, who bombed a nuclear plant in Iraq and has said all options are on the table regarding Iran.

The US has invaded other countries, numerous times. When has Iran invaded another country? Is it possible Iran feels threatened by nuclear armed bullies who claim it is fine for them to have nuclear weapons but Iran must not be allowed to have an effective deterrent against countries with hostile intentions? The last time Iran fought a war was against an invader from the west, Iraq. Saddam Hussein is no longer there, but the US is. For Iran, which is more of a threat?

Once again, I don't like nuclear weapons. I wish no one had them. But the arrogance and hypocrisy of the west and Israel toward Iran is absurd. Under the circumstances, if any country is entitled to have a nuclear weapon it is Iran. To suggest that Iran would ever proactively use such a weapon against another country is not so plausible. They know a multinational response would be fast on its way. But the danger for Iran of being invaded again is probably very real for them. They lost many thousands of people to Iraq. Should they be denied a deterrent?

Dog Days and Cold Hands

It was hot today. Roasty toasty. Near 95 degrees F. And what did I do? Spent the day indoors, under florescent lights, in an air conditioned meat locker, otherwise known as a professional office with private offices that have doors and windows distributed around the periphery of the building, while everyone else not in some managerial role languishes in cubicle purgatory.

Some wretched popinjays might suggest I was better off where I was, not having to deal with the heat. Well, rot and poppycock I say. Heat is good. Why are there saunas after all? Sweat is good. Having to sit on my hands to thaw them out is not good. Not during the dog days of August. It's damned silly.

Now if it were winter, if it were bitterly cold outside, if the frost penetrated my mittens so I had to clench my hands in a fist inside, I would wish I were inside sitting on my hands to thaw them out. It would not seem so damned silly then, now would it? Or would it? I wonder if then I might wonder, wonder if indeed it were damned silly to be living in such a cold climate where you have to retreat indoors and burn copious amounts of fossil fuels while you sit on your hands to thaw them out.

But be it winter or summer, always, always, I have to sit on my hands to thaw them out. Fiddlesticks. Stuff and nonsense.

It's too cold! Crank up the heat. It's too hot! Crank up the AC. Well the way I look at it, when it is cold your hands can freeze. But when it is hot, what happens to your hands? They don't melt. They suffer no damage. You see? Cold is bad, hot is good. Got it? Good.

Gosh, it can be fun taking a hyperbolic position. But I am American after all. Americans are very good at hyperbole. We are the original swift boaters. We will lie like rugs and create reality. Joseph Goebbels was very good at this. But wait, he wasn't American! Which reminds me of a Dave Berg conversation:

First man: Anyone who is not a right wing conservative like me is either a communist or a damned foreigner.

Second man: Isn't that a bit extreme? A great man once said "Moderation, all things to moderation!"

First man: Oh yeah? Who said that?

Second man: Aristotle, the Greek philosopher!

First man: Aha, you see? He was a damned foreigner!