Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Monday, May 26, 2008
Backwards
Why is that things are heading backwards now? Things that should be helping people are going down. Houses, savings and wages are all dropping down. My 401k and house have both dropped a bunch. The percentage on my savings is going down as fast. Worker's wages keep going down. American Axle, just one of many, watched their pay drop 30-50%.
On the other hand looks what's going up. The cost of almost everything is going up - and not just a little. Gasoline, milk, eggs, bread; all that stuff that has no substitute is climbing rapidly. The government's consumer price index was just published and showed only a small increase. The problem is that those idiots in government who put that report together don't include food or fuel! That is beyond reasoning to me. What the hell do they check? There's a lot of stuff that you can do without, but fuel and food aren't part of it.
My parents had their 30 year pensions - I've got one from the military. How many folks working now are going to get a pension? They have to put savings in a 401k or other account and hope the account doesn't disappear. My 401k lost thousands last quarter and everything I'll have to buy has increased. What a way to retire. Thank goodness I'm not thirty and thinking about raising a family.
Labels: government, gripes
Friday, May 23, 2008
The American Worker
There's a company in Michigan, American Axle, that has been on strike for several weeks. Here's some of what they end up agreeing to: workers who were once eligible for 200 hours would top out at 160 hours of vacation time; holiday bonus: cut from $1,000 a year to $500; holidays; Five fewer; cost of living: new hires are not eligible; shift premium: Reduced from 5% and 10% for second and third shifts, respectively, to 55 cents and 80 cents per hour; breaks: Cut from two, 23-minute breaks to two, 15-minute breaks.
For instance, a skilled-trades worker who was paid about $33 an hour, including a cost of living increase in the last contract, would see their pay drop about $7, to $26 an hour. That buy-down would be about $55,600. Some pay is dropping down to $10 an hour.
And all this in a time when food and fuel are skyrocketing.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
USofA to Iraq
Sorry about shooting your prayer book. The rest of your country and 100,000 civilians? Oh well - that's the way it goes sometimes.
Labels: government, religion
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Stupid Things
Some of these I've mentioned in the past, but some are new.
New ones added after reading today's news:
Labels: gripes
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Stupid Government
Wall Street Journal:WASHINGTON -- U.S. consumer prices were under wraps last month, a government report showed, especially when food and energy prices were stripped out, further evidence that the economic slowdown is easing some of the inflationary effect of recent sharp gains in food and energy prices.Makes you wonder what people this government is about. How on earth can they say consumer prices under control but not count food and energy. I haven't met too many citizens of the USofA who don't have to buy food and energy. That's kind of like saying Death Valley will be a fine place to live, as long as heat and water aren't counted.
It makes you wonder just how far from reality the government has really gotten. The president is so far removed from you and me that he hasn't a clue what is going on in "normal" America. Wouldn't you like to take him for a ride down some subnormal American urban street to watch the pushers and gang bangers hanging around in front of some local market covered with PayDay Loans and WIC Accepted signs on it. Hell, I'll bet JCPenny or Sears would be enough to send him for a loop. Can you imagine Cheney or Bush going out to fill up their truck with gas and pick up a pack of hotdog buns? The problem is that they all so many layers of sycophants standing by they have completely lost contact with us - the people.
But you know? Thank goodness our government has decided that consumer prices haven't gone up - I feel much better now since I'm only imagining my $4 gas and $3 bread.
Labels: government, gripes
Science
A recent BBC article talked about how sloths actually sleep less in the wild than scientists thought after observing them in captivity. It seems they caught the sloths, hooked them up to a machine that monitored their brain waves and released them. After a few days, they recaptured them and checked the brain wave monitor. Their conclusion was that the sloths slept less in the wild.
Here's another conclusion. Sloths sleep less after being captured and hooked up to a brain wave monitoring machine. I know I would.
Friday, May 09, 2008
Apple vrs. PC
Well, I've finally given up. I can't stand the Apple Mighty Mouse. I gave it over a year of trying, but I really need my right mouse button. A couple of weeks ago, I noticed Radio Shack was having a clearance of Logitech optical scroll mouses for US$10 and bought one. I plugged it into the iMac's USB port and HURRAY! - the right-click was back.
This also cleared up two other annoyances with the not-so-mighty Mighty Mouse. First is that the little scroll button on top, which while is very cook, gets dirty too easy. Having to roll the mouse around upside down on a wet paper towel is just bad. Secondly, the touch sensitive buttons on the sides of the mouse are too, well, touch sensitive. I can't tell you how many times I've been moving the cursor when the Dashboard - at least I think that's what it's called - comes popping up.
However, I will admit that the Mighty Mouse is a definite improvement over that round hocky puck looking mouse Apple used to have.
Thursday, May 08, 2008
The 'creaking' US airline industry
Like much of America these days, the airline industry feels tired, worn down, and old.That's a recent quote from a BBC reporter.
That is surprising in a country that often likes to think of itself as the best.
Arguably, it once was, but the airline industry - like the health system, like schools, roads - you name it, feels like it is just creaking along and leaving its passengers ever more frustrated.
That should bother you, assuming you're an American, quite a bit. Not that it should surprise you, just bother you. If you read this very often, you'll see I've already talked about the 30% graduation rate in Detroit's schools. Half of this city looks like a set from Dawn of the Dead with abandoned buildings and weed covered lots - and that's downtown. A road here in Saginaw recently won a statewide competition for the biggest pothole. Also here in Saginaw we just finished a trial where a bunch of teenagers were convicted of murdering a 14 month old kid in a drive by shooting. Every street around the area has houses on sale - and some of those have their copper pipe or aluminum siding stolen and sold.
Yeah, we've got people doing good stuff here, but there is so much doom and gloom. It seems like for every teenager who works for Habitat for Humanity there's three others who are dealing guns and drugs. Did I mention the 75 college kids recently busted for drug dealing in one college in California this week? How about the three cops who were videoed beating up some suspect? Yep, we have our postal service running a charity drive this weekend while at the same time they have to stop service to some homes because it's too dangerous to deliver mail. Think about that - it's too dangerous for a mailman to deliver a letter in broad daylight.
What the hell is going on?
Labels: crime, government, gripes, michigan
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Too Much Money
You know you have too much money when you can spend US$1 million on a violin (does calling it a fiddle make is sound cheap?). And then you spend another US$120,000 to fix it after you fall on it.
FromYou really have to wonder about our race when people are making US$1 a day and starving while at the same time some guy can spend US$120,000 to fix his fiddle. And nothing against Mr. Garrett personally. At least you can do something with a fiddle. How about people who spend $20 million on a painting or some three thousand year old broken statue?
the BBC:
"Virtuoso musician David Garrett smashed a $1 million (£540,000) violin when he fell over after a concert in London over Christmas, he has revealed.
"I fell down a flight of stairs and landed on my violin case," he told the BBC. "When I opened it up, it was a total mess."
The 230-year-old instrument will spend the next eight months in a workshop, with a repair bill of around £60,000.
"I think it's worth the money," said Garrett.
I guess it's a matter of priorities. To me spending US$1 million on a violin is pretty stupid; for that matter so is spending a million on a house. However, I find that spending the million on a house is infinitely more sensible than spending the same amount on a violin, which in turn is better than spending that one million on some old painting.
I guess it's also a matter of how much a person's worth. To me, spending $45 on a set of drill bits that is also available for $15 makes sense because the $45 set is built better. However, if I couldn't afford the extra $30, I'd probably make do. The same goes for other people. For some folks spending $1 million on a house actually takes a smaller percentage of their worth, than it does for me spending $200,000 on a house. I figured out one time, when Michael Jordon was taking flack for betting $5,000 on golf, that his bet of $5,000 was roughly equivalent to me betting five or six dollars when taken as a percentage of income.
Act Normal!
OK - you're being warned. Don't act differently or you may have the FBI looking for you. I'm basically screwed. We go driving by a tourist scene and I'm ogling the bulldozers and cranes on the scene. Show me a cruise ship and I wonder what kind of propulsion system it uses and how the tugs get it into the wharf. When I drive over the Bluewater Bridge I'm as much interested in how much the expansion joints have opened as I am in the view of the river below - and more than the river, I'm interested in what type of ships are going by.
If you look at my photographs you'll see they're very short on people and sunsets and high on buildings and vehicles. It doesn't mean I want to blow them up, I'm just interested in how they work and what kind of power they have. That doesn't make me bad or dangerous, just a little weird.
Labels: crime, freedom, government
Monday, May 05, 2008
Gas Tax
What do you think of the politicians latest bit of pandering? The suspension of the federal gas tax for the summer. Isn't that just stupid? You're going to end up saving under 7% (the fed's tax is around US$0.19 per gallon) - and if the gas keeps going up, even less. For the couple of months during the summer. And then come September, gas will pop up US$0.19 again out of the blue.
How about you tell folks to just drive 10% less. Or better yet, drop the national speed limit back down to 55 mph. Actually, if you really want to save 10% just drive slower - that's pretty easy. At least slow down a bit. I drive 11.4 miles to work and most of the traffic is whizzing by me, by quite a bit. I'm not driving slow, I'm actually at or just a tad above the posted limit. I watch the lights and try to manage my drive so I don't catch any reds. That means slowing down early and watching traffic as I go. The funny thing is I drive a little New Beetle getting around 28 mpg and most of the folks passing me are driving full size pickups, SUVs and large American cars.
Even if I did drive like an speeding idiot, I'd probably be getting double the mileage of many passing me on my way to work.
Labels: driving, government, gripes
