I have just completed viewing a DVD movie entitled, “Food, Inc.”, which anyone can find at their local video rental store. I recommend that you do. You will be appalled at some of the meat and plant production practices we now have in the United States and even world wide. If you could, you might even quit eating anything purchased from the local grocery store and certainly from any fast food restaurants.
In the meat industry — and I include poultry, beef, pork, and now even farm raised fish — the conditions under which our meat is produced you would not believe. Most animals live in dark, body to body crowded conditions, and in an environment contaminated by their own feces. To prevent disease, many are given in the feed regular and ongoing doses of antibiotics which wind up in the meat we consume. Disease outbreaks in humans are becoming more common such as E-coli bacterial disease which sometimes winds up in either meat and even now on vegetable crops. During the Bush years…… yea, the wonderful George Bush…. the number of inspections done by the USDA fell precipitously. We are less safe now than any time in history.
But let me get to Monsanto, evil ones in my opinion. This is a company that has genetically modified several major crops such as corn and soy beans plus others. The United States Supreme Court has said that living things can be patented, so Monsanto had done just that. Guess who was once the attorney for Monsanto? Now Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas, a Bush appointee to the Court. Gotta problem with that? There are others with direct ties to Monsanto that have nicely looked after the company’s interests. Clearly, Monsanto and maybe a couple of other giant companies are trying to lock up the world’s seed supply.
In several cases, Monsanto has sued farmers who want to save corn seeds for planting the next year. The problem is that Monsanto corn in the next farmer’s field has cross pollinated with non-Monsanto (non-GMO) corn in a given farmer’s field thereby making it now GMO corn and falling under the patent rights. This is true even if the non-Monsanto farmer did nothing at all and even did not want his corn contaminated with Monsanto pollen. What a crock. I would say to Monsanto to keep their damn corn out of my field. Apparently the courts don’t see it this way. This is a clear case of the giant squashing the little guy who wants to be left alone to grow what he wants without obligation to the company store. More details are given in the film, so take a look. Many cases appear to have been settled out of court because the little guys simply do not have enough money to challenge the battery of lawyers trotted out by Monsanto. Again, what a crock.
I don’t approach this arena from ignorance. I hold a doctorate in genetics from Purdue University and was even involved as a graduate student with a professor and graduate student group that did work on moving human growth hormone genes into catfish DNA. Even then, in my mind a lot of questions arose concerning safety. I still have many questions. Personally, I do not think that sufficient research has been done concerning safety and I strongly believe that the consumer has a right to know if a product they buy from the grocery shelf contains genetically modified ingredients or if antibiotics and/or growth hormones were used to produce the food item. Obviously, the agri-giants are against this.
Decide for your self. This video mentions several companies, shows production methods for all sorts of food items, and makes the case we are headed down a path to disaster. Do your homework and then you decide.
Well, up until a couple of days ago, I had great regard for the Nobel prizes. Now one has to wonder who got to them? Maybe George Soros? There is no way that President Barack Obama should be the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize at this point. Maybe later, who knows, but the nominations for this prize had to be received no more that six days following Barack Obama taking the oath of office for the Presidency. At that point and even now, he has done nothing. To be generous, some things have been started, but nothing has been accomplished, let alone something that deserves being chosen above many, many others in this world who have literally put their lives on the line for peaceful causes in the past years.
Investigation is underway. More will come later, but you can be sure that something smells to high heaven in Norway right now. Obama should have declined the award rather than take on the embarrassment of being given a recognition not deserved. I have to believe there are others who feel the same. Did you hear the moans from the audience in Norway when the announcement came?
The Nobel Committee is now a joke and relegated to the corner of being irrelevant.
The more that is learned about Acorn, its history, and those that either were or are in key positions; the more the light is shown on a bunch of scum bags. Dale and Wade Rathke are at the top of the pyramid. Ties back to Students for a Democratic Society and the Weather Underground from years ago have been revealed. Leopards don’t change their spots, then just try to cover them up. Further, there are direct ties to William Ayres, one of the closest folks to President Obama. What are we left to think? I, for one, thank God that the 2010 elections are only about 14 months away. If the Republicans get their act together, there is a chance that one or both Houses of Congress will have a shift of power. Hopefully, that will stop the headlong speed of the national freight train which is presently headed for a train wreck.
I think that finally the American people are beginnng to see who they really elected as President and members of Congress this go around. They were duped. I absolutely do not let the Republicans off the hook though. They, under George W. Bush and the Right Wing wackos, are the ones who set up the Democrat victory. The 8 years under Bush/Cheney were a nightmare. They headed the train down the wrong track and the Obamaites have stepped on the accelerator.
It is time for the majority, moderate middle to take control of this country once again. The wackos on either end of the political spectrum simple cannot be trusted. They are self serving, dishonest, secretive, greedy, and in many instances, just plain stupid.
(Post Script: It was not but a couple of days until this Czar was gone! We need more examination of those that remain. Who are they? Where is the money coming from to pay them? Why are the conventional offices in the Executive Branch not being filled and examined by the Senate?)
We have another “CZAR”: the Green Jobs Czar, Von Jones. My God, I wonder where President Obama will pull the next one out of his hat? This guy is clearly a racist nut case with an agenda that most Americans will not like. He fits well with several of the other “czars” that are already in place. What gets me the most about Jones is that he gives environmentalists even a worse name than has been pinned upon them by the Right already. The crime is that the critical message from the serious environmental community is being either drowned out or perverted to the point no one is listening. Concern for the environment and the natural systems that really support life on Earth should not become a political football to be used by either side. Jones really does have to go. And to think that he has about 30 billion dollars to distribute. Let’s see the track record with that money. I think I can guess.
In all of the chatter about his background and radical positions, I have heard only that he is an attorney that graduated from Yale Law School. Now there seems to be a great credential in this Administration. Wouldn’t you think that someone with an engineering or science background would be a better choice even if the person was not a radical nut case. So, in Jones we have both: Yale and law. Great. I am beginning to wonder about the eastern Ivy League schools. The quality of folks who either have been in positions of power in the past or are now is pretty damn poor unless you want the United States to be a socialist country.
And I wonder where all the money is coming from to pay these czars? One reads that there are plenty of key positions in various Executive Branch agencies that are vacant. I wondered why we needed “czars”. Then it hit me; Obama does not want anyone to be exposed to questions in front of the Senate who is responsible for confirmation of certain office holders. Most could not stand the light of day that would be upon them.
Congress has to get the guts to stop what is happening. Maybe that will not be until November 2010, but it will happen.
Let me tell you a story. There is a man, John Mackey, who is the founder
of Whole Foods Market Inc.. He doesn’t think much of the proposed
ObamaCare plan for a government run national health care system. The
Wall Street Journal published an OpEd piece by Mackey on August 11th.
You should read it. Mackey is a wealthy entrepreneur, but he is also a
generous person who cares. Check out the facts for yourself. Talk to the
people who work for him. Mackey makes several suggestions in his article
that make a great deal of common sense…… but some don’t think so.
Now there is a movement to boycott Whole Foods Markets by the folks from the crowd who think government run health care is just dandy and who
believe in the money fairy. Personally, I am not for much of government
run anything except for certain regulations concerning our financial
system, the protection of our natural environment, food safety, and
medicine safety. Oh, and, yes, for our national defense and disaster
response. Beyond that, it seems pretty clear that private enterprise
mostly does things best.
As far as a national health care system is concerned, you only have to
listen to the horror stories from the countries that have tried this and
have failed. If this is such a good idea, at least let’s see incremental
steps to prove that it is. We need to have Social Security, Medicare,
and Medicaid fixed first. Those are enough of a bite to be able to tell
whether or not the Democrats are truthful and right or are really
blowing smoke or just crafting plans for their own gain rather that for
the common good.
I grant you that the eight years under the Bush administration was a
disaster. We have yet to have even 8 months under Mr. Obama and this is
proving to be much, much worse. It is time to slow down, step back,
contemplate a bit, and move forward in incremental steps on many
issues…… not try to take over the country in one big gulp. Frankly, the
2010 election cannot come soon enough. I hope enough people get fed up
with what is going on fast enough to at least take away the absolute
power of the Democrats quickly.
The May 2009 issue of BioScience carried a Viewpoint column written by Conrad Lautenbacher Jr entitled, “Ocean and Atmosphere– The Future”. Lautenbacher is no light weight. He was a Vice Admiral in the US Navy and Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and a NOAA administrator. In otherwords, when he speaks, it is time to listen.
In the column, he responded to the question, “What are the global trends affecting the ocean and atmosphere?”. I quote it below in full:
“In the atmosphere, human-produced contaminants threaten the health and welfare of all air-breathing species. In the ocean, marine debris generated by one country washes up on the shores of another. The absorption of increased atmospheric carbon has made the ocean more acidic (or less basic, to be accurate), thus jeopardizing the existence of organisms that depend on calcification and are essential to the entire food chain. Biodiversity is declining at an alarming rate, and overfishing worldwide has brought about a rapid decrease in populations of large fishes. Trends in the ocean and atmosphere are clearly affecting the sustainability of the human race.
Population trends are alarming. With almost seven billion people, the earth is strained as never before to support the human species. People are moving to the coasts and large cities, thus magnifying the need to study, understand, and apply large-scale ecosystem approaches to the management of human activities.
Climate change and global warming are clearly affecting the ocean and atmosphere; or better said, observed changes in the ocean and atmosphere indicate that the earth is warming and climate is changing.”
There is not much more to be said. This is the same message echoed by hundreds and even thousands of scientists worldwide. Will mankind listen before it is too late or will we literally reproduce ourselves to extinction. The Earth will live on quite nicely without us.
The Wall Street Journal in the July 9th issue reports that the Obama administration is implementing a Bush-era initiated program aimed at cracking down on federal contractors that hire illegal aliens. It is about time!
Naturally, the business community is not happy with this move since they are the very ones who benefit the most from underpaid and under-the-table labor. It is estimated the crackdown will affect about 170,000 companies from health care to construction to weapons makers and more. It includes all companies who receive government business or federal stimulus funds.
The program mandates all employees be checked through the government’s E-Verify system to see whether or not they are entitled to work in the United States of America. This system checks names and Social Security numbers with a government database. Invalid equals no job.
The program goes into effect September 8th. It is a favorite of those who favor strong enforcement of U.S. Immigration laws. Republican senators managed to amend a budget bill for the Department of Homeland Security with a provision that makes this program permanent by law thereby removing any White House discretion to end it. The bill which must be reconciled with the House version could go to a final vote later this week.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Professional Services Council (a major trade and lobbying group for government contractors), and the American Civil Liberties Union are unhappy. Not only are new hires to be screened, but all existing employees are to have their status checked as well. If workers are found to be in the U.S. illegally, contractors are supposed to fire them. The “employers” are whining about potentially being responsible for compliance.
This is a very positive move by the current administration. It is one very significant factor in regaining control over our national borders and enforcement of U.S. law. The next move should be to engage all local law enforcement agencies in the effort.
It is difficult to understand how Carl Rove and Dick Cheney can even show their faces on television for all of the crap they pulled during the Bush years. At least George W. is laying low. Yes, we are all in deep hurt now with what is happening with the Obama administration, but we can only blame ourselves for allowing the Republicans to do what they did for 8 years, then sweeping them out for what is proving to be worse. Now we are being treated to a spending spree and an expansion of government larger than ever seen in the history of this country.
I have to digress though. The Republicans are in whine mode. Yet, they are the very ones to blame for where we are. George W. inherited an economy from the 1990’s that was robust. The Federal Government was running with a budget surplus. George W. and gang took over and immediately began the screw up. The USA went from surpluses to huge debt in short order. When all is counted, George W. and gang ran enormous red budgets at a time when Republicans preached fiscal responsibility. It is no wonder the public became disgusted and threw the Republicans out. Personally, I believe a significant portion of the vote for Obama was in backlash against Republican behavior rather than one in favor of Barack Obama.
Now Carl Rove and Dick Cheney and others want to be the wise ones to tell us what is wrong with the Democrats and President Obama. Personally, I don’t want to hear a damn thing from their mouths. I think they betrayed historic Republican principles for years and must bear personal responsibility for the state of the nation at present. They should head for the weeds as George W. has done. If it were not for them and their brand of government, the Republicans would not have been trounced in the election last November. When they publically take such responsibility is the time I will, perhaps, begin to listen to what they want to say. Until then, get lost.
The USA is headed down a dark road now. As a strong believer in individual rights and fiscal responsiblity, I think we are headed in the wrong direction. There is a place for strong federal government, but it sure does not look like what we are getting now. It is one that defends personal rights and acts in the common good when necessary, not one that has its fingers in everything and spends its way like some drunk on a spree. The 2010 election is not far away. Hopefully, the Republican Party with clean house of its ridiculous Right and find the guts to put forth candidates that can make common sense. If they do, change can and will happen. The balance of power will return and the country will be better off. If the Republican Party stays on its present course with the radical Right in charge, all bets are off.
No one wants to talk about the root cause of the massive immigration, legal and illegal, that is taking place around the globe. That root cause is population growth. Population control is a taboo subject for governments, religions, non-profits, and even most demographers. To promote population control is to sign one’s own pink slip about everywhere.
Look at the areas from which the people are flowing. The reproduction rates are generally high, the populations young, and the societies unstable. The natural resources of the areas are taxed beyond carrying capacity. Both the levels of education and technology are dismal. Food and water resources are scarce. Medical care is lacking and the potential for epidemics is high.
Immigration pressure will only get more intense as populations grow and resources become even more taxed. In the western hemisphere, more and more people will want to move from Central and South America to North America. In other parts of the world, one sees more and more pressure for movement from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East to European countries. The common denominators are movement from low technology to higher, from more densely populated to lower, and from less food areas to more.
The answer is not to allow unlimited movement of people. North America is already seeing a sea of illegal aliens from Mexico and south. This must stop. The governments of the United States and of Canada must make choices about acceptable population levels in these countries, then implement whatever it takes to reach those goals. I, for one, think that the goal should be for zero population growth as soon as possible not only in this country but world wide.
That will not happen, so we will see more conflict, disease, and death related to population movement, ethnic cleansing, lack of food, and lack of natural resources until, as some demographers predict, we reach something around 9-12 billion people on the planet. This is up from the about 6 billion now. Know what? The planet cannot carry those numbers. We have already over populated planet Earth. Pay back time will come.
The name of this blog was changed today to “The Cerebrist“. What the heck does that mean? In the search for a unique name, including an available domain name, one must think outside the box as the saying goes. It seems almost every word in the English Dictionary is registered already by someone. So, in thinking about what I am trying to do with this column, I concluded I am trying to get others to “think“. For sure, not everyone will agree with my positions on matters or what I am saying, but if I can cause just one person to think about an issue, I will have succeeded.
What is it to think. It is to cerebrate, by definition. “Cerebrate” is a verb. And who would be the person doing the thinking? It would be a “Cerebrist“; meaning “one who thinks“. You will not find this noun in any dictionary. It was the result of thinking.
It seems Notre Dame University in northern Indiana has a big problem. The President of Notre Dame invited President Barack Obama to speak at their commencement ceremony and Obama accepted. Now the illustrious alumni and the Catholic Church are throwing temper tantrums. Evidently, many of the alums, church members, and clergy object vehemently to Obama’s positions on stem cell research and on abortion. They want Notre Dame to withdraw the invitation.
Frankly, I think such a withdrawl would put ole Notre Dame at the bottom of some list. If they did not want the President of the United States, they should not have issued an invitation. Now, they want to insult the highest office in this land. Obama’s positions on stem cell research and abortion have been no secret, so the only conclusion is that the University administration is not too swift….. or maybe they thought freedom of thought should prevail and that it would be an honor to host the President of the United States on their campus; agree with him on some issues or not. Maybe they thought their alumni were more mature than they have turned out to be. Maybe they have given the Roman Catholic patriarchs more credit than is due. One only has to take a look at 2000 years of history to know better.
So, now Notre Dame is in a Catch-22. On the one hand they don’t want to upset their alumni. After all, millions of dollars to support the school come in from them. On the other hand, I doubt they want to be seen as being disrespectful to the Presidency of the United States of American. I suspect they are on their kneeling rails praying for the President to withdraw his acceptance. This would get them off the hook. I, for one, don’t think it should be made this easy.
Every company that is a private enterprise should be able to have any bonus policy it wants to have. The compensation packages for the folks that get millions are none of our business. Being able to pay these incredible amounts of money should be the decision of the Board of Directors. If the customers of any company continue to buy the goods and services offered, so be it. If the company goes belly up, so be it. This is life in a society that is based upon a system of capitalism. Frankly, I cannot think of any better.
The rub comes when the company is failing. When it heads for the doors of Congress for a handout, all bets are off. The taxpayers then should have the only say in who gets what. Bonuses should be history. Period. There is absolutely no justification for bonuses to anyone, let alone to people who have been in positions of responsibility and contributed to the giant losses.
The latest is Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Some are saying that the planned bonuses are “retention” bonuses. The claim is that these people are needed to guide these two quasi-governmental companies through the present mess. I say, “Are you crazy?”. These are the people who created the mess. They not only should not get bonuses but likely should be fired pronto. You will never convince me that they are “needed”. I suspect fresh graduates of the nation’s business schools could do better than retaining those who have proven they cannot do the job. And, besides, the newly graduated need jobs. Two birds with one stone!!!!
I hope our Congressional representative act to stop this nonsense.
Oh….. I know. All of those coming into our country illegally or over staying their visas are just trying to take care of their families and seek opportunities to advance themselves. The problem is the United States of American is supposed to be a nation of laws. This means being color blind, ethnically blind, educationally blind, faith blind, and economically blind. The law is supposed to apply equally to all.
The current problems we have with illegal aliens, however, have mostly to do with those coming over the Mexican border with the United States. Yes, there is some problem along the Florida coast as well but it pales in comparison to the Mexican border problems. This must stop. Period. If necessary, I think the border must be militarized. Call it by any name you wish, but that is what it amounts to. Too bad if the Mexican government does not like this.
The United States this past month lost another 600,000 jobs. This brings the jobless and under employed numbers to about 23,000,000. So, the argument that illegals are just doing jobs that “Americans” won’t just does not fly. Under present circumstances, illegals are a burden we do not need. Just ask the state of California.
It is time to crack down on illegal border crossings, time to arrest and return to their home country any found to be in this country illegally, time to penalize employers that hire illegals, and not only time to allow but time to expect local law enforcement officials to become a part of this aggressive effort to regain control of our borders. If we do anything less, we are saying it is OK to break the laws of this country at will. This cannot continue.
Think about it. It is estimated there are over 10 million illegal aliens in this country. If all went home, many jobs would be freed to be offered to our citizens that are either out of work completely or are working part time but wanting full time work. To the illegal alien advocacy groups that promote continuation of lawless activities, I say you should pay a price as well. If you aid and abet, you should be held accountable, too.
It seems there was a 9 year old girl in Brazil that was raped by her step-father. She became pregnant from this violent act as it turned out…. and with twins at that. There were caring adults around her that thought both being violently raped and then being required to carry babies to term was just too much for a 9 year old little girl. They counseled with the family and doctors and the little girl. The decision was made to terminate the pregnancy. This was done by medical professionals.
Now, the Roman Catholic Church has seen fit to excommunicate all those who supported such a decision except for the 9 year old little girl whom they decided was too young and could not be held to account for a decision to end being pregnant from rape. The Roman Church would have mandated this 9 year old give birth to the twins.
Whom do you think was right? This was not something that happened long ago. It was this week.
Saturday’s Kokomo Tribune, Kokomo IN, newspaper (2/14) carried two articles that jumped out at me: a page one story about road construction and a page A7 one about General Motors and Chrysler. Both were reminders we are in the midst of an economic crisis more severe and wide spread than most can remember.
Late Friday, Congress passed an unprecedented piece of legislation some claim is a stimulus package and others claim is nothing more than a reckless spending spree. What ever one’s opinion is of this legislation, it appears several millions of dollars will wind up in Kokomo and Howard County. If unwise decisions are made for use of this money, much of the progress the Mayor and others in local government have made to reduce costs – the asking of half of the folks in town to tote their garbage containers across the street to make pick up more efficient being one example – could be completely undone or wiped out.
Road construction decisions are one example of where decisions could go very wrong. One of the top priorities described in the Tribune article was for widening Dixon Road from Sycamore to Judson Road. Dixon is already 4-lanes from Sycamore north to Jefferson (a project just completed a couple of years ago) and three lanes from Jefferson to the Howard Community West Campus. North of there to Judson Road is nothing but farm land and one house. The two lanes along that stretch seem to work just fine. A second project is to extend Morgan Street to join Judson Road, then widen the road to the intersection of Dixon and Judson. There is almost nothing between where Morgan intersects Phillips west except Northwest Park. This means Kokomo planners want to spend millions on roads either to nowhere or to speed one more quickly past the park, a few homes, and some farmland.
More road construction will result in disruption of traffic. This would put several local businesses at risk. The Dixon construction fiasco of a couple of years ago already sent Williams Shoes to another part of town and put almost a dozen other businesses with all of their employees completely in the tank. It disrupted business for Wendy’s, Subway, Soupley’s, Key Bank, and everything north including Kroger’s, The Great Wall, Big K; not to mention everything south of the Sycamore and Dixon intersection including the Windmill Grille. Now Kokomo is proposing to do the same thing again to many of the same merchants, their employees, and their customers. Why more or wider streets are needed in this area is beyond me. In a nutshell, this looks a lot like “make-work” on a project that will have serious negative consequences for every private business along the way.
In case the city and county planners have not noticed, Kokomo’s growth has been mostly south. It is likely to continue both south and east, not north and west, especially given the planned By-pass around the By-pass.
Kokomo and Howard County do not have a good track record when it comes to road projects. The Alto road, the Sycamore Street (IN Hwy22), and the Dixon Road projects were prime examples of how not to carry out road projects. They all took months and months and months and months to complete. Scores of families and businesses were either inconvenienced, suffered loss of income or went out of business as a result of these poorly managed projects. Further, it is my belief every single project was awarded to contractors from outside of Kokomo and Howard County. It is unclear to me whether there was even one local job created for any of these.
Now we are in a time when Kokomo does not know if Chrysler and Delphi Corporations will even survive the nation’s economic crisis. The auto article about Chrysler and General Motors claims these corporations are really in “bankruptcy in disguise”. Our community has thousands of jobs at high risk. Yet, we are planning to build wider roads or roads to nowhere in ways that put economic hardship on local businesses and threaten the loss of jobs.
How many businesses will not be able to survive a traffic disruption a second time? Has there been any economic impact study on local merchants for past projects? If so, let’s examine the results. What were the true costs to this community? We need many answers before any commitments are made for more road projects. It could be that at present none of them make good economic sense, particularly if they damage local businesses in the process. Kokomo does not need to lose or put at risk even one more local job for one minute for questionable road “improvements”. The unwelcome fact is that Kokomo and Howard County are not growing. We may very well do quite the opposite…. and soon.
We are in a time of high stress in our community. We do not need to do anything to make it more difficult to stay in business. Small businesses all over Kokomo and their employees are the people who pay the wages and salaries of those in government. Adding more stress for even one business is just not the thing to do. Not now. It is already tough enough and may be getting much tougher before it is over. The “free” money may in reality cost too much.
“Faith-Based Federal Programs” should be an oxymoron. Whether under George W. or Barack O. , it is my opinion that no public tax dollars should flow to religious organizations of any kind. Period. This completely removes one’s personal choices about what religious values one wants to support. Talk about a complete violation of personal rights, this is it. It cannot get much more personal than this. What happened to the notion of separation of church and State?
Do you know who is to head the White House Office for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships? It is Joshua DuBois, a 26 year old. Think about this. Who do you know who is 26 that knows much about anything? At this age, no one has been on Earth long enough to have developed the maturity to handle this level of responsibility. This should cause one to think about Mr. Obama’s judgement.
Just finished reading an article in the Wall Street Journal about the so-called “Employee Free Choice Act“. If what I think this bill does is accurate, it cannot be allowed into law. It would be a disaster for small business. The key feature of this legislation, it appears, is that it would eliminate the employee secret ballot in a National Labor Relations Board supervised election to determine whether or not a Union will become the legal representative of employees at a company or not. The decision would be made via openly signed petition cards presented to an employer by a Union representative. The opportunity for intimidation and abuse by Unions would become gigantic.
Let me tell you a little story. I know a little about this having been the CEO of a company that had 2 union bargaining units; one in each of two departments. The total number of Union represented employees in both combined was about 40 employees of a total company employment of about 150 or so. We had another department of about 35 employees that was not Union represented. As it developed, we also had a manager of this department that turned out to be incompetent and a deaf ear to employee concerns. Upper management missed the signals of the situation and was informed by the NLRB that enough employees had indicated a desire for Union representation that an official election was to take place on a given future date to determine whether the employees in this department would “go Union”. Between the time of notification and the election, management had both the time and opportunity to listen and take needed positive corrective actions to address employee concerns. The department head was terminated a few weeks later. Others in management were given the opportunity to regain the trust of the employees and to open what had been blocked communications channels. The election took place. The employees decided they did not want to be represented by outside people after all. Had these circumstances played out under the proposed new legislation, the Union would have taken control of all negotiations of working conditions of the employees in this department. As it turned out, the working environment was made more positive but each employee retained the right to speak for himself or herself. Each employee retained the right for work performance and compensation level to be personal rather than mass determined. We became a better organization for the experience, but the secret ballot allowed for corrective action which was a win-win for both the company and employees in this department. Under Union representation, this would not have happened. The employees would have lost individual control of their employment lives.
Too many times, in my opinion, Union mentality breeds mediocrity. I know one journeyman electrician, now retired, that worked for General Motors/Delphi Corporation. He told me that many of the journeymen electricians went for lunch at a bar across the street from the plant in which they worked and stayed for hours about every day. I know a person who was a Union Steward at the same plant that used company assets and time for construction of his own home. He was on call 24-hours a day and was paid by the Union for this, but he had the time for carrying on other business enterprises. I know another journeyman pipe fitter that was told he would have plenty of time on the job to carry on an outside business; so, bring in his laptop to work to be able to do that. I know in my own past business that a machine operator could not change an ordinary light bulb on his machine without calling the machinist to do it.
I know what it is like to sit across the table from a Union International Representative to “negotiate” a contract when that representative new very little about the internal workings of our production processes. I know, too, that management withheld pay and benefits that would have been voluntarily shared with employees but for “negotiations”. These were kept back for bargaining chips. I know of employees that excelled at what they did and deserved more compensation than they received. I know of others whose performance was sub-par and were over paid. Both were paid the same because they were in the same job “classification”. The old story was don’t produce as efficiently as you can because you will be disciplined by the Union or co-workers either formally or informally if you do. It was my experience that Union representation was not a positive factor in the lives of the employees in our company. It hindered flexibility, stifled creativity and personal initiative, and limited change. We were very successful as a company and treated our employees individually with respect and care. I know, though, that we could have been better. I know, too, that I deeply resented outsiders coming into our company purporting to know us.
You can’t get something for nothing; that is unless you are one of the top execs at some financial firm or big company that has a Board of Directors consisting of either idiots or near criminals. I cannot understand the logic of paying anyone a “bonus” in a company that is losing money. Even more, I cannot understand the logic of paying someone millions of dollars to leave a company unless he/she has demonstrated in some significant way that he/she has benefited the company over a period of time. I learned not long ago…. and this completely shocked me since I come from the world of small business …… that executive level folks negotiate the millions they receive for severance at the same time they are negotiating employment terms before being hired. This is a complete disconnect for me. I can’t fathom agreeing to pay big bucks for departure before knowing what contribution or lack thereof an individual will make while employed at a given company. This is the height of stupidity.
This system cheats the people who own the company as shareholders. I have a feeling that the Board of Director mentality that has nurtured this environment is not one of integrity but rather one of greed. It appears this mentality is pervasive in our corporate world. This would never happen in the world of small business. In small business, if the company loses money, you sure don’t get bonuses. You may be lucky to retain your job regardless of how well you may be performing.
If nothing else, the move by the Obama administration to cap executive compensation in companies that ask for and receive significant tax payer support has brought more attention to the dishonesty and greed at the corporate executive level in this country. It remains to be seen as to whether the Obama plan will work or not. My highest hope is that the companies that have betrayed the public trust, like the Bush administration betrayed the public trust, will go down in flames. Maybe from the ashes something better will rise.
Well, we have at least one good thing to be thankful for: George has gone back to Texas. I hope he took all of his cronies and incompetents with him….. and I am a registered Republican. I think history will not be kind to George W. Bush. In my opinion, he will go down as one of the worst Presidents in the history of this country. He darned near bankrupt us, operated in secret, lied to us, operated outside of the law, had prisoners tortured, thought religion always trumped science, under funded many critical agencies (EPA, FDA, USDA, Interior, etc.) and spent billions on an unnecessary war. I wonder how far along we would be if all of that money spent on the war in Iraq and Afganistan would have been spent on developing our own alternative energy sources. We would be well on the way. I think the only reason we were in Iraq in the first place was really oil….. or to get Sadam Hussain for trying to kill his father. You know, a personal vendetta kind of thing.
At this point, we have no idea if our new President is going to be a good one or a lousy one. He has not had the time to do anything at this point. All we do know is that he cannot do worse than the last President. We were headed down the steep slope to becoming a second class nation under George W. Bush. Limbaugh and others want to blame the Democrats for all of our woes. One just has to remember that Bush had 6 years of Republican majorities in Congress, so no excuses are valid. Dumb is dumb. The public finally did get it and dumped the Republicans out big time. It is just a shame they did not smarten up sooner….like at the end of the first Bush term.
So, the Decider is gone. Thank God. And thank God Cheney is gone, too. Did you notice that Cheney disappeared months ago. His big mouth was silenced by someone. His judgement was horrible. I think I could have done better. I think that about anyone could have done better.
Here we are on the roll-a-coaster. The stock and bond markets are up and down so much it makes one’s head spin. Yes, I have some money in the market. My choice was to get the hell out of bond funds about two weeks ago. I should never have allowed myself to be talked into them in the first place. The better choice would have been to ladder individual bonds if one has the assets that allow that.
The stock market is another matter. I have about 40% of my retirement assets there. I have made the decision today to head for the sidelines for a time. I hate the herd mentality, but salvaging some is better than none. The market rallied this afternoon, so head ‘em out. Things are just too crazy right now and it does not appear there will be any chance of things getting any better in the near future. The last prediction I saw was that the unemployment rate would hit over 9% by the end of next year. The US auto makers are in serious trouble. Our middle class job loss in the USA has been horrendous for several years. We are in trouble.
We will see if I am right in the long run. I may be making a mistake, but I am willing to take that chance right now. The market is so weird now. I don’t think anyone has seen this kind of turmoil in recent times. The market does not like uncertainty and that is what we have……. world wide. That coupled with an almost totally unknown Presidential capability assuming the leadership of this country is downright scary.