BlueTooth headsets, New status fashion for Yuppies?

I know that cordless cell phone headsets/earbuds are needed to drive safely and free us from the cords flapping in the wind, but are they for wearing all the time. I have noticed lately people, mostly men, walking around with bluetooth cell phone earbuds in their ear all the time. Most of the time these folks have not been on the phone and to me they just look silly. Actually they look like they have taken the first step toward becoming a real Borg (see Star Trek).

When I end up getting my next cell phone I will probably join the ranks of the bluetooth users but I will not wear the thing like a new piece of ear jewelry. Perhaps a good rumor about bluetooth headsets causing earlobe cancer would get people to take them off and put them in thier pocket. At least then we have a new joke, "is that a bluetooth in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?"

Regardless of who you are I want you to have a Merry Christmas

The current cartoon at illwillpress explains exactly how I feel about people that want to remove the Christmas word from our vocabulary at this time of year. If our country is tolerant of all why would anyone be upset by the Merry Christmas greeting or the use of the term Christmas Tree at a holiday display somewhere. I am certainly not upset when my Jewish friends wish me a Happy Hanukkah or when other folks offer their cherished greetings to me. I want everyone to have a Merry Christmas regardless of religion, non-religion, or any other factor of their life. I will continue to wish people a Merry Christmas just the same as I wish folks a Happy Halloween, a joyous New Year, or a Grand Groundhog Day. Yes I am Christian but I am not using the term to convert anyone, I use it because in my Christian heart I truly hope everyone I know has a Merry Christmas at this time of year no matter what holiday they do or do not celebrate.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Husbands rights with abortion

The continuing witch hunt by democrats against Samuel Alito Jr. , Supreme Court nominee, has raised a concern based on Alito's dissenting opinion in 1991 that would require a woman to tell her husband before having an abortion.

"In a release Monday, Planned Parenthood interim president Karen Pearl said Alito's opinion shows "callous disregard of battered women who would be affected by the statute." She said if he is confirmed, Alito "would undermine basic reproductive rights" [source].

So why does the husband have no reproductive rights? The fetus has no right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness but why does the husband have no reproductive rights? Is it because modern women are having so many affairs that they are trying to hide the pregnancy from their husband? Is it because only the mother can determine if the child is worth keeping? Or is it because they are feminists and they are in our face, on everything, including the elimination of fathers rights.

How can we on the one hand force fathers that do not want children to pay child support while on the other hand not give them some say on wanting to support a child that is currently unborn. This is not about eliminating abortion 'rights', it is about ensuring the rights of fathers as much as mothers. And please don't say "it is her body" because this is not about the woman's body, it is about the child's body.

low tech frustratingly fun game @ www.urbandead.com

A few weeks ago I ran across a fun game online called Urban Dead. The game is a simple low tech game that has zombies fighting human survivors in the city of Malton. Humans start out as one of several character types with different default skills and by earning experience points the humans can buy other skills. My first character was a medic and I earned experience points by finding people and healing them. Now I have earned the diagnose skill so I see what everybody's hit points are and I can find folks to heal much faster.

This game is very addictive but because the number of actions is limited to only 50 each day there is no way for the game to consume more then 10 minutes of time each day, but those 10 minutes have become a real fun break part of my day.

Give it a try, if anyone reads this blog :)

Are there American companies anymore?

After a recent speech by a Fortune 50 CEO I started to wonder if there are American companies anymore or if Global corporations are pretty much all that exist anymore. Now I know there are many small and medium businesses that do a high % or 100% of their business in America. What I wonder about is the Fortune 500, how many of them are actually benefiting their country of origin or even care about their home country. I see Walmart giving $23+ million to Katrina relief while other companies that once were American give the typical $1 million, despite having billions in cash reserves (I am not counting matching funds just direct corporate donation).

Global competition demands that we meet the price/demand curve on products and so many corporations have become global not because of desire but rather for survival. Companies like GM, despite being global, are still in financial trouble but most companies insist they go global to reduce costs and remain competitive.

We as consumers in our quest for ever cheaper prices have changed our buying habits to the point that we are global consumers.

What came first the global consumer or the global corporation? And if you are a global consumer can you really complain that average family wages where you live are dropping?

The daily 10 minute battle against evil is good for the soul

I recently started playing http://www.urbandead.com and it has become a quick fun part of my day. In this game every user is either a survivor trying to kill zombies or a zombie trying to kill survivors. I actually play several characters and because everyone is restricted to only 50 moves a day (you would be surprised how fast it goes) the game does not take much time. This game is extremely low tech but still a fun break during my day. I can't stop to fire up xbox during the work day but a quick 15 minute break to earn experience points and take care of evil is easy enough to do. Try it, it may be low tech but its still fun and you goal oriented people will love the ability to turn experience points into new skills.

People are a burden to corporate America.....

Dear Employees,

You are too expensive for us. Yes, we know that during tight employment times we drove up wages almost uncontrollably to fight for your skills, and we used to care about your welfare which drove up benefit costs, but now all that has changed. You see there are college educated people in other countries that will work for 1/10th of what we are paying you and there are tons of these folks available. They don't buy much as consumers but we know American consumers will buy lots of our stuff, if the price is cheaper.

The continued reduction in average family income in America is not our problem because we are lowering our prices to help your reduced wages still buy more. And please understand, as soon as we can find even cheaper resources elsewhere then the current employees in {Insert Country Here} we will abandon them as well. If all goes well we expect to automate 99% of your jobs in the next century and then we will not be bothered with actually having to employ any humans.

Signed,

Greedy Corporations

NOTE TO MARKETING COMPUTER: Please design marketing campaign to sell our products to robots, humans will be out of money soon.

Isreal is out but it does not seem to be enough

For years many have believed that Israel stayed in hot water with Palastinians because of their occupation of Gaza and the West Bank. The occupation caused fragmentation among mixed communities and other issues. Well, Israel is out of the Gaza completely but it seems they have not escaped the hot water. A rocket barrage was launched from Gaza at Israeli towns across the border.

Militants in the Gaza have no reason left to attack Isreal. Start to build your country and stop bothering others. If Hamas and others continue their terrorist attacks from unoccupied territories then I would expect Israel to retake those areas and this time remove every Palastinian in them. When this happens the free world no longer has any excuse to find fault with Israel. Israel has done its part by leaving these areas.

Flooding is not our problem say insurance companies

Much of the damage in the gulf coast is caused by flooding rather then by wind, flying debris or other things covered by standard home owners policies. Because of this many insurance companies will not be paying claims, after all flooding is specifically excluded from home owners policies.

So which came first and was the root cause? The hurricane or the flooding?

I think the root cause is obvious and this is not like the flooding caused from torrential rains that do no damage other than flooding. The mid-western flooding of 1993 was a good example of flooding being the real problem and I would accept that flood insurance was needed. In the case of the aftermath of devastation left by a hurricane I think insurance companies claiming it is a flood problem is criminal, even in the case of New Orleans.

I will not miss Mark after he retires

A great friend of mine, Mark, is one of the many individuals that have accepted early retirement from my company. Many will ask if he is such a great friend why will he not be missed? Simple, I will not let Mark exit my life other than work. Mark and I are several states apart but I will make every effort to continue our friendship and not get disconnected from him. I have not always been the best at continuing links between myself and friends through the years. Mark is someone that I truly want to remain in touch with until the bitter end when my corpse enters the ground.

Thanks Mark for being a great friend, a great co-worker, and for always being there when I needed someone to vent with over the corporate good times and the corporate bullshit we live through every year.

You will not be missed because I will not let you exit my life so easily :)

Does the Military have an EXIT STRATEGY from Hurricane Katrina?

When thrust into a crisis at home Americans are quick to respond without question to the needs of their neighbors. Americans are also quick to complain that help did not arrive fast enough and not enough is done. Despite Herculean efforts by the country and our military to help the liberal media hunts down the disgruntled and quickly puts them on the air.

I don’t mind disgruntled people so much since people in crisis are desperate to get help quickly and there is always something we could do better to help. But then the liberal media actually asks the military how long they will be helping the Gulf Coast area. The military provided the correct response; we will be here until the job is done. Now for some reason the liberal media does not ask what the military exit strategy is for the Gulf Coast. How can we as Americans be so self-centered to assume that helping others must have an exit strategy while helping ourselves should go on until the job is completed?

Before you tell me not to compare war to a hurricane you had better listen to what is reported on all media, liberal and conservative, about the hurricane. It is a devastated war zone like area. Why devastation exists is obvious in both the Middle East and the Gulf Coast, now and in the past. How quickly we forget the devastation caused by an unchecked Hitler and a hurricane called Camille, both of which required us to be there until the job was done.

We are helping Iraq and Afghanistan to become a free people that can guide their own future instead of living under tyranny as we did in the 1700’s. There is no psychic ability to predict when these jobs will be done and the media in asking for one is telling America that getting out is the goal. Getting out is clearly not the goal for the Gulf Coast or for the Middle East. For the Gulf Coast the goal is to help everyone get back on their feet and rebuild their lives. For Iraq and Afghanistan the goal is to help people who have never been allowed to stand on their own two feet to do exactly that, and help them to rebuild counties.

Stop asking for an exit strategy in both cases and start asking what we can do to help the job to get done completely and effectively. NOT what others can do better, but what we can start to do to help.

Does God Help Them That Help Themselves?

This is a famous "Biblical" quote that is of course not in the bible but is really a quote from Benjamin Franklin. Many people to this day, including myself, believe that there is truth in these words while many will argue that this is in direct opposition to the teachings of Jesus Christ.

From http://www.acts17-11.com/cows_helps.html

More important, this "verse" is unbiblical in its meaning. It is exactly the opposite of the message of scripture.
Jer 17:5 (NIV) This is what the LORD says: "Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD."
Prov 28:26 (NIV) He who trusts in himself is a fool...

These statements are typical of those that believe this statement is false. Notice though that the statement does not tell us to trust ourselves or depend on flesh for our strength. In fact the statement to me assumes that God is on our side and if we start moving God has a more opportunity to help us and we trust that he will. It is not our flesh that we depend on for spiritual strength but rather it is what we depend on to take actions that the Lord would appreciate and support.

Considering the times that Ben lived in I think that America came into existence and serves the will of God because people gathered together and helped themselves. I think God has been helping us ever since but how much help can he be if all we do is stand still. To a great degree our isolationist, do nothing and stand still, attitude led to two world wars. Lets not do that again.

I am not a Bible scholar, I am a simple man who believes in God and believes that God works through our actions and not in place of our actions.

Cobb County Appeals Laptop Ruling

In a previous post I commented on the Cobb County School Board plan to provide laptops to every high school student and middle school student. The $100+ million laptop program was to be paid for by a Special Purpose Location Option Sales Tax that I had voted for. My concerns were:

1. This was not part of the SPLOST explanation voters were given
2. The choice of Apple did not provide mainstream technology and applications to students
3. The predicted costs kept escalating

A judge eventually agreed with my #1 and told the county to cancel the program because voters were not completely informed on this as part of the SPLOST vote. The school system hired a private investigation firm to review the entire situation and process. While this report did not exactly agree with my #2 the findings were extremely significant and vindicated my #2.
"An investigation into the program said that the school system "deceived the public" in choosing [...] Apple as the company to supply it with laptop computers."

Well, it seems the Cobb County school system has money to burn because they have decided to appeal the judges ruling. This is despite significant public outcry against the program, the resignation of the school superintendent, and a damning review by the investigation firm the school system hired to review the laptop program. The school board canceled the program and yet the school board is still choosing to spend financial resources on an appeal.

The board should give it up and let go. There are many other educational needs that should be concentrated on and the money going to lawyers on this should be spent helping students.

Given the chance I will definitely vote against all incumbents on the school board and I will vote against the next SPLOST. We the citizens of Cobb County need to send a very strong message to our chosen representatives that deceiving us is unacceptable. Politicians thrive on power and money is power. By voting down the next SPLOST we send a very strong and painful message to politicians. In return they will try to scare us with end of the world scenarios if the SPLOST is not approved, hogwash I say to that.

Are terminators the future or are they here today?

Today there are military robots, drones, pilotless aircraft, robot sentries, and even bomb robots in use by the military and civilian police forces. These machines are clearly the first step on the path to what is depicted in the Terminator movies. The Talon military robot has been in use since 2000, and we have all seen Honda's Osimo human shaped walking robot.

http://www.gizmohighway.com/robotics/talon_robot.htm
http://www.gizmohighway.com/robotics/asimo.htm

Now a Japanese scientist has created an extremely early version of a human looking android. Ironic that he chose to make the first one female since females are the more vicious gender of the human species. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4714135.stm

At least in the terminator movies the female came later and not at first :)

And of course the illustrious DARPA has been working seriously, along with many educational institutions, on creating true artificial intelligence.

"DARPA spends $29 million per year on its Perceptive Assistant That Learns program, which develops robots programmed to think. The agency and its contractors will first develop an architecture that considers reasoning, learning, perception, language and action for robots, he said." http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2004/0419/feat-brachman-04-19-04.asp

Many of the most wonderful and the most destructive human capabilities have come about in very similar ways. Little pieces worked on by separate endeavors that when brought together become dangerous to man kind. I doubt Einstein thought much about his calculations and I doubt the people that contributed to the creation of "conventional explosives" saw the potential for them to light off an atomic bomb. But bring together the knowledge of many areas and we create the scariest explosive device known to man.

What will happen when we bring together all of the work to create terminators or have we already and we just don't know it yet?

I am back!

Well, I am finally done with my bachelors degree and now I have the time to get back to blogging, among other things. I will be trying to blog a few times a week and I will try to create some more interesting blogs this time around.

Thanks

I miss blogging......

I have really missed blogging about current events and some of the things I am doing in my life. I have been doubling up courses at school to finish my BA ahead of time by about 4 months. I am in the last two weeks of the last class. If I can hold my grade up in this class I will graduate Summa Cum Laude.

I promise lots more blogging after this class ends. After all I have to start talking about camping, and house selling strategies as well as Christmas. YES it is never too early to talk about Christmas.

Getting to the light at the end of the tunnel, soon

Well I have decided to double up classes a the University of Phoenix to try and get to graduation sooner. I really want to get this over with at this point and if I double up a few classes I could be done by end of August. If I do not double up I would be in school through the end of November and I really want to get back to my family. The strain, of time away from the family from working one of those 60 hour a week jobs plus schooling, is really starting to show. The issue is for my family and me, I miss being with them and they feel as if I have disappeared from the planet.

I don't regret going to school, what I regret was being so stupid as a younger man and not doing it early in life. One good thing I guess is that my son has told me he does not want to wait like me and he will be going to college after high school.

My bloging will be light for the next few months but other than my friend Steven, who by the way I need to get a big apology to on another topic, I doubt my lack of blogging will be missed.

Thanks for your patience.

Eric has not left the Internet

I know I do not have many regular readers but for those that stop by on occasion, (thanks Steven) I just wanted to let you know that I am still here but completely buried by school work right now. Public Relations was an unbelievable amount of work and the Global Business Strategies class that just started is even more work.

Bare with me and as soon as possible I will once again impress you with my blog delivered thoughts.

Thanks,

Regular Guy

Character is how a company behaves when no one is blogging about it

Should a person lose the right to free speech because they are an employee of a company? How many of the wrongs in the world would have gone on forever if people were not allowed to write about them and open the world’s eyes. Another article recently from Internetweek.com discusses just how and why blogging about work is risky business. In one section the comment is made that “While some people may argue that blogging is part of our right to free speech, experts say that constitutional right doesn't protect a person from the repercussions of speaking out.” Well just what good is any right if those that disagree can take punitive actions against you? I and others have strong opinions about Cobb County wasting tax money on iBooks, should we lose our homes and be forced out of the county because of this? For those that say the government is different I would say that your employer has much more sway over your well being, and that of your family than just about any government agency.

So why then should employers be allowed to discipline employees for engaging in one of our constitutional rights?

There was a time when employees were beaten and even killed by company enforcers for speaking out publicly about cruel working conditions. Early last century there were no child labor laws and employees were used as cannon fodder for the business men of the time to become richer with no regard for anything close to human rights we take for granted today.

Employee rights in this century must start to revolve around the connected world we live in today. Opinions should not be grounds for punishment from any entity, even employers, in this day and age. Companies are fond of telling an employee how there is no cradle to grave employment today and the company does not owe the employee anything. Under these circumstances companies should no longer expect employees to be loyal and keep their opinions to themselves. As has happened in the past the laws are more than a decade behind reality.

Off-shoring, off-peopling, its all the same for business

There is a new name for automation, Off-Peopling. I actually think it is more reflective of reality and what do you ask is that reality. Simple, people being paid money to work is BAD for business. Replacing employees with cheaper employees or automation is good for business. The ultimate goal of every business is to pay $0 to produce a product that they are paid $Max for. This is how a business gets to maximum profit for shareholders which is what a business tells you they are in business to do. I suspect if this was the actual goal then a whole bunch of executives would be taking less pay and compensation to help those share holders. Any benefit shareholders get is a side effect to making executives rich. And how do they get rich, well we are right back to where we started reducing costs to $0 while maintaining the maximum prices that consumers will pay.

Wait a minute, consumers, aren't those the folks that work for companies, earn money, and buy things. Oops, Houston, we have a problem. Of course this problem is slowly happening, so slow that we still pay attention to metrics that do not reflect the problem at all. Everyone crows about how many jobs get created or are lost. What we need to think about is what is the average compensation of the jobs created versus the jobs lost (lost to where does not matter). This will show us the trend that consumers face and results in the trend businesses will see in the future. As the average family income goes down or flattens then there will be less and less income spent on all those consumer goods that companies make. Of course this is not true for those executives/boardmembers we talked about. Remember they must continue to get ever richer in order to be motivated enough to do a good job for the shareholders.


This graph courtesy of leftbusinessobserver.com

Businesses will not win the shell game of swapping people around for cheaper people or technology alone. Clearly the use of technology to improve productivity has always been done and I can understand that businesses continue to do this. At the same time businesses need to start to concern themselves more with how to make better use of people and help get more people employed at better wages. Most of the products purchased in the world are purchased by the middle class and poor folks. We need a healthy middle class and we need to eliminate poverty. Eliminating poverty by reducing the middle class does not help and increasing poverty to maintain the middle class also does not help. Trading the middle-class in one part of the world to help another part of the world also does no good in the long run.

Businesses must be profitable and executives must be effectively compensated while at the same time helping to grow those nice consumers that buy all their products.

43 things you want to do

43 Things is a cool site that helps you set and track things you want to do or accomplish. Certain friends of mine could really benefit from this site since they seem to have a hard time focusing on anything for long. 43 things is plenty for just about anyone and who says we can't progress on lots of goals at once :)

Another take on the elitist journalist and blogging from Halley

Halley has experienced another event where elitist journalists worry about losing their power. I posted earlier about the courts not treating bloggers the same as journalists and it seems this would make journalists very happy based on Halley's interesting interaction on the subject.

Best home made carmels in the world

The Sisters at Our Lady of the Mississippi Abbey make the best home made carmels in the land. Check out their website and give their candy a try. You won't be disappointed. Hmmm, just blogging about it has my mouth watering, time for me to place another order.

Who really gets the blame the CEO or the Board?

There are many examples of companies being more interested in Wall Street than in main street in this country. Here is one persons perspective on Carly Fiorina that exemplifies this recent attitude in America. But who is really to blame for these short sighted policies. Don't most CEO's implement strategies that the board determines. Even if they do it in partnership it seems to me that boards of directors have become the hidden elitist overly greedy profit mongers of today. The likes of which had not been seen since Henry Ford, and John D. Rockefeller. These truly greedy individuals were willing to sacrifice everything including the lives of hundreds of human beings to become wealthier and more powerful. The good of the customer, the country and the employee did not enter into their thinking and at best any good they did was accidental. And before anyone says "What about the philanthropy of the Rockefeller Foundation" let me set you straight. That foundation along with many others, was eventually setup as a public relations initiative because people of the United States came to hate these individuals and how they succeeded on the pain and misery of others.

It is not greed by itself that is bad, we need greed to grow and prosper and few of us want to do worse financially in the future than today. What is bad is unbridled greed that is achieve at too great a price for customers, employees and ultimately stock holders. Can anyone say Enron, or WorldCom, or Martha Steward...

I suspect that real grief awaits the boards of many companies if these companies do not regain a balanced perspective on business in America and stop paying lip service to customer and employee satisfaction.

If your company is in a bad way then consider firing the board, not the CEO.

I believe bloggers are journalists in every sense of the word

The courts in California do not seem inclined to treat regular citizens that publish news and information in blogs as well as they treat journalists. I find this extremely disappointing since publishing by individuals is how journalism really got its start. Publishing has been around for thousands of years and for most of that time it has involved regular folks as much as it has involved governments or businesses or "news" organizations. Consider how Benjamin Franklin got started:

Benjamin wanted to write for the paper too, but he knew that James would never let him. After all, Benjamin was just a lowly apprentice. So Ben began writing letters at night and signing them with the name of a fictional widow, Silence Dogood. Dogood was filled with advice and very critical of the world around her, particularly concerning the issue of how women were treated. Ben would sneak the letters under the print shop door at night so no one knew who was writing the pieces. They were a smash hit, and everyone wanted to know who was the real "Silence Dogood."

Seems to me that Ben has several traits in common with bloggers of today. He was an individual who wanted to make his thoughts, opinions, and research public without fear of retribution. This describes most bloggers as well so it really confuses me why California courts might think the constitution and the law only protects "journalists".

Parents Television Council - today's fascists?

I was listening to the Bob & Tom show this morning on 96-Rock and they had a piece on censorship of television and radio. Specifically they talked about the overly zealous work by the FCC since the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction and the work of the Parents Television Council. Bob and Tom believe that the current efforts at censorship involves control of content that is fascist like and will ultimately lead to one group of people controlling what we as a society are allowed to see, read, and listen to. They sighted a case where a Buffalo TV station pulled their reading service for the blind because one 89 year old women complained about a single word from a novel read during the overnight hours.

The media says everyone has the ability to turn their TV off and control what their children see, read, and hear. I give you the fact that this is technically true what I don't believe is that enough parents actually care enough to attempt to manage this. And here is where I struggle because while I can setup the V-chip and I do monitor what my children watch, what I cannot do is go 2 houses down and do the same. That child down the block is watching MTV sexually explicit content, watching Sex-in-the-City on TBS, and then playing with my children and showing them all the cool things they have learned. And please don't tell me that what adults and children watch does not affect or influence them. Everything we see, feel, and experience influences us and not all of it for the better.

There has to be a middle ground we can get to that is reasonable in nature for both sides of this. Anything goes no-censorship is no better than the overly zealous efforts today that caused a single blind 89-year old women to impact every blind listener in Buffalo. We can't legislate morality and if we try to we do become Nazi Fascists, at the same time we do need to look for reasonable measures to help parents. I am not sure where the answer is but the direction we are headed in at the moment is not the answer as far as I am concerned.

Seth Godin wants better service, good luck

Seth in his post titled "Unusual?" wants American Express to provide better service, but will he pay for it? You see for all companies that deliver service after the sale it comes down to money, plain and simple. How can the cost of service be kept at an absolute minimum while keeping the customers minimally happy. Yes I said minimally happy. All the talk you hear about companies wanting loyal customers is not true on the service after the sale piece. American Express wants you to be loyal to their product not loyal to their company because of the great service they offer for your credit card. In Seth's case American Express feels that getting back to folks in a few days helps to keep down costs since slower email days will balance out busier email days. But of course you get those pesky customers complaining about how long it takes. You placate some of them by "setting the customers expectation". Right again, they are not interested in meeting the customers expectation for service after the sale they want to set your expectation.

To his credit Seth believes there must be a better way. And there is, it is called offshore outsourcing. You see companies can get 4+ people in India for the cost of 1 person in the states to do this kind of work. But what is even better is to get only 2 in India and allow extended response times whenever 2 is not enough. Trust me some VP somewhere has gotten a major bonus and job promotion because they cut the cost of help desk support in half for the company.

And all of this is driven by the desire to cut costs because consumers want everything at a lower cost. In fact the entire reason for companies replacing American workers where ever possible with cheaper foreign labor is to keep the costs down for American consumers. Of course the fact that the average household income is going down because replacement jobs don't pay as much is not their concern.

I laughed so hard I pissed myself!

I was recently introduced to a very funny serios of cartoons on the web. Now these cartoons are NOT politically correct and probably should be viewed from the privacy of your own home with no children around. The toons star Foamy the Squirrel and they are very creative.

These cartoons are for mature audiences only. Click here and go see for yourself. And don't say I did not warn you, this is strictly for those that are NOT easily offended by ANYTHING.

Should sentencing be easier for first time offenders?

Amazing that after only a few months in prison Martha Stewart believes that we should take it easy on nonviolent first time offenders.

To quote the article:

"The celebrity homemaker also showed a softer side, writing about the plight of some of the 1,100 other inmates. "Many of them have been here for years - devoid of care, devoid of love, devoid of family," she said, urging people to press for reforms in the sentencing guidelines for nonviolent first-time offenders."

Hmmm, the CEO of Enron sure was a non-violent first time offender. I wonder how many people want to be sure that he gets love and care and family while he rots in jail for destroying peoples lives.

And what about the leaders at WorldCom, we surely want them to have love and affection all around. I know lets all line up to give them kisses and bake them an apple pie.

Hogwash, I say be overly harsh the first time and I suspect we drastically reduce the odds of a second time. Some non-violent crimes come close to being as damaging to people and society as murder.

I say we toss Martha back in for another 5 months and she can give the other ladies some care and affection. Or perhaps we send all of them along with Martha to take care of at her home for 5 months. Surely that would be enough loving care for these poor poor inmates and a real boost to the prison budget.

Barbara Joslyn a most extraordinary person!

Barbara Joslyn is an actress in England that is a friend of mine from years back. Babs and I worked together on a knowledge management project for our company. A few years ago she decided to give up the corporate life and pursue a career in acting. I wish I had her kind of guts to just give up everything and start in a new direction. She is a wonderful person and a great actress. Some day I know she will make it big because she has a great personality and great capabilities. At her web site you can hear some of her voice work and read her diary about the acting gigs she has been involved in. She reminds me of Grace Kelley and Audrey Hepburn. While I did not know these actors personally I do think Barbara has both their looks and their positive approach to life. Someday I know I will be watching the Emmy’s or the Oscar’s and will see Barbara Joslyn picking up an award.

New Jersey SPCA needs a better cause to fight

So I am catching up on Halley's Comment this morning and find myself reading an article about road kill candy that will stop production because of the New Jersey society for the prevention of cruelty to animals. It seems these folks believe that roadkill shaped candy will encourage children to be cruel to animals. Oh PAAALEEEEAASEE! Does having stuffed animals cause children to want to gut little animals and stuff them with foam? Does biting the heads off of gummi worms make kids run into the back yard looking for fresh victims? And just why are children in New Jersey driving Mac trucks around looking for wildlife to run over.

Children are cruel because they are raised to be cruel by uncaring parents that fail to teach right from wrong. By parents that don't even know who their kids play with let alone perhaps check up on them to see what they are doing. And what about parents that even after the kid is caught act as if their little angel could not be that bad. Even Jeffrey Dahmer's mom said after his conviction that he was a good boy. Despite the fact that he was cruel to animals through most of his childhood. And no, Jeffrey did not have road kill gummi's as a child.

Do laptops belong in schools? Cobb County thinks so

A county in Georgia is struggling with the concept of providing laptops to every student and teacher in middle school and high school. Teachers and students are for the concept while parents and residents have concerns. First is the fact that residents were asked to approve a special options sales tax based on a set of spending criteria that DID NOT include laptops for all. Laptops for teachers was one of the spending items in the tax but not the 63,000 iBook lease that is now proposed to by the laptop for all concept.

For myself I think the school district is making two mistakes. The first is doing this for all 63,000 at once. Big mistake, no matter what the experience elsewhere or what experience Apple has in this there could be very harsh and expensive lessons for Cobb County to learn. Starting out at one school for a year or starting with 6 graders only and learning from that experience would seem to me to be a better approach. Always do your own pilot of something this significant, never assume the other organizations pilot project covered everything you need to know and experience.

The second big mistake is the use of Apple equipment. Now before you start flaming me I am not an anti-Apple person. I love Apple, love their products and respect them as a supplier of technology. The reason I see this as a mistake is because a very significant percentage of the population has experience with wintel products and they could use this experience to help the children. A parent that has a PC and been using it with their kid for a few years can help when the kid runs into trouble. With an Apple all the parent can do is throw up their arms and call tech support. The other reason is that except for a few niche industries it is extremely likely that these kids will be using Wintel technology in the jobs they get. Of course the idea that Apple is starting a grass roots affinity for their products in this initiative is quite obvious to me as well.

I certainly believe that our educational systems need to make this move to technology. My own experience at learning online with the University of Phoenix has certainly convinced me this is the right move for our county to make. Unfortunately I think the one big bang approach is going to be a very costly lesson. On the upside this may help me to justify a cool PowerBook for myself so I can help my son :)

Is the plight of Mojtaba and Arash really that important?

I am not sure who decided that the blogging community should take up the cause of Mojtaba and Arash, but I do know no one asked me. See the BBC article if you want the full story. It somewhat surprises me that we should care about two repressed individuals while America is berated globally for caring about hundreds of thousands of repressed people in Afghanistan and Iraq. Caring about repressed people is important to me. The difference is I understand that if we wait for diplomacy to work on every case for too long that we all to often end up creating another Hitler for the world to deal with. I do not advocate shooting first and talking later but neither do I advocate starting to talk if I am not prepared to go all the way in resolving the issue. How far are the individuals who started this willing to go in the cause of these two people.

Iran exports around 2.6 million bbl/d, with major customers including Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan, and Europe. Here are the countries that are supporting the oppression of these two individuals in Iran. Ironically China is another repressive country mentioned in the BBC article. Will bloggers in these countries stop purchasing oil products from Iran? As much as people might think that words have power the reality is the power of words pales in comparison to the power of money. Will the French companies that make profits from selling food to Iran do anything about this? That is the power of money, the power to eliminate oppression or the power to keep oppressors in place.

If bloggers really want to make a difference then find out what companies in your country do business with Iran and stop doing business with those companies. Write them and let them know you will no longer purchase their products and that you will be using your blog to get others to do the same.

GE felt this sort of heat and is taking the right steps

Honestly I want people everywhere to have the freedom to speak out and peacefully work toward change and I certainly would like to see truly oppressed individuals freed. Having a nice banner and a few words on my blog is a nice start but I doubt it is really enough.

Conversing with Pam Brill

Pam Brill left a very insightful comment for me about the underlying cause of both dysfunctional corporations and verbal abuse issues in school. We exchanged emails about the comment and it turns out that Pam is the author of "The Winners Way" and she was kind enough to send me a short PDF brochure with more details. Having read the brochure I found one very critical take away that I really believe is at the heart of both problems I have blogged about. To quote the brochure "put it all together to engage hearts and minds-your own and others". In my experience people spend to much time either ignoring the heart component completely or let the heart component completely rule their lives. From Pams' perspective the 3 A's, Attitude, Activation, and Attention must be balanced appropriately to the situation in order to better manage behaviors, feelings, thoughts, and ultimately the actions we take. For more details about this please visit Pam's web site "In The Zone". Very interesting reading.

This regular guy believes that most of what plagues us as individuals and even organizations boils down to beliefs which influence our attitudes and this cascades through behaviors, feelings, and our internal thinking. If we believe a change is bad then we find ways to make it so and act to further this belief. The same is true if we believe a change is good, we embrace it and act in ways that cause the change to succeed. Beliefs do not only come from the heart or the mind but are rooted in both domains. Balancing these two is not easy but it can be done as long as we choose to try. Or as my friend Steven would tell me, "Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try". There are many ways to look at this concept, LifeTraks is another organization that has a spin on this concept, but all of them seem rooted in our beliefs. Beliefs about us, about our situation, or about life at any given moment. Seeing is not believing, believing is seeing.

You know your company is dysfunctional when...

Halley on her blog points to an article on dysfunctional companies that, while not all encompassing, is potentially a real eye opener for some executive level folks at many companies. The article only goes over 3 signs of a dysfunctional company, none of which speak to the morale of employees in general.

What does it say about corporate America when even the signs of being dysfunctional only concern themselves with CEO's and high ranking executives. It should not be news to anyone that people make up most companies and you can tell a great deal about the health of company by understanding how the employees feel and act in regards to their job and company. My thought is by the time the top level executives realize they are dysfunctional, the rest of the company is a walking zombie at best.

The number of dysfunctional companies seems to have grown in recent years with many famous debacles behind us like Enron, WorldCom, and even good old Fannie Mae. When companies ejected the concept of employee-employer loyalty in the 80's I think they removed a foundational relationship component that helped companies to remain functional. There were certainly problems even with this relationship but I believe more people were looking out for the good of the company as much as for their own good. Today people only look out for themselves because many companies have made it clear they are not looking out for the employees.

Why is verbal abuse so common in school today?

Verbal abuse seems to be very prevalent in our school systems today. Overweight children are mercilessly teased until they snap and kill their abusers. Verbal abuse occurs in many situations where the children are different from each other in any one of a hundred ways. How have we managed to allow or cause our children to revert to such behavior. Is it a parents lack of attention, is it the media our children are exposed to today, or is it just the nature of humans during development to act in beastly ways like wolves vying for dominance and position in the pack.

What ever the source of the behavior one thing is very, very clear. Too many children do not understand how wrong and destructive this behavior is to others and eventually themselves. This behavioral ignorance continues to perpetuate itself and creates more abusers every day. And it seems to me that the level of abuse continues to get more evil and destructive every year.

Is there any such thing as full-time work anymore?

I really enjoy my blog, but as you can see I have not had enough time to post lately. Besides having a family I also attend the Univerity of Phoenix Online as a full-time student as well as work. Between the three, time is very tight to say the least.

Speaking of work, my job has been a full-time AND a half job for what seems like years. Gone are the days of clocking in at 8 AM and going home at 5 PM with no worries. Now, I think a great deal about work while driving to the office instead of enjoying the drive (yes it is possible to enjoy a drive to work), eat lunch at my desk while taking another meeting, dial-in to conference calls from my cell phone on the drive home (almost never on time), and after getting home review some print outs and work on all of the stuff I couldn't do because I was scheduled in meetings all day. While my annual compensation is certainly good by the standards of the average household in America, on a per hour basis I could make almost as much working as a barista at Starbucks. All of which would not be so bad if I enjoyed my work more, to be more accurate if I worked in a better environment. Currently my company is trying to cut its way to profitability and trying to get them to invest where we need to for our customers is like pulling teeth from a Sarlaac. NOTE: The company is investing in some things but only those things that show an ROI within a very short time frame.

Well enough whining from me about work. On the school front things are going very well. After 16 classes I currenly have a 3.98GPA and my current class on marketing ends next Wednesday, hoorah. For those who do not know marketing actually does run the world. Ever hear about the conspiracy folks who think the world is secretly run by 5 wealthy familes, WRONG! it is run by marketing folks that have power over everything everywhere. I can only hope I have not angered the all powerful marketing folks by revealing this little known fact. My professor has told me "You have a very good marketing mind" so perhaps someday I will be taken into the marketing fold and turned to the dark side (haha). (insert breathing effect.......I am your father Steven.....insert breathing effect). LOL!

What do you lose when loyalty is lost?

Recent discussions about companies considering whether employee blogging needs to be controlled, put under policy, policed, etc. have gotten me thinking about what the root cause behind the concern is.

When my father worked he knew that he would always have a job as long as he did a good job for the company and the company knew they would keep him on as long as he did a good job. This commitment between each other provided a great deal of benefit for both parties and I suspect a great deal more intangible value was obtained by the company from this relationship than my father got. One benefit was my father's loyalty to his company. This loyalty was strong and he always spoke very well of his company even when they did things he did not really care for. He seemed to believe that even though he did not like it he never believed the company did any thing that was not in the best interests of the employees

It is obvious today that there is no such commitment between most employers and their employees. This lack of commitment has broken, or failed to build, the bond of loyalty and therefore employees are much more free to speak about their employer. This is not to say it causes employees to speak ill of a company but it certainly does not have the power that loyalty has to prevent employees from speaking ill of a company. With loyalty the conversation seemed imbalanced in that more good and less wrong was spoken about. Now without loyalty it would seem that either side of the scale may be prevalent.

So are employers worried that there is a lot more bad to speak about than good?

Perhaps companies should count blogging as the blessing it is, knowledge they never had before. Instead of worrying about what is being said a company should consider why it is being said or not said.

For another interesting view on this topic look at John Porcaro's blog http://johnporcaro.typepad.com/blog/2005/01/blogging_on_the.html

Should employers be allowed to police employee blogging?

There have been several stories in the news about bloggers getting fired or facing other reprimand from employers because of their blogging activity. The Delta stewardess that was fired for her blog has started a campaign to promote a bill of bloggers rights. People are asked to visit the site and sign on as supporting this effort, even if they want to sign anonomously.

The rights as stated are:

International Bloggers’ Bill of Rights.
posted 01/04/05 (edited Wednesday, Jan 12, 2005 15:52)
We, the inhabitants of the Blogosphere, do hereby proclaim that bloggers everywhere are entitled to the following basic rights:
FREEDOM TO BLOG. FREEDOM FROM PERSECUTION AND RETALIATION BECAUSE OF OUR BLOGS:
1.) If an employer wishes to discipline an employee because of his/her blog, it must first establish clear-cut blogging policies and distribute these to all of its employees.
2.) Blogging employees shall be given warning before being disciplined because of their blogs.
3.) NO ONE shall be fired because of his/her blog, unless the employer can prove that the blogger did intentional damage to said employer through the blog. Blogophobic companies, who violate the Bloggers’ Bill of Rights, will be blacklisted by millions of bloggers the world over.

Seems to me that most companies already have an arrangement setup with employees that basically says do anything that reflects badly on the company and you are likely to be disciplined. A company can fire an employee for the way they behave in other situations why not in how they behave in their blogs. You may not like this but this is really how the business world has worked for a very long time. It is very common for employees to sign an agreement with their employer that essentially takes away all of their constitutional rights in any way that could be connected, even remotely, to the employer.

Most neighborhoods with covenants do the same thing in the covenants, you sign and agree to give up your constitutional rights as well. Many people do not know this.

I don't use iTunes Music Store for the reasons stated in law suit

I have been purchasing music online for about a year now and I chose to use Napster over iTunes because it provided me the flexibility to use the portable music player that I wanted to use. No it does not work with the iPod but this is because Apple does not want it to happen. I like iPod its a very cool portable music player but I also like options and with iTunes music store I did not get options I only get one choice, the iPod.

I know many will disagree and give me dribble about Apple being the Cadillac of computing technology, baulderdash. This issue is not about a better car, its about designing a specific restriction into the car such that you can only buy a car stereo from Cadillac. Something that Ford was once sued for doing.

I agree with the position this consumer is taking, Apple has no reason to have built restrictions into iTunes downloads other than to prevent consumer choice through use of a monopoly position, something I think they have accused Microsoft of for a long time.

Another year at the grindstone begins

Well, happy new year to everyone, I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas or enjoyed other holidays that happen at the end of the year. My holidays were great as usual and I start another year counting down until the next holiday season. Yes, I am one of those cooks that really enjoys the entire holiday season, from Halloween on I am in a Christmas state of mind. I decorate my office cube, I start playing Christmas music and create new compilations from Christmas CD's I got the previous Christmas, I enjoy the shopping and I even enjoy the company of a grinch or two. Grinch's make me appreciate this time of year even more.

But now the real grind begins again in earnest. Besides working full time I am a full time student at the University of Phoenix Online Campus. Going to school online is the only way I am able to fit schooling into my life. Between work and family it is not possible to go to a campus at set times on set days of the week. The class I start today is Marketing, oh joy, oh joy. My view of marketing is not exactly a positive one so it will be interesting to see if this class causes me to drink the marketing kool-aid causing me to believe that a practice that consumes as much as 50% of the price of a product is really worth while.

I also wonder if the end of this year will find me employed where I am today. The industry I work in (IT) is cutting thousands of jobs every day and very few of us will survive the next 5 years. My boss reassures me everything is fine but I suspect I will be rated average at my next review and that is not a good thing when trying to keep your job. At my company all employees are ranked from worst to best in each department so the company always has a set of names ready to lay off. Of course they say the ranking is for other reasons but we never believe them, at least not me. I do like the boss I work for, although she is not the best I have ever had she is at least in the good range and getting better I think. Like all of us she is overworked but she does a good job of keeping in touch with her people. Some of my bosses in the past have been absentee bosses until something went wrong. Not my current boss, she is engaged, helpful and willing to provide constructive feedback that helps me to improve. This is a far cry from the bosses that do not help and only show up to chop your head off.

Let us begin the year together and hope that we end the year as happy as when we started.

On a last note, I do grieve with many over the losses suffered last year from natural disasters and I know that we will all do our part to help during the current crisis just like we do during any other natural disaster. Americans are strong, compassionate people and while not everyone agrees with our methods all of the time, no one can say we do not care.