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Thursday, December 29, 2005
Dead Zone
The last week of the year is really one of the best times, I think. A lot of people are on vacation, so traffic is generally lighter, which always warms my heart. Work is usually slow, so you can coast and kind of catch your breath. No one is usually working very hard, and it's a good chance to catch up on BS.
The government is on vacation, which is good in a way, since they aren't screwing anything up at the moment. But 2006 ought to be a lot of fun, what with lobbyist Jack Abramoff likely rolling over on all of his corrupt Congressional lackeys. In a perfect world, you'll see a dozen of these criminals perp-walked into prison, but we shall see. That House is in desperate need of cleaning, and it would be nice to see these righteous twats knocked down to where they truly are.
Dreams are nice, I'm told.
The government is on vacation, which is good in a way, since they aren't screwing anything up at the moment. But 2006 ought to be a lot of fun, what with lobbyist Jack Abramoff likely rolling over on all of his corrupt Congressional lackeys. In a perfect world, you'll see a dozen of these criminals perp-walked into prison, but we shall see. That House is in desperate need of cleaning, and it would be nice to see these righteous twats knocked down to where they truly are.
Dreams are nice, I'm told.
Labels: holidays, hypocrisy, partisanship, slack
posted at 11:24 AM
0 comments
Saturday, December 24, 2005
Be Cool
So, today is the 24th of December, and the western world will begin to shut down shortly for Christmas. It's a nice thing, even if, as usual, the entire point has been missed. Chanukah starts tomorrow night, too, and regardless of your faith, or lack thereof, I hope the next few days are pleasant and restful, at least a little bit. Call family or friends if they are far away, and just check in. You'll make someone's day, even if you're a reprehensible ass like I am. Someone out there loves you, don't ask me why.
It is with no trace of irony that I say to you, "Peace."
So, today is the 24th of December, and the western world will begin to shut down shortly for Christmas. It's a nice thing, even if, as usual, the entire point has been missed. Chanukah starts tomorrow night, too, and regardless of your faith, or lack thereof, I hope the next few days are pleasant and restful, at least a little bit. Call family or friends if they are far away, and just check in. You'll make someone's day, even if you're a reprehensible ass like I am. Someone out there loves you, don't ask me why.
It is with no trace of irony that I say to you, "Peace."
Labels: holidays, sublimnity
posted at 2:05 PM
0 comments
Friday, December 16, 2005
"You can...trust me."
Hm hm hm hm...suckers.
Hm hm hm hm...suckers.
Earlier today, the Senate rejected attempts to renew several provisions of the so-called USA Patriot Act. The portions with which most people seem to be concerned deal with roving wiretaps, and secret warrants for books, records and other items from businesses, hospitals and organizations such as libraries. These are areas where serious abuses could, and apparently have, occurred.
We know this, because no lesser human than the President of the United States personally authorized secretive eavesdropping in the United States more than three dozen times since October 2001. These cases involved allowing the NSA to monitor phone calls and the email of thousands of Americans. As I understand it, that's illegal.
The truly astounding thing is, I'm not even certain that either of these is the big story this week.
Now, I know that the president has as his prerogative, the right to pardon criminals and commute sentences and so forth. You'll see a flurry of activity of this type in early 2009, just you wait and see. Bush will have a lot of buddies who want out of jail.
At the moment, that scumbag without peer, Tom DeLay, stands charged with felony counts of money laundering. He is scheduled to go to trial soon, and have his case heard by a jury, which you older readers may recall, is the American way. But what if...
What if you were good friends with the president? What if you had done him a lot of favors over the years? What if perhaps, the very crime with which you were charged was actually part of a strategy to aid the president? Could you avoid the indignity of being judged by your peers?
Maybe, but it would look bad. Bush could lean on your persecutors and get them to drop the charges, but people would still assume you were guilty. And waiting for the president to leave office is just too far in the future. Time in jail is an unacceptable option. Couldn't we just declare Tom DeLay innocent?
Ha! YES! We can!
The President, just yesterday, when asked about his opinion on Tom DeLay, let it be known that he believes the man is innocent of all charges. DeLay's trial is only weeks away, and George W. Bush, the President of the United States has made it clear that the current system of justice is antiquated, unnecessary, and as quaint as the Geneva Conventions.
Well, that's jury tampering.
Regular readers may have noted that I have tried to clean up the language a little bit in the blog. It's just a personal decision, to try and make my points without it. The language doesn't offend me, and I don't mind if others prefer to use it.
That being said, George Bush is an ongoing, and monumental fuck-up.
Either he is just laying the groundwork for his successor, and hoping that the next President will do what Ford did for Nixon, or he's the most ignorant person we've ever had in the White House. It's all the more frustrating, because DeLay was going to walk anyway, but no less than the Commander in Chief, and former governor of the state in which DeLay is to be tried, has declared the defendant "Not Guilty."
Over. Done. Enjoy the freedom to continue the activities which so clearly fall under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
My problem, I think, is that I don't believe in heaven or hell, really. I think you live, you die, and that's all you get. And that time is enough. What I'm getting at is that I don't believe there is a reward or penalty in the hereafter for actions, good or bad. So, Tom DeLay is not going to get what he so richly deserves for eternity. While I don't believe in things spiritual, I do believe in justice. All I really desire is true justice for the criminal acts that this man has perpetrated.
And thanks once again to the president, there isn't a jury in the United States that will be able to deliver.
We know this, because no lesser human than the President of the United States personally authorized secretive eavesdropping in the United States more than three dozen times since October 2001. These cases involved allowing the NSA to monitor phone calls and the email of thousands of Americans. As I understand it, that's illegal.
The truly astounding thing is, I'm not even certain that either of these is the big story this week.
Now, I know that the president has as his prerogative, the right to pardon criminals and commute sentences and so forth. You'll see a flurry of activity of this type in early 2009, just you wait and see. Bush will have a lot of buddies who want out of jail.
At the moment, that scumbag without peer, Tom DeLay, stands charged with felony counts of money laundering. He is scheduled to go to trial soon, and have his case heard by a jury, which you older readers may recall, is the American way. But what if...
What if you were good friends with the president? What if you had done him a lot of favors over the years? What if perhaps, the very crime with which you were charged was actually part of a strategy to aid the president? Could you avoid the indignity of being judged by your peers?
Maybe, but it would look bad. Bush could lean on your persecutors and get them to drop the charges, but people would still assume you were guilty. And waiting for the president to leave office is just too far in the future. Time in jail is an unacceptable option. Couldn't we just declare Tom DeLay innocent?
Ha! YES! We can!
The President, just yesterday, when asked about his opinion on Tom DeLay, let it be known that he believes the man is innocent of all charges. DeLay's trial is only weeks away, and George W. Bush, the President of the United States has made it clear that the current system of justice is antiquated, unnecessary, and as quaint as the Geneva Conventions.
Well, that's jury tampering.
Regular readers may have noted that I have tried to clean up the language a little bit in the blog. It's just a personal decision, to try and make my points without it. The language doesn't offend me, and I don't mind if others prefer to use it.
That being said, George Bush is an ongoing, and monumental fuck-up.
Either he is just laying the groundwork for his successor, and hoping that the next President will do what Ford did for Nixon, or he's the most ignorant person we've ever had in the White House. It's all the more frustrating, because DeLay was going to walk anyway, but no less than the Commander in Chief, and former governor of the state in which DeLay is to be tried, has declared the defendant "Not Guilty."
Over. Done. Enjoy the freedom to continue the activities which so clearly fall under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
My problem, I think, is that I don't believe in heaven or hell, really. I think you live, you die, and that's all you get. And that time is enough. What I'm getting at is that I don't believe there is a reward or penalty in the hereafter for actions, good or bad. So, Tom DeLay is not going to get what he so richly deserves for eternity. While I don't believe in things spiritual, I do believe in justice. All I really desire is true justice for the criminal acts that this man has perpetrated.
And thanks once again to the president, there isn't a jury in the United States that will be able to deliver.
Labels: Bush, crime, Patriot Act, Tom DeLay
posted at 11:12 PM
1 comments
Sunday, December 11, 2005
Normal
A dear friend of mine has been in hospital for over three months, and she has been fighting damn near every day for her life. She is a spectacularly important person, and too young by decades to be in such a position. I have been angry and exhausted to see her put through such trials, and she is not out of danger yet, not even close.
But tonight, she is home.
She has willed herself to be strong enough to spend some time at home, looking out her own window, chasing around her pets, and sleeping in her own bed. My friend is a realist, but she is no quitter, and she will wrestle that which is trying to kill her to the ground, and she will beat it, or it will beat her. She will never go quietly, not without laughing in it's face.
If I had ten more like her, I believe I could save the world...
Sleep well.
But tonight, she is home.
She has willed herself to be strong enough to spend some time at home, looking out her own window, chasing around her pets, and sleeping in her own bed. My friend is a realist, but she is no quitter, and she will wrestle that which is trying to kill her to the ground, and she will beat it, or it will beat her. She will never go quietly, not without laughing in it's face.
If I had ten more like her, I believe I could save the world...
Sleep well.
Labels: hero, optimism, sublimnity
posted at 1:32 AM
1 comments
Monday, December 05, 2005
Xmas party preview 2005
Well, it's that time of the year again, and the company party is set for next week. Last year, I was dreading it because I just didn't feel like taking my scarce free time to spend with a lot of people that I didn't know. Regular readers of this epic tome know that the resulting mayhem will be spoken about deep into the future. It was truly a spectacular fiasco.
The event will be held at the same venue as last year, and the menu once again promises to be fantastic. We will be seated again at eight-person tables. Of the eight people I sat with last year, I am the only one left who hasn't been fired, or left on my own. My department was gutted last spring, and most of the faces are new. The new bunch is populated with nice people, but I don't have the kind of history with them that I did with the old gang. And it's not as if I'm out there trying to make friends, it just isn't me.
When I started working for this company in 2001, it was an independent operation. We were set up on our own floor of a skyscraper, and we were basically running around unsupervised, and having a ball. There were only about ten employees in the company, and we were all grossly underpaid, without health insurance, and battling other companies with huge budgets that were trying to crush us. It made us into a tight group, and in spite of the obstacles, we were very successful.
The people I worked with at that point were very talented, and very odd for the most part.
We didn't have any need to engage in office politics, so we worked, bounced off of one another, and trudged on against a world trying to kill us. We rarely hung out as a group, although there were occasional times where most of us might be in the same place at the same time. We enjoyed one another's company, but there was never any forced camaraderie. It was very much like a family, and we argued, fought and laughed together, but it was always a united group.
In 2003, we were bought by one of our competitors, and most of us went to work for the new company with over 100 people in a new building. Some of our friends, mainly the office staff and sales people were not kept on. That is always a hard thing, and it happens. You try to stay in touch, but you don't, because even though you like one another, the main thing you have in common is work. The rest of us stayed, because after all, we were very successful, and that's why they spent millions of dollars to buy us.
But this past March, the rest of them got fired, and an entirely new group was put together. It is, predictably, not the same. Previously, even after I was done with my work, I would often just hang out, often times when I actually had other things to do. It was a lot of fun, more like a clubhouse full of idiots than a workplace. Nowadays, I finish up my work, and I get the hell out of there. Again, it isn't that I don't like the new people, but I just have no desire to spend my free time with them. And now it's time for the party.
Now what's funny is, the old group was exceptionally creative, but was for the most part very introverted. The new gang is more extroverted, and to my mind, more needy, in a "look-at-me" kind of way. I expect a lot of showing off and forced wit at the party this time around, and I hate that. Now, considering what a debacle last year was, you might say, "Wait. Last time, there was thrown food, screaming, mousse-painting and loud drunkenness." All of that is true. The thing you must bear in mind though is that all of that came as a result of sheer recklessness, and the rest of the party be damned. It was an drunken get-together of eight, which unfortunately was surrounded and witnessed by an office party of over one hundred. Maybe it's a subtlety that I can't adequately explain, but I know it's going to be vastly different this time, and it's going to be boring.
I doubt I'll bother writing about it.
The event will be held at the same venue as last year, and the menu once again promises to be fantastic. We will be seated again at eight-person tables. Of the eight people I sat with last year, I am the only one left who hasn't been fired, or left on my own. My department was gutted last spring, and most of the faces are new. The new bunch is populated with nice people, but I don't have the kind of history with them that I did with the old gang. And it's not as if I'm out there trying to make friends, it just isn't me.
When I started working for this company in 2001, it was an independent operation. We were set up on our own floor of a skyscraper, and we were basically running around unsupervised, and having a ball. There were only about ten employees in the company, and we were all grossly underpaid, without health insurance, and battling other companies with huge budgets that were trying to crush us. It made us into a tight group, and in spite of the obstacles, we were very successful.
The people I worked with at that point were very talented, and very odd for the most part.
We didn't have any need to engage in office politics, so we worked, bounced off of one another, and trudged on against a world trying to kill us. We rarely hung out as a group, although there were occasional times where most of us might be in the same place at the same time. We enjoyed one another's company, but there was never any forced camaraderie. It was very much like a family, and we argued, fought and laughed together, but it was always a united group.
In 2003, we were bought by one of our competitors, and most of us went to work for the new company with over 100 people in a new building. Some of our friends, mainly the office staff and sales people were not kept on. That is always a hard thing, and it happens. You try to stay in touch, but you don't, because even though you like one another, the main thing you have in common is work. The rest of us stayed, because after all, we were very successful, and that's why they spent millions of dollars to buy us.
But this past March, the rest of them got fired, and an entirely new group was put together. It is, predictably, not the same. Previously, even after I was done with my work, I would often just hang out, often times when I actually had other things to do. It was a lot of fun, more like a clubhouse full of idiots than a workplace. Nowadays, I finish up my work, and I get the hell out of there. Again, it isn't that I don't like the new people, but I just have no desire to spend my free time with them. And now it's time for the party.
Now what's funny is, the old group was exceptionally creative, but was for the most part very introverted. The new gang is more extroverted, and to my mind, more needy, in a "look-at-me" kind of way. I expect a lot of showing off and forced wit at the party this time around, and I hate that. Now, considering what a debacle last year was, you might say, "Wait. Last time, there was thrown food, screaming, mousse-painting and loud drunkenness." All of that is true. The thing you must bear in mind though is that all of that came as a result of sheer recklessness, and the rest of the party be damned. It was an drunken get-together of eight, which unfortunately was surrounded and witnessed by an office party of over one hundred. Maybe it's a subtlety that I can't adequately explain, but I know it's going to be vastly different this time, and it's going to be boring.
I doubt I'll bother writing about it.
posted at 6:39 PM