Great article on the demolition of the middle class.

One point to glean is more people in poverty. This means that crime will rise. If you’ve read this blog, or the book Freakonomics or even Malcolm Gladwell’s “Tipping Point” you understand that there is without a doubt going to be a rise in property crimes if this continues unabated.

The article does touch on the fact that both the Democratic and Republican parties have both been tainted by corruption and they won’t lend a hand to help us.

If only you didn’t have corporate interests funding the racist inspired Tea Bag/Party crowd you might be able to garner enough power to get people into congress that will do things that will stop the ebb of the middle class. But I don’t know if we have a leader on tap that would be able to unify the masses still middle class and even those in poverty to overcome the dominance of the moneyed class.

This means folks who support home grown jobs in manufacturing. Lets bring it back to the United States. I don’t mind spending say $3 for a $1.25 bowl if I know it’s made right here in the U.S. and that extra $1.75 is in the pockets of manufacturing employees.

Call me socialist but I think it’s time we punish businesses that export manufacturing overseas. But first we need to find the stones to modify the 14th amendment so it EXCLUDES corporations from thinking they have the same rights as you and I. They don’t. Their entire existence is predicated on an erroneous interpretation of the amendment.

We we to be able to do that, the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United would be moot. It would also mean the likes of the National Organization for Marriage couldn’t try to hide behind the shield of anonymity offered by their interpretation of the law on political action committees.

And most of all, tax the rich. Tax them until they bleed if the need be. I mean seriously, how can they sit there and do nothing when the middle class, which is their bread and fucking butter, gets systematically destroyed?

The gory details of NOM’s dog and pony show otherwise known as Vota Tus Valores (Easy one, Vote Your Values) are now emerging all over the web. More infuriating is the Vota Fiorina at the bottom. Just for her destruction of HP I say Fiorina should be put in the dustbin of history.

First there is the great coverage at the Prop 8 Trial Tracker. And that of course led me to this great site, NOM Exposed. The latter is a partnership of the Human Rights Campaign and the Courage Campaign the latter of whome sponsors the Prop 8 Trial Tracker.

NOM’s new bus tour is drawing smaller crowds this time around. I guess hate just doesn’t sell like it did when they had their east coast tour.

It’s a losing battle that they’re fighting. Eventually the issue will wind up in the United State Supreme Court and by then I’m optimistic you’ll have enough justices who will see the constitutional issues and rule that bans on gay marriage are unconstitutional.

That’s right I said it. It is why we should be directing our animus here in RI toward the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence.

I would love to see demonstrations during services. Be disruptive and get the message across that we aren’t going to take it anymore.

While we’re at it lets work on our representative and senators on revoking the churches tax exemptions.

Make them pay for getting involved in the political.

1) Read this article about the Death of the English language.

Now keep this is mind. The Gutenberg press didn’t make the scene until the 15th century.

So the stories in the Bible relied on either hand copying aka scribing but prior to that were aural only. Even today lots of people get their biblical knowledge from pastors, the same pastors who have their own agendas just like old Saul of Tarsus aka St. Paul. I suspect the mutt had a stroke because he had a sudden ephiphany and wrote his misogynistic and homophobic screed.

It’s all bullshit.

Back when I worked at one job in particular we had simple time sheets. Time in/time out. Nothing in between. So long as you got your 7 hours a day in, you were good.

The company I work for now has some interesting policies or lack thereof.

One of them at least for our group is time sheets. Time sheets by the unknown unit. I’ve settled on 30 minutes but I could go 15, or even 7.5 minute increments. But I’ve settled on the 30 minute unit.

Here is my theory on time tracking. It’s self-defeating. For example, ask people to account for their time for resource allocation purposes and you’ll see people padding their times out by one time factor unit. E.g. what would have taken 20 minutes now takes an hour.

So it makes the group as a whole look busier than it actually happens to be, which means you need another FTE to keep up with the work.

When you add the other FTE what happens is that you now don’t have enough work to go around so the pad factor on timesheets expands to ridiculous levels.

It’s really quite amusing to watch.

Lets start with ENDA. I really don’t see what the big deal is about an employment non-discrimination law. A lot of states have them for LGB and T people. RI is one of them, LGB since 1996 and T since 2001.

And want to know how many discrimination cases there have been regarding RI’s EHCNDA (Employment, Housing and Credit Non-Discrimination Act)? None. Not a single one. People know better than to discriminate openly against LGBT in those areas of life. So why the hell can’t the same thing happen for EVERYONE in the United States?

I know part of it is the perception of the transgender community. Some legislators just can’t wrap their heads around it. But they need to get over it and just pass the bill.

As to Don’ Ask/Don’t Tell – our Fierce Advocate President Obama was gung-ho to get rid of this ridiculous policy when he was campaigning for office. Now that he’s President the tune has changed. This whole study and approval process is rapidly moving from the sublime to the ridiculous. You ask why? Because Obama is the Commander in Chief, that’s why. He could, with a stroke of the pen eliminate the policy. But he chooses not to do so. I suppose that’s because we LGBT people are the new radioactive in this land.

Now marriage equality. Rhode Island could have had full equality THIS YEAR but for some reason our openly gay Speaker of the House, Gordon Fox decided not to have hearings or even consideration of a bill this year.

I’m scratching my head on that last one. I’m doing so because:
a) Fox is a gay man in a long term relationship

and

b) I know for a FACT that we had enough of a majority in the house to override a gubernatorial veto. That’s right we did. Now we’re going to have to start all over again because of this uncertain election year. And in the senate, it was just a matter of Sen. Paiva-Weed growing a pair and LEADING that body to a victory for LGBT people in RI. Nothing like being failed by your leadership.

Now I’m going to say it. The ONLY TIME civil rights advance in this country is when the judiciary finally steps in and resolves the matter. Rarely has a legislative body granted the full measure of civil rights without some prompting by a court.

“Several others started worshiping a possum carcass as their lord.”

Made me laugh out loud.

Or how about:

“You’re all coffee and no omelet!”

Because I’m going to Santorum this. That’s right, Spreading Santorum.

Click the link. For those too squeamish I’ll tell you what it says:

“1. The frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex.”

Too funny. Not only that, do a google search on Rick Santorum. It’s the first site. Click away, seriously, make sure this moron is never elected to any other office, let alone the presidency.

Link it on your blog too. Make sure he never takes the top spot with his real web page.

Started with Windows updates. I can accept that since Windows updates generally mess with system files so a reboot is required.

However I wasn’t expecting Firefox 3.6.10 to ask for a reboot but then I remember, Mozilla changed its java engine so that means it reaches deep into the system and required a reboot.

Then there is iTunes. I’ve been putting off the iTunes 10.0.0.68 upgrade but said what the hell and let it update this evening. Now it warned me if I didn’t quite iTunes it would require a reboot. So I went into the task manager and killed iTunes, iTuneshelper, and QuickTime. But at the end I still had to reboot.

Anyhow I noted there was an upgrade for my iPod Touch, v4.1. Looking at the release notes I saw the cryptic “Enhanced Bluetooth support”. Thought to myself “Nah, it couldn’t be….”. and went and answered in the affirmative to upgrade the Touch.

Once I’d done so I pulled out my MotoRokr S9’s and linked them up and much to my surprise, ALL the controls now work including track advance, and track reverse. Thanks for finally un-crippling your Bluetooth support Apple!