How Do You Spell “Inept”?

How do you spell “inept”?  Knowing what just happened to the local football team and its “leaders”, it could easily be spelled “Cleveland Browns”.  That would be too easy, though.  As it would be by spelling it “Lions”, “Chiefs”, “Seahawks”, or “Rams”.

I want something bigger.  Something with more oomph, more value.   Something you can sink your teeth into.  Something of which I can hang my head in shame over.  Something that makes want to stand up and say, “Why am I still an Ohioan?”

Here it is.

There is so much idiocy stemming from this one story that it almost requires a month’s full of Idiot of the Week winners.  No, not candidates, but winners.  I won’t bore you like that, though, so I will get it all out of the way at once.

• Let’s start with the Ohio Republicans who chose not to stand behind Kenneth Blackwell, the 2006 (R) candidate for Governor.  I work with a local (R) electioneer.  He confided in me that Blackwell’s staff was stubborn, and that they wanted to run on a conservative, religous platform instead of on the state Republican platform (whatever that means); hence, many (R) electioneers chose to let him die on the vine.  So, it’s not “party first” in all cases.  Hence, Blackwell lost, with a huge nod going to those loser (R) electioneers.  BTW, these are the same people that tell me I needed to vote for McCain rather than vote for a third party candidate.  Nice, eh?  Idiots!
• Let’s add Governor Strickland.  What is it with Dem mayors and governors that keeps them going back to the federal teat to get themselves out of the mess they are in?  Oh, yeah…they don’t know how they got themselves in the mess, so they need someone else to bail them out.  So much for federalism at its finest.  Idiot!
• Third, let’s add the state representatives that voted against a bill that would give tax breaks to the motion picture industry for setting up shop in Ohio (primarily in the Greater Cleveland area).  Of the two companies most affected, one would basically be a 2×5 (two shifts, seven days a week) shop for “assembling” films – in other words, everything from conception, to planning, shooting, editing, and releasing the films.  The other company would conduct regular shoots of higher-profile movies here.  Both of these companies WANT to do business in Ohio.  There is precedence here:  Vancouver and Toronto started by doing the same thing, and a decade or so later, they are both desired places for film making companies to do business.  But those representatives?  Idiots!  (And one of them is my state rep.)
• Fourth, let’s place Governor Strickland on the list a second time.  Why?  Because he promised to veto said bill, which actually passed through the state representatives.  Why?  Because the short-term tax loss was too significant relative to the long-term job gain and continuing investment in the state.  Idiot!

How do you spell “inept”?  That’s easy:

O

H

I

O

The state has been taken over by entitlement-based “leaders” who have no clue how economics work, and their willing accomplices in both parties.

Happy New Year, Ohio.  You get what you deserve!   These are your Idiots.

The Season For Change

Ages ago, I wrote this post about my relationship with my ISP (internet service provider).  Some how, some way, the relationship lasted an additional two years.  There have been cycles where I’ve called their customer support and talked to “Bob”, or “Nick”, or “Joe”, even when their accent says their name is really Sundeep or Anup.  The customer support is always the same: check the modem, check the router, reset the modem – “well, what did you change?” – retry the modem, THEN submit a ticket for support and have the problem cleaned up for anywhere from a couple weeks to several months.

We are at that stage again.  If I were to be diligent – which I’m not in this case – I could likely tie each degradation in service to major equipment upgrades.  However, the equipment upgrades did not upgrade my response times (digitally or verbally) or improve my internet service.

So, I called them again yesterday because the service STUNK again.  My wife has been re-setting the modem twice a day for the past week.  Not good, especially during Christmas.  I got in touch with Urai, who told me to reset my modem, try again, blah, blah, blah.  When that didn’t work, I asked him for a new modem.  I could get one, but only if I made a twelve month commitment to the ISP.  Fat chance.  Or, I could buy the modem for a mere $80.    Nah, free works for me, please.

The level 1 support rep could not help me.  Hence, I gently reminded him about the 3-4 tickets I submitted about similar issues over the past two-plus years, and indicated that I will be leaving the service in the amount of time it takes to find a new one.  We are purposely TV-challenged at home, and don’t want cable or satellite, so finding another ISP seemed to me to be a daunting task.  Mostly because I have to change our e-mail address at all the stinkin’ places we do stuff online and with family and friends.

At that point, Urai decided I should talk to his manager, “Nick”.  The dude didn’t help, but definitely sounded distressed each of the times he called back and I was still having problems.  Things seem to be okay now; however, because of word that the ISP is changing their service practices with their residential customers, and the fact my family does way too much online to deal with, we started the conversion to generic e-mail and away from ISP-based e-mail in preparation for us going elsewhere.  Wish us luck!

Earthlink, you are my Idiots of the Week.  You should have won this award many times over.

But wait, there’s more…I’m in the giving mood, being this is the Christmas season and all.

It’s snowing where I live.  No problem there.  People are scraping the snow and ice off their windows.  No problem there, either; a driver gots to do what a driver gots to do.  Something I saw on Sunday morning took the cake.  The driver of a sedan scraped the driver side half of their rear window.  Yep, tried driving like that.  Nothing like adding to his blind side, or making his rear view mirror pretty much useless.  Dude!  You are my runner up.  Congrats!  Next time, maybe you can take the extra 45 seconds and scrape the other side of the window, too.

And last, but not least…the sports team that played in front of 72,000 brown and orange seats – half of them brown because of the jerseys and jackets of their supporters, and half of them orange because no one sat in them – the Cleveland Browns are my third place winners.  They managed to take a city that supports football in good seasons and in bad, and turn its fans apathetic.  Way to go!

On a serious and sincere note:  Merry Christmas everyone!

Underpaid? Really?

I have a co-worker who has an in-law who teaches in a significantly sized school district in the area.  You know, one of those districts that is always asking for more money, that whines about how poorly their teachers have it, how underpaid they are?  That says their technology is not state-of-the-art.

My co-worker friend rails against public school teachers, and I believe she has good reason.  The in-law has been teaching in public schools for about eighteen years.  Her salary, which at one time was able to be located here, is over $70k.  Starting salaries, which were also available at the same link, are $40k and above, which is more than many entry-level computer programming positions today.

And to top it all off, class size is not the problem your beloved union representatives make it out to be.  Why?  Because some union contracts provide per-pay bonuses to teachers for every student over the optimal number of students.  For the local school district, “optimal” is defined as twenty-eight students; hence, this instructor earns additional wages per pay for classes that hold more than twenty-eight students. You’d figure they would get a couple extra bucks per pay, right?  I mean, how difficult is it to go from twenty-eight to thirty students in a class?

The teachers union sees otherwise.  This in-law earns an extra $100 per student, per pay for every student above the “optimal” class size.  This in-law also earns other bonuses for covering classes outside their area of expertise and other such nonsense.

Oh, and did I tell you she’s a third grade teacher?

So, for all you pro-union folks out there, next time an industry ships off the U.S. continent, remember these little facts.  The unions, while they were needed and had their place in an earlier time, are now nothing but millstones around the neck of business and society.

This particular school district, and the teachers union, are my Idiots of the Week.

Where’d He Go?

Barack Obama – if things continue on their natural progression – will be inaugurated in approximately six weeks.  But, until then, call him what you want:  future President, President-elect, Senator, bozo, buffoon, savior, empty suit, messiah.  Whatever you want; but, someone else currently holds the title of President of the United States.

The odd thing is that this other individual is rarely heard from these days.  Obama calls press conferences, ad nauseum, but he has not yet secured the office.

What happened to the other guy?

I thought it was a symptom of the mainstream media doing what they always do, marginalizing the non-Democrats in office.  However, after looking over a decent number of conservative websites, I realized this:  the current President is missing in action!

I’ve recently come to the conclusion that a bickering, inactive Congress is better than an agreeable, active Congress; the less they do, the less they infringe on my rights and my pocketbook.  Yet, the same cannot be said for the President.  He is Commander in Chief, the spokesperson for the nation.

He is M.I.A.

I first thought maybe Senator Obama was stealing his thunder.  Realistically, Obama is merely filling the void.

I don’t know whether Obama will be a good leader or not.  I’m not counting on it, so I am willing to be pleasantly surprised.  However, this “Disappearing President” act being executed by the presiding Commander in Chief has worn thin on me.

Mr. President, you are my Idiot of the Week.

Sometimes You Get What You Deserve

Rant Alert!

I would like to thank the not-so-Big-Three for proving yet, once again, how dumb our corporate leaders are.  Some of you would say, “Well, that’s big business for you.  What did you expect?  Those greedy SOBs!”  Others will say, “That’s part of the game, you have to be involved.”

I say “hooey!”  I say we got exactly what we wanted.  Actually, I should say that the Baby Boomers got exactly what they wanted.

Folks, these ain’t exactly the Gen X-ers leading the political front or the major corporations, at least not as the rule. As part of the hippie generation – and yes, I’m talking about Democrats and Republicans in politics, and businessmen in the for-profit and not-for-profit business worlds – these Baby Boomers can’t let go.  Remember, these were the folks who said, “You can’t trust anyone over 30″.  Now, they’re all over thirty, and they don’t trust anyone outside of their own generation (talkin’ ’bout my generation…).

Baby boomers, you talk and talk about how selfish the Gen X-ers and Gen Y-ers (a.k.a. the Millennials, I believe) are.  You run the biggest corporations.  You run national politics.  You control the media.   You manipulate our financial markets.  You label everything and everyone, for your own personal gain.

Take a look in the mirror.  You got what you wanted:  it’s all about you!

You whittle everything down to demographics, even things as personal and important as voting preferences.  You look at people as voting blocs, not as individual voters – you didn’t even care to have your Presidential candidates campaign in states where they were projected winner – talk about wasted votes!

And what do you get?  Business owners thinking that giving $50 million to politicians is an investment in their business.

Sheesh!

When I went to college, I was taught that you exchanged cash or cash equivalents for goods or services.  Or you invested in an asset that would increase in value over time.  Well then, tell me:

WHAT GOOD OR SERVICE DOES THE GOVERNMENT PROVIDE BUSINESS? AND WHAT “INVESTMENT” DID THESE COMPANIES ACTUALLY MAKE?

Duh!  They didn’t start selling “political influence” on the NYSE or in the commodities market, did they?

How much money has been thrown down the black hole of politics by Baby Boomer crybabies and all the other folks they’ve convinced (“sold”, “snookered” – pick your word) to believe in their idealistic, ne’er-to-come-true dreams, when those millions of dollars – and probably closer to trillions when you consider all the local, state, and federal political campaigns around the U.S.  – could have been invested in, um, let’s see:

• Plant & equipment improvement
• Product improvement
• Alternate energy R&D
• Oil refinery development
• Clean coal development
• Nuclear development
• Elementary school education at the local levels (wouldn’t need Goals 2000 or No Child Left Behind or whatever Obama decides to re-name it next!)
• Customer retention via lower prices
• Employee training

You know, things that could actually, incrementally improve this country.

How does giving your money to political companies grow the GDP?  Huh?  Bueller?

But, no, the Baby Boomers had to reap what they sowed: idealism.  Idealism is never a product or a service.  There is nothing pragmatic in idealism, not in the corporate or political world.  The starving artist is idealistic.  So is the person who wants to create their own religion…or no religion.  So is the cult of personality, like the one just elected to become the next President of the United States.  Idealists sell you hope, telling you to look at your you-really-don’t-know-how-bad-you-have-it life, and that only they can make it better.  They convinced how many of us to dump our dollars into political parties, polling organizations and special interest groups, gloriously taking it out of the economy for the working class, and redirecting it exclusively into – and therefore legitimizing – the ruling class.  They convinced us that we’re better off marching to Washington D.C. to protest something, than to actually work locally to change it.

And it’s not even idealism; it’s the tolerance of destructive behavior being sold as idealism.

The Baby Boomers – as symbolized by the dying mainstream media, PACs, 527s, billion dollar bailouts and multi-million dollar golden parachutes – can name but only one ideal, product or service they have created that has revolutionized the world – the personal computer.  Outside of that, they have nothing.  Nothing!  Their generation craves that legitimacy that will make them be remembered fondly for making the world a better place.  Hah!

That’s why it was so important for Barack Obama to win the election.  It wasn’t about Barack, it was about the Baby Boomers, trying one last time to wield their power and influence before the younger generations kicked them out the door – figuratively, and in some cases, probably literally.

Baby Boomers – you peace-loving, pacifist, don’t-trust-anyone-over-30 losers – you’re still mired in your egocentrist state.  Karma struck, and it hurts.  You wanted to be in charge of fixing all the problems.  Guess what?  You are.  But you are in charge of fixing all the problems that you created, all in an attempt to create the perfect world.

I declare you all Idiots.