Will This Never End?

I just can’t take much more of the Obama/Clinton match.  Actually, I can’t take much more of this election period.  I have real issues to worry about.

Food — Food prices are on the rise.  What a shocker.  As the environmentallists screamed for ethanol and alternative fuels, there were plenty of us trying to tell you that it would drive up the price of food.  It’s simple Econ 101 — supply and deman.  The more land you take out of food production the less that is there to feed people.  Then you have to tote the food in from South America.  Now, Congress wants to create ANOTHER special program for special people, one of which I am not.  I get to pay the high taxes to support these people AND pay the high prices because I’m not one of them. 

Fuel — The same idiots who have been screaming alternative fuels are the ones who have crippled our countries ability to refine crude into fuel.  That’s also an Econ 101 no brainer.  It doesn’t matter how much oil you have in your barrel if you can’t turn it into something usable.  So, we fight for oil against China, India and a couple other growing countries who don’t have the environmental regulations.  And don’t even start on “Big Oil” and their “obscene profits.”  Nobody wants to talk about the “obscene taxes” the government is raking in on those profits.  Cut the freaking state and federal taxes if you want to help the little people.  Oh wait –

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., weighed in against the scheme Thursday, telling reporters “there’s no reason to believe that any moratorium on the gas tax would be passed on to the consumer.”

Here’s the real problem, people in this country have become so far removed from the farm they have no freaking idea how things really work.  They don’t realize exactly what it takes to put three ears of corn on the store shelves.  They just walk into Kroger or Wal-Mart, pick-up what they want [note: want, not need] and move on.  Food and crude oil prices aren’t static.  Chevron doesn’t set them, but Chavez does.  So does OPEC [ Algeria, Angola, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, and Ecuador] by how much they’ll pump, the rest is up to the commodities market.

Housing — Now, this is really pissing me off.  Seven years ago I decided it was time to get a new home.  Now, many of my friends have homes in the $100K range, not me.  I financed a $40K doublewide mobile home and plopped it on a piece of land I purchased for $20K about 10 years before.  Why?  BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT I COULD AFFORD!!  My payments are around $400 per month on a fixed interest rate.  BECAUSE THAT WAS THE SMART THING TO DO!!  But, because I was a responsible person the government won’t be helping me out at all.

Credit — Oh lord, you know, why is it that every interest rate in the world will come down except what’s on credit cards?  I don’t have a lot on credit, but I want to get ride of it.  But I can’t because I get hit with $50 in intrest charges every month.  They jack the rate all the time.  I don’t want to get into that shuffle where you roll your credit to a new card for the “introductory rate” and then try to remember to roll it back.  I’d never make it.  Being self-employed I don’t have a steady income so I can’t get a loan right now to get a fixed lower rate.

But — these aren’t the important things.  The important things are Obama’s preacher, Hillary’s sniper dodging and McCain’s age.  I need to get my priorities straight.

Genva Convention Only Applies To U.S.

The Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols are part of international humanitarian law – a whole system of legal safeguards that cover the way wars may be fought and the protection of individuals.

They specifically protect people who do not take part in the fighting (civilians, medics, chaplains, aid workers) and those who can no longer fight (wounded, sick and shipwrecked troops, prisoners of war).

The Conventions and their Protocols call for measures to be taken to prevent (or put an end to) what are known as “grave breaches“; those responsible for breaches must be punished.
The Geneva Conventions have been acceded to by 194 States and enjoy universal acceptance. [Personal Comment -- EXCEPT if you are a member of the United State's Military.]

Above taken from the International Committee of the Red Cross - the ICRC.  

>>>>> *****<<<<<

Private Matt Maupin, a local soldier captured 4 yrs ago and listed as missing in action. His remains were finally discovered this past weekend March 29-30, 2008). He would have been 24 this July.

The insurgants put him on video after they captured him and televised it. Shortly thereafter another video was seen of a soldier as he was beheaded.

But his family firmly believed it wasn’t him. All we know is that his remains have been found, whether or not he was actually beheaded, we don’t know (and they complain about how we treat our captives). His family now has closure.

President Bush called and offered his condolences. Matt’s family has been to the White House several times at the request of the President. His family is not bitter that he served and paid the ultimate price. They are extremely proud of him. His family and many of their friends even marched in our local annual Baseball Opening Day Parade on Monday, proudly carrying Flags in honor of their son.

I think President John F. Kennedy expressed it rather well when he said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.

” God Bless Matt Maupin, and all of our soldiers, Veterans, past, present, future, living and deceased. Long Live Freedom.”

GMA Grocery Alert!

Did you know that white eggs are CHEAPER than brown eggs?  That Fat-free Skim milk is CHEAPER than 2%?  Or how about bacon being CHEAPER than sausage? WOW!! 

Well, if you didn’t Good Morning America just had a segment telling you how to save money at the grocery store.  I was pouring coffee and decided to hold off switching channels.  [I don't generally do network morning news shows.] I just couldn’t believe my eyes.

Here is this twenty something reporter-ette.  A cute little brunette, mostly legs, but wearing pants, interviewing people at a grocery store.  What she found was earth-shattering!  You can cut your grocery bill by …. buying fruit and vegetables in season!  And don’t buy the purple onion, the white one is less expensive!

She asked several non-twenty something women if they knew which items were cheaper: 

• Q.  Bacon or sausage:  A.  Bacon
• Q.  Brown eggs or white:  A.  White
• Q.  Boneless chicken cutlets or rotisserie chicken from the deli:  A.  Rotisserie chicken

I used to think only blonds were …. airheads.  Come on people.  Just read the stupid labels, do the math and use some common sense.  The chicken cutlets are cheaper because they have extra costs build in.  They have been skinned and boned.  The rotisserie chicken has been stuck on a skewer and cooked in an oven.   When I haven’t been to Johnny’s for a while I buy whole chickens and just cut them up.  They are like $0.99 per pound.  I can remember them being $0.49 per pound.  But, cutting a chicken is no big deal.

I buy large packages of meats, separate them out and freeze them.  I’ve done that for years.  And you know what, that is the key to this whole story.  The twenty-somethings have never had to do that.  Why, the idea of buying generics or in bulk is as foreign as Calvin Cline jeans.

Couponing is good, but I have to wonder.  According to that online story, ”coupon users who save the most money save their coupons from at least the previous three months and buy up to five copies of the newspaper to maximize coupon savings. “  Most often I find the generics or off brands to be less expensive even when coupons are applied.  I don’t use most of the stuff they offer coupons on anyway. 

Then they tell you to “be willing to shop at more than one store per week to really save by getting each store’s best deals.”  Here’s the rub.  My regular ride gets 22 MPG.  That’s $0.15 per mile, if my math is correct.  If I shopped at one of each of the different grocers in my area, starting at Wal-Mart [which I hate!] that would mean $8.40 in fuel just to drive and return.  That doesn’t count the minor fuel use for starting and stopping.  Let’s round up and say $9 in fuel.  Now, time.  Driving to Wally World takes me about 45 minutes, depending on traffic.  That’s 1.5 hours in travel time up and back.  When I’m working on a project I draw $15-20 per hour, depending on the project. 

So, in a nutshell, by going to one grocer just 1 mile from my house can save me $39 in one whack in fuel and time.  It’s hard for me to justify driving all over creation to save $40 to come out $1 ahead.

Am I wrong here?

Bad Hair

Good grief!  Here I am at a public wi-fi spot, drowning in self-pity.  I’ve had some upsetting news and I’m not sure what to do.  It’s a legal thing, so I can’t go into details, but I have a relative who has been charged with something unjustly and they are being prevented from going to a necessary training program because of it.

Supposedly it is not because of the charge.  It is supposedly because the person could be yanked from the training by the courts for a hearing.  Nevermind a judge [not magistrate] ruled they could go.  Now, on one hand I get it.  But on the other I don’t.  This person is being prevented from getting training necessary, no MANDATORY for keeping the job.  It is specialized so you can’t get it here in WV.  They have been told that they will not be fired from the job, but that they will have to wait. 

So this person has to wait for the grand jury.  I don’t know anything about grand juries.  I know they review cases and decide if they go to trial.  I don’t know when they meet, I don’t know how they decide things … I have a big civics gap in my public education in this area.

This has been going on since last fall, when I was whacked in the eye by the relative.  So I’ve been carrying this and anticipating a little break from the stress.  With the relative gone to school there would be a ‘cooling off’ period for the extended family.  The change of scenario would benefit the one accused. 

This is a mess.  The charge was filed to upset ME, to get even with ME for the fight [which I didn't start]. It’s way out of hand.  There is no evidence that a crime was committed, just an accusation.  But the accusation is a serious one and, by itself, will cause this to go to trial.  So the relative who climbed out of the vehicle and whacked me in the eye is upsetting an entire family, potentially sending an innocent person to prision, because she has no concept of how to be an adult. 

Jedijawa – How in the world can you [or anyone who works in social services] sit back, understanding many of the underlying reasons people act certain ways, and not just go insane!  What little I have learned about human behavior in my classes shows me what’s going on here.  And there isn’t a d*mn thing I can do.  I know the motivation is anger, jealously and revenge on that person’s part … but I just have to sit here an know.

Well, I can’t sit here.  I have an interview to do shortly and need to shut down and go pee.

I should have known when my hair wouldn’t do what I told it to this morning.

 

Oh Where Have You Been Billy Boy, Billy Boy …

Ok, this isn’t about anyone named Billy.  It’s just a quick post because I haven’t posted in a while.

I have absolutely been too busy to pee!  I fell a little behind on some things over the winter so I’m trying to catch up. [See Groundhogs & Dead Presidents] It’s been so long that WordPress has changed it’s format and now I’m lost!  LOL

I haven’t updated my professional blog, two ’social’ networking pages, my podcasts or anything.  I have been keeping up with my freelance work and I managed to get three stories completed and sumitted yesterday, a day ahead of the deadline.  I also cut grass yesterday.  I don’t mind cutting grass really.  I love being outside.

My classwork is just barely on time, at risk of getting behind.  I have a wedding to attend tomorrow and three food events next week.  One is business, one is an association event and one is getting inducted into that honor society. [Yep, I did it.]

I have continued my exercise for about three weeks now.  Three days a week I am on my treadmill for at least 30 minutes — at 5:00 a.m.!!  I use my mini stair machine off and on through the week, while I read the paper or a magazine.  I don’t do any real strength conditioning … don’t push it!  I’m still quite fatigued and it was made worse by a late night session Wednesday.  I didn’t get to bed till midnight and got up at 4:45 a.m.

I’m noticing an enourmous increase in my hunger, but not a decrease in my weight.  I’m not eating back all the calories [points in the Weight Watchers World].  But I absolutely STARVE all day long.  At meeting they keep saying I’m “toning”, which is probably true, but for three weeks?

I was whining after the meeting Saturday about not losing weight.  A very wise person looked dead at me, and without missing a beat, said, “But your butt is smaller.”  ROFLMAO!!  I felt much better!

Coursework Survey

O.K. Kids, I am going to post my survey questions here.  If you decide you want to participate please email your answers to me at muzeuterpe1 [at] aol.com.  You may choose to respond as either an employee or a supervisor.  I don’t need your name, but would like you to identify your general geographic region.  That will allow me to state that I interviewed “X” number of people from the Kanawha County, WV area and “X” number of people from the Cuyahoga County, Ohio area, etc. 

Here is some background and the questions:

The reason for this interview is to complete a research paper as a requirement of my coursework at Mountain State University.  Each semester my class is required to present an action research paper.  The primary subject of my paper this semester is House Bill 4132 of the 2008 Legislative Session.  HB 4132 was:

A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated §21-3-22, relating to employer mandating employee participation in certain activities; prohibiting employers from mandating communication with employees regarding certain employer beliefs and activities; granting commissioner of labor enforcement powers; authorizing commissioner of labor to establish administrative process and rulemaking; authorizing commissioner of labor to seek injunctive relief; providing for civil damages to employees; providing for special revenue account for administrative penalties; providing that certain employers have limited exemptions from the provisions of this section; and providing for exemption of the provisions of this section when federally preempted.

The question I am trying to answer is:

Are the workers in West Virginia being forced to listen to the employer’s opinions or directives on political and labor issues, thus violating their Constitutional right to free association to the degree that it has become necessary to introduce legislation to regulate the activity, cite and fine the employer?

In doing this research I have to identify ‘stakeholders’, or people who are affected in some way by the issue.  For this paper, stakeholders are identified as employees, supervisors, union officials, politicians, and government employees.  Others may be identified as the research progresses.

Some of the questions I will be asking employees are:

1.                  How long have you been in the workforce?

2.                  Have you always been a union member?

3.                  Can you tell me about a time when you (or someone you know) felt a supervisor, or influential person in your workplace, directly or indirectly pressured or coerced you to act in a way you generally would not have.  (i.e. vote for/against union organization, withhold important information from a report, agree to a course of action you knew was wrong, distance yourself from someone because they were perceived to be a bad employee).

4.                  Can you tell me if you (or someone you know) have ever been forced to listen to religious/pro-union/anti-union, or discriminatory language during a mandatory staffing, safety or other work-related meeting?

5.                  Have you (or someone you know) ever filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board because you were forced to listen or participate in activities such as those described above?

6.                  If so, what happened?

7.                  In your experience, do these types of activities happen with such frequency that the West Virginia Legislature needs to develop legislation more strict than that found in the National Labor Relations Act?

8.                  In your experience, is the NLRB ineffective in enforcing the Act?

Please keep in mind, I do not need you to name the employers.  You may choose to provide that information.  However, I may or may not use identifying information at my discretion.  This paper is not a work of investigative journalism, will not be published and will not be used to affect the legislative process.

Some of the questions I will be asking supervisors/managers are:

1.                  How long have you been in the workforce?

2.                  Have you ever been a union member?

3.                  Can you tell me about a time when you (or someone you know) felt a union organizer, or other influential person in your workplace, directly or indirectly pressured or coerced employees to act in a way you believe they would not have.  (i.e. vote for/against union organization, withhold important information from a report, agree to a course of action you knew was wrong, distance themselves from someone because they were perceived to be a company man).

4.                  Can you tell me if you (or someone you know) have ever been forced to listen to religious/pro-union/anti-union, or discriminatory language during a mandatory staffing, safety or other work-related meeting?

5.                  Have you (or someone you know) ever experienced a complaint filed against your employer with the National Labor Relations Board because someone was forced to listen or participate in activities such as those described above?

6.                  If so, what happened?

7.                  In your experience, do these types of activities happen with such frequency that the West Virginia Legislature needs to develop legislation more strict than that found in the National Labor Relations Act?

8.                  In your experience, is the NLRB ineffective in enforcing the Act?

Please keep in mind, I do not need you to name the employees.  You may choose to provide that information.  However, I may or may not use identifying information at my discretion.  This paper is not a work of investigative journalism, will not be published and will not be used to affect the legislative process.

Cold Shower!

This is just a “What a GREAT way to start the day!” post.

First, I’m not good with exercise.  But, for the past couple weeks I’ve been doing a little more.  I’ve even started to turn up the speed on the treadmill a couple times during my sessions.  I’m trying to create a routine of exercising in the morning and spending less time reading online.

So — I pay my dues this morning, spend my 30 minutes on the mill with two spurts of higher speeds worked in. I’m breating hard, sweating enough to warrant a headband and heading to the shower.  I fling open the shower door, kick on the water and wait for that tremendously joyous hot water.  And I wait … and wait!

I have no hot water. 

In my home there are three things I want to be fueled by natural gas: my cook stove; my heat; and, my hot water tank.  I bought one of those flat, ceramic top cook stoves about 8 years ago to try it.  It’s ok, but I’ll buy a gas one again next time.  I’ve lived with electric heat before, don’t want to again.  I learned early that electric hot water won’t do it for me.

It is possible that the gas was off during the night.  My heater was still running so if the gas was off it was only briefly.  The ignition on the heater is electric, not a gas pilot.  The pilot on the hot water, however, IS gas and it WASN’T on.  It isn’t easy to get to my hot water tank, it’s behind a wall.  So at 6:00 this morning I was taking that wall down.  By 6:30 I had the pilot light back in working order and the tank heating up.

Now, it’s almost 7:30.  I’ve had my breakfast, cooked a pot of coffee and am heading for a quick shower.  I’m working from home today [by design] until noon.  Then I have some interviews to do for my research paper. 

Decision 2008 — Bullsh*t! Plain And Simple

What type of holy horse-sh*t is happening in this country?  What the h*ll has our nation become? 

Barack Obama stood before this country yesterday and with straight-face justified the rants of an insane man!  AND the people that follow him. Good god.

There was absolutely nothing acceptable in the speech that the “reverend” Wright spewed.  It’s one thing to be p*ssed-off at the government, but to accuse it of infecting people with HIV/AIDS on purpose is lunatic!  To say something like this is just plain wrong:

As Wright put it, “Hillary ain’t never been called a nigger!  Hillary has never had her people defined as non-person.”

When Robert C. Byrd used the phrase “white nigger” the black community demanded an apology.  [Although he didn't get the same blasting that George Allen and Trent Lott got.]  Why doesn’t Wright have to apologize?

And, Hillary has never had her people defined as a non-person — um excuse the f* out of me, but women are still treated like non-persons in parts of the U.S. and for gods’ sake look at how they are treated in parts of Africa and Iran!  Who got the right to vote first?  Hmmmm?  Was it black men or the whole class of women?  Hmmmm??!!!  Let me see … Could it be the 15th Amendment to the Constitution that holds the answer? 

I will grant you that its wasn’t just so easy as to say “O.K. Now you can vote.”  But poor white trash didn’t get to vote that easy either.

Now — when did women get the right?  Hmmmm?  Can you answer me that?  How about the 19th.

And don’t give me that crap about “I could no more disown him [Wright] than I can disown my white grandmother ….”, you lying pile of spew!  Don’t you dare expect me to believe that.  You are knee deep in that junk.  You’ve been listening to it and giving it passive support for at least 20 years, and probably much longer.  You don’t get the endorsement of Lewis Farrakahan by being good to whitey and Jews. 

And I have told many, many people I could vote for you before voting for Hillary.  Well young man, I can’t now. 

There is no way on this planet that I can support you when you only denounce such bile and hatred when you are cornered; when you have no choice.  No one with any sense believes that you didn’t know Wright was belching that evil.  Those aren’t the words of any Christian.  Christ, even with all his anger at the money-changers never called any creature of his father’s names like that, nor did he accuse the Romans of creating diseases or laws that would puposely destroy the Jews.

No, the hatred that he [and many others] preaches can not be explained away.  It wasn’t ok for Byrd to say what he did, and he’s of a much older generation than Wright.  It wasn’t ok for Lott to say what he did, and he’s just about in the same generation of Wright.  It can’t be explained away with the “generation” comment because that audience was FULL of people from new born to 100 years of age cheering it on.  It’s wrong and it must be stopped across the board.

Rodney King asked “Why can’t we just get along?” The answer is … because we’re too busy living in the past and blaming each other for our own actions. 

What would Martin Luther King say?

Thanks South Charleston!

This is just a quickie post.  Partially because I haven’t posted in a while, and partially because I have a little time on my hands.   I’ve categorized this under “Road Trips” because, well, I’m on the road.  I’m eating lunch in South Charleston.

I remembered hearing that the City of South Charleston had become a wi-fi city.  Since I have an appointment at Thomas this afternoon I wanted to try it out.  I know it made the headlines when it went live, but I haven’t heard anything about how well or how badly it has worked.  After all  the hype, has it really been a draw for business & customers?

I suspect not.  The reason I say that is I don’t see very many people actually working or playing on notebooks during the day.  Maybe I’m not in the right places. 

I know for me, I need a power supply.  My battery is just the one that came with the machine.  It only lasts an hour.  Lugging the notebook and setting it up is really a bother.  I need to have a reason to hang-out for a while before dragging it.  So, unless I’m just traveling for work and need to be able to get out of the vehicle for a while, I’m not just going to drag the notebook to a coffee shop to work.  I could just go back to my desk and work with my shoes off.

But, kudos to the City of South Charleston for providing me this option.  If I ever get finished with my classes I might be able to make a Chamber event! 

Sigma Beta Delta

Wow!  Not since Junior High have I been nominated for an honor society.  Well, I received information to join a non-traditional student social organization when attending WV State, but not an ‘honor society’.  LOL

This past week I received a letter from MSU extending me an invitation to join Sigma Beta Delta, a national honor society of business students.  It’s counterparts in arts & sciences and engineering are Phi Beta Kappa and Tau Beta Pi.  [Sounds impressive doesn't it.]  This letter says

You have been identified by your institution’s faculty as one who is eligible for membership in Sigma Beta Delta.  Your nomination places you in a very select group because membership is restricted to outstanding business scholars.

Imagine that!  Me!  An “outstanding business scholar.” 

I don’t know anything about these groups.  I’m such a non-traditional student that I have no clue about ‘college life.’  My college experience has been as a working adult living off campus with a job and family responsibilities that prohibit participation in most college activities.  Not to mention I’m old enough to be most of the other students’ mother.  

When I was taking on-campus classes at WV State, I really felt out-of-place.  Not because of anything the other students said to me, but just looking around the room.  Then, WV State would brag on serving the ‘non-traditional student’ but most of us were struggling to find the required classes in the evenings.  It was so bad that some couldn’t graduate on time because the class[es] didn’t appear in the evening until the following semester or year.

But I’m really tickled about this invitation and I’m thinking of accepting it. 

I really had no intentions to attend college as an adolescent.  I wanted to be the full-time at-home mom, taking care of the house, keeping a flower garden and a few veggies, with my dog and cat.  But, life happens and that is now my ‘retirement’ dream.  College became mandatory in order to support my family.  Then, when the associate’s in office administration didn’t equal higher pay a bachelor’s degree became the next target.  Leaving the job wasn’t originally in the plan.

Now, once I complete college I’ll have to pay back the loans, so I’ll still be working.  But!  In the meantime, I’ll enjoy this nomination and consider accepting it.