Eye-popping road-kill ( sick )

     This is borderline gossip and you know I hate gossip, but here goes. 

     On the way to look at a A/C install for a customer, I was driving along a relatively busy street.  Not "city" busy, but maybe 20 cars a minute busy.  I approached what appeared to be roadkill...usually a possum, skunk or raccoon in this area.  As I drew near I realized it was a small cat.  I felt a slight pain in my heart as I imagined the owners of the cat losing it, and maybe never finding out it's fate.  As I was about to pass it, it looked like the body was being blown around by the wind of the passing cars.  Then I noticed it was alive, trying to get away from the sound of the rushing cars, limping an inch at a time towards the white broken line.  I decided that at the very least I wanted to get the cat off the street.

     I pulled into the nearby shopping mall parking lot and walked back to where the cat was.  In a small break in traffic I walked into the road to the cat.  I gave it a look to assess the situation.  One front paw was completely mangled and twisted backward.  The eyes had popped out of his head, and his jaw was ground into a bloody mess.  He probably made it under the car safely, but trying to escape the noise of a car travelling at 40 MPH most likely ran right into the path of the tire smashing his head.  At this point cars had begun to slow down and stop to allow me to do something...anything.  I touched the cat on its hindquarters gently, told him it was going to be ok (liar!!) and stroked him a moment.  I was contemplating how hostile the cat might be, having been run over, most likely shocked and wearing no collar/tags.  I can only wonder how the cat's vision was, eyes out of the socket and all.  He seemed docile, but I was still careful.  He looked a lot like my cat who is very tiny despite being 5-6 years old.  So I picked him up like I pick my cat up; from her stretchy midsection with the legs dangling; staying away from the head.  He fell mostly limp but I could feel him trying to find the strength to struggle.  Carrying him to the sidewalk, I set him down gently. 

     At this point I realized that I needed to find somebody to take the cat and put it to sleep.  I tried 411 on my cell, but they found no listing for animal control in Weymouth, MA.  (Funny, I'm pretty sure I've seen the trucks around town.)  I was about to call the police and ask them when another concerned animal lover came strolling up the sidewalk.  She was decent looking, maybe pushing 40 years old, dressed in a nice summery shirt with what looked like a natural tan.  She had child-bearing hips and a hint of sensitivity about her.  I admit I looked down her shirt once to check out the goods.  (Hurting cat or not, I'm still a man.)  She tried calling her veterinarian, meanwhile we were both stroking the cat, and saying soothing words of nonsense.  Her vet didn't have a mobile service that could pick the cat up...

     Just then, from the other direction on the sidewalk came another woman.  Slightly less to look at, dressed in animal hospital garb she was carrying a towel and a cardboard cat-carrier.  I explained the situation to her, and suggested she take the cat and put it to sleep.  What I saw next irked me just a little bit.  After all that care I had put into helping this cat through it's last moments of life, the girl drapes the towel over the cat, picks it up and stuffs it into the cardboard box like a stack of pillowcases.  The cat's legs and head were the last into the box as she basically pushed the cat, body first with no regard for the appendages.  I understand she was unsure of the dangers the cat presented, as I was...but if I had known that she was going to treat the cat like so, I would have done the job for her.  After getting the cat in there, she pulled the towel back and helped arrange his mangled body into a more comfortable position.  That made me feel a little better.  She went back towards her office to take care of the cat.  The lady told me she was happy that there were other good samaritans out there who cared, I said I couldn't bear to leave the poor thing in the middle of the road half dead and we went our separate ways.

Who is in charge? Part Two

Today's technology is advancing to help deter crime in our communities. The use of time delay safes, Sensormatic tags, video cameras, alarm systems, transmitter ID cards and other tracking devices help keep losses down for companies. But how much does all this cost? How much do you have to build up a business before you can afford these securities? You may not be able to afford to feed yourself in the early stages, much less pay for security equipment. In the criminal's eye, you are a much easier target. But you have much more to lose than the bank and the large corporations that build up around them.

Walk into your local bank and take a look around. Cameras are everywhere. Each teller is covered by its own camera. The vault is usually on a time delay and closed with a massive door. Around the door is sometimes another barrier, usually bulletproof glass with a door on one side. The front door of the bank can be opened after hours with your ATM card to allow you into the lobby to use the ATM. That same mechanism can be controlled from behind the counter and in certain offices within the bank. All this to protect the money the bank deals with every day.

Now walk into your locally owned convenience store. Usually you may find a camera behind the counter. (It isn't always so nor was it common ten years ago.) But you won't find a lot of money invested in the security systems. Even a locally owned liquor store seems all too vulnerable. Why do you suppose it is such a cliche for low-life criminals to rob these stores? The stores aren't making a ton of cash as it is, and yet they are the most susceptible to a quick robbery. Even shoplifting is not very hard to do in stores such as these. The clerk(s) usually don't have time to monitor all activity in the store when there are more than 3-4 customers. A camera is no good unless you catch the thief with product on their person.

As long as we continue to support this way of life, the little man will always have a hard time. We are encouraging people to prey on the weakest, while the weakest are the infrastructure of a solid economy. The little guy is working hard, trying to survive while also cultivating a personal relationship with the community around it. The little guy can not afford to cut too many corners because his customers seehim face to face. He can't blame the guys upstairs for his misfortune. He has to deal with unhappy customers who could get their product from a large chain store for less money. Those customers are the same that will complain about shoddy workmanship, poor customer service and a lack of accountability.

It's just another way we have been pitted against each other at the whim of the bankers in this country. Obviously the bankers run this country (Insurance companies are banks with special rules.) and they have the legislature at their disposal to keep things favorable for them. A campaign donation here, a bribe there and the next thing you know, we've got a law protecting their right to foreclose on a loan to a family who is going through some temporary hard times. Then a law that makes automobile insurance mandatory.

We cannot afford (no pun intended) to let this go on. It is leading us to ruin, and when it hits cataclysmic proportions you're going to wonder what happened. The church will tell you it's judgement day, the government will declare martial law, and only the criminals will feel safe on the streets. Unless we stop this now. A common answer I get to this is, "So how do we stop this?" Well, I have some answers, but first you must see our present condition and the horrors it instills upon the world. Then we can move on. First cry, then crawl, then walk, then run. Let's just hope we're running towards freedom and away from evil

Do you realize the real message?

I've always loved this song, mostly because of the piano. Recently I noticed though that the message of the song is not what most people think of when they hear the song.  When you listen to the song you hear him say "That's just the way it is" but in reality he is trying to tell you that "they" say that.  Notice after he says, "That's just the way it is, some things will never change" he goes on to say, "but don't you believe them."  In the song he is telling a story in which a certain kind of person is saying "That's just the way it is."  He doesn't agree, and that is what the song is about.  His stance is that the little boy should be able to go where he wants to go regardless of how he looks (race).  

Bruce Hornsby
The Way It Is

Narration:  Standing in line marking time
Waiting for the welfare dime
Cause they can't buy a job

A man in a silk suit hurries by
As he catches the poor old ladies' eyes
Just for fun he says "get a job"

"They" That's just the way it is
Some things will never change
That's just the way it is
"Him" Ah - but don't you believe them

Narration: They say hey little boy you can't go
Where the others go
'cause you don't look like they do
Him: Said hey old man how can you stand
To think that way
Did you really think about it
Before you made the rules
He said, son

That's just the way it is
Some things will never change
That's just the way it is
Ah - but don't you believe them

Well they passed a law in '64
To give those who ain't got a little more
But it only goes so far
Because the law don't change in another's mind
When all it sees is the hiring time
Is the line on the color bar

That's just the way it is
Some things will never change
That's just the way it is
That's just the way it is ,it is ,it is,it is

Who is in charge? Part One

The following is an excerpt from Law in America by Lawrence M. Friedman( http://www.law.stanford.edu/faculty/friedman/ )

     The federal government is one of the great growth stories of the century )La. How could it be otherwise? Culturally and economically, this is more and more a single country. This may seem an odd statement, in the days of plural equality. Certainly, it at least seems as if the country is more fragmented than ever. All over the landscape, there are vigorous identity groups, loudly claiming their rights. One can even ask (and many people do) whether there is even such a thing as America anymore; or are there simply dozens of Americas, a black America, a gay America, an Irish America, a Jewish America, an Armenian America, an America of women, old people, students, yuppies, Mormons, deaf people, and so on. Yet, ironically, one senses a growing unity behind the yammer of all these voices. People who are looking for their "roots" are, overwhelmingly, people who have lost those very roots; people who have become part of the great American melting pot.

     All this assimilation is no accident. That there is a single economy, tightly bound together, is a reality. Goods flow easily across the borders of the states. The economy is getting more and more homogeneous. The weather in Alaska and the weather in Florida may be entirely different, but the same chain stores fill the malls, whether we are in Anchorage or Tampa. Tastes and culture are nationwide. There are, of course regional variations; but they are getting smaller and smaller. There are differences between raunchy California and the Bible Belt, to be sure; between ice-cold Alaska and tropical Hawaii; but everybody (more or less) watches the same TV shows and movies, dances to the same noisy music, wears the same styles of clothers, sings the same songs, shops at mall that are, more and more, cookie-cutter images of one another.

     According to Tip O'Neill, once speaker of the House of Representatives, all politics is local. But was Tip O'Neill really right? In a way, all politics seems to be national. The typical American sees the president on TV every day--the president, and his wife, and his family, and his associates, the house he lives in, his pets, his habilts, the skeletons in his closet. The typical American could not name his state representative to save his soul, or his member of the county board. Local politics is squeezed into obscure channels and late-night programming. And, as culture gravitates to one central point, so, too, does the law. For a good deal of our history, the states resisted any form of centralization; and "states' rights" was a rallying cry. This was true not only in the south. The federal government can do almost anything--can regulate anything--and the restrictions of federalsm do not really hem it in. The habit of looking to Washington is too firmly ingrained. People demand national solutions to national problems. The Supreme Court can fine-tune the boundaries; some tasks can be handed back to the states to manage; but the core, the federal core, is almost certain to stay strong and intact. In times of crisis--the Great Depression, the two world wars, the savage attack on the World Trade Center in September 2001--The country looks to its leader, to its center, to the national government.Neither Social Security nor the atom bomb nor the war on terrorsis will be handed over to Kentucky or Vermont

This did not happen overnight, or without resistance.

-----------------------------------------

 

The road less traveled

     I find my visual artistic skills to be limited. I can make things look nice, but usually within the confines of a structure. I have painted four plaster casts. Three of them had detailed structure. A snail with texture, a brick castle a king on a throne, and a yin-yang disk. The yin-yang disk was simple and smooth. It turned out the ugliest. The other three required special attention to detail. I am very proud of them. When left to create the entire image, I struggle. When given certain guidelines I floursih.

     This holds true in other areas of my life. In music, give me a tempo and I can find a chord structure. Give me a chord structure, I can give you a melody. All music I create has a structure imprinted on my brain. Tempo and time scale have already been taught to me. Put me in a job with a specific set of procedures, I rise to the top easily. Restaurants, gas stations, dog kennels, department stores, cab driving...they all have a very basic job description. Restaurants: take order, take payment, cook food, serve food, clean up. Gas stations: Add up gas and products, announce total, take payment, re-stock, clean up. Dog kennels: play with dogs, feed dogs, clean up after dogs. Department stores: Re-stock items, answer questions about items, take money for items. Cab driving: use map to find passenger, pick up passenger, use map to find destination, drop off passenger. Eventually you can skip the map.

     Currently, I own my own business. It's not exactly struggling, but it isn't very established either. The thing is, I have to make my own rules most of the time. I am bound by the National Electric Code of course, but even that is not always strictly enforced. I am supposed to get a permit from the government to do any work in any location. I get my permits at times, but sometimes I see no need to pay the government to tell me that I did a good job. Even when I do get a permit, the inspector may not notice a problem, or outright allow a situation that is against the Code. My point being, there isn't a hard handbook to what I do. I have to take work from customers who are scattered all over my area. Most can't imagine how many different tasks I end up doing, but regardless it is much harder than the other jobs I have worked in my life. I must say, I like it this way. I don't want to take the easy road. I may struggle for longer, but I am sure the reward will be greater. The longer you let a problem exist, the harder it is to repair the damage; the more effort needed to put into a cause, the greater the reward.

Bait and switch

Over the winter all my audio and video equipment said goodnight. Except for my stereo which is actually the oldest component I own. So I finally got around to buying a combination DVD/VCR player from Wal-Mart. I was extremely low on money, but sitting in my house with no money and no way to watch movies, or any of the million Simpson episodes I have on tape (Shhhh, I'm not broadcasting them for money) was boring me to tears.. I bought an inexpensive model made by Emerson hoping it would at least keep me occupied until later in the summer when I would have the money to purchase a higher quality model. Right away there is a problem. It had a hard time ejecting VHS tapes. They kept catching on the inner-workings making it necessary for me to give it a little nudge to get the rectangle to come out of the rectangular hole. At first I thought I wouldn't mind, but then it decided it didn't want to give my tapes back anymore. The machine was taunting me by letting the tape out just enough for me to try to grab it before it swallowed it back in. I had to use a screwdriver and needle nose pliers to get my movie back.

Of course if you have been reading this journal you know that I can't possibly think it's a good idea to waste your time with this little story. You know I must have an agenda. Suprisingly enough, I'm not even going to write about the cliche, "They don't make 'em like they used to," which I will go on for hours about some other day. What I want to tell you is what I discovered when I went to return the cheap junk for a little bit nicer, less-cheap junk.

Perusing the little selection they had for me to choose from, I saw the new model I wanted to buy, picked it up to feel how heavy it was, noticed that the inputs were stereo instead of mono, and it was only $15 more than the one I had originally bought. Just below the displays are the actual boxed ready-to-buy models. I pick one up and notice that the model in the box is not in stereo and has the VCR/DVD slots switched. I'm no idiot, it was very clear which models were available and the boxes below were not scattered around the way you would expect to see. I look closer and notice I was hoping to buy the 6100 model, but the one in the box was a 7100A model. I didn't understand why the supposedly newer higher-numbered model wouldn't have stereo sound in this day of home theatre revolution.

I looked at a few of the other models and noticed a pattern. they had 3 VCR's 2 DVD players and 2 Combination DVD/VCR's. In all but two instances, the display was a nicer version of the models in the boxes below. Almost all of the boxes contained units that weren't in stereo. What upset me more is that I could see one model, but I couldn't buy it based on my conclusions; and I could buy the ones in boxes, but I couldn't check out the product. It's almost like a bait and switch. Furthermore, why are the newer models of inferior quality? Aren't the products supposed to get better with each new version of a product? As I've said before, the greed at the top of the socio-economic food chain will only get worse and try to get more and more for their dollar. Outsourcing their jobs to cheap workers overseas, who have less mind to quality as it is, never mind the working conditions they endure. But as I said before, I'll gear up for the "They don't make 'em like they used to," rant later.

You may ask why I am asking so much of Wal-Mart, or why I would even support such a monstrosity of a corporation. I will only dignify one of those with a response...for now. Think about who generally shops at Wal-Mart. People without a lot of money. Obviously there are exceptions to the rule, and for cheapskate's who are well to do looking to miser their money, they deserve to get screwed. But some people have no choice. They can't get a good job, maybe they weren't born with the intelligence or physical ability to make any more than their meaningless job on the assembly line. So not only are they too poor to go anywhere else, but their intelligence is capitalized on because they would not notice the disparities between the displays and the actual packaged product. They need to hold on to what little money they have and then they get screwed out of that. Of course I had a good long talk with the manager of the department. I didn't bring in my social views, just pointed out that it was wrong to show you one thing and sell you another. He didn't even notice til I pointed it out, and he told me not to be suprised if they are all changed by the end of the weekend. (Today is Friday) That is, if the company can afford to lose a few hundred dollars by opening a box for each of the new models and sacrificing it to the shelf.

Globalization

Question:  What is the truest definition of Globalization?

Answer: Princess Diana's death. 

Question: How come?
Answer: An English princess with an Egyptian boyfriend crashes in a French tunnel, driving a German car with a Dutch engine,
 driven by a Belgian who was drunk on Scottish whisky, (check the bottle before you change the spelling) followed closely by Italian Paparazzi,
 on Japanese motorcycles; treated by an American doctor, using Brazilian
 medicines. This is sent to you by an Englishman, using Bill Gates' American 
technology, and you're probably reading this on your computer, that use Taiwanese  chips, and a Korean monitor, assembled by Bangladeshi workers in a Singapore  plant, transported by Indian lorry-drivers, hijacked by Indonesians, unloaded by
Sicilian longshoremen, and trucked to you by Mexican illegals.....
 That, my friends, is Globalization!

I know, I'm mailing it in

You have a choice, but you may have to re-examine your way of thinking very thoroughly. The pull of the socially accepted way of doing things is amazingly strong, and trips up the best of us despite our good intentions. It takes a certain kind of independent thinker to be "job-free". We use that term rather than "unemployed", in an effort to convey to people that we're proud, not ashamed, of not having regular jobs. We also make an important distinction between jobs and work. All of us do some kind of work, though not necessarily for monetary compensation.