"An honest day's work for an honest day's wage." Anyone ever heard of that? What happened to hard work and loyalty? No, this isn't just about lazy employees, it's also about the lazy execs who don't know what it's like to be down in the trenches with the rest of us. Too much emphasis is placed on getting rich quick, flipping some stock options and then saying "screw you, I got mine."
Whether it's management cooking the books like they did in my time at Sprint, those who scam members of their own community like they do up in Boro Park, or those who turn to a life of selling drugs instead of honest work, there is no work ethic anymore. It's just become about who can manipulate the situation better than the next, then retreat to their newly bought island paradise.
If your employer treats you well, you should go above and beyond to repay that kindness. They should do the same for you. After all, you end up spending almost as much time with each other as you do your spouse or significant other and you probably rely on each other almost as much.
I believe in loyalty but not out of blind stupidity. I believe in giving an employer or employee every benefit of a doubt and every bit of loyalty until it is not given in return. Workplace safety violations, corruption, discrimination and such should at least be given the chance to be rectified by management before being kicked over to OSHA and such. However, in my past experiences, those kind of issues are usually ignored until they are forced to by some type of regulatory agencies.
I should mention that I have had the fortune of working for a couple of small businesses who treated their employees quite well. In fact, knowing then what I know now, I'd have never left.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
OpenID
Going forward, all comments will require users to sign in using Google or their OpenID. While I wish to allow continued conversation, nasty comments and trolling will require a name and a face from now on. Thanks for your understanding.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Viva la revolucion!
As I said once before, some months back, change is coming. You see, you cannot hide the truth from people forever, especially in our age of instantaneous news sharing. It is that pesky 1st Amendment, backed by the power of the 2nd Amendment, which is helping to keep men and women equal. There only so many bullets available to only so many people willing to fire upon their own countrymen in the defense of corrupt regimes.
Greed can only hold up for so long. Without the proper balance, it goes flying off into repression and it will violently get ripped back into some sort of balance. Don't try to scare us with the boogey man of "communism" as it is just an over-reaction to the excesses of unchecked corporate power. The only difference between the US and the Middle East is that here, our propaganda machine is just a little better oiled and more refined. In the Middle East, the enemy is the Jews and the West. Here, it's Muslims and liberals. On both sides of the coin, there are people who benefit greatly from keeping this lie going and they are scared shitless now that it is crumbling. The Iron Curtain is falling thanks to Google, Wikileaks, Julian Assange, Youtube and Twitter.
Greed can only hold up for so long. Without the proper balance, it goes flying off into repression and it will violently get ripped back into some sort of balance. Don't try to scare us with the boogey man of "communism" as it is just an over-reaction to the excesses of unchecked corporate power. The only difference between the US and the Middle East is that here, our propaganda machine is just a little better oiled and more refined. In the Middle East, the enemy is the Jews and the West. Here, it's Muslims and liberals. On both sides of the coin, there are people who benefit greatly from keeping this lie going and they are scared shitless now that it is crumbling. The Iron Curtain is falling thanks to Google, Wikileaks, Julian Assange, Youtube and Twitter.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Sometimes, I just don't have the words
I've been slacking on writing lately. It's not that I don't have the ideas, it's that I've got this little bit of happiness that lately has been keeping me from being the passionate, sometimes cynical bastard that I usually find myself being after a couple of beers. Right now, I'm happy, goofy happy. She's amazing and I'm enjoying it like I'm 17 all over again. So, sorry that I have been slacking lately, I'm just riding this little high.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
A bottle and catharsis
Someday, I will go grinning on to my watery grave, just pour the right drinks and play the right music. Whiskey makes it all ok, a euphoric catharsis as you spill the words out across the paper like your final slurred reach for the last shot from an empty bottle. Oh tonight, could you just last a little longer than the combination of all the right meanings and the end of my music library?
Death, I do not fear you but my greatest regret would be leaving this world with things left unsaid, words unwritten and going to meet my Maker completely sober.
Death, I do not fear you but my greatest regret would be leaving this world with things left unsaid, words unwritten and going to meet my Maker completely sober.
Friday, February 11, 2011
My hopes for Egypt
Egypt is not Iran, nor is it Iraq or any other country. To lump them in with all the other governments of the Middle East/Africa is intellectually lazy and insulting. More than anything, it proves a belief that Americans are ignorant not only of world affairs but also of Islam. Despite what the likes of Beck and Hannity or any of the others harbingers of doom want you to think, not every Muslim wants to install a global caliphate nor do they want to destroy America. What it does show is that they are still completely sworn to the neoconservative ideal which seems to finally be rapidly loosing support in the GOP.
The problem we do face is that for decades, the US has propped up dictators like Hussein, Mubarak, Noriega and others in the interests of access to resources or canals. To think the people of those countries wouldn't hold that against us when they do finally get to choose their new government is naive. In this case, we didn't instigate regime change but we did prop it up and human nature is to get away from the chains that bound as far as possible when the chance presents itself. What I do think will happen is that Egypt is a more secular and advanced nation than say Afghanistan and while the new government will be probably less a puppet of the US, I do not believe that they will become anything like a fanatical theocracy. Once a country has become accustomed to technology, freedom and sadly, consumerism, they are not very likely to revert to a religious and paranoid political system although ironically, we may end up headed there before Egypt.
The problem we do face is that for decades, the US has propped up dictators like Hussein, Mubarak, Noriega and others in the interests of access to resources or canals. To think the people of those countries wouldn't hold that against us when they do finally get to choose their new government is naive. In this case, we didn't instigate regime change but we did prop it up and human nature is to get away from the chains that bound as far as possible when the chance presents itself. What I do think will happen is that Egypt is a more secular and advanced nation than say Afghanistan and while the new government will be probably less a puppet of the US, I do not believe that they will become anything like a fanatical theocracy. Once a country has become accustomed to technology, freedom and sadly, consumerism, they are not very likely to revert to a religious and paranoid political system although ironically, we may end up headed there before Egypt.
Monday, February 7, 2011
What skinhead really means
If you knew the truth, most people don't. It's not about racism or the the Third Reich fetish that the news people have such a ratings hard-on for. It's is almost as if they have a mission to cast all of it as something so dangerous to keep people from looking at a way of life that actually has a moral code, a set of values and respect.
Real skinheads are not racists. Many of the original skinheads back in the late 1960's were in fact black Jamaican dockworkers who hung out with white working class kids and enjoyed the same music. So fuck the BNP, fuck Aryan Nations, fuck the National Socialists, fuck the KKK and the Hitler obsessed media. Fuck the Hammerskins, fuck the National Front, fuck Ian Stuart (and bless the tree he ran into), fuck Skrewdriver, fuck white power and fuck those who only believe what the media scoops out for them. There is no racial hatred with real skinheads but never let it be said there isn't a complete loathing and hatred for bull shit and racists.
What skinhead really means is being working class and not taking shit from middle management, being proud of your work ethic, having a sense of honor and decency, as well as the family you have. Whether your job is flipping burgers or working in a factory, you take pride in that and do the very best job you can. You work hard, play harder. You live the right way and take shit from no one. You give it all you got and never let the bastards grind you down.
As for me, I have been a skinhead for nearly a decade now. It was the next logical progressive step in maturity after growing bored with much of the nihilistic rebellion that is punk rock. I don't tell most people I deal with that I am a skinhead until I get to know them well enough. It really takes a person with an open mind to first accept the true story and then comprehend the thought of a Jew who is also a skin. Those people are few and far between but I am proud to call them my friends.
Real skinheads are not racists. Many of the original skinheads back in the late 1960's were in fact black Jamaican dockworkers who hung out with white working class kids and enjoyed the same music. So fuck the BNP, fuck Aryan Nations, fuck the National Socialists, fuck the KKK and the Hitler obsessed media. Fuck the Hammerskins, fuck the National Front, fuck Ian Stuart (and bless the tree he ran into), fuck Skrewdriver, fuck white power and fuck those who only believe what the media scoops out for them. There is no racial hatred with real skinheads but never let it be said there isn't a complete loathing and hatred for bull shit and racists.
What skinhead really means is being working class and not taking shit from middle management, being proud of your work ethic, having a sense of honor and decency, as well as the family you have. Whether your job is flipping burgers or working in a factory, you take pride in that and do the very best job you can. You work hard, play harder. You live the right way and take shit from no one. You give it all you got and never let the bastards grind you down.
As for me, I have been a skinhead for nearly a decade now. It was the next logical progressive step in maturity after growing bored with much of the nihilistic rebellion that is punk rock. I don't tell most people I deal with that I am a skinhead until I get to know them well enough. It really takes a person with an open mind to first accept the true story and then comprehend the thought of a Jew who is also a skin. Those people are few and far between but I am proud to call them my friends.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Palin in the nude
I saw this in an art gallery window this past fall and couldn't resist snapping a photo with my phone. I'm sure there's people disappointed with the result Google gave them. Hahahaha
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
America's national case of PTSD
With the pudgy jester of doom once again preaching the impending Apocalypse over the uprising in Egypt, I continue to wonder, what the fuck are we all so afraid of? For a nation that is so enamored with guns, war, ultimate fighting and other assorted acts of violence, we certainly seem to be awful worried about a couple sparring crowds that are using rocks and sticks as their main weapons. Why are we afraid? Because we're told to be afraid, because that is what sells ratings.
We seem to be suffering from a national case of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) ever since 9-11-2001. According to the Mayo Clinic, if you could diagnose an entire nation, we'd fit many of the symptoms as noted here.
Flashbacks or reliving the traumatic event:
I don't think you can go a day without some pundit bringing up 9-11 and how "it changed everything".
Hopelessness about the future:
Just turn on Fox News...the world is going to end soon, buy gold.
Hearing or seeing things that aren't there:
Again, Fox News...
Being easily startled or frightened:
I'd say again, Fox News but I'm beating a dead horse with that one at this point.
These are just a few examples and you can read all of the symptoms on my link but it does raise an interesting concept of us as a nation still coping with a traumatic event almost 10 years in the past now. It was as if after that event, we became an irrational and angry country, willing to accept any excuse for war and any violations of our national ethics so long as we thought it would keep us safe.
I'd also say that there are those who have made a very handsome living by exploiting the event for their own gain by convincing us daily that there is some type of plot ready to once again make us relive the tragedy of that September morning any day now. Are there people out there that want to do that? Absolutely, but that doesn't need to turn us into a nation of bed-wetters. Come on people, we bankrupted communist Russia, nuked Japan twice, put people on the moon and own more guns per capita than any other countries but we allowed some idiot who caused no damage (other than to his testicles) to make us have to get full body scans every time we want to get on a plane?
I say it's time we man up, stop allowing people to manipulate us into fighting each other and instead demand our civil liberties back. It's what Chuck Norris would do.
We seem to be suffering from a national case of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) ever since 9-11-2001. According to the Mayo Clinic, if you could diagnose an entire nation, we'd fit many of the symptoms as noted here.
Flashbacks or reliving the traumatic event:
I don't think you can go a day without some pundit bringing up 9-11 and how "it changed everything".
Hopelessness about the future:
Just turn on Fox News...the world is going to end soon, buy gold.
Hearing or seeing things that aren't there:
Again, Fox News...
Being easily startled or frightened:
I'd say again, Fox News but I'm beating a dead horse with that one at this point.
These are just a few examples and you can read all of the symptoms on my link but it does raise an interesting concept of us as a nation still coping with a traumatic event almost 10 years in the past now. It was as if after that event, we became an irrational and angry country, willing to accept any excuse for war and any violations of our national ethics so long as we thought it would keep us safe.
I'd also say that there are those who have made a very handsome living by exploiting the event for their own gain by convincing us daily that there is some type of plot ready to once again make us relive the tragedy of that September morning any day now. Are there people out there that want to do that? Absolutely, but that doesn't need to turn us into a nation of bed-wetters. Come on people, we bankrupted communist Russia, nuked Japan twice, put people on the moon and own more guns per capita than any other countries but we allowed some idiot who caused no damage (other than to his testicles) to make us have to get full body scans every time we want to get on a plane?
I say it's time we man up, stop allowing people to manipulate us into fighting each other and instead demand our civil liberties back. It's what Chuck Norris would do.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)