A Nod To The Gods

I don’t know where all of you stand on the union issue but I do have a few thoughts.

In 1911 in NYC the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory burst into flames, 148 young women ranging in age from 16 to 23 died. Some jumped from windows to the street below, others jumped down an elevator shaft to escape the flames, only one of the two elevators was working on the ten story building and they were on the top three floors. The factory was a disaster waiting to happen, and the women worked in terrible conditions.

In 1825 there was a strike for the ten-hour workday in Boston. Ten years later the children employed in the silk mills of Paterson, New Jersey, went on strike for the 11-hour workday, six day work week. In 1827, a mechanics union was formed in Philadelphia-the country’s first labor organization. Unions were developed to protect the employee from abuse and were necessary. I don’t question the need for unions at that time.

 

 

In 1989 my ex-wife was pressuring me to work for a steady company where I lived. It was a steel mill which was built in the 1940’s for the war department. Being the dutiful husband that I am, I applied, and was employed by the mill……it was the worst 8 months of my life.
Most of the 3000 employees had been there for years and no matter how hard I worked or how good of an employee I was, I could never pass the guy hired one badge number higher than mine. That guy weighed 300 plus pounds and was constantly off work for some medical reason, I could work circles around the man but when it came promotion time guess who got promoted, yep, that guy.
I never signed up for the steel workers union nor did I want to. The work was shift work and it was dirty, toxic, and disgusting, I guess like you would assume a steel mill to be. I left for a computer job that paid me half what I was making but the environment and training I received set me up for the rest of my life. The steel mill? It shutdown in the 90’s due to labor costs and cheap steel shipped form China. 2500 workers trained in one thing and one thing only out of a job, just like that.

Flash to 2012 and this story of what unions have become, and what taxpayers burdens are for these “union employees”.

Terry List, a teacher in Saginaw Township, Mich., has a depressing lesson for her students: “I would not recommend to my pupils to become a teacher in Michigan.”

What’s discouraging her? A proposed pension-reform bill in Michigan would derail her plans to retire — at age 47.

After these rapacious reforms, List would have to work another 16 years, to age 63, in order to earn her retiree health-care benefits. “I understand we have to tighten our belts,” she laments, “but we don’t have to use a tourniquet and cut off the blood supply entirely.” Under the reforms, such a tourniquet means she could still retire now and have a guaranteed income for the rest of her life, but she’d have to pay for her own health care until age 65 — like, you know, most Americans.

Unions, especially governement unions, are paid for by the taxpayer. Their gracious pensions and benefits are unsustainable. Yet here we are…and it is pathetic, unless you are a government employee.

What a MK-48 torpedo can do…
You have never seen footage where a single torpedo does damage like this.
It’s a US made (non nuclear) torpedo that is in use today by our
submarines. Very precise, very accurate and very powerful. This is the
Australian Submarine Navy doing a live torpedo practice shot on one of
their decommissioned ships. They used a MK-48 torpedo developed in the
  USA . It is not a contact weapon. It is designed to go off directly
underneath the ship at about 50 feet under the keel. The effect is
devastating as you can see from the video.

What the hell? A state Governor decides that drug testing is needed and a federal judge overrules him, citing no reason for the testing.

Every job that I apply for not only drug tests for consideration of that postition, but also randomly drug tests year round. Read further and you will see the state workers union involvement. Once again any kind of government union workers will be above the rules. And if I remember right, workers compensation required that we drug test or face extremely high rates. Just not right dammit!

A federal judge declared Gov. Rick Scott’s order requiring drug testing for some 85,000 state workers unconstitutional Thursday, saying the governor showed no evidence of a drug problem at the agencies to warrant suspicionless testing.

  The ruling marks the second blow to Scott’s proposals regarding drug testing. The governor also suspended a state law he supported that required drug testing for welfare recipients last year after a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. A federal judge in Orlando has temporarily blocked that law.
 
The ACLU and a government worker’s union also filed a lawsuit last year challenging Scott’s order to drug test state employees, saying the testing violates the Fourth Amendment by subjecting state workers to an unreasonable search without adequate suspicion that they used drugs. Scott, who suspended drug testing for state employees in June, said he will appeal Thursday’s ruling.
 
“As I have repeatedly explained, I believe that drug testing state employees is a common sense means of ensuring a safe, efficient and productive workforce,” Scott said in a statement. “That is why so many private employers drug test, and why the public and Florida’s taxpayers overwhelmingly support this policy.”

What a bunch of bullshit…..they should be held to the same standards as the private sector, especially if state workers compensation requires it for private companies!

 

Grass getting green, blossoms on the trees, flowers blooming and as the temperatures rise we can shed the winter clothes.
Spring is good for the soul!

Had a few people ask me what is the reasoning behind my blog name. Well, check out the 0.52 mark of this clip, this is where the name came from.

Now you know.

Michael Moore says that Fox News is possibly involved in phone hacking scandal…pfft.

Sarandon said she’s had to endure scrutiny of a different kind: the watchful eyes of the federal government. She said that, for reasons unknown to her, she was recently denied security clearance to visit the White House. Asked by an audience member if she thought she was “under surveillance,” Sarandon said she was sure of it. “I’ve gotten my file twice under the Freedom of Information Act … I’ve had my phone tapped,” she revealed.

Toward the end of the chat, Sarandon asked Moore to share his insights on how to make the world a better place. Moore hesitated at first, but finally encouraged the crowd to “be part of Occupy Wall Street,” “run for office,” and “get involved with any organization that is working to get money out of politics.”

 

Where do they come up with this shit??