I've been silent for a little while. Work commitments have kept me busy. And I've been quietly watching to see how things develop on the Obama front. But sometimes things happen that require we put down the toys we are playing with, and take a moment to address the state of things.
Kanye, really? REALLY? You thought it would be a good idea to steal the spotlight and ruin the moment of a lifetime for a 19 year old girl to run your big mouth about...what was it this time....Beyonce didn't win the award you wanted? Jay Leno asked you how you thought your mother would feel about your antics. You ducked your head and muttered a reply. Let me help you out. She would SMACK you upside that no-class head of yours and remind you that she raised you with better manners than that. Enough said. Someone please take the microphone away from that dumb boy. It doesn't even matter if he has spoken yet. Just take it away. He's proven he cannot resist the temptation to share his stupidity. Now can we please move on.
We move on because Kanye was not the only person with a big mouth this week. In fact, this mouth was so big, it did not require a microphone. It shouted out like a coward from a crowd of its cronies and did what? Called the President of the United States (our beloved POTUS) a liar! On national (and now international) television. WTF? Do you live in this country? Were you raised by wild animals? That is the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. He is your leader. It does not matter if you like him - you better respect him. Respect him enough to not shout at him like you are heckling a basketball game at Madison Square Gardens. You're not at MSG. You're in CONGRESS for Christ's sake. Stop acting like a toddler.
We seem to have lost the art of respecting one another as human beings in our beloved country. Kanye gave away his respect by acting like a child. But does anyone, besides Taylor Swift, really care? He's an entertainer. A marginal one at that. But when members of Congress so grossly disrepsect our President, these things cannot be ignored. The United States is disrespected by a very large portion of the globe. Don't get me wrong, when they need our money they will come to our door sweet talking and begging. But the globe does not respect us. They do not take us, or our POTUS, seriously. And why should they. For 8 years it was acceptable for Congress, the media at large, and Amercians in general to ridicule, complain about, make fun of and generally disrespect George Bush. Obama himself was frequently disrespectful to the President. Now that he is wearing the Presidential hat, he may see exactly how wrong and how destructive that is. Unfortunately, the rest of us have yet to catch on. We cannot expect the world to respect our President, and by proxy us, if we cannot respect ourselves enough not to allow our Congressmen to act like toddlers. Whether I "like" Obama no longer matters. He is the President. We elected him. Now we need to respect him and the job that he does. We can respectfully disagree with his ideas, actions, and even his choice of shoes if we wish. We have a Constitution with a Bill of Rights that allows us that freedom. But nowhere in either of those documents does it give us the freedom to be blatantly disrepectful to one another. It's time to grow up people!
R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
Aretha - no one has ever said it better than you.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
How To Fix An Economy In Crisis
Unless you have been living under a rock on a deserted island somewhere in the tropics this week, you have been watching with semi-shock and awe as the details of the AIG debacle have begun to surface and hit the airwaves. Many millions of dollars have been paid out in bonus compensation to high-level executives while the company has accepted BILLIONS of dollars of government bail-out money to keep their company "afloat". I do not have an MBA from Harvard. In fact, I'd be bold enough to say that my IQ probably doesn't reside in the Superstar Genius range either. But I'd like the half-wits who currently run AIG (and other like companies who are also currently under the microscope - yes you too GM) to get out their Handy Dandy Notebooks (Blues Clues seems right about on their economic intelligence level) and begin writing.
(1) Retrieve the bonus money. Some of the executives have already been shamed into returning it. Let's extend that and light ALL their asses on fire. (2) DO NOT SPEND THIS MONEY! You are not equipped with enough common sense for this task. Please leave it to those who are able. (3) Immediately cease and desist all executive office renovations. Yes, this does specifically refer to the $1 million PLUS dollars currently being spent on this by one of you numbskulls for your CEO and a few of his "executive staff". (4) Land all corporate jets until further notice. Flights will be booked on public airlines. And you will be sitting in coach. Suck it up and get used to it. (5) Look around you at your neighbors. At least one of you does not provide significant value or ROI to your employer. Say good bye to that person (or begin packing up your own belongings). It's time to tighten the belts and get tough.
I would like to propose a significant, albeit unusual, solution to a lot of the problems the economy is currently experiencing. I would like you to take those hundreds of millions of dollars and spend them wisely. First, I want you to evaluate each of the employees working for your company, TOP TO BOTTOM. Those who do not provide significant value to your organization: please hand them their two-weeks severence pay and show them the door. Please provide several boxes for your CEO. I hear he has a lot of stuff.
Now, begin writing checks. Each one of those checks for $20,000. I'd like you to pass one of those checks to each of the persons employed on your staff who earn less than $35,000 anually. I'd like you to write some additional checks. Each one of those checks for $10,000. I'd like you pass one of those checks to each of the persons employed on your staff who earn between $20,001 and $65,000. Just THINK about what that would do for employee retention - those value-driven employees who are the heart and soul of your business. Think about the number of homes that would be saved from forclosure. Think about the thousands of dollars that would be put directly into our economy through consumerism. Sam Walton just had a wet dream.
I heard a newscaster the other evening propose that the best possible benefit any employer could provide to their employees would be to buy them a house. It would solve many of the money issues their employees currently are experiencing. It would reduce the forclosure rates. The surge in home sales would help reinflate the housing market. Things would be good again.
While that is a bold idea, I don't believe we even need to go that far. I do believe that many of these companies need to start cleaning their cupboards. Have a garage sale - get rid of your "junk". Keep the brightest and best (p.s. - those are not necessarily those who are earning the big paychecks). Reduce your size to something that is reasonable and manageable - manageable being the key factor here. I bet you'll find that what you have is not a revenue stream problem, but a spending problem.
In the past few decades we have seen companies merging to form mega-corporations. Not just small companies becoming larger companies - but large corporations merging into giant monopolies that do not provide value to the business climate in our country. These mergers did not "save" the miilions of dollars that were promised. Instead, those millions of dollars have eneded up in the pockets of the CEOs and executives who orchestrated the mergers. This current economy is showing the weakness of these mega-corporations. They are pariahs. They have weakened the ecomony, the general welfare of Americans and our GDP. Mega-corporations do NOT run efficiently. They are a drain on American resources, from the large government handouts they get to the relocation of hundreds of thousands of jobs to foreign locations. They take millions from our government in "welfare" handouts and tax-breaks which were intended not to aid mega-corporations, but to aid smaller businesses and corporations in bringing jobs to our communities. They do not promote capitalism - they actually inhibit it by preventing smaller companies from sharing the market. And atop all of this quagmire is a CEO who is getting paid far more than he (or she, but usually he) is worth, spending extravagantly on the corporate expense account, and providing little to no value to the company itself. We have been creating a colony of blood-sucking insects in these mega-corporations. This economy is the perfect environment to extermine the insects - and I'm here to hand out fly-swatters.
Anyone want one?????
(1) Retrieve the bonus money. Some of the executives have already been shamed into returning it. Let's extend that and light ALL their asses on fire. (2) DO NOT SPEND THIS MONEY! You are not equipped with enough common sense for this task. Please leave it to those who are able. (3) Immediately cease and desist all executive office renovations. Yes, this does specifically refer to the $1 million PLUS dollars currently being spent on this by one of you numbskulls for your CEO and a few of his "executive staff". (4) Land all corporate jets until further notice. Flights will be booked on public airlines. And you will be sitting in coach. Suck it up and get used to it. (5) Look around you at your neighbors. At least one of you does not provide significant value or ROI to your employer. Say good bye to that person (or begin packing up your own belongings). It's time to tighten the belts and get tough.
I would like to propose a significant, albeit unusual, solution to a lot of the problems the economy is currently experiencing. I would like you to take those hundreds of millions of dollars and spend them wisely. First, I want you to evaluate each of the employees working for your company, TOP TO BOTTOM. Those who do not provide significant value to your organization: please hand them their two-weeks severence pay and show them the door. Please provide several boxes for your CEO. I hear he has a lot of stuff.
Now, begin writing checks. Each one of those checks for $20,000. I'd like you to pass one of those checks to each of the persons employed on your staff who earn less than $35,000 anually. I'd like you to write some additional checks. Each one of those checks for $10,000. I'd like you pass one of those checks to each of the persons employed on your staff who earn between $20,001 and $65,000. Just THINK about what that would do for employee retention - those value-driven employees who are the heart and soul of your business. Think about the number of homes that would be saved from forclosure. Think about the thousands of dollars that would be put directly into our economy through consumerism. Sam Walton just had a wet dream.
I heard a newscaster the other evening propose that the best possible benefit any employer could provide to their employees would be to buy them a house. It would solve many of the money issues their employees currently are experiencing. It would reduce the forclosure rates. The surge in home sales would help reinflate the housing market. Things would be good again.
While that is a bold idea, I don't believe we even need to go that far. I do believe that many of these companies need to start cleaning their cupboards. Have a garage sale - get rid of your "junk". Keep the brightest and best (p.s. - those are not necessarily those who are earning the big paychecks). Reduce your size to something that is reasonable and manageable - manageable being the key factor here. I bet you'll find that what you have is not a revenue stream problem, but a spending problem.
In the past few decades we have seen companies merging to form mega-corporations. Not just small companies becoming larger companies - but large corporations merging into giant monopolies that do not provide value to the business climate in our country. These mergers did not "save" the miilions of dollars that were promised. Instead, those millions of dollars have eneded up in the pockets of the CEOs and executives who orchestrated the mergers. This current economy is showing the weakness of these mega-corporations. They are pariahs. They have weakened the ecomony, the general welfare of Americans and our GDP. Mega-corporations do NOT run efficiently. They are a drain on American resources, from the large government handouts they get to the relocation of hundreds of thousands of jobs to foreign locations. They take millions from our government in "welfare" handouts and tax-breaks which were intended not to aid mega-corporations, but to aid smaller businesses and corporations in bringing jobs to our communities. They do not promote capitalism - they actually inhibit it by preventing smaller companies from sharing the market. And atop all of this quagmire is a CEO who is getting paid far more than he (or she, but usually he) is worth, spending extravagantly on the corporate expense account, and providing little to no value to the company itself. We have been creating a colony of blood-sucking insects in these mega-corporations. This economy is the perfect environment to extermine the insects - and I'm here to hand out fly-swatters.
Anyone want one?????
Monday, January 26, 2009
OK Mr. President, I'm Waiting
CHANGE
You promised it. Said you could do it - you WOULD do it. Said it would be glorious - exactly what this country needs. You said you were going to fix things - make things better. All we had to do was vote for you. You said that change would happen now - that it had to happen now. Then you later admitted that of course change takes time - it can't happen now. It's not an overnight process.
Fast forward to January 20. You sly dog. You stand before this great country and take an oath. An oath to serve and protect. An oath to uphold. And now you tell us - it's up to us to change. America can be great again - but it's up to us to make it that way. We have the power and responsibility to change things, to make them better. Us, not you. But didn't we always? And if we have the power - well then remind me why we needed you? That's right - you were going to change Washington - change the way things are done.
Yes it is all rhetoric. It's your rhetoric and now my rhetoric. But Mr. President - I'm still waiting. 4 years ago, the press and media shamed the President of our great nation for spending 42 million dollars for his inauguration while our country was feeling such dire pains and pinches. 42 Million dollars for a silly ceremony and celebration.
Fast forward 4 years. Thank you President Obama for showing this great country the error of our Capitol's ways. 120 million dollars spent on your inauguration. Three times more than the previous administration. While our country is bleeding from every orifice. This is how you change Washington - change the way things are done.
Thank you Mr. President. Things are becoming crystal clear already. Change is eminent. But Mr. President......I'm still waiting.
You promised it. Said you could do it - you WOULD do it. Said it would be glorious - exactly what this country needs. You said you were going to fix things - make things better. All we had to do was vote for you. You said that change would happen now - that it had to happen now. Then you later admitted that of course change takes time - it can't happen now. It's not an overnight process.
Fast forward to January 20. You sly dog. You stand before this great country and take an oath. An oath to serve and protect. An oath to uphold. And now you tell us - it's up to us to change. America can be great again - but it's up to us to make it that way. We have the power and responsibility to change things, to make them better. Us, not you. But didn't we always? And if we have the power - well then remind me why we needed you? That's right - you were going to change Washington - change the way things are done.
Yes it is all rhetoric. It's your rhetoric and now my rhetoric. But Mr. President - I'm still waiting. 4 years ago, the press and media shamed the President of our great nation for spending 42 million dollars for his inauguration while our country was feeling such dire pains and pinches. 42 Million dollars for a silly ceremony and celebration.
Fast forward 4 years. Thank you President Obama for showing this great country the error of our Capitol's ways. 120 million dollars spent on your inauguration. Three times more than the previous administration. While our country is bleeding from every orifice. This is how you change Washington - change the way things are done.
Thank you Mr. President. Things are becoming crystal clear already. Change is eminent. But Mr. President......I'm still waiting.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Catching Up With Old Enemies
OK, maybe they weren't really enemies. But they certainly weren't friends. Frenemies. I'm talking about the people you went to school with. Not the ones you ate lunch with, copied homework from or sneaked a Friday night beer with. I'm talking about the faces you passed in the halls every day, year after year. The kid who sat next to you in your 5th hour class who scraped your nerves like a cheese grater. The one who everyone thought was a geek, a nerd, a dweeb, a princess, a jock.....god, this is starting to sound like movie someone made once.
Now flash forward 5 years, 10 years, 15 years, 30 years....Who are those people now? I'm getting in touch with people I haven't seen since high school. People I've never talked to before. Certainly not when we were actually in high school together. I had no time for these people then. So why is now, when my life is as busy as it has ever been do I feel the need to reconnect with these people? It's class reunion time. It's looming in the near future. This morbid curiosity we all possess that makes us want to see these people again just to see who has succeeded. Who's done better than me? Who remembers me? Who is not with us anymore?
I'm not usually the sentimental type. I've not kept in touch with these people. None of them. High school ended. I moved on to college, jobs, career, relationships, real life. I moved out of state - more than once. I left it all behind me. Yet somehow, every few years it manages to pull me back for just a peek. Somehow, no matter far your high school years are behind you, you still measure yourself to those same kids. The geek, the nerd, the dweeb, the princess, the jock, the scary girl who dressed all in black and had a pet rat.
I've ignored these invites in the past always. Who needs to look back? I'm a forward-looking person. But this year I have decided to succumb to the need to glimpse back at my past. Reconnect with people who surprisingly really don't grate on my nerves anymore. They aren't those labels anymore. They are people. They have careers, families, hobbies and fun memories. So I imagine we will talk about now, share memories of past and share a beer that we don't have to sneak anymore.And when I am done, I will walk away again. Thoughts firmly centered on the now and the tomorrow.
And I will still think that my 6th hour creative writing teacher looked like a female Gene Simmons. Some things can't change.
Now flash forward 5 years, 10 years, 15 years, 30 years....Who are those people now? I'm getting in touch with people I haven't seen since high school. People I've never talked to before. Certainly not when we were actually in high school together. I had no time for these people then. So why is now, when my life is as busy as it has ever been do I feel the need to reconnect with these people? It's class reunion time. It's looming in the near future. This morbid curiosity we all possess that makes us want to see these people again just to see who has succeeded. Who's done better than me? Who remembers me? Who is not with us anymore?
I'm not usually the sentimental type. I've not kept in touch with these people. None of them. High school ended. I moved on to college, jobs, career, relationships, real life. I moved out of state - more than once. I left it all behind me. Yet somehow, every few years it manages to pull me back for just a peek. Somehow, no matter far your high school years are behind you, you still measure yourself to those same kids. The geek, the nerd, the dweeb, the princess, the jock, the scary girl who dressed all in black and had a pet rat.
I've ignored these invites in the past always. Who needs to look back? I'm a forward-looking person. But this year I have decided to succumb to the need to glimpse back at my past. Reconnect with people who surprisingly really don't grate on my nerves anymore. They aren't those labels anymore. They are people. They have careers, families, hobbies and fun memories. So I imagine we will talk about now, share memories of past and share a beer that we don't have to sneak anymore.And when I am done, I will walk away again. Thoughts firmly centered on the now and the tomorrow.
And I will still think that my 6th hour creative writing teacher looked like a female Gene Simmons. Some things can't change.
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