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Showing posts from July 11, 2010

Dog days.

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What the hell. I thought I put that sucker out to the curb. Is that the same one, or another, identical one? Hey... same to you, Lincoln! Jeezus. Why are you so bad tempered? Man, I'll tell you - tempers run short here at the abandoned Cheney Hammer Mill in the middle of July. All this heat... it's driving us mad! Those of us who weren't mad to begin with, that is. (Strangely, it kind of drives Mitch Macaphee, our mad science advisor, sane.) I'm just trying to clear out the clutter a little bit, and I threw out a beam of wood. I mean literally, I threw it out the window in hopes the trash collectors would pick it up. Next thing I know, it's back in the freaking hallway. I guess Lincoln (or perhaps anti-Lincoln... I keep mixing them up because the heat makes them switch personalities) has grown attached to that particular fallen roof beam, or was perhaps planning to whittle it into something more attractive. Don't know for sure, but he appears to have taken the...

Boss-capades.

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This continuing deadlock on unemployment benefits is really getting up my nose. Looks like some of our representatives - certainly a lot of Republicans - seem to think that people prefer being unemployed and that somehow giving them the minimal aid that unemployment offers is an incentive for remaining that way. Not surprising. They, after all, most unapologetically represent purist free enterprise extremism, at least as it relates to ordinary people, workers, the poor, etc. (It's a different story with respect to corporate America, but more on that later.) Capitalism works best for the ownership class when there's a massive surplus of workers - that's just basic economics. It depresses wages, it keeps the rabble in line, and it makes certain that the best talent is always available. Anyone who has ever worked through a recession knows what I'm talking about. Raises become rare or non-existent; bonuses dry up. Always the same excuse, too - the bad economy. And yet the b...