Reinke Faces Life

http://freelanceswitch.com/freelancing-essentials/10-essential-marketing-skills-for-freelancers/

10 Essential Marketing Skills for Freelancers
By Leo on New Leads
By Leo Babauta

***Begin Quote***

Blog. It’s been said many times before, but the blog is the new resume. If you don’t have a blog, learn how to start one up. And don’t just rant about politics and talk about your cat. Make your blog look professional, write about things that would look good to potential clients, and offer your services to others (with contact info, of course). If you are a designer, be sure that the design is clean and creative. If you are a photographer, the photos should knock them out. If you’re a writer, have only your best writing on your blog. In all cases, have a simple, clean layout with well-written words. If you’re not good at this yet, constantly learn and refine. Look at other professional blogs for inspiration, then tweak. Then edit some more.

***End Quote***

I’ve seen people do blogs as a branding exercise. I’ve even seen one seeker try a wiki. I’ve seen job sites put questions for seekers to “show more about themselves”.

I’m not sure I agree. But what do I know?

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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/09/us/09hilton.html?ei=5065&a
mp;en=a52757ff70cf18b5&ex=1181966400&partner=MYWAY&a
mp;pagewanted=print

http://tinyurl.com/36hwae

June 9, 2007
Celebrity Justice Cuts Both Ways for Paris Hilton
By SHARON WAXMAN

***Begin Quote***

LOS ANGELES, June 8 — The national obsession with celebrity collided head-on with the more serious issue of the equal application of justice on Friday, as a judge sent the socialite Paris Hilton back to jail some 36 hours after she was released for an unspecified medical problem.

***AND***

Ms. Hilton … screamed, “Mom, this isn’t right,”

***End Quote***

I care not a whit for politicians and celebrities.

In this case, I agree with her!

Dueling gooferment bureaucrats — judge, prosecutor, and sheriff — all trying to puff out their chests and say “Me2. I’m in charge.

“barbara streisand”

I don’t know the facts, but yoyo justice ain’t justice.

Sorry, Ms. Hilton. Now you know how the rest of feel when some self-anointed oaf — with props — robe, lawbook, or badge — steps on us. No one should have to feel the boot of tyranny.

Make no mistake about it. That’s what we are seeing in this little farce.

# # # # #

http://www.downsizedc.org/read_the_laws.shtml

Help us pass the “Read the Bills Act” (RTBA)

***Begin Quote***

There’s a basic principle at stake here. America was founded on the slogan, “No taxation without representation.” A similar slogan applies to this situation:

“No LEGISLATION without representation.”

We hold this truth to be self-evident, that those in Congress who vote on legislation they have not read, have not represented their constituents. They have misrepresented them.

And since Congress has repeatedly committed “legislation without representation,” strong measures to prohibit these Congressional misrepresentations are both justified and required.

To this end we have created the “Read the Bills Act (RTBA).” RTBA requires that . . .

* Each bill, and every amendment, must be read in its entirety before a quorum in both the House and Senate.

* Every member of the House and Senate must sign a sworn affidavit, under penalty of perjury, that he or she has attentively either personally read, or heard read, the complete bill to be voted on.

* Every old law coming up for renewal under the sunset provisions must also be read according to the same rules that apply to new bills.

* Every bill to be voted on must be published on the Internet at least 7 days before a vote, and Congress must give public notice of the date when a vote will be held on that bill.

* Passage of a bill that does not abide by these provisions will render the measure null and void, and establish grounds for the law to be challenged in court.

* Congress cannot waive these requirements.

***End Quote***

Hey, if we have to “obey” them, then they should have to read them.

If they read them, maybe, just maybe, they’d realize how stupid some of these are?

In the immigration bill, where does an immigrant get 5k$?

H.R. 634 requires the Secretary of the Treasury to mint coins in commemoration of veterans who became disabled for life while serving in the Armed Forces of the United States. Why?

H.R. 1495 Water Resources Development Act provides for the conservation and development of water and related resources, to authorize the Secretary of the Army to construct various projects for improvements to rivers and harbors of the United States. Isn’t the Army for killing people and breaking things?

Make them read this trash!

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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/06/us/06gilliard.html

Steven Gilliard Jr., 42, Dies; Founder of Liberal Political Blog
By NOAM COHEN
Published: June 6, 2007

***Begin Quote***

Steven Gilliard Jr., a political journalist who found his calling as a combative and influential blogger on the left, died on Saturday in Manhattan. He was 42.

*** AND ***

In what is a now-familiar story among Internet collaborators, many of the thousands who posted online reactions to Mr. Gilliard’s death wrote that they had known little about him, even the fact that he was black. Others, though, mourned the loss of an African-American voice in the liberal blogging world. Those closest to him offline similarly knew next to nothing about his life as blogger.

***End Quote***

“On the the net, no one knows you are a dog”

Interesting the separation between his lives as a person and as a blogger.

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http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Battle+of+Normandy

D-Day: The Allies Land on Normandy Beaches (1944)

***Begin Quote***

The Battle of Normandy during WWII was fought between the German forces occupying Western Europe and invading Allied forces. It remains the largest seaborne invasion in history, with almost 3,000,000 troops crossing the English Channel. The battle continued for more than 2 months and concluded with the liberation of Paris.

***End Quote***

No one seems to think about the ~400,000 casualties from both “sides” that were taken that fateful day.

Who knows how history could have been changed?

It seems a general consensus that, without American involvement in WW1, everything would have been drastically different.

Remind you of today?

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http://www.myhero.com/myhero/hero.asp?hero=Holocaust_Celebrity_AP

Wednesday, May 16, 2007
WARSAW, Poland (AP)HOLOCAUST HERO FACES
BELATED CELEBRITY
by MONIKA SCISLOWSKA
Associated Press Writer

***Begin Quote***

The attention tires Irena Sendler sometimes.

She never sought credit for smuggling 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto anyway. Not for risking execution to save other people’s children, or holding out under torture by the Nazis, or enduring decades as a nonperson under the communist regime that followed.

She once dismissed her wartime deeds as merely “the justification of my existence on this Earth, and not a title to glory.”

*** AND ***

Sender was arrested in a Gestapo night raid on her apartment on Oct 20, 1943. The Nazis took her to the dreaded Pawiak prison, which few left alive. She was tortured and says she still has scars on her body – but she refused to betray her team.

“I kept silent. I preferred to die than to reveal our activity,” she was quoted as saying in the one book about her, “Mother of the Children of the Holocaust: The Story of Irena Sendler” by Anna Mieszkowska.

The Polish resistance bribed a Gestapo officer. He put her name on a list of executed prisoners and let her go. She went into hiding under an assumed name but continued her activity.

*** AND ***

She was recognized in 1965 by Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust museum, as a so-called Righteous Among the Nations, but ignored at home.

***End Quote***

You have to admire the stones of the people who took these risks and did what they felt was right. I like that poker commercial where Jennifer Tilly puts a big set on the table. That’s for a game. This lady must have a super set to have done this for real. I don’t know if I could have, would have, dare to hide and save one child let alone 2.5k of them.

That’s stunning.

I am humbled by this woman and all those so honored. I will go to that museum when I retire in 2017 to pay my respects.

# # # # #

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070603/D8PHA8LG0.html

Democrats Hide Pet Projects From Voters
Jun 3, 7:20 AM (ET)
By ANDREW TAYLOR

***Begin Quote***

WASHINGTON (AP) – After promising unprecedented openness regarding Congress’ pork barrel practices, House Democrats are moving in the opposite direction as they draw up spending bills for the upcoming budget year.

Democrats are sidestepping rules approved their first day in power in January to clearly identify “earmarks” – lawmakers’ requests for specific projects and contracts for their states.

Rather than including specific pet projects, grants and contracts in legislation as it is being written, Democrats are following an order by the House Appropriations Committee chairman to keep the bills free of such earmarks until it is too late for critics to effectively challenge them.

Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., says those requests for dams, community grants and research contracts for favored universities or hospitals will be added to spending measures in the fall. That is when House and Senate negotiators assemble final bills.

Such requests total billions of dollars.

***End Quote***

And, this is “news”.

I have no use for either “party”.

(I really can’t decide what the right word to use is. It’s no “party” for The American People who are being robbed at gunpoint to pay for this “party”. Maybe the correct word is “gang of marauding thieves who forgot to leave” or “competitors to the Bloods and Crypts who make the B&C look like pikers” or “horde of human locusts that are eating our progeny’s birthright”. I guess I’ll just use the term “gang” as a giant negative.)

I have no use for the D-Gang or the R-Gang.

But it would be naive for anyone to expect that they will suddenly “get religion” and “change their stripes”.

Maybe we can change their stripes for them? To prison stripes!

Argh!

# # # # #

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/
arts_and_entertainment/books/book_extracts/
article1874664.ece

http://tinyurl.com/34antt

From The Sunday Times
June 3, 2007
Her other man
As Hillary Clinton emerges as frontrunner to be America’s next president, friends and former aides talk to her biographer about the tragedy that scarred her first years in the White House
Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein

***Begin Quote***

Foster’s suicide, the president later told friends, had “destroyed” Hillary. “I think she just bled deep inside,” a close friend of Foster observed. “I don’t think she ever really quite recovered from that.”

***End Quote***

I have no first hand knowledge, but, just looking from what we have been told about the Foster “suicide”, I’m not so sure that I buy into what might be just a “cover story”.

Interesting how dead people just seem to stack up around the Clintons. Interesting how Hilary is too smart for her own good. Interesting the hubris of what might be “good people” corrupted by the system.

Interesting but maybe gooferment is a mental disease?

# # # # #

Well unfortunately the always exciting always interesting saga of “Frau Reinke Faces Life” played out another episode yesterday. (Note: Frau Reinke is my beloved wife of 36 years whose fashion sense makes me look less like a nerd and common sense keeps me from making more social blunders. Hey, I r an injineer.)

So when last we left “Frau Reinke Mystery Patient”, she was quietly living out her days dealing with a weakening heart, a ton of drugs, and finding happiness in her “kids” and a daily dose of drool. (AKA Days Of Our Lives).

We went to a routine appointment with Cardio Doc (a nice mild manner man who always wanted my advice on computers; like I have expertise). Routine EKG. Not overly happy, but he’s usually becomes dour when “his problem patient” walks in.

SO then he asks the fateful question “How are you feeling?” Where she ADMITTED “not to good”! (Stunning! Like if she was that fellow with the iron rod impailed in his head, she’d have said “fine, but I might have a headache now and then”.) He ran through the exercise of extracting her symptoms from her (which I as an ex First Aid guy “knew” were angina, but I don’t have the MD or DVM after my name where my opinions might have some weight with her.)

He said “Off to the ER”. She said “how about next week. it’ll get better”. He said “Ithinkyoushouldgo today”. “But they won’t do anything today” “idfeelbettertoday” (He starts to talk fast and quickly when he gets agitated.) She turns to me, “but you have to go to work this afternoon for that meeting”. My bright response “It’ll go on without me.” So she concedes to go to the ER. (I don’t think he believed her. Hey, she’s been his patient for several years.)

We went home to get some stuff. And, lunch. We both knew this would be an ordeal. If you weren’t sick going into the ER, the process would make you sick.

She walked thru the doors at about 1430; she was in her room in ICU at about 2130. And, she was an “expedited at-risk cardiac” patient. When I left, the ER was over flowing with sick people just waiting. (Desperately in need of some free market solutions.)

Argh, I can NOT describe a worse experience. Even the old NJDMV with its rude workers and day long waits wasn’t as bad. I guess because at the DMV it really wasn’t important. If any of the old AT&T M&Pers (Methods and Procedure folks) say this they would be horrified. Chaos. No Customer feedback loop, massive numbers of people waiting around, no visual themes. It may be “organized”, but it was bedlam and chaos.

Cardio doc popped up about 1800 and praised her for coming right in. He had the blood work and told her she had had another heart attack. (He was “normal” in his appearance.) Kidney doc came by. Only the diabetic doc phoned it in, and the orders were wrong (I don’t like that broad!)

So with Frau firmly ensconced in CCU North 07, I called it a day.

Mentally tired, I went home and counted my blessings that it was me that was the sick one. I firmly resolve with the help of the Intelligent Designer never to get stuck in that world as a patient. But, (thinking about employment opportunities), it might be fun to make it better. Unfortunately, it’ll never be better because it’s run by gooferment diktat. Sigh!

Note: My attentions may be diverted from the blog, email, or such as I tend to my higher priority problems. Actually, stuff might be better as I might focus my time better?

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FROM MLPF

>know when your autobiography comes out

With the cheap publishing available from Lulu, there’s no reason that people don’t have an ongoing autobiography. Update it, publish it, and use it as a job search aid?

:-)

But, it is “do-able”.

***

http://www.lulu.com

An interesting way to self publish anything. Maybe I’ll schedule an autobiography. Now we just need a ghost writer web20 application.

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FEEDBACK TO the free, and unequaled, wordpressdotcom

I am taking between gobs and gobs squared of spam comments daily for the past few days. I don’t understand exactly how they are doing it but “we” (i.e., you need to do something). I have “comments require approval” so nothing is getting thru. But “you” must be spending grazillions of cycles with this trash. Time for a challenge response system to ensure that there’s a human on the other side of the glass?

# # #

RESPONSE FROM SUPPORT

Challenge systems stop commenters.
They also stop people who are visually impaired.
There is no solution.

# # #

MY REJONDER

How about an option that require the commenter to be an authenticated “user” (i.e., setup an id, not necessarily a blog, with a unique uid – password, and a validated email. Seems like that’s pretty common. Or any of the other Open Id type systems?

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FROM THE MLPF FORUM

*** begin quote ***

>It has been brought to my attention, that the moderator of this forum

Guess some one didn’t get the memo that it’s a “moderated” forum. Having had my hand slapped a time or two, here and elsewhere, I don’t understand how it’s “unhealthy”? Guess we’ll never know what was meant. Can I get cancer from falling asleep reading posts? Or printing them out and leaving them on my lap? I know, I know, it’s causes Global Warming. To many moderated electrons causes friction.

Sorry, but it’s frustrating. Like slamming the door out of the room after you lose an argument with your spouse. But that’s redundant. “Argument with spouse” is identical to “losing”. But, you get the idea.

(I have now “slammed” the send button as a point of de-emphasis. You didn’t pay attention. I’ll do it again!)

*** end quote ***

AND RECEIVED THIS

*** begin quote ***

NadineBlogs
29th May 11:25 pm

Hey there Fjohn, I had unsubscribed to MLPF, but was lured back to check the recent posts via web to find the very delightful “Goodbye MLPF” post reminiscent of “Goodbye Cruel World” and had a good laugh at your reply. You’re way too funny for the internet but I missed seeing your posts and thought to stop by and subscribe to your blog to get my fjohn fix ;) Hope all is well! Nadine

*** end quote ***

TO WHICH I RESPONDED

*** begin quote ***

>29th May 11:25 pm
>Hey there Fjohn, I had unsubscribed to MLPF, but
>was lured back to check the recent posts

Typical womanly behavior slam the door on the way out, but has to “peek” to see if it had the desired effect. I thought you might look to see who and what reaction it had.

>find the very delightful “Goodbye MLPF” post
>reminiscent of “Goodbye Cruel World” and had a
>good laugh at your reply.

Now, maybe you’ll make the dramatic re-entrance, announcing “I’m back” because my adoring public needed me.”?

>You’re way too funny for the internet

My wife reminds me “you think you’re so funny?”.

>I missed seeing your posts and thought to stop by
>and subscribe to your blog to get my fjohn fix ;)

Well, you are easily entertained. I don’t cross post everything. Too lazy. But enjoy.

> Hope all is well! Nadine

As you can tell from my blog, I’m pumping out random bursts of energy. Your blog has been strangely silent. New job tough? Growing out of the narcissistic medium? Getting a real life. :-)

l8r,fjohn

*** end quote ***

http://www.fox.com/house/

Has HOUSE jumped the shark? (Reference the end of Happy Days when Fonzie ski jumps a shark and after that the ratings tanked.) You only dump the supporting cast when the writers have no more good ideas for them?

If I was a writer, and I’m not. I’d try a metaphor like “House is actually running an honors class in diagnostics. Each year (season) the oldest “graduates” and “newbie” joins. Then the writers have a parade of fresh faces to insult, torture, and write about. It would feel like real life. You could have the good, the bad, and the ugly. It’s be fun!

I found some very Libertarian themes in the show. It’s all about being correct. Political correctness be darned. Girls cause trouble. Stereo typing is a human aptitude. I’ll watch in the reruns for them.

One great line. She slowly wakes up and asks if she’s in Heaven. “No – this is New Jersey.” House replies. I’d have said “Hell”.

You’d think that the show would work in PSAs in the show itself. Take propaganda to a new level. The warning signs for diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure. Admonishments about taking all your antibiotics or staying on your meds. Advice about mental illness and depression. The show COULD be an entertaining source of medical advice as opposed to yet another soap opera.

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FEEDBACK TO the free, and unequaled, wordpressdotcom

Interesting, I am seeing a slew of spam comments. But the post that they are supposedly commenting to is not showing any bump in traffic. Care to explain to the nut in the peanut gallery how that happens?

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Matt’s response: Spammers don’t visit blogs – they run scripts which do the dirty work – hence no stats.
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Argh!!

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FROM AN EMAIL FROM AN OLD FRIEND

***Begin Quote***

From: Old Friend (yes I have one!)
Sent: Thursday, May 24, 2007
To: John Reinke
Subject: It Is Better To Be Alone, Than In The Wrong Company

Anonymous from a friend, apparently from the internet…..but very interesting. Sounds like some of the advice from your blog!

It Is Better To Be Alone, Than In The Wrong Company

Tell me who your best friends are, and I will tell you who you are. If you run with wolves, you will learn how to howl. But, if you associate with eagles, you will learn how to soar to great heights. “A mirror reflects a man’s face, but what he is really like is shown by the kind of friends he chooses.” The simple but true fact of life is that you become like those with whom you closely associate – for the good and the bad.

The less you associate with some people, the more your life will improve. Any time you tolerate mediocrity in others, it increases your mediocrity.

An important attribute in successful people is their impatience with negative thinking and negative acting people. As you grow, your associates will change. Some of your friends will not want you to go on. They will want you to stay where they are. Friends that don’t help you climb will want you to crawl. Your friends will stretch your vision or choke your dream. Those that don’t increase you will eventually decrease you. Consider this:
— Never receive counsel from unproductive people.
–Never discuss your problems with someone incapable of contributing to the solution, because those who never succeed themselves are always the first to tell you how. Not everyone has a right to speak into your life. You are certain to get the worst of the bargain when you exchange ideas with the wrong person.
–Don’t follow anyone who’s not going anywhere. With some people you spend an evening: with others you invest it.
–Be careful where you stop to inquire for directions along the road of life.
–Wise is the person who fortifies his life with the right friendships.

***End Quote***

>If you run with wolves, you will learn how to howl.

And, if you hang with a turkey, do you learn to gobble? :-)

>you become like those with whom you closely associate

Not sure I agree with that. I think it might be better to say, “You are what you think! Think you’re a “good guy”, and you’ll tend to become what you think you are. I’m thinking of Ronald Regan, who went from Bonzo movies to be President and his writings showed how he grew. I’m thinking John Wayne, from a bad Marine to a Heroic Icon. I’m think Gandhi, who went from being a venial little lawyer to a Great Emancipator. All have flaws. All had one thing in common, the belief in a big idea. Many of the self-help gurus preach about it. So is it “I’ll believe it when I see it” or “I’ll see it when I believe it”?

>Your friends will stretch your vision or choke your dream.

I’m thinking of the great Paul Scoefield line in Man For All Seasons. “Come along with us, if for nothing more than old times sake” with the response “And when you stand in front of your Maker and get to go to Paradise for following your conscience, and I am assigned to Hell for not following mine, will you come along … for old time’s sake?”.

No some times friends are neither “stretchers or chokers”.

>

Watch what you read form the net. You to could become a … … Libertarian! ;-)

fjohn

p.s., thanks for a great blog fodder. and, the idea that my blog could have some whizdumb!

My recent post about the pony leads me to wonder where are the classic jokes and fables found? I can’t think of any off the top of my head but the pony is an example. It also is blocking my thinking. But it will come to me.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mnemonic

Mnemonic

***Begin Quote***

A mnemonic is a memory aid, and most serve an educational purpose.

***End Quote***

Colloquialism, Metaphors, Slang, Shorthand, or Jargon … or the ultimate in a quick wisdom transfer?

So when I say YMMV, what is it?

Acronyms and initialisms?

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FROM LINKEDINBLOGGERS

***Begin Quote***

Re: Blogs vs. Wikis — a personal observation and experience
Posted by: “Peter Quodling”
Sat May 26, 2007 11:42 am (PST)
The comparative use of wikis, blogs and forums are quite simple…

Wiki’s are for shared (and validated) imparting of knowledge…

Blogs are for editorializing personal opinion (and fact) but without
ratification be anyone else…

Forums are for dialogs…

***End Quote***

An excellent taxonomy!!

Wikis for sharing knowledge; blogs for editorializing; forums for dialogues.

Even an old injineer can understand it.

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http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?
type=topNews&storyID=2007-05-06T172116Z_01_
N06264949_RTRUKOC_0_US-MEXICO-TUNICK.xml&
pageNumber=1&imageid=∩=&sz=13&WTModLoc=
NewsArt-C1-ArticlePage1

http://tinyurl.com/2runrf

Thousands of Mexicans strip for Tunick photo shoot
Sun May 6, 2007 1:19pm ET16

***Begin Quote***

Mexicans are not used to showing skin. Most men wear shorts only while on vacation, and women tend not to put on miniskirts because of unwanted whistles and stares.

“This event proves that really we’re not such a conservative society anymore. We’re freeing ourselves of taboos,” said Fabiola Herrera, a 30-year-old university professor who volunteered to strip, along with her boyfriend.

***End Quote***

Well this makes me laff. I’m not doing it anytime soon.

I guess the entity that sent us into the Garden of Eden must be saying “well after a grazillion years, these people are finally getting the idea of what I intended”. It’s hard to be proud when you’re standing in your birthday suit. It’s also hard to look down — or anywhere — on someone else. Heaven forbid you see a beautiful women. Instant approval?

On a somber note, when I saw the picture (NSFW), I was reminded of the Nazi death camps. That’ll put some chill in the humor that the photo evokes.

UPDATE: GLANEC reports (correctly) that the big fat url is broken. However the tiny url works. Maybe copying it over munged it up. Use the tinyurl!

Now where is my magnifying glass?

Three are best in show.

http://www.cecsearch.com/WordPress/2007/04/25/
sutdy-claims-women-paid-20-less-than-men-i-say-hogwash/

http://tinyurl.com/yotbud

Study claims women paid 20% less than men – I say HOGWASH!
April 25th, 2007 by Chief Executive Restaurant Recruiter

***Begin Quote***

You see, Larry was discussing a new study that had just come out (and he compared it with an older study) about the disparity in pay between men and women. Of course the study was backed by scientific method and statistical analysis. I’ve always believed the old saying that there are lies, damned lies, then statistics. This report reminded me of that fact.

***End Quote***

Like most “studies”, they are often pushing “an agenda”. And, they get us focusing on the “wrong end” of the proverbial stick.

Specifically, I don’t know if women are discriminated against because of their sex. I have seen lost of situations where that might be true. But for me to deliberate and render a verdict that this is so presumes lots of facts not in evidence. The old Johari window has a lot of quad 4 area.

I like Larry’s argument from economic theory that says if women worked cheaper, why wouldn’t a business hire all women. That nicely disposes of that study.

But, again, that’s presupposes facts I don’t have.

I think the real key is to become a society of small businesses. If you’re your own CEO, it’s hard to claim discrimination held you from the top. You’re the top and the bottom at the same time.

That’s what we need to encourage. We’ll have to change the Gooferment to get it out of the way. Then we will have fulfilled the Jeffersonian ideal of everyman a king.

http://www.lucifereffect.com/guide_tenstep.htm

A Ten-Step Program to Build Resistance and Resilience
Prepared by Philip Zimbardo and Cindy X. Wang
(Borrowed from The Lucifer Effect, Chapter 16)

***Begin Quote***

“I made a mistake!”
“I am mindful.”
“I am responsible.”
“I am Me, the best I can be.”
“I respect Just Authority, but Rebel against Unjust Authority.”
“I want group acceptance, but value my independence.”
“I will be more Frame Vigilant.”
“I will balance my Time Perspective.”
“I will not sacrifice personal or civic freedoms for the illusion of security.”
“I can oppose unjust Systems.”

***End Quote***

Like Luke Skywalker, how do we resist being turned to the Dark Side?

The Stanford Prison Experiment that ordinary people can be induced to do that which they believe is evil and wrong when directed by an authority figure.

Here’s ten steps to ensure that you don’t slip over the edge.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/china//
article1690634.ece?Submitted=true

http://tinyurl.com/34phxr

April 23, 2007
Catapult boy is eaten after taunting crocodile in pen

***Begin Quote***

The official Xinhua news agency said: “One of the irritated crocodiles bit Liu’s clothes and dragged him into the water where he was eaten by a swarm of crocodiles.” His companions then raised the alarm.

***End Quote***

Remember the Darwin awards?

http://www.darwinawards.com/

Honoring those who improve the species…by accidentally removing themselves from it!

http://wcbstv.com/topstories/
local_story_111122133.html

http://tinyurl.com/2x3mpo

Apr 21, 2007 4:13 pm US/Eastern
Coming Soon: $8 Fee To Enter Manhattan
Bloomberg Ready To Fight Albany For Congestion Fee
Andrew Kirtzman
Reporting

***Begin Quote***

(CBS) NEW YORK A controversial new plan is about to be implemented to improve the quality of life in New York City.

This weekend Mayor Michael Bloomberg is expected to introduce an $8.00 congestion fee for drivers who enter Manhattan below 86th Street.

***End Quote***

What nonsense.

There are no details, but one can be sure their will be a skew of new government jobs. Collection will be a nightmare. If they want to speed traffic, enforce the laws they have already. what stupidity.

Since all the cops, firemen, and bureaucrats drive in, and illegally park, does it apply to them?

P.S.: My Luddite friend insisted I blog about this. I thought it was just more “barbara streisand” and really not worth wasting electrons on. We’ll see.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=
2007-04-20_D8OKDBT00&show_article=1&cat=breaking

http://tinyurl.com/255rdo

N.C. Clerk Wins $200,000 by Mistake
Apr 20 11:01 AM US/Eastern

***Begin Quote***

CONOVER, N.C. (AP) – A store clerk’s slip-up at the cash register has paid off big time.

Wadburn Allen on Tuesday accidentally rang up two duplicate Powerball tickets for a customer in this western North Carolina town. At the end of the day, after she was unable to sell the second ticket, Allen paid for it herself.

The next day, Allen returned to the store and found the ticket matched all five numbers—earning her a $200,000 jackpot.

***End Quote***

REMEMBER, remember, back in March when there was the big powerball jackpot. And, I wasted the two bucks buying the clerk’s “mistake”, Here it is! I’m telling you, if I hadn’t bought that mistake Mister Murphy (of Murphy’s Law fame) would have smacked me upside the head. As it was, he decided no lesson was required. Argh!

Here’s my post. http://tinyurl.com/24o7w7 Score one for blogging!

How do you think that customer felt sharing the jackpot with the “mistaken” clerk?

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