Monthly Archives: July 2011

Dear Valued Employee, Thank You For “X” Years Of Service

Posted on July 20, 2011 | 2 comments

We’ve all been on the receiving end of that letter.  The CEO of the company “sends” you the letter that officially congratulates you on the number of years of service to the company.  The big years fall on the “Fives”; 10-15-20 etc.

The whole idea of this is that of reward.  Recognition that you have been able to contribute to the viability of the company for those 15 or so years.  And the further up you go, the larger the recognition that you actually “survive”.  And, further, that the company “survived” as well.

See, each of us has a relationship with our employer.  We stay employed as long as these conditions are met:

  1. The burden of going to the office and giving up 40 hours a week is overcome by the amount of money and other benefits I get from the firm.
  2. The burden of compensating the employee is overcome by the productivity they give the firm.

That is, it has to be worth it to both the employee AND the employer.  When it no longer satisfies those criteria; separation occurs.

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Posted in Government, Idiots on Parade, Politics: National

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Minnesota Vikings Fail

Posted on July 20, 2011 | 4 comments

I recently posted about the fact that just because a person or group of persons are horrible at a thing doesn’t mean that they aren’t that thing.  My context was, of course, the Leftist President Obama, but I used the Pittsburgh Pirates to illustrate my point.

Just because the Pittsburgh Pirates haven’t had a winning season in 18 years doesn’t mean they not a baseball team.  It means that they are a SHITTY baseball team.

Not surprisingly, this rankled long time [?] reader [actually I’m surprised ANYONE reads this 😉 ] and friend of mine who correctly pointed out in the comment section:

just because the Vikings havent won a super bowl doesn’t mean they aren’t a football team, just means they’re a shitty one.

Turns out she’s right:

Science validates experience: Vikings are hardest local team for fans to root for, says study

The numbers on this one probably didn’t need crunching, but a business publication went ahead and did it anyway: Your Minnesota Vikings are the most difficult of the four major pro teams in the Twin Cities for which to cheer.

It appears as though the criteria was based primarily on wins and losses in the past decade — not heartbreak, off-field shenanigans or the emotional wringer of QBs who just like to have fun out there — which makes the Vikings’ victory more impressive.

From the Business Journal:

The Vikings ranked as the 30th most difficult team to cheer for among all of the 122 teams in the four major professional sports after finishing seventh among the NFL’s 32 teams. That was the highest mark among local teams, and this is one list where you don’t want to be at the top. On Numbers based its rankings on the principle that a perennial loser is harder to root for than team that consistently wins.

Ouch!

Truly, the Vikings are AWESOME at sucking.

However, I do feel better:

The Wolves ranked 37th overall, the Wild 56th and the Twins 76th. The Washington Nationals were the hardest team to root for — finishing slightly ahead of the Detroit Lions.

It makes me feel a little bit better about the prospect of sending the “Christian” to the “Lions”!

Groan.

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Posted in Fun

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On All Things Redistributive

Posted on July 20, 2011 | 5 comments

This is good stuff.

Call ’em what ya want, but businessmen are good at business.  Usually that is.  See, the system tends to flush the poor ones out.  Now, to be sure, there are exceptions, even notable ones.  And there are even cases where men and women have done well for a very long time only to stumble later on.

Say what’cha will.  But one thing is for sure.  Business is in the business of making money.  And for all of us, that is a most wonderful thing.

That is the thing that brings us I-Pods, Phones and Pads.

This is what gives us blueberries in January and corn on the cob in April.  French wine, Swiss chocolate and German sausage all in one safe well lit air conditioned warehouse.

But I digress.  These people are in it to win it.  And God help the man that gets in the way of that.

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Posted in Economy, Politics: National

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Wherein Barack Obama Channels George Dubya Bush

Posted on July 19, 2011 | 6 comments

Remember when Barack Obama was against all that Bush was for?

Debt limit being raised?  Against it.  [Though to be fair, every single Democrat in the Senate, every single one, voted against it.  And I suspect now that each and every one will vote FOR it.  Again, in the spirit of fairness, every single Republican also voted FOR it.  Sill y business hits.]

War in Iraq?  Against it.

Gitmo?  Against it.

Rendition?  Against it.

And now this one.  Libya.

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Posted in Diplomacy, Liberty, Politics: International

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Banks Report Loss: Barack Obama at 11:00

Posted on July 19, 2011 | 7 comments

Barack Obama has refined the art of turned profit making into an evil horrible endeavor.

If you are a bank that makes money, you are the evil rich taking advantage of middle class America, who is suffering through the worst recession since the flood.

Oil company?  Corporate greed destroying the planet all the while taking billions in tax payer money to fund their record breaking profits*.

It never ends.  Well, actually, it does.  It ends when Obama actually LIKE a company and would enjoy that company to reap profits.  Like windmill farms, battery corporations and other green firms that go bankrupt in months after Obama comes calling.

After the recession ended and the banks began to report their earnings, Obama was on the news reporting their profits.  “Record breaking and excessive.”

I expect that he’ll be on the same bully pulpit expressing concern for our brothers on Wall Street:

Bank of America reported a second-quarter net loss of $8.8 billion, or 90 cents a share, against a profit of $3.1 billion, or 27 cents a year ago. Economists had forecast a loss of 85 cents a share.

$8.8 billion.  That’s “illion” with a “B”!

I don’t expect Obama to announce this or perhaps even notice this.  But I find it interesting and even irritating that he continues class warfare even as that class he hates drives, or tries to drive, our economy.

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Posted in Economics, Economy, Politics: National

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Wisconsin: After the Collective Bargaining Law

Posted on July 19, 2011 | Leave a comment

On June 14th, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that the Wisconsin legislature did not, in fact, break any laws when they passed the bill into law that removed a large portion of the collective bargaining rights from public sector unions.

From the Left, the words spewing from the bleachers were ones of destruction the end of education as we know it.

Teachers would have their power taken from them and, without said power, would be left–ahem, powerless in the streets.  Schools would crumble and a darkness would be upon the face of the deep.  But I wonder, is it possible that something might happen?  Is it possible that the passing of this law would allow districts the ability to save their schools?  Would communities be able to educate their children with teachers they loved and class sizes they want?

I think so.

Let’s check the tale of the tape:

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Posted in Education, Government, Politics: National

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Hot Off The Presses – This Just In

Posted on July 18, 2011 | Leave a comment

This just in from CBSNews:

Over to our correspondent’s desk in Raleigh for related news:

100% of Pino children polled Disapprove of the Parents handling of the “Veggies for Dinner Crisis”.

Back to you….

Hat Tip SkyDancingBlog

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Posted in Economy, Fun, Government, Politics: National

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Superior Court Judge: I’ll Write The State Budget

Posted on July 18, 2011 | 2 comments

The North Carolina legislature passed a budget.  This budget passed both house of  properly elected lawmakers.  Then, this budget was vetoed by the Good Govna’ of the Great State of North by God Carolina, herself properly elected.

Bev Purdue certainly can veto bills she doesn’t like.

After learning of said veto, the legislature convened and took up  vote to over-ride the veto.  And over-ride that veto the legislature did.  And so, the budget became law without the consent of the governor.

That, however, is not the end of the story.

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Posted in Education, Lobby/PAC, Politics: North Carolina

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Middle Class – Part III

Posted on July 18, 2011 | 2 comments

My last post in this space demonstrated that the Middle Class in America has gotten larger, not smaller, over time.

I made the point that more and more people are making more and more money even as we keep the dollar values locked into 2008 values:

In 1967 [earliest data available] 83.7% of the families in America made less than $75,000 in constant 2008 dollars.

That percentage in 2008? 59.7%.

In other words, 16.3% of Americans were making $75k or more in 1967. In 2008, better than 4 in 10, or 40% of Americans were making that same money.

And the mean income in 2008? $79,634.00 compared to $49.606.00 in 1967. Not only has the median income gone up, but the % of people making it has gone up as well.

But how does it FEEL today vs. yesterday? Are we able to enjoy a standard of living that is significantly better now than it was then?

Well, I think so:

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Posted in Economy, Liberty, Middle Class

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Economics: Supply and Deman – Twins Style

Posted on July 17, 2011 | Leave a comment

So, yeah, the Twins have been horrible since the start of the season.  Some of that has to do with some guys getting hurt, to be sure, but I think most of it has to do with not having very many good players.

However, as fate would have it, the Twins play in a  horrible division of baseball and are only 6 games out of 1st.

The Twins think they’re “in it”.

And so too, it seems, do the fans:

The defending American League Central champs struggled out of the gate with a mixture of poor play and injuries. Throw in some inclement weather and it was the “perfect storm” according to Michael Nowakowski, one of the owners of Ticket King, an online ticket broker. A representative from StubHub agreed, saying brokers were “giving away 400 to 500 tickets a game.”

…

As he negotiated a deal Thursday, one scalper said he was selling $60 tickets for $5 early in the season. “There was an abundance of tickets on the street. It was bad,” he said. But scalpers were getting as much as $35 more than face value per ticket for the first game following the All-Star break.

In a market that’s widely seen as free, the street, literally, is determining the value of a Twins game.

Fascinating.

An interesting side note:  Notice that in each case, the two parties that exchanged goods–one money for tickets, the other tickets for money–walked away feeling “richer” than they did when they met.  One party was able to ttrade some amount of cash for something that meant more to them; a baseball game.  The other party was able to trade a baseball game for something that meant more to them; cash.

This is the text book example of how trade creates wealth.

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Posted in Economics, Fun

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