Saturday, November 6, 2010

"I Never Met a Female IT Person Before"

While setting up a laptop for a visitor, he looked at me with disbelief and said, "I never met a female IT person before.  And you are the IT person?"

No, I did not do the man thing and deck him.  Without skipping a beat, I simply said, "You've led a sheltered life."

There is no shortage of men who say the wrong thing.  There is no shortage of women who have to allow it.  There is no shortage of positions that aught to be filled by women because the men are too busy playing corporate games to be truly effective at their jobs.  Male management is so busy doing the "male-bonding" with customers through the corporate hunting trips to Mexico and the "I'll-bag-a-bigger-one-than-you" trips to Montana it is a wonder they actually manage anything except to post the photos and slap each other on the back.  Let's not forget the box seats at the football games with the local favorite.  All this to impress customers (?).  Of course. Heh, heh.

Yes there are business occasions where wives are invited.  There are the yearly Christmas dinners for the ignorant masses they hired.  That's right.  I forgot.  They don't invite everyone.  They only invite a select few.  The ones who work their tales off just get the bird.  They get a piece of meat for their efforts throughout the year.  They get the same thing that is given to corporate neighbors.  Isn't that special?

I don't believe I have ever met a corporate butt-head who could pass up an opportunity to turn a social occasion into a business meeting simply so they could claim it as a business expense.  Give it a rest guys!

A fraud by any other name is still a fraud.  A birthday party is supposed to be a family celebration, not a time that you invite people you barely know in order to impress them with the love you do not show your family.  A wedding is the same.  It is a celebration you have been asked to be a part of, not a backdrop to drum up new business or even find a job.  If it happens that way, fine.  But don't schedule it that way.

While you are busy having fun promoting your business or relaxing at your campsite board meeting your marriage and your testimony is going to Hell and you are paving the way.  If you have to impress your customers with $100,000.00 box seats because your product is shaky, what is the point?  You are going to lose them anyway if that is the case.  You could spend that money improving your product and keep your customers and build your business that way.

Bought customers are always sold to the highest bidder.  Satisfied customers stay with you even through price increases and it isn't because you gave them something other than a great product.  The man or the company that feels he has to buy his customers has a lack of confidence in the product he sells or a lack of confidence in his own ability as a salesman, or both.

Besides, when the money for frills runs out, so do your bought customers regardless of your product.


Those employees that cling to you because of what you can give them over and above their salaries will be long gone when the dust settles.  The ones you should be able to count on, you want to make sure that you don't run them off while you are flying high to the top.  It can be a long and lonely trip back down that ladder.

Be careful who you crush on the way up.

Under What Sign Were You Born?

Mine was "AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY - Labor Room."  I was born in 1949 in what they lovingly referred to as the Labor Room.   We never quite made it to the Delivery Room.  I heard this story often from my mother.  It was generally told at every child's birthday despite the fact that it was not their story.

Mom went into labor and was taken to the hospital.  They strapped her into the gurney, wheeled her into the labor room.  Then they walked out and left her because they said it would be awhile.  Next thing she knows, I'm peeking out trying to figure out what's going on.  I mean everything was fine as it was.  Now I am being squeezed and pushed and there seems to be a light (whatever that is) at the end of the tunnel (like I said before, whatever that is).  This is my first moment on the job and I have no idea what all this is.

My mother told me all sorts of gruesome details about how I busted everything wide open because I was escaping regardless of who was or was not there.  Apparently I was as determined then as I am now if not more so.

Anyone who says they remember the instant of their birth is either exaggerating or He has not talked to me about it yet.  That has to be the most traumatic moment.  Why would I want to remember it?

There I am.  All warm and cozy and secure.  I am never hungry.  I can suck my thumbs whenever I want to.  I am rocked and held all day.  Life is good.
Not bad for 6 weeks old.

Then it happens.  I get squeezed out like toothpaste from a tube; like someone stepping on a ketchup pack.  There I am.  The lights are too bright.  People are talking to loud.  Some crazy person held me upside down and sucked out my nose and mouth and then had the bright idea to smack me on the behind.  They poked me, prodded me, measured me, tagged me and cleaned me.  Then they wrapped me up like a sausage and handed me to this weird thing called mom who is crying and unwrapping me, counting my fingers and toes and squealing, "She's so cute!"  Actually, what she said was, "Are you sure that's my baby?"  I was born with green eyes, a full head of hair, and the nurses had actually put a bow in my hair.  Mom said I looked like an Eskimo baby.  I don't know that she ever met an Eskimo.

In all fairness, it was getting kind of cramped in there.  Every time I stretched Mom complained.  It was either her back hurt, or she wet her pants, again, or she was eating this junk that gave me gas.  I was really getting kind of tired of hearing all that mess.  Let alone the gas in those cramped quarters.  Can you imagine?

Anyway, here I am.   Still pushing and complaining.  And that is what sign I was born under.

Today's Values - A Reflection of Past Choices Part 1

In the 1940's World War 2 brought about many sociological changes in the United States.  The war itself depleted the manpower within the US factories and the result was that women, formerly confined to housework, making babies and caring for children were suddenly asked to serve their country in a new way.  They were asked, no encouraged, to go to work outside of the home.  They put down their aprons, diapers and spatulas and picked mechanics tools and rivet guns.  "Rosie the Riveter" became a popular poster of the day.  By the thousands, women went to work.

Some were reluctant to leave the comfort zone of family and wondered if this was truly something they should be doing.  There were others that secretly thought it was wonderful and looked forward to an exciting challenge with anticipation.

The war ended.  The men came home.  No problem.  Right!  Big problem!  The men automatically got their jobs back and the "little woman" got unceremoniously shooed back home to be barefoot and pregnant.  And, as is typical, there were millions of pregnancies right after the soldiers returned.  This is where the baby-boomers came from.

Into the 1950's women did not forget that paycheck.  They liked having "their own" money.  Many women that happened to stay in the workforce noticed something very important.  The mens jobs that they had been doing (and doing well) suddenly they were off limits to these frail creatures.  And, in a heartbeat, women became unable to do a man's job.  They were being relegated to low paying clerical jobs that were more fitting for a woman.  That had to have been a whopping slap in the face to women who had been welders, pipe fitters and machinists.  Sheesh, ladies, did you really think you were going to keep those jobs when the men came home?  I mean, after all, you were just helping the men out until they could come back to work.  Right?

Women who were now widows and trying to support a family on a reduced pay were hardest hit.  Suddenly they were living below the poverty level, losing their homes and facing life in desperate need.  Women are tenacious and will support their family even if it means getting married to do so.  Many did find another husband to support them and their children.  Poverty with 3 or 4 children or marriage?  That was the choice for many women.

Not much changed until the mid 1960's.  There was no legal recourse for women who were passed over for promotion because they were women and there was no recourse for them when they were denied employment because it was a "man's" job.  Women had trouble getting bank loans, buying a car, buying a house, opening their own business and anything else, unless they had a man to cosign for them.  In some areas it was difficult for a woman to own property. 

Coming of age in the 1960's, I know what happened.  I was denied acceptance to a local University because I wanted to go into nuclear physics and they told me the University only accepted applications from women for teaching and nursing.  No, I was not applying out of state and that was in 1967 not 1867.  I worked and saw that there were discrepancies within the workforce between men and women.  The assumption was that a woman would wind up getting married or pregnant, leave the workforce and was therefore unreliable.

There were and always have been that woman who excelled and overcame discrimination in spite of what men and other women thought of her.  Amelia Earhart, Madame Curie, Ruth and Esther of  Scripture, Lottie Moon (missionary) and thousands of others that pursued their dreams regardless of social acceptance.  That is still a small percentage of women throughout history that are that strong and obsessed by their dream.

Most women just take it until they have had enough and in the 1960's most of them had quite enough.  Many men, particularly older men, thought it was funny.  The bra burnings were just a symbol of their frustration of being confined to their special place in society.  They did not want to be viewed as baby factories and relegated to the kitchen and the bedroom and the children.

One day we woke to find that women were wanting to be equal to men.  Unfortunately, many of us did just that.  We started smoking publicly (real ladies did not do that).  We took off the gloves and the pill box hats of the 1950's along with our bras and anything else we damn well pleased to, anywhere we wanted to do so.  We could show anything at anytime and dare a man to look at it or want it or say anything about it.  We could say "NO!" and men had to listen to us.  We could smoke, drink, cuss and fart just like men.

Was that stupid or what?!  Ladies, we were like sheep led to the slaughter.  We rocked and rolled right into the abyss.  Here we are.  Welcome to the asylum!

In my next article, I will dive into the aspects of today's moral morass, that quicksand we call enlightened values and look at where the past 40 years has taken us, if we can see through the rose-colored glasses.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Guess Where I Have Been?

There are people in not just the United States that appear to want to read my ramblings, but other parts of the world.

I am really liking the idea that the words that I write are getting exposure all over the world.  It is quite humbling and exhilarating that with a few key strokes and just seconds, someone in my county, Canada or Singapore can be reading what has been written.

The written word has the power to cause people to think about things, to form opinions and to wonder about their own opinions.  It is a wonderful tool to spread the Gospel.  I have been using this medium to vent my frustrations and I truly hope someone will learn something from them (other than the fact that I am nuts). 

I do hope that everyone who reads my ramblings can at the very least find some humor or a lesson that maybe I failed to learn.

Have a wonderful day!  Wherever you may be, I hope the Son shines brightly upon you!

The Plantation

Plantations, agriculturally speaking, are a large artificially established forest or farm.  Crops are grown for sale in distant areas rather than for local markets.  Since I live in the United States, the references will be to the plantations of the old south where, tobacco, sugar cane and cotton were grown. 

Prior to the Civil War, plantations used slave labor to pick, pack and haul the crops to markets.  Slavery was an unimaginable horror to those who experienced it.  After the slaves were freed, there was another form of slavery with the light of hope at the end of the bondage. 

Some freed men and women worked portions of the now defunct plantations with the idea that they were buying their piece of property while working their crops.  Unfortunately, the landowners were sometimes disreputable and would make the contract practically nil by adding fees and costs to their "handling" of the crop.  It was much like the credit cards of today.  Pay the minimum amount due and that $1,000.00 balance will be paid in 3 to 5 years.  They wound up never truly owning their property and still working for the owner of the plantation.  They did have the knowledge that they were indeed free and their family would not be separated due to the whim of the master. 

There were many cruel and sadistic task masters during that time.  There were also some who owned slaves only to keep them out of the clutches of others.  Regardless of how you look at it, it was still slavery. 

Fast forward to today.  With the exception of human trafficking (slavery) in the news from time to time, you hear little about it.  There is a plantation mentality among the elitists of this country that truly defies logic.

They want to "take care of us" because we are too stupid to take care of ourselves. 

They want to give us the home they think we need.

They want to give our children what they think they need and if it pleases them to take our children away from us.

They want to give us the medical care they think we need and determine what we need based on their grand observations.

The list goes on and on.  If you can think it, they want to do it to you and control how it is done to you.

If it is not bad enough, there are businesses that profess to be conservative thinking but they treat the workers as though they are still on a plantation.  

Not true?  Just keep reading.  They locate in a rural area.  They build their business on the backs of hardworking men and women paying them minimum wage or slightly above.  When it comes to getting a supervisor, they hire from without because they truly believe that no one who works a menial job has any sense whatsoever.  They have no faith in their own workers to produce mentally above what they consider minimum wage mental standards.

While they publicly promote and sing the praises of the wives of the men who have been their employee a relatively short time, they do absolutely nothing to promote the women who are actually employed by them.  Wonder why that is?  Maybe it is because they really don't think that women should be in charge of a man and as long as it is not within their walls they are okay with it.

Maybe it is because the wives are young and cute and dress well.  Maybe the female workers have been so tied to the job they have had no time to promote themselves professionally.  Maybe they just don't know the right people and their master doesn't think they are worthy of being promoted.  Did I say master?  I meant to say boss, silly me.  I have to say that maybe the boss tells what a great slave they have to others, but they don't want to truly promote them because another master might cause them to run away.   There I go again.  It should be what a great "employee" they have and that another "employer" might hire them.

It might be that the women who have worked for them have worked for years behind the scenes because that was the only way it was allowed to work.  The owner can be viewed much as the "Master" of the old slavery days.  Only he can decide who gets promoted and it is based on gender and even then it comes down to who he likes and who he thinks will look good in that position, or whose nose is the brownest.  It has absolutely nothing to do with ability.

How can I say that?  That is easy.  It is from personal experience.  I don't think they mean to be ignorant and mean-spirited.  Well, I don't know about that anymore.  I used to think they were good, but sorely misguided, people.  I am leaning toward just plain cruel at this point.  Because, just like the slave owner, they can throw away those that they deem unacceptable or who become disabled in spite of years of dedicated service.

I noticed it when they kept a worker who stole a sizable amount of product, lied about it, cussed out a spouse of management, made vulgar phone calls to their residence and several other things.  Why did they keep him?  I don't know.  Maybe because that man wanted to cuss out his wife and didn't have the brass to do it.  Maybe, he finally admitted what he had done and promised to never do it again.

No so with a woman who made an error that was corrected and was repentant.  She was terminated and a man was hired in her place. 

I noticed it when they picked who they gave the benefit of the doubt.  If it was a wife of a middle management man, they believed her over the worker who had given years to the company. 

I noticed it when they made sure that some workers were paid for years and never had to show up for work.  They did not even come into the office but one time. 

I noticed it when they illegally gave medical insurance to people who were friends but who never got a payroll check from their company.  Maybe, it wasn't illegal just a contractual thing, the kind of thing that gets you self-insured.

I noticed it when they convinced some men to come to work for them and paid them "special" compensation over and above what they paid others with the same job.

How many things does a person pay for other people and for themselves before it becomes obvious and they get charged with tax evasion?  Wonder how all that arrogance will work when their wives have to apply for food stamps while they are in jail? 

I told a someone years ago, that I will do as I am told, but don't ever knock me down.  As they walk over me, they might forget that I have long arms and can grab them where it hurts. 

Am I angry?  Yes.  Am I hurt?  I am also depressed and while not suicidal at this time, I do fight the urges to go postal.  Those urges emerge when my insurance claims are denied because they think I have a pre-existing condition and I have to cancel my much needed counseling appointment until that is straightened out.  My appointment is now more than a week overdue and the anxiety is building.  I just hope that the rage doesn't build as well. 

This story is fictitious and any resemblance to living people is purely their fault.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

The Plantation Syndrome - An Upcoming Article

I am working on an article about the how businesses work in our area and how one business actually has the mentality of the old time plantations. 

Since going through my own psychological problems, I have had to delve deep into why I almost lost my mind and am finding out that the pervasive "plantation" attitude had much to do with it. 

I will be doing research on the structure of the plantation and doing a comparison of the mechanics of this particular business to the plantation.

It should be interesting.

Keep following.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

And God said, "Let there be light..." vs billions and billions of years...

Creation and evolution are both unprovable and must be taken on faith.  The scientific basis to take something as fact is to be able to recreate it in the laboratory.  Neither of these can be proven in a laboratory of any sort.

I have been told that belief in a young earth is silly and goes against all known human scientific facts.  Well, that is all well and good, but there are scientists that can give proof that the earth is young and when I say young I mean less than 10,000 years.

'Scientists say' to me amounts to 'I say'.  Many scientists that believe in evolution simply do not want creation to be correct.  If creation is correct, there is a GOD and there are absolutes.  If creation is not correct, then we came from slime and return to slime and nothing we do in between amounts to anything and anything goes.

Someone said that God created man and man returned the favor and created gods.  That is not exactly what they said but it suits my view.  I believe that there is a Devil and there is a Hell.  And, I do not believe that I have lived through Hell on earth.  While I have been through a great many nasty things, there is nothing on this earth that can convince me that Hell is here on this earth, this particular plane of existence. 

Perhaps I have a special, rosy view of things but then I have not been to war; I have not been tortured; I have not experienced starvation, nor pestilence; and there are many other things that I have not experienced and I am eternally grateful that I have not had to go through those things.

It always amazes me when people (men and women) fall in love and are terribly hurt.  Or their loved one dies.  Or a child dies.  It seems as though that the God they only halfheartedly acknowledged in the best of times suddenly is responsible for taking someone away from them.  They complain that God did not answer their prayers and so-and-so died anyway.  One thing I can say for sure is that we are all appointed a time to die and barring divine intervention in the form of the rapture, we will die. I am not aware of any religion that says we live forever.  Even the ones that believe in reincarnation and karma and pantheism still believe this body dies.

Let us say that for the sake of argument that a person has a nominal knowledge of God.  They never read the Bible any Bible, in spite of saying they believe in Him, and going to church is a chore to make that special someone happy.  Their halfhearted attempts at worship are met with frustration because they don't really believe in all that stuff anyway. 

Their special someone gets terminally ill.  They "pray" to the God that they really never wanted to know to ask Him, oftentimes demanding, that He give them what they want.  Why should He answer their prayer?  It is just a question.  It is not an accusation.  But, why should He answer their prayer?

Their special someone dies.  Now they are mad at someone they do not believe in and refuse to even try to understand.  I know the different stages of grief and I know that everyone handles grief in different ways.  I guess they just have to have someone to blame and it is easy to blame someone they don't want to believe in anyway.

Heaven is a closed neighborhood and you have to belong before you are admitted.  To be reborn and covered by the Blood of Jesus Christ from His finished work on the Cross is the only ticket into Heaven.  Now, I have a second question.  If people do not believe in HIM why would they want to go to Heaven?  Why would they want to spend eternity with Someone they don't know and don't want to know?

Could it be that they know in their heart that they are wrong, but they just don't want to accept the truth?  If that is so, then why spend time belittling people for something they believe in.  Parents teach their kids to believe a fat man in a red suit comes down the chimney with a bag of toys.  No one seems to be concerned about that idiocy but let someone say publicly that they believe in Jesus Christ as Savior and some people start imploding.  Go figure.

While people can believe in billions of years while statistical mathematicians will tell you that the odds of all this happening by chance no matter how much time you give it is impossible.  The tree huggers get all warped out of shape regarding the extinction of species and global warming but do they really want dinosaurs back?  We already have plenty around as it is.  Just look at your friendly neighborhood 14 foot alligator.

What really is wrong with extinction anyway?  I definitely would like to see rapists, murderers and child molesters become extinct.  Politicians are the next thing I will add to the list.

Something to think about.

People Say Things All the Time

"I didn't mean it that way."
"That isn't what I meant to say."
"Where did you get that idea?"
"Why did you think I would do something like that?"

We really do not know most people that we see everyday and we form opinions about them based on what we would do in their situation.  The problem is that we are not them.

"She must have done that because...!"
"I know why they did that!  It's because...!"

Normally we are wrong.  Few people think like I do.  My child is the combination of DNA from two separate people and the sum of his experiences, which I can only hope were less traumatic than mine.  Still, in spite of the fact that he has part of my DNA, I must not form opinions about what he does nor why he does it.

My husband and I have been married almost 20 years.  Because he had a job that kept him on the road most of the time, it has only been since he retired last year that he has really gotten to know me and vice versa.  

It takes time to really get to know someone and we don't spend time with people anymore.  We share snippets on FaceBook or Twitter.  We exchange emails and chats.  The average email is something forwarded from 35 other people and it originated 25 years ago as a fax that was copied and re-faxed 50 times.  Now it has pretty colored pictures and animated bears dancing across the page.  About 50% of it is a sweet message ending with a dire warning of what will happen if it isn't passed on.

We text.  Well, I don't.  People send texts to people and about 30% of the time, they are texting the wrong person. 

All of this has its place.  It is a convenience that we pay dearly for by not having ANY quiet time.  There are people on FaceBook who have thousands of "friends."  Are they really?  Some of it is for convenience so you can let everyone know your business without it passing through the rumor mill and getting blown out of shape. 

I have 31 "friends".  5 of those "friends" I have never met face to face.  The rest are long term friends that I just like to track without being intrusive.  Or, they are family that I like to track without being intrusive.  I do like knowing that there is still some family out there.  It gives me a sense of belonging.  Of those few that I call true friends are the 1 or 2 that I would call to bail me out of jail.  They might snicker, but they would do it.  There are the few new friends met personally less than a year ago.  We share gardening tips and barbs about the size of our tomatoes. 

Be careful who you call friend.  Be careful what you say.  Mean what you say and say what you mean.

I Woke Up Feeling Stupid

Self esteem is highly overrated.  Adolf Hitler had high self esteem.

What good is it?  Most of the people I have known who have HIGH self esteem have a truly over-inflated view of themselves.  They are arrogant and have little feeling for their fellow man.  Their ears are closed to any comment or suggestion that is in opposition to them and their mouth is wide open proclaiming their greatness.

Give me a truly good failure anytime.  At least they have done something besides toot their own horn.  Someone who has failed has tried.  I am a failure at many things.  Now I know that it is not a stigma to have failed. 

Thomas Edison obtained 1,093 patents during his 84 years.  If you do not think he failed many, many times, you know nothing of inventing.  Not everything works the first time around. 

I worked as a Network Administrator for more than 15 years.  I worked with computers in general for more than 35 years.  It was nothing in the early days of the desktop computer to format a hard drive or a disk without realizing it.  It was those failures by users and inventors alike that lead to the lines of code that prohibit someone from formatting their hard drive or disk without asking a question, not once, but 2 or more times, "This action will format your hard drive.  Do you want to proceed?"  Of course, if you heard a co-worker shriek, you knew what they had done.

I installed a phone system for a company several years ago.  Management did assume that I knew what I was doing and allowed me to do the job as I saw fit.  I did not do it alone, there were several others who played a part.  My job was mainly supervision.  It went fairly smoothly.  The company was down for a short time while components were installed.  The same type of operation was performed again several years later.  Management at this time was intent upon "saving money" and tied my hands in certain areas.  Although they had no prior experience with a change of this magnitude, they chose to rely on their own limited knowledge and overrode my suggestions. 

The system was down for several hours and there were a multitude of piddly problems over a period of a couple of weeks.  Cost is subjective.  If you want to spend the money, the sky is the limit.  If you feel it is unnecessary, no amount of common sense will provoke you into seeing that spending that extra dollar will be a good deal. 

Who did they blame?  They blamed the one who installed it.  It wasn't their fault because they wouldn't spend the extra money for the new equipment.  No, it was mine for not being more relentless in my pursuit of warranting the extra cost.  Persistence pays off, but how often do you take their abuse and question your own motives before you finally give up and let management have their own way?  

How can you simply say that the next time I ask will be the time when they give me the OK?  Or will that next time be the one where they say, again, "I told you how it was going to be!  Why can't you just do as you are told?"  I heard that, too.

So, I have failed.  But I have tried.  I have also succeeded.  I will fail again and I will succeed again. 

If you wake up feeling stupid, either try it again changing one small thing or try something else and get back to it later.  If we are worth our salt, we will fail.  Failure is only a reason to try something different or something new.

Two Brothers - A Political Commentary

The oldest brother was industrious.  He worked from the time he could walk.  He worked while he went to school.  He worked summers.  While he was working, he saved money for the things that he needed.  He went to school after he graduated from high school and learned a valuable trade.

He served his country.  He married.  He had children.

The youngest brother was also industrious.  He worked from the time he could walk.  He worked while he went to school.  He worked summers.  While he was working, he bought the things he needed and wanted.  He went to school after he graduated from high school and learned a valuable trade.

He served his country.  He married.  He had children.

So, why is this a political commentary?

They are both conservatives.  They both believe in much the same thing but they each had their own way of getting that same thing.

The oldest brother saved his money that he earned, while the youngest spent his money that he earned.  The oldest brother bought land and refurbished an old house that was on it.  The oldest brother was careful with his money and saved a sizable amount for his retirement.

The youngest took his retirement money when the plan was discontinued and purchased a flashy vehicle simply because he wanted it. When he got paid he got what he wanted.  He spent his money the way he wanted to spend it.  He also got the pleasure of hearing, "Why aren't you more like your brother?" from his parents.  His wife never said that.  She just gave him that look (after the explosion).

Both brothers did what they wanted to do with their money.  Why? Because this is a free country and they can do it.  Just like the Parable of the Ant and the Grasshopper, they handled their wealth the way they wanted to handle it.

Should the government step in and fix things for the youngest brother because he did not save for his retirement?  Should the government take away the "surplus" from the oldest brother and give it to the youngest just so they can be equal?  I don't think so!

That is just downright stupid.  But that is what socialism and communism are all about.  They redistribute the wealth to make everyone equal in the end.  And the end is where you get it.  It's painful, too.

Redistribution of the wealth serves no purpose except to make the one who is less productive in the first place to become even less productive.  The one who is productive eventually gets the same message.  If you are not going to get anything more and if you do, the government takes it away, what is the point in putting forth more effort?

If you want the government to control your retirement, your health care, your junk food, your vitamins, your fiber, your hemorrhoids and any other aspect of your life they feel like you are too ignorant to handle yourself (like money in your pocket), keep voting in people who think you are a moron.  

Or, you can vote those pea-brains out and get someone in who will let you keep your money and make your own mistakes so you don't have to live with their mistakes.

Observations on a Wednesday

I voted yesterday.  My husband and I went to the polls together.  Exercising your Constitutional rights should be mandatory, but because this is a more or less free country, we have the right to throw away our rights.

I talked to a friend I had not seen in a couple of years.  In the course of the conversation, the question, "How are you doing?" was asked by both of us.

My answer could have been, "I'm unemployed because all of their companies are in dire financial straits."  Or, I could have said nothing.  I said neither.

We took the dogs to the vet this morning.  If you want a maintenance free dog, get a mutt.  Little dogs, especially pedigree small dogs are high maintenance and are badly inbred.  Allergies, hip dysplasia, allergies, obesity, allergies and other things plaque our two little chihuahuas.  Did I mention allergies?

They are cute little dogs and they are a lot of company for my husband and me.  Especially if you like taking them out at 2:00 am. 

We have a pit-bull.  Sassy is a real sweetie.  It is her picture I use on my Facebook profile.  We have two other mutts that simply "showed up" a couple of years apart.  They look like they were from the same parents.  When the first one, Smokey showed up, it was nice to have another larger dog for Sassy to play with.  When Daffy showed up, I wanted to put up a wanted poster and spay/neuter the dog parents as well as the dogs that keep popping out these fuzzy little puppies that get to be 50 to 70 pounds of pure dog. 

All my animals get spayed or neutered.  Except for the two little ones, all the dogs stay outside.  

There was a female Great Dane that showed up one day.  I quickly found a place for her about 150 miles away.  The internet is a great place for finding all sorts of things.  I checked on her once and was told that she was getting spayed, had put on some weight and they had named her "Pammie" of all things.

Tiny is our elderly cat.  She was born in 1992.  I brought her indoors during the cold winter (you remember when it snowed in south Mississippi) because she looked so close to death.  She did not die.  She got fat and contrary.  There is a chill in the air and she wants in again this year.  And yes, she will come in at least at night.  I won't throw the old girl out in the cold.  I know how it feels to be thrown away because you are not young and have some flaws. 

I still miss that stupid job.  I am still getting help for my depression and anxiety.  I still get upset when I think about what happened this past spring.  I have finished mourning the loss of dubious friends who only used me to vent their own problems, and whose offer of lunch was an empty offer.  I am sorry that they are sick and suffering.  I offered to help, but when there is absolutely no response, I know they, too, have dumped me without having the class to say so.  I am still me.

Discrimination is Alive and Well in South Mississippi Business

It is illegal to discriminate.  Just ask any Human Resources Manager.  Talk to any employment counselor when you apply for unemployment.  Ask any business owner.  Ask any employee or prospective employee.  They will all tell you that discrimination is against the law.

But we all know better.  We all know there are ways around the law.  We know that from watching the news.  There are ways around the law and lending institutions know it.  Car dealers know it and anyone who does business knows it.  We all know there are ways to discriminate without going public with it.

There are job openings filled everyday with people who are unqualified simply because they are men or because they do not need any special assistance.  You know who those businesses are.

You have to walk in because there is no way a wheel chair is going up those steps unless you ask someone to help.  Then there is the door that even a strong man has trouble opening.  Even if you did get a job there, you could never go to the bathroom.  The wheel chair or the crutches or the walker will never fit in the bathroom with you IF you can get it through the door.

You might say that it was an old office and they are doing the best they can.  You would be wrong.  The building is new.  They built it that way on purpose.  If you need any help, they simply do not want you and do not care if you know it.

Jobs are not publicly posted.  If they are it is with a blind email address so you cannot walk to the door anyway and apply for a job.  Unless it is a menial job of minimum wage no one but the right people will ever apply for the job.  If you are not white and of a certain religion, you will never know that the job exists.  That way you will never be not chosen because of your ethnicity.

If you are a woman, forget it.  It does not make any difference what ethnicity you are.  Not only will they not hire you for certain positions, they will compound the insult by bringing you on as contract labor.

What does that mean?
It means that you do not qualify for any benefits.
It means they do not have to pay their part of any insurance premiums for you.

It means that you must pay self-employment taxes.
It means that they are avoiding paying ALL employer taxes on you. 

It means that you are not covered by their workers compensation insurance.
It means that they do not pay any workers compensation premiums for you.

It means that you do not qualify to participate in their 401K plan or their pension plan.
It means that they do not have to pay matching funds into the 401K for you. 

It means you do not qualify for unemployment!!

You have no job security and you have no employee rights because you are not an employee.  It is also tax fraud and/or tax evasion.  And, oh my, that is illegal, too.  You see there is a difference between contract labor and an employee.  Contract Labor brings all their own tools to the job (that includes professional tools such as laptops) and do the work at their convenience.  There may or may not be a written contract.  An employee is told what to use to get the job done, when and where to do the work and precisely how it is to be done.  You can go to the IRS and the NLRB websites and find out all about the differences.  It is no secret.

In the sate of Mississippi you have the At Will employment law which basically means that either the employee or the employer can terminate employment at any time with no particular reason.  Except  that it cannot be in violation of State or Federal laws.  It is much easier to prove discrimination than you may think.

Because a company that discriminates feels that they are above the law and can legally side-step these minor Federal Regulations, they commit stupid mistakes that are easily brought to light by someone who knows where everything is buried.  What most companies do not realize is that the so-called professionals they have hired to ruin their companies are no more than penny ante crooks and ne'er do wells.  They feed the owners a line of garbage about how they can use advanced technology, partnership with the right people and of course use stringent methods to hire only the right  people.

How do they finally get caught with their pants down, (figuratively speaking, of course, unless there is sexual harassment as well)?  While they are making room for the right people, they fire the wrong person.  They terminate someone who has absolutely nothing to lose and does not care one whit about who gets embarrassed or what friendships might be lost.  Friends will always be friends and embarrassment passes.  Anyway, there are 49 other states to live in and a bunch of people yet to meet.  They terminate someone who tried to tell them they were headed in the wrong direction.  They terminate someone with ethics.  They terminate someone who knows where all that info is buried long before the statute of limitations runs out. 

When they know they are in trouble, they try to cover it up by attempting to insert things into the files that were never there.  They try in vain to make a case against someone who always did far and above what was required.  They try to cover their behinds and simply make it worse for themselves.  They evidently have never heard of anyone doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do.  So much for them and their testimony(?).

Monday, November 1, 2010

Bullies - The School Kind

A father confronts his disabled daughter's bullies and, enraged, threatens their life.

Was he right in doing so?  After all there were children on the school bus that did not do anything against her neither did any of them report the abuse.  Neither did the school bus driver.  The school did nothing to stand up for the little girl.

What would you do if someone bullied your child?  What would you do if someone bullied and sexually harassed your disabled daughter?

I know exactly what I would do if I saw a child being abused in any way by anyone, including, their parents.  I was abused and bullied and no one did anything.  I handled it. 

Abuse from relatives, including parents and step-parents, I just sucked it up and endured it until I could get as far away as I could.  When possible, I tried to avoid it the best I could.

Bullying from other students was different.  One of my step-mothers taught me to knock the stew out of someone who hit me first.  My mother taught me if you are being picked on by someone bigger than you, act like nothing makes you scared.  Then you schedule a fist fight and bring a crowbar. 

Being a girl almost 6 feet tall since I was 13 has had its advantages.  Having a little brother 4 years younger who was picked on had advantages also.  Being tall gives one the impression of power.  Standing up and looking mean at some twerp who is even a half-foot shorter can quash many an aggressive move. 

I never liked to fight.  I saw too much of it up close and personal.  I knew what it was like to feel helpless and frightened.  It is an awful feeling to know that you were going to be hurt and it might be bad. 

I remember an incident when I was about 11 or 12.  My little brother and I had been playing at a playground at the elementary school.  When we started to go home, I saw some boys with BB guns.  This wave of fear came over me and I tried desperately to hide it.  They said something.  I don't recall what it was because I was concentrating on getting away from there without one of us getting hurt. 

We had to cross an open field to get home and I didn't know any other way around it.  As we started walking, I heard them pumping their guns.  I heard them laughing and shouting.  Then I started hearing the BB's whiz past and hit the ground around me.  One went between my legs as I took a step but I refused to run.  I was afraid that I would fall and knew something worse might happen.  I didn't know what BB's would do.  I did know they killed birds and small animals.  I had heard about boys getting an eye put out and maybe that is why I wouldn't look in their direction.

My mother picked a fight for me one sunny afternoon.  My little brother came in and said that some big girls had taken his bike from him.  She called me to come with her.  She was going to get his bike back.  The three girls were in the same grade I was.  It was Bonnie, Judy and another girl.  I was 5 foot 11 and none of them was over 5 foot.  They were all wearing shorts or pedal pushers and looking tough.  I had on a dress with ruffles.

The whole time my little family group is moving, my mother is steady asking, "Where are they?"; "Who are they?" and "Who do they think they are?" 

We met up with them in the side yard of the apartment building.  They were just a short way from the bike.

My mother asked them why they thought it necessary to pick on a little boy and steal his bicycle.  Without giving them a chance to answer, she made the following statement and asked them a question.

"So, you think you're tough taking a little boy's bike away from him!  Why don't you pick on someone your own size?"

It was her next question that made me wonder about my mother's mental stability.  "If you want to fight with someone, fight my daughter.  She'll take you on.  One at a time or all at once."

I stole a glance at her and she never blinked.  I took a deep breath and said nothing.  I just stood firm and tried to look taller and stared at them.  Was I scared?  Of those three, one was getting a reputation for being a tough girl, smoking and fighting. Two of them had gone through grade school with me.  The third one was one I thought was my friend. 

To my surprise and relief they all said that I was too much bigger than they were and they all backed down and walked away leaving the bike behind.

My last school bully was a girl in high school in a Wheeling city school.  She didn't like me from day one.  She pulled my hair, wrote me dirty notes and whispered how she would kick my skinny butt any time she wanted to.  Gym class was the worst.  Every time she got a ball in her hand, it was headed my way.  After about a week of relentless harassment, I'd had enough.  I didn't know how or when, but I was going to return the favor.  I started with the hair-pulling.  I came up behind her and yanked on her hair.  When she turned I smiled at her and then at the teacher standing in the stairway.  That day at gym class, I made sure I got the ball and I made sure that she was on the receiving end.  By the end of class, she had learned the fine art of ducking.    We did not become fast friends, but we did manage to pass each other in the hallway without incident.

What I found out about bullies is they thrive on knocking down the weaker ones.  They get some kind of high taking on the easy pickings.  If you weren't easily controlled, they left you alone.  They are a lot like hyenas looking for the slowest in the herd, waiting to devour them.   I simply picked up the step and found ways to detour them.

Oh, don't get any ideas that I became a crusader for the underdog.  I figured that it was everyone for himself.  Unless it took place in front of me.  Then I found a way to step in or at the very least create a distraction so the kid could get away. 

No, I never told on anyone.  That labeled you a tattletale and it just made it worse.

My next entry will be about corporate bullies.  They prey on everyone.