I have to credit a buddy of mine in Chicago for bringing this one to my attention.
You’ve probably heard about the workers in Chicago staging a sit in at the Republic Windows and Doors plant. Their beef is that the company is not paying the workers enough notice before closing, which is a violation of their contract. That sucks for them, but somehow the government places blame with…
Earlier Monday, Gov. Rod Blagojevich, several alderman and Cook County officials offered their support for the workers’ protest and threatened to suspend business with Bank of America if a resolution was not reached.
How is it Bank of America’s fault that this company can’t run profitably? Â Are they actually trying to coerce Bank of America to lend out money to a company that can’t repay it?
Uh, correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t most of this financial mess started when government forced financial institutions to lend money to people who couldn’t afford to pay it back?
It’s been a long time since I’ve posted a Toonlet. Â It’s not that I don’t have any material. Â There are volumes of one liners perfectly suited for cartoons. Â And boy do I know some characters. Â It just slipped my mind for some reason.
This particular situation occurred on a night that began in an airport bar in Atlanta, continued on a trans-Atlantic flight, moved to a hotel bar in Limerick, then to a rugby match (sneaky with the flasks), some local pubs, a dance club, a miserably hot and humid train ride to Dublin sitting across from a guy who sniffed snuff every 45 seconds or so, a car ride to a pub out in the country with a driver who had never driven on the left side of the road, and another rugby match.
It goes without saying that most of us were ready to take a break from the sauce and sleep for a couple of hours. Â Most of us. Â Also, notice the new character–Mr. Soft Touch
I’m going to have to try and be delicate with this one…where to start?
First the background:  A Knox County Assistant District Attorney, Samyah Jubran, was done a favor by KPD Officer Hakan Dururvurur when he let her drive home even though he thought she was too impaired to do so after a traffic stop.  What the commenters over at the KNS seem to be hung up on is the idea that she was done this favor because of her position and that the same rules should apply to everyone.
Yeah, that’s true. Â But that’s not the real problem here in my eyes. Â People get breaks all the time for a whole array of reasons. Â Maybe it’s because they are pretty. Â Maybe because it is raining and the cop doesn’t want to pull them over because he doesn’t want to get out in it. Â Maybe the cop is really trying to catch people with outstanding warrants, not traffic violations. Â Maybe it’s because the people pulled over are just some fun-loving guys being towed down a street by a truck and a rope with smoke and sparks coming off their skis but not actually harming anyone.
When these people are private citizens, that’s one thing. Â It may not be fair, but it’s not much worse than a nice lady at a convenience store giving you free coffee. Â Thanks ladies.
The real problem is that this situation leaves the hint that (if not caught by the media) the prosecuter receiving the “favor” would have owed a favor back to the officer. Â It’s not that he let her drive impaired. Â That’s a separate issue. Â He could have done something as simple as allowing her to park in a tow away zone or letting her into the back door of a concert whose door he was securing while moonlighting in his off hours. Â Maybe this favor is expected to be returned when he has arrested someone he doesn’t like and the DA is riding the fence over whether or not to prosecute. Â Maybe the return favor is a nudge toward prosecution.
I guess what I’m getting at is that we should be less concerned with the fact that the rules don’t apply to everone. Â That is a fact. Â It has always been that way. Â But when you or I get a break, it’s just that–a break. Â We should be more concerned with the fact that favors done amongst those inside the system can so easily pervert justice.
It’s not a fairness issue. Â It’s an ethics issue. Â And I’d bet it goes on way more than we’ll ever know.
**UPDATE**
KNS released the video today. Â To be fair, I don’t think this officer did her much of a favor. Â She didn’t look or sound drunk to me, and have seen and heard many a drunk in my day. Â However, it still “looks” bad.
There’s a group of Knoxville Twitterish types gearing up to run the Jingle Bell 5k here in Knoxville on December 13. Brandon over at Knoxify has more information, including team name and link to sign up. Oh wait, I can give you that here.
Come on out and run with us while you can still beat me. I’m making a comeback, this is my only race of 2008, and then it is ON in ’09.
I saw a K-Mart ad for their Black Friday specials last night featuring Jaclyn Smith. Â I have no intention of going to K-Mart any time in the next 365 days. Â That is, unless Jaclyn Smith is going to be there. Â This woman was hot when I was in kindergarten. Â Now I’m old, and she’s still hot. Â Not fair.
Anyway, there are actually some great deals out there from the emails I got this morning from Buy.com and Amazon. Â Here are a couple of the best ones:
I’m not going to even begin to bore anyone with the old cliche’d things I’m thankful for. Family, health, friends, etc.–anyone can think of those. Besides, I wrote a nice Thanksgiving post last year. Nope, I’m going to get real. I’m thankful for a lot of things most people probably aren’t, so why not list those and make my Thanksgiving post a little different? Ok then, I will.
Nice ladies with coffee–I like nice ladies, and I like coffee, but when you put the two together you get magic! Â Nice ladies with coffee just give it away sometimes (I’m still talking about coffee). Other times, they will break the rule that says “you can’t get $.59 refills in styrofoam cups” and let you do it anyway. This is especially helpful if you are driving to the ATL and are stopping for your 2nd or 3rd cup of the day.
Muscle memory–It’s frustrating to get older and not be able to the things you used to do as well or as fast as you could when you were younger. On the other hand, it’s nice to still be able to do them period.
La Gallina Turuleca and Zoboomafoo—La Gallina Turuleca has been viewed 11.5 million times. I think I’m responsible for about 9 million of those. It stops the screaming. Â Zoboomafoo, while popular with the kid is actually a pretty decent show. I was just saying last night while flipping through channels that Zoboomafoo is better than most of the other stuff on TV. Â Which brings me to…
Rock of Love Charm School–I’m thankful for this show because it makes me thankful for so many other things. First, it makes me thankful for Rock of Love, without which this show would not be possible. Secondly, it makes me thankful for every ex-girlfriend ever. Yeah, even “that one” wasn’t anything like these chicks. And all those ex-girlfiends make me thankful for my current girlfriend. Sure, technically we’re married, but since we still like each other so much it’s more like dating, which I’m very thankful for.
WordPress–Not just WordPress (which is free), but all the free WordPress plugins and WordPress themes as well. What a great, easily extendible platform! I’m thankful more people are catching on to how flexible and easy it is for people to get things done on the web with WordPress. The more people are empowered, the easier it is for them to get information out, and we all win.
Free speech–I’m really greatful that we’re able to sit behind our keyboards and cry “Socialism!” when we see it closing in on us. I’m really not sure why we’re still allowed to do so. It’s probably because big government isn’t efficient enough to stop us yet–they’ll have to spend a few years doing a study, creating a department, hiring a huge staff, and creating some regulation first. Oh, and taxing the shit out of us to pay for it all. Of course, it’s entirely possible that they really don’t know that all this stuff they’re doing is socialism. I never considered that possibility until this week.
Space…Fight!–This is quite possibly the greatest Facebook app ever produced. It’s a game that has no apparent purpose and cannot be won. What’s the point? I believe the point is to see how long you can stand to play this game. Can you stand to play it longer than your friends? Out of spite, I believe I can. However, I’m getting some stiff competition from oneSpace…Fight!er who just won’t give up.
“Change”–This word has given me so many opportunities to laugh this year, and the hits just keep on coming. Only in America can more of the same be marketed as change and be bought by so many. It reminds me of Mick Foley rasslin as Cactus Jack, Dude Love, and Mankind. He wore different costumes as each character, but once the bell rung you just had a crazy sumbitch dishing out pain, no matter the gettup. That’s change I can believe in.
I’m going to go ahead and preface this post with a disclaimer–it’s going to get stupid and, as LL Cool J would say, ridicalous (misspelled on purpose for all you sticklers).
Ok, so I have a really bad habit of posting the Mellish Meter rankings on Twitter when I hear them. Â What is the Mellish Meter, and why do I do this? Â According to the WSB site:
The Mellish Meter is meteorologist Kirk Mellish’s assessment of that day’s weather. A “10” is a perfect day, not too hot, not too cold, no rain, a “Chamber of Commerce” weather day. A “1” is an ugly day with rain, sleet, snow, ice, or severe cold. A “5” is an average day. “4” and “6” are slightly below or above average. “7, 8, and 9” are good to great days while “2 and 3” are fair to poor weather days.
But here’s the thing…this is Atlanta’s weather. Â I hear it while listening to WSB in the mornings, and I’ve been tricked more than a couple of times into thinking I’m listening to the local weather. Â Several seconds of confusion ensue when Mr. Mellish tells me it’s raining while I’m looking out of my window at pure sunshine, but I usually figure it out.
I don't know if it's the Mellish Meter, but this looks cool
Anyway, I did a search and found 14 mentions of the Mellish Meter on Twitter in the last 6 months, eight of which were mine. Â That kind of kills an idea I was kicking around. Â Because I don’t have enough other things to do </sarcasm> and am a nerd, I was thinking of analyzing the factors that could possibly contribute to the Mellish Meter’s readings. Â My plan was to track temperature, humidity, luminance, air pressure, and other weather factors in Atlanta and peg them to the day’s Mellish Meter reading. Â I have my suspicions that other non-weather related factors affect the Mellish Meter, and I would like to prove it. Â For instance, I’d bet that a bad hangover day can never result in a reading greater than 5, no matter the weather.
The lack of Twitter activity around the Mellish Meter leads me to believe there is not much of a market for this analysis. Â Solving the riddle would only satisfy my personal curiousity. Â And let’s face it…I’ll move onto something else soon enough.
Are you still waiting on your next check from the gov’ment? Â Has it been almost a year already? Â A lot of good that did, huh?
Instead of waiting on the people who cause most problems to solve them, you’d be better off heading over to KTownLowDown for some great tips on coupon clipping and maximizing at places like Target and Walgreens. It must be hard to keep a guy like SVD in groceries, but his wife seems to have a good system going. This trip to Walgreens alone makes the whole post worth reading:
She grabbed a toothbrush, two cans of chicken broth, and the pudding for a dessert she was going to make…and went to the checkout. The gal rang the items up, The Wife gave the gal at the register her coupons. the Wife paid $0.57 and the gal at the register gave her a Walgreens coupon worth $5 dollars. Somehow we got stuff we needed and Walgreens paid us to get it.
I need to find someone to pay me to shop, preferably for big ticket items like triathlon bikes, digital cameras, and homes.
At least not anymore. Â But I was out for most of the day today, at least if you consider the mall and grocery store as “out”. Â When I say I don’t get out much, I’m talking about the house and my pajamas. Â I mean that I literally don’t get out of my pajamas much. Â Here are some random thoughts I had throughout the day…
The mall was insanely crowded. Â I’m sure the cold had something to do with it. Â That’s the only reason we didn’t go to the park for a walk instead (kid with a cold). Â Maybe everybody was just window shopping–dunno–but somebody needs to tell these folks that we’re in severe economic straits. Â Isn’t that why we have a media. Â Oh wait–the media is saying that. Â Maybe it’s just that people don’t trust what they say so much. Â Could all of the Fox News Alerts and CNN Breaking News flashes turned them into The Boy Who Cried Wolf?
The Apple Store. Â Honestly, I don’t get it. Â I think Apple has great computers, mosly because of the OS. Â But the price…seriously? Â As far as iPods go, I own a first generation Nano that I received as a gift and like. But I couldn’t justify spending that much on a player when all I want to do with it is run, especially when you can get one of these, which are bad ass, so much cheaper. Â I think form follows function. Â Actually, I think form follows price, which follows function in this case. Â I just want something small and light that plays music while I run. Â I’m too slow to impress to impress anyone, no matter what kind of player I’m using.
On top of that, Apple store can do all it wants to make me feel like I’m in Times Square while I browse their 900 square foot commercial, but I know where I really am. Â Even if i didn’t, I’m quickly reminded of it when I walk out of the store and see this.
Next up, girls with tight, short shorts on and Uggs. Â It was 40-something degrees today. Â I wear shorts all the time when it’s too cold for most people, but usually out of necessity, not as a fashion statement. Â It was too cold for me to wear shorts today. Â I hope you don’t wake up in 15 years embarrassed about this. Â Don’t worry, there’s a decent chance you won’t. Â I have a pair of Skidz shorts I bought in 1990 that weren’t even cool then. Â Even worse, I still wear them. But I may not be the fashion example you want to follow.
And to end on a positive note, several people were really nice to me at the Kroger on Middlebrook. Â Although I was an ace at it a couple of years ago, grocery shopping is not easy for me any more. Â I’m grocery stupid now–back and forth across the store several times to get everythingmost of the things a few of the things on my list. Â I was waiting in line to check out and a guy came and told me that they could check me out in a different line. Â He could see that I was struggling to hang on to a tasmanian devil, so he took my cart for me and even unloaded it before bagging my groceries. Â Then, just as I was finishing up loading up the car, a nice lady grabbed my cart so that I wouldn’t have to take it to the return. Â She didn’t even work there.
I plan on going out again for the next round of early voting or to stock up on yeast and copper line.
I DVR’d the game so I could badoop badoop it and not have to spend a ton of time watching it. I feel a little bad for Lester Hudson. He’s obviously a great player–you can tell just by the way he moves. But the Vols pretty much shut him down until late in the second half when, oddly enough, the Vols started playing pretty sloppy themselves. It’s too bad, because this was probably one of the few nights a lot of people in the state would get to see him play.
I think the real story of the game was Brian Williams who was getting it done everywhere on the floor. That dude is looking a lot better than last year. I can see J.P. Prince and him both having big years as everyone tries to contain Tyler Smith. Should be a fun season to watch the Vols.
