Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Cash for Clunkers; Part Deux

I recently heard that the US Postal Service is offering a $15,000 incentive to Postal Workers to get them to leave the service. It's like the "Cash for Clunkers" campaign, where the Service would get rid of the highest paid tier of workers, those that have been there for quite a while, and are near retirement age A $15K boot out the door would be a good thing for many of the dedicated skilled employees, but it should be based on performance, nothing else. Reward the people who have been breaking their backs to move America's mail! It's the least the Postal Service could do to thank the dwindling workforce of clerks who really care about doing a good job.

And that brings me to the "clunkers" part. Over the years, the Postal Service has been hiring more and more people who do as little as possible. They take no pride in their work, because the dedicated employees have to do it for them. There are no workplace rules, nor time studies in place to stop these people from clocking in, and hiding the rest of the day. Supervision has their hands full with the task of data entry, filling in countless forms, reports, and other useless drivel. They seldom look away from the computer screen. This opens the door for goofing off! Imagine employees that swipe in at the beginning of the day, and walk back out the door to go to work at another job! It happens in the larger facilities!

In my former office, we had a man who came from another office to fill a vacant position. This position involved being stationed in a remote mailing plant, with no supervision. While the Postmaster was trusting the man to do his job, the employee was out fishing for the better part of the day, and only came back when he was paged by the employees of the plant! This went on for months, and he was finally replaced by another man who did much the same thing. Instead of fishing, he would work in his sister's store, or sell real estate!

The list goes on, and this was only one office out of the whole system! Why would we reward people who refuse to work? And why isn't there supervision to weed out the useless people and process them out of the service?

Seeing these "clunkers" get rewarded for their non-service just shows what a real mess the Postal Service is in!

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Pay(n) in the Butt!

There's an old saying that there are only two things in life that you can't change, death and taxes. From the moment we get a few coins in our little hands, there has been some form of government wanting to take a share, be it local, county, state, or federal. We were brought up believing that it's a citizen's duty to pay taxes in order to keep the country running (and spending). It seem that there is a tax on nearly everything that affects one's life, from food taxes, to utility taxes, and on and on.The political mindset is that you never think about the tax when you see the price on the shelf. Only when you get the final bill does it appear, making the cost of your purchase higher. Then it's too late , and you resign yourself to pay it.



What got me thinking about this occurred on one of my many trips to fix my computer a few weeks back. I pulled up the the little strip mall shop where I bought it, and had to park in front of the convenience store next door. There in the window was a sign advertising cigarettes for $49.99 per carton. Since I quit smoking years ago, I hadn't kept up with the costs, but I remember that the unbelievable sum of $5\carton is one thing that drove us to quit back then!

They say the high taxes on cigarettes are meant to be a deterrent to smoking. If you don't like the tax, then quit. This means that the tax is strictly meant as a punishment! It's unthinkable that taxes are used to take money away for no other reason than to punish someone!



Not a smoker? Then how about the tax on soft drinks that San Francisco want's to implement (or already has in place)? If memory serves me correctly, it's something like 35%! All this to force people to stop drinking sweetened sodas. What on earth does this have to do with anything? I can understand that a tobacco tax might apply because of health concerns due to second hand smoke, but soda pop?



Worse yet, there's a number of nutjobs in Washington who want an extra gas tax, in order to punish us for driving older, less fuell efficient vehicles. Many people live paycheck to paycheck in this country, and to screw them with higher gas prices is just plain wrong. The price of automobiles has left many people no other alternative but to continue to drive older cars and trucks. Many new cars cost more than a full year's salary, so if a person has a car that runs, and is paid for, why should they be punished?



The list goes on and on, from utility taxes, personal property taxes, (punishment for having stuff!) and food taxes (you eat, therefore we tax!). It takes a huge bite out of a person's income. What amazes me is that the Washington elite have no idea how much strain these little swipes at our income put on the family budget. If they don't like a product we consume, is that really any of their business?

It's time to leave the consumer alone, and have at least a few things that we enjoy!


Life's too short, and in the end, when we die, it seems that there's taxes on that too!

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Tune in, Turn on, and Drop Out!

Ha! I've finally gotten a computer that's co-operating with me....at least for a while, anyway.


Right now, I'm still stewing over the fuss about the President speaking to the school children today. Some nutcases are calling this speech "an attempt to advance a political agenda". What, encouraging someone to get an education is a bad thing? All of this is being fed by the Right Wing media, the same ones that claimed the President "is a Muslum", or "he's a socialist".
This malarky is being devoured by simple minded people, who treat it as the gospel truth. These same people never question what they hear, they only obey. That's the scary thing here. Nazi Germany was ruled by fear. Any one different was singled out, there were no other opinions allowed, and anyone who spoke against the party, was punished. Sound familiar?
This is the same thing going on right now! Make the people fearful, so they only follow you, and what you say. Any other opinions, of facts for that matter are "lies". It's a scary thing that's happening, an intense effort to poison the minds of people.

Take for example the "Tea Partys" that have taken place lately. All the blame for our current woes is heaped at the President's feet. Why? He didn't get us into this mess. Where were these asshats during the past 8 years, when all the spending, lying, and torturing were going on? Once again, it's just a thinly veiled attempt to frighten people into believing that our current President is some sort of "Socialist Monster" that wants to enslave us!

It's time for some clear thinking here in America, and stop the wingnuts from bullshitting the news, instead of truthfully reporting it

Hell, if I ran the country, Fox News would be off the air! And, any parent that kept their child home today because of what they heard , would have those children taken away and deprogrammed!

To quote the late Frank Zappa: "If your kids knew how really lame you were, they'd murder you in your sleep". A little harsh, perhaps, but it sums it all up!