February 25. 2008 by Dick.

“I needed some electrical work done,” a local homeowner told me the other day. “These licensed electricians come into your house, charge through the roof, and some of them don’t look smart enough to flip the light switch.”

States license a huge number of so-called professionals. In addition to doctors and engineers, we find beauticians, lawyers, drug and alcohol counselors, insurance and real estate agents, plumbers, electricians, and well drillers. There are also polygraph examiners, athletic trainers, interior designers, “specialist assistants,” and masseuses.

Assuring that your doc has at least heard of the Physician’s Desk reference strikes me as a fine idea. And it is quite worthwhile to check if the person who designs your next highway bridge has maybe googled deflection formulae at one time or another.

“Yow! You can make some serious money as an electrician,” the homeowner said.

Somebody sure can.

The State of Washington has its list of 410 or so licenses online here: dol.wa.gov/listoflicenses.html. 177 of them are handled by the “Department of Licensing.”

I can’t think up 400 categories of licenses and I’m really really good at making lists. I have to wonder how much of the licensing is about public safety and how much is about raising revenue.

Posted in Licensing, Politics, Random Access | No Comments »

February 20. 2008 by Dick.

Couple of links you may have already seen:

oldbluewebdesigns.com/sampleprojects.htm
patriotfiles.org

“Old Blue Web Designs” is a career Navy guy who retired to Las Vegas and got bored. He dabbled in some full-time and part-time jobs in airport security, the gaming industry, and the retail industry (Wal-Mart Sporting Goods Dept). The he tried his first government job (working for the Nevada DMV) and now knows where the Peter Principle was invented.

His sites are an ad for his services. Fun, too.

My neighbor in Florida forwarded the “Back to the 60s” that led me to the rest of the OBJ stuff.

objflicks.com/TakeMeBackToTheSixties.htm

More movies here: objflicks.com

Enjoy.

Posted in Lusty Links | 1 Comment »

February 18. 2008 by Dick.

I had a (lower case) epiphany.

This is neither the user friendly GNOME web browser nor the Christian feast. It is not a revelatory manifestation of a divine being. It is, however, a sudden intuitive realization that gave me a little flash of political reality.

I’ve been reading Maslow today because I’ve been thinking Big Thoughts. The readings reminded me that our political candidates always, always, always promise to provide health and well-being to every living American; to secure our borders and stamp out crime; to bring the Financial markets back under control when they are not or boost them even more when they are; and to improve the safety net we expect from our gummint against illness and accidents and the impact of hurricanes. The promissory order depends on their polls.

We are affluent and relatively safe. Most of our physiological and safety needs are met. So why would a political candidate promise us this stuff?

• It is safe to promise what we mostly have
• They figure to motivate us to choose them because they can scare us into thinking we aren’t fed and housed and safe.
• They aren’t smart enough to promise what we really want.

What do we really want? Really?

I already have a chicken in my pot. In fact I have more than one. The army got it right; I want to “be the best that I can be.”

John F. Kennedy didn’t electrify two generations of Americans because he delivered universal health care. After all, he promised the Moon but didn’t actually accomplish much here on Earth. He electrified two generations of Americans because he showed us Camelot.

Can John McCain deliver that passion? Can Barack Obama?

If that wasn’t clear enough, my friend Bob reminds me that the election year question I asked is this: what do we voters really want? What new goal will captivate two generations or three? Have we settled for smaller and fancier widgets and lost our passion for inventioneering on a grand scale?

We make grand choices when we have great passion.

And vice versa.

Posted in Politics, Big Thoughts, Dick's Desserts, Random Access | 3 Comments »