Wordless Wednesday
Monthly Archives: September 2011
Jack of All Trades
The lizard is affronted, annoyed, slightly choleric, exasperated, fierce, vexed, and more than a little disappointed.
On her Monday Peeve over there, she wrote, “Im not even gonna get into dual-language packaging and how the employees at stores always put the Spanish side out when stocking the shelves.”
So I will.
Packaging is part of the issue. After all, having the same descriptions in two or seven languages on the box is more irritating to those of us who don’t wear our readers all the time but including a user manual in those same two or seven languages means either even smaller print or a lot more paper in each and every box.
Most manufacturers shrink the print and quadruple the paper. More for the waste stream.
This is an issue that not only could help Congress take its mind off important actions like renaming post offices and their vacation; it can also increase liberal schizophrenia.
We need a law, see, that bans multiple language packaging and user manuals. And forms. We do, after all, place the environmental impact of the waste stream above all else.
In our effort to become Jacks and Jills of all trades
We have become the Masters of Baiters.
“Press 3 for Arabic?”
![[Image]](http://dickharper.com/images/blog/michigan-dhs.jpg)
California’s Muslims make up some 3.4% of that state’s population or 20% of the national total. Michigan’s Muslims appear to be 1.8% of the Michigan population, less than half that state’s Hispanic population. Recognizing the extreme need to cut down the vast northwestern forests, the California Medi-Cal Eligibility forms may be available in more than Arabic, including Armenian, Chinese, Farsi, Hmong, Khmer, Korean, Laotian, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese. And English. The State of Michigan Public Assistance also offers help English, Spanish, and Arabic.
“Now on top of all the paper, the state offices have to have 17 different writing systems?” Rufus said. “Bleeping morons.”
Here’s the bait: all you environmentalists reading this? Isn’t it time to cut this kind of waste from our government, our shelves, our stream?
Labor Day? Really?
On this day named for Laborers on which we do not Work, it is worth noting that politicians do not create jobs, no matter what they say.
I think Congress should pass the President’s job package, the one he’s been talking about for weeks, the one he will announce and may even give one or two details for, on Thursday. After all, he promised!
Jay Carney, asked if Mr. Obama’s package would drop unemployment below 9%, said, “Based on, when you’re talking about economic predictions, yes. Economic analysts, economists will be able to look at this series of proposals and say that based on history, based on what we know, based on their collective expertise, that it would add to economic growth and cause an increase to job creation.”
Uh huh. Politicians do not create jobs.
Back when she was still boss in 2009, Nancy Pelosi (D – CA) wrote about the final G.R.A.F.T. Act, “This legislation will jumpstart our economy, create and save 3.5 million jobs.” She used the phrase “create jobs” or “create really really outstanding jobs” 41 times.
Uh huh. Politicians do not create jobs.
The site michigan.gov trumpeted that, “Thanks to Governor Granholm’s 21st Century Jobs Fund, this new economy is actually taking shape… The first round of awards has already provided funding to 67 companies and projects, creating thousands of jobs…”
Uh huh. Politicians do not create jobs.
Michigan is closer to the truth. Politicians give away OPM to businesses that create jobs. “OPM” is “Other People’s Money,” something politicians think they have an infinite supply of and that We the [Other] People know is running out.
It is Labor Day and 25 million Americans are still not laboring.
It is Labor Day and we are not laboring because 0 jobs were created last month. Zero. Nada. Zip. None.
It is Labor Day and we are not laboring. Politicians will create no jobs today, either, but they will walk in parades and pretend they have.
In 2009, the White House said President Obama’s stimulus plan would bring unemployment to below 8%.
Uh huh. Politicians do not create jobs.
This column first appeared on Monday, September 7, 2009. I have updated it slightly.
You might also enjoy last year’s Labor Day reminiscence, Milestones
Burn, Baby, Burn! Yet Another Unofficial Polynoodling Random Babbling Thing
“Rule Number One: Don’t you bring that, that person into my bedroom!“
That rule, or one like it is repeated in some 50% of the houses in these United States.
Rule Number One is my own wording but I got to thinking about it because Cunning Minx and Anita Wagner brought up the same dismay in Advice for Poly Newbies.
Minx will watch the Man Burn tonight. So will gekko.
50,000 enthusiasts came together in a Nevada Desert this past week to create Black Rock City, home of the Burning Man. The 2011 art theme there is “Rites of Passage,” an invitation to everyone there to camp on and create the trials by fire of life. They all depart on Monday, having left no human trace whatsoever.
I know a number of people there, either personally or virtually. Black Rock City attracts poly peeps who love gatherings. Poly Asylum, PolyBurn, PolyParadise, Queer Women’s Camp and more have set up theme camps.
Theme camps have become Burning Man’s core. And, since it is B-Man, any theme camp must be participatory.
The Polyamory theme camps may have orgies. But they also may have just people who love to talk about (and celebrate) the way they live.
Living is up close and personal in Black Rock City.
Readers who have had long-distance relationships know the effort it takes to keep the intimacy. We do it with text and email and phone and Skype and organized visits. We’ve often thought about how much easier it would be to live in the same place. Heck, it would be easier to live in the same state!
Or would it?
Rule Number One would suddenly be … challenging.
We all are newbies when it comes to building compressed relationships when in the same place with each other, so I’m not sure how John or Jane would take it if their sweetie hooked up with a hottie in the same (Black Rock) city or the same tent. Burning Man sold out; there were a ton of newbies this year. I’m thinking a lot of Johns and Janes have found out by now.
Rites of Passage could take on a whole new meaning this year.
As an aside, I’m not sure why there is the emphasis on techno rock when Light My Fire still burns strong after more than 40 years.
[Editors Note: gekko and I shared the four-part polylocution that lead up to these afterposts. Please visit The Poly Posts for the entire series and for other resources.]
Thors Trials & Tribulations
Found a little glitch in my online bank statement yesterday. My bank isn’t the biggest in the nation but it has thousands of employees, almost 1,000 branches in more than a dozen states including Vermont, and a comfy position on the Fortune 500 list.
My bank has gone paperless. We made a couple of deposits this month and the teller credited them to the Harper account. The deposits didn’t show on the statement.
Uh oh.
I stopped in there this afternoon.
The teller definitely credited them to the Harper account. Unfortunately, it was a Harper in Ohio. Or maybe Alaska. The branch manager snatched the two deposits back from that poor schnook (who also apparently doesn’t check his or her balance very often because the money was still there) and deposited it in my account.
I love the idea of saving a tree.
Fixing this took more work than planting one.