I particularly like how you are in the "-80%" marginal tax rate if you make less than $10,000. So I'm paid an additional $8,000 for making so little?
Regardless. You will go Galt. You will conform. You will comply.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Hockey Stick in Global Warming: Dead
Oh, doesn't look like a hockey stick anymore now does it?
Once again, bloggers doing the job of the mainstream media.
Prison Politics (by Warrior)
Warrior - Serving fourteen years for kidnapping and aggravated assault. Half Hispanic and Scottish-Irish with family still in Mexico. Brought up by a family steeped in drug commerce. He writes some of the best prison-fight stories on the Internet.
It was dinner time, and three guys were sat with me at the chow table.
“Hey, did you vatos catch that shit on the news?” Casper asked.
“Nah, what?” Chino said.
“The State’s talking about releasing a grip of us,” Casper said.
“What?” Chino said.
“I caught bits and pieces of that,” Balla said.
“The State’s also talking about changing the sentencing guidelines again. Dropping it down from eighty-five percent to sixty-five or seventy percent,” I said.
“Yeah, they said the prisons are too overcrowded and shit,” Casper said.
“You really think they’ll really do that, Warrior?” Chino asked.
“I’d like to hope so,” I said. “I heard some shit on the news about the Feds asking the State where’s all this unaccounted for money they gave the State.”
“Anybody with any sense knows politicians pocket the shit,” Casper said. “Arizona is a retirement state. Politicians retire here, so they line the pockets of the legislators when it comes to law. Or they exchange cash for Capitol Hill favors. Remember that Fife Symington? Our dirty old governor got busted and found guilty of all kinds of real-estate fraud. Didn’t do a minute in jail. If that was a Mexican, he’d be doing life.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” Balla said.
“That’s not the only reason,” I said. “Most people don’t understand the law, even the difference between a felony and a misdemeanor. It was the Reagan Era that set the stage for where we are today with the prison system. It went from rehabilitation to punishment, and all those prison riots popped off in the eighties. Two Bushes later, and we’re in this do-eighty-five-percent-of-your-time mess, and they’re locking people up faster than they can build prisons. All the rehab programs and educational funding got cut to build prison, and line the pockets of politicians. Now we have the most people incarcerated per capita in the world.”
“And Arizona’s one of the dirtiest in this game,” Balla said. “I don’t think they’ll release any of us early.”
“Balla’s right,” Chino said.
“True, but peep this,” Casper said. “Cali did it.”
“And you vatos know that Arizona follows suit with Cali a lot,” I said. “Many of our laws are surrogates from Cali. Once Cali passes a law, Arizona waits to witness a loophole, amends it, then implements it. That’s why we get fucked.”
“I didn’t know that,” Balla said.
“Not many do,” I said. “Prison’s big business. With all the money to be made per each incarcerated individual, you think politicians want to make it easy for us to get out? The politicians have prison conventions, where it’s like a state fair. Instead of ‘Knock down the milk bottles to win a prize,’ it’s ‘Stab the shank through the vest and win one-hundred dollars.’ And they label us crazy!”
“Are you serious?” Chino asked.
“That ain’t the half of it,” I said. “Texas prisons make Eddie Bauer clothes. If you vatos ever get a chance, read Going Up the River: Travels in a Prison Nation by Joseph T. Hallinan. It’ll open your eyes.”
“Time will tell if we get out early or not,” Casper said.
“At least something good might come from this fucked-up economy,” Balla said.
We all nodded in hopeful agreement.
Click here to read Warrior’s previous blog.
Our friends inside appreciate your comments.
Email comments and questions for Warrior to writeinside@hotmail.com or post them below. To post a comment if you do not have a Google/Blogger account, just select anonymous for your identity.
Shaun P. Attwood
Warrior - Serving fourteen years for kidnapping and aggravated assault. Half Hispanic and Scottish-Irish with family still in Mexico. Brought up by a family steeped in drug commerce. He writes some of the best prison-fight stories on the Internet.
It was dinner time, and three guys were sat with me at the chow table.
“Hey, did you vatos catch that shit on the news?” Casper asked.
“Nah, what?” Chino said.
“The State’s talking about releasing a grip of us,” Casper said.
“What?” Chino said.
“I caught bits and pieces of that,” Balla said.
“The State’s also talking about changing the sentencing guidelines again. Dropping it down from eighty-five percent to sixty-five or seventy percent,” I said.
“Yeah, they said the prisons are too overcrowded and shit,” Casper said.
“You really think they’ll really do that, Warrior?” Chino asked.
“I’d like to hope so,” I said. “I heard some shit on the news about the Feds asking the State where’s all this unaccounted for money they gave the State.”
“Anybody with any sense knows politicians pocket the shit,” Casper said. “Arizona is a retirement state. Politicians retire here, so they line the pockets of the legislators when it comes to law. Or they exchange cash for Capitol Hill favors. Remember that Fife Symington? Our dirty old governor got busted and found guilty of all kinds of real-estate fraud. Didn’t do a minute in jail. If that was a Mexican, he’d be doing life.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” Balla said.
“That’s not the only reason,” I said. “Most people don’t understand the law, even the difference between a felony and a misdemeanor. It was the Reagan Era that set the stage for where we are today with the prison system. It went from rehabilitation to punishment, and all those prison riots popped off in the eighties. Two Bushes later, and we’re in this do-eighty-five-percent-of-your-time mess, and they’re locking people up faster than they can build prisons. All the rehab programs and educational funding got cut to build prison, and line the pockets of politicians. Now we have the most people incarcerated per capita in the world.”
“And Arizona’s one of the dirtiest in this game,” Balla said. “I don’t think they’ll release any of us early.”
“Balla’s right,” Chino said.
“True, but peep this,” Casper said. “Cali did it.”
“And you vatos know that Arizona follows suit with Cali a lot,” I said. “Many of our laws are surrogates from Cali. Once Cali passes a law, Arizona waits to witness a loophole, amends it, then implements it. That’s why we get fucked.”
“I didn’t know that,” Balla said.
“Not many do,” I said. “Prison’s big business. With all the money to be made per each incarcerated individual, you think politicians want to make it easy for us to get out? The politicians have prison conventions, where it’s like a state fair. Instead of ‘Knock down the milk bottles to win a prize,’ it’s ‘Stab the shank through the vest and win one-hundred dollars.’ And they label us crazy!”
“Are you serious?” Chino asked.
“That ain’t the half of it,” I said. “Texas prisons make Eddie Bauer clothes. If you vatos ever get a chance, read Going Up the River: Travels in a Prison Nation by Joseph T. Hallinan. It’ll open your eyes.”
“Time will tell if we get out early or not,” Casper said.
“At least something good might come from this fucked-up economy,” Balla said.
We all nodded in hopeful agreement.
Click here to read Warrior’s previous blog.
Our friends inside appreciate your comments.
Email comments and questions for Warrior to writeinside@hotmail.com or post them below. To post a comment if you do not have a Google/Blogger account, just select anonymous for your identity.
Shaun P. Attwood
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The Cappy Cap Girls Are Crying
So I upgrade to the new blogger version and not only reprogram the original sidebar advertisements, but include new ones with NEW GIRLS!
And alas, the girls, who were so happy and inclined to volunteer their images to help your old Captain advertise his wares, are sad and depressed.
You want to know why they are sad and depressed?
Because you men (and notice I say men, because, well, in intellectual honesty I haven't really advertised towards the women) haven't made a purchase, a donation or, just plum plain well made ANY comment about them!!!
Now HONEST AND SINCERELY,
Yes, I will admit I put these RAVENING temptresses on my blog to make money because...well...that's how it's done.
But my evil capitalist, self-serving pursuits ASIDE, you guys MUST at least make some commentary about their beauty and how appreciative you are of them to grace and improve the aesthetic nature of this blog. Otherwise the Captain shall have to start posting pictures of himself in a speedo.
And none of us want that now do we???
Ergo, to add some light-hearted fun for these depressionary times, you will sing the praises of the girls of Cappy Cap by sending/submitting poems of praise to them.
The best one will win a signed photograph of ALL the Cappy Capy girls in somewhat "non-Christian poses."
You may submit your poems/odes by leaving posts here, or if you are too shy to make them public, e-mail them to me at CAPTcapitalism@yahoo.com
The Cappy Cap girls appreciate it.
And alas, the girls, who were so happy and inclined to volunteer their images to help your old Captain advertise his wares, are sad and depressed.
You want to know why they are sad and depressed?
Because you men (and notice I say men, because, well, in intellectual honesty I haven't really advertised towards the women) haven't made a purchase, a donation or, just plum plain well made ANY comment about them!!!
Now HONEST AND SINCERELY,
Yes, I will admit I put these RAVENING temptresses on my blog to make money because...well...that's how it's done.
But my evil capitalist, self-serving pursuits ASIDE, you guys MUST at least make some commentary about their beauty and how appreciative you are of them to grace and improve the aesthetic nature of this blog. Otherwise the Captain shall have to start posting pictures of himself in a speedo.
And none of us want that now do we???
Ergo, to add some light-hearted fun for these depressionary times, you will sing the praises of the girls of Cappy Cap by sending/submitting poems of praise to them.
The best one will win a signed photograph of ALL the Cappy Capy girls in somewhat "non-Christian poses."
You may submit your poems/odes by leaving posts here, or if you are too shy to make them public, e-mail them to me at CAPTcapitalism@yahoo.com
The Cappy Cap girls appreciate it.
"Big Four Accounting Experience Required"
A public service announcement from Captain Capitalism.
Along the same lines as "Fortune 50 experience required" or "5+ years required" when the system they're asking you to work on only has been out 4 years, this is another pet peeve, particularly of accounting and finance majors;
"Big four accounting experience required."
Beacause you see, if you weren't an accountant at one of the "Big Four" accounting firms (Peat Marwick, Ernst and Young, Price Waterhouse, and Deloitte and Touche) you obviously weren't doing "real" accounting work and you obviously weren't a "real" accountant.
You see, the secret is that there is this whole NEW world of accounting that you morons, you schleps that work at "faux" accountancies such as Grant Thorton, Boulay Heutermaker, etc. , are completely unaware of.
Oh sure, you may have worked on FASB, GAAP, SOX, but that was really just a front. A whole pseudo accounting system where you're duped into thinking that's how the real world of accounting works.
You see in the "real" world of accounting, you have to learn how to falsify your client's financial statements so that the financial statements look a heck of a lot better than what they really are. You need to be like the now-defunct Andersen Accounting where your job is NOT to follow GAAP, but rather subvert GAAP, find ways around GAAP so that Dotcoms and telecoms look like they actually have value, as opposed to the insolvent entities that they really are.
Rippe and Kingston?
JD Cloud?
James Volz?
Oh PUH-leeeeze.
Those are just posers in the "real" world of accounting.
So, to recap.
If you are going to go to school for accounting or are going to get your CPA, remember kids,
it's all for nought UNLESS you work for one of the Big Four accounting firms.
Practice your ass-kissing skills for those interviews!!!
This PSA announcement brought to you by Captain Capitalism.
Along the same lines as "Fortune 50 experience required" or "5+ years required" when the system they're asking you to work on only has been out 4 years, this is another pet peeve, particularly of accounting and finance majors;
"Big four accounting experience required."
Beacause you see, if you weren't an accountant at one of the "Big Four" accounting firms (Peat Marwick, Ernst and Young, Price Waterhouse, and Deloitte and Touche) you obviously weren't doing "real" accounting work and you obviously weren't a "real" accountant.
You see, the secret is that there is this whole NEW world of accounting that you morons, you schleps that work at "faux" accountancies such as Grant Thorton, Boulay Heutermaker, etc. , are completely unaware of.
Oh sure, you may have worked on FASB, GAAP, SOX, but that was really just a front. A whole pseudo accounting system where you're duped into thinking that's how the real world of accounting works.
You see in the "real" world of accounting, you have to learn how to falsify your client's financial statements so that the financial statements look a heck of a lot better than what they really are. You need to be like the now-defunct Andersen Accounting where your job is NOT to follow GAAP, but rather subvert GAAP, find ways around GAAP so that Dotcoms and telecoms look like they actually have value, as opposed to the insolvent entities that they really are.
Rippe and Kingston?
JD Cloud?
James Volz?
Oh PUH-leeeeze.
Those are just posers in the "real" world of accounting.
So, to recap.
If you are going to go to school for accounting or are going to get your CPA, remember kids,
it's all for nought UNLESS you work for one of the Big Four accounting firms.
Practice your ass-kissing skills for those interviews!!!
This PSA announcement brought to you by Captain Capitalism.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Today's Observation in Labor Economics
From a poster at SDA;
"the MAJOR workplace flaw I encountered in my ENTIRE working life was the reprehensible practice of demanding years and years of experience. jeezuz murphy, I even remember an interview in the late 80s. they wanted 3 yrs experience on the IBM AS 400. which had only been around for 3 years. in other words, to get that particular yob I had to be in an organization that, wait for it, picked up the 400 the moment it became available.
whut utter insanity. how in blazes does *anyone* get a god$%#m job anywhere in the face of this absurdity?
I have pondered this more than any single work related question. an unsolvable catch-22. I guess my handicap was I didn't get picked to clean the blackboards in grade 2 so that I could get picked to collect the assignments in grade 3 so that I could get picked to hand them out in grade 4 so that I could get picked in grade 8 to help the school photographer and on and on and on.
its like the kids in developing countries that desperately need to get into the 'right' primary school in order to line up their post sec. education and get that career path started. otherwise a failure in life by the age of 5."
You see, I like to think that I am not this cold hearted, evil, indifferent guy whose ass has been pampered by his rich parents who thusly scoffs at the plebs and the serfs for not trying hard enough as he has a full ride to Yale and a job guaranteed for him by Uncle Bernie Madoff. That I have seen enough corporate nepotism and BS to know that for the most part, you can advocate capitalism, but that pure, unfettered capitalism will still have its drawbacks, namely connected cronies and spoiled brat daddy's children will get the good jobs while those more deserving won't, and as a result, society will suffer as the entire corporate sector is a mere fraction of its potential efficiency. Ergo why, despite being a capitalist, I rail against the ineptitude and corruption of corporate America.
Regardless, the "how can I get the job when nobody will give me the experience" paradox is just more empirical proof of how the upper echelons of corporate America are reserved for the elites and connected of this nation.
Additionally, my personal favorite (when I was foolish enough to try to apply to Fortune 500 corporations) was when they required "X years experience working for a Fortune 50 corporation."
Oh no, they wouldn't accept 20 years experience working at a solid, small time manufacturer.
Oh no, you won't worth the paper you were printed on if you were so foolish to accept employment at a small time start up or a well established local firm.
No, you *MUST* have had 5+ years experience working for Corning or Dow or whatever other East Coast crony outfit your daddy lined a job up for you for.
In the end, and hopefully this is some consolence to you, these corporate entities will hire such inept and incompetent people that inevitably they will be ran into the ground. That is of course unless they are bailed out by the taxpayer like;
GM
Goldman Sachs
Merrill Lynch
Morgan Stanley
Bear Sterns
Chrysler
Wachovia...
Well, never mind. I guess the larger point is that you must realize the "Fortune 500" are really more private clubs than any real entity interested in hiring the best talent. So if you treat them like taxpayer subsidized country clubs, at least it makes a little more sense and you're not foolish enough to actually try to apply to those corporations.
"the MAJOR workplace flaw I encountered in my ENTIRE working life was the reprehensible practice of demanding years and years of experience. jeezuz murphy, I even remember an interview in the late 80s. they wanted 3 yrs experience on the IBM AS 400. which had only been around for 3 years. in other words, to get that particular yob I had to be in an organization that, wait for it, picked up the 400 the moment it became available.
whut utter insanity. how in blazes does *anyone* get a god$%#m job anywhere in the face of this absurdity?
I have pondered this more than any single work related question. an unsolvable catch-22. I guess my handicap was I didn't get picked to clean the blackboards in grade 2 so that I could get picked to collect the assignments in grade 3 so that I could get picked to hand them out in grade 4 so that I could get picked in grade 8 to help the school photographer and on and on and on.
its like the kids in developing countries that desperately need to get into the 'right' primary school in order to line up their post sec. education and get that career path started. otherwise a failure in life by the age of 5."
You see, I like to think that I am not this cold hearted, evil, indifferent guy whose ass has been pampered by his rich parents who thusly scoffs at the plebs and the serfs for not trying hard enough as he has a full ride to Yale and a job guaranteed for him by Uncle Bernie Madoff. That I have seen enough corporate nepotism and BS to know that for the most part, you can advocate capitalism, but that pure, unfettered capitalism will still have its drawbacks, namely connected cronies and spoiled brat daddy's children will get the good jobs while those more deserving won't, and as a result, society will suffer as the entire corporate sector is a mere fraction of its potential efficiency. Ergo why, despite being a capitalist, I rail against the ineptitude and corruption of corporate America.
Regardless, the "how can I get the job when nobody will give me the experience" paradox is just more empirical proof of how the upper echelons of corporate America are reserved for the elites and connected of this nation.
Additionally, my personal favorite (when I was foolish enough to try to apply to Fortune 500 corporations) was when they required "X years experience working for a Fortune 50 corporation."
Oh no, they wouldn't accept 20 years experience working at a solid, small time manufacturer.
Oh no, you won't worth the paper you were printed on if you were so foolish to accept employment at a small time start up or a well established local firm.
No, you *MUST* have had 5+ years experience working for Corning or Dow or whatever other East Coast crony outfit your daddy lined a job up for you for.
In the end, and hopefully this is some consolence to you, these corporate entities will hire such inept and incompetent people that inevitably they will be ran into the ground. That is of course unless they are bailed out by the taxpayer like;
GM
Goldman Sachs
Merrill Lynch
Morgan Stanley
Bear Sterns
Chrysler
Wachovia...
Well, never mind. I guess the larger point is that you must realize the "Fortune 500" are really more private clubs than any real entity interested in hiring the best talent. So if you treat them like taxpayer subsidized country clubs, at least it makes a little more sense and you're not foolish enough to actually try to apply to those corporations.
The World Owes Them a Living
Dave Thompson, who I occasionally substitued for on his radio show, "The Dave Thompson Show" was talking about the future of the country in terms of how we were going to pay for things like Social Security and Medicare. This was when the economy was booming and there might, just might be some hope, until I called in and said,
"You know Dave, if you think Gen X and Gen Y are going to work hard enough to produce the wealth necessary to pay for yours and the other Baby Boomers' retirement, you must be smoking something."
To which both Dave and I enjoyed a good, hearty guffaw.
Alas, while it was funny then, that doesn't mean it's not reality now, or that older Americans aren't going to be up sh!t Creek in the future.
Seems less than half of the able-bodied American youth (ages 16-24) are working right now.
Now, I know, I know, "Hope and Change."
But allow me some very unpolitically correct and cold, callous questions;
1. With Gen X/Y/Millinneals having such an abhorrence to work, who will produce all the necessary economic production to pay for things like Social Security and Medicare?
2. With all of them majoring in fluff and art history and political science and peace studies, how precisely will a career in "Professional Protesting" or "community organizing" yield the necessary tax dollars to pay for grandma's prescription drug plan?
3. I know this is unopportune to bring this up right now, but doesn't this mayhaps suggest the future productive potential of this country will be shot and therefore unable to repay all those trillions Obama recently indebted us to?
I know, I know.
I'm a big meanie, racist, evil fascist poopey head for daring to ask such insulting questions.
I'm sorry, I apologize.
Please go back to sticking your heads in the sand and thinking about hope and change.
"You know Dave, if you think Gen X and Gen Y are going to work hard enough to produce the wealth necessary to pay for yours and the other Baby Boomers' retirement, you must be smoking something."
To which both Dave and I enjoyed a good, hearty guffaw.
Alas, while it was funny then, that doesn't mean it's not reality now, or that older Americans aren't going to be up sh!t Creek in the future.
Seems less than half of the able-bodied American youth (ages 16-24) are working right now.
Now, I know, I know, "Hope and Change."
But allow me some very unpolitically correct and cold, callous questions;
1. With Gen X/Y/Millinneals having such an abhorrence to work, who will produce all the necessary economic production to pay for things like Social Security and Medicare?
2. With all of them majoring in fluff and art history and political science and peace studies, how precisely will a career in "Professional Protesting" or "community organizing" yield the necessary tax dollars to pay for grandma's prescription drug plan?
3. I know this is unopportune to bring this up right now, but doesn't this mayhaps suggest the future productive potential of this country will be shot and therefore unable to repay all those trillions Obama recently indebted us to?
I know, I know.
I'm a big meanie, racist, evil fascist poopey head for daring to ask such insulting questions.
I'm sorry, I apologize.
Please go back to sticking your heads in the sand and thinking about hope and change.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Off Color Recession Medicine
I am the by product of two very different and diametrically opposed families.
My father's side was the Wisconsin Synod, Nazi, Lutheran, EXTREMELY conservative, "ballroom dancing is a sin" type of people.
And my mother's side was the "drinking, cursing, swearing, having fun, let your kid have ice cream for breakfast" type people.
I would like to think that I am a healthy balance of both, but every once in a while I am lambasted for being too much of my father's side and not enough of my mother's side, especially when it comes to having...let's just say... "accidents" when you are a full grown adult.
This has become a point of contention between my mother's side of my family and myself, so much so, that I decided to make a "Downfall" parody to defend myself.
After showing the video to my family, it was requested by several people that I put it on the blog.
I AM WARNING ALL OF YOU IN ADVANCE that this is NOT about economics, it is NOT about finance and that it is CRASS, contains CURSING, is SOPHOMORIC and is not normal par for the course of Cappy Cap.
However!
Given these recessionary times, it may provide a bit of humor and hilarity for those who need it.
View it at your own discretion.
My father's side was the Wisconsin Synod, Nazi, Lutheran, EXTREMELY conservative, "ballroom dancing is a sin" type of people.
And my mother's side was the "drinking, cursing, swearing, having fun, let your kid have ice cream for breakfast" type people.
I would like to think that I am a healthy balance of both, but every once in a while I am lambasted for being too much of my father's side and not enough of my mother's side, especially when it comes to having...let's just say... "accidents" when you are a full grown adult.
This has become a point of contention between my mother's side of my family and myself, so much so, that I decided to make a "Downfall" parody to defend myself.
After showing the video to my family, it was requested by several people that I put it on the blog.
I AM WARNING ALL OF YOU IN ADVANCE that this is NOT about economics, it is NOT about finance and that it is CRASS, contains CURSING, is SOPHOMORIC and is not normal par for the course of Cappy Cap.
However!
Given these recessionary times, it may provide a bit of humor and hilarity for those who need it.
View it at your own discretion.
Mentored (Part 7)
Thanks to the Koestler Trust, I am now being mentored by Sally Hinchcliffe, a published author with an M.A. in Creative Writing from the University of London.
I’ve received some emails asking what’s going on with the mentor sessions, and the book. It’s good news all around. With the help of my literary agent and Sally, I’ve been readjusting the structure of my jail memoir. Sally said her work is done on coaching me with that book now, and that we need to move on to what I’m going to write next. I only have a few more sessions left with her, so I hope to make the most out of them. My agent is giving the latest draft of the book a proof read, and if all is well he’ll be talking to publishers about it soon. I started taking jail notes back in 2002, so the book has been a seven-year work in progress. I’ve never spent that long on a single project before, so you can probably imagine how excited I am to be almost at the finishing line.
Before the latest revisions, the structure became problematic towards the end. Here are Sally’s comments on the end chapters of the book:
This section really doesn’t work as stands. The blog material is too patchy and interrupts the arc of the story – your relationship with Claudia and what is at stake with the plea bargain and sentencing hearing.
You need to concentrate on those elements which show the inhumane conditions of the jail – for once without the leavening of humour. You also need to show what has happened to people who don’t plea bargain and make it clear that one-by-one your codefendants are plea-bargaining. What’s at stake isn’t clear.
Make your feelings about the plea bargain much clearer. Why you took the decision. How it felt to do it. The letters you used are too distancing and abrupt.
You also need to show the aftermath of your break-up with Claudia. What you did during the next hour, day, week, month. Your reaction at the time. Not how you think of it now. Don’t worry about coming across as self-pitying. Stick to what actually happened as it felt at the time and it should not come across that way.
Disembowel yourself in those penultimate chapters. Don’t hide yourself behind letters and blogs. Show it through stories and incidents. Crank up the tension. Make it felt. Write it in the frame of mind from when it was actually happening, and you didn’t know what was going to happen next.
Then, when you have got everything set up properly, the last chapter [the sentencing hearing] can speak for itself.
Acting on that advice, I ditched all of the material culled from the blogs, and added anecdotes to show what was at stake with my legal situation, and how I felt about the break-up with Claudia. The blog material was written in a humorous voice that didn’t suit such a serious juncture of the book.
Sally also recommended I read The Gathering by Anne Enright, which won the 2007 Man Booker Prize.
The final thing the agent requested was a preface. He wrote:
Preface can be short - a couple of hundred words - just to familiarise the reader, at least in the UK, who will be unfamiliar with Arpaio and his jail system.
So this month’s excerpt is my draft of the preface:
Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona boasts he is the most famous sheriff in the world. He feeds his inmates green bologna, and garbs them in pink underwear. He calls himself “America’s toughest sheriff,” but never mentions that he is the most sued sheriff in America due to the deaths, violence and medical negligence in a jail system subject to investigation by human-rights organisations including Amnesty International and the American Civil Liberties Union.
Arpaio was voted into office in 1992. He won four more elections, but his margin of victory plummeted – in part due to several highly-publicised deaths at the hands of his staff. They include Charles Agster, a mentally-challenged 33-year-old arrested for loitering. He was hog-tied, jumped on, punched and strapped into a restraint chair, where he stopped breathing. And Brian Crenshaw, a partially-blind shoplifter who the guards pulverised for failing to produce his ID. He was found comatose on his bunk with a broken neck, toes, and severe internal injuries. The list goes on, and Arpaio actually promoted some of the guards the court found responsible, earning him the “Angel of Death” nickname by his critics.
The majority of the inmates housed in Arpaio’s jail system are unsentenced. They have not actually been found guilty of the crimes for which they are being held. Yet the conditions in the jail system are far worse than those in the prison system where convicted criminals are housed.
Despite all of the adverse publicity and investigations by various departments of the federal government, Arpaio has managed to stay in charge and command a support base bordering on the fanatical. He’s had two books published, and was awarded his own prime-time reality TV show, Smile...You're Under Arrest!
Click here for Mentored Part 6
Email comments to writeinside@hotmail.com or post them below. To post a comment if you do not have a Google/Blogger account, just select anonymous for your identity.
Shaun P. Attwood
Thanks to the Koestler Trust, I am now being mentored by Sally Hinchcliffe, a published author with an M.A. in Creative Writing from the University of London.
I’ve received some emails asking what’s going on with the mentor sessions, and the book. It’s good news all around. With the help of my literary agent and Sally, I’ve been readjusting the structure of my jail memoir. Sally said her work is done on coaching me with that book now, and that we need to move on to what I’m going to write next. I only have a few more sessions left with her, so I hope to make the most out of them. My agent is giving the latest draft of the book a proof read, and if all is well he’ll be talking to publishers about it soon. I started taking jail notes back in 2002, so the book has been a seven-year work in progress. I’ve never spent that long on a single project before, so you can probably imagine how excited I am to be almost at the finishing line.
Before the latest revisions, the structure became problematic towards the end. Here are Sally’s comments on the end chapters of the book:
This section really doesn’t work as stands. The blog material is too patchy and interrupts the arc of the story – your relationship with Claudia and what is at stake with the plea bargain and sentencing hearing.
You need to concentrate on those elements which show the inhumane conditions of the jail – for once without the leavening of humour. You also need to show what has happened to people who don’t plea bargain and make it clear that one-by-one your codefendants are plea-bargaining. What’s at stake isn’t clear.
Make your feelings about the plea bargain much clearer. Why you took the decision. How it felt to do it. The letters you used are too distancing and abrupt.
You also need to show the aftermath of your break-up with Claudia. What you did during the next hour, day, week, month. Your reaction at the time. Not how you think of it now. Don’t worry about coming across as self-pitying. Stick to what actually happened as it felt at the time and it should not come across that way.
Disembowel yourself in those penultimate chapters. Don’t hide yourself behind letters and blogs. Show it through stories and incidents. Crank up the tension. Make it felt. Write it in the frame of mind from when it was actually happening, and you didn’t know what was going to happen next.
Then, when you have got everything set up properly, the last chapter [the sentencing hearing] can speak for itself.
Acting on that advice, I ditched all of the material culled from the blogs, and added anecdotes to show what was at stake with my legal situation, and how I felt about the break-up with Claudia. The blog material was written in a humorous voice that didn’t suit such a serious juncture of the book.
Sally also recommended I read The Gathering by Anne Enright, which won the 2007 Man Booker Prize.
The final thing the agent requested was a preface. He wrote:
Preface can be short - a couple of hundred words - just to familiarise the reader, at least in the UK, who will be unfamiliar with Arpaio and his jail system.
So this month’s excerpt is my draft of the preface:
Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona boasts he is the most famous sheriff in the world. He feeds his inmates green bologna, and garbs them in pink underwear. He calls himself “America’s toughest sheriff,” but never mentions that he is the most sued sheriff in America due to the deaths, violence and medical negligence in a jail system subject to investigation by human-rights organisations including Amnesty International and the American Civil Liberties Union.
Arpaio was voted into office in 1992. He won four more elections, but his margin of victory plummeted – in part due to several highly-publicised deaths at the hands of his staff. They include Charles Agster, a mentally-challenged 33-year-old arrested for loitering. He was hog-tied, jumped on, punched and strapped into a restraint chair, where he stopped breathing. And Brian Crenshaw, a partially-blind shoplifter who the guards pulverised for failing to produce his ID. He was found comatose on his bunk with a broken neck, toes, and severe internal injuries. The list goes on, and Arpaio actually promoted some of the guards the court found responsible, earning him the “Angel of Death” nickname by his critics.
The majority of the inmates housed in Arpaio’s jail system are unsentenced. They have not actually been found guilty of the crimes for which they are being held. Yet the conditions in the jail system are far worse than those in the prison system where convicted criminals are housed.
Despite all of the adverse publicity and investigations by various departments of the federal government, Arpaio has managed to stay in charge and command a support base bordering on the fanatical. He’s had two books published, and was awarded his own prime-time reality TV show, Smile...You're Under Arrest!
Click here for Mentored Part 6
Email comments to writeinside@hotmail.com or post them below. To post a comment if you do not have a Google/Blogger account, just select anonymous for your identity.
Shaun P. Attwood
Friday, September 25, 2009
When an Activist Dies...
And I am being serious about this question;
When an activist dies do they look back at their life and say,
"Holy crap, I just wasted the one shot I got?"
Seriously, think about these people. Their lives are so void of purpose and meaning that the only thing they can come up with doing is protesting soft toilet paper.
At what point do you wake up, take a step back and say, "wow, you know, I've suddenly realized that I'm 45 and it's not 1974 anymore. And I really haven't accomplished ANYTHING with my life. Maybe I should quit finding things to protest and maybe, I don't know, get a real job, get married, have a family, go to college for a trade or a skill, start a business or something. But protesting day in and day out and then every once in a while I succeed in getting a local city ordinance passed which only pisses off the masses that must endure it."
Of course, I know that in order to pursue such a luxurious life where you job is to protest, you must have some trust fund money or well-to-do parents, but still. In the end, there MUST be some level of remorse or regret for wasting your finite limited life on such a stupid, pointless and idiotic cause.
When an activist dies do they look back at their life and say,
"Holy crap, I just wasted the one shot I got?"
Seriously, think about these people. Their lives are so void of purpose and meaning that the only thing they can come up with doing is protesting soft toilet paper.
At what point do you wake up, take a step back and say, "wow, you know, I've suddenly realized that I'm 45 and it's not 1974 anymore. And I really haven't accomplished ANYTHING with my life. Maybe I should quit finding things to protest and maybe, I don't know, get a real job, get married, have a family, go to college for a trade or a skill, start a business or something. But protesting day in and day out and then every once in a while I succeed in getting a local city ordinance passed which only pisses off the masses that must endure it."
Of course, I know that in order to pursue such a luxurious life where you job is to protest, you must have some trust fund money or well-to-do parents, but still. In the end, there MUST be some level of remorse or regret for wasting your finite limited life on such a stupid, pointless and idiotic cause.
The Death of Marcia Powell and Outdoor Cages (by Warrior)
On the same day the cops at Perryville left Marcia Powell out in a cage with no water in 106 °F weather, until the heat finally claimed her, over here at Buckeye prison, two SSU guards left me and 25 other individuals outside in the cages for two hours. They gave us only one 8 oz cup of water and expected us all to drop UA’s. We all said, “No. No one can drop.” One prisoner had to be taken inside due to symptoms of heat exhaustion. We all got booked for refusing to provide urine samples, though no one had enough water to urinate.
Now, since Marcia Powell died, state-wide policy doesn’t allow any inamtes to remain in the cages whatsoever. All over the yard and on the prison directory channel on TV are warnings about heat exhaustion, and tips to stay hydrated along with detailed descriptions about what the Arizona sun can do to a person.
What about us on that day? I bet if someone died over here, none of us would be getting booked for a refusal ticket. Right now, the Arizona Department of Corrections can’t afford another scandal of the same caliber, so we’re all guaranteed to be guilty for refusing to urinate, so they can cover their dirty tracks over here.
The system is just as corrupt as the inamtes. The only difference between us and the staff is the color of the costume.
Click here for Warrior’s previous prison story.
Our friends inside appreciate your comments.
Email comments and questions for Warrior to writeinside@hotmail.com or post them below. To post a comment if you do not have a Google/Blogger account, just select anonymous for your identity.
Shaun P. Attwood
On the same day the cops at Perryville left Marcia Powell out in a cage with no water in 106 °F weather, until the heat finally claimed her, over here at Buckeye prison, two SSU guards left me and 25 other individuals outside in the cages for two hours. They gave us only one 8 oz cup of water and expected us all to drop UA’s. We all said, “No. No one can drop.” One prisoner had to be taken inside due to symptoms of heat exhaustion. We all got booked for refusing to provide urine samples, though no one had enough water to urinate.
Now, since Marcia Powell died, state-wide policy doesn’t allow any inamtes to remain in the cages whatsoever. All over the yard and on the prison directory channel on TV are warnings about heat exhaustion, and tips to stay hydrated along with detailed descriptions about what the Arizona sun can do to a person.
What about us on that day? I bet if someone died over here, none of us would be getting booked for a refusal ticket. Right now, the Arizona Department of Corrections can’t afford another scandal of the same caliber, so we’re all guaranteed to be guilty for refusing to urinate, so they can cover their dirty tracks over here.
The system is just as corrupt as the inamtes. The only difference between us and the staff is the color of the costume.
Click here for Warrior’s previous prison story.
Our friends inside appreciate your comments.
Email comments and questions for Warrior to writeinside@hotmail.com or post them below. To post a comment if you do not have a Google/Blogger account, just select anonymous for your identity.
Shaun P. Attwood
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Bernice Young Elementary
The Nazis are coming, hurray, hurray!
Apparently the school is not well liked. Probably because they're too busy brainwashing their children instead of teaching them.
Wow, look, their number!
(609) 386-3520
Apparently the school is not well liked. Probably because they're too busy brainwashing their children instead of teaching them.
Wow, look, their number!
(609) 386-3520
So Simple, Yet So Far Away
Socialists in the US get the giggity giggities when you mention Sweden.
Because Sweden, after all, is a superior nation with really smart people and more importantly they are socialists.
Now, i know for Cappy Cap readers, this is elementary economics 101, but my post is NOT about this simple solution to our economic problems. It is to mock the American public that has been so brainwashed to be against corporations that they cannot muster up the intellectual honesty to admit they were wrong and that villianizing corporations is in general a bad thing because...well....heh, they kind of create a lot of jobs for us.
If the US corporate tax rate wasn't 40%, would US corporations even seek out those "loopholes" in the first place?
Because Sweden, after all, is a superior nation with really smart people and more importantly they are socialists.
I'm half inclined to agree since they just recently decided to LOWER THEIR CORPORATE TAX RATES.
Now this is something so simple that even our incredibly stupid and woefully economically ignorant American college students might be able to figure this one out.
If you want to create jobs, why don't you lower the corporate tax rate to attract businesses which will in turn invest in your country and create jobs?
Now, i know for Cappy Cap readers, this is elementary economics 101, but my post is NOT about this simple solution to our economic problems. It is to mock the American public that has been so brainwashed to be against corporations that they cannot muster up the intellectual honesty to admit they were wrong and that villianizing corporations is in general a bad thing because...well....heh, they kind of create a lot of jobs for us.
Regardless, here are the corporate tax rates in the world;
I will pre-emptively strike the guaranteed leftist, knee-jerk, NON-THOUGHT OUT repsonse that no doubt would be offered had I not pre-emptively struck it;
"Oh, yeah, well uhh... you know, corporations, they like have these uh...LOOPHOLES..so uh, like they don't pay taxes."
Yes, thank you, never heard that one before, and from non-CPA's no less.
Here's a crazy thought.
If the US corporate tax rate wasn't 40%, would US corporations even seek out those "loopholes" in the first place?
And oh, what's that? You're bitching and whining about your 401k/403b plan and how much money it lost? What do you think will happen to stock prices if you eliminate corporate taxes?
You know, just never mind, I'm so sick and tired of explaining basic economics to people who can't make that simple link in logic. You really deserve the anti-business, socialists you've elected into government. Enjoy a really horrible, government financed nursing home when you're older.
Post POST - To the damn hippies looking to debunk this data;
The tax rates listed are TOTAL corporate taxes, including state, local, provincial, and national.
And even if it this data were erroneous it would not change the argument that lower taxes would cause economic growth. So quit nitpicking and ask yourself the question;
Do you want economic growth, or do you want millions to suffer so you can continue on your little greedy, self-gratifying, yet pointless crusade against "evil" corporations thinking it's still 1968?
In the meantime, I think I hear your mommy calling. She said something about a trust-fund check and you avoiding a real job?
Post POST - To the damn hippies looking to debunk this data;
The tax rates listed are TOTAL corporate taxes, including state, local, provincial, and national.
And even if it this data were erroneous it would not change the argument that lower taxes would cause economic growth. So quit nitpicking and ask yourself the question;
Do you want economic growth, or do you want millions to suffer so you can continue on your little greedy, self-gratifying, yet pointless crusade against "evil" corporations thinking it's still 1968?
In the meantime, I think I hear your mommy calling. She said something about a trust-fund check and you avoiding a real job?
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Guards Disciplined for the Death of Marcia Powell
Earlier this year, Renee, writing for Jon’s Jail Journal, revealed that her friend, Marcia Powell had died from heat exposure after being locked in an outdoor cage by the guards. Here’s today’s news story on what happened to the guards responsible.
PHOENIX (AP) - Sixteen Arizona corrections employees have been fired, suspended or otherwise disciplined for their roles in the death of an inmate left in an outdoor holding cell for four hours in triple-digit heat and for a "wait-them-out" practice at the prison where she died.
Three of those disciplined were fired, two stepped down in place of being fired, 10 received suspensions ranging from 40 to 80 hours, and one was demoted. Two others will be disciplined after they return from medical leave.
Arizona Department of Corrections Director Charles Ryan announced the moves Tuesday, calling the death the "most significant example of abuse" of an inmate that he's aware of within the department.
Marcia Powell, who was serving a 27-month sentence for prostitution, died from heat-related complications hours after she collapsed May 19 in an uncovered outdoor cell at the Perryville prison in the west Phoenix suburb of Goodyear. She had been in the cell for nearly four hours, despite a policy that set a two-hour limit.
Powell, 48, was being held in the outdoor cell while being transferred from one section of the prison to an observation ward after seeing a psychologist. An autopsy report showed she had first- and second-degree burns on her face and body and a core body temperature of 108 degrees.
"That is an absolute failure," Ryan said Tuesday. "The inmate should not have been left in the enclosure that length of time."
The autopsy also found that Powell's death was an accident and that she had anti-psychotic drugs in her system. Such drugs are known to make people more susceptible to heat-related illnesses.
Ryan declined to provide the names of the corrections employees who were disciplined, saying it would be inappropriate considering they have the right to appeal their punishments. Those disciplined included a deputy warden, a prison psychologist, a chief of security and various officers.
A call to the union that represents Arizona corrections workers was not immediately returned Tuesday evening.
During the administrative investigation of Powell's death, Ryan said investigators with the Office of the Inspector General uncovered a so-called "wait-them-out" practice at the Perryville prison that went on for about a year. Inmates were placed in outdoor and indoor holdings cells for hours at a time as an alternative to using force, he said.
While Powell was not in a holding cell under that practice, Ryan said, an inmate was left in an outdoor cell for 20 hours three days before Powell's death; she did not require medical treatment. He said no one died under the "wait-them-out" practice.
The state prisons system ended its use of outdoor prison cells weeks after Powell's death. Arizona's 10 prisons had 233 outdoor cells for temporarily holding inmates awaiting transfer to punishment wards, medical units, other prisons or work assignments.
Ryan said the cells at Perryville are now used as exercise or short-term waiting areas. They are now shaded, and have misters and benches.
The criminal investigation into Powell's death is finished and at the Maricopa County attorney's office, which will decide if any corrections employees will be charged.
Donna Hamm, director of Tempe-based Middle Ground Prison Reform, said the employees' punishment helps show other prison workers that they will be held accountable for their actions.
"There was an established policy, and had it been followed, Marcia Powell would be alive today," Hamm said.
She said County Attorney Andrew Thomas should charge the employees involved in Powell's death.
"If that happens, the message is crystal clear to department employees about their responsibilities and the consequences of not following their own policy," Hamm said.
Email comments to writeinside@hotmail.com or post them below. To post a comment if you do not have a Google/Blogger account, just select anonymous for your identity.
Shaun P. Attwood
Earlier this year, Renee, writing for Jon’s Jail Journal, revealed that her friend, Marcia Powell had died from heat exposure after being locked in an outdoor cage by the guards. Here’s today’s news story on what happened to the guards responsible.
PHOENIX (AP) - Sixteen Arizona corrections employees have been fired, suspended or otherwise disciplined for their roles in the death of an inmate left in an outdoor holding cell for four hours in triple-digit heat and for a "wait-them-out" practice at the prison where she died.
Three of those disciplined were fired, two stepped down in place of being fired, 10 received suspensions ranging from 40 to 80 hours, and one was demoted. Two others will be disciplined after they return from medical leave.
Arizona Department of Corrections Director Charles Ryan announced the moves Tuesday, calling the death the "most significant example of abuse" of an inmate that he's aware of within the department.
Marcia Powell, who was serving a 27-month sentence for prostitution, died from heat-related complications hours after she collapsed May 19 in an uncovered outdoor cell at the Perryville prison in the west Phoenix suburb of Goodyear. She had been in the cell for nearly four hours, despite a policy that set a two-hour limit.
Powell, 48, was being held in the outdoor cell while being transferred from one section of the prison to an observation ward after seeing a psychologist. An autopsy report showed she had first- and second-degree burns on her face and body and a core body temperature of 108 degrees.
"That is an absolute failure," Ryan said Tuesday. "The inmate should not have been left in the enclosure that length of time."
The autopsy also found that Powell's death was an accident and that she had anti-psychotic drugs in her system. Such drugs are known to make people more susceptible to heat-related illnesses.
Ryan declined to provide the names of the corrections employees who were disciplined, saying it would be inappropriate considering they have the right to appeal their punishments. Those disciplined included a deputy warden, a prison psychologist, a chief of security and various officers.
A call to the union that represents Arizona corrections workers was not immediately returned Tuesday evening.
During the administrative investigation of Powell's death, Ryan said investigators with the Office of the Inspector General uncovered a so-called "wait-them-out" practice at the Perryville prison that went on for about a year. Inmates were placed in outdoor and indoor holdings cells for hours at a time as an alternative to using force, he said.
While Powell was not in a holding cell under that practice, Ryan said, an inmate was left in an outdoor cell for 20 hours three days before Powell's death; she did not require medical treatment. He said no one died under the "wait-them-out" practice.
The state prisons system ended its use of outdoor prison cells weeks after Powell's death. Arizona's 10 prisons had 233 outdoor cells for temporarily holding inmates awaiting transfer to punishment wards, medical units, other prisons or work assignments.
Ryan said the cells at Perryville are now used as exercise or short-term waiting areas. They are now shaded, and have misters and benches.
The criminal investigation into Powell's death is finished and at the Maricopa County attorney's office, which will decide if any corrections employees will be charged.
Donna Hamm, director of Tempe-based Middle Ground Prison Reform, said the employees' punishment helps show other prison workers that they will be held accountable for their actions.
"There was an established policy, and had it been followed, Marcia Powell would be alive today," Hamm said.
She said County Attorney Andrew Thomas should charge the employees involved in Powell's death.
"If that happens, the message is crystal clear to department employees about their responsibilities and the consequences of not following their own policy," Hamm said.
Email comments to writeinside@hotmail.com or post them below. To post a comment if you do not have a Google/Blogger account, just select anonymous for your identity.
Shaun P. Attwood
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Liberal Art's Majors Demand More Representation at Job Fair
It would be sad if it weren't so funny.
The sheer ignorance of basic economics of these spoiled brat children (I used to live in Milwaukee and Marquette is a private, hoity toity school) to demand job fairs include worthless majors is only more empirical proof that;
1. Economics needs to be taught not only more, but better at the high school and college levels.
2. Guidance counselors better start doing students a favor and instead of telling them what they want to hear, tell them the realities of the labor market.
3. These are entitlement-mentality children who think they can major in what is essentially a hobby and think they are somehow going to get a job
4. We need to increase the voting age to 30.
I would go into a tirade, but it will be shorter to just link to this, and this, and this.
The moral of the story;
Never hire anybody from Marquette...well...at least the liberal arts majors
The sheer ignorance of basic economics of these spoiled brat children (I used to live in Milwaukee and Marquette is a private, hoity toity school) to demand job fairs include worthless majors is only more empirical proof that;
1. Economics needs to be taught not only more, but better at the high school and college levels.
2. Guidance counselors better start doing students a favor and instead of telling them what they want to hear, tell them the realities of the labor market.
3. These are entitlement-mentality children who think they can major in what is essentially a hobby and think they are somehow going to get a job
4. We need to increase the voting age to 30.
I would go into a tirade, but it will be shorter to just link to this, and this, and this.
The moral of the story;
Never hire anybody from Marquette...well...at least the liberal arts majors
University of California Berkeley
Yet another reason not to, not only invest or move to California, but never send your kids to Berkeley
Effing morons.
Effing morons.
The OECD Goes Normative
"Normative" economics is what I like to call a "faux" sub-study of economics in that it asks "how things ought to be." The reason I don't credit it with as much as I would its sister, positive economics, is because it is not an economists' job to ask "how things ought to be." That reaks of bureaucrats and government nazi-nannies outlawing smoking or outlawing happy hour instead of letting adult people decide for themselves. Economics should only be concerned with REALITY and what "is." Let democracy or the people decide what "should be."
However, I have sensed a very disturbing trend in the field of economics which frankly will strike at the heart of the study and that is where normative economics is replacing positive economics. Specifically I am concerned about the corruption of data where previously uninfected economic research outfits are now being taken over by normative ideologues.
For example it was not too long ago The Economist (which previously advocated things based in empirical economic research such as ohhhhh....the elimination of corporate taxes) got on the American Idol bangwagon and endorsed Barack Obama. I thusly canceled my subscription and now am concerned about whether or not I can even trust the data The Economist provides.
Aside from replacing your current motto with some like;
However, I have sensed a very disturbing trend in the field of economics which frankly will strike at the heart of the study and that is where normative economics is replacing positive economics. Specifically I am concerned about the corruption of data where previously uninfected economic research outfits are now being taken over by normative ideologues.
For example it was not too long ago The Economist (which previously advocated things based in empirical economic research such as ohhhhh....the elimination of corporate taxes) got on the American Idol bangwagon and endorsed Barack Obama. I thusly canceled my subscription and now am concerned about whether or not I can even trust the data The Economist provides.
A more serious threat to the integrity of economic data is the new appointee of the New York Federal Reserve. Denis Huges a former AFL CIO head in New York is the now the new chairman of the NY Fed. I data mine the FRED database all the time. Now I do have to worry about whether the unemployment rate really is only 10% or is it now more like 12%
However, the biggest threat I see is the recent leftist overtures at the world's largest economic database; the OECD. The OECD I thought was at least unbiased in that it was not under the yoke of the United States. That since it did not answer to the US I could trust that its data was untainted and unbiased. But two things now concern me.
1. It's aggression in pursuing tax harmony/anti-tax haven policies. Understand tax havens DO provide a VERY vital role in maintaining your standards of living; if governments tax their people too much, capital and money can just flow out of the oppressive tax regimes and to friendlier ones. This forces governments to make sure they don't just tax and spend, but rather spend efficiently, because otherwise people CAN vote with their dollars and feet.
2. The new "motto" of the OECD.
C-R-I-P-E-S
Which prompted me to write them this letter;
Hello,
I was curious as to who and how the OECD came up with it's new slogan.
I am curious because as an economist I am just looking for data, not opinions. And it seems to me the OECD has now entered the world of normative economics which now concerns me as to whether or not your data will be tainted.
I was curious as to who and how the OECD came up with it's new slogan.
I am curious because as an economist I am just looking for data, not opinions. And it seems to me the OECD has now entered the world of normative economics which now concerns me as to whether or not your data will be tainted.
Aside from replacing your current motto with some like;
"We provide data"
is there anyway you can assuage my concerns?
is there anyway you can assuage my concerns?
We'll see if they respond.
Regardless, there is a very important point to make about all this and that is what is going to be the increasing importance of outfits like the Heritage Foundation, Reason and the Cato Institute. As quasi-government, non-profit and for profit outfits that previously stood for positive, unbiased economic research get corrupted by and whore themselves out to politics, it will call into question the lifeblood of economics they provide; the data. Ergo you will need other, not necessarily unbiased sources (for the Heritage Foundation, Reason and Cato all have their biases), but other non-conforming sources that provide different data as a check or balance against previously "authoritative" ones.
Ah, intellectual honesty. We took you for granted in the economics profession.
Guest Blogger Submission Guidelines
If you are an ex-prisoner or know someone in prison with a true story you’d like to share with the readers of Jon’s Jail Journal, here are the submission guidelines:
Please keep the story within the context of this blog. Only prison stories (and occasionally crime stories) are acceptable, and they must be written by the prisoner/criminal involved. The story must not have been published previously on the Internet.
The readers of Jon’s Jail Journal like to make up their minds for themselves, so please don’t go overboard railing against your place of incarceration or the unfairness of the legal system. Detail your situation or environment, take the readers right there with you through your words.
To determine what has worked best in the past with the readers of Jon’s Jail Journal, please read the blog entries. Here are some of the blogs that have attracted the most comments:
Polish Avenger
Rapist on the Yard
Interview with a Blood
Stories that have worked have ranged from a gangster whacking a gangster to something as simple as a prisoner smuggling peanut butter into a classroom via his sock.
Along with the story, please send a short bio. Just a few sentences long describing your age, crimes, sentence length, and the name of your place of incarceration. If you wish your name and prison to remain anonymous, please state so.
If you are no longer in prison, the story should be typed up (preferably in Microsoft Word) and sent as an email attachment to writeinside@hotmail.com
If you are still in prison, my prefence is for you to mail it to a family member who can type it up and email it to writeinside@hotmail.com If you have no outside support, then I will accept the story via snail mail.
Please feel free to hyperlink your own website or blog to the story or bio.
Due to the lack of them on the internet, stories from women prisoners are also most welcome.
If you are an ex-prisoner or know someone in prison with a true story you’d like to share with the readers of Jon’s Jail Journal, here are the submission guidelines:
Please keep the story within the context of this blog. Only prison stories (and occasionally crime stories) are acceptable, and they must be written by the prisoner/criminal involved. The story must not have been published previously on the Internet.
The readers of Jon’s Jail Journal like to make up their minds for themselves, so please don’t go overboard railing against your place of incarceration or the unfairness of the legal system. Detail your situation or environment, take the readers right there with you through your words.
To determine what has worked best in the past with the readers of Jon’s Jail Journal, please read the blog entries. Here are some of the blogs that have attracted the most comments:
Polish Avenger
Rapist on the Yard
Interview with a Blood
Stories that have worked have ranged from a gangster whacking a gangster to something as simple as a prisoner smuggling peanut butter into a classroom via his sock.
Along with the story, please send a short bio. Just a few sentences long describing your age, crimes, sentence length, and the name of your place of incarceration. If you wish your name and prison to remain anonymous, please state so.
If you are no longer in prison, the story should be typed up (preferably in Microsoft Word) and sent as an email attachment to writeinside@hotmail.com
If you are still in prison, my prefence is for you to mail it to a family member who can type it up and email it to writeinside@hotmail.com If you have no outside support, then I will accept the story via snail mail.
Please feel free to hyperlink your own website or blog to the story or bio.
Due to the lack of them on the internet, stories from women prisoners are also most welcome.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Communists, Even in the NDP, Are Disgusting People
This is a video where a couple reps in the Canadian congress are asking for a memorial in Canada to honor/memorialize those killed under communist dictatorships. It isn't obvious, but you hear in the background an NDP member ACTUALLY HECKLING THE CURRENT SPEAKERS AS THEY SPEAK OUT AGAINST THE GENOCIDE KNOWN AS COMMUNISM.
Need I remind those at the NDP the track record they are defending????
Let me explain something to you sick people defending communism or happen to be communists yourself. THere's nothing, NOTHING noble about your cause. And frankly, I know no more than 2% of you people actually believe in it, and just use it to steal money from other people knowing full well it's downright theft. So you're not fooling anybody hiding behind somekind of "ideology." But to stand by this sick and twisted theft and not care about the literal millions of people killed by this childish obsession? You're not human. People worshiping a guy sporting a funny mustache did the same thing, though, even during a time of war he couldn't kill as much as communists did during peace.
ht
Need I remind those at the NDP the track record they are defending????
Let me explain something to you sick people defending communism or happen to be communists yourself. THere's nothing, NOTHING noble about your cause. And frankly, I know no more than 2% of you people actually believe in it, and just use it to steal money from other people knowing full well it's downright theft. So you're not fooling anybody hiding behind somekind of "ideology." But to stand by this sick and twisted theft and not care about the literal millions of people killed by this childish obsession? You're not human. People worshiping a guy sporting a funny mustache did the same thing, though, even during a time of war he couldn't kill as much as communists did during peace.
ht
A Decline in College Education
Data, I often wish, was recorded more thoroughly and comprehensively in the past. It wasn't until after WWII that the government decided to start regularly and consistently start recording various economic data, but the sheer amount of insight and information we could have gotten had we say started recording not just economic data, but other data as well, going back as far as say 1900 would have made us immeasurably better off today.
Regardless, despite the lack of historical data we have, you can already start seeing the empirical evidence of the country slowly collapsing in some time series as short as just 10 years. Specifically in education.
I went to the OECD, much like I do going to my local bar, and knew precisely the data I wanted to get. The OECD is like a spoiled suburbanite princess. She has the money/data you want/need, but to get it takes a tremendous amount of patience to get at it in that they've organized their databases with the efficiency and logic that Obama has reorganized health care. Inevitably, I did find the data I was looking for and it was college majors by subject over time.
I wanted to get this data because I was curious to see, in general, what the trend was in terms of students majoring in something worthwhile vs. majoring with worthless "El Crapo Studies" such as philosophy, art, sociology, etc. Readers of my blog fully well know just how much importance I place on this particular issue, but for those who are new, in short it is engineers, doctors, computer folk and in general the physical science majors that are the ones who produce and make this nation go, and the others are just spoiled brats majoring in a hobby who prefer not to do any real work whilst they live off of mommy and daddy. And looking at the trend between these two general types of majors, one can get an idea of what the future productivity of this nation will be.
The news (of course) is not good;
Though there does not seem to be any rapid increase or decrease, or discernible trend in general, understand this is only 10 years worth of data. Things such as major types, don't change dramatically like say the president's approval ratings (ha ha ha). HOwever if you look at the details, there are trends and if these trends continue over time, it will not bode well for the nation.
First and foremost I took the "sciences." This is all majors in the physical sciences;
Biology, physics, math, etc.
This has gone from 9.2% of all majors to 8.9% of all majors. Not a dramatic, but a general downward trend.
Then there is engineering (engineering was a separate sub category from "science" and includes chemical, electrical, civil, etc. as well as construction). This has sacrificed a full percentage point in the past 10 years going from 7% of all majors to just 6%.
Now there were other minor categories that I did deem "worthwhile" majors that actually result in a graduate who is capable and likely to contribute to society such as accounting, but the amount of time it would take to pull that data from the OECD was not worth it. The larger point is that in general fewer and fewer students are majoring in something that is worth the tuition they (and the taxpayer) are paying for.
I then took a look at the Arts and Humanities. Again a general encompassing topic that covers philosophy majors and sculpture majors, etc., and not only do these worthless majors account for MORE THAN TWICE THE NUMBER OF ENGINEERING MAJORS, their ranks are growing quite rapidly going from 14% of majors in 1998 to over 15.5% now.
But the worst is yet to come. Separately categorized from Arts and Humanities (and is just one major I focused on) was "Social Services." Though a small major with only 1.16% of the total student population, the relative percent majoring in this field shot up by about a third to 1.43% of majors today.
Now I am getting old and I frankly do not have time to put this kindly or politically correct-like. So let me spell it out for you in a very inconsiderate, uncompassionate, my-goodness-he-didn't-take-sensitivity-training-like-we-all-did-back-in-grade-school kind of way;
Young Americans are spoiled rotten. And not only are they spoiled rotten, they've been brought up poorly by their parents and the schools in that when they graduate from high school, they are actually led to believe that they can major in a worthless subject like the arts and humanities and somehow become a contributing members of society. They are not told the realities of the labor market, guidance counselors provide NOTHING in terms of guiding these kids into real studies that will get them real jobs, and when they grow up, not only will we have failed at our job as adults preparing them for the real world, they will;
1. Not be producing members of society
2. Will more likely than not require the dwindling supply of engineering majors to pay for them in one way or another.
3. Will vote NOT for policies that will help boost economic productivity, but instead will vote for the redistribution of what dwindling production there is (because again, we've not only failed at educating them about the basics of the labor market, but have woefully educated them about basic, simple, elementary economics)
Now I'm done with the "don't hurt little Junior's feelings. He wants to become a musician and we parents are going to be supportive of that." BS. People need to wake up and accept the harsh realities of life. Ergo, let me tell you a little story of this Iranian father I knew.
I was semi-dating his daughter. She was majoring in Middle Eastern studies (because apparently she didn't learn enough Farsi or enough about Iranian culture when she LIVED THERE FOR 20 YEARS!). She was complaining about how her "mean" father wouldn't pay her way through college. I said, "Well, why doesn't he pay your way through college?"
She said, "Well he WAS paying my way through when I was majoring in chemistry, but since I switched to Middle Eastern studies he said he wouldn't pay."
Sadly not only she, but most American parents today, don't realize just how much he loved his daughter.
POST POST - Got some requests for more detail on the data, which can be located here. As you can see they do allow you to look it up by country and detail it by "general" major and then a "specific" major. Beyond that I don't know how they threw, say "graphic arts" into one category or the next. Welcome to my world of "How the Hell Did the OECD Categorize This?"
Regardless, despite the lack of historical data we have, you can already start seeing the empirical evidence of the country slowly collapsing in some time series as short as just 10 years. Specifically in education.
I went to the OECD, much like I do going to my local bar, and knew precisely the data I wanted to get. The OECD is like a spoiled suburbanite princess. She has the money/data you want/need, but to get it takes a tremendous amount of patience to get at it in that they've organized their databases with the efficiency and logic that Obama has reorganized health care. Inevitably, I did find the data I was looking for and it was college majors by subject over time.
I wanted to get this data because I was curious to see, in general, what the trend was in terms of students majoring in something worthwhile vs. majoring with worthless "El Crapo Studies" such as philosophy, art, sociology, etc. Readers of my blog fully well know just how much importance I place on this particular issue, but for those who are new, in short it is engineers, doctors, computer folk and in general the physical science majors that are the ones who produce and make this nation go, and the others are just spoiled brats majoring in a hobby who prefer not to do any real work whilst they live off of mommy and daddy. And looking at the trend between these two general types of majors, one can get an idea of what the future productivity of this nation will be.
The news (of course) is not good;
Though there does not seem to be any rapid increase or decrease, or discernible trend in general, understand this is only 10 years worth of data. Things such as major types, don't change dramatically like say the president's approval ratings (ha ha ha). HOwever if you look at the details, there are trends and if these trends continue over time, it will not bode well for the nation.
First and foremost I took the "sciences." This is all majors in the physical sciences;
Biology, physics, math, etc.
This has gone from 9.2% of all majors to 8.9% of all majors. Not a dramatic, but a general downward trend.
Then there is engineering (engineering was a separate sub category from "science" and includes chemical, electrical, civil, etc. as well as construction). This has sacrificed a full percentage point in the past 10 years going from 7% of all majors to just 6%.
Now there were other minor categories that I did deem "worthwhile" majors that actually result in a graduate who is capable and likely to contribute to society such as accounting, but the amount of time it would take to pull that data from the OECD was not worth it. The larger point is that in general fewer and fewer students are majoring in something that is worth the tuition they (and the taxpayer) are paying for.
I then took a look at the Arts and Humanities. Again a general encompassing topic that covers philosophy majors and sculpture majors, etc., and not only do these worthless majors account for MORE THAN TWICE THE NUMBER OF ENGINEERING MAJORS, their ranks are growing quite rapidly going from 14% of majors in 1998 to over 15.5% now.
But the worst is yet to come. Separately categorized from Arts and Humanities (and is just one major I focused on) was "Social Services." Though a small major with only 1.16% of the total student population, the relative percent majoring in this field shot up by about a third to 1.43% of majors today.
Now I am getting old and I frankly do not have time to put this kindly or politically correct-like. So let me spell it out for you in a very inconsiderate, uncompassionate, my-goodness-he-didn't-take-sensitivity-training-like-we-all-did-back-in-grade-school kind of way;
Young Americans are spoiled rotten. And not only are they spoiled rotten, they've been brought up poorly by their parents and the schools in that when they graduate from high school, they are actually led to believe that they can major in a worthless subject like the arts and humanities and somehow become a contributing members of society. They are not told the realities of the labor market, guidance counselors provide NOTHING in terms of guiding these kids into real studies that will get them real jobs, and when they grow up, not only will we have failed at our job as adults preparing them for the real world, they will;
1. Not be producing members of society
2. Will more likely than not require the dwindling supply of engineering majors to pay for them in one way or another.
3. Will vote NOT for policies that will help boost economic productivity, but instead will vote for the redistribution of what dwindling production there is (because again, we've not only failed at educating them about the basics of the labor market, but have woefully educated them about basic, simple, elementary economics)
Now I'm done with the "don't hurt little Junior's feelings. He wants to become a musician and we parents are going to be supportive of that." BS. People need to wake up and accept the harsh realities of life. Ergo, let me tell you a little story of this Iranian father I knew.
I was semi-dating his daughter. She was majoring in Middle Eastern studies (because apparently she didn't learn enough Farsi or enough about Iranian culture when she LIVED THERE FOR 20 YEARS!). She was complaining about how her "mean" father wouldn't pay her way through college. I said, "Well, why doesn't he pay your way through college?"
She said, "Well he WAS paying my way through when I was majoring in chemistry, but since I switched to Middle Eastern studies he said he wouldn't pay."
Sadly not only she, but most American parents today, don't realize just how much he loved his daughter.
POST POST - Got some requests for more detail on the data, which can be located here. As you can see they do allow you to look it up by country and detail it by "general" major and then a "specific" major. Beyond that I don't know how they threw, say "graphic arts" into one category or the next. Welcome to my world of "How the Hell Did the OECD Categorize This?"
Uncle Jay Explains the UN
Towards the last half of the broadcast;
http://unclejayexplains.com/2009/09/20/uncle-jay-explains-sept-21-2009/
http://unclejayexplains.com/2009/09/20/uncle-jay-explains-sept-21-2009/
Question Time With Frankie
Frankie - A Mexican Mafia hit man and leader of prison "booty bandits" who has been proposing our gay marriage ever since he saw me rubbing antifungal ointment on the bedsores on my buttocks at the Madison Street jail. He was there on murder charges he subsequently beat.
Chris wrote: I know work is supposed to build character, but earning $6 a week is ridiculous. It's almost as though they wanted to create an irresistible incentive for drug trafficking. Nah, couldn't be. Anyway, good on you, Frankie, for resisting! Stay strong, get out, do good, do well.
Frankie replied:
Chris, I’m going to paint you a quick little picture of how corrupt this system is. The Arizona Department of Corrections is awarded $30,000 plus per year for each inmate. Times 40,000 prisoners equals over $1 billion. Are we to believe with this amount of money they can’t pay us more than $6 a week to live off? You tell me how is someone supposed to build character like that? In fact it’s the other way around, they force you and put you in a situation where you have to supplement your income with irregular activity. Not only that, this so called prison would rather spend money protecting child molesters and rapists.
Bottom line, I got busted for drugs in prison and I’m paying for it.
Chris, no disrespect whatsoever. Just thought I’d throw a little something your way. Much respect, Frankie.
Our friends inside appreciate your comments.
Email comments or questions for Frankie to writeinside@hotmail.com or post them below. To post a comment if you do not have a Google/Blogger account, just select anonymous for your identity.
Shaun P. Attwood
Frankie - A Mexican Mafia hit man and leader of prison "booty bandits" who has been proposing our gay marriage ever since he saw me rubbing antifungal ointment on the bedsores on my buttocks at the Madison Street jail. He was there on murder charges he subsequently beat.
Chris wrote: I know work is supposed to build character, but earning $6 a week is ridiculous. It's almost as though they wanted to create an irresistible incentive for drug trafficking. Nah, couldn't be. Anyway, good on you, Frankie, for resisting! Stay strong, get out, do good, do well.
Frankie replied:
Chris, I’m going to paint you a quick little picture of how corrupt this system is. The Arizona Department of Corrections is awarded $30,000 plus per year for each inmate. Times 40,000 prisoners equals over $1 billion. Are we to believe with this amount of money they can’t pay us more than $6 a week to live off? You tell me how is someone supposed to build character like that? In fact it’s the other way around, they force you and put you in a situation where you have to supplement your income with irregular activity. Not only that, this so called prison would rather spend money protecting child molesters and rapists.
Bottom line, I got busted for drugs in prison and I’m paying for it.
Chris, no disrespect whatsoever. Just thought I’d throw a little something your way. Much respect, Frankie.
Our friends inside appreciate your comments.
Email comments or questions for Frankie to writeinside@hotmail.com or post them below. To post a comment if you do not have a Google/Blogger account, just select anonymous for your identity.
Shaun P. Attwood
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Rules of Publishing Comments
Behind pedophiles, nazi's, communists and trial lawyers are these little adult children called "internet trolls." And though the quickest way to eliminate them is to ignore them, I get complaints on a regular basis about how I
"Didn't publish my comment."
Now there is a very, nearly invisibly fine line between an internet troll and a leftist on my site in that they deem themselves entitled to have their opinions posted regardless of the quality of their post. And when I simply delete their posts/comments, denying them the light of day, I then get follow up posts or sometimes e-mails about how I am intellectually hypocritical, a liar, a cheat, a nazi, etc. etc.
So I thought it beneficial to all of those out there, not just on Cappy Cap, but other pro-freedom/capitalism blogs as to the logic or rationale most of us use to determine whether or not to make your post;
1. Insults - When you call the blogger a name or curse at him, it will not get posted. Not because we're insulted (we're not), but because what value does some anonymous guy yelling at us provide our readers? People don't want to read drivel, they want a point and they want it quick and they don't want to read through 30 comments of childish name calling to get to genuine true gems of knowledge.
2. Anonymous - Posting as "anonymous" will reduce the likelihood of publishing your comment by about 75%. Especially if you disagree with me. Want to know why? Because the MSM media and NPR already represents your opinion so much you don't need any more representation. My readers will not suffer repeat information they can get from Anderson Cooper. Also, now you get to feel what it's like to be unfairly treated. It's not a violation of your freedom of speech as other archaic and dying forms of media, as well as the White House and their MSM lapdogs constantly barrage the country with your points on an hourly basis. Now you get to feel what it's like to have the editorial board ignore any letters you may have sent into them in the past since they didn't fit the liberal stripe.
3. Crass/Racist/Sexist/Generally Distasteful comments - Regardless of what side of the political spectrum it comes from, if you make a post that insults people based on gender, race, ethnicity, etc., it's not going to get posted. I absolutely make commentary that is critical of different groups of people, but it is in a constructive manner intended to help those people and never blames a skin color or gender for those problems, but rather the culture or sociological phenomenon that correlates with it (for example, 67% of black children are born out of wedlock, this has nothing to do with the fact a person's skin is black, but rather a collapse in the social values attached to marriage in the "black community." Or the price of US weddings - absolutely unnecessary, absolutely a waste of time, money could be given to other more noble causes - children's cancer, scholarships,etc. - but it is largely driven by women, not men to have this profligate waste). However, insulting people saying "those stupid blacks" or "those dumb chicks" implying there is something inherent in being black or female or a jew or a muslim, etc., that causes these problems helps no one and will not get posted.
4. Cursing - In the same strain, cursing like a frat boy on daddy's dime will guarantee you do not get posted. However, I do believe the occasional curse word is called for in that at times it's the only word that carries the weight necessary to convey the severity of whatever it is you're trying to talk about. If this is the case, it will get posted. If it's just "filth and foul, foul and filth and frick and frack" forget it.
5. When I Know You're Wrong - This one is for the liberals. Yes, I know you think you're right, but when you make a comment and I KNOW for a fact it is wrong - ie- I know precisely where the data is on the OECD or FRED databases that would prove you wrong, you do not get posted. Now listen to me, because this is very important for you liberals out there, you HAVE NO CLUE JUST WHAT A HIGH PERCENTAGE OF TIME YOU ARE FACTUALLY WRONG. This is not an issue of whether I disagree with your opinion (say for example you say, "we need health reform now!" - that's an opinion). But when you say something factually wrong like "we don't spend enough on health care" when we spend 2 times the amount compared to any country by any measure, you're WRONG and your misinformed/uninformed, or just generally FALSE belief does not DESERVE to get published.
6. Illogical Arugments - There is no shortage of leftists that will tender arguments that are either wrong, based in false premises, or just plain don't make sense, but because of the complexity they think their argument will stand and is worth posting. THis is usually what you get from professors or idiots that claim things like "GDP isn't a good measure of economic production" or consider profit to be a bad thing. It doesn't make sense. And no matter how verbose or hoity toity and academic your response is, if even one premise violates simple logic, it doesn't get posted.
7. Intellectually Dishonest - These people are sick and twisted and need to be shipped off to the Arctic. Arguing for "social causes" when you damn well know implementing said policies will bankrupt the nation or otherwise cause greater harm to society means you're nothing more than a shill, a whore for a political party or cause. People like Nancy Pelosi or Arlen Specter who know FULL WELL things like lower taxes, balanced budgets, efficient government spending is what's in the best interest of the nation, but instead ignore those facts and tell the masses what they want to hear so they can get elected again is nothing more than prostitution. But what I don't get is while people like Pelosi and Specter are intellectually dishonest become so, so they can remain employed, why do internet trolls of the leftist stripe become intellectually dishonest when there is no value or payoff for them to do so? It is here that it borders a psychological problem when you have somebody arguing for socialism or free-health care or whatever, who does so, not because they have a vested interest in an outcome, but because they've joined a cause and what to feel like they're doing something, even though deep down inside they know it will bode ill for the nation OR (even worse) they don't know what the ramifications will be, but will still advocate it anyway because it "makes them feel good." I've developed a keen sense of smell for these types, the ACORN girls, the idiot who made the You Tube video on why we need health care, etc., but if you're just whoring for a cause AND NOT EVEN GETTING PAID FOR IT like Pelosi (or for that matter, all of congress), your comment does not get published (you also need psychological help).
8. Do you have a point? - I will post any comments that have a point, whether they agree with me or not, especially if they are unique or (on the rare occasion) that I have been misinformed. It is here intellectual HONESTY pays off, especially for leftists. Every once in a while you guys do have a point and can actually advance the conversation we're having.
9. Do You Agree with me? - Hell yes, I'll post you. Sure, why not, what does it hurt? Besides (and again notice the "INTELLECTUAL HONESTY") I will fully admit I'd like to give back to the MSM and newspapers of yore what they gave us for the past 50 years. Editorial pages that made it look like the country was full of communists. I want people to visit the site and feel like "My god, am I the only liberal?" You can see how it feels.
THat's about it. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go for a motorcycle ride with a cute girl on the back of the bike.
"Didn't publish my comment."
Now there is a very, nearly invisibly fine line between an internet troll and a leftist on my site in that they deem themselves entitled to have their opinions posted regardless of the quality of their post. And when I simply delete their posts/comments, denying them the light of day, I then get follow up posts or sometimes e-mails about how I am intellectually hypocritical, a liar, a cheat, a nazi, etc. etc.
So I thought it beneficial to all of those out there, not just on Cappy Cap, but other pro-freedom/capitalism blogs as to the logic or rationale most of us use to determine whether or not to make your post;
1. Insults - When you call the blogger a name or curse at him, it will not get posted. Not because we're insulted (we're not), but because what value does some anonymous guy yelling at us provide our readers? People don't want to read drivel, they want a point and they want it quick and they don't want to read through 30 comments of childish name calling to get to genuine true gems of knowledge.
2. Anonymous - Posting as "anonymous" will reduce the likelihood of publishing your comment by about 75%. Especially if you disagree with me. Want to know why? Because the MSM media and NPR already represents your opinion so much you don't need any more representation. My readers will not suffer repeat information they can get from Anderson Cooper. Also, now you get to feel what it's like to be unfairly treated. It's not a violation of your freedom of speech as other archaic and dying forms of media, as well as the White House and their MSM lapdogs constantly barrage the country with your points on an hourly basis. Now you get to feel what it's like to have the editorial board ignore any letters you may have sent into them in the past since they didn't fit the liberal stripe.
3. Crass/Racist/Sexist/Generally Distasteful comments - Regardless of what side of the political spectrum it comes from, if you make a post that insults people based on gender, race, ethnicity, etc., it's not going to get posted. I absolutely make commentary that is critical of different groups of people, but it is in a constructive manner intended to help those people and never blames a skin color or gender for those problems, but rather the culture or sociological phenomenon that correlates with it (for example, 67% of black children are born out of wedlock, this has nothing to do with the fact a person's skin is black, but rather a collapse in the social values attached to marriage in the "black community." Or the price of US weddings - absolutely unnecessary, absolutely a waste of time, money could be given to other more noble causes - children's cancer, scholarships,etc. - but it is largely driven by women, not men to have this profligate waste). However, insulting people saying "those stupid blacks" or "those dumb chicks" implying there is something inherent in being black or female or a jew or a muslim, etc., that causes these problems helps no one and will not get posted.
4. Cursing - In the same strain, cursing like a frat boy on daddy's dime will guarantee you do not get posted. However, I do believe the occasional curse word is called for in that at times it's the only word that carries the weight necessary to convey the severity of whatever it is you're trying to talk about. If this is the case, it will get posted. If it's just "filth and foul, foul and filth and frick and frack" forget it.
5. When I Know You're Wrong - This one is for the liberals. Yes, I know you think you're right, but when you make a comment and I KNOW for a fact it is wrong - ie- I know precisely where the data is on the OECD or FRED databases that would prove you wrong, you do not get posted. Now listen to me, because this is very important for you liberals out there, you HAVE NO CLUE JUST WHAT A HIGH PERCENTAGE OF TIME YOU ARE FACTUALLY WRONG. This is not an issue of whether I disagree with your opinion (say for example you say, "we need health reform now!" - that's an opinion). But when you say something factually wrong like "we don't spend enough on health care" when we spend 2 times the amount compared to any country by any measure, you're WRONG and your misinformed/uninformed, or just generally FALSE belief does not DESERVE to get published.
6. Illogical Arugments - There is no shortage of leftists that will tender arguments that are either wrong, based in false premises, or just plain don't make sense, but because of the complexity they think their argument will stand and is worth posting. THis is usually what you get from professors or idiots that claim things like "GDP isn't a good measure of economic production" or consider profit to be a bad thing. It doesn't make sense. And no matter how verbose or hoity toity and academic your response is, if even one premise violates simple logic, it doesn't get posted.
7. Intellectually Dishonest - These people are sick and twisted and need to be shipped off to the Arctic. Arguing for "social causes" when you damn well know implementing said policies will bankrupt the nation or otherwise cause greater harm to society means you're nothing more than a shill, a whore for a political party or cause. People like Nancy Pelosi or Arlen Specter who know FULL WELL things like lower taxes, balanced budgets, efficient government spending is what's in the best interest of the nation, but instead ignore those facts and tell the masses what they want to hear so they can get elected again is nothing more than prostitution. But what I don't get is while people like Pelosi and Specter are intellectually dishonest become so, so they can remain employed, why do internet trolls of the leftist stripe become intellectually dishonest when there is no value or payoff for them to do so? It is here that it borders a psychological problem when you have somebody arguing for socialism or free-health care or whatever, who does so, not because they have a vested interest in an outcome, but because they've joined a cause and what to feel like they're doing something, even though deep down inside they know it will bode ill for the nation OR (even worse) they don't know what the ramifications will be, but will still advocate it anyway because it "makes them feel good." I've developed a keen sense of smell for these types, the ACORN girls, the idiot who made the You Tube video on why we need health care, etc., but if you're just whoring for a cause AND NOT EVEN GETTING PAID FOR IT like Pelosi (or for that matter, all of congress), your comment does not get published (you also need psychological help).
8. Do you have a point? - I will post any comments that have a point, whether they agree with me or not, especially if they are unique or (on the rare occasion) that I have been misinformed. It is here intellectual HONESTY pays off, especially for leftists. Every once in a while you guys do have a point and can actually advance the conversation we're having.
9. Do You Agree with me? - Hell yes, I'll post you. Sure, why not, what does it hurt? Besides (and again notice the "INTELLECTUAL HONESTY") I will fully admit I'd like to give back to the MSM and newspapers of yore what they gave us for the past 50 years. Editorial pages that made it look like the country was full of communists. I want people to visit the site and feel like "My god, am I the only liberal?" You can see how it feels.
THat's about it. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go for a motorcycle ride with a cute girl on the back of the bike.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Recession Medicine
This involves guns and gun play and hurt feelings and Daffy Duck yells kind of loud and a whole manner of evil things that are very anti-American. Well, they WEREN'T anti-American when they were made, but today, oh, gosh, you should poke your eyes out after watching such evil;
The Nazi's are Coming, Hurray Hurray!
This is why, if I ever do run a large corporation, I will have separate facilities where men and women do not interact.
It is also why I would never set up shop in a state like California or New York where there are too many entitlement-mentality adult children who are practically looking for ways to be offended...matter of fact it's just a damn good idea to never set up shop in the US in the first place.
ht.
It is also why I would never set up shop in a state like California or New York where there are too many entitlement-mentality adult children who are practically looking for ways to be offended...matter of fact it's just a damn good idea to never set up shop in the US in the first place.
ht.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Traffic Economics
You know a recession is on when there isn't traffic in California.
Couldn't have happened to a more deserving state.
Couldn't have happened to a more deserving state.
Two Tonys Reunited with Frankie (by Frankie)
Two Tonys - A whacker of men and Mafia associate serving multiple life sentences for murders and violent crimes. Left bodies from Tucson to Alaska, but claims all his victims "had it coming." Recently diagnosed with liver cancer, and is in chemotherapy fighting to prolong his life.
Frankie - A Mexican Mafia hit man and leader of prison "booty bandits" who has been proposing our gay marriage ever since he saw me rubbing antifungal ointment on the bedsores on my buttocks at the Madison Street jail. He was there on murder charges he subsequently beat.
I finally made it to Tucson prison with Two Tonys. The first day here I was sitting in the kitchen and one of my friends tells Two Tonys, “Guess who’s here?” And Two Tonys turns around, and starts looking, and once he sees me, his eyes got real watery, and he ho chokes up, went straight for me and we hug. He almost had me crying.
Two Tonys is very sick. He’s on medication. But since I’ve been here, I take him out for walks, out in the rec field, and we bullshit for the whole of rec. We’re back together like the old days.
Two Tonys told me if he dies now, he will die happy cuz he seen me again. He thought he wouldn’t have seen me cuz they weren’t letting me come here. But I’ve been behaving, and my score is 25-21, so they didn’t have a choice.
Click here for Frankie’s previous blog.
Click here for Two Tonys previous blog.
Our friends inside appreciate your comments.
Email comments or questions for Frankie and Two Tonys to writeinside@hotmail.com or post them below. To post a comment if you do not have a Google/Blogger account, just select anonymous for your identity.
Shaun P. Attwood
Two Tonys - A whacker of men and Mafia associate serving multiple life sentences for murders and violent crimes. Left bodies from Tucson to Alaska, but claims all his victims "had it coming." Recently diagnosed with liver cancer, and is in chemotherapy fighting to prolong his life.
Frankie - A Mexican Mafia hit man and leader of prison "booty bandits" who has been proposing our gay marriage ever since he saw me rubbing antifungal ointment on the bedsores on my buttocks at the Madison Street jail. He was there on murder charges he subsequently beat.
I finally made it to Tucson prison with Two Tonys. The first day here I was sitting in the kitchen and one of my friends tells Two Tonys, “Guess who’s here?” And Two Tonys turns around, and starts looking, and once he sees me, his eyes got real watery, and he ho chokes up, went straight for me and we hug. He almost had me crying.
Two Tonys is very sick. He’s on medication. But since I’ve been here, I take him out for walks, out in the rec field, and we bullshit for the whole of rec. We’re back together like the old days.
Two Tonys told me if he dies now, he will die happy cuz he seen me again. He thought he wouldn’t have seen me cuz they weren’t letting me come here. But I’ve been behaving, and my score is 25-21, so they didn’t have a choice.
Click here for Frankie’s previous blog.
Click here for Two Tonys previous blog.
Our friends inside appreciate your comments.
Email comments or questions for Frankie and Two Tonys to writeinside@hotmail.com or post them below. To post a comment if you do not have a Google/Blogger account, just select anonymous for your identity.
Shaun P. Attwood
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
I'm Not a Doctor, But I Play One on TV
Sadly, to the youthful idiots of this nation, they don't understand just how insulting this is to them.
Please Write a Review
Greetings all aspiring, junior, deputy, official and otherwise economists!
If you would be so kind, for those of you who have bought my book would you please write a review for it on Amazon.com.
The link is here, I know it may take a little of your time, but I would really appreciate it.
And for those of you who haven't bought the book (which according to my research is about 299,998,327 remaining Americans who haven't- children included) the link is the same link (wow! cool!)
Mucho thanks!
If you would be so kind, for those of you who have bought my book would you please write a review for it on Amazon.com.
The link is here, I know it may take a little of your time, but I would really appreciate it.
And for those of you who haven't bought the book (which according to my research is about 299,998,327 remaining Americans who haven't- children included) the link is the same link (wow! cool!)
Mucho thanks!
From Xena (Letter 5)
Xena - A transsexual giant and Wiccan priest. The charismatic leader of Cult Of Xena (COX). Tattoos include a wasp on Xena’s penis and ant trails running up Xena’s legs. Cut off a testicle while in prison, and almost bled to death.
My Dear Friend Shaun,
I love and miss you! I hope that your new girlfriend is the one.
I have sworn off men, and now it seems I am very well hated in here. Ironic!
You are always on my mind. I have a little more than ten years left to do. Will you still be aware of me then? I hope so. I want to see you again. You changed my life dramatically, and when you left my life again was so bland. And now I feel the old anger and torment, which is a part of the prisoners’ deception of their likelihood, flowing back into my consciousness. I try to fight it. I have no friends in here to help me with the strain of its pull. I therefore must rely on memory of the one who knew how to live in here without becoming trapped by the sheer weight of time, and the pressure of its employees and other prisoners who look human yet under their skins lurk deformed atrocities, and whose purpose is to pick at the foundations of people’s faith and strength. I feel the temperament of pressure. It is heavy. It is cold, and yet I feel burned.
I am happy you are enjoying your life. I wish I could know freedom. I want to go swimming in a cold lake again, and to feel the shining of the sun on my skin afterward. The taste of honey dew and coconut with vanilla ice cream Yum! And I want you looking in my face, telling me I will be OK.
Love Xena ---XXX---
Click here for Xena’s previous letter.
Our friends inside appreciate your comments.
Email comments and questions for Xena to writeinside@hotmail.com or post them below. To post a comment if you do not have a Google/Blogger account, just select anonymous for your identity.
Shaun P. Attwood
Xena - A transsexual giant and Wiccan priest. The charismatic leader of Cult Of Xena (COX). Tattoos include a wasp on Xena’s penis and ant trails running up Xena’s legs. Cut off a testicle while in prison, and almost bled to death.
My Dear Friend Shaun,
I love and miss you! I hope that your new girlfriend is the one.
I have sworn off men, and now it seems I am very well hated in here. Ironic!
You are always on my mind. I have a little more than ten years left to do. Will you still be aware of me then? I hope so. I want to see you again. You changed my life dramatically, and when you left my life again was so bland. And now I feel the old anger and torment, which is a part of the prisoners’ deception of their likelihood, flowing back into my consciousness. I try to fight it. I have no friends in here to help me with the strain of its pull. I therefore must rely on memory of the one who knew how to live in here without becoming trapped by the sheer weight of time, and the pressure of its employees and other prisoners who look human yet under their skins lurk deformed atrocities, and whose purpose is to pick at the foundations of people’s faith and strength. I feel the temperament of pressure. It is heavy. It is cold, and yet I feel burned.
I am happy you are enjoying your life. I wish I could know freedom. I want to go swimming in a cold lake again, and to feel the shining of the sun on my skin afterward. The taste of honey dew and coconut with vanilla ice cream Yum! And I want you looking in my face, telling me I will be OK.
Love Xena ---XXX---
Click here for Xena’s previous letter.
Our friends inside appreciate your comments.
Email comments and questions for Xena to writeinside@hotmail.com or post them below. To post a comment if you do not have a Google/Blogger account, just select anonymous for your identity.
Shaun P. Attwood
Glenn Beck and His Ilk are the Only Real Journalists Left
"Journalism" when I was originally attending college, was what inferior students who couldn't do calculus would pursue in their attempt to overthrow and "fight the system *maaaan!*" even though it was that system that provided their parents with enough money to pay for their worthless asses to get a degree in something as worthless as "journalism."
However, as you age you start to appreciate the vital role a healthy, but above all, UNBIASED media and journalistic industry provides to the rest of the country in that they are the truth sayers and investigators that keep the politicians honest.
Too bad all the morons and idiots who were too damn lazy to take up real studies entered journalism, for this vital aspect of a democracy is now corrupted. And this corruption shows no more brightly than today.
In short the only real journalists (and I mean this sincerely, my personal political bias set aside) are the few bands of radio talk show hosts and Fox News.
Oh, mock Fox News as you might, but whilst the NYT excuses not covering the ACORN "whore" story on "journalists taking vacation" and the rest of the MSM seems nothing more than whores themselves for the socialist party of the US (and I really don't mean to sound hyperbolic, but that's REALLY what it is) it seems the only REAL journalists out there are those of Fox News, Glen Beck and other "radical" evil, right wing hate monsters.
Now, cute overdone, overused epitaphs used since 1993 set aside to describe Glenn Beck and his ilk as "hate mongers" and "racists", the truth still remains that;
Glen Beck is the only guy to bring down a communist Anti-American, racist like Van Jones
Glenn Beck is also the only guy to bring national attention to the criminal organization known as ACORN (aside from the brave AND GENUINE JOURNALISTS that filmed those films in the first place). Not to mention the scores of bloggers who brought down criminal hypocrites such as Dan Rather and the like.
Conservative/libertarian talk shows are the only ones addressing things like constitutionality as well as the finances of the country.
Pointing out the inconsistencies and genuine lies about health care being purported by the socialists in government and then reliably trotted out by their complicit MSM buddies.
And are frankly the only ones who can tell the American people what they DON'T want to hear as it is based in TRUTH and not RATINGS risking being ostracized and criticized themselves.
The larger point is that if you look at it from far far above with an eagle's eye view, it is not the worthless, spoiled brat "me-generation" boomers-come-journalists established in the entrenched traditional MSM that are doing any REAL journalism and investigative work.
It is not their children who were too damn lazy to major in something productive and instead chose journalism as a means to advance a cause rather than REPORT THE FREAKING NEWS that are the real journalists today.
The true, genuine and REAL journalists are those at Fox News, Glenn Beck, Rush LImbaugh, Reason, King Banaian, Jason Lewis and the hundreds of bloggers who do NOT have an agenda, but rather have intellectually honesty and the vitally important desire to pursue TRUTH not to mention a genuine care for the American people and the future of this country.
It's these people who are the genuine journalistic heroes of our time in that they do not only expose the criminals such as ACORN and Charley Rangel and Van Jones, but they do the job the established, bought-off, and corrupted media was supposed to do.
So you can go ahead and mock Glenn Beck.
You can go ahead and call all these "evil right wing bloggers" racists or sexists.
They don't do it because they're "sexist" or "racist" or just "generally mean and poopey people." They do it because they care about the country and the truth is the American public needs to pull its head out of its ass and start thinking independently or suffer the consequences. And instead of tuning into "The Nightly News" with shills and media whores such as Anderson Cooper and Katie Curick (I don't care how to properly spell her name), they might want to tune into a Glenn Beck or a Jason Lewis.
Because frankly, you can continue to be told what you want to hear by what is nothing more than an extention of the Democrat part of the US, or you can be told the truth. The blue pill or the red pill.
Sadly, most American don't have the intellectual fortitude to be Neo.
However, as you age you start to appreciate the vital role a healthy, but above all, UNBIASED media and journalistic industry provides to the rest of the country in that they are the truth sayers and investigators that keep the politicians honest.
Too bad all the morons and idiots who were too damn lazy to take up real studies entered journalism, for this vital aspect of a democracy is now corrupted. And this corruption shows no more brightly than today.
In short the only real journalists (and I mean this sincerely, my personal political bias set aside) are the few bands of radio talk show hosts and Fox News.
Oh, mock Fox News as you might, but whilst the NYT excuses not covering the ACORN "whore" story on "journalists taking vacation" and the rest of the MSM seems nothing more than whores themselves for the socialist party of the US (and I really don't mean to sound hyperbolic, but that's REALLY what it is) it seems the only REAL journalists out there are those of Fox News, Glen Beck and other "radical" evil, right wing hate monsters.
Now, cute overdone, overused epitaphs used since 1993 set aside to describe Glenn Beck and his ilk as "hate mongers" and "racists", the truth still remains that;
Glen Beck is the only guy to bring down a communist Anti-American, racist like Van Jones
Glenn Beck is also the only guy to bring national attention to the criminal organization known as ACORN (aside from the brave AND GENUINE JOURNALISTS that filmed those films in the first place). Not to mention the scores of bloggers who brought down criminal hypocrites such as Dan Rather and the like.
Conservative/libertarian talk shows are the only ones addressing things like constitutionality as well as the finances of the country.
Pointing out the inconsistencies and genuine lies about health care being purported by the socialists in government and then reliably trotted out by their complicit MSM buddies.
And are frankly the only ones who can tell the American people what they DON'T want to hear as it is based in TRUTH and not RATINGS risking being ostracized and criticized themselves.
The larger point is that if you look at it from far far above with an eagle's eye view, it is not the worthless, spoiled brat "me-generation" boomers-come-journalists established in the entrenched traditional MSM that are doing any REAL journalism and investigative work.
It is not their children who were too damn lazy to major in something productive and instead chose journalism as a means to advance a cause rather than REPORT THE FREAKING NEWS that are the real journalists today.
The true, genuine and REAL journalists are those at Fox News, Glenn Beck, Rush LImbaugh, Reason, King Banaian, Jason Lewis and the hundreds of bloggers who do NOT have an agenda, but rather have intellectually honesty and the vitally important desire to pursue TRUTH not to mention a genuine care for the American people and the future of this country.
It's these people who are the genuine journalistic heroes of our time in that they do not only expose the criminals such as ACORN and Charley Rangel and Van Jones, but they do the job the established, bought-off, and corrupted media was supposed to do.
So you can go ahead and mock Glenn Beck.
You can go ahead and call all these "evil right wing bloggers" racists or sexists.
They don't do it because they're "sexist" or "racist" or just "generally mean and poopey people." They do it because they care about the country and the truth is the American public needs to pull its head out of its ass and start thinking independently or suffer the consequences. And instead of tuning into "The Nightly News" with shills and media whores such as Anderson Cooper and Katie Curick (I don't care how to properly spell her name), they might want to tune into a Glenn Beck or a Jason Lewis.
Because frankly, you can continue to be told what you want to hear by what is nothing more than an extention of the Democrat part of the US, or you can be told the truth. The blue pill or the red pill.
Sadly, most American don't have the intellectual fortitude to be Neo.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Jimmy Carter is Irrelevant
Isn't that the last president that make the economy suck as much as Obama is making the current economy suck now?
Right, Jimmy. Wilson said Obama was a liar, not because he was a liar (which he is) but because he's black.
If ever there is a cowardly and intellectually dishonest argument it is the;
"you don't agree with a black person? Well you MUST be racist."
To all you race whores and worthless former presidents, go ef yourselves because the racist label no longer sticks.
Right, Jimmy. Wilson said Obama was a liar, not because he was a liar (which he is) but because he's black.
If ever there is a cowardly and intellectually dishonest argument it is the;
"you don't agree with a black person? Well you MUST be racist."
To all you race whores and worthless former presidents, go ef yourselves because the racist label no longer sticks.
Do You See What I See?
So I watched Inglorious Basterds and was not impressed at all.
However!
I absolutely LOVED the movie Kelley's Heroes.
A signed photograph (with a lipstick mark) of Natasha who can first link the two.
However!
I absolutely LOVED the movie Kelley's Heroes.
A signed photograph (with a lipstick mark) of Natasha who can first link the two.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Is this the US or the Middle East
A reader sent this to me and I do not know if the translation is correct (nor do I know what they cut out), but there are a couple points about this video;
1. Is he talking about the middle east or the US and our progressively lazy population where we don't produce anything here and just buy it from the Chinese?
2. Is he still alive? Such outspokeness would have raised the ire of terrorists and extremists and I presume he's on somebody's hit list.
3. Why the hell can't the MSM show this guy and parade him around a bit to show that there are moderate Muslims in the world and they're not all terrorists? Oh, that's right, because he's advocating capitalism. And THAT is the true sin, a sin worse than terrorism in the eyes of the left in this country.
Regardless, I would gladly sit down and have a beer with this guy.
Richard Kovacevich is Claude Raines
Yeah, we're "really sorry" that umm....this uhhh...highly ranked employee...ummm...somehow was able to live in this posh mansion and we're "SHOCKED, SHOCKED" to find out about this.
I think Richard Kovacevich starred in Casablanca;
I think Richard Kovacevich starred in Casablanca;
Sunday, September 13, 2009
No, Men Do Not Like the Chase
I have a friend and I forgot how we got on the topic of conversation, but she said, "but don't you men like to chase the women? Don't you like it when we play hard to get?"
To which I answered her with a distinctive, "No, we don't."
Apparently the brainwashing she received from reading too many issues of Cosmo prohibited her from digesting and then installing the fount of information I just gave her and so she responded;
"Oh no, you guys like it."
To which I responded, "No, we really don't."
It took another couple minutes of conversation, but I finally convinced her that, no, indeed not, men do not like it when women play hard to get.
Alas, the difficulty I had in conveying this seemingly simple point to a rather intelligent friend of mine showed me that it is once again time for;
"The Captain's Dating Advice for Women!"
OK girls, here's the deal.
I cannot claim this analogy for it goes to another friend of mine (Spartan). Spartan said,
"You ever play a video game that was so incredibly difficult that after 15 or 20 tries you just inevitably gave up? Well, it's like that. After trying and trying and trying, and inevitably getting nowhere, you realize that it's not worth the effort to play the game any more, you turn off the Nintendo and you go outside and play."
And I think this analogy hits it right on the head.
No ladies, we don't like trying, infinitely and futilely to save the princess. And if it's too difficult we will turn off the video game and find something else to do. You've effectively made the game not worth playing and no amount of "points" or prospects of "conquering the game" will supersede the opportunity costs of doing something else.
Another aspect you must realize is how the patience for games precipitously drops with age.
I remember a video game when I was 13 called "Ninja Gaiden 2." It was a great game, but you got to this one point in the game where you just couldn't make this jump over a pit.
I tried and tried and tried, but inevitably, literally after 3 hours of trying, I gave up.
Now that was when I was 13. Today, at the ripe old age of 34, I don't give a game more than 5 tries. A perfect example is "Blazing Angels 2." You get to fly over Russia and fight off a Nazi invasion while co-coordinating not only a dogfight, but a ground assault and some Katusha rockets.
Good luck trying.
I tried about 4-5 times (each time took 10 minutes of separate game play), and after wasting effectively an hour, I said, "to hell with it" and sold the video game back to Game Stop.
The moral of the story?
The older men get, the less patience they have to play games.
Now, you can continue on reading books and magazines written by non-men about what men want and what they like. You can continue to play the games that were not only childish and NOT fun back in 1988, but continue to be just as childish and NOT fun AND have the added bonus of being "immature" today.
Or you can grow up, quit it with the mind/child/middle school-girl games and if you like the guy, go out with him.
As Keynes said, "In the long run we're all dead," and given the average life expectancy of a woman is 83 years, you really don't have the time in your finite lives to play something as stupid and childish as "hard to get."
To which I answered her with a distinctive, "No, we don't."
Apparently the brainwashing she received from reading too many issues of Cosmo prohibited her from digesting and then installing the fount of information I just gave her and so she responded;
"Oh no, you guys like it."
To which I responded, "No, we really don't."
It took another couple minutes of conversation, but I finally convinced her that, no, indeed not, men do not like it when women play hard to get.
Alas, the difficulty I had in conveying this seemingly simple point to a rather intelligent friend of mine showed me that it is once again time for;
"The Captain's Dating Advice for Women!"
OK girls, here's the deal.
I cannot claim this analogy for it goes to another friend of mine (Spartan). Spartan said,
"You ever play a video game that was so incredibly difficult that after 15 or 20 tries you just inevitably gave up? Well, it's like that. After trying and trying and trying, and inevitably getting nowhere, you realize that it's not worth the effort to play the game any more, you turn off the Nintendo and you go outside and play."
And I think this analogy hits it right on the head.
No ladies, we don't like trying, infinitely and futilely to save the princess. And if it's too difficult we will turn off the video game and find something else to do. You've effectively made the game not worth playing and no amount of "points" or prospects of "conquering the game" will supersede the opportunity costs of doing something else.
Another aspect you must realize is how the patience for games precipitously drops with age.
I remember a video game when I was 13 called "Ninja Gaiden 2." It was a great game, but you got to this one point in the game where you just couldn't make this jump over a pit.
I tried and tried and tried, but inevitably, literally after 3 hours of trying, I gave up.
Now that was when I was 13. Today, at the ripe old age of 34, I don't give a game more than 5 tries. A perfect example is "Blazing Angels 2." You get to fly over Russia and fight off a Nazi invasion while co-coordinating not only a dogfight, but a ground assault and some Katusha rockets.
Good luck trying.
I tried about 4-5 times (each time took 10 minutes of separate game play), and after wasting effectively an hour, I said, "to hell with it" and sold the video game back to Game Stop.
The moral of the story?
The older men get, the less patience they have to play games.
Now, you can continue on reading books and magazines written by non-men about what men want and what they like. You can continue to play the games that were not only childish and NOT fun back in 1988, but continue to be just as childish and NOT fun AND have the added bonus of being "immature" today.
Or you can grow up, quit it with the mind/child/middle school-girl games and if you like the guy, go out with him.
As Keynes said, "In the long run we're all dead," and given the average life expectancy of a woman is 83 years, you really don't have the time in your finite lives to play something as stupid and childish as "hard to get."
Postcards from Long Island (7)
Long Island - Promising young cellmate I taught to trade the financial markets. Released on the 11th of December '05 and rearrested February ’08. Alleged to have committed forgery and hit an officer with a car. He’s writing from Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Lower Buckeye jail.
Shaun,
As for your questions about what it’s like at Arpaio’s Lower Buckeye jail. The pod has a blue and gray color scheme. The control tower is surrounded by windows with a little trap for mail. The cell doors slide open with an access button on the inside. There are 36 cells in each pod with 2 staircases to the upper tier. There’s a door in the pod that leads to a 10x10 ft concrete rec area. Two other doors lead to Medical and a classroom. It’s designed to keep the area completely contained. We don’t have to go anywhere for anything.
It’s alright in the pod, but Visitation sucks. Our visits are via a TV screen. They have little phone booths in the pod with cameras and TV screens in them. Our visitors stay downstairs and we never leave the pod.
I can think of only one noise and smell that stand out far above the rest. The noise is the unbelievably jarring sound of metal crashing against metal every time one of those doors opens and shuts.
The smell above all smells has got to be my celly. The Mariachi has a prostate the size of a cucumber, but refuses to go to Medical because he’s afraid he has cancer. So when he pees it sprays all over the place like a cat. He does his best to clean it up, but he never gets it all. It smells like a public restroom in my cell. He can pee when he sits down, but he doesn’t like to because I tell him he pees like a woman when he sits down! He gets so mad, it’s hilarious!
I’ll probably be signing a plea shortly. If the number is right that is. I think it will be. I’ll write again soon.
Your friend,
Long Island
Click here for Long Island’s previous blog
Our friends inside appreciate your comments.
Email comments for Long Island to writeinside@hotmail.com or post them below. To post a comment if you do not have a Google/Blogger account, just select anonymous for your identity.
Shaun P. Attwood
Long Island - Promising young cellmate I taught to trade the financial markets. Released on the 11th of December '05 and rearrested February ’08. Alleged to have committed forgery and hit an officer with a car. He’s writing from Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Lower Buckeye jail.
Shaun,
As for your questions about what it’s like at Arpaio’s Lower Buckeye jail. The pod has a blue and gray color scheme. The control tower is surrounded by windows with a little trap for mail. The cell doors slide open with an access button on the inside. There are 36 cells in each pod with 2 staircases to the upper tier. There’s a door in the pod that leads to a 10x10 ft concrete rec area. Two other doors lead to Medical and a classroom. It’s designed to keep the area completely contained. We don’t have to go anywhere for anything.
It’s alright in the pod, but Visitation sucks. Our visits are via a TV screen. They have little phone booths in the pod with cameras and TV screens in them. Our visitors stay downstairs and we never leave the pod.
I can think of only one noise and smell that stand out far above the rest. The noise is the unbelievably jarring sound of metal crashing against metal every time one of those doors opens and shuts.
The smell above all smells has got to be my celly. The Mariachi has a prostate the size of a cucumber, but refuses to go to Medical because he’s afraid he has cancer. So when he pees it sprays all over the place like a cat. He does his best to clean it up, but he never gets it all. It smells like a public restroom in my cell. He can pee when he sits down, but he doesn’t like to because I tell him he pees like a woman when he sits down! He gets so mad, it’s hilarious!
I’ll probably be signing a plea shortly. If the number is right that is. I think it will be. I’ll write again soon.
Your friend,
Long Island
Click here for Long Island’s previous blog
Our friends inside appreciate your comments.
Email comments for Long Island to writeinside@hotmail.com or post them below. To post a comment if you do not have a Google/Blogger account, just select anonymous for your identity.
Shaun P. Attwood
Friday, September 11, 2009
Wells Fargo's Boyscout Badges
I bank with Wells Fargo because frankly I am burdened with a lot of work, and plain don't have the time to close my account, redirect all my automatic bill pays. Ergo I tolerate this more or less evil company. Inevitably I will switch to TCF because they did not take TARP money and are actually nearby.
However, on my many trips to the bank I notice up on the wall behind the teller's desk are these banners with each employee's name on it. And on these banners are little pins, kind of like badges on a boyscout's sash. Things like the "WOW" pin, or the "5 Years Service Pin" or "Goodie for You" pin and the "Charles Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence" pin.
And what angers me is that this is typical of corporate America where they think they can get by giving people worthless awards or plastic trophies or wood plaques for hard work instead of, oh, I don't know,
PLAIN FREAKING CASH!???!!!
It's insulting to workers.
Does management in these corporations really think "Bob" is excited when he has the most "Wow" pins on his sash?
Does he get to take that to interviews?
Does he take it home with him and wear it on his chest so when he hits the clubs the girls all fawn over him?
And seriously, when he dies, is that sash going to be prominently displayed anywhere during the wake?
Of course not, because Bob just plain doesn't give a damn about the damn sash because for all of his hard work he gets a worthless fabric adorned with worthless pieces of metal or plastic.
"Wow!"
Now here's the thing, and maybe, just maybe the PHB's of the corporate world will pick up on this, there are only TWO things that will incentive workers to work more (because I know we don't want them working smarter, because that usually brings about change and efficiency and is ruthlessly punished);
More MONEY
or
MORE TIME OFF
That's it.
That's all that's going to incent workers to do a better job.
And this weasily, blatantly transparent circumventing of this hard economic law is insulting.
I was in an interview recently and the middle aged man asked me "how would you incent your staff to work harder?"
I said, "there's only two ways. More money or more time off. If they come up with a way to save 2 hours a day, they either get those 2 hours a day off with the same pay, or I find them new work and pay them an extra 2 hours per day in wages."
That was the incorrect answer.
Alas, I think in corporate America they're going to continue to spend $20,000 on worthless materials, sashes and pins, instead just plain giving their employees the extra $20,000.
Update - Well, with a$$holes like these, no wonder the underlings of Wells Fargo only get paid in plastic.
However, on my many trips to the bank I notice up on the wall behind the teller's desk are these banners with each employee's name on it. And on these banners are little pins, kind of like badges on a boyscout's sash. Things like the "WOW" pin, or the "5 Years Service Pin" or "Goodie for You" pin and the "Charles Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence" pin.
And what angers me is that this is typical of corporate America where they think they can get by giving people worthless awards or plastic trophies or wood plaques for hard work instead of, oh, I don't know,
PLAIN FREAKING CASH!???!!!
It's insulting to workers.
Does management in these corporations really think "Bob" is excited when he has the most "Wow" pins on his sash?
Does he get to take that to interviews?
Does he take it home with him and wear it on his chest so when he hits the clubs the girls all fawn over him?
And seriously, when he dies, is that sash going to be prominently displayed anywhere during the wake?
Of course not, because Bob just plain doesn't give a damn about the damn sash because for all of his hard work he gets a worthless fabric adorned with worthless pieces of metal or plastic.
"Wow!"
Now here's the thing, and maybe, just maybe the PHB's of the corporate world will pick up on this, there are only TWO things that will incentive workers to work more (because I know we don't want them working smarter, because that usually brings about change and efficiency and is ruthlessly punished);
More MONEY
or
MORE TIME OFF
That's it.
That's all that's going to incent workers to do a better job.
And this weasily, blatantly transparent circumventing of this hard economic law is insulting.
I was in an interview recently and the middle aged man asked me "how would you incent your staff to work harder?"
I said, "there's only two ways. More money or more time off. If they come up with a way to save 2 hours a day, they either get those 2 hours a day off with the same pay, or I find them new work and pay them an extra 2 hours per day in wages."
That was the incorrect answer.
Alas, I think in corporate America they're going to continue to spend $20,000 on worthless materials, sashes and pins, instead just plain giving their employees the extra $20,000.
Update - Well, with a$$holes like these, no wonder the underlings of Wells Fargo only get paid in plastic.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Editing the Blog - AND GOOD NEWS!
Hi All,
I've updated to the new blogger layout and as some "Natasha Fans" may have noticed she is no longer there.
Once I remaster the art of programming the sidebar I will put her back up there.
In the meantime I will be putting together a blogroll, but you may have already noticed on the blogroll I have a link. This is (drum roll)
THE CAPTAIN'S FIRST SPONSOR!!!
Show Ugg Boots your support and go buy a couple thousand pairs or something!
Many thanks for Ugg Boots for their sponsorship!
Cpt.
I've updated to the new blogger layout and as some "Natasha Fans" may have noticed she is no longer there.
Once I remaster the art of programming the sidebar I will put her back up there.
In the meantime I will be putting together a blogroll, but you may have already noticed on the blogroll I have a link. This is (drum roll)
THE CAPTAIN'S FIRST SPONSOR!!!
Show Ugg Boots your support and go buy a couple thousand pairs or something!
Many thanks for Ugg Boots for their sponsorship!
Cpt.
Wilson is Right
Obama is a liar and it is that simple.
It is underhanded "wink wink" "nudge nudge" "oops, we didn't fill out the paper work correctly" excuse that angers me.
Illegals will get health care just as they do welfare and other benefits they are not entitled to because of "sloppy" paperwork by government, democrat-supporting, public sector union workers.
Average Teacher's Salaries
Found this chart interesting in that in Luxembourg they pay their teachers (after 15 years exeprience) on average $90,000 a year.
It makes me wonder about the Luxembourgian education system and behooves a couple questions;
1. Do they have massive overhead then on "administrators" and "counselors" and "programs" and "assistant coaches" or do they just dedicate the vast majority of the money to (GASP) EDUCATION?
2. Do Luxembourgian children go to school, pay attention and pursue the sciences, or do they wreak havoc, misbehave, complain, and shoot their peers like their American counterparts while pining to go to college for "social work?"
3. If I walked into the average classroom, would their student to teach ratio be higher because (and I'm gambling here) the children ARE better behaved and thus it represents something more of an institution of learning versus a massive baby-sitting operation?
4. Since Luxembourg is a very rich country, they can afford to pay their teachers highly. So if we mimick their economy, teachers here could also get paid $90,000 per year. That would mean the NEA and teachers union would have to support free market, low-tax policies and capitalism that...oops. Never mind.
Wild Man Arrives at the Big House (Part 2)
Wild Man – My large and fearless raving partner from my hometown. He is one of the main characters in my jail memoir. He looked out for me in the jail when we first went in. He was sentenced before me, and ended up having various adventures in the prison system.
In Part 1 Wild Man knocked out an envoy from the Aryan Brotherhood who asked to see Wild Man’s charges. Now the Aryan Brotherhood intend to deal with Wild Man at recreation.
“Next day, I wake up for chow,” Wild Man said. “It’s breakfast. Rec’s at 10. After breakfast a couple of woods come up to me and say, ‘Put yer shoes on. You need to go to rec.’
I kinda thought about it, Do I go out swinging or listen to what they’ve got to say? I thought I’d just wing it.
I walk out to rec with three woods, and there’s six more waiting for me at the poker table. These six are the heads of the whites from all of the yards.”
“Hold on a minute. What do the heads look like?” I asked.
“Three of them are about my size. Bald heads. WHITE PRIDE on all of them. All affiliated with the Aryan Brotherhood.”
“So they would do some serious damage if they started on you?”
“Definitely. I woulda took one or two out, but I woulda got severely hurt.
I walk up, and one called Boon says, ‘Alright, Wild Man. It’s been a long time. How you doin’?’ and gives me a hug. Boon’s running Building 5.
The main guy, Jody, says to Boon, ‘You know him?’
Boon laughs, and says, ‘Yeah. He fucked a lotta dudes up at Towers jail.’
Boon whispered something to Jody, and then Jody turns to me and says, ‘What the fuck were you thinking?’
I said, ‘I didn’t know where the guy was coming from. Whether he was asking me am I a PC-case, by asking for my paperwork. I didn’t wanna leave any unanswered questions, so I gave him a left. I didn’t mean to knock him out, and embarrass him. I’m English, and that’s what you do in English prisons.’
One – with WHITE PRIDE right on the back of his head in German – started laughing. Boon was laughing. But three of them shook their heads.”
“So they were split about what to do with you?” I asked.
“Yes. Then Jody said, ‘Are you willing to apologise to him? The only reason we are not dog-piling you right now is because Boon knows about you from Towers. He said you beat the shit out of a baby shaker, and that goes a long way with us. But don’t get things fucked up. You can’t just go around hitting our heads.’
So I said to the guy I knocked out, ‘Soz about that.’
He didn’t know what soz meant. He just shook his head.
After that, I was going to rec, kicking it with Boon and the heads. I did a couple of missions for them on big guys. I’d only work one-on-one. I don’t believe in dog-piling. They were impressed with my work. They gave me the go ahead, and material to make hooch for the heads and me. Then they give me the green light on the job of the guy I knocked out.
So four weeks after knocking him out, I go up to him and say, ‘I’m having the dorm now. I’ve got the go-ahead from the heads. What you gonna do about it?’
He says, ‘You can have it. I’ll roll over. I’m going home in two months. But to save face, will you talk to me about what decisions you make, so the rest of the fellas still think I’m your right-hand man.’
Looking him dead in the eye, I tell him, ‘I’ll throw a dog a bone,’ meaning I’ll do that for him. That’s how I ended up running the dorm.”
“That’s incredible!” I said. “Only you can get away with beating up an envoy from the Aryan Brother your first day on the yard. I think they saw what a gladiator you are and figured they’d be better off putting you to good use. How many more stories you got like this one you can share at Jon’s Jail Journal?”
“About fifty.”
Do we want more Wild Man prison stories?
Email comments for Wild Man to writeinside@hotmail.com or post them below. To post a comment if you do not have a Google/Blogger account, just select anonymous for your identity.
Shaun P. Attwood
Wild Man – My large and fearless raving partner from my hometown. He is one of the main characters in my jail memoir. He looked out for me in the jail when we first went in. He was sentenced before me, and ended up having various adventures in the prison system.
In Part 1 Wild Man knocked out an envoy from the Aryan Brotherhood who asked to see Wild Man’s charges. Now the Aryan Brotherhood intend to deal with Wild Man at recreation.
“Next day, I wake up for chow,” Wild Man said. “It’s breakfast. Rec’s at 10. After breakfast a couple of woods come up to me and say, ‘Put yer shoes on. You need to go to rec.’
I kinda thought about it, Do I go out swinging or listen to what they’ve got to say? I thought I’d just wing it.
I walk out to rec with three woods, and there’s six more waiting for me at the poker table. These six are the heads of the whites from all of the yards.”
“Hold on a minute. What do the heads look like?” I asked.
“Three of them are about my size. Bald heads. WHITE PRIDE on all of them. All affiliated with the Aryan Brotherhood.”
“So they would do some serious damage if they started on you?”
“Definitely. I woulda took one or two out, but I woulda got severely hurt.
I walk up, and one called Boon says, ‘Alright, Wild Man. It’s been a long time. How you doin’?’ and gives me a hug. Boon’s running Building 5.
The main guy, Jody, says to Boon, ‘You know him?’
Boon laughs, and says, ‘Yeah. He fucked a lotta dudes up at Towers jail.’
Boon whispered something to Jody, and then Jody turns to me and says, ‘What the fuck were you thinking?’
I said, ‘I didn’t know where the guy was coming from. Whether he was asking me am I a PC-case, by asking for my paperwork. I didn’t wanna leave any unanswered questions, so I gave him a left. I didn’t mean to knock him out, and embarrass him. I’m English, and that’s what you do in English prisons.’
One – with WHITE PRIDE right on the back of his head in German – started laughing. Boon was laughing. But three of them shook their heads.”
“So they were split about what to do with you?” I asked.
“Yes. Then Jody said, ‘Are you willing to apologise to him? The only reason we are not dog-piling you right now is because Boon knows about you from Towers. He said you beat the shit out of a baby shaker, and that goes a long way with us. But don’t get things fucked up. You can’t just go around hitting our heads.’
So I said to the guy I knocked out, ‘Soz about that.’
He didn’t know what soz meant. He just shook his head.
After that, I was going to rec, kicking it with Boon and the heads. I did a couple of missions for them on big guys. I’d only work one-on-one. I don’t believe in dog-piling. They were impressed with my work. They gave me the go ahead, and material to make hooch for the heads and me. Then they give me the green light on the job of the guy I knocked out.
So four weeks after knocking him out, I go up to him and say, ‘I’m having the dorm now. I’ve got the go-ahead from the heads. What you gonna do about it?’
He says, ‘You can have it. I’ll roll over. I’m going home in two months. But to save face, will you talk to me about what decisions you make, so the rest of the fellas still think I’m your right-hand man.’
Looking him dead in the eye, I tell him, ‘I’ll throw a dog a bone,’ meaning I’ll do that for him. That’s how I ended up running the dorm.”
“That’s incredible!” I said. “Only you can get away with beating up an envoy from the Aryan Brother your first day on the yard. I think they saw what a gladiator you are and figured they’d be better off putting you to good use. How many more stories you got like this one you can share at Jon’s Jail Journal?”
“About fifty.”
Do we want more Wild Man prison stories?
Email comments for Wild Man to writeinside@hotmail.com or post them below. To post a comment if you do not have a Google/Blogger account, just select anonymous for your identity.
Shaun P. Attwood
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