(Click to actually be able to read these.)
The thing is that my dad did actually walk uphill in snow both ways… (you see, if your house is at the top of a hill and the school is at the top of a hill, it works) and you can’t argue with that…but I guess now I have a smartass remark the next time he pulls that one out. 
Tags: cartoons, gas prices
At my last place of employment, they really drilled into us the importance of customer service. Basically, if you weren’t sitting in your cubby tucked away from patients, who were never called patients but “guests”, and their families who were also called “guests”, you were considered “on stage”. It was the whole “Disney Philosophy” of running a hospital.
Anyway, one of the things that they brainwashed us in was watching for lost guests. If you saw someone who looked like they were lost, you were supposed to stop whatever you were doing basically (as long as it didn’t affect patient -er-
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Tags: none
In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress.”
– John Adams
Tags: Quote of the Day, Congress, John Adams
Glenn Greenwald, author of the new book How Would A Patriot Act? Defending American Values From a President Run Amok, has written an excellent post on the anatomy of the thought process of Bush defenders today. I often find myself reading message boards, comments and blogs with my jaw agape when confronted by the particular creature of Bush defender Greenwald describes, which is why I found myself relieved to know I wasn’t the only one
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Tags: blogs, George W. Bush, moonbats, rightwingers, Faith, Glenn Greenwald
SaveTheInternet.com has their own Blog where they are updating regularly with the latest and greatest info on what’s happening with the net neutrality cause. Please add it to your blogroll.
Tags: net neutrality, Congress, Save the Internet
I’m just plain livid. You know I have to be if I’m writing a second post about work in one day. And it’s about the same “clients”/department. Damned troublemakers.
Anyway, a little back story.
After my arrival, I was handed this small little project to finish implementing the pathology interfaces for the lab department. Basically they’d already been done, they just needed some tweaking — ADT, orders, results, and billing. And the “go-live” went beautifully over a year ago.
However, there’ve been a few issues with their billing. Mostly it’s user error. Those of you who work in IT understand what
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Tags: work
O.K. I don’t get this whole note-taking obsession in meetings here at my workplace.
First, everyone sits around in a meeting with printouts and pens and madly scribbles as they talk. Generally, they’re all scribbling the same thing. Then after the meeting, someone is designated as the person to type it all up and send it out in an email so everyone has those print-outs for the next meeting so everyone can repeat the process at the next meeting.
Anyway, I apparently got “in trouble” yesterday as I was reported to my boss for showing up to a meeting with no pen
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Tags: work
“Always be wary of any helpful item that weighs less than its operating manual.”
– Terry Prachett
Tags: Quote of the Day, Terry Pratchett
I learned today that one of the people I work with, not a co-worker, but a user/cliet, has been “tapped” by the Reserves to go to Iraq. She didn’t seem particularly excited about it and “congrats!” really didn’t fit. I’m really not sure what to say to someone up close and personal when they tell you they’re going to war. She’s not a relative or a close friend; otherwise, it would have been easy as I would have been bawling and hugging her and praying to God for her safety, which is really what I wanted to
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Tags: Iraq, National Guard
“How much easier it is to be critical than to be correct.”
– Benjamin Disraeli
Tags: Quote of the Day
My friend, who’s parents named him and his sister after characters on the 1960’s supernatural soap opera Dark Shadows, became a first-time father yesterday. His darling daughter is named after a character on two WB 1990’s supernatural soap opera-y type series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.
It kind of makes me wonder what supernatural soap opera will be the cult hit 30 years from now.
Anyway, congrats, 2Cool!
Tags: Dark Shadows, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, WB
Well, I don’t ever want anyone to complain that I never report good news. I’m always on the look-out for good news and changes for the better. I hate to hear about conditions worsening all over and despite many a right-winger’s misguided belief, liberals do not take joy in pain and suffering.
Anyway, here goes…
GENEVA (Reuters) - Detainees are enjoying better treatment at the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, and the Red Cross is satisfied with its access to them, the humanitarian agency’s chief said on Tuesday.
Jakob Kellenberger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said detention
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3 comments See also in Politics & Causes, In the News, The World
Tags: discombobulated
“If we were to wake up some morning and find that everyone was the same race, creed and color, we would find some other cause for prejudice by noon.”
– George Aiken
Tags: Quote of the Day, prejudice
In Illinois:
SPRINGFIELD — Leave it to the Democratic-controlled state Legislature to find an obscure way to attempt to oust President Bush.
State Rep. Karen Yarbrough (D-Maywood) has sponsored a resolution calling on the General Assembly to submit charges to the U.S. House so its lawmakers could begin impeachment proceedings.
It would be the first state legislature to pass such a resolution, though the measure faces a dim future in a Republican-controlled Congress.
[…]
To support her legislation, Yarbrough is relying on a provision from Jefferson’s Manual, a procedural handbook written by Thomas Jefferson as a supplement to U.S. House rules.
[…]
Jefferson wrote that there are
Read the rest of this entry »Tags: George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Illinois, California, Impeachment, ImpeachPac, AJR 39, HJR0125
comments See also in Politics & Causes, In the News, The World, Featured
Matt Stoller at MyDD is blogging all this week about the Net Neutrality issue. It affects us all and it really is us versus Big Business. (I normally wouldn’t link to Moveon.org as I think they’re too extremist, but I do believe in this particular cause…if you don’t like them, go sign the petition at savetheinternet.com, which is what I did. 
)
Background on the Issue: The internet is open because private companies haven’t been allowed to block content they don’t like. Now the telcos want to make it so they can block what you see.The Threat to You is real: Telcos have already blocked competing services, censored emails, and political web sites of unions negotiating with them. Why do you assume they care about your rights?Come On, This Isn’t Really Happening: Fine, don’t believe me. Ignore the fact that the CEO of AT&T is on record that this is going to happen. You can pretend that this won’t affect you, if you want.
‘Net Neutrality’: A Simple Explanation: Annoying tech issue, maybe, but you can watch this this simple video explanation.
Explaining the Players in the Fight: It’s a corporate cartel with bought and paid lobbyists versus a free market and citizens groups.
Can we win this fight? Yes, we can. Congress isn’t that set on giving away the internet. They just don’t understand the issues involved and don’t think anyone’s paying attention.
What You Should Link to:
SavetheInternet.com
Moveon Petition
Save the Internet on MySpace
Tags: net neutrality, Congress, Save the Internet, AT&T, MyDD
I watched 60 Minutes last night and I’ve been reading all of the related articles on Yahoo!News, The Washington Post, CNN, and Reuters. O.K. It’s all the same article. They all say the same thing. And really for those of us liberals who’ve been paying attention since 2002, it’s nothing new. In fact, there wasn’t anything in that report I hadn’t heard before, so it’s hard to get excited.
And I know none of the conservative right-wingers were paying attention anyway so it was just preaching to the choir.
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Tags: WMD, Tyler Drumheller, Fox News, Yahoo!News, Washington Post, CNN, Reuters, White House, CIA, Intelligence, Iraq, 60 Minutes
Today in New York, Administrative Law Judge John Spooner ruled that Toguir Choudhri, a 14-year veteran of the Department of Education, who had been accused of browsing the internet at work and ignoring supervisors’ requests to stop, cannot be fired.
“It should be observed that the Internet has become the modern equivalent of a telephone or a daily newspaper, providing a combination of communication and information that most employees use as frequently in their personal lives as for their work.”
He added: “For this reason, city agencies permit workers to use a telephone for personal calls, so long as this does not interfere with their overall work performance. Many agencies apply the same standard to the use of the Internet for personal purposes.”
Spooner dispensed the lightest possible punishment on Choudhri, a reprimand, after a search of Choudhri’s computer files revealed he had visited several news and travel sites. [“Web-surfing worker can’t be fired” (Yahoo!News)]
(emphasis, mine of course)
169: Number of days that elapsed between Dana Priest’s article on secret prisons and the firing of the supposed leaker. 1,014 and counting: Number of days that have elapsed since Valerie Plame’s identity was published without anyone having been fired. [“Leak Hypocricy”(Think Progress)]
Tags: Conspiracy Theories, politics, Valerie Plame, Dana Priest, secret prisons, CIA, leaks, hypocrisy
“It is our responsibilities, not ourselves, that we should take seriously.”
– Peter Ustinov
Tags: Quote of the Day
The Naked Truth
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Discombobulated Thoughts
of a displaced Southerner in New England -- from just daily annoyances to conspiracy theories to political views.
The Dark Side of Christian History by Helen Ellerbe
The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir
Marley and Me by John Grogan
The Digital Photography Book by Scott Kelby
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