When did obstucting the flow of traffic become the goal rather than a biproduct?

I had occasion to drive up Van Ness Avenue at around 10 in the morning on a work day. Mapquest said it was a 9 minute drive.  While I anticipated traffic, so I knew it was unlikely to be so short, I did not expect it to be quite so bad.

Accidents happen, MUNI buses break down, construction equipment blocks lanes.  All of those things are everyday occurrences.  I am not sure what happened on this day, I could see no reason for the closure, but a single block, in one direction, was closed off.

There was a parking control officer with his little car (what do they call those things anyway?) blocking the far side of the intersection.  So far, so good.  You have three lanes of traffic that needed to turn right into two lanes.  You have cross traffic.  You have a traffic light.  And what was the parking control officer doing?  Nothing!

He is there, why the hell isn't he directing traffic, trying to mitigate the mess he has created.  The only time he moved was when he went over to joke with the MUNI driver who had run a red light to block the intersection for a full three cycles of the traffic lights.

If this were a unique situation, I would say this was just one idiot.   But in my day to day commute in and out of the city I have seen this over and over.  Police and parking control officers on scene, standing around watching the situation get worse and worse, when the simple act of directing traffic would have made an enormous difference in the flow of traffic.  Could they have made traffic flow normally?  Probably not, but they could have eliminated the gridlock.

Years ago, I lived in Anchorage, Alaska.  Power outages, while not widespread, were a reasonably common occurrence for traffic lights.  And almost without fail, someone would pull their car over to the curb, get out a flashlight, and stand in the middle of the intersection directing traffic while the traffic light was out of commission.  I saw that again and again.

In San Francisco, however, it is an exception for even those paid to control traffic on the city streets to get out there and lend a hand.  Now if they are off attending to other duties, I can understand that the inconvenience of a few thousand drivers may not be the highest priority.  But if you are already there. and just standing around, how about showing a little pride?

I was going to shop there, but there was picket line

Today I had to run to the store for a few things.  Most of my shopping is done at Costco, but there are some things I want to buy in smaller quantities, and others that Costco just does not carry.  For example, Costco does not have shallots, and my wife had a grocery list that included 6 ounces of shallots for a recipe she intends to make.

I pulled up at Raley's, and there were pickets out.  I waved to them and moved on, taking my business elsewhere.  I had no idea what the issue they are striking over are, (I do now) but my thought was this.  All across this country, businesses are making ever increasing profits, paying their top management more and more, while at the same time trying to screw those at the bottom.  In the current climate, I will give the workers, not management, the benefit of the doubt.

So I did my shopping elsewhere and came home to do a little research.  These were the pertinent items that I was able to glean from my research.

• Management claims that they need to control costs to remain competitive.  This, though rather vague, does make sense.
• And of course 'controlling costs' means no premium pay for working Sundays, wage freezes, and the ever popular two-tiered wage rate, where current employees are paid one amount, while new hires get less.  And of course cuts in health care benefits.  Building in an incentive to get rid of current employees to replace them with cheaper ones.
• The union has asked for an audit so that they can find out if this is really about remaining competitive, or just lining the pockets of upper management (the company is privately held, not publicly traded, so much less is a matter of public record)
• Management has been unwilling to submit to an audit, which tells me that the numbers probably do not justify their demands

I have been a professional most of my adult life, and have never belonged to a union.  But that does not mean that I don't recognize what their existence have done for all of us.  And I see what is happening all over this country, the push to bring labor relations back the 19th century.

So for now, I am taking my business elsewhere.

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It is more than grammar, it is attitude

When I was growing up, when to use 'I' and when to use 'me' was drilled into me.  And whether you used 'I' or 'me', if you were talking about you and someone else, well, that someone else came first.

Somewhere around the Reagan years that began to change.  That was when the government started to become the enemy, and teachers, who are government employees began to lose respect.  And the one wage earner family began to disappear.  Working was no longer a choice for women, it became a necessity.  So after school the kids went to some kind of day care and then became latchkey kids.

Parents had less time to help with homework, or even make sure it was done. There was too much to do just to make sure food was prepared laundry was done, and all the other tasks associated with running a household were taken care of.  Many tried, but there are only so many hours in the day.

And another thing happened.  There was a shift in attitude, the every man for himself attitude.  A generation has grown up believing that they are entitled to have it all, not because they earned it, but because of how special they are.

So the next time you hear someone saying 'me and him', well that's where it came from. 

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The Horsey set, Mitt Romney and attitudes

For several years I had horses, and I hung out with horse people.  I had one, and then two horses, but my first was special to me.  She was like a cantankerous old lady.  She would try to take a bite out of your side when you tightened the girth on the saddle, but you could put a young and inexperienced rider on her back and she would take care of them.

There were all different sorts of riders in my circle.  There were people like me who just enjoyed the feelings of freedom and connection when riding a horse through the woods, trotting on a switchback trail.  There were the endurance riders, who would enter the Tevis Cup every year, a 100 mile race though the mountains.  The were those who were into 3 day events, dressage and jumping.  There were those into roping and rodeo type riding.  It was an eclectic group of people with one common interest, horses.

Now most of these people were middle or lower middle class.  They had to struggle to maintain their hobby, it is not cheap.  And most of these people were pretty conservative.  The group tended towards white and a little redneck.  Although I have not been in touch with them in years, it would not surprise me if most of them intend to vote for Mitt Romney.

There was a subset of these people who had a different attitude towards horses than most of us did.  To them a horse is sporting goods, a piece of equipment and nothing more. they were not in the majority, but they were present in the group.  And it is this attitude that this whole rambling post is about.

Mitt Romney does not hate you.  He does not even think of you as a 'you'.  To the Romneys, you and I are tools.  We are not people, we are votes, and we are units of labor and we are consumers of product.  We are no more important than the rusted hammer in an old toolbox in your garage.

He seeks power the way he seeks return on investment.  Does not matter how he gets it, does not matter what he does with it.  It is about having it, because he is entitled to it.

No matter how they try to disguise it, not matter what language they use, if you look beneath all that they stand for, this is the philosophy of the American right wing.  This is not the philosophy of the old line conservatives, Barry Goldwater is probably turning over in his grave at the though of what has become of his Grand Old Party.  But that is what you have today.

It is really very simple.  Are you a human being or are you a tool?

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Why Rep. Todd Akin scares the crap out of the Republican Party

Well, let's see, first there was thinly veiled (legitimate rape?) suggestion that most rapes aren't really rape.  If you have not been beaten to within an inch of your life, and have the cuts and bruises to prove it, then it wasn't really rape.  Hell, even then, you may just like it rough.

Then there was that whole thing about how you cannot really get pregnant from a rape.  After all, if was really, really a rape the the body would kind of shut itself down and you couldn't get pregnant.

So what you have here is that most women would lie about being raped in order to get an abortion, because you know women are lying sluts cannot really be trusted.  Add to it that wing nut conservative opinion carries much more weight than actual science.  And there you would have encapsulated the current state of Republican delusion thought.

But Todd Akin said it out loud.  It is not that they don't think the same way, look at the current Republican platform.  But you are supposed to use code that your moronic loyal base understands, but ambiguous enough that the cowardly mainstream press will not call you on it.


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A power play by AAA

Do you have AAA insurance?  I do, and for the most part I have loved them as an insurer.  If you have AAA insurance, and you are in an accident, you will find they are a strong advocate on your behalf.  So I was surprised when I read the proxy statement they mailed to me this week.

I am referring to the Northern California, Nevada, and Utah region, which is the area I live, as AAA is not an homogenous national organization. The proxy asked (as they all do) that I allow management to vote on my behalf.  Then I read what they were proposing.

The insurance arm of AAA is run by a board referred to as the Insurance Board.  The California Insurance Code requires that rules governing selection of that board be determined by the subscribers.  So management wants the members of that board to be voted in, by the members of the Insurance Board.  How's that for corporate governance in the interests of the stakeholders?

What you would have is a closed loop system, where management determines who management will be.  Do you see anything wrong with this picture?  Corporate America is filled with corporations whose primary loyalty is to entrenched management at the expense of the shareholders.  I liked to think that AAA was better than that, but I guess I need to rethink my position.

So, if you are insured by AAA and the Northern California, Nevada and Utah region, don't sign the proxy.  And if you can, go to the meeting (August 7th, 3055 Oak Road, Walnut Creek, CA at 11:00 AM) and vote against it.  And raise a little bit of Hell while you're at it.

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What does a company owe to shareholders?

Who remembers the novel Catch 22?  Remember when M&M Enterprises bombed the base?  It was OK because "everyone has a share".  This is the situation we find ourselves in today.


You work for Behemoth Industry Inc, a Fortune 500 company, and you are also a shareholder.  Every paycheck a small amount of money is deducted for the Employee Stock Purchase program.  You also have automatic dividend reinvestment, so every quarter you are watching the number of shares you own grow, helping to build your retirement nest egg.


One Monday morning you come to work and find there is a chain on the front gate, the plant is closed.  You are now unemployed.  A company press release announces that the quarterly dividend will increase one half cent because of their cost saving measures of shipping much of their manufacturing offshore.


You are one of thousands out of work, and the ripple effect hits your town, your county, your state.  Many of those who's lives have been damaged are stockholders also, as they own shares via their 401K's, in mutual funds, and direct investments in their IRA accounts.  All these people get one half cent per share extra per quarter, in exchange for being thrown into poverty.


I am not saying I have an answer here, only that we are a shareholder society.  Shouldn't we as shareholders be getting better treatment?  Is that one half cent per share all that they owe us for our investment?


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