CORRECTION: And A Mighty Big One at That

Due to mis-communication with my father – who is in New Mexico and has a less than decent cell phone – it wasn’t my grandfather that died, but my grandfather’s female friend who lived with him.

Which is less sad than before (actually, it’s quite a relief), but still sad because it was the last person from my grandfather’s past that was alive. So now my grandfather lives in a small town of less than 8k people and he’s basically the oldest person there. She wasn’t the nicest person to be around, but she kept my grandfather company. Now he’s all alone among people at least 15 to 20 years younger than him, at 91 years old.

Thanks to the people who sent condolences either by my blag or by text message or by email. It was kind of a false alarm, but thank you very much all the same.

 

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My Grandfather

Passed away last night. My mom and dad are currently in New Mexico, and the rest of us kids don’t live in Indianola, Nebraska. The only person taking care of arrangements is my uncle Joey. Funeral’s scheduled for Monday, which means my parents have to run back to Nebraska on Sunday. Chances are, none of the kids will make the funeral – which sucks, but it’s Monday.

Michi has to work Monday.

I don’t know if I really want to go anyway. I loved my grandfather, but it seems they aren’t going to have even a moderate funeral for him, so it will be short and no viewing.

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Watching the Last Minutes of Desert Bus

Remarkably, Desert Bus Pt. 3 reached a final total of $132k. Sat through them singing Desert Bus Killed the Internet Star and then they did a toast. Now they are signing the Final Countdown.

Congrats to the LRR crowd. I’ve had about 11 people go to Child’s Play from my link, so if you donated, thank you.

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Republicans and the Rise of Fear

As Lou Dobbs brought to our attention, the GOP runs on fear.

1. This administration’s indiscretions are really indiscretions that began 30 years ago in a Republican administration, and were horribly abused in particular by the previous administration.
2. Jon Stewart purposely points out that the only reason we noticed it now during a Democratic administration (instead of during the last administration) is because the Republicans have capitalized upon reporting it now. They always point out the prolonged abused indiscretions of administrations and Congressmen during a Democratic administration, even if they are the worst abusers.
3. Logically, Republicans do such a good job of pointing out these problems because that’s their MO – to use fear to push their agenda.

You want a good example?

There’s this terrible blog called Objective Conservative. It is reporting that the Democrats in the Omaha city council plan on ousting a Republican city councilman with a medical condition using a rule that states that absent council people can be removed if they miss too much time. However, months before this blog even reported this bullshit, the mayor and fellow council people announced they plan to have a vote to KEEP Sigerson on the council. Because Sigerson has contributed to the mediation of the police and fireman complaints with the city. And tonight, the local news reported the truth.

However, the Republican idiot (or idiots) running the Objective Conservative will only report half-truths and bullshit in the hopes of spawning enough fear to create problems for the Democrats. Although this law was first used by Republicans to oust a previous sick Democrat from the City Council in Omaha. But I maintain that the OC blog will stick to calling people liars until the vote passes and Sigerson keeps his seat. I’d like to see what bullshit they spit out when Sigerson keeps his seat – perhaps some sort of moronic victory dance or ill-reported conspiracy theory.

Enough said.

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Update: The Job Front

Contacted Lockheed Martin. They are interested in talking to me sometime next week in an informal interview. I contact Raytheon about a LAN admin manager job.

Things are okay. I think Omaha is one of the better places in terms of jobs.

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Work Is Work, And Sometimes It Isn’t

Big announcement -

Today … I was laid off from my job.

Now before everyone goes beserk, let me tell you the whole story.

Today, my business reached a point where our owners decided to break up the company and sell the parts off. Not everyone at my work knows this (and I didn’t either), but I got that dreaded call from my VP to please come to his office. I knew when I walked in that there were layoffs happening.

I got that call to come to his office around 10, and I knew at that point that we were going to lose someone. He put two folders on the desk, and my only thought was, “Oh shit, two people???“

“This is going to be a really hard decision, and I want you to think hard about it,” he told me, “I hate this – I have to let either you or this other guy go.”

Now, the other guy is presently having a lot of issues. He has five kids, a wife who’s on the edge of divorcing him due to money, and a lot of debt. The other reality is that in April, they are going to fire everyone else anyway. My VP is leaving the company in the next month or so to avoid the death of my corporation. So these two things popped into my head:

1. I could not live with my conscience if the other guy’s life imploded from losing his job now (of all times).
2. I wanted to leave with a severance package while the company has money to give severance packages.

So I took the bullet for the other guy. It was actually harder on everyone else in my team than me when I packed up my belongings and walked out the door. The lady learning how to be a manager from me told me she has no direction, no idea what to do now. My coworkers felt their morale plummet, and they now have to do everything I was doing on top of what they were doing. One lady wouldn’t stop hugging me. “You can’t go,” she said, “There’s no more happiness in the office without you here.”

I feel worse for my coworkers, honestly. I didn’t like my job much, so it won’t hurt me as much. I have 21 weeks of severance starting in December, and I’ll switch to COBRA for awhile to keep my insurance. I have friends and connections to turn to to get another job. I have a lot of fight left in me, and I want to do something different.

I’m actually free now, so I’m going to use this as a positive experience to go on and actually get a job I like better than the one I had. And hopefully get paid for the work I do.

Don’t worry about me – I’ll be fine.

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Washington DC Health Care Protest

Wasn’t as much as a protest as Hannity and the rest of Fox News wanted it to be. So they did what they always do – doctor footage to make the protest look bigger. Unfortunately, it doesn’t get past the scrutiny of Jon Stewart, who took time to point out that the supposed footage from the Health Care protest was actually footage from Glenn Beck’s 9/12 rally. Whoops!

Depending on how you decide to spin the story, an Associated Press poll either proves one of two things:

1. In the case of Yahoo! and CNN, the majority of the public still approves of Obama, although they are unhappy with the Congressional Democrats.

OR

2. In the case of Fox News and MSNBC, Obama’s popularity slips even more and the Democrats are the most hated people on the planet.

Considering Fox News’ track record, I’m more inclined to believe the first option (and after looking at the actual data from the poll, it is true that Obama hasn’t lost much support, just the Congression Dems). Why MSNBC feels the need to hop on the Negative Nancy bandwagon, I have no idea.

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Being Wealthy and TOLERANT Makes You Happier

This study – while rather bland and stating the obvious – just proves further that religious tolerance makes you a happier person. Unlike some unhappy groups, who claim gay people are “terrorists”. If these people don’t lighten up, they’ll die from stress fairly soon.

The GOP claims that Democrats put their agenda ahead of the country. Then, when a reporter asked, “How is this different from when the GOP put their agenda ahead of the country prior to 2006?” they stopped taking questions. It’s kinda hard to say you’re not putting your agenda ahead of the country when your religious constituents take it upon themselves to get involved in politics.  What’s interesting is that the GOP’s approval did not even budge from 29% after that statement.

Glenn Beck is on Fox News because Rupert Murdock is racist himself. No matter how “right” a remark may seem, it’s still racism. It’s only good business to avoid racism, as the 10 sponsors that bailed on Beck proved. You have to wonder what it is about pop political stars – Sarah Palin said at one of her book talks that the dollar coin is a conspiracy to integrate black people as leaders. What the fuck is that?

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Unfortunate Realities

My prayers go out to the people attacked and traumatized by the shooting at Fort Hood yesterday. It’s a dark day when a soldier turns on his fellow soldiers and kills them. The worst part of this was having to watch the different cable news channels discuss it. Once again, Fox News trumped the retarded list by immediately placing blame on his Muslim-sounding name before we had any details. And yet – somehow – Fox News is the most trusted news channel in recent polls. My country is full of empty-headed morons who like to watch Glenn Beck for the entertainment value.

Dick Cheney needs to go on a vacation. I mean, he’s clearly out of his league now, and it shows. Poor Dick – still wants to feel relevant in a world that’s passed by (and trying to keep a lawsuit against him from forming). I’m really ashamed of his horrible behavior.

Pakistan claims to be clearing out the Taliban, but that remains to be verified. I’m almost certain that this is all one giant propaganda campaign to keep India from getting involved. The US is clearly worried about India getting involved, since – you know – they haven’t signed a Nuclear Proliferation Treaty.

I sympathize with the gay people in Maine. But you people have to learn where to place the blame and focus when things don’t go your way. Be realistic – do you really think the President could have changed the course? I don’t – you had a very energized anti-gay organization using some very unethical and hateful tactics in your state. Go after those people, and earn some real sympathy.

If anyone doubted my previous sociological preaching that the rich get the most life choices in the US, here’s proof – the rich got the H1N1 vaccine ahead of the regular people who are at greater risk. I can guarantee this has to do with money and influence coming before pregnant women, young kids and at-risk elderly people. Which is embarrassing for the US and their claim that everyone is treated equally.

 

 

 

 

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