NOAA Identifies Lurking Environmental.
This is from Marine Link. I’m hoping this means more work for us out here in the Gulf of Mexico (and around the country). Salvage operations are always interesting. 🙂
Arctic Sea Ice Up 60 Percent in 2013.
Read it and do your own thinking.
I said a long time ago, scientists can’t prove (yet) that we are in the midst of “man-made” global warming. They tricked me once when I was a kid when they were all in agreement that we would all be frozen into ice cubes by now.
At this point in time, I want proof that…
1. People are the cause of global warming.
2. There is something effective that people can do to stop it.
So far, I have not seen enough evidence of either one of those propositions to make me want to do anything about the issue. I’m still waiting…
Maybe if I wait long enough, they’ll decide we’ll be freezing again. I only wish the governments of the world would stop trying to use this issue to force us into their ridiculous ideas of how we need to live.
Yeah, riiiighht, like any of them really know anything about MY life. Or yours (assuming you’re not at least a millionaire). Or even how to really LIVE life. You don’t learn about that when your life’s ambition is to control other people!
Our Fossil-Fueled Future – Environment – Utne Reader.
Love the picture they start this off with. Right off the bat they make out Exxon as the cause of all the worlds suffering. Yeah, riiiighht…
OK, for the record, I do NOT think we need to stop using fossil fuels! I do NOT think we need to stop the rest of the world from developing up to first world standards. In fact, I think that will be one thing that could help solve everything.
OK, I bet some people are pretty skeptical…
First point: rising incomes = lower birth rate. Lower birth rate + rising incomes = more resources to give a shit about something other than bare survival. So, the first thing we should do if we want to ‘save the planet’ is to help everyone in the world move up the economic ladder asap.
Second point: all of this increase in productivity and rising incomes (time/effort/money spent on other things than energy) depends on CHEAP energy. At this point in time, alternative energy (sources other than fossils) are NOT cheap. They are not anywhere near as efficient and they are not practical (yet). (I DO agree with technology like solar ovens replacing wood burning stoves- that is a GREAT use of solar power in the developing world and a great example of how solar will be able to help)
Third point: they talk about how the entrenched energy companies (meaning fossil fuel companies) earn “staggering profits”, which makes them somehow evil and so they should be either nationalized (BAD idea) or have their ‘profits’ stolen “for the better good” (another really bad idea).
First of all, they don’t make anything like what I would call staggering profits. They only sound like that because of the way they are reported. Which is intentionally to make you feel like something is wrong with it. They are manipulating you to make you want to punish those ‘evil’ corporations. Please read this article to get a more balanced perspective… http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/10/20/big-oil-isnt-as-profitable-as-everyone-thinks/
And to end my review of this article, I would like to point out my personal favorite way to ‘save the world’ with the least pain and anguish for everyone (and everyTHING) on the planet… start using BIRTH CONTROL!!!
If you really think about it, almost every problem you can come up with is minimized if you cut down the amount of people running around the planet. Global warming for instance. If you say that global warming is caused by the actions of people, then it could easily be solved by reducing the amount of people acting. Right?
YES! So, wouldn’t it be better to just use some birth control rather than kill off the people that are already here (through starvation, disease, war, pollution)???
China has done the world a great service with their one child policy (the only problem is their use of force instead of persuasion). If everyone around the world would think about this and resolve to just have one child voluntarily, it would solve a LOT of our problems. War, hunger, pollution, would all be just about eliminated, or at least minimized to the greatest possible extent.
Yes, it would take a while. But in the same time period they’re talking about 2040, we could make a huge, lasting impact, especially if people really came to value the rest of the planet instead of only humanity.
Personally, I would LOVE to see the use of non-polluting alternative energy sources grow to overtake the use of fossil fuels. I DO value this beautiful earth and all the other creatures living here with us.
I would be happy to use wind, solar, ocean current, fuel cell, or anything else that can match fossil fuels in price and efficiency. I am hoping they will come up with new technology that will allow me to make that choice sometime soon. So far, that day has not come. I’m doing what I can see as feasible in the meantime. No, I’m not going to be a martyr.
A friend forwarded me an email a few days ago that had this post in it.Tonight I read it and I was like, oh yeah, GOOD stuff here…
I might nit- pick a little bit on his numbers, but the truth is, he is absolutely correct. Those of us who are still working for somebody else ARE basically slaves. Most people never think of it that way. I never really thought too much about the employer part of it, which is why I say I have some small issues with his numbers. But I’ve been aware of the fact that I am a slave to the government for a long time now.
Yes, he is right. The government takes between 40-50% of your income. I will argue with that and say it is even more. Just to be nice, lets say it’s ‘only’ 40%. OK, if some bandit held you up on the street and told you that they would take 40% of everything you earned for the next 50 years of your life would you think he was turning you into a slave?
Yes, right, he DID just turn you into a slave. Having the government do the same thing, means that you are a slave to them instead of just a single robber. Whooo- hooo! Big deal! OK, so now we know we are all slaves to the government, lets look at what Mr Altucher says about your employer.
I’ve been working with temp agencies for the last couple of years. In this capacity, it is very explicit that exactly what Mr Altucher is saying is true about the employer/employee relationship. I get a day rate when my company sends me out to work for a client. That client pays my employer a LOT more money then my employer pays me. Yes, it’s VERY clear! The money I (and everybody else working as temps there) earn has to pay for the entire upkeep of the company!
It works the same way at EVERY company. If you are not worth a certain amount of money to them, they’ll either not hire you, fire you, or just pay you less. The arguments going on (again) about minimum wage are very relevant here.
I LOVE what he says about owning your time, owning your work, owning the value you create for others! This is very basic stuff. This is at the bottom of all my political beliefs- SELF ownership.
I want to find out how to break free. I’ve been trying to for a long time now but just by following the usual paths. Work hard, save money, buy a house, etc…. it’s just taking too long. Now I understand more about why that is. OK, yeah, if 90% of what I earn is being taken from me before I even see it, then yeah, I can see why I can’t break free. 🙁
In the article, he mentions a book but he didn’t give a name. I looked Mr James Altucher up on www.amazon.com and found out he has a few books. I am assuming it is the one called “Choose Yourself!”. I just downloaded it for my kindle. It’s only $2.99!
I can hardly wait to read it! 🙂
Animal Food Checkoff Programs and the Economics of Meat Production – Politics – Utne Reader.
Here is an interesting article from Utne Reader on the new book by David Robinson Simon: “Meatonomics”.
This exert from the book is mainly about the food “checkoff” programs. Those are programs where the federal government takes a certain percentage of every product sold, say every pound of beef or pork, or a dozen eggs, or a gallon of milk. They then use that money to “promote” those products. In other words, to manipulate the public through advertising to buy more of those products.
Milk- it does a body good.
Pork, the other white meat.
What’s for dinner? Beef.
The incredible, edible egg.
I’m sure you’ve seen these ads, they’ve been around for years. According to the article, they’ve been VERY effective. For instance, the dairy producers report they’ve increased per capita milk consumption 12% to 620 pounds since their program started in 1983. More than 7 billion extra pounds of milk sold!
I don’t really have a problem with food producers trying to promote the sale of their products. If they all just got together voluntarily and threw their money in a pool to spend on advertising that they all agreed on, then fine.
Where I have an issue is that this program is mandatory. The federal government does not allow anyone to opt out and it forces ALL producers to pay for whatever it is that the government decides to say. We’re talking $557 million yearly, that’s a lot of advertising.
Why in the world do we even need the federal government to promote ANY product? Is this in ANY way consistent with the LIMITED government we are supposed to have according to our Constitution? It IS still the supreme law of the land, no matter how many ‘laws’ have been written into the books to subvert it.
Looks like nobody really cares. There’s already been a case where some beef producers disagreed with an ad campaign (Johannes v. Livestock Marketing Association) that went all the way to the Supreme Court. Basically, the court ruled that the statements (ads) were being produced by the government, NOT the beef producers and so they had no standing to object (I’m not a lawyer but that’s my take on it).
Tough titties in other words 🙁
It looks like a book worth reading if you’re at all interested in our increasingly corporate food system. The more I learn, the more I DON’T like what I’m finding out. There has to be a better way.
Charts: How Big Debt on Campus Is Threatening Higher Ed | Mother Jones.
If you read my earlier post on the college degree arms race (http://captjillsjourneys.wordpress.com/2013/09/13/disarming-the-college-degree-arms-race/), then you might like to read this as a follow up. It’s a little bit different take on the subject from Dave Gilson and Maggie Severns at Mother Jones.
They put out some good information. I’d like to see a chart there about how the amount of government aid correlates to increased prices for a college education. I have seen some work on that before. Maybe it was in a Reason magazine. Nope, I found it, it was in a Cato publication, heres a link to a summary page where you can read the whole thing if you’re so inclined (http://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/making-college-more-expensive-unintended-consequences-federal-tuition-aid)
The Law of Unintended Consequences strikes again 🙁
Is it Safer to Work Offshore in 2013?.
Well, I don’t really know. I would like to see some statistics on how it compares to back in say the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s. Personally, I think its probably a LITTLE better. The companies I’ve been working with are constantly harping on safety. They go on and on til its coming out our ears. But I still hear of people doing really stupid things. Like that fire on the platform back in November last year , due to improper welding operations (http://www.blackelkenergy.com/news/67-explosion-and-fire-on-gulf-platform-occurred-during-welding-contractors-failed-to-follow-standard-safety-practices.html) . I mean, jeeze…
What the hell is it going to take?? I get sick and tired of being treated like a moron when I go to work. The company has to tell me how to get dressed in the morning? REALLY???
I’ve only been working offshore (professionally) since 1977! Having to re-take classes like BST (Basic Safety Training) or Rigpass really gets old. I mean, who forgets how to put on a life jacket??? What’s new in shipboard fire fighting? We have the same classes of fires we’ve always had (except they now label a galley grease fire as “K” for kitchen I guess- trying to make it SEEM like there’s actually something new). We fight them the same way.
I think the way to make things safer offshore is to concentrate on creating a culture of personal responsibility!!! Get people to understand that they can do what they’re going to do but THEY are responsible for their actions. They’ll pay attention if they know THEY are going to pay the price if anything goes wrong.
The fact is that we have all sorts of programs out here that SEEM to encourage safety. Instead, they take the ability to THINK about and then CHOOSE their actions away from people. Take away options from people and you take with it their responsibility. You can only BLAME them then, since you’ve taken away any REAL choices.
It seems to me these companies love to send people to these classes so they can tell the world, “it’s not OUR fault those people got hurt. After all, we sent them to training. They should have known how to do the job properly without getting hurt.” Yeah, like a day long class is really going to teach someone ALL they need to know to work safely out here. I don’t think so!
I’m NOT saying we need to go to any more classes!!! What I AM saying is that once a person goes through those very basic classes, they have only the bare minimum of knowledge. We can and should use the time spent in our weekly drills and safety meetings to train people PAST that bare minimum!
Those of us out here with some experience need to take into consideration that SOME of the people we’re working with are almost totally ignorant! From my perspective, it seems like a lot of the incidents are happening with relatively new people. We need to concentrate our efforts on training THOSE people! We need to keep a good eye on them. We need to take the time to really MENTOR them. We need to be generous with our time and our knowledge and not keep it to ourselves in fear of losing our jobs to the newbies…
It would help a LOT if we were not constantly having the crew size cut and cut and cut some more! OK, this below is referring to shipping and not so much drilling since I don’t know too much about drilling yet (but its probably still relevant)…
A typical ship used to carry a crew of 45-50 men. Now they sail with half that (and LOTS more work to do)! Some COIs (Certificate Of Inspection) will allow only 17 man crew (or less). This is for a 1000 ft long tanker!!! ATBs (tug/barge combination) which can run up to 600-700+ feet long, can be run with less than 10!!!
Check out the REAL results of the investigation into the Exxon Valdez incident. You’ll find that it was actually caused by the fact that the entire crew was exhausted and had NOTHING to do with the Captain at all. He could have been totally sober or drunk as a skunk and it wouldn’t have made a damn bit of difference.
They passed the 12 hour rule after the Valdez spill to remedy that. There are work hour restrictions in US law and in the STCW. So it applies to pretty much ALL shipping worldwide. That does include all the larger oilfield support vessels. I don’t know how the drilling industry has escaped notice on this but I don’t know of anything similar that they have to abide by (I might just be uninformed on this point- any drillers to comment?).
Ask any sailor around the world how well they follow that rule. I can almost guarantee you they’re being ‘forced’ by their company policies to break it constantly. Of course, company will never admit it, will blame it on the crew if it ever comes up, and will deny they ever had any idea it was happening 🙁
Being tired is one of the leading causes of accidents. I would think that would be one very easy solution to vastly improve safety. But of course, it would cost some extra money to hire a few extra hands. Is that gonna happen any time soon???
Safety first??? I don’t think so 🙁
The “Domestic Terrorist” You Can Call a Hero | Laissez-Faire Bookstore.
It is well that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.” — Henry Ford
I don’t know about a hero, but I certainly do admire the guy. Anyone who would put his life at risk to do the right thing the way he did gets some high-fives from me 🙂
“Our” leaders have almost completely destroyed the value of the dollar since the congress abdicated their duty and turned it over to the Federal Reserve (a PRIVATE, totally unaccountable group). Here’s a link to a chart showing that.
http://tribes.tribe.net/2012the-end-times/photos/013e009e-f1eb-4021-8884-b13e7f477588
Here’s a guy trying to provide a very needed service to the public, and they arrest him! We DO need REAL money (and NOT the crap paper they try to pass off on us).
Bernard Von NotHaus with his Liberty Dollar and the anonymous inventor of bitcoins have done us all a great service. We NEED some competition with government money. Monopolies are usually not very good for the consumer of whatever product it may be. Government monopolies are even worse, since they are backed up by FORCE.
I could go on and on about the financial mess we’re in (and I will eventually) but I think I better take a break for now 😉 Read up on this post and let me know if you want to hear more. I’ve got LOTS of good information on this subject and its really something we should all be paying some attention to at this point in time.
Freeport LNG Signs 20-Year Supply Agreement with Toshiba | gCaptain
Good news for us 🙂 I live nearby and this should help our local economy out quite a bit. We’ve already had a few LNG ships in the port since they’ve opened this up.
Too bad they make it so hard for the sailors to get ashore. Our local Seamans Center will go to any ship in port and bring the crew to the center, to town, Walmart, the mall, wherever. They have a very nice facility and even offer free lunch on Mondays to all the port workers, truck drivers, seafarers, etc.
The companies need to stop being so obstructive. They’re just using 9-11 for a bad EXCUSE. It IS the law, both in the USA and international that they MUST provide safe access to the shore! Why are they still allowed to prevent it instead??? 🙁
Climate Activists, Eco-Terrorism, and the Green Scare – Politics – Utne Reader.
Another great article from Utne Reader. I really love that magazine, even tho I usually don’t agree with how they state the problem or the solutions they come up with. They are usually VERY statist and I am the opposite. Sometimes they are communitarian (people choosing to live together in a voluntary manner and helping each other by CHOICE), which I DO agree with and support. There is a world of difference between voluntary cooperation and all other systems which are based on force. I will not support any of those in any way (which includes “our” system here in the USA now, since it has utterly violated the original constitution set up and intended to PROTECT our rights, and instead it now constantly violates them).
As for the article, it reports on the usual cooperation between big government and big business to keep the people in their places. Lots of spying on anyone engaged in community organizing or otherwise politically active by both private companies and government to benefit the corporations . Of course, this damages the ability to get anything useful done. They talk a lot about fracking specifically but also mention the Keystone pipeline and animal rights, factory farming,etc. I really can’t say I’ve made up my mind which side of the fracking issue I’ll take.
I DO like the fact that it is helping us get off the Arabic tit and become energy independent again. I like that very much! I would LOVE to be able to say to the entire Middle East to go jump in a lake! They’ve had us over the barrel (of oil) for so long and we’ve been sucking up to them for years because of it. We spend BILLIONS of dollars “protecting” their countries so we can get access to that oil. I say let them keep their oil! We should’ve spent all those billions developing alternative energy all those years and we’d be a HELL of a lot better off by now.
So, now our oil people have come up with directional drilling and fracking to get more of our own oil out of the ground. I’m happy about that. Lets concentrate on making fracking safer, if the environmentalists concerns about groundwater pollution are valid, we need to fix that problem somehow before we continue fracking near any problem areas. Let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater, lets FIX the specific problems with fracking and use it for our benefit. Since we have NOT developed our alternative energy supplies to where they’re anywhere near competitive yet, it gives us some control over our foreign policy again, IF our politicians will just THINK about things and do whats right for the country for once instead of being their own usual greedy pandering selves.
I would LOVE to see solar, wind, geothermal, ocean current, fuel cell technology become as efficient and affordable as fossil fuels. Is any of that going to happen in my lifetime??? In the meantime, we CAN get affordable, politically cheap oil- (meaning NOT located in some foreign country where they all hate us). I say go for it.
As to the environmentalists and other critics of fracking, I want to know just what exactly are THEIR solutions to the issue of our need for energy? I’ve already heard about their ideas that we all go back to living off the land. Yeah, well, I agree with that but don’t think that’s at all possible unless and until we’re ready to eliminate at least a few billion of us humans off the face of the earth. Birth control would be my preferred method, space colonization would work for me just fine, our so-called leaders would prefer we kill each other off in expensive wars, and mother earth will probably do it with some sort of plague sooner or later.
OK, so what OTHER solutions are there???
WalkFree.org – The Movement to End Modern Slavery.
I just got an email from Mother Jones about this campaign. I’ve known about and been interested in modern slavery for a while now. This is the first I’ve heard of this group Walk Free. It looks like they are worth supporting. I am totally against any kind of slavery and I think its just sickening that it is STILL going on in so many places around the world, including right here in the good ol’ USA.
I did sign the petition even though I have some reservations about it. I’ll probably get some shit for saying this but…
I don’t really think I know enough about other peoples lives to be the one to make decisions for them. IF they are actually making these decisions for themselves, if they think they have no other options, then maybe they should be allowed to do that. Yeah, I can sit here in my nice cozy (comparatively) life here in America, I have no real idea of what life is like for those poor people in India. I do know that when I was a kid, I worked 2-3 jobs to support myself (illegally). I was very grateful that the people who employed me were willing to do it anyway. It gave me options and a way to escape from a lot of very bad situations with my family. I just wonder if the prohibition of allowing work before 14 is going to backfire in ways we can’t know yet. It is pretty much a given that any governmental action requires the use of force, most of such actions will cause the Law of Unintended Consequences to come into play. I don’t know what is worse, the slavery or what could come about from trying to fix it with the use of force.
Any thoughts? comments? anybody from India on here that can tell me more about this???
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=m2KEKvhP0dA
I just watched this video with John Stossel talking about what’s happening in Detroit with Shihka Dalmia of the Reason Foundation and Darcy Olsen of the Goldwater Institute. It makes a lot of good points about why Detroit is failing and compares it to places like Sandy Springs, GA which is doing quite well by privatizing everything 🙂
Congratulations to the people of Hackensack! This is what we ALL need to do- throw the bastards ALL out!!!
There has been a growing trend of eminent domain abuse all over the country. We had a case a few years ago locally in Freeport when the city tried to steal the Gore’s property to build a marina. There’s even a book about that episode, “Bulldozed” by Carla Main.They have only gotten worse since then 🙁
I want to read the book but haven’t got around to it yet. Since I own property in Freeport myself, I already know how hard to deal with those city officials (and everyone associated with the city) are. Enforcing ridiculous rules and regulations that increase the costs of doing repairs or improvements to where no one can afford to do necessary work. It almost seems like they are trying to deny people the ability to fix their property so eventually the city can come and condemn it. I have been trying to fix my property and all I get from the city is grief! I WISH the people would get together and throw them all out in Freeport too! Good start, then we can work our way up to Congress 🙂
Here’s a link to some more on what happened in Freeport:
http://ownerscounsel.blogspot.com/2010/09/more-on-texas-developers-attempt-to.html
Mises Institute Explains How The State Destroys Social Cooperation : Personal Liberty™.
Good article explaining the differing effects of cooperation vs coercion. I have always had a bad attitude towards ‘authority’ and its been getting even worse lately. I guess its probably because they are trying to enforce it more and more. I think I’m at the point of thinking that there IS no such thing as authority at all. Either you give your cooperation willingly, or you are being FORCED to do something you wouldn’t choose to do on your own. The use of force is NOT the same thing as authority. It is only force, violence in other words.
Personally, I think people get along much better in a cooperative society. Live by as few rules as possible. Do whatever you want as long as you don’t hurt anybody else. Simple 🙂 That is what this country was supposed to be all about and that way of life that we had for the first 100 years or so was what made us the most advanced, prosperous, favored country in the history of the world. Now that we’ve thrown all our freedom down the drain after 9-11, we are steady losing everything. Our ‘leaders’ can’t come up with anything else but more and more force. What would they do if we ALL just refused to obey their so-called authority???
RIGZONE – Career Spotlight: Petroleum Engineers.
If I had really thought about it, I would have gone into something like this instead of Chemical Engineering when I went back to school. I only did Chemical cause I live in Lake Jackson, Texas, near Houston. The whole area is a huge center of chemical plants, Dow, BASF, Shintech, etc. I figured I would always be able to get a good job. I only went back to school to make my grandmother happy. I already had a good career (and an AAS degree) and figured if I went back to school it better be for something that would pay the bills better than what I was doing already (working offshore as captain of supply boats, etc). I didn’t really understand what exactly Chemical Engineers did 🙁
I wound up getting a degree in Math, just so I could get out of school and back to work doing something I still really loved (offshore running boats). Petroleum Engineers work offshore a lot and it seems I probably could have found work as a reservoir engineer if I had really tried hard using the math degree. I wasn’t really all that interested in it tho. I was much more interested in getting back out on a boat 😉 I did manage to do that pretty quickly after I got my degree. I’d been working throughout school, summers, holidays,etc so it wasn’t really an issue.
Now that the oilfield is booming again, they need these Petroleum Engineers, along with geologists, etc. I had 2 lady geologists out on my rig last hitch and at least one ‘mud engineer’. The real demand is for subsea engineers. Maybe Rigzone will post an article about that soon. That seems to be pretty interesting. Actually, all of it is interesting, its just a little bit different angles of attacking the problem. Finding out whats down there, how to get at it, how to put it to use…
Get Rich, Stay Rich: 3 Secrets on How.
I like how these guys think. He makes some good points in this article. I read the book a while ago, it was pretty good.I have been trying to build my own wealth through real estate investing. So far, I have been keeping pretty busy with buying old, trashed properties, fixing them up and renting them out.
I’m hoping to move overseas asap. Buying rental property is my way to get there. I hope the income will allow me to move soon to somewhere more friendly to the lifestyle I want to live. Peaceful and free, friendly neighbors, lots of open land to garden and explore. I’ve been looking at Belize, Nicaragua, Chile, Ecuador, Panama, Indonesia, Thailand, and some of the Pacific Islands. I think I’ll start in Central America since it’s close enough that I can get to/from work in the Gulf of Mexico if I can’t manage to find a job overseas soon. I’ve been trying since 2007 and getting tired of it. I need to make a move soon and stop procrastinating!
This is an interesting article on why our wages are not going up. There’s a video in there too that explains a lot. I wonder if anyone of our ‘leaders’ is going to try to fix things or if they’re all just going to continue letting the Fed ruin the country along with the economy?
Ron Paul’s Texas Straight Talk.
I LOVE Ron Paul. He was my congressman for all the years I’ve lived in Lake Jackson until he ‘retired’ recently and moved on to other projects. He has ALWAYS stood up for the Constitution on EVERY issue and I really admire him for that. After all, that is the job EVERY one of our ‘representatives’ from the President on down swore and oath to do and he is the ONLY one for decades who has actually done that. His son Rand Paul is not even close tho he at least does try on a few issues.
Since Ron was a doctor, he probably knows about health care and how Obamacare will hurt the medical profession better than the rest of our “leaders”. I know he knows finances and how the market works better than 99.99% of them. I know how the market works better than the huge majority of them, from their actions, they are almost all completely ignorant of how the free market works and how any interference with it causes problems.
People here keep saying the government has to fix the problem since the market can’t. I call BS on that! First of all, we have nothing like a free market in health care or anything else. We USED to, and then the government stepped in and started screwing things up. Now we have a corporatocracy (facism in other words). I really hate the idea of Obamacare and its ‘individual mandate’. Mandate???? In a FREE country???
The government has come to believe that they OWN us now. What else could you call it when they will be dictating the way you can take care of your own body? I guess it’s NOT your own body anymore when you can’t decide what to do with it anymore but somebody else can. This is just the last step on the road to complete totalitarianism in the once land of the free. I am doing my best to get the hell out but still stuck here trying to figure out HOW??!
Cargo Ships on Beaches…Really? | gCaptain
I always thought it would be so cool to drive one of these big ships up on the beach! I mean really, the whole point of shipping is NOT to run your ship aground.
I do understand that there are some horrendous working conditions there for these people. I also understand that the people who take these jobs are desperate for ANY kind of job to support themselves and their families. I know when you’re desperate, you might not want to be too picky about what you will and won’t put up with. Maybe people might want to figure out what is the reason why they are so desperate in the first place- someone mentioned that there were too many people (comments below article). Yeah, that is the bottom line really. These ship breaking jobs are actually good paying jobs for over there. Yes, I’m sure it could be made safer and would save some lives, but look at what we have done here as far as safety goes- we are regulated to death! I would love to see the comparison statistics on safety between those ship breakers and the ones here (IF we have any left). I don’t think it would really make ALL that much difference. I notice the people working all over Asia on bamboo scaffolding, no shoes, no safety belts, no hard hats, no nothing except the knowledge that if they get hurt, no one is going to help them. They seem to do just as good as we do on their accident rates. All without putting everybody in the “safety” straightjackets like they did here. We can’t do anything anymore without filling out reams of paperwork and dressing up like we’re going to outerspace or something 🙁
Armed Lifeboat: Government’s Response to Natural Disaster – Politics – Utne Reader.
This is an interesting article about opposing reactions to disasters. They are mostly talking about global warming but I think they can mean any kind of disaster. The opposite sides seem to be top down – government- or bottom up- community. Of course, being Utne Reader, they want government to be involved in BOTH. I think things should be done if at all possible (and most everything IS) through bottom up approach. I think most people here (USA) have come to depend on the government approach and many are already very dependent on all sorts of government aid. How will we be able to stop the militarization/dystopian governmental approach they refer to in the article if we do not get some independence back again? I think we are finally starting to wake up to the reality of what “our” government is doing (mostly behind our backs) and some are even starting to fight back and demand whats right. I only hope we’re not too late.
Fast-Food Strike Means Time to Buy Gold – Sovereign Investor
Another good article showed up in my email today. I really have a hard time keeping up with all the interesting newsletters I get. Some are free, some I pay for, I enjoy reading all of them (when I have the time). This one today is on the fast food workers strike. Funny, cause I was at a hotel in Galveston this morning after visiting a friend up there last night. I had to get up early for a job interview and get home by 0800 when it was supposed to start. So anyway, I don’t usually watch TV and especially not the news since it either gets me pissed off or depressed. This morning, they were interviewing one of the leaders of the fast food workers strike. He said they were actually ALREADY OFFERED $14/hour! They turned it down???!! This is for flipping burgers! Basically a low skilled, entry level job. The TV interviewer also mentioned that they wanted to interview more people for the show but they could only find 2 (!) that spoke English and so they had a major issue with communication. The strikers reasoning was that “they can afford it”. Well, yeah, they probably can afford it (especially if they are not going to pay their CEO and other bigwigs multi-million dollar salaries), but what else goes into the cost of labor at these places other than just salary? Do they get ANY benefits?? Training? Uniforms? Discounts? I don’t know, I’ve never worked in a fast food place. I did work in a small family owned restaurant as a dishwasher when I was a kid, I worked at a place in the mall that sold hot dogs when I first moved to Texas, I worked occasionally as a bartender when I couldn’t get offshore for whatever reason. That is my entire experience with that kind of work. I also worked as a head housekeeper at a big resort which didn’t pay much either even tho it was a supervisory position. I was able to survive on those low wages. I accepted the fact that my skills were not worth much to my employer and that when I learned to be more useful, I would be able to work my way up and earn more money (which I did). So, can somebody please explain to me why the people who work that kind of job should be able to demand that kind of money? Why don’t they just go find another job that pays better, has more benefits, whatever? Remember, this was HOUSTON where they were doing the TV interview I saw. Houston is in another of its periodic booms at the moment. There are all kinds of places crying for workers, especially offshore, where they DO pay good money, even for relatively unskilled labor. I just don’t get it, what do they think they’re going to accomplish? They get more pay and everybody else will too, and EVERYTHING will go up in price as well, its called inflation! The laws of unintended consequences are bound to strike here and the strikers will be worse off than they are now (along with the rest of us).
I was just in an interesting facebook discussion this morning that touched on some of this. I like the point they made in this article that the relationship between a business and its employees is supposed to be SYMBIOTIC.
No one should get paid more than they are worth to the business, neither regular employees nor big wigs and CEOs. I find it really hard to believe than any CEO can bring over 500 TIMES the worth of any other employee to any company. I’m sure there are exceptions, like when the CEO is the inventor of a product, or they founded the company, but most of them look like they just do the job anyone with a business background could do. Just like the people ‘we’ elect as president of the country don’t really do it all, they depend on their advisers and all the people who work under them to make them look good (if possible). We don’t insist they have experience as president or a track record since we innately KNOW that is the truth.