A Proposal to Balance the Federal Budget

A new tax should be levied against all churches, synagogues, mosques and temples. It will take a Constitutional Amendment to enact it. Let’s call it the Evolution Tax.

After all, shouldn't religions pay for the right to keep their people in the dark?

Public Sector Jobs

I looked up the BLS statistics for median pay rates for state and municipal workers. Their pay rates aren't all that great. The police were at the top at 27 bucks an hour. Highway maintenance workers were at 17 bucks an hour, and clerks were at 12. The median salary for teachers is about 41K per year.

In light of this information, I can only conclude that the Republicans are out to crush whatever is left of the middle class.

But I don't do real porn! (Why Google AdSense Bites Donkey Balls)

The following is a message I received through my AdSense account. I sent in an appeal, but I haven't received any response. If you read the body of the message, you'll see that Google doesn't allow any mention of sexual topics, even for health reasons. It seem kind of two-faced when you consider that a search for some shabby nastiness at Google.com will get ads for vibrators and lotions and other seedy enterprises. So, Google is two-faced, hypocritical, and prone to censorship. No wonder they kissed Chinese ass!


Despite my use of naughty words and nasty situations, there is usually a point, or some daunting question, when I write about sexual topics. But I guess Google considers all "adult" topics to be prurient in the end.

Google AdSense ad serving has been disabled to jeffsomething.com
This message was sent from a notification-only email address that does not accept incoming email. Please do not reply to this message.<br> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br> <br> Hello,<br> <br> While reviewing your account, we noticed that you are currently displaying Google ads in a manner that is not compliant with our policies. For instance, we found violations of AdSense policies on pages such as http://www.jeffsomething.com/2010/12/double-penetration.html. Please note that this URL is an example and that the same violations may exist on other pages of your website.<br> <br> As stated in our program policies, AdSense publishers are not permitted to place Google ads on pages with adult or mature content. This may include some treatments of topics such as sexual health and sexual tips or advice.<br> <br> As a result, we have disabled ad serving to the site.<br> <br> Your AdSense account remains active. However, we strongly suggest that you take the time to review our program policies (https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/answer.py?answer=48182&amp;stc=aspe-2pp-en ) to ensure that all of your remaining pages are in compliance.<br> <br> Please note that we may disable your account if further violations are found in the future.<br> <br> Sincerely,<br> <br> The Google AdSense Team<br> <br> Issue ID# 1645639<br> ----------------<br> For more information regarding this warning email, please visit our Help Center: https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=113058&amp;stc=aspe-ai4-en

Disingenuous

Once upon a time I worked for a division of a large American company. This large company sold the division to another company. That company is owned by a foreign company, which is owned by a really large foreign company.

When the company I worked for was purchased, the new owners said our location was going to be the global headquarters for our product line. Then we got a bad financial report. Our division wasn’t making enough money to pay for the purchase of our division.

This struck me as odd. Rather than expect a good return on investment, our new owners expected us to repay the principle on our purchase price. We had to pay the parent company back for purchasing our division.

We were profitable, but not profitable enough to satisfy our owners. As a result, we had a layoff. Those of us who survived shook off the bad news and went back to work to make the division more profitable, but despite our best efforts, we again got a bad earnings report. This bad report wasn’t the result of anything we did, or failed to do. It was the result of some externality, but we still had to do something, so we had another layoff.

This was becoming a pattern. Our division was like Shrinky Dinks. That is the children’s toy that shrinks when heat is applied. Any application of economic heat to our division resulted in another round of downsizing.

Our division had almost seven hundred employees when I hired into it. After six, or so, layoffs, we had about a hundred and twenty employees when I received my pink slip. I was kind of proud that I had survived so long, but relieved to be “let go” at this point because the “fun level” of working at our division was low… very low. The division lasted another two years at our location, then a few remaining employees were relocated to the parent company’s headquarters, and our building was left vacant.

The parent company still makes our product. They use American vendors to produce pilot runs of new products. When the production kinks are worked out, the production is then moved to Mexico or China depending on whether or not the product has to be NAFTA compliant.

Rather than becoming the global headquarters for our product line, we got globalized. Looking back on this sad, boring history, it seems as though the parent company’s intentions were not honorable from the start. I harbor suspicions. As a result, I have avoided buying products marketed by the parent company and its parent companies. It’s not so easy. The multinational company that is at the top of this pyramid owns a lot of companies.

This morning I was watching TV and an ad for a home improvement store came on. One of the featured products was from the parent company that exported my job to Mexico. In the ad, the announcer makes a point of mentioning that the featured product is produced in an American town in an eastern state. It struck me as a bit disingenuous.