Comments on: …and this graph shows the growing number of Californians

By: Marekatt

Marekatt — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 23:27:19 +0000

Like Norway.

By: rumblestrip

rumblestrip — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 19:32:52 +0000

Like Cali is the only place that has beautiful areas? Go somewhere else, and you will find the beauty WITHOUT the smog and crazy drivers

By: DeathWyrmNexus

DeathWyrmNexus — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 05:19:06 +0000

Wow, the troll isn’t even trying hard and has everybody eating from the hand… Tsk tsk…

By: viking gal

viking gal — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 02:29:22 +0000

I would certainly not claim that unions are the be-all and end-all. They involve humans, so…!
But employment laws are only as good as enforcement. Just look at the leather factory in Fall River, MA, which was raided by the INS in 2007–300 illegal immigrants were imprisoned, with a major scandal because many had small children who could not be picked up from day care with their parents transported to Texas. But ANYway, the point is that it turns out this factory–who was doing work for the US military–was running sweatshop conditions, with ridiculous rules which enabled them to fine the workers down below their $7 an hour salary. (link to Wall Street Journal article)
Also, OSHA staffing has been significantly cut over the last several years (if not longer?), which frees unethical companies to skirt safety rules.
As I said, I’m not a union apologist, unions can serve as a balance against unethical employers or managers. IF the union is doing its job properly.

By: froofrou

froofrou — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 02:19:45 +0000

Honestly, not to knock the unions, but they had their place back in the day. They truly revolutionized the way industry works, kept kids from working, made working safer and better for all. But really, aren’t employment laws (most of which were brought about by union involvement) enough to protect your average worker? All of the experience I’ve had with unions is that they meddle and make it harder for a company to do its job. I think they were relevant back when people were cattle, but they are holding a lot of people and companies back today.
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Anecdotally, we have several plants in the company I work for that are unionized. Last year we had several jobs that we wanted to turn into upgraded positions that included better pay. The reason behind this switch was so that this particular job (which took more skill than other jobs on the line) would incentivize people and encourage them in the job, as well as give them more money for doing a slightly harder job. The unionized plants fought the change, saying that it was unfair to make people bid on this job instead of paying everyone the wage, regardless of skill level. To this day, our non-unionized plants pay more for this particular job than our unionized plants, because the unions would not agree to the condition that the job was to be bid on and was performance based as far as keeping it.

By: viking gal

viking gal — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 02:14:44 +0000

That, and of course, “boobies!”

By: viking gal

viking gal — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 02:11:08 +0000

Rasputin? Is that you?

By: viking gal

viking gal — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 02:09:58 +0000

Not to mention safe working conditions. What are they thinking of!!!!1!1!!elebenty!!!

By: viking gal

viking gal — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 02:08:41 +0000

Too bad that more of them don’t look like 7 of nine!!

By: PortlandMark

PortlandMark — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 02:06:58 +0000

Darn unions. Always standing in opposition to those nice multi-national corporations, asking for a stupid living wage, and that darn health care…

By: PortlandMark

PortlandMark — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:01:25 +0000

Rowdy Roddy Piper was in my restaurant last year with his daughter after her graduation. He was such a down home, Levis and flannel shirt kind of guy I didn’t even realize I was talking to a “celebrity” until my co-workers started crowding around after he left.

“What’s he like?”

“What did you talk about?”

“Did you get his autograph?”

I was all, “Nice enough”, “I asked him if he enjoyed his meal”, and “No, of course not… why, is he someone famous?!?”

By: brak

brak — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:52:26 +0000

It’s not NICE to mess with the Legion of Doom! Anyone remember the Pit Bulls from ECW days? ECW may have been the best promotion ever. I mean….what’s better than putting some poor bastard through three tables? That’s right….set the tables on FIRE. Lordy those guys made me laugh.

By: Billy

Billy — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:30:20 +0000

A dictionary troll? That sounds scary! Or maybe you should use a comma next time.

By: dissimilitude

dissimilitude — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:54:18 +0000

Good point, Eric.

By: dissimilitude

dissimilitude — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:53:24 +0000

Hmmm….maybe I could be a dictionary troll:

re·dac·tion NOUN:

1. The act or process of editing or revising a piece of writing; preparation for publication.
2. An edited work; a new edition or revision.

By: dissimilitude

dissimilitude — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:51:13 +0000

OMG….Eric, I spent a miserable three months in 1982 working for Sears selling extended warranty protection on the phone! That job suuuuuucked!

By: IndieTarheel

IndieTarheel — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:41:52 +0000

HA!

By: Kelto

Kelto — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 04:31:15 +0000

I would only engage her if she says something seriously offensive. Otherwise, as much as I don’t *like* her opinion, she’s entitled to it.

By: rws

rws — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 04:19:18 +0000

You are skum. Got do nasty things to yourself. Sit on sharp pointy things.

By: Maxwell Silverhammer

Maxwell Silverhammer — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 03:28:36 +0000

In the words of Dave Chapelle from Men in Tights “I forgot man.. I… I already got one.”

By: Cowlifornia

Cowlifornia — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 01:33:33 +0000

Seeing how he pulls numbers out his arsehat, i’m not surprised. Then threatening to cut schools and public services FIRST when we should fund those FIRST.

Him, and the Legislators make me sick.

good lol though

By: Cowlifornia

Cowlifornia — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 01:29:53 +0000

Well, he started out fine. Then the unions got to him. Now he’s just another puppet.

By: Deep Thought

Deep Thought — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:23:15 +0000

AAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.

By: Eric-in-STL

Eric-in-STL — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:22:18 +0000

Yes. Never chop your willy for a girl. Ever.

By: froofrou

froofrou — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:21:22 +0000

An article for your reading pleasure

By: Eric-in-STL

Eric-in-STL — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:21:12 +0000

“My tubby husband here LOVES the cock!”–2 point reference.

By: Eric-in-STL

Eric-in-STL — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:19:36 +0000

No, no, she said dictionary troll, not wiki troll.

By: Eric-in-STL

Eric-in-STL — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:18:33 +0000

What’s a dictionary troll?

By: Eric-in-STL

Eric-in-STL — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:17:33 +0000

I think it probably would have been better to put this in the thread with Anniee’s gorilla comments. As it is, it does look like we’re picking on her when she hasn’t even been on this thread that I’ve seen.

By: Eric-in-STL

Eric-in-STL — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:10:04 +0000

I’m sorry. He’s past the 90 day return policy. You can try sending him back to the manufacturer, but it’ll take about two weeks to get him replaced or repaired. If you had purchased the special protection plan when you bought him, you could have brought him back to the store any time in the next 3 years to swap him out with a brand new one, no questions asked. Maybe you’ll think next time you pass on the extended warranty, huh?

(OMG, I’ve been working at Sears way too long.)

By: froofrou

froofrou — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:07:19 +0000

To me, it made perfect sense

By: eddiepscetti

eddiepscetti — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 23:59:58 +0000

I lived in California back when Reagan was governor and say what you will, the state was incredibly prosperous. Then some years down the track with Jerry Moonbeam Brown it all went to sh*t. What really killed the state was back in the 80’s when they started taxing the hell out of Big Business and they all moved out. Aerospace in So Cal came to a grinding halt.
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The best one though was when the legislature enacted a ’snack tax’. The taxpayers said, “I don’t think so!” and revolted. That particular law lasted 6 months before it was repealed.

By: eddiepscetti

eddiepscetti — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 23:53:59 +0000

I still like Mick Foley. I mean that guy is your atypical muscle-head and sure wasn’t afraid to take some abuse. On top of that, the guy was just so butt ugly how could you NOT like him?

By: Eric-in-STL

Eric-in-STL — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 23:52:44 +0000

I don’t regret voting for him.

By: Meh

Meh — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 23:34:06 +0000

What was it john hodgman said? “Remember, this was a placed settled by actors, and before that by a bunch of farm hands looking for shiny rocks in water”

By: froofrou

froofrou — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 23:32:06 +0000

People are denied things all the time by private religious and non-religious organizations. It’s the private part of the name that’s the important part. Just like excluding women from the Elk’s Lodge or the Masons. We don’t persecute them for that.

By: eddiepscetti

eddiepscetti — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 23:22:10 +0000

It taught him a lesson though..

By: Craptain Failcon

Craptain Failcon — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 23:18:16 +0000

Git to da choppa! Naw!

Sorry couldnt resist.

By: Deep Thought

Deep Thought — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 22:26:58 +0000

IKR!!!

By: The Troll

The Troll — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 22:21:06 +0000

And it’s really fun to see people get so pissed off about it.

By: froofrou

froofrou — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 22:19:38 +0000

PAYGO is easy to get around, as is evidenced by the Clinton Administration. I have a story at Politifact linked to show how it can be easily circumnavigated by those with ulterior motives. You know, like Congress.

By: DA

DA — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 22:18:51 +0000

…good one…

By: bodo

bodo — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:54:03 +0000

No, mostly just oboe these days.

By: wallFly

wallFly — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:25:41 +0000

really? i thought it was one cock, two cocki, three cockee and anything more is a caucus of cock…

By: Jane St.Clair

Jane St.Clair — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:24:29 +0000

Awwww, that’s so sad.

By: bodo

bodo — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:19:13 +0000

Well, I haven’t emptied the litter box yet today…

By: bodo

bodo — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:18:21 +0000

As I noted above in a different thread, entitlements are a problem (they are literally not allowed to re-allocate the money because certain allocations are sacrosanct).

By: Deep Thought

Deep Thought — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:06:23 +0000

VOILA!

By: dissimilitude

dissimilitude — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:05:33 +0000

But I’ve got my receipt for him and everything. Maybe I can just get an exchange?

By: bodo

bodo — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:05:21 +0000

One word for you: “entitlements”