I ran across a story at The Jawa Report that is a little old but I had not read before. It’s about Hershey shutting down a plant in Oakdale, California and selling off the plant and adjacent land. Apparently they employed up to 750 back in the 90’s and the final 575 will be gone by January. They are also the biggest employer in Oakdale. In addition to this one they are restructuring and closing five other plants in the U.S. and Canada this year. Apparently it is more profitable to make chocolate in Mexico.
Politics
The Minimum Wage Increase…
…or How my government gave me an involuntary PAY CUT.
July 24th the new Federal Minimum Wage goes from 5.15 to 5.85 an hour. At the same time we, like most companies around the united states will be raising our prices to compensate for it. As far as my employees go it indirectly effects them. Nobody that works for us makes minimum wage except during the first week of training but since their (and my) cost of living is about to be jacked up everywhere, they are all effectively taking a pay cut. The folks that make, for instance, $7 an hour certainly aren’t getting a pay raise any time soon and now that I have explained how this shit works to most of them they are entirely unhappy with the new law. The truth hurts.
The tipped minimum wage isn’t changing at all. It is currently $2.13 an hour and most of the waitresses that work for me make about a dollar an hour more anyway, plus tips. I would say that most of them average between $7 and $15 an hour depending on what kind of job they do and how busy we are. Like any other sales position in the world what you make is related to what kind of job you do.
America NOT Founded Upon Christianity…
I found this at DRC’s site, who in turn got it from Tammy and she is right in that it does need to be repeated and often.
In a recent Journal & Courier article, an attendee of a local gathering in observance of the National Day of Prayer alleged, “Our nation was founded on biblical principles.”
To the extent that our Founding Fathers had any religious affiliation at all, it was a tepid embracing of the philosophy of deism, a popular system of thought at the time. Jefferson, Franklin, Paine, among many others, held deist, rather than Christian, religious beliefs.
The two documents upon which our country was actually founded — i.e., the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States — contain not a word about Christianity, Christian principles, the Bible or Jesus Christ. Neither is there any mention of the Ten Commandments, heaven, prayer or being saved.
In 1797, the Treaty of Tripoli, negotiated by none other than George Washington, declared that “the government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.” Congress unanimously approved the text of this treaty, and John Adams signed it.
Mandatory church affiliation, among other factors, led to the establishment of the term a “wall of separation between church and state,” allowing, at each citizen’s discretion, freedom of religion or freedom from religion.
The phrase “under God” was added to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954, and our national motto became “In God We Trust” in 1956 in response to USSRs’ so-called “godless Communists.” It is historically incorrect to claim that America was founded upon Christianity.
Indeed, it was quite the opposite.
Randall S. Smith
Rossville
Help Save Internet Radio
I saw some news reports on this and have already signed a petition as well as sent letters to my congressmen but I received this email today and felt like it was important enough to post. Even if you don’t listen to Internet radio, this is an important issue and you should head on over and do what you can. Thanks
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Rosie Shows Why She’s a Surrender Monkey
Just checking out some of the sites this morning and over at Blue Star Chronicles I came across this post: Rosie’s Flying a Flag and Backtracking. Apparently Rosie has a new post up at her blog backpedaling from her support for all of the 9/11 conspiracy wackos.
9/11 affected me deeply, as I know it did many Americans. The falling of the twin towers served to remind me that many of the assumptions Americans have about their lives are rooted in false feelings of security. In light of this reminder, I have begun doing exactly what this country, at its best, allows for me to do: inquire. Investigate. America is great in…
The whole post is up over at BSC and you can also check it out at Rosie O’Donnell’s (sp?) site as well. Comments are closed. I suppose whe doesn’t want any of her wacky readers calling her out for the chicken-shit she is. Now I certainly don’t have anything against stepping back from a certain view and changing your tune when you are wrong. When something is wrong it’s wrong but it this case it is obviously wrong from the start so if you are going to spout idiotic convictions you should at least stand by them. 
History, Part 1
I find it interesting that the older I get, the more “history” that I see. When I was young I used to sort of envy my great-grandmother. She was born in 1883, so had seen all kinds of changes in her life. Things coming into common usage. Automobiles. Airplanes. Telephones. Televisions. Great wars. WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam among others.
What got me thinking about it, was that I came across a short post that I put up on April 2nd, 2005. Pope John Paul II had died. The post itself was nothing major or ground shaking, just a quick observation that a religious leader had passed away. My wife’s family is Catholic so it means a bit more to them than it does to me. The Pope is just another guy to me. Yeah, one with influence over millions of people world-wide in many different countries, but just another guy. The Pope has a lot less influence over politics and other things than he used to though. I think that a lot of people have become jaded about organised religion. Not nessecarily God or anything, but religion itself.
My personal opinion is that it’s all a crock of shit anyway, but that’s my opinion and we all know about opinions. Not only that but I would never deign to force my opinions on anybody else. My daughter for instance, loves to go to church, loves Jesus and all that other stuff that goes along with it. When she talks about it you can just about see my son’s eyes bug out of his head because he has a lot of the same beliefs as I do but he has a much harder time minding his own business and holding his tongue.
Oh yeah, I was talking about history, not religion. I’ve seen eight presidencies since I was born. Some good, some bad, some laughable. I have seen the public’s respect for the office slowly erode away, particularly over the last 15 years. No longer is it President Bush. Now it is Mr Bush or Mr Clinton. By god, whether you like them or not, they are the President of the United States and the office needs to be shown respect whether the men that hold it respect it or not. The mainstream media is guilty of it as are both sides of the political equation. That just depends on who is holding office at the time as to who shows the least amount of respect.
I have also seen eight Georgia Governors as well. Although I have visited many states I have always lived in Georgia and love it here. I have seen many changes as well. The area north of Atlanta where I grew up has changed immensely. I grew up in the Sandy Springs and Roswell area and when I was a kid there were all kinds of dirt roads and “country” areas. You would be hard put to find a dirt road in the area now.
I had some other stuff that I wanted to add, but I have kind of lost my train of though, thus the Part 1 in the title. Maybe I will come back to it later.
Trackposted to Perri Nelson’s Website, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Mark My Words, third world county, stikNstein… has no mercy, basil’s blog, DragonLady’s World, Pirate’s Cove, The Bullwinkle Blog, Dumb Ox Daily News, Right Voices, and LaTogaStrappata®, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
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Useless?
Not completely, but I am pretty much in a non-posting mood this morning. I stayed up too late last night. We watched the season premier for one of the few shows that I watch on TV, 24. For some reason, even though 90% of the stuff is just incredulous, I still enjoy it. Last night was no different. I did get a good laugh though, right about the time that Jack Bauer ripped into the jugular of one of his captors with his teeth to escape. All I could think of was “Lost Boys”.
After TV I read until a bit after 11PM, well after I should have been asleep which is why I am feeling crappy this morning. I should be finished with One Bullet Away this afternoon if I get a chance to read at all today.
Apparently Barzan Hassan and Awad Bandar were hanged right before I went to bed last night. Barzad was Saddam Hussein’s half-brother and the former chief of his secret police and Awad was the former chief judge.
It’s supposed to start getting back down into the 30’s here at night tomorrow. This is some weird damn weather. It’s been in the high 60’s to mid 70’s the last two afternoons. I’m ready to get winter over with but I am just waiting for the other shoe to drop. As soon as I get out and do something in the yard, we’ll get ice or snow. Just fricking weird.
Damn, gotta get me one of these for my rear view mirror.
$24.95 for the Dope on a Rope. Damn, they even have a Jesus action figure. Oh crap. I could have some fun with these guys.
There’s a big deal going on at work right now about monster.com. I have had my resume there for several years, but haven’t updated it in quite some time. Apparently one of the recruiters, or some nosy bastard at the corporate office discovered that several people in management with my company had theirs up, and they were updated and actively searching for new jobs. Apparently about half of the management team in the area a bit closer to Atlanta from me has theirs up, and the have been told that they HAVE to take them down. Damn. I don’t particularly want to get involved in this little brouhaha, but it would really piss me off if they demanded that I take my resume down. The fact is though, that even though I have been with them for twenty years, if the right job came along, with the right $$$, I would probably jump on it, but unfortunately tech jobs at my level of education pay about half what I make now, so I have no interest in looking for one, and I am not interested in working for any other restaurant. Most of them pay less, have less benefits, and are certainly not as financially stable as my company. If we shut the doors to our restaurants right now we could continue to pay everyone, including our hourly associates, for about a year.
The wife turns 40 this week. Everyone get their asses over there and wish her a happy birthday.
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Hopefully this Gentleman Will Die in Prison…
…even if it does mean more terrorist attacks.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/12/14/rahman.health/index.html
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The Pope’s Address
The only reason I am posting this is because I wanted to have a permanent copy of it, and this seemed like a good place for it. I read Pope Benedict’s address last week when all of the furor was just getting started and really didn’t find much that was untrue in it. Still not sure why they are so getting bent out of shape about it except for the fact that sometimes people get really pissed off when they hear the truth.
If you want to read it at the Vatican’s web site, you can find it here. You will find it in entirety in the extended entry.
APOSTOLIC JOURNEY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
TO MÜNCHEN, ALTÖTTING AND REGENSBURG
(SEPTEMBER 9-14, 2006)
MEETING WITH THE REPRESENTATIVES OF SCIENCE
LECTURE OF THE HOLY FATHER
Aula Magna of the University of Regensburg
Tuesday, 12 September 2006
Just some general web surfing bullshit
At least the US is being straightforward and honest when we didn’t sign the Kyoto treaty, unlike most of the participating countries. Thanks, LL. I also came across an almost unbelievable article about a guy who called in with a dead family member, more than once (and the KID wasn’t dead). Fucker.
Mel Gibson apologizes to the Jews.
Read about the Hit-and-Run Grannies. I know that this is pretty serious and all, but for some reason I am laughing my ass off.
I admit it. I am a big Harry Potter fan. I am eagerly awaiting the last book in the series. I am certainly not a literary critic, but I have been reading SciFi and Fantasy novels since I was five and have always been in love with them. Stephen King, John Irving, and J.K. Rowling got together for a charity fund-raiser and there is a bit of discussion about the final book here
What a fucking maroon..When showing your stolen ID, make sure that the person you are showing it to doesn’t resemble the picture (or have the same name).
AOL finally has a beta version that work under Windows Vista. Good deal. Yeah, I still have AOL. I use the excuse that my account is my grandmother’s only internet access (which is true), but the real deal is that I have had the same email account for 14 years. I use it for 95% of any transactions I make on the internet, and am loathe to give it up. I did read over at CNN the other day that Time-Warner is considering making their aol.com email addresses free, which would be nice. I might have to set up my grandmother with something else, but then again, maybe I will just keep paying for it.
Another article about Castro is here. Nothing new, I guess they are just trying to keep it alive in the news cycle. What I found interesting is that when all this was announced, President Bush was in Miami to talk about the US economy. The US Mission in Cuba finally got power back today after not having it since June 5th. Damn, and I thought I was hot after driving for 20 minutes. Redstate and Val Prieto comment on the fact that the announcement was made AFTER the surgery, not before. Hadn’t thought about that yet, but it’s possible that Castro is in really bad shape or we might never have even known.
Is there anyone out there that does not know to BLOW OUT THE FUCKING FIRE before drinking flaming alcohol? Apparently this stupid bitch doesn’t and is suing Bacardi as a result. Snakes.
Here’s and article about Metallica finally allowing some of their music to be sold on iTunes. It mentions the fact that The Beatles and Led Zeppelin still aren’t being sold, but doesn’t say anything about the other holdout that I would love to see, AC/DC.
I have a lot of respect for Jimmy Carter as a great humanitarian, but he was a terrible president, and he still doesn’t have a clue about politics, particularly politics in the Middle East. His article for the Washington Post “Stop the Band-Aid Treatment” can be found at the link. He has some good points but the fact is that Hezbollah is hiding among the civilian population of Lebanon and Israel is defending itself. It is a tragedy and unfortunate that civilians are being killed, but if Britain or the US had turned pussy during WWII and NOT fire bombed Dresden, or we had not nuked japan, the war would NOT have stopped as fast and the casualties would have been much worse. I would love to see all of the current conflicts stopped without any further death, innocent or otherwise, but it ain’t gonna happen.
Elisson decided to post a picture from the Vman’s recent vacation. WARNING -DON’T click if you have eaten recently.
That’s enough for now. Chris and Stephanie are both at work until after 9pm, so I need to get off my ass and fix the girls something to eat. I did have my employee meeting this afternoon and may post a bit about it later.
Oops. Fucked up my tags and had to repost.
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