I think Danny will forgive me, I really think of him as family as he has woken me up most Saturday mornings for years.

Daniel Louis Schorr (August 31, 1916 – July 23, 2010

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Schorr

This weeks column talks about jobs, politics and human relationships and this guy is an IT consultant.

Misdirected anger

By Bob Lewis | July 19, 2010
Topics: Business Ethics, Industry Commentary, Leadership | 3 Comments »

Why is everyone shouting at each other these days?

I think I know why: It’s nothing more than pent up resentment over how bad managers have treated people for decades. We can’t get back at the managers, so we’re redirecting the anger.

For example:

Assigning blame

Ever have a boss who, when something went wrong, mostly cared whose fault it was?

Say it was a server crash that caused an hour-long outage. It crashed because the power supply shorted out. The recovery took that long because the troubleshooters needed 10 minutes to figure out that the problem was, in fact, the power supply, 5 minutes to replace it, and 45 minutes to boot the server and verify it was operating properly.

The server wasn’t part of a fail-over cluster because the business couldn’t afford a fail-over cluster.

Your boss’s response? “Why don’t you and your team take responsibility when something goes wrong? Somebody screwed up. I want to know who it was.”

There really are two countries within the USA. Maybe the best thing is to break the country up into two countries.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/08599200394400

If Sarah Palin is for real, as in really going to run for President, is this country for real?

Heard this on CNN this morning and had to try to verrify:

Pennsylvania banker who was laid off after three decades with the same firm. He had sent out 1,500 resumes and landed just three interviews and no offers. Perry suggested the client focus on a dozen companies, and find and contact former employees through LinkedIn or Facebook, letting them know he was interested in working for the firm and asking if they would be willing to discuss its issues and challenges.

The banker then crafted a cover letter outlining how he had solved similar issues in his career, and sent it with a one-page resume in a Starbucks coffee cup through Fedex, so the target would have to sign for it. Within 30 minutes of receiving delivery confirmation by email, the banker called and asked if the recipient would meet him for coffee to talk about how he could help the company.

"The whole point is to get them to agree to have coffee, not an interview," Perry says. "An interview request automatically makes the (recipient) uncomfortable because there's an expectation of a job offer." The banker sent the coffee cup to 10 companies, got eight interviews and six offers in five weeks.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/14/sports/baseball/14steinbrenner.html?sr...

Ernö Rubik, the inventor of the Rubik's Cube, was born in a hospital air raid shelter in Budapest, Hungary, on this date in 1944. From the Rubik's Cube, Rubik went on to invent the Rubik's Snake, the Rubik's Triamid and the Rubik's Magic Folding Puzzle.

Quote: "Our whole life is solving puzzles." — Ernö Rubik

Are we serious?

Total global wealth stands at $125 trillion, more or less. The total world market for financial derivatives stands at $700 trillion. Does anyone else see something terribly wrong with this picture?

This is from an IT column not that i read to bond with the IT folk here at Hechtmail, but because it has so many insights into life and the way the world works.

You can read the whole column here, complete with hyperlinks:

http://www.issurvivor.com/ i am referring to the 20100712 column.

Peace, remember peace is how we make it,
Here within your reach
If you're big enough to take it.

I don't ask for much, I only want your trust,
And you know it don't come easy.
And this love of mine keeps growing all the time,
And you know it don't come easy.

http://www.dayjohnmetpaul.com/

A great book as well

Maybe some that have no clue and teach hate will not make it our National Anthem, or for that matter the more Famous This Land is Your Land, but we can live the lyrics:

PHIL OCHS:POWER and GLORY

Come and take a walk with me thru this green and growing land
Walk thru the meadows and the mountains and the sand
Walk thru the valleys and the rivers and the plains
Walk thru the sun and walk thru the rain

Here is a land full of power and glory
Beauty that words cannot recall
Oh her power shall rest on the strength of her freedom
Her glory shall rest on us all (on us all)

From Colorado, Kansas, and the Carolinas too
Virginia and Alaska, from the old to the new
Texas and Ohio and the California shore
Tell me, who could ask for more?

Yet she's only as rich as the poorest of her poor
Only as free as the padlocked prison door
Only as strong as our love for this land
Only as tall as we stand

But our land is still troubled by men who have to hate
They twist away our freedom & they twist away our fate
Fear is their weapon and treason is their cry
We can stop them if we try

Why did it take the Onion so long to nail this, and what can we do with folks that really think like this:

Area Man Passionate Defender Of What He Imagines Constitution To Be November 14, 2009 | ISSUE 46•26 ISSUE 45•46

ESCONDIDO, CA—Spurred by an administration he believes to be guilty of numerous transgressions, self-described American patriot Kyle Mortensen, 47, is a vehement defender of ideas he seems to think are enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and principles that brave men have fought and died for solely in his head.
and: "Right there in the preamble, the authors make their priorities clear: 'one nation under God,'" said Mortensen, attributing to the Constitution a line from the Pledge of Allegiance, which itself did not include any reference to a deity until 1954. "Well, there's a reason they put that right at the top." full article at http://www.theonion.com/articles/area-man-passionate-defender-of-what-he...

My Dad sent me this, this morning:
This morning some reporter on NPR spoke of President's to RAY-ceen.

Does anyone out your way use that?

All Things Considered speaks of RAH-cine, which is the way I always heard it and used it.

Much love

My response:
actually yes, that is the way a lot of natives in KringleLand say it

In the United States, kringles are hand-rolled from Danish pastry dough (wienerbrød dough) that has been rested overnight before shaping, filling, and baking. Many layers of the flaky dough are layered, then shaped in an oval. After filling with fruit, nut, or other flavor combinations, the pastry is baked and iced.

Racine, Wisconsin, has historically been a center of Danish-American culture. Kringle and Danish culture are an important part of Racine's cultural identity, and several local bakeries make and ship hundreds of thousands of kringles each year.[1]

from the wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kringle

This is just family noise, I hope some find it of interest.

Lately I have found myself full of excessive emotion. Breaking down in tears at the wonderment of life. The Thursday before last I went with a friend to see The Wausau Community Theater production of Rent. Yes Peter, the cute 26 year old blond moving to Denver in two weeks. This past Wednesday night at an open mike I greeted her with the line "Five Hundred Twenty Five Hundred Six Hundred Minutes," a line from the song "Seasons of Love, from the Musical, the number by the way of how many minutes there are in a year. The gal stood there and sang the entire song for me. I started to cry.

Over the past 30 years I seem to have become more and more emotional every year. When I start to cry at sappy stuff like that, I find myself saying "Damn you Mom," for this is where i got the emotions from. This morning I didn't break down in tears, but shed one or two watching a piece on "NewsHour" on the economic impact of LeBron James has on the City of Cleveland. I said wow one guy can have that much impact, amazing.

Then it came to me, prior to watching that piece not only would I have not been able to tell you what team "King James" played for, but I wouldn't have been certain that he was even a basketball player. It reminded me of a dinner conversation about 40 years ago when my Mom said something like "I don't care who Amos the Looser is, finish your vegetables," referring to Emerson Boozer. The tear or two I shed over how phenomenal James is turned to uncontrollable laughter.

I guess I am my Mother's Son.

Many of the contributors to this blog rail on me for working for a tiny phone company that is going to be gobbled up by one of the big boys.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2365260,00.asp
Is an article we were listed as one of the 10 small carriers with great phones. The article also mentioned that when you call a small companies service you are likely to get someone in the next county. I found that cute, because one of my sales pitches is:If you call 611 from a Cellcom phone you will get someone that speaks English as a first language, lives in Wisconsin, works for the company, which by the way happens to be the largest telecommunications company headquartered in Wisconsin, minutes before you can speak to a human being answering on a third party call center on the other side of the world.

Is it a memory lapse or is it Alzheimer's? If you can't remember what day it is, but it comes back to you later, you're probably having a "senior moment." If you can't remember what season it is, or where you are or how you got there, it may be a symptom of Alzheimer's disease. Mood swings and personality changes, having problems following or joining a conversation, continually repeating the same question and having trouble accomplishing simple daily tasks are all symptoms of Alzheimer's. The disease was named for Dr. Alois Alzheimer, born on this date in 1864, who was the first to publish findings connecting brain shrinkage and other physiological changes in the brain with memory loss, paranoia and difficulty speaking. Of course, if you're concerned or have questions about yourself or the behavior of someone close to you, consult your physician.

Quote: "As you get older three things happen. The first is your memory goes, and I can't remember the other two." — Norman Wisdom

Tom Friedman quotes a friends letter published in his hometown paper it needs wider circulation, that is why Friedman quoted it in todays column: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/13/opinion/13friedman.html?hp The Letter:I’d like to join in on the blame game that has come to define our national approach to the ongoing environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. This isn’t BP’s or Transocean’s fault. It’s not the government’s fault. It’s my fault. I’m the one to blame and I’m sorry. It’s my fault because I haven’t digested the world’s in-your-face hints that maybe I ought to think about the future and change the unsustainable way I live my life. If the geopolitical, economic, and technological shifts of the 1990s didn’t do it; if the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 didn’t do it; if the current economic crisis didn’t do it; perhaps this oil spill will be the catalyst for me, as a citizen, to wean myself off of my petroleum-based lifestyle. ‘Citizen’ is the key word. It’s what we do as individuals that count. For those on the left, government regulation will not solve this problem.

The Republicans: What's wrong with America's right | The Economist
Jun 11, 2010 ... America desperately needs a strong opposition. So it is sad to report that the American right is in a mess: fratricidal, ...
www.economist.com/node/16321546 - 11 hours ago - Cached

believe it or not our firewall prevents me from getting there, could someone send me the article to am@hechtmail.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/12/your-money/12money.html

The above is an article I found on line in the NYT, posted about 4:30 CDST(ZULU-5) so it will probably be in tomorrow's print edition. It points out that gasoline is a fungible commodity. Chances are quite good that BP will make more money if you fill your car up with gas at a no name gas station, superstore than you will if you fill it up at a station labeled BP.

Here is a simple fact. You may not care about Wausau, but the entire country is in a similar situation. The largest gasoline retailer in North Central Wisconsin brands most of its 25 stores BP, just a few are labeled Mobil. The family that runs this business has given more to Downtown Wausau, and the Arts in Wausau than any other family. A pretty big claim since Wausau is Home to many multi million dollar foundations.

What we need is a Patriot Surcharge on Gasoline and we need it now. If you want to punish BP figure out how to drive less. Lets not finance both sides of our armed conflicts. Lets not as a nation go further in to debt by handing our money over to terrorists.

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/t/talking+heads/once+in+a+lifetime_20135070.html

http://www.fixcongressfirst.org/ little else matters until we have campaign finance reform!

The Tea Party movement has taken over much of the Republican Party and if you are not afraid, you aren't paying attention. The following article made me crack up, because they are so funny. Oh wait, they are not trying to be funny, but they are pretty scary:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/republicans-and-teabagger_b_5649...

Is this what W meant when he said never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake?

It has been attributed to both President Jackson and Jefferson that one should have pity on someone who can only spell a word one way, but even this poor speller, myself found this link all too funny:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pargon/sets/72157623594187379/

To quote the Vice President "This is a big F$#@ing Deal!

Forcing out Dave Obey

What do we know about the retirement of Rep. David Obey (D-Wis.)? Why would one of the most powerful men in Congress, elected in 1969, in a district that went for the Obama-Biden ticket, bail out of reelection? Republicans point to the campaign of Sean Duffy, a telegenic (literally) district attorney who raised a lot of money, built a following among national conservatives and, according to everything I'm hearing, was giving Obey a real battle in his internal polls. the rest of the article at:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/right-now/2010/05/forcing_out_dave_obey...

http://progressive.org/mpholstein050310.html

worth a read! The comments of one of the mothers who lost her son 40 years ago today.