BillSaysThis

I opened another instance of IE, created a new Blogger account and Blog*Space blog (like I would ever tell YOU the URL!), and published something there. Next, back to this window to see if it goes through.

Recently I posted about the Florida woman who is suing the State of Florida, which refuses to issue her a driver’s license unless she submits to having a full frontal photograph of her unveiled face taken. This woman is a good example of one end of the spectrum regarding cultural attitudes towards women, the Islamic point of view which seems to say that men can’t be trusted to control themselves unless women are covered from head to toe.

Today garret points us to the other end, an article on the treatment of women in Mexico, land of machismo, where few women report rapes and when they do the police ignore them, abuse them, or allow the men to buy their way out of punishment.

Just thought I would point out the contrast. Then again, how does that old saying go? Too much of anything is a bad thing?

My friends and I have often come around, during many a bitch session, have wheeled around to the concept of corporate loyalty. The boss says, “Hey, we have a ship date, can you work Saturdays for the next two months?” Or something similar, plenty of times, but of course we are salaried/exempt employees and expected to work however many hours needed to get the job done.

Or put up with BS bureaucratic procedures to do things related to work, like get reimbursed for expenses. Why the heck employees are expected to pay for the expenses on a business trip and then get reimbursed weeks or months later is beyond me. You all can think of similar examples of how employers expect us to put out for them.

Barbara Ehrenreich lays it on the line in her NY Times essay Two-Tiered Morality: “Only a person of unblemished virtue can get a job at Wal-Mart — a low-level job, that is — …It turns out, however, that Wal-Mart management doesn’t hold itself to the same standard of rectitude it expects from its low-paid employees.”

Yeah, so here’s a shock: the loyalty runs up but rarely down. I could point to my own situation, where my bosses eliminated my job last year just because I needed some time off to recover from the stress they’d put me through. But that would be crying over spilt milk. Instead, look at the many, many companies (including my former employer) who are requiring that employees take the three business days this week off, either as PTO or unpaid. That’s about a 2% cut in pay, right off the top, though the employer PR tries to spin it as just days off the employee needs a little push to take.

The one that takes the cake, though: what about the huge compensation packages the execs get, even when rank and file employees by the thousands are being laid off? Again, the PR machine is hard at work, claiming the executive pay is needed to keep such good people from jumping to another company. But but but!!!! If the so-called “other company” can afford it, how about letting them? Are the PR flacks trying to say that only one person can possibly run the company successfully? Even Microsoft, possibly the greatest example of a really large one man shop today, is doing fine with Bill Gates having stepped aside from running the company in favor of Steve Ballmer.

Of course, I don’t have a “real” job just now. If I ever do get hired again, keep a watch and see if I mouth off about the subject in any meaningful way then, ‘k?

[via Karl, a Java programmer with a social conscience]

Turns out that lovable president GW Bush himself appears to have played some financial shenanigans regarding stock he held in an oil company back in the days when he was just a lush and not a politician. Harkens Energy bought a money losing company called Spectrum 7–GWB was the CEO–and then hid its own losses with a transaction that the SEC ruled was phony and forced the company to restate its 1989 earnings. GWB sold a hunk of his Harkens stock before the news was made public and did not report this transaction for almost nine months.

An internal SEC memorandum concluded that Bush had broken the law but no charges were filed; since this occured when Daddy Bush was president, one can’t be too surprised. Asked about this business yesterday, our Fearless Puppet said “Everything I do is fully disclosed, it’s been fully vetted.” Yes George and if Daddy hadn’t been president at the time, you never would have been elected governor of Texas, much less president of these United States.

So then the question becomes, does it really matter any more to the non-fabulously wealthy citizen? If Bush and possibly Cheney can run amuck with no repercussion, hiring executives for the Administration from companies that have clearly bought and paid for the chance, do you and I even have a chance in hell to do anything about it? And the stock market appears to love all this terrific CEO hanky panky news too, doesn’t it?

The end comes and it is the Brasilieros running wild on the field, draped in their green and yellow flags, jumping for joy, and kneeling in prayer. Ronaldo showed everyone he’s recovered from the knee injuries and pressure that laid him low for four years, that the last final against France was not his true form, and at only 26 he has yet to see his full potential. Rivaldo and Cafu are a little older but Cafu especially would be brilliant to see in the next go round; there are many young players ready to come on and Big Phil made that point by standing Kaka at the substitute line in the last few seconds. Marcos was strong in goal, getting in front of a couple of rippers, doing what he needed.

If there was a man of the match for the Germans it was the defender Metzelder, only 21 years old, doing his best against the three R’s at the back and making it forward for some of his team’s best offensive opportunities but without enough of a goalscorer’s skills to make a difference. Khan made so few mistakes all tournament long, allowing only one goal before this match, and holding off the much better front line until injury and a weak back line made that too much to ask.

Brazil showed everyone why they are the best with this win. They came in after a weak qualifying round leading most to put them in the second tier behind France and Argentina; those two teams went home after the first round while the South Americans took the 11 pounds of gold and a clean sheet of seven wins.

Everybody Samba!

In the 79th minute, Kleberson sends a pass along the top of the 18 yard box, Rivaldo allowed the ball to go through his legs to Ronaldo, who took one touch to settle and then went all the way to the other side of the goal. Khan stretched out as long as he could but that wasn’t far enough as it rolled into the netting; the German goalie clearly seems to be hurt from an earlier collision. But Ronaldo has now tied the greatest scorer of all time and the South Americans seem sure to lift their fifth trophy.

Who we love?

Yes! Rivaldo takes a long left-footed blast, Khan blocks it but cannot control and Ronaldo is right there to slam it home! Ronaldo nets for his seventh goal of this tournament and 11th all time to leave him only one goal behind Pele on the Brazilian scoring sheet; unless Klose gets a hat trick in the last 20, Ronaldo will definitely take the Golden Shoe.

Brazil had the better shots on goal though Germany seemed more in control, with tighter marking, keeping Brazil from getting into rhythym. Neither team has been able to pass through the middle third; Germany has been passing back to Kahn and using his big boot while Brazil is getting long balls out of the back line over the top along with a couple of long runs by Lucio and Cafu. Italian Pierluigi Collina, four time FIFA referee of the year and no questions about quality or favoritism, showed with two early yellows that he wasn’t going to allow much though he did miss a clear dive by Ronaldinho.

Oliver Khan, as predicted, has been the difference so far with Germany missing Ballack and Brazil able to sneak through for several good shots by Kleberson and Ronaldo. If the German backline doesn’t get better in the back 18 yards, Khan won’t be enough by himself.

World Cup Blog asks – Where will you be watching the final? Me and the Sweet One plan on getting up at 4 a.m., downing the java, and enjoying the sight of Brazil’s flair and passion beating Germany’s sizeable technicians.

All the games that have been played, all the mess with scheduling, and you’d think that with only two games left the scheduling geniuses could do a decent job. But no! The third place match, which turned out to be a decent, interesting game, wasn’t available live, only delayed. 11 hours delayed here on the West Coast which made it impossible to not know the result. Between ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN Classic, they couldn’t find a two hour space to show it? Then do the tape delay thing if they want, too. What a bunch of morons!

Looking for a funny, sweet romantic comedy that doesn’t descend into treacle or formula? Then go see Nia Vardalos’ My Big Fat Greek Wedding and watch Vardalos and John Corbett (Sex and the City, The Visitor, Nothern Exposure) fall in love amidst the foils of family expectations. There are laughs big and small in the script written by Ms. Vardalos and the direction by Joel Zwick avoids the expected. Michael Constantine, who I haven’t seen in quite awhile, plays the Greek father who only wants to continue his family’s heritage and Lainie Kazan his wife who understands a daughter should find her own way, regardless of what the father says.

Don’t you hate that? – When you unplug one appliance to use another, forget to switch back after, and then try to use the first, forgetting the switch and then you wonder, why is my bagel not toasted?

So Arthur Anderson was found guilty, but their case was somewhat unique. The real crimes involved individuals in positions of trust enriching themselves by abusing that trust–are you listening, Andrew Fastow?–and the feds have filed their first case. The 3 Ex-Bankers Charged in Enron Scheme worked for National Westminster Bank and “were able to siphon off $7.3 million in income that belonged to their employer, the Justice Department alleges.” This sounds like the real meat to me and I expect the government to use it as a kind of Off-Broadway tryout, seeing which of the accumulated evidence gets admitted, which witnesses do best in front of a jury, which arguments go down best with judges, and only after this will we see brazen criminals like Fastow indicted. No need for speed here when what we want is the right result.

Okay, so Elton was singing about Marilyn Monroe (first) and Diana (the second time) and not Bill Gates’s suddenly disenfranchised older operating systems. And it wouldn’t be the dogs of society howling, it would would be the Linux fanatics laughing and corporate IT managers crying. But Scoble has the lowdown from the inside on the sayonara: after this Sunday (6/30/02), system vendors will no longer be allowed, contractually, to ship PC systems with any version of Windows other than some flavor of Windows XP installed. To paraphrase another great artist of the ’70s, “Buy XP or we’ll shoot this dog!”

Update: Joshua Allen, a Microsoft employee who blogs, comments indirectly on this topic in a post titled Programming Soviet. Unusual for Joshua, he misses this one like a homerun hitter whiffing on a changeup, and claims that people complaining about forced upgrades must misunderstand the situation. But, one wonders, what about the people who don’t want certain wonderful new features (*cough* product activation *cough*) in XP?

And Joshua, if you happen to read this, what about Palladium? Is Cringely so far off base?

Another sign of aging, they say, is going to more funerals than weddings, looking at the obituaries before the sports page. Well, glad to say, I’m not quite there yet but the people up ahead of me are getting closer. Today saw the passage from this plane of existence of Who bassist John Entwhistle, just one day before the first concert of the group’s US tour, at age 57 of an (alleged) heart attack in his sleep and Billboard editor-in-chief Timothy White, age 50, from a heart attack in his office.

I’ll never forget the original sound of Entwhistle’s pounding bass, especially in the early years of the group before fame went to Pete Townsend’s head, where John played more like a lead instrumentalist than just another rhythm picker. How about his vocals on “Boris the Spider”? And the few songs he ever wrote, like “Boris” and “My Wife” showed he had some real potential. For a long time, the driving sound, John’s plaintive vocals, and the near panic of the the lyrics made “My Wife” my favorite who tune. Later on, “Baba O’Riley” surpassed it for me but I still jump up and down playing air guitar the few times they play the song on the radio.

White was less well known to the general public but as an aspiring rock journalist back in the late ’70s and early ’80s, his writing (along with that of Cameron Crowe and Dave Marsh) made a real impression on me. I saw that you could be a fan of the music and let your love of the music show through but keep your articles professional and readable. Lester Bangs may have been more influential and possibly more acclaimed but he generally crossed the line (between fan and journalist) too many times. White left behind a wife and 10-year-old twin sons and my condolences go out to them.

The NY Times is reporting this morning on developments in a lawsuit in which a Muslim woman alleges that Lifting Veil for Photo ID Goes Too Far and violates her religious beliefs and her “reasonable expectation” of privacy. <Insert explective of disbelief of choice>! The point of having a photo on a driver’s license is so that a police officer or other official can quickly determine whether or not the driver is the person who was issued the license. Police don’t stop a driver unless they have a reason (generally, let’s not get into the bad cop thing) and in such cases identifying the driver is important and reasonable.

This woman’s lawyer claims that the full facial photo demand is “bogus” because his client offered DNA, fingerprints, or other data by which she could be identified. And is offering to supply the state of Florida and all police cars with the equipment necessary to match DNA or fingerprints on the spot? As far as I know, science fiction TV shows aside, there is no way to do this away from the lab or office so these identifying datum would not satisfy the situational requirement.

This lawyer further states that “his client should not be subjected to unreasonable restrictions simply because of her religion.” But that argument is sophistry: she claims the restrictions are unreasonable due to her religion; Florida is NOT attempting to apply a special standard to her based of religion. Another bogus element of their complaint is that since other states allow veiled photographs on a license, Florida is unreasonable in not allowing it as well. The refutation here is easy: the whole point of allowing states to make their own laws is to provide for local communities to control local decisions. What’s agreeable to one community is not in others. To cite a very well-known example, what’s obscene in private in Salt Lake City is legal on the street in San Francisco.

Of course no one is claiming that this particular woman will ever violate the law. That doesn’t mean she should be exempted from it. Because, as we’ve seen time after time, there are plenty of people who will take advantage of any loophole or evasive technique to get what they want. *cough* Enron *cough* Worldcom *cough* bin Laden *cough* World Cup host nations *cough* Martha Stewart *cough* Richard Nixon *cough* identity thieves *cough*

Following on yesterday’s post about the coming Springsteen release, BillSaysThis is proud to bring you the first trailer for Star Trek: Nemesis. Or at least give you a link to it, let’s not get all bigheaded over three friend’s links. Now in all honesty I will admit to being a major Trek fan, watching the TV shows, even reading many of the novels. Still, the trailer looks awesome, the Remans look like they can kick serious behind, and December 13 can’t come soon enough!

Just what the heck do they mean by “A Generation’s Final Journey…Begins”? Trek maestro Rick Berman says “I think that to say there won’t be another movie is silly,” he says straight out. “There will be STAR TREK movies for a long time — whether they are going to be NEXT GENERATION movies or movies based on other series or ENTERPRISE or movies based on brand new characters, I just don’t know.”

Two of my closest friends, who are also friends, happen to have daughters born in 1988. The two students graduated from their respective middle schools last week. Though it seems very strange to me to have friends with children this old, I actually have friends with children older than these! Here we have a picture of Carol and her mom Pam (names withheld to frustrate the insane) celebrating Carol’s achievement:

When I’m done doing Blogger support!