I am going to discuss the fourth corollary of Parkinson's Law: The number of people in any working group tends to increase regardless of the amount of work to be done.
Since businesses are profit-driven, this does not seem to apply to them. Indeed, modern businesses are ingenious in getting one person to do the work of two or three (or more) people and only paying one salary. Many of my readers have personal experience with this fact of life. People who work for local, state or the federal government have no awareness of this however. It is also a fact of life that government bureaucrats put friends, relatives, and political hangers-on to well-paying government jobs that require little or no work. Often, the job is a mere title that does not require the job-holder to even show up for work, much less produce any noticeable result or benefit the tax-payer in any way. The favorite, at present, in local, state and federal government appears to be the Department of Homeland Security.
TSA is great at strip-searching little old ladies in their eighties, from the midwest, but appears to be unable to stop known suspects with bombs in their shorts from getting on an airplane loaded with passengers. Indeed, I suspect that if an Arab from Yemen, dressed in traditional Arab garb, walked through their security line with sticks of lit dynamite on his feet instead of shoes, he would be waved right on board. In addition to that, we have been stunned to learn that they (TSA) have been working with defective metal detectors and cameras, not to mention TSA employees either sleeping on the job or walking off their posts at inappropriate times.
Going on to the state level, we see that former governor McGreevey appointed his boy-toy as director of New Jersey's version of Homeland Security even though he had no prior experience or training that would qualify him for the job. And, on the local level, the Board of Education in Plainfield, New Jersey also established a Department of Homeland Security with a director (at about $90,000 a year) complete with staff and computers. Oh yes, that same director had his unsecured office broken into by persons unknown, who escaped with several of these computers. Here's another guy who knows how to get the job done. Of course, I was also unaware that Osama bin Laden had threatened the schools in Plainfield, New Jersey and considered them a prime target, but what do I know?
And, getting back to Parkinson's Laws, it should be noted that under Jim McGreevey's administration, the number of state employees grew even though the population in New Jersey decreased. Former Governor Jon Corzine continued this until his final days in office. He gave the middle finger to the New Jersey taxpayer by naming a number of his associates to "commissions" for which most of them had no experience or training. (And Rex Ryan, the coach for the New York Jets, got fined for "flipping the bird" to Miami fans?) One of Corzine's "appointees" euphemistically stated, it was because of her "work ethic," as an explanation for her appointment.
Yeah, right!
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Let's Make Parkinson"s (and Other) Laws Work For Us!
Parkinson's Laws:
1) Work expands to fill the time available for its completion; the thing to be done swells in perceived importance and complexity in a direct ratio with the time to be spent in its completion.
2) Expenditures rise to meet income.
3) Expansion means complexity; and complexity decay.
4) The number of people in any working group tends to increase regardless of the amount of work to be done.
5) If there is a way to delay an important decision the good bureaucracy, public or private, will find it.
6) The progress of science is inversely proportional to the number of journals published.
The first law of toxicology: The poison is in the dose.
Law of unintended consequences: The actions of people (and especially of governments) always have effects that are unanticipated or unintended. These often outweigh the intended effects.
I offer the above laws to President Obama to help in the economic recovery of the nation. Of the above laws, the first corollary of Parkinson’s Law and the last two are the most important. I say this because I am concerned about the debt that the President is incurring in trying to end the Republican-caused Depression (as are almost all Depressions and Recessions.) The large debt appears, at least to me, to be unsustainable. This will almost certainly lead to inflation and the de-valuation of the U.S. dollar. Obama’s method of imposing additional taxes on the rich will not work either. The reason being is that these people have the wherewithal to move to tax-free or lower-taxed countries anywhere in the world. When they do, they take their wealth, their taxes and a lot of jobs with them. The end result will be self-defeating and disastrous.
A better idea would be to lower taxes for everyone. While this might seem to cause lower revenue for the federal government, history teaches us a different lesson. When Reagan and Kennedy lowered taxes, government income rose. It’s something to think about. If you just give a tax rebate, you may have a temporary surge in buying, but it inevitably dies down, while a general tax decrease means larger spendable income for most people over a longer period of time.
Funding education, particularly higher education, also seems like a good idea to me. After World War Two, the GI Bill made higher education available to thousands of ex-GI’s, who took advantage of it. The result was that they earned more money for themselves and the government received more tax revenue. Beyond that, it sparked an economic boom that even surpassed the surge that the war had brought the nation. It was also the reason that the nation sustained a boom, instead of a recession that inevitably follows most wars.
Just a thought.
1) Work expands to fill the time available for its completion; the thing to be done swells in perceived importance and complexity in a direct ratio with the time to be spent in its completion.
2) Expenditures rise to meet income.
3) Expansion means complexity; and complexity decay.
4) The number of people in any working group tends to increase regardless of the amount of work to be done.
5) If there is a way to delay an important decision the good bureaucracy, public or private, will find it.
6) The progress of science is inversely proportional to the number of journals published.
The first law of toxicology: The poison is in the dose.
Law of unintended consequences: The actions of people (and especially of governments) always have effects that are unanticipated or unintended. These often outweigh the intended effects.
I offer the above laws to President Obama to help in the economic recovery of the nation. Of the above laws, the first corollary of Parkinson’s Law and the last two are the most important. I say this because I am concerned about the debt that the President is incurring in trying to end the Republican-caused Depression (as are almost all Depressions and Recessions.) The large debt appears, at least to me, to be unsustainable. This will almost certainly lead to inflation and the de-valuation of the U.S. dollar. Obama’s method of imposing additional taxes on the rich will not work either. The reason being is that these people have the wherewithal to move to tax-free or lower-taxed countries anywhere in the world. When they do, they take their wealth, their taxes and a lot of jobs with them. The end result will be self-defeating and disastrous.
A better idea would be to lower taxes for everyone. While this might seem to cause lower revenue for the federal government, history teaches us a different lesson. When Reagan and Kennedy lowered taxes, government income rose. It’s something to think about. If you just give a tax rebate, you may have a temporary surge in buying, but it inevitably dies down, while a general tax decrease means larger spendable income for most people over a longer period of time.
Funding education, particularly higher education, also seems like a good idea to me. After World War Two, the GI Bill made higher education available to thousands of ex-GI’s, who took advantage of it. The result was that they earned more money for themselves and the government received more tax revenue. Beyond that, it sparked an economic boom that even surpassed the surge that the war had brought the nation. It was also the reason that the nation sustained a boom, instead of a recession that inevitably follows most wars.
Just a thought.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Global Warming!
A friend of mine in Michigan e-mailed me, telling me that it was below zero there and asked me what ever happened to “Global Warming?” Well, it’s still here but it might not be quite what you think it is. My answer to him is basically what you are reading here.
The Sun gets its heat from nuclear fusion. Four atoms of hydrogen (i.e., four protons) fuse under the heat and pressure in the Sun’s core to become an atom of helium (an “alpha” particle.) One atom of Helium has slightly less mass than the original four protons. That missing mass is converted into energy via Einstein’s famous formula: E= MC2. The Sun converts four million tons of mass into energy every second and has been doing so for the last five billion years. It sounds like a lot, but the Sun is very big. It is equivalent in mass to 1300 Earth-size planets. In the five billion years of its existence, the Sun has lost a mass equal to the mass of our earth.
Now here’s where this comes into global warming. The mass loss occurs inside the Sun’s core and it is slowly building up, over time, a helium core. The Sun is waging a continual war between gravity, which pulls it in, and the energy it creates, which pushes it out. As helium builds up, the core cools and the outer layers collapse a bit and begin heating it up again. This heat is more intense and pushes the outer layers of the Sun, outward.
Although the Sun is basically in equilibrium, it has been building in volume since its birth at a rate of ten percent every billion years. Compared to its size when it was born, the Sun is now approximately 40 percent larger and it is still “growing”, i.e. expanding. About 3 billion or so years in the future, life on our Earth, even on a microbial level, will have become impossible. In about 5 billion years the Sun, having become what astronomers call a Red Giant, will have expanded to the orbit of Earth and will vaporize Mercury, Venus and our Earth.
As far as we know, this process cannot be reversed. Now, I am not saying that human activity is not contributing to global warming. Since we hurl billions of tons of greenhouse gases into the air every year, it has to. And certainly it makes sense to contain this activity as much as practically possible. The point is that even if we ended all human and/or animal activity overnight, the earth will continue to heat up regardless. That is something that Al Gore does not tell you as he travels around the country in his SUV, proselytizing about his favorite topic.
Oh, I told my friend to burn copies of Al Gore’s book to keep warm.
And, to another friend, Dennis Lynch, who asked to be mentioned in my blog: Hi there David!
The Sun gets its heat from nuclear fusion. Four atoms of hydrogen (i.e., four protons) fuse under the heat and pressure in the Sun’s core to become an atom of helium (an “alpha” particle.) One atom of Helium has slightly less mass than the original four protons. That missing mass is converted into energy via Einstein’s famous formula: E= MC2. The Sun converts four million tons of mass into energy every second and has been doing so for the last five billion years. It sounds like a lot, but the Sun is very big. It is equivalent in mass to 1300 Earth-size planets. In the five billion years of its existence, the Sun has lost a mass equal to the mass of our earth.
Now here’s where this comes into global warming. The mass loss occurs inside the Sun’s core and it is slowly building up, over time, a helium core. The Sun is waging a continual war between gravity, which pulls it in, and the energy it creates, which pushes it out. As helium builds up, the core cools and the outer layers collapse a bit and begin heating it up again. This heat is more intense and pushes the outer layers of the Sun, outward.
Although the Sun is basically in equilibrium, it has been building in volume since its birth at a rate of ten percent every billion years. Compared to its size when it was born, the Sun is now approximately 40 percent larger and it is still “growing”, i.e. expanding. About 3 billion or so years in the future, life on our Earth, even on a microbial level, will have become impossible. In about 5 billion years the Sun, having become what astronomers call a Red Giant, will have expanded to the orbit of Earth and will vaporize Mercury, Venus and our Earth.
As far as we know, this process cannot be reversed. Now, I am not saying that human activity is not contributing to global warming. Since we hurl billions of tons of greenhouse gases into the air every year, it has to. And certainly it makes sense to contain this activity as much as practically possible. The point is that even if we ended all human and/or animal activity overnight, the earth will continue to heat up regardless. That is something that Al Gore does not tell you as he travels around the country in his SUV, proselytizing about his favorite topic.
Oh, I told my friend to burn copies of Al Gore’s book to keep warm.
And, to another friend, Dennis Lynch, who asked to be mentioned in my blog: Hi there David!
Sunday, January 31, 2010
I'm In Love With Another Woman!
I have been married to the same woman for the last 39 years, but I have to make a confession. I have been in love with another woman for about the last 70 years. Her name is Elizabeth Taylor and I first felt the unrequited pangs of puppy love at the tender age of eight (or thereabouts) when I saw her in Lassie come Home. Her great performance brought me to tears. And what is there about her not to be in love? Violet eyes, flawless alabaster skin and dark brunette hair. I saw her again in Ivanhoe where she played a Jewess who was in love with Robert Taylor (no relation.) Robert Taylor however, was in "love" with Joan Fontaine. I was wondering whether he was blind or what? I guess antisemitism ran deep in those days of yore. Then there was Cat On A Hot Tin Roof. Although Hollywood emasculated the Tennessee Williams Play to a point where it (almost) no longer resembled the original story, Paul Newman as "Brick" gave an Academy Award-Winning performance by pretending he didn't want to have sex with Elizabeth Taylor, who was playing "Maggie, the Cat." Yeah, Right!
Her best performance, which incidentally, I saw long after Lassie Come Home, was in National Velvet. She was 12 years-old at the time but you could see that she would grow into a beautiful woman. Her beauty was mirrored by Ann Revere (playing her mother), who was no beauty herself, but was a marvelously accomplished actress. Ann revere was the ultimate mother and looked like a mother should, worn out by hard work and personal tragedies. She brought this quality into every movie she made. There was something about this Taylor-Revere contrast that was electrifying, at least to me. It represented the future for Velvet Brown (Taylor's character) as well as the past for Ann Revere as her mother.
Every time I watch this picture I have to sigh because they just don't make them like this anymore. However, I have remained faithful, although married to another, to Elizabeth all of these years. And, about thirty years ago when I was working for a printer in Manhattan, Elizabeth was promoting one of her many charities in Central Park. I was about 30 feet away from her and was longing to introduce myself to her and to pronounce my love for her. I couldn't do it for fear of becoming tongue-tied and embarrassed.
Although she is now in her eighties, and i understand quite ill, she still looks the same to me as that first time I saw her in Lassie Come Home. She will never change, at least in my eyes.
Oh yes, in case there is some question in your mind, my wife understands completely. And perhaps some kind-hearted reader will send this blog of mine to Elizabeth so she may know of my love before it is too late. I am still too shy to do it myself.
Her best performance, which incidentally, I saw long after Lassie Come Home, was in National Velvet. She was 12 years-old at the time but you could see that she would grow into a beautiful woman. Her beauty was mirrored by Ann Revere (playing her mother), who was no beauty herself, but was a marvelously accomplished actress. Ann revere was the ultimate mother and looked like a mother should, worn out by hard work and personal tragedies. She brought this quality into every movie she made. There was something about this Taylor-Revere contrast that was electrifying, at least to me. It represented the future for Velvet Brown (Taylor's character) as well as the past for Ann Revere as her mother.
Every time I watch this picture I have to sigh because they just don't make them like this anymore. However, I have remained faithful, although married to another, to Elizabeth all of these years. And, about thirty years ago when I was working for a printer in Manhattan, Elizabeth was promoting one of her many charities in Central Park. I was about 30 feet away from her and was longing to introduce myself to her and to pronounce my love for her. I couldn't do it for fear of becoming tongue-tied and embarrassed.
Although she is now in her eighties, and i understand quite ill, she still looks the same to me as that first time I saw her in Lassie Come Home. She will never change, at least in my eyes.
Oh yes, in case there is some question in your mind, my wife understands completely. And perhaps some kind-hearted reader will send this blog of mine to Elizabeth so she may know of my love before it is too late. I am still too shy to do it myself.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Something To Think About!
Bill Gates is no longer the richest man in the world. The technology tycoon was not ranked richest man in the world for the first time in over a decade. Bill Gates fell from his spot on the top to a lowly number three position. His net worth of $58 billion only goes to hold a number three spot in the wealth of the world. The wealthiest man alive is a man by the name of Warren Buffett he is worth $62 billion dollars. Poor Bill Gates might need to go out and get a job before he ends up begging on the streets. Not quite.
There are almost 200 countries whose Gross National Product is less than $58 billion. That means there are at least three people who have more money by themselves then almost 200 nations produce in goods and services in an entire year. Can you imagine what you would do with $58 billion? That’s almost too big to calculate. So let’s break it down. Let’s say that Bill Gates wants to spend all his money before he dies. He is almost 53 years old. Let’s say he lives for another 20 years. To spend all of his money before he died he would have to spend 2.9 Billion dollars a year. That’s still kind of big for more most of us to picture so let’s break it down more: if you divide that 2.9 billion by 365 days in a year you are left with $7,945,205 to spend every day. That’s a huge number. So let’s make it smaller: take that by 24 hours in a day. In order to spend everything he has now if he did not make another penny while he was alive, Bill Gates would have to spend $331,050 per hour or $5517.50 a minute, or $92 every second. That just sounds unreal. We don’t make anything like that. So let’s look at where we are.
There is this program called the global rich list. You input how much money you make every year and it puts that into a global perspective. Obviously Bill Gates is one of the top dogs on that list, but where do you fall? According to this global rich list if you make $60,000 per year you are in the top one percent of the world. Not all of us are so wealthy as to live in that top one percent so let’s break it down a little further. At $40,000 per year you are in the top three percent of the richest people in the world. If you make $30,000 you are in the top seven percent. Honestly it’s a bit surprising to think about it. $30,000 a year is hardly enough to live comfortably off of here, yet it puts you in the top seven percent of the world. I wanted to see just how far this went so I plugged in some really low numbers to see where they would land: $3,000 puts you in the top 15 percent of the richest people in the world. $2,000 a year drops you all the way to 18 percent of the richest people.
Do you realize that the homeless people sitting outside Wal-Mart begging for money are making more than 80% of the people in the world? What is really unbelievable about this is that Bill Gates makes more money in a second then some people do in an entire year. Now I don't begrudge one dime of what Bill Gates has earned because he earned it all himself? Don't think so? Then invent an operating system for computers better than the one he sells. On top of that, his genius has meant thousands of jobs all over the world, that would not be there if he never existed.
But when you start thinking about how bad things are for you and they may well be bad; think about the millions of people who have it a lot worse than you do.
There are almost 200 countries whose Gross National Product is less than $58 billion. That means there are at least three people who have more money by themselves then almost 200 nations produce in goods and services in an entire year. Can you imagine what you would do with $58 billion? That’s almost too big to calculate. So let’s break it down. Let’s say that Bill Gates wants to spend all his money before he dies. He is almost 53 years old. Let’s say he lives for another 20 years. To spend all of his money before he died he would have to spend 2.9 Billion dollars a year. That’s still kind of big for more most of us to picture so let’s break it down more: if you divide that 2.9 billion by 365 days in a year you are left with $7,945,205 to spend every day. That’s a huge number. So let’s make it smaller: take that by 24 hours in a day. In order to spend everything he has now if he did not make another penny while he was alive, Bill Gates would have to spend $331,050 per hour or $5517.50 a minute, or $92 every second. That just sounds unreal. We don’t make anything like that. So let’s look at where we are.
There is this program called the global rich list. You input how much money you make every year and it puts that into a global perspective. Obviously Bill Gates is one of the top dogs on that list, but where do you fall? According to this global rich list if you make $60,000 per year you are in the top one percent of the world. Not all of us are so wealthy as to live in that top one percent so let’s break it down a little further. At $40,000 per year you are in the top three percent of the richest people in the world. If you make $30,000 you are in the top seven percent. Honestly it’s a bit surprising to think about it. $30,000 a year is hardly enough to live comfortably off of here, yet it puts you in the top seven percent of the world. I wanted to see just how far this went so I plugged in some really low numbers to see where they would land: $3,000 puts you in the top 15 percent of the richest people in the world. $2,000 a year drops you all the way to 18 percent of the richest people.
Do you realize that the homeless people sitting outside Wal-Mart begging for money are making more than 80% of the people in the world? What is really unbelievable about this is that Bill Gates makes more money in a second then some people do in an entire year. Now I don't begrudge one dime of what Bill Gates has earned because he earned it all himself? Don't think so? Then invent an operating system for computers better than the one he sells. On top of that, his genius has meant thousands of jobs all over the world, that would not be there if he never existed.
But when you start thinking about how bad things are for you and they may well be bad; think about the millions of people who have it a lot worse than you do.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Bottom-Feeding Scum Suckers!
Richard A. Jewell (December 17, 1962 – August 29, 2007) was an American security guard who became known in connection with the Centennial Olympic Park bombing at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Jewell, working as a private security guard for Piedmont College, discovered a pipe bomb, alerted police, and helped to evacuate the area before it exploded, saving many people from injury or potential death. Initially hailed by the media as a hero, Jewell later was considered a suspect. Despite having never been charged, he underwent what was considered by many to be a "trial by media" with great toll on his personal and professional life. Eventually he was exonerated completely: Eric Robert Rudolph was later found to have been the bomber. In 2006, Governor Sonny Perdue publicly thanked Jewell on behalf of the state of Georgia for saving the lives of those at the Olympics.
One of the journalists who participated in the “lynching by newsprint” of Mr. Jewell was a columnist for the New York Post, Andrea Pyser. In Ms. Pyser’s opinion, Richard Jewell’s biggest crime was being overweight. That instantaneously disqualified him from being a security officer and made him suspect of any and all crimes. Even after his exoneration, Ms. Peyser never printed a column or even a single word of apology for her scurrilous and inaccurate column.
Like all bottom-feeding, scum suckers Ms. Peyser does not confine her attacks to obese people. Anyone who has a problem, from which Ms. Peyser is not afflicted, is fair game. On January 11, 2010, she printed a article on Casey Johnson, the daughter of the Jets owner, who died tragically a few days before. Ms. Peyser informs us that the tragedy could have been prevented (she assumed, although this has still not been proven as of the date of this blog, that Casey’s death was due to the misuse of drugs), although she never specifies exactly how this might have been accomplished. Ms. Peyser, in her infinite wisdom, knows exactly how to cure alcoholics, drug addicts, and sex addicts, not to mention the chronically obese. Just ask her. On second thought, you don’t have to ask her—she’ll tell you.
I couldn’t help but wonder how Ms. Peyser might have felt if it had been her own daughter who so tragically died. I couldn’t help but speculate on what her feelings might have been to see her own daughter’s death, complete with a picture that only a cold-hearted, unfeeling person would have included, spread across the column of some low-life tabloid such as The New York Post. Aah, I forgot, Ms. Peyser does not have feelings. She is the pit bull for a newspaper that is fit only to wrap fish. Her only job is to sell newspapers. In that capacity, she accomplishes what her editor and publisher expects of her.
As a human being, she has failed miserably.
One of the journalists who participated in the “lynching by newsprint” of Mr. Jewell was a columnist for the New York Post, Andrea Pyser. In Ms. Pyser’s opinion, Richard Jewell’s biggest crime was being overweight. That instantaneously disqualified him from being a security officer and made him suspect of any and all crimes. Even after his exoneration, Ms. Peyser never printed a column or even a single word of apology for her scurrilous and inaccurate column.
Like all bottom-feeding, scum suckers Ms. Peyser does not confine her attacks to obese people. Anyone who has a problem, from which Ms. Peyser is not afflicted, is fair game. On January 11, 2010, she printed a article on Casey Johnson, the daughter of the Jets owner, who died tragically a few days before. Ms. Peyser informs us that the tragedy could have been prevented (she assumed, although this has still not been proven as of the date of this blog, that Casey’s death was due to the misuse of drugs), although she never specifies exactly how this might have been accomplished. Ms. Peyser, in her infinite wisdom, knows exactly how to cure alcoholics, drug addicts, and sex addicts, not to mention the chronically obese. Just ask her. On second thought, you don’t have to ask her—she’ll tell you.
I couldn’t help but wonder how Ms. Peyser might have felt if it had been her own daughter who so tragically died. I couldn’t help but speculate on what her feelings might have been to see her own daughter’s death, complete with a picture that only a cold-hearted, unfeeling person would have included, spread across the column of some low-life tabloid such as The New York Post. Aah, I forgot, Ms. Peyser does not have feelings. She is the pit bull for a newspaper that is fit only to wrap fish. Her only job is to sell newspapers. In that capacity, she accomplishes what her editor and publisher expects of her.
As a human being, she has failed miserably.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Aphasia in Newspaperland!
Every day I read the New York Post they find something else to complain about with the President. If my memory serves me correctly, they weren't so discriminating with the last holder of that office, even after Katrina, which was the only thing that they couldn't blame on Bill Clinton. They are trying to make it look like Afghanistan, Iraq, the mortgage meltdown and the ensuing recession and unemployment are now Barack Obama's fault and George Bush had nothing to do with it.
Let's face it. If Obama ended the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; ended the recession and unemployment, as well as the mortgage meltdown and foreclosures; if the President defeated al Qaeda, brought peace to the Middle East and ended the energy crisis for all time; the New York Post would still complain about something he was doing.
Such is the way of the non compos mentis of the far right.
Let's face it. If Obama ended the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; ended the recession and unemployment, as well as the mortgage meltdown and foreclosures; if the President defeated al Qaeda, brought peace to the Middle East and ended the energy crisis for all time; the New York Post would still complain about something he was doing.
Such is the way of the non compos mentis of the far right.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
