The SoapBoxers

It happens every time there is a natural disaster, and it’s happening in Joplin, Missouri.  As people try to put their lives back together, looters are looking through the rubble in search of anything that might fetch a few bucks.  Other than declaring open season on looters, I’m not really sure how this problem can be fixed.  If you’re stealing from people in the aftermath of a tragedy, you truly have no shame.  In the aftermath of the Iowa floods in 2008, there were instances of people the copper from inside homes.

Jim Tressel finally stepped down as the football coach at Ohio State.  He’s not the first football coach to cover up NCAA violations, and he’s not the first to lie to the NCAA about it.  However, in this case there was a smoking gun, and you can’t let one guilty person off simply because you have insufficient evidence to prove that other people are guilty.

The athletes are definitely no angels in this situation.  They should have known better.  However, they are young, and young people make mistakes.  The smart ones learn from those mistakes.  I’m certainly annoyed at the way the NCAA watered down the punishment by having it start AFTER their bowl game.  The players will miss relatively unimportant early season games.  Want to make suspensions less predictable?  Throw the names of all a team’s opponents in a hat and randomly choose which games a player will be suspended for.  It might be Central Southeast Ohio A & T … or it might be Michigan.

I’m sure some Buckeye fans will blame Christopher Cicero for the imminent collapse of the program.  Cicero is the Columbus lawyer who emailed Tressel to make him aware of the fact that his players were interacting with a known criminal.  For those Buckeye fans who feel that what has transpired is the worst that could have happened to the OSU football program … you are wrong.  The worst thing that could have happened was having a player getting mixed up in something really bad an ending up dead.  Put yourself in Cicero’s shoes – if you said nothing, and someone ended up hurt, could you sleep at night?  I know very little about Cicero outside of the OSU scandal, but if this is an indication of how his moral compass orients, I’d hire him as a lawyer if I needed one.  He had the best interests of the kids at heart.

And perhaps the mos bizarre pond scum incident from the past few weeks – Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the International Monetary Fund, sexually assaulting a hotel maid in his New York hotel room.  Strauss-Kahn was expected to be a leading candidate in the French presidential election.  Even if he were able to flee the country, I’m not sure how he expected this incident to remain hidden.  This wasn’t some anonymous rapist – it was really easy to figure out who it was – the registered occupant of the hotel room.  Goodbye job, goodbye French presidency, goodbye freedom.

Harold Camping may have been wrong, but that’s no reason to give up on numerology as a way to predict the end of the world.  The spirit of Joe Jackson appeared before me in a dream and gave me the all the details.

• There are 30 teams in Major League Baseball
• The teams are split into 2 leagues
• A team is allowed 3 outs per inning
• There are 3 strikes in a strikeout
• There are 4 balls in a walk

30 X 2 X 3 X 3 X 4 = 2160

Then, we have our deductions, which we subtract from this number

• There are 19 letters in “Major League Baseball”
• There are 14 letters in “National League”
• There are 14 letters in “American League”
• There are 54 outs in a game
• There are 6 divisions
• 8 teams make the playoffs
• The World Series has a maximum length of 7 games
• Playoff roster size is 25

2160 – 19 – 14 – 14 – 54 – 6- 8 – 7 – 25 = 2013

The world win end at the conclusion of the World Series in the year 2013.  Enjoy the time you have left.  Good day.

I’m going to ramble on a lot of topics today, so bear with me.  Or stop reading.  The choice is yours.

If I Had Two Million Dollars, I’d Be Poor …

Leroy Fick on Michigan won $2 million on a television show affiliated with the Michigan lottery in 2010.  A year later, he’s on food stamps.  Has he fallen on hard times?  Well, lottery winnings are considered assets, but not income, are aren’t used to determine eligibility for assistance.  Federal guidelines DO use assets to determine eligibility, but Michigan (and at least 40 other states) have a waiver that allows them to ignore assets.  I’m sure that the thought process behind the waiver was well-intentioned (perhaps so that you wouldn’t have to sell your house to buy bread if you were laid off?), but I suspect that nobody ever dreamed that a lottery winner would apply for assistance.  The state is not aware of any other lottery winners receiving food stamps, and is quickly moving to close the loophole.

I think (hope) many of us would feel very blessed if we won the lottery, and use some of that money to help others – instead of taking money out of public coffers (although I guess that’s one way to reover what you’ve paid in taxes).

How does a lottery winner have no investment income, you ask? Easy. Put to money into investment funds that don’t pay dividends. You don’t have any income until you sell.

Baseball

The general manager of the Washington Nationals has indicated that 18 year old prospect Bryce Harper will not play in the Major Leagues this year, not even as a “September call-up” when rosters are expanded to 40 players on September 1.  This seems like a smart move.  Unless the Nationals are in contention late in the year, there’s no reason to rush Harper’s development.  He’s demolishing low-A pitching right now, and would expect him to be promoted to high-A soon, and probably to AA before the end of the year.  However, he still needs to polish some of his skills, and a 2012 debut makes a lot of sense.

On the topic of talented youngsters, I’m pegging Cubs shortstop Starlin Castro as a lock for 3000 hits.  Castro has a lot of things going for him – not only is he young (21), but he hits in the early part of the order and doesn’t walk much (both of which boost his at bats).  As long as he doesn’t develop much power, he could be in the 1 or 2 hole in the order for many years to come, and if he doesn’t walk much he might make a push for 700 at bats some years.  You only need a .286 batting average to get 200 hits in 700 at bats.  If he stays healthy at consistently hits above 300, you might even see Castro make a run at 4000 hits.

Giants fan Bryan Stow remains in the hospital after he was beaten severely by two men at Dodger Stadium on March 31.  Despite a $200,000 reward and composite drawings of the two attackers, they have not been apprehended.  I find it unlikely that nobody knows who the attackers are, and I hope someone comes forward.  How can you sleep at night if you know who is responsible for this terrible crime?  I have as much hatred for the Giants as anyone, but it’s absolutely crazy to carry things this far.  We can have healthy rivalries without violence.  Best wishes, Bryan.

Jim Tressel

Ohio State will not be paying the legal expenses football coach Jim Tressel incurs as part of an ongoing NCAA investigation.  This seems perfectly fair, since Tressel kept the university in the dark, rather that taking the correct steps of informing his athletic director and compliance director when he learned of potential violations.  I’m hoping to see the NCAA drop the hammer hardon Tressel … but I’m not overly confident in the NCAA, given their spotty decision-making history.

Fiction status

I’m going to cut back on my short stories for a while. I’ll still try to write 2 stories per month for the site. I’ll likely shift those stories to Saturday and have a different type of article on Fridays.

The first class of my fiction school wrapped up. There were several delays, most of them caused by me. However, it was a very rewarding experience. My job ended up being a lot more difficult than I imagined, simple because of the relatively high level of polish the writers exhibited. I was expected to have to point out more flaws in technique, but the three writers in the class put forward some very fine work. Maybe you’ll see some of their work on this site in the future.

I’m working to get some traction on my novel (which is why I’m cutting back on stories a bit). I recently wrote a new beginning for the book – a prologue that shows the villain planning for the evil that will come. The prologue had gotten rave reviews … now I just need to write 90,000+ more words to finish the book.

New Logo

The parent organization for The Soap Boxers, Hyrax Publications LLC, has a new logo.  Scroll to the bottom to see it.  It’s a bit minimalist, but I like it.

We’re pushing Martin’s article back a day to allow writers to write about the death of Osama Bin Laden.  I’ll kick things off with some random thoughts.

• This isn’t a victory for Democrats or a victory for Republicans.  It’s a victory for the United States, more specifically the military and intelligence communities.  There is no need to decide which regime deserves “more” credit.  It was a nearly decade long goal of the government, achieved as a result of actions under two commanders-in-chief.
• Celebrating a death seems a bit callous.  However, I have no doubt that the world is a better place without Osama Bin Laden.  Al-Qaeda and organizations like it attempt to drive a wedge between Muslim countries and the West in order to achieve their own goals.  Does the average Muslim hate Christians and believe that they must join a jihad against the West, gaining glory by killing the infidels?  Of course not.  Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups have been successful in convincing many people that they speak for the entire Islam world.  This is not true, of course – they are simply a vocal minority.  While I don’t have a lot of Muslim friends, the ones I have are not sympathetic to the terrorists.  If we believe that the lunatic fringe speaks for the entire population, then the terrorists have won.  Al-Qaeda is no more representative of the Islam world than the Westboro Baptist Church is representative of the Christian world.
• Before the conspiracy theorists start … stop.  If Bin Laden isn’t really dead, and if this is all faked, we’ll find out in due time.  If Bin Laden is still alive, I’m sure he’s in the process of making a video tape and will be shipping it off to Al Jazeera any moment now.  If the photos of the body don’t look a lot like Bin Laden when they are released … well, getting shot in the side of the head has a tendency to distort facial features somewhat.  I guess the Navy Seals could have gone for a heart shot to keep his face recognizable, but I’m guessing that having him dead was more important that making sure his pretty face was intact.
• It seems that Pakistan may have some questions to answer.  It seems a bit hard to believe that Bin Laden could have been hiding in a compound that housed retired members of the military without anyone thinking “Hey, ‘John Smith’ looks a lot like that Bin Laden guy, doesn’t he?”.  For their sake, I hope that the Pakistani government does indeed have a good excuse.  Otherwise, the US-Pakistan relationship might he headed for rocky ground.  Too early to jump to conclusions, though.  It’s possible that there IS a good excuse.

Tomorrow is the big day – the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.  If you’re wondering what to buy the couple, candlesticks make a nice gift.  (Thanks, Larry.)

I’m a bit neutral on the topic of the wedding.  I certainly will not be getting up at 4 AM to watch, but I’m sure I’ll read a couple of news stories about the event.

I’m really not sure why Americans are so fascinated with the British royal family.  It’s not as if they have real power – and there are actually monarchs who DO have ruling power in other countries.  Is it because we were once under the control of the British?  But wouldn’t this be a reason to dislike them?  For many of us, it’s not even that we trace out heritage back to England.  Personally, I am 100% German (no, I don’t follow German news very closely).

I guess it’s because we speak the same language – although American English and British English aren’t exactly the same language – as anyone who ever needed to take the lift to visit the loo would know.

Some random tidbits about the couple:

William actually has royal blood on both sides.  Princess Diana was descended from two illegitimate sons of Henry II.  How is that possible, you ask?  A male descendant of the one son married a female descendant of the other.  It should be noted that this bloodline is not recognized in the line of succession, so his only claim to the throne is through Charles.  Still, interesting.

Kate’s parents worked in the airline industries (she as a flight attendant, he as a dispatcher) before starting a party favor company that eventually made them millions.  How’s that for the epitome of the American dream?  British dream.  Whatever.

When Kate and William broke up several years ago, one of the contributing factors was reportedly Kate thinking that William wasn’t paying enough attention to her.  Yes, she nearly cost herself the chance to become queen – putting her feelings ahead of her desire for power.  Well, bully for her, as the Brits would say.

I can’t help feeling a bit sad that William’s mother won’t be alive to see him married.  I can still remember watching the sad news of her death.  Tragic not only because of the avoidable nature of the accident, but also because someone with such a charitable heart had her life cut short.

I wonder if we are looking at the last king and queen of England.  There is an increasing sentiment to get rid of the monarchy.  After all, the monarch has very little actual power any more.  Sure, the Brits love pomp and ceremony … but how will they feel by the end of William’s reign (assuming that he does ascend to the throne)?  Assuming that he lives to 80, that could be a half century away – plenty of time for dramatic changes.  And I think that Will and Kate may be more open to these changes than some monarchs from the past.

Staff Sergeant Salvatore Giunta

On November 16th, Staff Sergeant Giunta became the first living Medal of Honor recipient since the Vietnam War.  The Medal of Honor was awarded for his heroics after his platoon was ambushed by Taliban fighters on October 25, 2007.  Among the actions that Giunta took during the fighting was to chase down Taliban fighters who were attempting to carry off a wounded American soldier.  Staff Sergeant Giunta killed one of the soliders ad caused the other to flee.  Although Giunta pulled his comrade to saftety, the soldier later died.

In any case, I would be proud of such a heroic soldier.  In this case, it hits home even more because Giunta is an Iowan.  Not only is he from my home state, but he grew up just a couple of miles from the office where I work (although news stories mention that he grew up in town of 6500, Hiawatha is part of the Cedar Rapids metro area – the second largest metro area in the state).

The local news media has been all over this story.  Not only did they cover the presentation live, but they advertised the event weeks in advance.  They also covered the parade when Giunta returned home to a hero’s welcome.

Elizabeth Smart

This month, Elizabeth Smart finally gave testimony in the criminal trial of Brian Mitchell.  Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee, abducted Smart and held her until their arrest nine months later.  Although some people suggest that Smart could have escaped if she really wanted to, in actuality, factors such as Stockholm Syndrome actually make it mentally difficult for hostage to break away.

It has been more than seven years since Smart was reunited with her family.  She seems to have made a remarkable adjustment.  She has not become a recluse, but instead has made an effort to reach out and help others. – through TV interviews, a collaborative book with other victims (free download from the US Department of Justice), and most recently, as a Mormon missonary.  Far from using her abduction as reason to pull back from society, she has instead used it as motivation to do much good in the world.

Josh Hamilton

We go down a few rungs on the ladder to the world of sports.  Josh Hamilton was a heralded baseball prospect in high school – being picked with the #1 overall selection in the 1999 draft.  Hamilton eventually began to abuse drugs and alcohol, and by 2006, his star had faded so much that he was left unprotected in baseball’s Rule 5 draft.  He was selected by the Cubs, who immediately flipped him to the Cincinnatti Reds (yeah, Cubs fans, that has to hurt).

After being traded to the Texas Rangers, Hamilton blossomed into a bona fide star in 2008 – wowing crowds at the All-Star game home run derby and finishing seventh in MVP voting.

In early 2009, Hamilton was reported to be in a bar, asking questions about where he could get some drugs.  The 2o09 baseball season was also a disappointment for Hamilton, whose numbers slipped considerably.

In 2010, Hamilton once again appeared to have his act together – clean and sober.  He hit .359 for the year, with 32 homers.  Even though the Rangers shut him down in September to allow him to recover from injuries and be ready for the playoffs (a smart move), Hamilton’s season’s work was enough for him to reach the pinnacle  – being named the American League MVP in the same year that his Rangers advanced to the World Series.

I sincerely hope that Hamilton is able to continue to remain clean and sober – his achievements on the field are secondary to his battel with addiction.

Overrated stat of the month

I am annoyed at how often talking heads point to the number of rushing attempts a football team has in their wins versus their losses.  The suggestion is that teams that run the ball often win more often than those who don’t.

This is a classic example of confusing cause and effect.  Quite often (although not always), teams runs the ball a lot because they are winning – it’s not that they are winning because they have run the ball a lot.  Let’s say you’re up 30-3 at the beginning of the 4th quarter.  What sort of plays are you going to call?  Runs, of course – because the clock doesn’t stop after running plans (it does stop after an incomplete pass) and you’re able to eat more clock and make it more difficult for the other team to come back.  Likewise, the team that is down 30-3 is probablty going to throw a lot of passes in an effort to get points in a hurry.  At the end of the game, the winning team will have a lot of runs and the losing team will have a lot of passes – but simply because the score dictated the game play.

Idiot quote of the month

The Pac 10 conference has a round robin schedule in which every team plays every other team.  While many other teams play seven or eight conference games, Pac 10 teams play nine.  Washington coach Rick Neuheisel has pointed to his as a reason why the Pac 10 went into the weekend in danger of not being able to fill all of its six bowl slots, saying “… it hampers everbody, because it’s five more losses for the conference.”  That’s true, but the extra conference game also means that it’s five more win for the conference, too (with 10 teams playing an extra game, five teams must win and five teams must lose).  It’s only a net loss of five wins for the confernce if you assume that the teams would have gone 10-0 in games against non-conference foes instead of the 5-5 record in the conference games.  Note that the five teams that were struggling to reach six wins have a combined 8-7 record in non-conference games.

[Note: I’m not going to let this become a breastfeeding vs. bottle feeding debate, and comments of that nature will be deleted.  That topic is worth discussing, but it’s not germane to the focus of this article.]

Abbot, makes of the popular Similac brand of infant formula, are recalling 5 million containers of its product.  The recall is tied to the presence in a beetle that can result in irritation to the gastrointestinal tract of infants, causing them to lose their appetite.

I received a call in the early morning from my son’s day care center, letting us know that his container of Similac was among the lots getting recalled.  I set out on a search for a replacement can from a non-affected lot.

I was great annoyed to see that every store I went to (6) had simply yanked ALL containers of Similac from the shelves instead of actually checking to see if the product was among the recalled units.  Eventually, I found a box of “single serving” packets (nt included in the recall) and bout them.  They are, of course, quite a bit more expensive per ounce than the larger containers.

It annoyed me that stores were taking the easy way out.  It this was a product like, say, pretzels or peanuts, I wouldn’t have a concern with such a slash-and-burn approach.  Infant formula is a bit different.  It is staple of the infant’s diet, and many infants can be quite brand loyal, refusing to drink a different brand.  This can be a real problem, as you can’t really reason with the infant to get them to drink.

The main annoyance, though, was at Abbot’s response to the recall.  They posted information on their web site, including a place where you could type in the lot numbers from your containers in oder to determine if they were in the recall.  Unfortunately, the site was completely down last night, and only partially functional this morning.  Why?  No doubt because of heavy volume.

This is not the first time that a manufacturer’s web site has succumbed to heavy traffic in the aftermath of a recall.  The same thing happened when some formulations of Tylenol were recalled a while ago.

It’s almost as if companies are under the impression that it’s not possible to quickly add more capacity to their web servers.  That’s not true, of course.  There are a multitude of companies that would gladly rent them the hardware necessary to handle spikes in volume.  It it quite common for companies to do this when they anticipate surges in traffic – it’s much cheaper than permanently upgrading their infrastructure.

I’m not sure why we have to go down this road every time there is a major recall.  Perhaps the Consumer Product Safety Commission could even have information about the recall on their own site, and have a deal with the web hosting provider to rent extra capacity when the need arises – they could then bill the manufacturer at a set rate (in theory, they could get a better deal from the web hosting companies by offering repeat business).

I’m not sure what the exact answer to these problems are, but things MUST get better.

For the second time in recent years, a divorce threatens to tear apart a team in the National League West.  In 2008, Padres owners John and Becky Moores filed for divorce, and a substantial share of the club was sold as a result.  Now it is the Dodgers caught in the crossfire of a divorce.

Frank and Jamie McCourt (no, not the Frank McCourt who wrote Angela’s Ashes) bought the Dodgers in 2004.  Before she was fired (by her husband) at the end of last season, Jamie McCourt, as CEO of the Dodgers, was the highest ranking female executive in baseball (granted, this is a bit easier to accomplish when you own the team).

With the Dodgers a non-factor in the competitive NL West, the focus of Los Angeles is on the marathon divorce trial.  The trial began on August 30th and will pick up again on Monday after a two week recess.  It is expected that legal fees will total $20 million by the time the case concludes.  This is not going to be an amicable settlement.  Both sides are accusing the other of wrongdoing.  Frank McCourt has accused his wife of cheating with her driver.  On the flip side, Jamie’s lawyer are accusing Frank of legal shenanigans with respect to a post-nuptial agreement the couple signed.  There are six copies of the agreement.  Three of them list the Dodgers as Frank’s separate property, the other three do not (in which case they would be joint property).  Forbes has recently pegged the value of the team at $700 million … so you can understand why the two sides are willing to pony up $20 million for the best lawyers money can buy.

Lots of interesting tidbits about the couple are spilling out.  Perhaps the fact that I found the most interesting is that they employed a hairstylist who worked on their hair five days a week – at a staggering cost of $150,000.  How vain must you be to spend that sort of money on your hair?  I spend $0 on haircuts per year.  Heck, I doubt that Warren Buffett spends $150,000 on haircuts annually.  Or $15,000.  Or $1500.  Probably more than I spend, though.

In other news:

The trial of Andrew Gallo began on Monday.  Gallo is charged in the death of Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart and two others as the result of a fatal auto accident in April of 2009.  Gallo was drunk at the time of the accident (registering a .19 blood alcohol content two hours after the accident) and was driving 66 mph in a 35 mph zone.  Gallo had previously been convicted of DUI and had signed an agreement acknowledging that if he caused a fatal accident while under the influence, he would be charged with murder.  Because of this agreement, Gallo is being charged with 2nd degree murder.

The defense attorney in the case is accusing the DA of overcharging Gallo because Adenhart was a celebrity.  The DA countered by saying that 10 drunk driving cases have been prosecuted as murders since 2008.

Personally, I think it makes perfect sense to charge Gallo with murder.  He was clearly aware of the consequences of his actions, since he had previously been notified that this sort of accident would result in a murder charge against him.  He killed three people, was driving 30 mph above the speed limit, and had a blood alcohol level more than two times the legal limit (again, this was two hours after the accident – the level would have been even higher than the .19 at the time of the accident).  Celebrity victim or not, this is EXACTLY the sort of case that should trigger California’s “DUI as murder” statute.

In closing, I’ll turn this into a short public service announcement.  If you think you have a drinking problem, you’re probably right.  Seek help, either through a doctor or an organization such as Alcoholics Anonymous.  It’s not too late to get help.

Editorial notes: I hope that you read everything in The Soap Boxers, but if you are only interested in politics or fiction, we’re now providing RSS feeds of just those categories.  You can choose to receive just the articles from The Political Observers (Squeaky, Zarberg, The Crunchy Conservative, and The Angry Squirrel) or just the original fiction that appears in Fiction Friday.  Go to the Subscribe page for more details. 

I’ve tweaked the looked and feel of the site a bit.  The author pages, search results page, and a few other pages have been modified so that they look more like the main page.  Previously, they just displayed rather plain-looking excerpts.  I finally found the nefarious code that was interfering with my HTML tables.  Consequently, the tables will now have some padding around the text.  Hooray!

And now on to today’s article …

Rod Blagojevich, former Illinois Governor and reality television star, as well as recently minted convicted felon, was a star attraction at the Wizard World Chicago Comic Con over the weekend.  In what I can only describe as “the investment opportunity of the century”, attendees could get Blago’s autograph for a mere $50 and could pose with the former governor for just $80.  The smart investor knows that the window of opportunity for these investments is quickly closing – especially for the photos.  Before long, it’s going to be difficult to pose for a photo with Blago without making a trip to a prison.  By the end of the year, I expect these autographs to be selling for … well, whatever the going rate is for kindling in December.

I can understand that Blago had his fans when running for governor, and that many of his backers wouldn’t immediately desert him when allegations started unfolding.  However, we have clearly reached the point where it would be prudent to jump ship.  In this country, everyone is innocent until proven guilty.  However, the evidence really does seem to be stacked against Blago.  I could understand people proclaiming his innocence if the case rested merely on testimony from witnesses – witnesses have been known to lie on occasion.  That’s not the situation, though.  The prosecution has audio tapes of Blago plotting his various schemes.  It seems rather unlikely that he’s a victim in this case.

I collect sports memorabilia, so it would be hypocritical for me to criticize someone for paying for an autograph of a politician.  If politics is your thing, go crazy and buy some autographs … but perhaps you’d want to set the bar a bit higher?  You could probably get the autograph of a non-felon governor for less.  Seriously, look at this from an analytical perspective – do you really think your autograph will be worth more than $50 in ten, twenty, or thirty years?

The ego of Blago never fails to astound me.  Certainly every successful politician has a relatively large ego.  Even the most humble governor still feels that they are the best person to govern an entire state.  Blago takes this to another level entirely.  While many in his situation would hunker down with lawyers to plot a strategy, Blago has been making every effort to ensure that his name stays in the limelight.  He has been on two reality shows and has made the rounds with talk show hosts, including Oprah Winfrey.  Now, this latest appearance, in an obvious money grab?  Whenever I think that my opinion of Blago has reached an all-time low, he grabs a shovel and keep digging.  Bear in mind that I’m not a Republican bashing a Democrat.  I’m a somewhat left-leaning unaffiliated voter bashing a buffoon.  Neither party holds a monopoly on idiocy – there seems to be plenty to go around.

On the positive side, this sort of behavior surely won’t help him when a judge decides his sentence.  I expect a conviction when Blago is re-tried.  Hopefully this means that he’ll be behind bars – and out of the limelight – for a long time.

Last week The Crunchy Conservative had an article about Shirley Sherrod (the woman at the USDA who was dismissed after a tape of her speech before the NAACP was released.  This tape apparently exposed her as a racist (anti-white as she is African-American) and using her position within the government to penalize a white farmer.  The NAACP and the White House condemned her, but have since apologized for not knowing the whole story.  I commented on that article that we (average people not in the US government) will probably never know the whole story.  I have listed to the entire tape (at least what is reported as the entire tape) and I still find very little to be sympathetic to her about.  Having been a former civil servant, I am appalled that what her customer looked like had any bearing on her fulfilling her duties.  (I must admit that I completely agree with responding to verbal attacks with reduced service).  Civil servants are basically the store clerks of the government.  Most have no authority and have to put up with a lot of abuse.

So, should she have been fired?  I have no idea.  But now we have a new flash news story, where the instant media is demanding action.  Apparently, the British head of British Petroleum (BP, the guys with the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico) is alleged to have been part of the negotiations to release the Lockerbie bomber.  For this, the press is demanding that he be fired.  I find this as bizarre as the firing of a USDA official.  If he was involved in the discussion, why not a public outcry when it happened?  Why wait until now when some in the government and many in the media want to punish BP for the oil rig accident?  (Editor’s note – Peter Rabbit wrote an article condemning the release last year – but indeed, the BP connection was not mentioned).

So what do we, as average people, know?  First we know that Tony Hayward is the CEO of BP and was in BP upper management at the time the Lockerbie bomber was released.  Second, we know (?) that BP was given drilling privileges off the cost of Libya after the release.  Third we know that BP officials (maybe Hayward) testified before the Scottish parliament for the release.  From this, he needs to be fired.  And the firing need to happen right now, with no trial or questions asked.

I truly fear that our society has no attention span, and no ability to discern logical cause and effect.  We are an instant gratification society.  We want the fastest internet -getting the news storey up first is more important than getting it right – and even the fastest food.  We complain about being fat, so we need instant weight reduction (no long term commitment or high effort), and we still eat fast food.  Perhaps we are just spoiled.  We expect and get fresh food all year long, we get 120 stations and TiVO so that we can watch anything we want instead of waiting for a show we want to watch.

In the end, let’s go back to the source of this rant.  Should these people be fired?  I don’t know.  Is it any of our business?  I say emphatically, NO!