02 Oct 2006
Back To Our Regularly Scheduled Ranting

Well, I suppose a bit of a report is due for the lack of activity here last week. Things went from bad to worse last Tuesday, unbelievable as that seems.

Basically, my daughter (Hilary) now has total joint custody of her children with her estranged husband - or perhaps I should say her mother-in-law, which is where the kids mysteriously end up when they are in his custody. They have been ordered to remain in the State of Minnesota and not to leave for any reason. Draconian doesn't begin to describe this: apparently it is the deeming of the Minnesota judiciary that I will never see my grandchildren without a trip to the north. And it effectively insures that my mother - their great-grandmother, will not see them again. Not even at her funeral.

Furthermore, said mother-in-law has filed a petition to get visitation on her own and separate from her son's time - that is, she wants her grandparent visitation rights enforced on my daughter's time with the children!

We've filed counter-claims and motions and petitions of our own, of course, and Hilary has paid for every one. While they get their legal counsel for free. I'm beginning to get the distinct impression that the proverbial deck is stacked against her.

"Outrageous" doesn't begin to describe this fiasco, but it'll have to do for the time being. At least in public. Because "cluster-fuck" just isn't an appropriate thing to say in many circumstances.

That will be my last trip for a while: we're broke, I'm a really and truly a full time farmer, and it'll be struggle to keep food on the table and a roof over our heads. We'll do it, but we can forget any extras for the time being.

The way I'm set up here is such that farming doesn't have to be full time: I have many hours I could be doing something else ("You want fries with that?"). There's not a lot of coding work about, and I'd hate to put myself back into that pressure cooker anyway, if I can avoid it. So I'm going to be cogitating the possibilities: one suggestion was to find a radio gig as a talk show host! I can rant, no doubt, but would anyone want to hear my screeds? Perhaps we'll find out...

07:51 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

Ah, the Warmth of Human Contact

How many times have we seen misery spread over misconstrued comments in email or via IM? There's even a slang term for it: "flame war". And even the telephone suffers from this ability to obfuscate meaning - nothing can replace a face-to-face.

Electronic communication is nearly instantaneous, essentially wiping out time and distance. But what is being said using all this marvelous technology? That's what really matters. Commentary by Tony Long.

(link) [Wired]

07:31 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

GOP leaders slam Foley amid criticism

And this is a guy who slammed Clinton for his little tryst in the Oral Oval Office, calling it "vile". At least Monica was over 18, buddy!

The sooner we eject this lying pack of politicking hypocrites from Congress, the better.

House Republican leaders mounted an effort to explain their own conduct after the resignation of Rep. Mark Foley and suggested there should be a criminal investigation of Foley's contacts with congressional pages. The scandal comes just weeks before the November 7 midterm elections, and Republicans were hurriedly trying to find someone to replace Foley.

(link) [CNN]

07:27 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Art Teacher Loses Job After Kids See Nude Sculpture

Shades of John Ashcroft!

An award-winning Texas art teacher who was reprimanded after one of her fifth-grade students saw a nude sculpture during a trip to a museum has lost her job.

(link) [Raw Story]

07:24 /Politics | 1 comment | permanent link

Wal-Mart to Add More Part-Timers and Wage Caps

I'd really like to pick on Wal-Mart here, but in reality the real problems leading to this kind of "solution" are much more widespread.

Start with healthcare costs: where is the incentive in the system to minimize them? Doctors certainly don't have one anymore, and neither do insurance companies, due to the sue-happy nature of patients who've been second-guessed and lose body parts. So the cost cutting falls on the ultimate payer, the company with the covered employee.

But of course that backfires, too, in bad PR (like this) and sick or unproductive workers. Medically speaking, this is cutting off your nose to spite your face!

It's an insoluble situation until drastic actions are taken - and those actions would be very politically painful. Don't hold your breath waiting to see serious healthcare reform anytime soon - but you can bank on seeing much more of this type of internal "reform" every day.

The company says the changes are to better serve customers. Workers say they reduce already modest incomes and strain employees’ personal lives.

(link) [New York Times]

07:13 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link