For 8 boxes of printer paper, an undrafted rookie, and two 4th round picks in the upcoming engineering draft.

After spending my first 7 months working on the totally sweet hotcake Sovereign and its warm fuzzy giving modern structure, I've been reassigned to old school CJ1+/2+/3 line with a passing interest in the inbreed cousin of the Citation family, the XLS. I was about 3 months away from getting a bit rutted, so this is a probably a net positive. I'm not psyched however, about having to convince a new set of foremen that I know what I'm doing and that I'll get to their problems whenever I damn well please.

As much as I disdain the government subsidized television, I’ve got to admit that they do offer a venue for quality programming that would not have otherwise been broadcast on a large scale. Most recently, I’ve discovered the program Independent Lens. I’m not sure what their angle is because I’ve only seen 2 of their programs, one of which being a well made documentary on the large numbers of South Koreans sneaking into China and the underground railroad of Chinese citizens helping them.

Up until now I’ve been operating under the impression that the radical Islamic regions of the world were the most desolate and oppressive places to exist, and that Sub-Saharan Africa was the most impoverished area on the planet. But now, I’m pretty sure North Korea trumps everywhere in both arenas of despair.

Imagine a place with a complete lack of tolerance, with little rule of law beyond the principle of “might makes right”. Imagine such a corruptly communist country where there is no god but the government and the sacred ruler. Imagine dismal poverty, corrupt systems, and no legal freedoms. It’s a bleak picture, so it’s no surprise that thousands of its citizens attempt to escape for a chance at the land of the free.

Now, imagine the conditions that must exist to get thousands to risk their lives in an attempt to sneak INTO that country. If you can begin to comprehend that, you may be able to grasp at the great unknown that is the life of North Korean citizenry. Literally thousands of North Koreans are risking jail and death for the chance of being a second-class citizen in one of the most oppressive places in the world, China.

With the shear resourcefulness of the human spirit, it would take a concerted effort to produce the kind of poverty and fear that exist there. Millions of pounds of food sent in by the international community, and children are still eating from the muddy streets. It reminds me of every movie depiction of middle-age European serfdom and baffles my mind to think such conditions are still present.

Gloom, gloom, gloom, gloom, gloom, gloom, gloom!

It’s overcast and gray, it’s spitting cold rain on the way too lately salted sidewalks. I’ve got a twinge of a head cold and all I want to do is lie on my couch and play the Xbox. I can’t muster up enough will to vacuum the repeatedly tracked in rock salt. So I keep walking over it and thoroughly diffusing the salt concentration evenly throughout my not-so-clean apartment.

I can’t even bring myself to cook something decent, which I honest enjoy doing, to I subsist on frozen pizza, hamburger helper, and bowls of cereal at 2 in the afternoon.

Happy 6-month Workiversary!

because quite frankly, I'm much smarter than you:
TOG's Semi-Official Weekly List

The Over-hyped:
USA Today
Winter Sports
Scientology
Pens

Got the Upside:
Christmas Lists
NFL Playoffs
Optimism
Pencils

When I am old and crotchety, I will not take orders from people younger than me. I’ll be the cranky old guy who complains about the whipper-snappers and their lack of fundamentals and their crazy rap music. My arguments for such activity will not even border the logical.

And quite frankly, I don’t know how all the middle-age shop guys stand having me tell them what to do, despite my overly cordial and apologetic tone.

It turns out, I was right You all look stupid.

Chalk another one up to my eternal wisdom.

In today’s USA today there’s a tiny tidbit of opinion buried on page 14A that intrigued me. The general premise was very much 'Vox Populi Vox Deo'. Automakers as widening seats because more people are fat and governments are banning smoking in the workplace because more people don’t smoke. With a head fake toward relevancy, the unnamed author draws the contrast of not smoking being good for you and obesity being bad for you. Oh but for the precious gift of insight, he/she immediately reels you in with a single sentence paragraph on the superficial dichotomy of the whole thing.

The cited dichotomy isn’t the only thing that’s superficial. The casual and unapologetic equating of a free market response to changing consumer needs to a gross and forced invasion of privacy and breech of liberty and property absolutely sickens me.

A coy justification like “democracy rules” is an embarrassment to logic. It is such horrible hero worship personified in today’s obsession with “Democracy” that irks my blood and has for years. The emotional sentiment is right; the process does matter more than the outcome, but the faith is entirely misplaced.

A law requiring a wider auto seat and a market toward smoke free environments would bring about the same results, more comfortable car rides and less smoky dinners. The will of the electorate is no substitute for the rights of a minority. That is what most people fail to recognize; the consequences of bucking the trend. In a free market, if you don’t chase the desires of the customer you may find yourself with a lighter treasury. If you don’t follow the governmental mandate, you’ll find yourself staring at the business end of a gun.

Quite simply, the answer is force. And where force is concerned, the voice of the people is not the voice of god.

Fresh off a week of holiday overindulgence and gross indifference it's...
TOG's Semi-Official Weekly List

The Over-hyped:
Coal Mining
Natural Disasters
Trials in the News
Diets

Got the Upside:
The Dollar
Space Tourism
Indie Films