The following is a transcript of two telephone conversations between #1 (8 years old) and me, earlier today:
Call 1:
(rings)
#1: Hello.
VFD: #1.
#1: Daddy.
VFD: Go ask mommy what time she needs me to be home.
#1: What.
VFD: Go. ask. mommy. what. time. she. needs. me. to. be. home.
#1: Okay (click)
Call 2 (moments later):
(rings)
#1: Hello?
VFD: Did you hang up on me?
#1: (exhasperated) I can't do both things at the same time, Daddy!
VFD: (explains about putting the phone down vs. hanging up)
Some telephone training is going on here. It is a minor irritant that it happens "on the job" but at least she managed to not hang up on me the second time. . . my Darling Wife wondered why #1 asked the same question twice, and LOL'd pretty hard when I explained the above conversations.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Monday, October 4, 2010
Well, That's It For England, Then.
When you can sue your boss for something a customer said at your business, when you were not there, and it was not directed at you, but sort-of was related to your third cousin (once removed), and win damages from your boss, your boss is sunk.
Welcome to the place where England used to be.
So, Britons, how's that whole "subjects" thing working out for you? Ever think about following our example, do you? No? Well, for heaven's sake don't joke about it at work!
Welcome to the place where England used to be.
So, Britons, how's that whole "subjects" thing working out for you? Ever think about following our example, do you? No? Well, for heaven's sake don't joke about it at work!
Professional Advice Be D----d
You know what? The pediatricians can take a hike. #4 was dead tired and so was my Darling Wife. Not only did he fall asleep at the breast, she fell asleep while he was at the breast. Let all the doctors and dentists and nutritionists put on their shocked faces and shake their heads at me. The fact remains: he was asleep enough to be picked up and set in his bed, and her reptilian female hind-brain instinctively covered her baby-feeding bits up, rolled her over, and she's also still asleep.
Who loses?
Who loses?
One Good Thing About Croneyism
. . . is that it helps create the appearance of impropriety.
One can only hope that this is as positive a sign as it seems to be. The next couple of decades will tell. Justice Kagan has recused herself from 'about' half of the cases the supreme Court of the United States will hear this term. She was partisan or at least definitely on one side of these matters, so her recusals are entirely appropriate. Here's hoping we get a few good solid 5-3 or better majority rulings on the Right side of a few liberty crushers.
One can only hope that this is as positive a sign as it seems to be. The next couple of decades will tell. Justice Kagan has recused herself from 'about' half of the cases the supreme Court of the United States will hear this term. She was partisan or at least definitely on one side of these matters, so her recusals are entirely appropriate. Here's hoping we get a few good solid 5-3 or better majority rulings on the Right side of a few liberty crushers.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Click-Through Day
Because I'm busy. Click through to the outrages at . . .
Mish's: One way to cut government spending: don't spend $78k on two donkeys without having a use for them
Naked Capitalism: It's just too much work to actually TELL you we're foreclosing on your house
Moonbattery: You didn't hear about the rally in D.C. this weekend either, but that's because neither of us is a member of the SEIU
Mish's: One way to cut government spending: don't spend $78k on two donkeys without having a use for them
Naked Capitalism: It's just too much work to actually TELL you we're foreclosing on your house
Moonbattery: You didn't hear about the rally in D.C. this weekend either, but that's because neither of us is a member of the SEIU
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Pockets Are For Stuff, Not For Hands
I do not allow my children to stand or walk around with their hands in their pockets. Sometimes if I see a grown-ass man with his hands in his pockets, I'll say to him "What do you have in your pocket?" Almost always, the response is "nothing" and/or a sheepish grin, and then their hands come out into plain view. Only once, and this was from a friend and smart-ass who was also tough as nails, did I ever hear back "A fist."
Besides that it demonstrates a bad/negative attitude or careless demeanor, shows pickpockets where to grab, and looks weak, cowardly, slovenly, disrespectful, lazy and unprofessional. Leave aside for the moment that is screws up your posture.
It lessens the physical readiness of the hand-pocketer to do much* with his hands. That includes, in this case the ability of a Marine to comply with the orders of Police who were tazing him (seven times), to show his hands. A copper who sees your hands in your pockets is on high alert because they can come up with anything from a gun or knife, to a drivers license, to nothing. With your hands in your pockets you are telling a policeman you may intend to kill him, unless you demonstrate otherwise. So they went ahead and killed this guy**.
Unless you are retrieving something stowed in them, stowing something in them, or teaching a child to ride a bike, keep your hands out of your pockets.
********
**Tunnel vision and adrenaline rushes aside, this was a Bad Shoot. SRSLY you taser a dude and he won't take his hands out of his pockets while he's paralyzed so you shoot him WTF!
*If you see ME with my hand in my pocket and the circumstances are looking sketchy, relax. I'm just holding my gun or knife to comfort myself. ;)
Besides that it demonstrates a bad/negative attitude or careless demeanor, shows pickpockets where to grab, and looks weak, cowardly, slovenly, disrespectful, lazy and unprofessional. Leave aside for the moment that is screws up your posture.
It lessens the physical readiness of the hand-pocketer to do much* with his hands. That includes, in this case the ability of a Marine to comply with the orders of Police who were tazing him (seven times), to show his hands. A copper who sees your hands in your pockets is on high alert because they can come up with anything from a gun or knife, to a drivers license, to nothing. With your hands in your pockets you are telling a policeman you may intend to kill him, unless you demonstrate otherwise. So they went ahead and killed this guy**.
Unless you are retrieving something stowed in them, stowing something in them, or teaching a child to ride a bike, keep your hands out of your pockets.
********
**Tunnel vision and adrenaline rushes aside, this was a Bad Shoot. SRSLY you taser a dude and he won't take his hands out of his pockets while he's paralyzed so you shoot him WTF!
*If you see ME with my hand in my pocket and the circumstances are looking sketchy, relax. I'm just holding my gun or knife to comfort myself. ;)
Against Quotas In Police Work
During an hours-long conversation I had with a local policeman from the city (my the city), the subject of quotas came up. This was a patrolman who spent the night by himself every night, doing as he saw fit unless there as a call to which he had to respond. He was quite clear on this point: They do not have quotas. I mentioned that averages were enough to make a budget off of, and he agreed. He also said that, if someone were significantly underperforming, his Sergeant would likely tell them "Hey, work more!"
Quotas create sloppiness, unless they are so low as to be useless. If, on the other hand, your police agency is so big that the brass can't keep abreast of what the street cops are doing (remember: can't means won't) then a poor manager might set a quota of approximately normal levels of police work. A manager that should be fired might try to make himself look good, or his officers look/feel bad, or (worse) actually try to increase the amount of cases they work by setting a high quota.
Quotas make for shoddy policing. They are what a manager might do instead of managing his men more directly.
And they get innocent people killed dead. Yes, really. Johnny Law provides the perspective of an honest cop on one such incident. This sort of thing is one reason why up-and-up Police Departments don't use quotas. Not only because they sound crooked, but because they encourage crooked, and the citizenry they are supposed to serve ends up in deadly danger.
Quotas create sloppiness, unless they are so low as to be useless. If, on the other hand, your police agency is so big that the brass can't keep abreast of what the street cops are doing (remember: can't means won't) then a poor manager might set a quota of approximately normal levels of police work. A manager that should be fired might try to make himself look good, or his officers look/feel bad, or (worse) actually try to increase the amount of cases they work by setting a high quota.
Quotas make for shoddy policing. They are what a manager might do instead of managing his men more directly.
And they get innocent people killed dead. Yes, really. Johnny Law provides the perspective of an honest cop on one such incident. This sort of thing is one reason why up-and-up Police Departments don't use quotas. Not only because they sound crooked, but because they encourage crooked, and the citizenry they are supposed to serve ends up in deadly danger.
Police Limit
While I get over my headache subsequent to a bellyache, I'm reading the archives of the now-inactive Johnny Law Chronicals. He pointed us to Police Limit, a comic strip about what policemen have to deal with. The honesty, it is brutal . . .
Friday, October 1, 2010
You Stay Classy, Democrats Media!
They're trying to make a big national flapdoodle over a non-issue in the California Governor's race, but when is the last time you heard a "reporter" say anything about a liar/tax cheat running for the Senate in Illinois?
Ho-hum, how very uninteresting!
From instapundit
Ho-hum, how very uninteresting!
From instapundit
Whitman Did The Right Thing(s).
Democrat party problem: Meg Whitman wins huge with the people when it comes to the important issues of the day. The obvious solution: duck the issues and try to smear her. Secondary problem: she's looking pretty clean. Solution: have an Obamunist lawyer dig up someone she fired for being an illegal ailen, as soon as she found out she was illegal, and then try to make it look like she was hiring illegals on purpose.
Problem: Whitman went out of her way to see that her housekeeper was present legally in the USA and treated and paid her well. The so-called smoking gun letter from the IRS doesn't say anything about the subject. Whitman and her husband did the right thing and dismissed the woman as soon as they discovered her illegal status. You should support her all the more for this, and I think the intelligent voters in California (ahem) will see it that way.
The press and the Democrat party (but I repeat myself) think you are stupid, so they are trying to gin up false charges. Don't fall for it, and don't vote Democrat for Governor in California again, unless you just love that perpetual $20B budget shortfall.
Problem: Whitman went out of her way to see that her housekeeper was present legally in the USA and treated and paid her well. The so-called smoking gun letter from the IRS doesn't say anything about the subject. Whitman and her husband did the right thing and dismissed the woman as soon as they discovered her illegal status. You should support her all the more for this, and I think the intelligent voters in California (ahem) will see it that way.
The press and the Democrat party (but I repeat myself) think you are stupid, so they are trying to gin up false charges. Don't fall for it, and don't vote Democrat for Governor in California again, unless you just love that perpetual $20B budget shortfall.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
