Those of you who don't live here should consider yourself lucky. Tuesday it was 71 degrees, right now it is 23 on the way down to 18. Global warming my ass!!!! Let's melt those ice caps already, I want beach front property.
In what may best be considered a scattershot blog entry, here goes. Fantasy Update - Mixed bag this week as the yahoo team still sucks (3-7) and I am counting my lucky stars that I have no money involved in that league. EA Sports I have climbed over the .500 plateau, I am now 5-4-1 and only a half game out of a playoff spot. I like my chances in that league because I am scoring lots of points, I have the 5th best record, but I am third in points scored. We also get money for scoring the most points any week, 10 dollars per week. I have had the high score once and tied two other times, so I will at least get 20 dollars of my 55 dollar entry fee back. Myfantasyleague.com is more problematic. I am currently 4-5-1 which leaves me in 8th place out of ten teams. The top 6 make the playoffs, the top three make money, as well as the top three in total points scored. My record isn't great except the best record in the league is only 6-4 with 3 games to play, and the worst record is 4-6. It is literally the epitomy of parity, anyone who can put together a few good games could win it. Here is hoping that I am that somebody. Yes I am greedy like that.
Apparently there is a new documentary out this week, dealing with the evils of WalMart. I haven't seen it, nor do I plan on it. God forbid that someone, in this case Sam Walton, actually build a successful business. I hear all of the time how WalMart doesn't pay enough to it's employees, or doesn't have adequate health care and many other arguments for why people shouldn't shop there. I would ask a simple question, where do you buy your groceries? Because supermarkets by and large pay less than WalMart, so if we aren't going to shop at places that pay their employees less that a living wage (note there is a difference between the standard living wage, versus the minimum wage which is mandated by law, the living wage is the amount someone should be paid in order to live relatively comfortably, the last I heard a specific number attached to it, it was around $17 dollars an hour). If we are to boycott places that fail to pay a living wage, you can forget about almost all shopping endeavors, as the retail sector as a whole doesn't pay $17 dollars an hour. And going out to eat, you can forget that too. Restaurants don't pay their employees a living wage, and god forbid you are a waiter, because then you minimum wage is even lower still, as the current minimum wage is $5.15 and hour, but only $2.13 an hour for tipped employees, plus they are taxed on 7% of everything they sell (which is part of the reason that the standard gratuity is 15%, the first 7% is just to recoup the loss of waiting on your table). If you are just going to do a quick run for fast food, well those are minimum wage jobs as well, certainly not living wage jobs. The point is, that if we are going to boycott everyone who doesn't pay this phantom salary known as a living wage, then we aren't going to shop at all. And a boycott of that size will definitely put people out of work.
Now I am not arguing that WalMart is the best place to shop, or the best place to work. But let's be realistic in our arguments and compare WalMart to others within their own sector, as opposed to creating some artificial higher standard that they should be judged by simply because they have created a successful business model that others haven't copied as effectively. To slam WalMart simply because they are good at what they do stinks of envy, and not much more.
In other less pressing news, I will be on the radio again as a guest this coming Thursday. Doug is doing his "The Producers" show again this Thursday (Thanksgiving), where the guests on the show are the guys that have actually produced the show at one point or another. It's what we in the business call filler, it will get us through a day where phone calls aren't that likely. Nonetheless, if you are bored out of your skull on Thanksgiving, the audio link can be found at www.1360wptt.com and the show will air from 3pm-6pm EST on Turkey day.
For those of you who doubt I am a Democrat, I have but one thing to say to you, "Mark Warner for President in 2008". Now when you get around to finding out who Mark Warner is, you can tell me whether he is the best choice the Democrats can put up or not.
Anyone who wants a book that gives a in depth look at the American military from the soldier's perspective, I would reccommend picking up "Imperial Grunts" which is out in hardback right now. The author's name is slipping my mind, so you will have to google it, or amazon it, or do whatever it is you actually do, but the author did a number of imbeds with the troops, taking a six month imbed, then 6 months off, then another 6 months with the troops. The result is a detailed and sometimes positive, sometimes troubling account of what the men and women of the Armed Services go through on a daily basis, and not just it the places that get the headlines like Iraq and Afghanistan (though those two are in the book) but also Columbia, Yemen, Somalia, the Phillipines, and Mongolia just to name some other places he traveled. A fascinating read, a little detailed, which made finishing it somewhat of a chore (with my schedule it took me about a month, though I did read another book while I was reading that one) but it comes across to me as about the most accurate accounting of what is actually happening as opposed to what gets reported.
That is all for today kids, at least for now. I need to get some work done on this end, or I will be at work all day, and I would rather enjoy seeing Light Up Night to be perfectly honest.
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