RUDY BABY

RUDY BABY

(FRAZER CHRONICLE)

(All the News That Nobody Else Will Print)

Rudolph William Louis “Rudy” Giuliani is hacking again, this time it’s the United States president that he’s barking about. You see he doesn’t think that President Obama loves the United States or the people in it. “I do not believe, and I know this is a horrible thing to say, but I do not believe that the president loves America.”

 

Wow I am personally flabbergasted; I had no idea that it was necessary for the president of the United States to love the United States. I just assumed that it was a given that the president did love the United States. Why wouldn’t he, after all he’d (President Obama) had made hundreds of thousands of dollars while working for first the Illinois political system, and then in the highest office in the land.

 

But you know old Rudy, the prosecutor in him just popped out at a private group dinner in Manhattan, according to Politico. The dinner happened Wednesday, February 18 and featured presidential hopeful Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. In front of Walker and 60 right-leaning business executives and conservative media types, he directly challenged Obama’s patriotism, discussing what he called weak foreign policy decisions and questionable public remarks when confronting terrorists.

 

To me, as a regular blogger, and reader of current events more than the average person, I found Rudy’s remarks a bit, no actually, I find his remarks humorous as hell. What a buffoon, what a village idiot…..and really, who cares.

 

Giuliani was on a roll (and I don’t mean bagel) and just warming up during the dinner as the key-note speaker, or if he wasn’t the key-note speaker, he definitely took on that roll. Talk about a guy who was full of love, it’d be Rudy on this night. He lamented further about Obama’s lack of love by saying that he (the president) didn’t love me (Giuliani) and he doesn’t love you.

 

Clearly the speech made the wanna-be governor from Wisconsin, Walker just a bit nervous and his aides said the Giuliani’s comments were off the record.

 

“What country has left so many young men and women dead abroad to save other countries without taking land”?  “This is not a colonial empire that somebody has in his hands.” Like I said, “Rudy was on a roll.”

 

To my way of thinking when somebody talks publicly about a high ranking politician, and they are a high ranking individual, he’d better use a whole bunch of caution for obvious reasons. I suppose the least of which would be so that he/she doesn’t make themselves look like a fool.

 

Does President Obama love the United States, sure, why wouldn’t he, what possible advantage would be gained by not loving the country that one is a citizen in. I love America, but I don’t agree with a multitude of issues…..but down at the end of the day I still love my country.

 

I do have to agree with good old Rudy on one point though…..I don’t really love Rudy either…..ugh he’s not my type.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!

AND THIS IS A NICE JOB?

AND THIS IS A NICE JOB?

(FRAZER CHRONICLE)

(All the News That Nobody Else Will Print)

Officer McGillum approached the dark colored Cadillac with caution, it was early on a Saturday morning, about 3:30 A.M. and he’d made this stop because the big car was weaving from lane to lane for about two miles on the stretch of interstate 71.

 

When the officer, who had three years of experience on the job, got about even with the driver-side window he heard a tremendous explosion and felt a stinging pain in his right shoulder. One of the occupants of the Cadillac had shot at, and hit, the three year veteran of the Missouri State Patrol force.

 

For whatever reason the trooper hit the dirt, and in the same motion drew his service revolver and opened fire. He figured that he got a couple of shots off before the Cadillac sped off down the road, leaving McGillum flat on his back with a bullet hole in his right shoulder.

 

It was the first time that McGillum had been shot at; much less hit…..and it would be his last day as a Missouri State Trooper. McGillum reasoned that there had to be a better way to make a living then get shot at by either street punks or a couple of people out drinking and partying on a Saturday night.

 

McGillum’s pay at the time of the shooting…..$49,218 a year plus benefits. He’d started out three years earlier at $34,452 per year. Of course there the usual benefits that all Missouri state employees are entitled to, but for McGillum the string had run out. He had a wife and two kids and wanted to see them grow-up.

 

The above is a fictional story of a make-believe police officer living and working as a cop in Missouri. I used it to illustrate what might happen to a state trooper in any state in the union, or in any city on any given night.

 

It ain’t easy to be a peace officer in the 21^st century; it’s a job that I never even considered during my youth. I don’t believe that there’s a cop out there that didn’t actually feel some sort of calling for the profession. I think for the vast majority of cops throughout the United States today, their original feeling was that they wanted to make a difference.

 

I can tell you this without an ounce of trepidation, most are a better man and person then I was or am. I’m a passionate person, but I draw the line at people shooting at me, or wanting to harm me because I represent authority and the law.

 

BUT…..THAT SAID

But there is a plan afoot here in Wisconsin by Governor Scott Walker to raise Wisconsin State Troopers pay by 17%. This guy (Walker) is the same guy whose middle name is “cut it”, I’ve read the article that was penned by Patrick Marley in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel frontwards and backwards and can’t understand the meaning of the words in the article.

 

State Troopers haven’t had a raise since 2009 and that is shameful, but one of the only unions that has backed the governor throughout his stent in office has been the cop union. Is this payback, I don’t think that the answer to the question needs a Rhodes Scholar to answer…..OF COURSE ITS PAYBACK!

 

I would hate to think that the state’s top law enforcement organization is living in a bubble, however reading some of the responses would seem as if they do. A Wisconsin legislature talked about a 17% raise as “intolerable”. One trooper responded…..”I think that it’s intolerable that the proposed raise isn’t higher.”

 

It seems to me as if both the pros and the cons of this issue are missing the reality of how the real world operates in the 21^st century. I call it the “garbage collector’s syndrome”, garbage collector’s jobs in the public sector were never meant to be $40 something dollar jobs. Believe it or not there isn’t a college degree connected with either driving a garbage truck, or throwing refuse into the truck…..but that’s what the job pays here in Green Bay.

 

People talk about the benefits connected with a public sector job, and how valuable those benefits are, and it’s true. My wife worked for the City of Green Bay, was retired almost three years ago and both her and I are reaping some of the cities medical benefits. She also has a nice pension courtesy of the city…..so Mr. State Trooper don’t waste my time crying about no raise in the past whatever years, maybe you should be counting your blessings instead.

 

I don’t have a hard spot for law enforcement, quite the contrary, I appreciate their efforts with regards to law enforcement and to being there during a personal accident, or a major disaster, it’s really when they are needed.

 

But I also know the other side of the coin, their brotherhood mentality, the prevailing attitude of never being questioned, and their cynical demeanor. I also view a cop as a man with a gun who can commit human atrocities against the general public in a random fashion.

 

In short I simply do not trust the law, any branch of the law, local, regional, state or federal. To my way of thinking these guys aren’t to be trusted. Police bring but two things to the table, and one of those things is bad, it can be incarceration at best, and physical harm at the worst.

 

How do I know about the bad side of policing, well how many of you has been roughed up when you were taken into custody for driving while intoxicated, or know of somebody who has? I could care less what the bozo boozer says or does short of a physical confrontation, to ring somebody’s bell while in custody because he’s drunk is a blatant abuse of authority. People can die from these kinds of games.

 

Now I’m not saying that there is any kind of shenanigans going on with the Wisconsin State Troopers just because they want a raise. Hell they can take a bullet, get hit with a fist, spit at and missed and pissed on and hit. Many, many times Troopers have a thankless job plus they deal with some of the scum of the earth on pretty much a daily basis.

 

The way I look at a police officer on any level is that they are a necessary evil, it’s the damned if you do and damned if you don’t syndrome. If we, as the states citizenry could simply learn to curb our inhibitions, and treat people the same way we want to be treated, the need for law enforcement would go down exponentially. But I don’t look for that to happen any time soon, so I guess we’re saddled with the silly system that’s in place.

 

ONE PARTING SHOT

This may not be germane to this article, but I simply can’t let it pass by without bringing up the topic of who is leading the Wisconsin State Patrol. State Patrol superintendent Stephen Fitzgerald, either 72, or about to turn 72 years of age has been the top state trooper since the early spring of 2011. Appointed by the then new Governor Scott Walker, Fitzgerald just happens to be the father of Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald.

 

The elder Fitzgerald zoomed over the heads of other candidates, acting Superintendent David Collins, Col. Ben Mendez, Maj. Sandra Huxtable, Maj. Darren Price, and Maj. Daniel Lonsdorf. Nepotism…..absolutely not was the reaction at the top of the appointment by Glen Jones, president of the Wisconsin State Troopers Association.

 

The appointment was made by Department of Transportation Secretary Mark Gottieb, but Governor had heavy input on the decision. Steven Fitzgerald had, at the time more than 40 years of experience in the policing industry.

 

I raise this issue for one simple reason, between the Fitzgerald brothers wages, combined more than $112,000 per year, and per diem, $184 per day times 100 days…..and daddy’s $105,700 per year and the benefit package that’s got to be worth more than $50,000 combined, the state of Wisconsin taxpayers are shelling out a total of  $236,100.

 

Now that’s what I call a slice of heaven that I’d love to be involved in…..do I sound jealous, I sure hope so, I’m piling on pretty heavy in hopes of convincing you readers just how I feel about the non-nepotism position of the elder Fitzgerald. Do you think that the Fitzgerald brothers will be lobbying for daddy’s raise????????

HAVE A NICE DAY!

FOREIGN RELATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES CIRCA 2015

FOREIGN RELATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES CIRCA 2015

(FRAZER CHRONICLE)

(All the News That Nobody Else Will Print)

Foreign relations between the United States and other countries varies from excellent to worse than poor. When the United States makes treaties with other nations, or when it sends ambassadors abroad, it is practicing foreign policy. And as we all should know, US foreign policy’s main goal is to preserve and strengthen the position of the United States as an independent and sovereign nation…..in other words, secure and maintain the best possible position for American business.

 

In my younger days I was foolish enough to think that the United States was fighting to give other countries freedom and the chance for prosperity…..for all the people. It was kind of the old axiom, “when I was young I thought as a young person, and as I grew older…..I became more cynical”. I long for those days of youth and innocence, you remember, when things were easy, and what you didn’t quite grasp, you passed on to somebody else to worry about.

 

It is pretty much an excepted opinion that the United States actually created some of the terrorism organizations that not only the United States is dealing with, but the rest of those countries that are allied with the US, and even those that are not.

 

Terrorism is a word that is used in everyday news story, and the term is used to describe everything from gorilla style warfare against U.S. troops overseas to the mass murder of civilians in the name of ideological and political agendas. Also today, due to the US political context, most Americans automatically associate terrorism with radical right-wing Islamic extremism.

 

The United States government and military uses semantics in every news release that is aired, whether on the radio or television, and is written in newspapers. Terrorists don’t execute prisoners, they murder them, terrorists don’t militarily invade an enemy, they commit terrorist’s acts and threaten peace loving individuals. Without exceptions terrorists are pictured in black garb and masks to hide their identity while the US and her allies are shown in a more favorable light.

 

TALK ABOUT SEMANTICS

There are so many talking points about the war on terror, so many people watching, listening, and then throwing in their own opinion (like me) that a politician, or somebody in the private sector needs to be aware of what he says…..pretty much because whatever you say just might be targeted and made an exception of.

 

It’s exactly what happened to President Obama at the National Prayer Breakfast when he suggested we get off our “high horse”, reminding the audience that the West had its own history of “terrible deeds” in the name of religion, including the Crusades, the Inquisition and slavery.

 

Of course the remarks touched off a predictable firestorm, and critics pounced, including cry-baby” look-alike Ted Cruz. “Words like radical Islamic terrorism do not come out of the president’s mouth. The word jihad does not come out of the president’s mouth…..and that is dangerous”.

 

And there were others, Republicans and conservatives all who came forward to bash the president, they were the usual suspects who seem to be waiting in the wings to jump out and attack whenever some liberal Democrat makes a slip of the lip and says something stupid. President Obama is not stupid, just kind of outspoken, careless, and full of himself…..in other words, he’s normal like the rest of us.

 

There are so many misconceptions about what a terrorist is, or why they actually would rather blow themselves to smithereens, and in the process take out four, five, or twenty civilians, that is unfathomable for most people in the West to grasp much less understand.

 

But the verbiage that one uses…..anyone, is inconsequential, these people, mostly Muslims, just use the words to justify their means. Many, many of these people are misguided, are being manipulated and taken advantage of. President Obama could have said “red rover, red rover let Joey come over”, and some terrorists sitting someplace could have taken exception, and either strapped himself with bombs, or wired somebody else so that somebody could have blown some infidels up…..it’s mostly how they operate.

 

You see I don’t believe that we here in the United States are really at war, if we were really at war efforts would be balls to the walls. It’s what happened in 1917-18, and again in late 1941, it’s the United States Modus-operandi, we take some crap, debate one with the other, and when something happens, and the United States raises up and doesn’t take any names, the United States just goes out and kicks butt.

 

And sadly this “kicking butt” does not take into account whether the cause is right or wrong, US citizens only know that there is a threat, it has to be dealt with…..so by God, get the lead out, and let’s get at the business of war. Semitics down at the end of the road has very little to do with how the United States reacts to a threat.          

 

MODERN TERRORISTS

Without exception down through the annuals of human history the acts of terrorism have been practiced and actually refined. Massacre is another word for terrorism and every country on the face of the planet has practiced the act during their history.

 

Russia during its time of civil disobedience, Germany during the 1^st and 2^nd world wars, Japan on many occasions, France, Great Britain, Australia and of course the United States. Each country, plus hundreds more used the brutal practices of human degradation as a tool of fear, genocide and control.

 

The United States is no better or worse throughout its history for how they have dealt with their enemies as well as those undesirables that were living in the continual United States. What has been worse, at least as far as the United States actions are concerned is the fact that powers that be felt that they were entitled to act in a terroristic manner because they were freeing people, or protecting their (US) property or natural resource extraction.

 

It was the late 1960’s that the modern international terrorists got their start, when the Palestinian secular movements such as Al Fatah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, (PFLP) began to target civilians outside the immediate area of conflict.

 

It was during this time that, in 1967, after the defeat by Israel forces of Arab forces, Palestine leaders realized that that the Arab world was unable to militarily confront Israel. At the same time there was lessons learned from revolutionary movements in Latin America, Southeast Asia as well as during the Jewish struggle against Britain in Palestine, saw the Palestinians move away from classic guerrilla, typically rural-based warfare toward urban Terrorism. Radical Palestinians took advantage of modern communications and transportation systems to internationalize their struggle. They launched a series of highjackings, kidnappings, bombings and shootings, culminating with the killings at the Olympic Games in Munich in 1972.

 

From 1972 on the words”terrorism, terror, or terrorists” begin to make the small hairs on the necks of security officials throughout the world stand up on end. The making of terrorists, or a terror cell was born out of necessity, and most everybody knows what happens when something is a necessity…..you sometimes get the mother of all inventions.

 

HOW DOES THIS ALL TIE IN WITH UNITED STATES FOREIGN POLICY?

Glad you asked the question, it proves that you’re reading my blog. What do you think would happen if every single American military installation pulled up stakes, and returned home to the United States…..bag and baggage?

 

That question is easy to answer…..war for the United States would be over, we could sleep in, and believing that every day was like Saturday. We could put a huge 30’ high fence around our boarders, keeping all the immigrants locked out…..so folks, we got to first take care of our own…..it’s our new prime directive!

 

Military people would have to be assimilated back into normal society, while some, in critical positions would remain as a skeleton crews, serving as active soldiers, say maybe 500,000. These people would maintain military machinery, or putting the war wagons into moth-balls.

 

It would be…..it could be the most exciting time in the history of the United States, everybody would benefit from the fruits of their labor…..because everybody that was able to work, would. “What, huh,” do I hear a dissenter in the crowd, do I hear about our enemies, about jobs, about international trade, about our criminal element, about terrorists plots which involved our allies, do I hear something like…..”where will everybody work”. Again, glad you asked that question.”

 

Number 1 our enemies won’t be our enemies cause we won’t be threatening them anymore with our foreign policies. Number 2 jobs, well gee pal; we could finally as a people develop our assets to their fullest potential. The United States of America has been bestowed with a bountiful abundance of natural resources of all types…..plenty for everybody to flourish on, and work to harvest some of that bountiful resource. Number 3, international trade, it could continue, but more on a level playing field, and be strictly operated by whatever our Federal Government finally looked like.

 

And finally our criminal element, sadly that would remain; there are of course some bad parts in any dream. But one of the things that we would have to clean up would be that criminal side of our society. But on the bright side, there would be more jobs where people could work, and for some, that work chance might just tip the scales of crime.

 

Look at me; here I started out wanting to berate the United States foreign policies, and the apparatus that administers it. I have little left to say with regards to the current practice, and the reasons for how foreign policies are taken care of…..and by whom.

 

If we ceased to have embassies, if we ceased to have ambassadors, and if we discontinued to honor, or make treaties with our allies, and if we started to treat all people with dignity and respect we could actually rewrite how people view the United States of America…..now wouldn’t that be something!

HAVE A NICE DAY!

 

DO POOR KIDS IN U.S. DESERVE A GOOD EDUCATION?

DO POOR KIDS IN U.S. DESERVE A GOOD EDUCATION?

(FRAZER CHRONICLE)

(All the News That Nobody Else Will Print)

Golly gee, let’s see, I’m not really sure, and is this a loaded question…..and what about the rich kids what do they deserve? A thorny question for sure, not complicated, just thorny, why you might ask is the question thorny, easy, the way kids are educated, and the education that they have access to is one of the corner-stones of the nations success. Not just the United States, but the entire world’s success depends on educating its citizens, and as we as a species continue to grow and broaden our horizons, peoples education will be more important.

 

The educational problem that we have here in the United States is really emblematic of a world-wide problem. As the opportunity for a primary and secondary college preparatory education is hindered and actually withheld from a section of people…..in the end the entire world suffers from the blunted activity of either intentionally, or by accident, keeping young people uneducated and ignorant, there will always be a distinction of the classes.

 

Today in the United States there actually is 12% of the population that is uneducated, or people with only some education, around 33,000,000. How can this be, by what thread of political activity can allow this situation to happen here in the United States?

 

Then there’s  the middle lower class, and the upper lower class…..are you getting all of this…..and some actually deny that the United States is based on classes of people…..right. Disregarding the uneducated bottom of the U.S. barrel labor force, those people who work at a temporary service making the prevailing minimum wage, and rely on governmental entitlements to exist on, the working poor can have an annual taxable income of between $20,000 and $40,000 a year.

 

These $20 to $40,000 income people have a high school education, a GED or some college, and the higher of these, the $40,000 people drive an automobile. That’s right, some people in the United States do not drive a car, and they don’t have a driver’s license, this is true, I know a couple of people like this…..no car or license, or they drive illegally.

 

Of course there’s the middle class, lower, middle and upper, a whole bunch of people’s favorite class cause that’s where most of us live. This group makes between $50,000 and $600,000 a year, have some college, or a college degree, they own their home and struggle their entire lives to amass as much net worth as they can…..but usually count only their home as their net worth.

 

Then there’s the upper or wealthy class of people, the crème-de-la-crème, those people who make $600,000 to whatever because I can’t count that high. Almost without exception these people are educated either from a state or private institution, and count their net worth in multiple property investments, or in multi-millions.

 

THE CRUX OF THE PROBLEM AT LEAST HERE IN THE U.S.

The problem that we have here in the United States is several fold, and gaining a college education isn’t really one of the solutions. Gaining a college educations is a middle class mirage,  a myth, a college degree is not a ticket to a successful life in the business world, to a better life financially….. to a beautiful blond wife,  2.5 kids, and an idyllic happy life.

 

With very little exception, a person coming from the lower strata of middle class will be saddled with a huge educational mortgage that can take as long as twenty or thirty years to pay off…..if that ever happens. You see a bankruptcy action cannot include an educational debt that was accrued during those wild and alcohol, drug hazed days of youth.

 

When a college degreed person reaches into his/her thirties or worse, forties, and the life has been straightened out through the attrition of marriage, kids, a home mortgage and car payments, the folly of how much is being paid for that scroll on the wall becomes increasingly immaterial at its best.

 

For some with just a few of the above mentioned problems, disillusionment with how they have governed their lives is probably the best of the consequences that have grabbed their life. Now this doesn’t happen to everybody, there are people out there who grab the bull by the-----, and rectify their lives, and become well adjusted, happy and productive people…..however we aren’t talking about those people, they’re getting along just fine, thank you.

 

We are talking about those people who for whatever reason have sunk into the pit that they dug themselves when their school loan was approved, and just before they drank their first beer, and smoked their first dooby. Strangely these people’s struggles didn’t start with the student loan, the beer, and the weed; it started at home, way along time ago when they first stepped into kindergarten.

 

Almost from the crib, there was a push by the parents, and even the grandparents to get little Johnny straight away into a college prep situation as quickly as possible. The little shaver was the vanguard of the family now, the hope for the future, not only of the family, but possibly the country, and dare it be dreamt…..the world.

 

IT’S A LOAD OF CRAP

Poor little Johnny, he was sold a bill of goods from his first gulp of air, and by his parents, relatives and environment, in many ways the little shaver is doomed. What a huge burden for a kid to have to carry around on his back, no wonder he partied in college.

 

The process of educational situations here in the United States needs to be completely revamped…..but don’t hold your breath; it ain’t going to happen overnight, or even in my lifetime if ever. There’s way too many fingers in the educational pie for the current practices to cease.

 

College loans are like house mortgages, really bad ideas, and poor business planning. I bought my house for $75,000 back in 2001, and by the time I get it all paid off (I won’t live that long) more than $350,000 will have been shelled out for it. In which way is that a good business move for me, it ain’t, because a $100,000 education…..with a loan will end up costing well over $300,000…..good luck with that one.

 

Here’s how we can solve this educational and class distinction problem that has been dogging our society for decades all in one swell swoop. From kindergarten through the 9^th grade every student is educated in the same way (of course this excludes the affluent) as a secondary type system.

 

At the end of the 9^th grade, every student takes an aptitude test which pigeon holes them into specific areas through the test apparatus. These kids are then put into a trade school situation, whether for plumbing, mechanic, truck driver, a carpenter, or a nuclear scientist, or doctor. Whatever the 9^th grade test indicates their areas of expertise.

 

These students are then retested after their 11^th grade year, and are revalued to see if their aptitude has changed after the specialized education, and on the job training. If there is a career change that is necessary, then at this time the change can be made.

 

Of course if a graduate wants to further his/her education there will be two or four year educations that will be available…..at the taxpayers’ expense. That’s right, what a novel idea, taxpayers paying for a young person’s education rather than sending him off to some bum----Egypt to get his butt shot off, and then us taxpayer’s will have to foot his rehabilitation…..or worse, pay for his altered life-style the rest of his natural life.

 

BITE ON THIS ONE FOR A WHILE

HAVE A NICE DAY!

ASHLEY FURNITURE…..BEAUTIFUL BUT DANGEROUS?

ASHLEY FURNITURE…..BEAUTIFUL BUT DANGEROUS?

(FRAZER CHRONICLE)

(All the News That Nobody Else Will Print)

Believe it or not, when I was younger, and working away from the safe confines of my man cave basement office, I never saw the need for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, (OSHA). OSHA was formed back in April of 1971; some would call that April 28^th date a “victory for the working class of the United States.” I don’t remember OSHA coming into existence, but I do remember my first brush with two of their agents.

 

It was in the summer of 1972, I was working on carpenter job for my father and another fellow…..we were framing a house, when, just before lunch two guys came along wanting to know who was in charge. My dad, all 5’-5” of him stepped forward and said that he was, to which the bigger of the two said “that we’d have to have hard hats on before another nail could be nailed”. My dad, all 5’-5” of him told the two guys to get the hell off his job.

 

Of course they came back that very afternoon with two cops, and that was that, we’d get hard hats or the job for us would be finished. Well my dad, all 5’-5” of him told the two agents and the cops where they could get off, and told us that “the job was done”. And with little exception for the rest of my dad’s life he only did little carpenter jobs “on the side”.

 

That was my introduction to the new Occupational Safety and Health Administration, however over the years I came to understand that there was a place for OSHA in the work place, and as I got older I also became aware of how intricate OSHA and workplace safety was indelibly linked to the worker safety and the administration.

 

Since I began writing about labor, management and basically the powers-that-be in the work place, and how many, many businesses work on a bottom line mentality, I came to the realization that there was a silent war that was going on between the worker, management, and ownership.

 

I have read about hundreds of workplace injuries, mutilation and death, and almost without exception, at least during the latter part of the 20^th century, there would be some bozo who was the director of Human Resource, or some safety officer who all said basically the same thing, “employee safety and wellbeing is an absolute priority”.  Wow, what I surprise, I’m shell shocked…..never before heard that old refrain!

 

Back in the early days of enlightenment, when companies saw the hand writing on the wall, they decided that something had to be done to keep the government off their collective backs. You see during the first decade of the 20^th century more than 10,000 metal and non-metal mining personal in the United States lost their lives either in the mines or directly around the mines.

 

Through the 20^th century the working man and women struggled for safety in the workplace, while management and business struggled just as hard to keep the statuesque intact. Do not believe all of the platitudes that management and business have in unison have babbled over the years…..they’re not true.

 

The history books are full of all sorts of business and management atrocities wrought upon their workers. Without any stretch of the imagination America’s business owners have been responsible for the cold blooded killing of thousands of their employees during the 20^th century, and it continues into the 21^st century.

 

Fires, poor ventilation, inadequate entry and exit access to buildings, no safety guards on belt or chain driven machinery, an absolute disregard workplace conditions with regards to worker safety, poor training, plus a whole bunch more have contributed to what the Federal Government has been pushed into enacting with regards to safety and operating regulations.

 

Remember every worker safety rule, every safety regulation that comes into effect costs the company money, and in many cases cuts productivity. Businesses in the 20^th and 21^st century absolutely operate on worker production per every eight hour shift. Safety meetings, training innovation, work place improvement all affect the bottom line…$$$$$$$$$$$

 

THE CURIOUS CASE OF ASHLEY FURNITURE

OSHA is proposing that Ashley Furniture must pay a staggering $1.76 million dollar fine for injured workers, not just a few workers with stubbed toes, or hang-nails, but more than 1,000 work related injuries in the past three and a half years. Wow that’s 333 workers and more a year which would make working at Ashley’s, making furniture a dangerous place to seek meaningful employment.

 

Now I’ve got to tell you that I’ve worked around all kinds of saws in my time, driven a semi-trailer, and dug a ditch or two in my time. And I understand that being around machinery that cuts, drills or sands is in and of itself dangerous. I also understand that some of those injuries that were suffered were totally the fault of the operator…..I know, I’ve seen some of the stupid things that people will do around a power hand tool.

 

But 1,000 injuries in 3.5 years, the number seems a bit high to me, and I think investigators would agree with me. OSHA identified 12 willful, 12 repeat, and 14 serious safety violations at the plant in Arcadia, Wisconsin.

 

In response Ashley said that only 1 in 4 of the cases required any time away from work…..hummmmmmmmmm, that doesn’t sound much like a good PR response. The “vast majority” of cases were relatively minor, and that the most common injury was muscle strains and sprains, which is the focus of Ashley Furniture’s ergonomics program.

 

Let me see, I get three fingers sliced off because a saw starts while I’m changing a blade, Thank God for ergonomics, they’ll really come into play when I need to do something that requires finger dexterity. Ashley can appeal the fine, which in most cases is the practice, and also it’s the practice for the fine to be hugely reduced for a whole bunch of different reasons.

 

Workers unite, but keep your finders in your pants pockets.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY