AT&T: Hands Off My Earned Leave!

You heard me Ma Bell.  You too Mellon Bank…
BACKGROUND
This is going to be brief, but here’s the gist of it:

the company I worked for went into Bankruptcy
from the beginning we were assured that wages and accrued Paid Time Off (PTO) would be paid

THIS WAS CRITICAL because if 15,000 people started using up the PTO they [...]

[untitled]

so I walked the long walk across the parking lot from our client site, thinking I’d treat myself to a Baconator.  the line is suprisingly short, and the gentleman at the register places his order.  nothing out of the ordinary…
then the gentleman turns to his companion (likely his daughter).  she has a cell-phone up to [...]

I bet the Germans have a word for it

I’ve been overcome with this emotion, or sensation, many times.  and due mostly to the election campaign, it’s been happening more frequently.
it’s the urge, when presented with an argument (or reasoning that seems particularly forced)*, to want to go above and beyond the other person’s worst fears — often to the point of absurdity.  it [...]

Hillary on subprime ‘crisis’: “everybody bears some responsibility”

on Meet the Press:
MR. RUSSERT: But, Senator, many people opted for those cheaper mortgages. They could’ve had a fixed mortgage at a higher rate, but they opted for a cheaper one. Should they not bear some responsibility?
SEN. CLINTON: Well, Tim, I think all of us should[1]. But I’d say three things about that. The bankers, [...]

Happy Holidays

… from the Westboro Baptist Church:

– words escape me. I almost thought that this was a parody; in which case it would be brilliant.

regarding the Peace prize

nuff said.

31 consecutive years of trade deficits

In the comments to this thread on Lou Dobbs decrying our trade deficits, one Mike Laursen had the winning quote in my book:
You’d think that our having thrived through thirty-one years of trade deficits might spark the thought that maybe trade deficits don’t matter that much.
Ah yes, remember how great things were before the huge [...]

mr. st4rbux neighborhood

for those of you who think I live in the land of milk and honey here in sunny Montgomery County, here’s an excerpt from the local paper the other day:

Forest Oak Middle, Gaithersburg Middle and Gaithersburg Elementary schools were placed on Code Blue at 12:10 p.m., following a series of reports about a man armed [...]

overheard

“38 minutes? [expletive deleted]!! who’s paying me to do this?”
“oh [expletive], this is [F'n] rdiculous… the time now is 11:27…
omg, how long is this g/d form… 27 pages long?
[sigh]… Last Name…”
we got our THIRD notice to complete the American Community Survey today, along with a very nice letter from Charles Louis Kincannon telling us [...]

my friend killer is a master debater

witness his awesome smack-fu skillz here
and chime in on the immigration debate, if you dare.  idiot.