An ulcer is an unkissed imagination taking its revenge for having been jilted.
It is an undanced dance, an unpainted watercolor, an unwritten poem.
John Ciardi
Image of the Day
On a More Personal Note
In just over 3 months, I'll likely publish my 2500th post; I have currently 3 other blogs with maybe a few dozen posts among them, one of them being a tribute blog with other contributors. I remember during the first year of the blog around the time of Obama's election, when I was publishing on a less frequent basis, I thought if anything I would publish even less frequently; I thought I had discussed everything on politics I wanted to discuss. I would not have predicted my politics would take on a new, more libertarian focus and occasionally multiple posts a day. Part of that had to do with Dems Gone Wild in the 111th Congress, but to be honest I had become disenchanted with politicians in general I think the readership is respectable given the nature of the blog, but perhaps a couple of exceptions, I'm not cited by most of the sources I cite; I have a very modest following on Twitter, and Twitter no longer sends me a weekly summary of my most popular tweets. Would I like to have a wider audience? Sure. My mom doesn't understand why I put as much time as I do into the blog; after all, I don't earn a penny, even though Google gently reminds me I can monetize the blog. (Given my limited readership, what would that bring me? Maybe a Starbucks coffee every few months?)
I do know that my readership often takes a hit when I'm more vocal about my pro-immigration views. But I haven't really noticed when I discuss more personal issues. I would think my experiences as a former professor might interest them. I've really tried to not get personal or specific involving people in my academic or professional career; in part, I wasn't raised to talk about people behind their backs. If and when I slam a Facebook troll, I won't identify them in the blog, and some may be taken by surprise with my blunt responses and language To give a minor example, there have been 2 or 3 "progressive" trolls on the IPI threads who have gone out of their way to launch purely personal attacks when I write on, say, public pensions. In one case, the troll didn't even attempt to discuss my substantive comment. He said, "Go find a job, and get on a treadmill." When I returned fire, a couple of new trolls criticized my response without acknowledging the personal attack. One of my favorite profile pictures is with one of my sweet grandnieces, who has nothing to do with my blogging or Facebook account, and I've been told some of the jerks have gone after my "daughter". (I usually don't go back to my posts to review likes or subsequent comments; I do sometimes get related email notifications.)
I do want to comment on one of the newer pro-teacher union trolls on IPI. I had mentioned in one of my comments in a thread that I was a former professor, when she basically starts equating our experiences: she called herself an adjunct professor (sort of a glorified part-time lecturer) who apparently was asked to teach a custom course. At one point I made reference to the fact I've never been vested in college/company matches to my 401K/403B plans (vs., say, high school teachers drawing six-figure salaries and often getting their share of pension contributions, never mind the employer's match, subsidized by the taxpayer; this would be like your company not only picking up a 3% match on income, but paying 80% of your 10% contribution.) I mentioned at one point having 3 jobs in my 5 years of academia (3 at UWM, 1 at UTEP, and 1 on a nonrenewable one-year contract at ISU). This "lady", quite proud of herself, guessed that there was something wrong with me to have worked at 3 different schools, and no wonder I was no longer in academia--she figures that none of them would put up with my crap. I am not going to respond defensively to some jerk trying to push my buttons. I had nightmarish experiences at each place. My UTEP offer letter stipulated, in absolute, not contingent terms, summer grants my first 3 years; yet I was so miserable at UTEP I accepted a campus visit (an expenses-paid job interview) to a state university in Louisiana during finals week my first semester. Among other things, I had a department chair who almost instantly reneged on his promises as soon as UTEP won AACSB accreditation with my resume/vita on file; I discovered one of my senior colleagues had gotten kicked out his last college on plagiarism charges, and another had a reputation for sleeping with coeds at local hotels (and the coeds would answer the phone calls from the college). Yet another instructor "taught" a data structures course without requiring a single computing assignment, which is like teaching a cooking class without ever touching food. I caught a student violating my academic honesty policy on homework--the evidence was compelling--and she responded, without my identifying any of the suspects, with an "Is it me?", and then rambled on about how no one would believe me, she's an A student, issued direct threats to me, and then escalated into a full-throated temper tantrum. I had never seen or even heard of an incident like this is all my years of academia. I really didn't know what do do--contact campus security, dismiss the class. I simply told her we needed to talk after class; finally, 2 or 3 students started applying peer pressure, saying they agreed that lecture was no place to discuss this. She finally ended her tantrum, but glared at me for the remaining lecture period.
I had all but put the tantrum out of my mind; two of my colleagues (yes, among the ones I mentioned above) were talking about lunch in Juarez, so I went back to my office to drop off my book, notes, etc. when I heard my office door slam behind me. At first, we're arguing about her closing my office door--the last thing I needed was for this girl to launch a false sexual harassment claim over what I did in my office. She refused. She then screeches full-throated, "I am not a cheater". I've got colleagues poking their heads out their doors looking in my direction. I once again demand that she leave my office; she refused. So I left to join my colleagues waiting on me, while my jerk department head, who never believes in wasting a crisis, goes down to talk to the student occupying my office.
I've mentioned bit and pieces of this experience in past posts. In any event, the Dean of Students gets involved. (Is there a lower life form on campus than a Dean of Students? Let's just say I've never met a decent one, and this one was sleazier than all the rest.) One day (keep in mind the jerk never had the testicular fortitude to meet with me in person or discuss the evidence of academic misconduct: so much for due process) this guy calls me up: "You better not do it!" "What the hell are you talking about?" "Don't play games with me--you know what you did" Good grief; it's like being in the doghouse with your girlfriend without the fringe benefits. It took me about five minutes for me to get to the bottom of the psychotic accusation. He claims that I threatened to blacklist her on the job market. It was outright slander/libel. It's not a question of "he said, she said". First, I had no contacts with local companies or recruiters, period. Second, I didn't even know she was looking for a job. Third, I had busted a number of students for academic honesty violations but never threatened any one of them or any other student. I was a first-semester academic; I was doing 2 or 3 first-time course preps, I had research projects. I had no vendetta against this or any other student; I never even filed a complaint against her classroom disruption. I chalked it up to her having a bad day. She's the one who outed herself in front of the whole class. I didn't have time for the drama.
It later turned out the paranoia was based on this young lady having listed me as a reference on job applications (this was the one and only course she ever had with me); I don't think we were even midway through the semester. She never asked me to serve as a reference, which is unconscionable. She was now in a state of panic what I might say to any recruiter, so she felt slandering me was her best strategy. The fact of the matter is I didn't know enough about her to give a reference.
One final note: while the department chair was constantly nagging me to vacate my office before the end of the month of May, he ordered me to attend commencement exercises at the last minute--not a request, but an order. My baby sister was graduating the same day from another UT System campus, and I had made flight arrangements weeks earlier. (People don't realize how big Texas is--it takes about 10 hours of driving to reach another major city east.) I refused to change my plans. (My mind is fuzzy; I may have attended one UWM commencement, but at most one over 5 years.) God wasn't finished with me in my role as Job in El Paso; I had a major tire blowout on my way to the airport and missed my outgoing flight. Nothing like changing a tire under the broiling El Paso sun. This was before cellphones, and I had been arguing with my Mom to get an answering machine, but she resisted. Nobody was home so I couldn't leave word over my flight change. I figured maybe they would check with the airline when I didn't show on the original flight and left word through them. That was enough to finally get my folks into buying the first of a series of answering machines over the years.
I was limited in what I could contribute to my 403B because you vest in employer matches at UTEP after a year and a day and they considered me as de facto vested--but then after I left UTEP, they took back over $4000. I was on the payroll for 2 fiscal years and know I should have been vested. But to be honest, I loathed my department chair, the administration and my area colleagues. It wasn't worth it. I did briefly flirt with the idea of returning after the department chair left the university, but that was because of a tough job market.
There is a reason for going into this. Government contracting can be very unstable work. My very first federal gig as a DBA was with the EPA region in Chicago. Literally my second day of work my employer lost their recompete. Almost of all my federal contractor employers offered me work on the last year of their contract. (Sometime contractors follow the work, say, if a competitor wins their bid.) In a recent project, the manager pointed out that the government agency still had not posted an RFP for renewal less than 4 months before contract expiration. When you take into account the contractor probably needs a good month to prepare the bid; employees may be within 2-3 months of a layoff notice. I know of at least 3 people on the project who moved from out of state for less than a year's guarantee of work. Some were selling homes and moving across the country. Of 3 people who left the project over the last few weeks, one went to Idaho, another to Texas, and a third to Michigan. The manager pointed out this is the new normal, that contractors who follow the work (i.e., winning bid) end up swapping employers and will almost certainly lose their vesting in employer 401K plans. I myself have moved twice since the start of the Great Recession for less than a year left on the contract.
I know I've talked to at least a dozen recruiters who don't understand the nature of a government contractor. They think of contractors as independents charging a going hourly rate. No, these are usually salaried positions with benefits but if the government issues a stop order on a contract, you can literally show up to work the next day to find out you've been laid off.
And it's not just government work. In the 1990's, consulting companies were willing to hire workers to the bench (training, etc.), rather than race to hire the unavailable right talent at the project start. After the 2000 market correction, you were almost always billable from day 1 and if and when the project ended, unless there was a follow-up dovetailing project, you could find yourself scheduled into an exit interview. That happened to me on a project ending the month after 9/11.
So when I look at lesser qualified government employees with essentially guaranteed jobs and a pension far beyond what we see in the private sector, it's not jealousy. There's a fundamentally different experience. Economic uncertainty is the new normal.
Facebook Corner
(IPI). Illinois should make career politicians a thing of the past.
No. Term limits are anti democratic. You want to tell me who I can't vote for. If I want to vote for someone who I think does good, I'll vote for that person again and again. I don't want some nanny state big government telling me I can't .
If we were to see at least some quasi-measures, like for instance Paul Ryan recently transitioned from the budget committee. Where the OP loses his way is that he believes that the fascist Madigan is entitled to his disproportionate power to the fact of his corrupt seniority. What the troll fails to comprehend is that longevity and seniority breeds power and corruption, which is anti-democratic at the core. IPI's recommended policy of term limits is the one sure way to ensure tyranny of political whores is limited in nature.
It's laughable when the OP considers the election of Madigan to be "democratic"; I doubt Illinois voters would vote him state dogcatcher. The last decent politician to be elected to office was Calvin Coolidge. Calvin declined to run in 1928, leaving the progressive Hoover to win the nomination and Presidency. Does anyone sincerely question that without Hoover, we would not have elected one of the worst Presidents in US history, FDR?
A better option than term limits is a fairer process for drawing legislative districts.
It reminds me of the old tuna commercial about not wanring a fish with good taste but a fish that tastes good. The fact of the matter is that elections mostly decide a candidate's popularity; not his quality of his legislative/administrative skills, not to mention prerequisite economic literacy to understand how ruinous tax, spend, and regulatory policies slow economic growth and jobs, ability to negotiate and compromise. You end up electing populist fascists who want to limit consumer options and to rule and pick the pockets of other people. I almost think it's the sign of mental illness when the progressive minority wants to pretend the failures of progressive policy are due to "brainwashing" by FNC or the Koch brothers' money "corrupting" the election process, despise the constant propaganda by academia and the mainstream media.
Love and Marriage
Political Cartoon
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| Courtesy of Glenn Foden via Daily Signal |
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Vocalists
Cat Stevens, "Remember the Days of the Old Schoolyard?" My favorite Cat Stevens performance.
