Analytics

Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Post #3860 M: State Pension Crisis; Overprotective Parents and Halloween; International Debt Relief

Quote of the Day

The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.
Franklin D. Roosevelt  

State Pension Crises



The Reality: Trick or Treat and Child Safety



Social Media Digest









DEAD WRONG: International Debt Relief is a Panacea



Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Michael Ramirez via FB


Musical Interlude: My Favorite Vocalists -- Beatles As Solo Artists

Ringo Starr, "It Don't Come Easy". I decided to end the McCartney series when the collaborative track with Kanye West turned out to be little more than McCartney strumming his guitar. We now go to Ringo with his first Top 10 hit.

Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Post #3859 M: Brazil Is Embracing Economic Liberty; Halloween and the Free Market; the Brainwashing of Young Minds

Quote of the Day


Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.
Dykstra 

Brazil  Has Rejected Socialism At the Ballot Box



Halloween and the Free Market



The Brainwashing of Young Minds



Choose Life









Political Cartoon

Courtesy of the original artist via FB


Musical Interlude: Favorite Vocalists: Beatles As Solo Performers

Paul McCartney, "Dance Tonight". McCartney basically didn't crack Top 40 in the 1990's and 2000's, but I really enjoyed this song.

Monday, October 29, 2018

Post #3858 M: Policing For Profit; Ron Paul on the Crazy Federal Reserve; the Pittsburgh Massacre

Quote of the Day


The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.
Muhammad Ali  

Policing For Profit



Ron Paul On the Crazy Fed



Ron Paul on the Pittsburgh Massacre



Choose Life









Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Michael Ramirez via Townhall


Musical Interlude: My Favorite Vocalists: The Beatles Solo

Paul McCartney, "My Brave Face"



Sunday, October 28, 2018

Post #3857 M: Sears and Equal Opportunity Shopping; Epidemic of Mass Shootings?

Quote of the Day

There is not a more important and fundamental principle in legislation, 
han that the ways and means ought always to face the public engagements; 
that our appropriations should ever go hand in hand with our promises. 
To say that the United States should be answerable for twenty-five millions of dollars 
without knowing whether the ways and means can be provided, 
and without knowing whether those who are to succeed us will think with us on the subject, 
would be rash and unjustifiable. 
Sir, in my opinion, it would be hazarding the public faith in a manner contrary to every idea of prudence.
James Madison  

Congratulations, World Series Champion Boston Red Sox!

Sears and How It Undermined Racism Practices



Epidemic of Mass Shootings?



Choose Life



Choose Life



Follow-up video: triplets 2-F/1-M (being held by Momma)







Political Cartoon

Courtesy of  Al Goodwyn via Townhall

Musical Interlude: My Favorite Vocalists: Beatles Solo

Paul McCartney, "Press"

Post #3856 J: The World Series; Christmas Keeps Coming Earlier

Sports Weekend

I've generally followed University of Texas and University of Houston football since my graduations. Both had one-loss seasons going into yesterday's nationally telecast games. Houston was facing its unbeaten American Conference rival South Florida at home; it opened the game with 2 touchdowns in 5 minutes and looked like it was headed to a blowout, but Barnett, a transfer quarterback from Arizona State and Alabama, with his scrambling ability (like Houston's King) and deft passing, narrowed the lead by the end of the half. Then Houston began the second half in probably the worst start I've ever seen, getting pinned down on its own 2-yard line after a bad-roll punt. King floated a pass on a busted pass pattern by Houston receivers and a safety was called. Houston had definitely lost its mojo as it looked like South Florida quickly advanced to the red zone following the free kick, but Houston kept them from a touchdown. That turned out to be as close as South Florida would get as King regained the offense's mojo, including a remarkable fourth-and-7 conversion and while Barnett and South Florida had its offense moments, Houston pulled off a 3-touchdown win, holding USF scoreless in the final quarter.

Texas, who had beaten traditional rival Oklahoma by a field goal, lost by a field goal on the road to Oklahoma State, which has a history of upsetting the Longhorns since the latter joined the conference.

But the real story has to be the World Series. Friday I had gotten up early on little sleep and had worked a long day, normally a flex-day off, before sitting down to see the then 2-0 Red Sox play the first game in Los Angeles. I had no clue I would be sitting through the longest time (wall time and innings-wise) I can recall watching ever. The Red Sox had rallied to tie the game by the ninth inning and took a twelfth inning lead, only to lose it with an errant throw to first base. Other than that inning, the pitching was really spectacular in extra innings, until Los Angeles got a walk-off home run in the bottom of the eighteenth evening, to cut the Series lead to 2-1. I slept in until noon, which I almost never do.

Saturday's game featured the Red Sox's legendary two-out offense. The Dodgers' pitching had largely stymied the Boston bats until a pitching change in the seventh, seeing their 4-run lead evaporate and then go out of reach with a ninth inning Sox rally. The Sox up 3-1.

The finale was tonight, but all the runs they needed came from a home run shot in the first inning. All the remaining runs came off solo home run shots as Boston won 5-1. Familiar readers know I'm a Twins fan (my first little league team name), and I always root for the American League in the Series, so I'm happy.

More in the scripted sports entertainment of pro wrestling, WWE has been heavily promoting its first all-women's PPV, even bringing back some of their "Hall of Fame" retired female wrestlers. I've never really cared  much for the product (fairly much for lady performers in general: basketball, tennis, golf, etc.) As for the WWE, probably the one match I would like to see is Asuka v Rousey

It Seems Each Year Christmas Season Keeps Coming Earlier

It's not just that the two Hallmark channels started their holiday movie countdown to Christmas this weekend--before Halloween and Thanksgiving. But they're not alone. On my last visit to Sam's Club a few weeks back, I saw various holiday gift tins already stocked on the shelves.

I'm not going to go onto a rant here on how Jesus is the reason for the season or how the holiday has become too commercialized. I'm really not interested in shopping this soon, and Hallmark has too thin a stock of cable movies to stretch out their season without heavy rotation.  They're promising 22 new movies. Hopefully their writing has improved. But they are still a relief from constantly rerunning decades-old sitcom.

Saturday, October 27, 2018

Post #3855 M: Friedman On Whether Capitalism Is Humane; The Second Amendment

Quote of the Day

O'Toole's commentary on Murphy's Law: Murphy was an optimist. 

Milton Friedman: Is Capitalism Humane? YES

The Two Statist Parties



The Second Amendment



A Former Leftist



Political Cartoon

Courtesy of the original artist via FB

Musical Interlude: My Favorite Vocalists: Beatles Solo

Paul McCartney, "Spies Like Us". His last Top 10 hit to date, except for a collaboration with Kanye West and his latest album hit #1.

I'll be somewhat altering my usual pattern of alternating male and female artists to a sub-series of all four Beatles who enjoyed success to varying degrees post-breakup. Then sometime between mid-November and Thanksgiving I'll start up my annual holiday music break, putting the in-place series on hold.

Friday, October 26, 2018

Post #3854 M: Third Parties: Missing in Ballots; On Halloween Costumes

Quote of the Day

To add a library to a house is to give that house a soul.
Cicero

Third Parties: Missing in Ballots



FEECast: On Halloween Costumes



Choose Life: Comedy



Choose Life









Political Cartoon

Courtesy of AF Branco via Townhall


Musical Interlude: My Favorite Vocalists

Paul McCartney, "No More Lonely Nights"

Thursday, October 25, 2018

Post #3853: Food Truck Liberty; Does Government Have a Right to Money Spent on Pets? No

Quote of the Day

He who is drowned is not troubled by the rain.
Chinese Proverb  

Food Truck Liberty in NC: A Consumer/Vendor Victory



Should Government Tax/Regulate Spending on Pets?

Well, I was unpopular with my younger siblings who longed for a puppy; I thought if my lower-middle income family had resources to spent on a pet, they should instead spend them on the world's poor, e.g., through Catholic Relief Services. (However, I never confused charity with government.) I lost that argument and quickly bonded with the new family pet.



Social Media Digest


[I believe that I was responding to this George Will column, via FB,  which references the politicized Bork, Thomas, and Garland nominations.]

The usually comprehensive George Will doesn't go back to FDR's attempt to pack the Supreme Court is the mid-30's and SCOTUS' ensuing capitulation in Carolene Products and Footnote 4, which led to the status quo.

[It seems every 6 weeks or so Cato Institute or its sibling outlets (libertarianism.org) seems to feel the need to correct those of us libertarians who think the Civil War as a morally unacceptable violation of the Non-Aggression Principle, arguing the Secession was all about slavery and the Confederacy had a pretty bad government. As if the American Revolution led by slave-owning Founding Fathers was illegitimate!]

Why does Cato circulate this same old same old bullshit every few weeks? Read Lincoln's first inaugural address; what did he condemn? The institution of slavery or the loss of federal revenues from Southern ports? What is ironic is that libertarians celebrate Lincoln's vision of nationalism at the expense of our federalist principles.

[I belong to the Feminists for Life FB group, and the moderators were cheering on a Down Syndrome young woman who is involved in political efforts to push a minimum wage rate for Down Syndrome folks arguing that they are "exploited". I have to point out this is economically illiterate and counterproductive.]

Unfortunately, misguided economically illiterate attempts to manipulate the minimum wage will shrink the employment opportunities available to Down Syndrome workers, which is tragic. I want to encourage Down Syndrome people to find fulfillment, but being a lobbyist is not a path I would encourage.





















v






Choose Life






Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Tom Stiglich via Townhall


Musical Interlude: My Favorite Vocalists

Paul McCartney, "Pipe of Peace"

Wednesday, October 24, 2018

Post #3852 M: End the Jones Act; You Can't Trust Anti-Trust; "Cultural Appropriation" Bullshit

Quote of the Day

In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, 
but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.
Thomas Jefferson

End the Jones Act



DEAD WRONG: You Can Trust Anti-Trust!




"Cultural Appropriation" Bullshit



Choose Life









Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Tom Stiglich via Townhall


Musical Interlude: My Favorite Vocalists

Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson, "Say, Say, Say". A #1 duet.

Tuesday, October 23, 2018

Post #3851 M: No Use of Military on a Peaceful Caravan; The REAL Sweden: Not an Anti-Capitalist Utopia

Quote of the Day

Out of clutter, find Simplicity. 
From discord, find Harmony. 
In the middle of difficulty lies Opportunity.
Albert Einstein  

Ron Paul: No to Trump's Military Threat on the "Caravan"



Stossel: Bernie Sanders, Sweden is NOT Your Anti-Capitalist Utopia



The Political Difficulties of Deregulation



Choose Life









Political Cartoon

Courtesy of AF Branco via Townhall


Musical Interlude: My Favorite Vocalists

Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson, "The Girl Is Mine"

Monday, October 22, 2018

Post #3850 M: Three American Values; Ending Discrimination Against Microbreweries; New Liberty Politicians

Quote of the Day

It is a wise father that knows his own child.
William Shakespeare  

Three American Values



Ending the Growler Prohibition



New Liberty Politicians


Choose Life









Political Cartoon


Courtesy of the original artist via Being Libertarian on FB


Musical Interlude: My Favorite Vocalists

Paul McCartney, "Take It Away"

Sunday, October 21, 2018

Post #3849 M: Stossel on State Pension Crises; Tribalism in Academia

Stossel On the State Pension Crises



Tribalism In Academia


Lavoie on Socialism


Choose Life










Political Cartoon



Courtesy of Henry Payne via Townhall


Musical Interlude: My Favorite Vocalists

Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder, "Ebony and Ivory". #1 hit duet.

Post #3848: Peterson Was Wrong On His Kavanaugh Resolution

Jordan Peterson is a clinical psychologist/professor who has built a certain following among conservatives as an articulate target for the politically correct police. In terms of the blog, I have maybe embedded up to  a handful or so short videos, but I don't follow him in the sense I follow Ron Paul, John Stossel, and Tom DiLorenzo. In this situation he is dead wrong.

Jordan Peterson responded on Twitter to a conversation between brothers (academic) Bret and (investment director) Eric Weinstein discussing no good solution to the Kavanaugh dilemma: if Kavanaugh withdrew, it would pose the dilemma of a betrayal of the American principles of due process and presumption of innocence and a precedent for the special interest tactics of personal destruction and Justice Kavanaugh's confirmation as the corrupt embodiment of an entitled white male patriarchy, whose every decision would be scrutinized under the prism of leftist progressivism.  Eric responded to Bret that the situation required a healer that didn't exist in this scenario.

Jordan suggested there was a third way: Kavanaugh could resign if confirmed, arguing that he had been vindicated by the FBI and deciding, in the interests of the greater good, he would step aside in favor of another less polarizing nominee.

Peterson seems to be genuinely surprised how his brief tweet got blowback from a significant percentage of his following. He wrongly believes (on a video I'm not embedding) that it was his mistake to discuss his position in a short Twitter format (his would have fit under the original 140 characters as discussed but today's tweets can be almost twice that long). He thinks he made a mistake of not discussing it in length in a lengthy blog post, so he could flush out his fuller point of view. He thinks the fact he mentions some of our counterarguments should somehow vindicate his position. My, that's self-serving condescending bullshit; no, Jordan, I did read your blog post, and I disagree. I've included the link earlier in the post, and my readers are willing to read it and make up their own mind.

Now I haven't done another Jordan Peterson search to what if anything he has said regarding Ms. Ford's  "repressed memory", the utter lack of corroboration of evidence regarding the incident in questions, even putting Kavanaugh and Ford at the same time or place, her inconsistent allegations.

What he doesn't talk about whatsoever is the preponderance of evidence involving Kavanaugh, from his friends, the women he's dated and worked with, his 12 years and over 300 judicial decisions on the bench. What Peterson doesn't note is how Senate Democrats on the Judiciary Committee had rejected Kavanaugh BEFORE a single hearing, BEFORE a single accusation by Ford or others, which could have been filed during the the 36 years or so after Kavanaugh allegedly assaulted Ms. Ford. Ms. Ford didn't come forward during the 3 years after he had been nominated during Bush's first term, opposed largely on partisan grounds because of his role in the Clinton impeachment effort. Ms. Ford was an activist Dem who opposed Kavanaugh  and sent confidential notes to her Congressman and Feinstein for political reasons. Not to the FBI. She was reaching out to everyone she could remember to corroborate her story.

No, but Jordan does go on to personally cast his doubts, saying Kavanaugh's denial of drunk incidents during his youth was not credible (I have rarely drunk any alcohol my whole life; my Dad was pissed because it would take me up to 3 hours to drink a beer) and he thought Kavanaugh could have been less petulant in his exchanges with Democratic senators.

I do recognize that the brilliant Scalia was nominated and confirmed in the aftermath of the even more brilliant Robert Bork's failed nomination. But Peterson doesn't recognize that the Democrats have done this for Bork, Thomas and Kavanaugh. Not to mention that NONE of Clinton's or Obama's court nominees (during non-election years)  have undergone the same type of personal destruction attacks or ideological resistance or abuse of filibusters.

No, Jordan, as a victim yourself of leftist mobs, you should know better than suggest that Kavanaugh should fall on his own sword for the sake of today's hyperpolitical environment; : would you resign your own positions to make way for a more politically correct psychologist?  Of course not. Might progressives try to impeach Kavanaugh? It would take a super-majority in the Senate for that to happen, and that won't happen in the next several years at minimum.

Saturday, October 20, 2018

Post #3847 M: Capitalism Makes Us More Humane; Ron Paul On the Need to End the Fed; Inequality Caused By Government

Quote of the Day

When you win, say nothing. 
When you lose, say less.
Paul Brown  

Capitalism Makes Us More Humane




Ron Paul On the Need to End the Fed




Inequality Caused By Government




Choose Life









Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Michael Ramirez via Townhall


Musical Interlude: My Favorite Vocalists

Paul McCartney (with George Harrison & Ringo Starr), "All Those Years Ago". George and Paul's tributes to John Lennon after his murder.



Paul McCartney, "Here Today"

Friday, October 19, 2018

Post #3846 M: On Civility and Politics; Sears and the Economy; Israel: Startup Nation


On Civility and Politics




Sears and the Economy



Israel: Startup Nation



Choose Life









Political Cartoon


Courtesy of AF F\Branco via Townhall

Musical Interlude: My Favorite Vocalists

Paul McCartney & Wings, "Coming Up". I think this was the last major hit with Wings; he would go on a solo artist with some major duets.

Thursday, October 18, 2018

Post #3845 M: The Battle v. Greedy Lawyers at SCOTUS; Don't Know Much About History

Quote of the Day

Love conquers all.
Virgil

Frank v Gaos



Don't Know Much About History



On a Corrupt Alliance Between Government and High Tech


Choose Life









Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Robert Ariail via Townhall


Musical Interlude: My Favorite Vocalists

Paul McCartney & Wings, "Arrow Through Me". Another single from a great album.

Wednesday, October 17, 2018

Post #3844 M: Time to In-Source Government Services? NO!; Larry Sharpe for NY Governor; Was Jesus a Socialist? HELL NO!

Quote of the Day

Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. 
Extend to them all the care, kindness, and understanding you can muster, 
and do it with no thought of any reward. 
Your life will never be the same again
Og Mandino  

DEAD WRONG: It's Time to In-Source Government Services



Stossel On LP NY Governor Candidate, Larry Sharpe



Was a Jesus a Socialist? NO!



Choose Life









Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Robert Ariail via Townhall


Musical Interlude: My Favorite Vocalists

Paul McCartney & Wings, "Getting Closer". Another personal favorite; a soaring arrangement, mad percussion, great vocals and harmony etc. A perfect pop song.

Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Post #3843 M: Govt Exacerbates Opiod Crisis; Akron Fights Private Sector Approach to the Homeless Problem

Quote of the Day

Anything looked at closely becomes wonderful.
AR Ammons  

The Opiod Crisis Is Exacerbated By the Dysfunctional War on Drugs



Ron Paul On Saudi King Peeved On Trump



The Private Sector's Approach to Homeless Problem Opposed by Akron Government


Choose Life








Political Cartoon

Courtesy of AF Branco via Townhall


Musical Interlude: My Favorite Vocalists

Paul McCartney & Wings, "Old Siam, Sir". I LOVE this tune.

Monday, October 15, 2018

Post #3842 M: The Abomination of Government-Run Healthcare; Ron Paul On 10 Years After the Economic Tsunami

Quote of the Day

Anything looked at closely becomes wonderful.
AR Ammons  

My Greatest Hits: October 2018

A slight improvement over last month but not much: a number of posts have failed to crack double-digits.

The Abomination of Government-Run Healthcare



How the Left Conquered the Right



Ron Paul On 10 Years After the Economic Tsunami


Choose Life

Sometimes I will follow up individual pregnancy clips assuming they're dated long enough for an interim birth (which is why you'll occasionally see multiple clips from the same source. I was about to post a charming pregnancy reveal when I stumbled across a followup clip that she miscarried a few weeks later. I've had at least one sister and two nieces who have gone through miscarriages. In fact, I had gotten a letter from my sister announcing her second pregnancy while I was a prof at UWM. I made a rare long distance call to congratulate her, when she abruptly handed the phone to my brother in law. (She had miscarried earlier that day, which of course I didn't know.) Her oldest daughter also miscarried her second child; it seems every 3 weeks or so she posts a remembrance on Facebook. It's impossible to know in compilation clips, of course.









Political Cartoon


Courtesy of Michael Ramirez via Townhall


Musical Interlude: My Favorite Vocalists

Paul McCartney & Wings, "Goodnight Tonight"


Sunday, October 14, 2018

Post #3841M: Silicon Valley Socialism; The Sovereign Debt Bubble; Muddle-Headed Babblers

Quote of the Day

It takes less time to do things right 
that to explain why you did it wrong.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 

Klein On Silicon Valley Socialism



The Sovereign Debt Bubble



DiLorenzo on Muddle-Headed Babblers and Political Correctness




Choose Life









Political Cartoon

Courtesy of the original artist via FB


Musical Interlude: My Favorite Vocalists


Paul McCartney & Wings, "I've Had Enough"


Saturday, October 13, 2018

Post #3840 M: Ron Paul On Saudi Arabia and Yemen; The Fight To Protect Property Rights

Quote of the Day

A person who can't lead and won't follow makes a dandy roadblock.
Author unknown  

Ron Paul On Saudi Arabia



The Knick Case Before SCOTUS: Easements Can Be Unjust Takings




Ron Paul On the Abominable USMCA (NAFTA 2.0)


Choose Life









Political Cartoon

Courtesy of AF Branco via Townhall


Musical Interlude: My Favorite Vocalists

Paul McCartney & Wings, "With a Little Luck". Another #1 hit.

Post #3839 J: Dreams, Surprise Attacks and Sniper Bids

Dreams, Surprise Attacks and Sniper Bids


As a college student, I had a recurring nightmare: I would be coming into a final exam, completely unprepared, never having gone to lecture, read the textbooks, done the exercises, etc. I felt there was no way in hell I could pass the exam. Last night, years after my last college graduation, I had a variation of this theme. I was a doctoral student in a class where a group project counted as a major part of the grade, when I found myself excluded from the group presentation, and the professor did not provide me with an accommodation. (Low grades, like C or less, can be fatal in graduate school. For example, in one graduate program, your second C meant disqualification from the program.)

There was an actual similar incident I went through at UH taking graduate student analysis. I'm not a fan of group projects in general; it's difficult to distinguish who contributed what, and you often have to referee conflicts in groups. To give a telling example, I recently wrote about a UTEP coed who cheated with a male student on a database homework assignment. (The following is based on what was told to me by other students, not at my initiative.) The coed, after her temper tantrums in class and in my office, recruited fellow students to go and complain about me to the Dean of Students. [I have never met a Dean of Students who wasn't an asshole.]  One of the recruits, who was also working with her on a group project in another class, started contradicting the lies the coed was telling the Dean of Students, which resulted in both the coed and Dean of Students shouting at him. He later came to me for help; the coed apparently had administrative privileges for the other class project and as a reprisal, locked him out of the project.  I told him I had no control over the other professor's class and he needed to contact him directly. On a side note, when I tried to thank him for speaking in my behalf, he said, "I didn't do it for you! I did it for the sake of the truth." As a postscript, just before graduation that year, he came to my office and asked to take my picture (which is embedded in a past blog post), saying something to the effect he wanted to have pictures of teachers who had the most impact in his studies. The last thing I heard, he was off to the MBA program at the University of Virginia.

Going back to my systems analysis class, I had agreed to join a group of a couple of Indians or Pakistanis (non-MIS majors), on the condition that I (as an MIS PhD student) write up the final paper. This project was about a somewhat dated IBM methodology. And I soon found myself on the defensive as the Indians kept wanting to insert IBM marketing hype into the project. I knew the professor would see through that and take points off (I would). The other group wanted no part of the argument but were inclined to support the Indians because they started the group. Then the Indians broke the agreement by seizing control of the paper.

At this point I went to the professor. She was reluctant to offer an accommodation since it was too late for me to start my own group. I explained that I considered what they were doing was a form of academic dishonesty and I didn't want to be a part of it. She said she wanted me to make a good faith effort to work things out with the group and if I couldn't, she would make some accommodation.

It seems at some point after our meeting, whether at her or the group's initiative, she had a discussion with the others and (in one of the dumbest blunders ever made by a professor) told them she was willing to offer me an accommodation. Me, I wanted to go to the next group meeting like I wanted to go to the dentist for a root canal. It took them all of 10 seconds for them to tell me to go my own way.

As if it were possible, the professor then pulled another bonehead mistake: she scheduled the group's presentation prior to mine. I had built a creative bridge, among other things making a reference to Nolan's stage hypothesis. They stole all my contribution to the project, presenting my work as theirs--and catching me flatfooted as I had made transparencies based on my own project work. And then after I politely listened to their mostly stolen presentation, they sat in the front row and sabotaged my presentation by talking loudly  (the professor, of course, did nothing). There are few times I've been pissed off at a professor, and I couldn't afford to be as a doctoral student. She tersely responded to the effect, "I know what was going on; you got a good grade. Don't worry about it."

I wouldn't say I'm a control freak, but I like to be prepared. I've sometimes managed to fight off surprise attacks. Back in 2002, UC held a couple of IT contracts with Chicago Park District. (I've posted part of this story in the past), one a production outsourcing control, another to update their ERP system from version 11.0.x to 11i. In most shops, ERP upgrades take at least 6 months of dry runs, etc. UC Consulting promised a 3-month delivery from mid-August to mid-November, including 2 dry runs of the upgrade; they needed the last 6 weeks or so of the year for closing the calendar year books. I don't think UC was making permanent hiring in the aftermath of the Nasdaq crash. I worked as a subcontractor at a relatively low rate for the outsource unit, primarily because of my extensive pre-, post upgrade experience (not to mention multiple upgrades). Three months would have been a stretch hitting the ground running.

The consulting group was badly managed from the get-go. The project manager did not know how to hire competent DBAs (and never asked my input: they did have me screen one applicant, manifestly unqualified: when I told him someone would be in touch, he said, "I'll see you Monday". It turns out they had guaranteed him 2 weeks before he even talked with me.) I caught their first DBA breaking into my production server twice over 2 weeks. He also had no experience with Oracle databases on Windows (some significant differences).  He got replaced by the most incompetent DBA I've met to this very day.

It was a nightmare that still haunts me some 16 years later. I had to attend morning status meetings, so I had front-seat view of the dysfunction. They were bitching over the fact the development server they got had 3 CPU's vs. a production server's 7 CPU's (let me point out they never got to the test upgrade stage without me). They argued they didn't want to do work in the cold server room and wanted the city to provide software so they could access the server from the warm of the office. They didn't want to support my production refreshes to the development server. (Oracle didn't support cloning of their EBS databases until 11i. We, of course, did clones on our own, including certain infrastructure modifications (e.g., server names, ports, etc.) It took me 3.5 hours or so. But the second lead spent 2 weeks (the first guy spent 2 weeks) focusing on trying to get Oracle to backport adclone (which was never going to happen), then spent at least another week or so trying to get CPD to license a third-party cloning tool. I mean, the whole upgrade assumed having a clone database up and running. They had literally spent 4-5 weeks not doing a single step of the first run upgrade; they distrusted for purely arbitrary reasons my clones.

One of the first major decisions where the UC consulting group and I disagreed was a "big picture" issue. I hope not to get into the weeds here. Sometimes Oracle provided a way for IT managers to consolidate under a higher version of the RDBMS. Now in our case that meant going go 8i vs. 8 of the database. There was a slight benefit--you could split part of the update, but really this was maybe 1 hour out of 4 or 5 days. The price, however, is that you had to do a lot of interoperability patching so 8i would work with 11.0.3. And why? Basically most of Category 1-3 consisted of closeout tasks against EBS to get to the database upgrade stage (otherwise). Going to 8i early had no advantage in our case; it was a risk of any issues of interoperability patching for what? Doing 2-3 hours of EBS closeout tasks? Plus, there was no way we were getting 2 outages for the upgrade. The problem was that only I understood this, not the alleged PhD PM, not the clients, not their subcontractor employees. It required common sense to understand there was no benefit (and a lot of risk) for doing interoperability patching to close out the EBS for the upgrade. Typically I was challenged by an idiotic "show me where Oracle says that". No, Oracle technical writers are not going to project into our scenario. You have to understand the context for much bigger enterprises and trying to manage a large number of databases; you need to understand the steps leading up to the database upgrade and the tradeoff in implementing interoperability patching, which is not necessary if you can close off EBS activities in a short period of time.

Then there was the bonehead move by the second DBA which was to run RapidWiz (the upgrade driver) on a server with Oracle installed (like the development server). It warned against running RapidWiz on a server with installed Oracle software in big,boldface type. Think DBA #2 asked me for another server? NOPE. So the idiots ran RapidWiz, at some point the server was bounced, and now their database wasn't coming up. Why? Because the registry was saying, "We are running 8i, and you can't run an 8 database without upgrading it." I'm saying to these idiots, the reason you run RapidWiz at this stage is to get the closeout scripts'; I  told I could do it and put the scripts on a share drive. And DBA #2 asks, "Show me where Oracle says that."  [Expletive deleted! He ignores Oracle's explicit warning, which in my view was grounds for termination.] So then I go and fix the registry, so they can bring up the database, and the boneheaded one says, "I'm not going to trust that; he hacked the registry."

This comes up in a later meeting, where I point out the boldfaced warning to the PM and my boss, and they seem to buy into CB/DBA #2's psychotic reinterpretation of plain English. My boss tells me to get Oracle Support to see in black-and-white, it means what it says in plain English. Oracle Support has its own issues to deal with, and the guy initially balks at my request. He comes back at me, "Do they know we will not support any upgrade where they ignore our instructions?" He had no idea the level of stupidity I was dealing with.

The politics of the situation was my boss wanted to give the idiot PM all the rope he needed to hang himself, and he didn't want the PM pointing at me as a scapegoat for his failure. He also started advertising for my position  (the requirements were so specific, they could only apply to my position) and kept a pile of DBA resumes on his desk for me to see.

So I've recently written about this part of the story before: he caused his own database to crash unrecoverably (I found out because he brought down my training database in the hopes of being able to recover, which was incompetent). At that point, I was handed control of the upgrade.

Now, finally, the client IT manager, who never met me once, finally put his foot down and refused to let the DBA's  go home. This turned to be a disaster for the project. CB was supposedly to be fired after he flew home to Tampa. I wasn't about to work with an incompetent DBA I worked with a junior DBA. We got more done over that weekend than in the first 6 weeks and I had us on the long-running upgrade patch by Sunday; we were running fairly well until sometime Monday afternoon when we ran into an issue involving a wrong response to an earlier query, a miscommunication of the junior DBA to me. There were a normal number of issues you normally run into an upgrade--some resource issues (e.g., more space for datafiles), minor client data issues, etc.

The incompetent PM, BK, became emboldened by my success over the weekend and refused to terminate CB, arguing he didn't want to train "a replacement". (He knew where I stood on CB: I had written a 7.5 page single-spaced document on mistakes I observed him make, and I wasn't with him 8 hours a day.) And every technical issue I ran into, it was like two Chicken Little's  screaming the Apocalypse had arrived. I know CB was agitating to regain his project lead role. BK continued to mismanage the project; to give a sample point of contention, I had to schedule my 8-hour schedule over a daily Metra commute, and I think my last train out was something like 5:55 PM. He had some 3-5 DBA's in name only. Most of the time the upgrade was like watching paint dry. I wanted him to staff around the clock, so they could call me if it broke down, and I could walk them through the problem and not lose hours waiting for me to fix things and resume the upgrade. I guess he felt defensive over his own role and my telling him what needed to happen. From my perspective, the city was getting zero value for his DBA slots.

In the meantime, my boss was unhappy because he felt part of my hours should be coming from the project budget. However, none of my production duties were being diminished; for the most part, I was needed if and when the upgrade process break down.

I had to go through all this context to explain what happened next. One day I got ominously called into a UC managers (mostly from out of town) meeting (and the assistant client IT manager with whom I had a decent relationship) where BK and CB presented a surprise attack multi-page argument which called for restarting the upgrade from scratch, and I correctly noted that the situation was under control. It was brutal battle, and I don't think the executives expected it. At the end, the customer sided with me, and the sabotage failed. I probably didn't myself any favors with UC management (someone hired BK), but of course BK had no intent of tipping his hand. I got feedback of the type that I won the debate but I could have been nicer about it.  But they hadn't seen the same game getting played over and over; the first time we run into an issue, I did "something wrong" and we need to start over. They had no clue about the nature and extent of the technical issue.

In the end, the element of surprise can be difficult to overcome. I recently explained late, anonymous filings into a contract renewal hearing and a literally last-minute grade appeal in my hellish experience at UWM. When people make charges in such a way as to rule out your ability to respond, there's nothing "fair" about it, there's no due process. I've actually heard progressive academics argue it would be "unfair" for me to be able to respond outside of the filing deadline since the filing snipers can't file outside the filing period.  No, it's an artificial restriction on expression and injustice; it allows the malcontent to frame the matter of contention and restricts the possibility of contrary evidence. I pointed out that grade appeals guidelines specifically ruled out subjective appeals, like the one I got, where his "evidence" was merely a dump of computer printouts and class notes--not a single allegation over the mismarking of a single test, assignment, etc. I was furious that a student was using university procedures to launch a personal attack against me, my professionalism.

There, of course, is the fact of sniper bidding of Ebay, e.g., you could be carrying the winning bid into the last few seconds of an auction and by the time you're refreshed your browser, you've lost the auction to a last-second trumping bid. To me, one should have an interval to respond to last-second bids, which are unfair to seller and competitive bidders.

And, of course, I'm making reference to the last-minute character attacks on Justice Kavanaugh. Sen. Feinstein sat on Ms. Ford's allegation, never raised or hinted at the issue during the hearing. The leak and the vague nature of the charges made it difficult for Kavanaugh to disprove the charge, e.g., he was somewhere else at the time of the incident.