There he is, representing all of us to the world…
Not a lot of what I’d call news, but some things we could talk about:
- Moore Faces a 5th Accuser as McConnell Asks Him to Quit — Of course, he’s likely to ignore that the way he tried to dismiss The Washington Post. After all, if I recall correctly, Moore has been running against McConnell and the party. Basically, if somebody says something that makes sense, Moore and his supporters will dismiss it.
- Iran-Iraq Earthquake Kills More Than 400 — OK, this is news. Of the really bad kind.
- N.S.A. Struggles to Recover After Breach of Spying Tools — Oh, but don’t worry. As y’all keep telling me, these leaks and breaches don’t harm the country in any way. Right?
- Trump Picks Alex Azar To Lead Health And Human Services — What I want to know is, why not Joe Azar? Joe’s been interested in public service way longer than this guy, I’m guessing.
- Penn State Student Given 18 Drinks In 82 Minutes Before Hazing Death, Prosecutors Say — Tell me again why fraternities should exist? I keep forgetting.
- Trump hails ‘great relationship’ with Philippines’ Duterte — Just to remind us that fraternity boys aren’t necessarily the biggest idiots in the country, or the most dangerous.
- If you see a naked person in Five Points on Tuesday … — Continuing with that theme… No, it’s not serious news, but it’s local. Why will there be a naked person in Five Points on Tuesday? Well, it has something to do with PETA, so don’t try to make sense of it.
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Apparently the NSA is about as good at cyber security as the TSA is at scanning luggage.
Tell us again about all the dire consequences that came from the Snowden leak. I remember it was going to damage the country irreparably.
the NSA is about as good at cyber security as the TSA is at scanning luggage.
Or Equifax protecting your identity
Or Facebook screening for fake news
Or SCANA providing good customer service
Or Wells Fargo conducting ethical banking practices
Or ENRON doing anything positive
Or the Republicans in Michigan ensuring the drinking water in Flint MI is safe
Lots of bad actors and incompetency. But only a minority are part of government.
We can choose alternatives to many of those examples you listed. You don’t have to use Facebook or Wells Fargo. In addition, bad / incompetent behavior in the marketplace is typically dealt with by the marketplace. That’s why Enron doesn’t exist any more and its leadership was prosecuted.
Government entities are free from normal accountability. They’ve got monopolies protected by law. How many NSA managers will be fired for allowing the breach? The woman in charge of security for Equifax was fired within a couple days of the news.
I’ve watched the TSA lines in Columbia increase significantly in the past three weeks (I fly every Sunday). Three lines available, only one open. No sense of trying to help passengers get through — four people missed the last flight to Atlanta last Sunday due to the lines taking 30 minutes when they previously would take 5. I asked one of the agents what was going on and he said that they had cut some agents (down from about 9 to 7). That’s when I realized they were slowing down to ensure they get those two positions back. One guy on the bag screener was pulling every third bag for manual inspection and taking anywhere from 10-20 seconds on each bag. That’s how government employees “work”. If everyone is lazy, they all benefit.
I call BS. I flew a couple months ago with zero problems. This whole libertarian notion that government workers are incompetent and private sector workers are hard working, efficient employees is complete nonsense. And you should be ashamed of yourself for constantly insulting people.
Not to contradict you on your recent experience flying but maybe you might listen to Doug and perhaps my daughter. She, like Doug, flies out every week. Out early Monday morning, returning late Thursday or Friday night, depending where her assignment is for the week. Otherwise, she flies to Dallas every week. Due to the lack sense of need or apparent desire to expedite the passengers along, they take their own sweet time and on occasion, my daughter has missed her connecting flight.
After 9/11, flying was a total misery. The TSA agents were nothing more than little demigods who thought they owned the world and some of the totally stupid things they did were amazing. I stopped counting the times I took my shoes off and put them in the little basket so they could be screened. Eventually I just took them off standing in line, grabbed one of the baskets/trays and started filling the thing up with anything and everything I had in my pockets.
So, maybe your experience was great but for the seasoned traveler who does fly as often as Doug, my daughter, and I did, maybe our experience carries a little more weight.
Just saying.
I said it happened the past three weeks. I’ve flown 125 times this year. 4 segments a week most .weeks. The TSA in Columbia is the worst I’ve seen.
And I wouldn’t insult then if they did their job. They are incompetent, lazy, and not doing anything to protect passengers.
I visit a a lot of smaller companies each week in my job, there are plenty of them that are incompetent too.
And what happens to them over time? Do they succeed? Do they stay in business? I’m not suggesting that incompetence and inefficiency is solely in the government sector – just that the market or the legal system tends to deal with it much more rapidly in the private sector.
The TSA is like a K-Mart in a tiny rural town.
The NYT reports that “Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado, speaking in his role as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said that if Mr. Moore wins the special election on Dec. 12, he should be expelled from the Senate, ‘because he does not meet the ethical and moral requirements of the United States Senate.’ ”
Maybe it should be stipulated that if (after all that is now known) Mr. Moore still wins the election on Dec. 12, it’s the state of Alabama that should be expelled from the Union, because it does not meet the ethical and moral requirements of (membership in) the United States. Not totally serious of course, but nevertheless the implications about the “values” held most sacred in that state would be pretty dire.
We should also expel them from the NCAA to give the rest of the SEC a chance at a football championship… 🙂
Just so I have this correct, Roy Moore denies the two felony allegations of being a pedophile and an attempted rapist and calls the women liars, but readily acknowledges that he liked to date teenage girls while in his 30s; and was known about town as a deviant. So he’s trying to draw a clever little box around unseamly, disgusting and immoral behavior – his own little personal playpen being a “nothing to see here, just move along folks” birthright.
I find it repugnant. The GOP is truly at a point of existential crisis; yet still seems to care more about the over under in the Senate. What we are living through is a complete and utter lack of moral, ethical leadership; at all levels of the GOP. There is a national stage for someone to right this floundering ship of a party. Anyone? Bueller?
And yet the alternative is Democrats. When they eventually regain the White House and Congress, it will be no different.
Ebb and flow, Doug. That’s what the Constitution intended.
Party doesn’t matter; policy doesn’t really matter. Integrity? It always matters…
Remember how much it mattered in the 90s to “Conservatives” when Newt Gingrich who was having an affair and lying about it wanted Bill Clinton out of office for having an affair and lying about it.
5. Yep the fraternities need to go. They could still exist as completely separate from Universities.
What purpose do they really serve?