Journals : 2004 : February
1 February 2004 | Link this
"Executives should not be rewarded for losing money," said Rick Icaza, president of UFCW Local 770 in Los Angeles. "It is obscene to reward executives with fat bonuses when more than 20,000 employees have given up their own paychecks."
Keep in mind, please, that he's not discussing workers who were laid off or fired. He's discussing workers who voted to go on strike. In other words, it's not as if they were forced at gunpoint to give up their paychecks, except maybe by UFCW Local 770 in Los Angeles. While it may jot be a good idea for businesses to increase compsenation while losing money, it's also not advisable to base compensation on guilt or politics...
I know a little bit about retail and about the grocery industry, and I'll admit that I'm having a really hard time mustering much support for this particular strike. It's not just that the strikers are voting down a health insurance package I -- and millions of Americans -- would be tickled pink to be offered. It's the fact that the strikers refuse to see that ALL union supermarket jobs are in grave danger right now...
Like it or not, the Wal-marts of the world WILL enter the California grocery market, and blatantly unconstutional legislation at the municipal level will only slow down the inevitable -- and waste a lot of taxpayer money. Safeway has offered its current employees a realistic, and even generous package. And it has recognized the future of the industry by warning that new hires may not have the same level of compensation. Current employess are protected. New ones, who have some choice in the careers they pursue, are not. Sounds fair, no?
Supermarkets operate on about a one per cent profit margin. They have two major ways of making a profit: by increasing volume and by decreasing expenses. Raising prices is not an option, especially when the competition is a major discounter like Wal-Mart. Union demands for continuing inflated wages will eventually drive the big chains below the required profitability threshold. The result will be bankruptcy or, more likely, their exit from the California marketplace, eliminating both competition AND union jobs. And benefiting no one...
So don't give me this sob story about workers "giving up their own paychecks". It's more likely they're cutting their own throats by listening to their bloated, increasingly irrelevant union...
1 February 2004 Later | Link this
I always knew it was a famous Woolworth's even when I bought candy and toys there as a kid, and even when I read disturbing and exciting graffiti about sucking dicks in the bathroom as a teenager, and especially when I ate vegatable plates at that lunch counter in college...
Glad to see its new use is coming along well. And that it didn't become a parking lot...
3 February 2004 | Link this
Twenty years ago this week, I was just about to start what I would later refer to as my year in hell. I am very happy that I now have a boy who's never once caused me heartache or pain. I am also very happy that I'm not half the drama queen I was back then...
Of course, I guess everyone's a drama queen at age 19...
6 February 2004 | Link this
Spam du jour:
Dear Citi Members_,
This Email was sennt _by the CitibankOnline _server to
veerify _your_ EMAIL address_.
You mmust celpotme this pceosrs by clicking on _the link
below and enteering in the litle winndow your _citibank
ATM full Card number and PiN that you use_ in_the Atm Machine.
That is done for-your potecrtion -C- becourse some of our
membres no lnegor have acecss to their email adrseedss
and we must verify it.
To veerify _your_ E-mail address and _access_ your Citi
account, click on _the link beelow.
Frankly, anyone who falls for this one pretty much DESERVES to lose his life savings...
All alone this weekend, just me and my Prevacid. Mark's home dealing with a family emergency (which doesn't involve illness or death, don't worry), and I'm enjoying the fact that my stomach feels better than it has in weeks...
So whose wrath will I draw if I suggest that -- no matter how much it may pain me to say it -- there's just not a Democrat in the race who has a hope in hell of being elected president this year?
Just asking...
6 February 2004 Later | Link this
I don't really drink anymore. I don't smoke anymore. I don't bring strange boys home with me in the wee hours anymore. Jeez, I haven't even been overeating lately. I don't seem to have any vices left...
7 February 2004 | Link this
You know how it is. You're trying to go to sleep because you want to get up early on Saturday morning, and you just can't get "Push th' Little Daisies" by Ween out of your head. It sucks...
Anyway, I finally got to sleep, and I finally work up, and then I drove to Stockton. Just because I could. I like Stockton; there are really nice old neighborhoods, and dumpy old supermarkets, and (best of all) it's not San Francisco...
I also like that my baby will be home tomorrow...
12 February 2004 | Link this
There's just not enought romance and drama involved when seeing your loved one off on the train actually means saying goodbye at a bus stop along the Embarcadero. It's sort of ironic that San Francisco -- where mass transit is dogma -- has no direct long-distance passenger rail service. Taking Amtrak from SF means taking a bus to the East Bay and THEN getting on a train...
Assuming, of course, that you can get a straight (or consistent) answer from anyone at Amtrak about how to purchase tickets...
Anyway, Mark's off to Fresno again to clean up the mess caused by a bit of walking garbage named Steven Washburn. Anyone who reminds me that "he's a human being" should be prepared for a tongue-lashing. I don't much care what his motives were nor how brutal his childhood may have been...
I hit the road tomorrow so we can have a romantic Valentine's weekend in a Red Roof Inn...
A few random thoughts for a Thursday evening:
- Proof positive that John Burton has been in office too long. He and Willie Brown need to go off and have their mutual masturbation sessions somewhere else.
- Animal rights terrorists and a machine politician have actually succeeded in making me support something as disgusting as foie gras. Amazing...
- Yes, it's a holiday whose time has come...
- Speaking of stupid white people, I'm thinking of sending her a wedding invitation...
- Tuesday was my half-birthday. I didn't get a single present. I guess you're all waiting for the big four-o in August, right?
13 February 2004 | Link this
The Chronicle reports that researchers are surprised to see that HIV infection rates are not increasing despite a rise in syphilis cases. Buried a few paragraphs down is what seemed obvious to me even after just reading the headline: syphilis is transmitted through oral sex while HIV by and large isn't. I'm not sure why everyone was so surprsied by results which were so easily explained...
16 February 2004 | Link this
I haven't slept in thirty hours, and my clothing from last might may mildew before it dries. I'm so tired I can hardly stand and my feet feel like they're going to fall off. But I'm as happy as I've ever been in my life, because I'm now married, officially and legally, to the most wonderful boy in the world...
I wasn't quite prepared for just how choked up the ceremony got me. I'd not really been expecting to say tings like "with this ring I thee wed" and "I do". Ever. And even though I've felt married for a long time, somehow I now feel MORE married, and also even more in love...
I'm tired, and I can't write very well now. More soon, with pictures, no to mention a few words about the co-worker who tried to put a damper on it...
17 February 2004 | Link this
See me marry Mark (requires Quicktime)...
19 February 2004 | Link this
Thanks to everyone for the good wishes, website mentions, etc. For any of you who want to say hello in public, Mark and I are pondering a little semi-publuc gathering at Tad's Steaks on Powell Street. I hesitate to call it a reception, because that suggests that we're buying dinner for everyone. Alas, this is not the case, but we'd love to see you anyway. Watch this space for more details...
BTW, if you're interested in seeing just what this weekend's festivities looked like, this is the place to go. We were lucky enough to have this particular photgrapher as our escort/witness for the ceremony, and he even shot the video you may have seen yesterday...
23 February 2004 | Link this
I firmly believe in the fact that if you live in a bigger or more famous city, it doesn't automatically make you better than anyone. It's not a badge of merit because you moved somewhere where there is more to do.
That said, here's something to do if you're bored Friday night: join Mark and me for our semi-public wedding reception, 8:00 at Tads Steaks on Powell Street. And since we're not springing for dinner, so you don't even have to bring a present...
24 February 2004 | Link this
Marriage Amendment May Boost Bush But Not Pass:
"This is a common political ploy, reacting to some controversial court decision by supporting a constitutional amendment," said University of Minnesota communications professor Edward Schiappa. "It will gain support from the religious right but no such amendment is ever going to pass."
It's true; there are knee-jerk reactions like this to almost evey controversy in the US. I'd be not one bit surprised if someone introduced an amendment recommending the death penalty for anyone caught exposing a breast on national TV. The lunatic fringe needs something to rally 'round, after all...
While I don't like the tone it sets, nor do I much care for being used as a political football, I'm strangely optimistic that Congress and the assorted state legislatures will realize that this is just not the sort of thing we put in the Constitution. I think we learned at least THAT much from Prohibition...
25 February 2004 | Link this
Wish me luck. I'm off to the dentist for the first time in, ummm, a while. Perhaps later today I'll no longer feel like I just got punched in the jaw...