A blog in semi-dormancy... | New Cities Archive | Back to the Parlor
May 01, 2007
happy may day
Posted by Sam at 11:07 PM
April 21, 2007
Para-union news
Who can beat McDonalds? Not their own workers (yet).
Elsewhere: you have to read pretty far down (the 32nd paragraph, if I remember right) in the Times to find out that the Chinese Staff & Workers' Association is behind this action in the foodservice industry.
Posted by Sam at 06:25 AM
April 19, 2007
Rationality vs Irrationality
The element broght to the fore by the Cho Seung-Hui murder/suicide that continually amazes me is the almost unbelieveable inability of most of the commentators to distinguish between rational and irrational elements at play. In fact, in many cases there seems to be almost a complete reversal of the two.
Continue reading "Rationality vs Irrationality"
Posted by Sam at 05:40 AM
April 01, 2007
Income inequality...
...in 2005 was greater than in any year since 1928.
So in other words -- we've passed our generation's 1929 with barely a hiccup. We're in uncharted waters here, sailors.
Anyone care to guess what happens next?
Posted by Sam at 06:55 AM | Comments (0)
March 30, 2007
Drawing hope from the jaws of suicide
Here's an under-reported fact: only 10% of people who survive a suicide attempt go on to kill themselves.
Why is this important?
Because anything you can do to interrupt the suicidal process has a good chance of saving a life.
Continue reading "Drawing hope from the jaws of suicide"
Posted by Sam at 03:08 AM | Comments (0)
March 08, 2007
Bread Tab Debs
Molly and I made this with the bread-tabs I collected during the tenure of the pushcart.
Continue reading "Bread Tab Debs"
Posted by Sam at 03:27 AM
January 12, 2007
What if the "low hanging fruit" is a poison apple?
My union organizer buddy dropped that phrase, "low hanging fruit" about one of these shops backed by a gov't contract. "You can't blame the union for going after the low-hanging fruit," he said.
Well, can I?
Continue reading "What if the "low hanging fruit" is a poison apple?"
Posted by Sam at 09:56 AM | Comments (1)
January 09, 2007
2007 Initiative
Not being the type to make resolutions (call it the Lutherite tendency in me), this is not a resolution.
Continue reading "2007 Initiative"
Posted by Sam at 03:03 AM
December 21, 2006
Not all Profiteers are Created Equal
Let's say, for instance --
Profiteer A has a Government contract.
Profiteer B is selling on the open market.
Continue reading "Not all Profiteers are Created Equal"
Posted by Sam at 08:10 AM
December 18, 2006
Important Similarities
Two instances, same sound:
Mark Littel shouting to show how painless it is getting hit in the crotch with a fastball while wearing the "Nutty Buddy"...
Howard Dean shouting to show how painless it is getting hit in the crotch by a fastball in New Hampshire.
Posted by Sam at 06:51 AM
December 13, 2006
Neighborhood Union: Research Materials
A "Downtown Union" was tried in Montpelier, VT, between 2002 and 2004.
Question: why did it fail?
No answers yet, but source material follows.
Continue reading "Neighborhood Union: Research Materials"
Posted by Sam at 08:14 PM | Comments (0)
November 28, 2006
Loneliness is not an emotion
Nor is it a cognition.
It is one part of an integral mode of operation: being alone.
Continue reading "Loneliness is not an emotion"
Posted by Sam at 11:33 PM
November 24, 2006
Propping up a bankrupt pedagogy
I'm going about trying to learn Java from the Sun Systems tutorial.
Having once before been rebuffed, I'm trying to refine my method.
But first a little critique...
Continue reading "Propping up a bankrupt pedagogy"
Posted by Sam at 08:17 PM
November 23, 2006
Construction Deaths in NYC
The number of deaths on NYC construction sites is way up in the last 12 months. Simply a product of the building boom?
Add the fact that of 29 deaths, only 5 were on union sites, and the conclusions look a little different.
Especially when OSHA admits that they are largely dependent on workers' informing them of unsafe conditions. In other words, they rely on workers being organized (in either a formal or informal sense).
Other relevent stats: most of the dead were immigrants.
Politicians' response: try to limit the survivors' ability to sue for damages.
Posted by Sam at 01:38 AM | Comments (0)
September 21, 2006
more Union pre-notes
Continue reading "more Union pre-notes"
Posted by Sam at 07:49 AM
September 20, 2006
Union pre-notes
Continue reading "Union pre-notes"
Posted by Sam at 07:04 AM
September 11, 2006
Inertia
While working at the pushcart, I have come to understand much more clearly the inertial force of everyday life. To what degree this is a product of the specific work I don't know, but probably more importantly it is the first job I have ever had that I have cared about enough to work at for more that a year.
So I have come to understand some of the forces that keep people in a straight path. Why it is that revolutions don't happen every day, and never without mighty provocation. It is only when there is absolutely no way to go forward with things staying as they are that people taken as a mass will endure the risk involved in change.
To learn this has been sobering, but how much better than to never understand why no accumulated force of ideas can deflect the course of history?
Posted by Sam at 05:04 PM
August 16, 2006
Red Chef on TV
Posted by Sam at 11:28 AM
August 03, 2006
Hatred
It's not so bad, hatred.
Not beautiful, perhaps, but compact.
Posted by Sam at 08:38 AM
July 26, 2006
Bitterness
"Men get bitter at 40." -- Douglas Copeland
About 3 months ago, I felt the possibility of bitterness for the first time.
What is bitterness? Being caught by your own assumptions. 'It should have been mine!' over time wears a deep groove in you. Survivable, but excruciating.
During that time, I thought: "There is something worse than a life which is too short: a life which is too long."
For now, I'm back to planning for the long haul. Trying not to make my decisions too quickly.
I've drawn the conclusion that trying to go too directly forward in this world is asking to be trapped.
Posted by Sam at 03:30 AM