Life imitates art

Whatever else the Democrat's convention brought us they were God's gift to bloggers.

I mean, who else could eliminate God from their platform and then show us thousands, including some Muslims, screaming "NO!!!" when the panic over the country's response made the bosses add it back. And the dude up front saying the "Yes" had it after three tries when the "No" got louder after!

You couldn't make that stuff up!

And removing support for Israel from the platform... Yet Larry P, who keeps me up to date with great links re Islam, says that some Jews will vote for Obama. Go figure.

Oh well. Even Jesus had Judas.

And yeah, Larry P is Jewish. Second generation American. His folks came from the USSR so I think he has a better grasp on dictators and such than most of the rest of us. Besides being one of the good guys, he use to live in New Jersey.

So we called him "Yankee." Another guy who lived in Atlanta was known as "Cracker." I was, of course, "Hillbilly." If you couldn't take a joke it was best you didn't show up.

See what I mean?? The DNC has given us months and months worth of material.



"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them." - Karl Popper

 “It’s the presumption that Obama knows how all these industries ought to be operating better than people who have spent their lives in those industries, and a general cockiness going back to before he was president, and the fact that he has no experience whatever in managing anything. Only someone who has never had the responsibility for managing anything could believe he could manage just about everything.” - Thomas Sowell in Reason Magazine

Issac targets New Orleans!

That durn Bush. He just won't leave New Orleans alone.

"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them." - Karl Popper

“It’s the presumption that Obama knows how all these industries ought to be operating better than people who have spent their lives in those industries, and a general cockiness going back to before he was president, and the fact that he has no experience whatever in managing anything. Only someone who has never had the responsibility for managing anything could believe he could manage just about everything.” - Thomas Sowell in Reason Magazine

Insults deluxe

These insults are from an era before the English language got boiled down to 4-letter words.

· A member of Parliament to Disraeli: "Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease."

· "That depends, Sir," said Disraeli, "whether I embrace your policies or your mistress."

· "He had delusions of adequacy." - Walter Kerr

· "He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." - Winston Churchill

· "I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." - Clarence Darrow

· "He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary." - William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway).

· "Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I'll waste no time reading it." - Moses Hadas

· "I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it." - Mark Twain

· "He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.." - Oscar Wilde

· "I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend, if you have one." - George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill

· "Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second .... if there is one." - Winston Churchill, in response.

· "I feel so miserable without you; it's almost like having you here." - Stephen Bishop

· "He is a self-made man and worships his creator." - John Bright

· "I've just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing trivial." - Irvin S. Cobb

· "He is not only dull himself; he is the cause of dullness in others." - Samuel Johnson

· "He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up." - Paul Keating

· "In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily." - Charles, Count Talleyrand

· "He loves nature in spite of what it did to him." - Forrest Tucker

· "Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?" - Mark Twain

· "His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork." - Mae West

· "Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go." - Oscar Wilde

· "He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts... for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang (1844-1912)

· "He has Van Gogh's ear for music." - Billy Wilder

· "I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it." - Groucho Marx

And the one I like: A preacher said to the trouble maker, “Next time I see your parents, I’ll insist they get married. – Unknown

Hat tip to Mike L!

"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them." - Karl Popper


 “It’s the presumption that Obama knows how all these industries ought to be operating better than people who have spent their lives in those industries, and a general cockiness going back to before he was president, and the fact that he has no experience whatever in managing anything. Only someone who has never had the responsibility for managing anything could believe he could manage just about everything.” - Thomas Sowell in Reason Magazine

Arguing with a Liberal

Actually, it should read, "Arguing with a Leftie" because liberals are liberal. It is the Lefties that are not. But the Left stole the term years ago when people started catching on that Progressive was just another word for Socialist.

"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them." - Karl Popper

 “It’s the presumption that Obama knows how all these industries ought to be operating better than people who have spent their lives in those industries, and a general cockiness going back to before he was president, and the fact that he has no experience whatever in managing anything. Only someone who has never had the responsibility for managing anything could believe he could manage just about everything.” - Thomas Sowell in Reason Magazine

Carbonite got Rushed

This one is for all the people on the Left who had Carbonite in their investment accounts.

Now, as William Jacobson of the “Legal Insurrection” blog noted, Carbonite’s CEO David Friend conceded on a conference call that dropping Limbaugh deeply hurt the company’s earnings. “It turned out to be a bigger hole in our revenue than we had thought when we initially did this,” Friend said on a conference call on August 1. In fact, as Jacobson wrote, Carbonite’s 2nd Quarter 2012 results shocked analysts, causing the company's stock price to plummet by 15% in one day. 

Link

They got what they wanted. I just wonder if they wanted what they got?

You would think that astute business leaders would have taken a look at the fact there are no national Left wing talk shows and very few local Left wing shows and remembered the demise of Air America and not jumped in the pot with the Left.

But some did. This one has suffered. May the others join him.

And may everyone decide to keep politics out of business.


"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them." - Karl Popper

 “It’s the presumption that Obama knows how all these industries ought to be operating better than people who have spent their lives in those industries, and a general cockiness going back to before he was president, and the fact that he has no experience whatever in managing anything. Only someone who has never had the responsibility for managing anything could believe he could manage just about everything.” - Thomas Sowell in Reason Magazine

Chicago and Sales Meetings

Nope, it isn't Chicago but it is a Sheraton. A very nice Sheraton at LAX.

Before GSA taught us how to waste money we use to have Sales Meetings.

The purpose was to make as much money as possible playing poker and prove that you could drink and remain fairly coherent.

The secondary mission was to train us in all the latest sales technique and let the engineers lie to us about when a new product or feature would be available. I mean those engineers had no shame.  “Keep those R&D dollars coming folks and the Widget will have self wiping paper dispensed on wrinkle free rolls.”

I think that is how I knew immediately that man made global warming was a lie.

If the economy was good we’d have’em in Chicago in January at a Sheraton. There was one  near the airport that was across from Stromberg Carlson’s regional office. Bad news and an undoable quota?? Just stroll on over and see what the boys from Syracuse had available. If the economy was bad we’d have’em at a Day’s Inn in Nashville. Trust me. The Sheraton was nicer.

At one meeting we had A Professional Sales Trainer train us on how to get a customer interested in your sales brochure.

The guy spoke fairly well but he had a cross between a nose suck and a snort that appeared often but irregular.

This was fairly distracting and may have been a technique to keep us awake and listening as there were continual bets on the number of Sucksnorts with the attendant discussions, claims and disputes.

“Damn it Ray! I had the over and I counted 14, not 13.”

“Naw, Bill. That last one was a throat clearing and hacking up a booger, not a Sucksnort.”

You can see there were many areas where a dispute could occur. We often made Congress look good.

Anyway, the Professional Sales Trainer’s theory was that you never handed the customer the brochure, you just extended it and then pulled it back.  He called it the tease technique to build interest and create positive tension.

Now laying aside the fact that our customers never paid any attention to brochures… I mean if they were thinking about dropping a few million on a new switching system it took a bit more to get and hold their attention.. Anyway, at some point one of the old guys who had had a knock dead great year and thus could whip out his dick and piss on the floor and management would pretend he was just  pre wetting the carpet for the cleaners opined, “If a salesman did that to me I’d kick his ass out of my office.”

The Professional Sales Trainee couldn’t ignore that so a back and forth quickly developed.

Somewhere in there I couldn’t help but ask, “Have you ever sold anything?”

“Well,” he said, “I sold this course to your corporate.”

Ray chipped in, “That only proves they are stupid.”

We were a grumpy bunch proud of our success and we didn’t suffer fools gladly.

An early cocktail hour was announced as it was obvious the training was over.

It was at lunch on day at the Sheraton that we discovered the sensitivity of some waitresses.

There were three of us and one was Dave. Now Dave was basically a good guy but he made micro management an art form. Give him a wine list and thirty minutes later he would be discussing the summer temperature and rain fall on the slopes of the vineyard. Knowing this I’d just say, “Bring me a Bud.” Plus, he called all the girls Honey, Sugar  or Sweetie.


Now we know that Obama can do that and the Lefties swoon. But this was Chicago’s northwestern burbs and Obama  was being schooled in a Muslim school in Indonesia.

Anyway, Dave read the wine list, commented on menu, dispatched our waitresses for fresh bread wondered if the butter was real butter, all to the tune of “Honey, will you….” Finally the young lady had had enough. Fixing him with a laser beam gaze that would have killed a mere mortal she intoned, “It’s honey this and honey that and honey could you…. Well honey, kiss my ass, I ain’t waiting on you.” And stalked away in high dungeon.

The manager took her place. Dave was embarrassed and couldn’t understand the problem. We didn't try to explain.

"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them." - Karl Popper

 “It’s the presumption that Obama knows how all these industries ought to be operating better than people who have spent their lives in those industries, and a general cockiness going back to before he was president, and the fact that he has no experience whatever in managing anything. Only someone who has never had the responsibility for managing anything could believe he could manage just about everything.” - Thomas Sowell in Reason Magazine

More hotel and motels

Well, I've never posted a cat picture before...

Department of Useless Information and other wanderings of the mind.

I keep lists. One of the lists I started keeping years ago is the name and location of the motels/hotels I have stayed at over the years. The current number is 731 and I am sure I have missed some. And that is separate hotels, not stays. Nights are probably in the 2500 plus range since I traveled like crazy for over 47 years.

                           

I don’t know why I started the list. Seems like I was on a flight from SeaTac to Honolulu around mid ’84 when boredom set in and I started writing. Later on I transferred them to my computer. The files survived being moved from Apple to PC, Ashton Tate to Windows and numerous computer crashes. One of which involved the computer smoking up the First Class cabin on an UAL flight between Chicago and Denver. Electrical smoke/smell on board an in flight airplane will always get a lot of attention. In today’s world I probably would have been tasered, thrown to the floor and held down by a couple of 200 ponders until they could get the aircraft on the ground and turned me over to TSA.



From time to time I click through the list. It’s a wonderful way to bring back memories, mostly good.



I sometimes get asked what my favorite hotel is. It actually should be, “was” because hotels and motels tend to wear out quickly and it is always the staff that makes the average good and the good the best. I’ve stayed in 5 star’s in which the staff made me want to post a “Do Not Stay Here” sign out front to Mom and Pop’s with a bad bed and only three channels of snowy TV in which the staff made up for the lousy room and I left with a smile. People are the difference.



But not always.



I use to stay at a road side Holiday Inn, this was 30 plus years ago, that was near a customer that I called on regularly. My routine was to pick up messages late afternoon the day before and return the calls first thing the next morning. This one particular motel didn’t have the capability to allow a guest to dial “8” and be connected to an operator for a credit card call. It wasn’t unusual for me to have 6 or so messages so it was a real pain to have to call the front desk, wait for the clerk to answer, plug me into a outside line and dial 0 for me.



After one particular morning of delays and frustration as I was checking out I said, “It’s a real problem for me to have to call you every time I want to make a long distance call. I may have to start staying someplace else.”



“It’s up to you,” was the immediate response.



Needless to say I found a Mom and Pop up the road a bit that seemed to appreciate my business.



Reading back I see I called it a “a road side” Holiday Inn. Back then that meant it was beside a road and not in a town. They were often near interstate exits and maybe there would a gas station there. They weren’t all Holiday Inns and for the most part there wasn’t but one. Also back then the deal was a room “downstairs and out.” That meant a room that was downstairs and outside so you could park directly in front of the room, open the door and walk in versus a room inside that made you walk around the side and then through a passage way, etc.



Now days you see three or so motels, two or more gas stations and couple of restaurants. The country has grown.



And yeah, many motels and hotels, didn’t have direct dialing. You called the front desk, gave them the number, they made the call, connected you and when completed the operator would call them back and give them the charge which the marked up (surcharge) and added it to your bill.



Local calls were dial “9” plus the number. The typical charge was .25 cents.



Later direct lines, called “trunks” were added. Then you could dial, in most cases, “8” and you would be connected an operator for a credit card or collect call. Then, as technology improved, you could dial 8 + 0 + 555 666 7777 and the operator would come on, get your telephone company issued credit card number and release the call.



Yes, Virginia. There was a time in which cell phones did not exist.



One hot summer day I arrived at a customer’s office only to find out that the engineers, who I wanted to see, were on strike duty and doing repair and installation work at not too distant town.



So I called the motel where they were staying, made a res and left a message that help was on its way. (The town was dry.) On the drive over I stopped at a hardware store, bought a small wash tub, put it in my trunk, dropped in a couple of cases of beer, covered it with ice and drove to the motel.



I backed the car up towards the walk in front of the rooms and we proceeded to pop a top. I was a much appreciated man. After a beer or too one of the guys said, “You know there is a perv here?”



“What?” I replied, being the possessor of quick wit and sharp interrogation techniques. “How’d ya know?”



“Come on,” he said walking away.



Now the motel was a two storey in an L shape. Rooms were on both sides with a service hall running the length of the building for space to provide water, sewer and telephone connections.



“The lock on the entrance door is broke,” he said as he opened the entrance door to the service hall.



“Look,” he said pointing down the hall



The hall was dark and every so often you could see a light shining through a hole.



He closed the door and then led me to his room; another guy’s and then mine. Each room had small hole located in such a way the bath area could be viewed.



“What you gonna do,” I asked. “Call the police?”



“Nope,” he said. “We’re gonna be here for at least a month. I’m gonna wait til some real big guy shows up with his wife and I’m gonna show it to him the first morning.”

"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them." - Karl Popper


 “It’s the presumption that Obama knows how all these industries ought to be operating better than people who have spent their lives in those industries, and a general cockiness going back to before he was president, and the fact that he has no experience whatever in managing anything. Only someone who has never had the responsibility for managing anything could believe he could manage just about everything.” - Thomas Sowell in Reason Magazine