It’s hard for me to write anything about Christmas without coming across as cynical and bitter and old and jaded and all that stuff.

So I won’t.

I’m thankful for Frank and for Bayley and for David and all my other friends. I’m thankful for my nice, comfortable warm home and a full stomach. I’m thankful for still being alive and that some people still want to put up with me.

I’m thankful for the opportunity to have some impact on childrens’ lives in the classroom. I’m thankful for the opportunity to get my master’s degree at one of the Empire’s premiere educational institutions.

I love the snow, my new Jeep, and sitting around all weekend watching movies with Frank. I love my bicycle, my leather chair and cuddling up to a warm beagle between us on a cold wintry night.

I’m thankful to start a new year and have more adventures.

I hope to get a handle on the arthritis in ‘05. I hope to lose 20 pounds and be in better shape so I can be a bike stud next summer. I hope to make it through my April sojourn in Oklahoma more or less intact. I hope to be able to get my grad program successfully underway and halfway done by this time next year. And I hope to not get creamed by a Michigan driver in ‘05.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Looks like « USAirways’ CWA unit is the latest union to cave to bankruptcy/liquidation threats »

‘Reservations and gate agents at US Airways approved a new contract Thursday that cuts pay by 13 percent and provides the airline some of the relief it says it needs to avoid imminent liquidation. The Communications Workers of America, which represents nearly 6,000 passenger service employees at the bankrupt airline, said that 60 percent of members who cast ballots voted to approve the deal, which runs though 2011. The deal is expected to save the airline $137 million a year. “This ratification is very important to our future success as it shows our ability to work collaboratively with our employees toward common goals and solutions. Today, we have drawn much closer to becoming a stronger, more competitive airline,” said Jerrold Glass, the airline’s senior vice president of employee relations. Thursday’s vote gives the airline ratified deals with two of its four major unions: the CWA and the pilots’ union. It still needs ratified deals from its flight attendants and its machinists’ union. CWA leaders had urged approval of the deal. They said the pay cuts, while steep, are much less than the 34 percent cuts initially sought by the airline. The contract cuts pay for most CWA employees by 13 percent, with top scale now at $18 an hour. Employees would not receive pay raises until at least 2008.’

I love that quote from the Sr. VP of ‘Employee Relations’: ’… our ability to work collaboratively with our employees toward common goals and solutions.’

Whatta loada horse hockey.

What actually happened, ‘Jerrold’, was that your airline threatened its employees with the complete loss of their jobs via liquidation; instead of standing firm and unemployed, the workers voted to take a big ol’ pay cut and keep a paycheck that will be marginally better than unemployment compensation and might last marginally longer. And they’ll do it again and again every time you ask them to or you’ll have the judge ram it down their throats.

And if USAirways does liquidate, as an ‘executive’ Jerrold will land pretty soft pretty much anywhere; the workers will land … in not so good circumstances.

I’ll add USAirways to my list of sucky airlines that need to join Eastern in the great airline graveyard in the sky. Sorry, USAirways employees, but your executives (and hence your airline) are irredeemably amoral.

Looks like United wins another one; « Independence Air is about to scuttle its independence »:

‘Independence Air, which has struggled since its launch six months ago as an independent low-fare carrier, has been asked by bankrupt United Airlines to return as a feeder carrier, a company spokesman said on Thursday. Rick DeLisi, a spokesman for Independence Air’s Dulles-based corporate parent, Flyi Inc., said the company received an unsolicited request from UAL Corp.’s United to bid on the regional feeder routes. He said that the company has discussed the issue with United, but declined to confirm that the company actually submitted a bid. “We have always said that we would be open to listening to any idea,” DeLisi said. Flyi executives had previously stated they would consider a return to flying as a regional carrier. … Flyi, formerly known as Atlantic Coast Airlines, embarked on the Independence Air experiment after United Airlines filed for bankruptcy and sought to sharply curtail the profit margins of its regional carriers. Though some analysts questioned the wisdom of trying to run a low-fare airline with regional jets, which generally have higher unit costs, Flyi executives said the potential rewards of establishing a successful independent carrier outweighed the risks.’

Basically what we have here, then, is that badly mismanaged and fiscally irresponsible United, operating under the guise of bankruptcy, has royally screwed over its unions and its regional carrier ‘partners,’ yet again.

Lesson: If you’re too stupid to run your airline properly even during tough times, just run screaming to a judge and you’ll get what you want anyway.

I’m sorry, but United needs to join Pan American, Braniff, Eastern, etc., in the graveyard of once-proud, once-great, but now ridiculously awful airlines. If you’re a United employee, I’m sorry for that sentiment, but … well … take it up with the idiots at the home office in Elk Grove.

2004-12-26 01:04:59

We spent quite a bit of time driving around in the Jeep today. The seven inches of snow and hard-packed ice on side streets were quite fun.

The Grand was rock-solid and never slipped or slid unless I forced it to. In some ways, it’’s a bit boring. But I’‘ve never been accused of being a live-on-the-edge kinda guy anyway.

The heater and heated seats are awesome; you build up a sweat pretty quick. I hate driving in a coat anyway, so that comes off, even though the temp gauge reads 10 degrees.

Almost a month, 550 miles and counting, and I’‘m still very, very happy. (Well, mostly. We won’‘t talk about the gas mileage.)

Well, I see that, on a day which is supposed to be the holiest to ‘Jesus is my hero’ types like himself, the « Emperor delivers his most hypocritical Christmas message ever »

’[The Emperor] on Saturday urged Americans to help the neediest among them by volunteering to care for the sick, the elderly and the poor in a Christmas day call for compassion. “Many of our fellow Americans still suffer from the effects of illness or poverty, others fight cruel addictions, or cope with division in their families, or grieve the loss of a loved one,” he said in his weekly radio address. “Christmastime reminds each of us that we have a duty to our fellow citizens, that we are called to love our neighbor just as we would like to be loved ourselves,” Bush added. “By volunteering our time and talents where they are needed most, we help heal the sick, comfort those who suffer, and bring hope to those who despair, one heart and one soul at a time.”’

Pardon me while I retch violently.

That was the Emperor’s words. Lest we forget, here are the Emperor’s actions:

’‘In one of the first signs of the effects of the ever tightening federal budget, in the past two months the Bush administration has reduced its contributions to global food aid programs aimed at helping millions of people climb out of poverty. With the budget deficit growing and [the Emperor] promising to reduce spending, the administration has told representatives of several charities that it was unable to honor some earlier promises and would have money to pay for food only in emergency crises like that in Darfur, in western Sudan. The cutbacks, estimated by some charities at up to $100 million, come at a time when the number of hungry in the world is rising for the first time in years and all food programs are being stretched.

‘As a result, Save the Children, Catholic Relief Services and other charities have suspended or eliminated programs that were intended to help the poor feed themselves through improvements in farming, education and health. “We have between five and seven million people who have been affected by these cuts,” said Lisa Kuennen, a food aid expert at Catholic Relief Services. “We had approval for all of these programs, often a year in advance. We hired staff, signed agreements with governments and with local partners, and now we have had to delay everything.” Ms. Kuennen said Catholic Relief Services had to cut back programs in Indonesia, Malawi and Madagascar, among other countries.’

Now, I’m not supposed to judge my fellow man. So I’ll just have to take comfort in the hope that someday, God will judge this man for BOTH his words and actions.

Small comfort, but it’ll have to suffice in order for us to get through the next four years of hell the Emperor will unleash.

Merry Christmas, my ass.

On Christmas Day, the one day of the year when ‘Goodwill Toward Men’ is supposed to prevail, comes news that « our post-retirement future is in the hands of a buncha nuts and partisan political hacks »:

‘Nearly everyone agrees that it will be hard, perhaps impossible, for [the Emperor] to overhaul Social Security without bipartisan support. But the parties have not been this far apart ideologically on Capitol Hill for decades, some analysts say. And many Democrats assert that the last four years under Mr. Bush have only deepened the division and mistrust. Democratic leaders are careful to say they are willing to engage in bipartisan discussions about the problems facing Social Security, with “no preconditions on either side,” as Representative Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader in the House, put it last week. The [emperor] himself said Thursday that he understood that “I have a responsibility to reach out to members of both political parties and I will meet that responsibility.” But leading Democrats say [the Emperor] is beginning his Social Security drive with some unacceptable preconditions. Indeed, Democratic leaders dispute the Republicans’ central assertions: that the problems facing Social Security constitute a crisis, and that diverting payroll taxes to private investment accounts is the way to solve it. Social Security trustees have estimated that without changes, the system will start running short of money to pay full benefits in 38 years. “If we allow them to frame it that way — that there is a crisis, therefore we must go to private accounts — if we allow them to frame it that way, the fact is, we’ve perpetrated a huge fraud,” said Senator Byron L. Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota and chairman of the Democratic Policy Committee. Moreover, any serious effort to build a bipartisan coalition is bucking some powerful trends. The latest analysis of roll-call votes by Congressional Quarterly showed that 2003 was the most partisan year of the past five decades studied, and 2004 was only slightly less so.’

Good lord. We are SO screwed when we hit retirement age.

I switched the tires on the Bobcat today from the smooth good-weather ones to the knobby snow/mountain tires for winter. It’s time to go try the thing out on the snow and ice. I’m eager to get back in shape and get things going so I can be ready to do some serious riding this summer.

I’ll probably do myself an injury.

« Our Life in Michigan – Christmas Day 2004 »

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