Michael’s office is closing March 1st.

Anyone who knows of any jobs in the Morgantown area for someone who is four classes away from his CS degree, has a CCNA, and is currently working as a technical support person, lemme know.

ADDENDUM the First:
By the way, he already has a Bachelor’s degree. However, it is in Forestry.

The bad news that was here will reappear tomorrow.

Unfortunately it didn’t go away permamently.

I am in search a copy of the Plumber skit from the Electric Company.

It was my all time favorite bit from the Electric Company, and I was reminded of it by a recent news bit on a gray parrot tattled on a girlfriend’s infidelity.

I especially loved the last bit of the CNN story:

(The ex-girlfriend) added to The Guardian newspaper: “I am surprised to hear he got rid of that bird.

“He spent more time talking to it than he did to me.”

But I still want to see that bit from the Electric Company again.

“Who is it?”
“It’s the plumber, he’s come to fix the sink.”

When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.

A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life’s roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life’s highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.

A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, “This is not just.” It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of South America and say, “This is not just.” The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just.

A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, “This way of settling differences is not just.” This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation’s homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.

America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing except a tragic death wish to prevent us from reordering our priorities so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. There is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood.
— Martin Luther King
Beyond Vietnam — A Time to Break Silence

As much as I appreciate cough drops, I really hate the way they make my back teeth feel fuzzy.

29,522 via Word’s Word Count
32,250 via Double Space Courior font pages times 250

And that is your completely worthless information for the day.

It was brought to my attention Friday, but I wasn’t going to mention it, however S, at Hillbilly Sophisticate has brought it up, so I started thinking about it more.

What’s been bothereing me?

The fact that the group that pickets soldiers funerals is planning on picketing the funerals of the Sago miners who died.

Why? Because they believe that West Virginia is a hotbed of homosexual activity and so the mine disaster is God’s punishment.

Most of the time I don’t believe in Hell. But things like this make me hope that there is a Hell, because members of hate groups like that most surely belong there.

Merry Christmas to all the Eastern Orthodox!

Cute Overload

They got the name right.

CNN has a nice piece on the miners. Just a little bit about each miner, but it’s still a nice effort.

Those of you who are on speaking terms with your deities, please send good thoughts and wishes towards Tallmansville, WV.

I’d also like to note that last year, violations were three times more higher, from 68 citations to 205 citations, and the injury rate was three times higher as well.

This accident may be just that–an accident. But it may also be related to the job that MSHA is and is not allowed to do. Is a $250 fine sufficient for violations that place the lives of miners at risk?

This place has changed for good
Your economic theory said it would
It’s hard for us to understand
We can’t give up our jobs the way we should
Our blood has stained the coal
We tunneled deep inside the nation’s soul
We matter more than pounds and pence
Your economic theory makes no sense
–Sting

(10:00)
Holy Cow!

Additionally, the delay between the radio and the tv is a lot shorter this year.

ADDENDUM the First: (10:36)
AAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHH!

ADDENDUM the Second: (12:20)
Man oh MAN…. I can’t even watch.

ADDENDUM the Third: (12:44)

THUD

38 to 35 WVU!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’m not big on New Year’s Resolutions. If something needs to be changed in my life, I figure it’s best to change it when I think of it. No need to wait until January 1st.

But this is a good time to be thankful for everything I have, and to remind myself that I should remain thankful for these blessings throughout the year.

Everyday is a chance to watch a beautiful sunrise or a beautiful sunset, if only you take the time to stop and look.

Happy New Year, and may the coming year be full of small joys and the happiness of recognizing how many blessings we have.

ADDENDUM the First:
I am NOT thankful, however, for the cold I seem to be coming down with fighting off.