Real. Paying. Jobs.

Real. Paying. Jobs.

Yes, there really are such things. With all the bad economics news online, on tv and radio,in barber shops and just about everywhere else, and deservedly so, there are jobs available right now. As I read that, it looks like a tv infomercial. But, its absolutely true.

Where? In northwest North Dakota. What sort of jobs? Oil patch jobs. Lots of very difficult, dirty jobs. Hot in the summer, cold in the winter jobs. But, real, paying jobs.

Looking for housing is a big issue in that area. Why? Because those out doing those very tough jobs need housing. Hotels are full. Apartments, where they can be found, are full. Homes are difficult to come by, and expensive. And, when found, may not be your ideal.

Of course, not all of the jobs there are in the patch. There are lots of support jobs as well. They don't pay as well as rig jobs, but they don't expose you to the elements in the same way either. An example, a fellow was looking for help repairing two-way radios. He had advertised in Minneapolis, Bismarck and other large cities. To no avail.

Some of that could be explained by location. It gets really hot during the summer and really cold during the summer. And, its in the northwest corner of North Dakota. But, the other reason is that drilling companies pay more. So, they pull most of the available workforce out of town and onto the rigs.

The bottom line of course, is that if you are looking for work, there are jobs available. Just head for Minot, North Dakota for real, paying, jobs.

Jobs Reality

On most any day, you are likely to hear a mouthpiece of one of the life destroying longwall mining companies claiming to be a friend of the worker. That the company is all about providing good paying jobs for people over so many years. Of course, anyone who is willing to look at the numbers from 1850 to present, knows full well that those jobs have been declining at a faster and faster rate.

Well, looks like that downward spiral is going to take a big drop. In fact, the underground jobs in the longwall business are going to disappear altogether. And no, I don't mean that those companies are going to stop their destruction of the planet we live on.

Those great jobs creating companies are looking at longwall panel machines that require no humans under the surface whatsoever. Welcome to jobs reality. The way it has always been. Not admitted to. But, the way it has always been.

Jobs reality is where the company mechanizes whenever and whatever they can, eliminating as many people as possible. Where management can work machines day in and day out with no breaks, no overtime and no worry about mine safety or health issues. Profits get larger and those pesky humans disappear from the scene.

Those aren't the things CONSOL, Massey or Peabody talk about. And, rightly so. That would mean telling the truth. And, we know damned well those folks are about some very basic things, dollars specifically, but the truth isn't one of them.

No, they will continue to talk of job creation as if it were true. But, don't be misled for an instant. Job reality, that is to say getting humans out of the equation as quickly as possible, is where they are headed. And, in their world, the faster the better.

Prop 8

Finally, love wins.

A stay has been put in place. And, it looks like this is being fast tracked to the SCOTUS. No way of telling how that plays out with Roberts, Scalia, et. al. involved. But, it looks like we are at least now on the road to putting this thing in it's proper place. That is, behind us.

To all those who did so much to make this possible, our greatest thanks.

For all those who have waited so long to be treated as nothing more than equal, my apologies that it took so long. My house hopes that all those who have been waiting for this simple possibility, can now embark on their voyage of marriage.

My teen aged Grandchildren think this whole thing has been assinine. I couldn't agree more.

Yea, Us.

Massey tells the truth?

Here is something new. Massey said that if they were subjected to increased Federal mining inspection, it would reduce coal productivity. No shit. If they have to make safety a priority and put up with oversight, its gonna cost them.

Hmmmm! Every time a worker dies in one of their mines, they trot out the "safety of our employee's is our number one priority" show. It comes with tears, very stern faces and short talks with the family members involved.

So, how do we know they are lying? Not just because their lips are moving. No. In this case they have told us exactly what their highest priority really amounts to. It's coal production. They don't want any of that government interference going on.

And, there you have it. Straight from Massey. The coal that they are digging up to send to China is more important than any damned government regulation. Or, miners lives either, for that matter.

"unprecedented operational tempo"

A new report out from the military reporting on why suicides have risen so high over the past decade. Turns out one of the root causes is "unprecedented operational tempo." Now who in the hell figured that out? And, why did they have to pay for a study?

If you put troops into a war zone over and over, they die. One way or another, they are going to be killed. And, directly or indirectly is irrelevant. Dead is dead no matter how it happened.

That someone would use words like "unprecedented operational tempo," to mean we keep putting them into the kill zone over and over, knowing that this will be the outcome, sounds a whole lot like bullshit to me.

For anyone who doesn't know the sound of bullshit, "unprecedented operational tempo" likely sounds fine. For anyone who has a built in bullshit-o-meter, called common sense in some quarters, its pretty obvious.