"Nazis Run Our Space Program" -- Peace Activist Bruce Gag-Me

Pat Flannery wrote:

:Herb Schaltegger wrote:
:
:Well, why should Fred let facts stand in the way of his righteous
:indignation?
:
:I'd whine some more about this,

And no doubt will.

:but right now I'm in the middle of
:uncovering deviated red subversions in our very midst.

Sounds like you should see a doctor about that.

:I'll just say that now would be a good time to keep your powder dry and
:your ass covered...or was that the other way around?

If you keep your powder up your ass, you can cover all bases. But
then you'd have to worry about sneezing and blowing your fool head
off....

--
"Some people get lost in thought because it's such unfamiliar
territory."
--G. Behn

"Pat Flannery" wrote in message
...
Plus, I use Pledge for shampoo.



Following this train of logic, I assume your furniture's legs have no
trouble with split ends.

Hey, my wife *loves* the streamlined look!

I can put a kitchen towel in a large bowl, spray a little Pledge, put it on
my head and spin- cleans and shines at the same time!

Seriously, in 11th grade I developed severe dandruff (I tried a brand new
shampoo, Pert, and within hours, the flakes started falling and haven't
stopped), and after 16 years of random treatments, I found scraping my skull
once or twice a week stopped it.

Not only do I remove whatever flakes there may be, but without my rather
thick and luxurious hair in the way, sunlight zaps whatever's causing it.
Exposure to light virtually eliminates the problem, so whacking the hair
cleared everything up.

It's not all that cheap- I only get about 3 good shaves from my barber, Mach
3. I learned to use two razors, one with a fresh blade (4 uses) and an old
blade. The old blade does the coarse work, leaving the new blade to take
care of the close work. That lets me get up to five uses from a blade before
it becomes old.

Four blades- eh. The Quattro was unimpressive, and much harder to clean.

"Derek Lyons" wrote in message
...
Offer something the public is willing to pay for that Wal-Mart doesn't,
and
you stay in business.

Given the breadth of Wal-Mart's stock, and the public fixation on low
cost, that's pretty hard.

There's the two-dimensional thinking again. I wasn't thinking of stock,
precisely because of what you said. It's a good point- the niche stores
should survive, precisely because the market isn't large enough for Wal-Mart
to be interested in them- but not what I meant.

Wal-Mart didn't do dick to my sales.

That's extraordinarily unusual.

We accepted Wal-Mart as a challenge to be met, not competition to be feared.
We didn't whine "It's not fair, why should I have to change?". There's no
reason for the free market to be fair. Wal-Mart carried stuff that was
pretty similar to what we carried (although we also carried salvage
material), so we didn't compete on the basis of stock. Curiously, we carried
the same brand of brushes that Wal-Mart carried, and beat them on price.

Wal-Mart will certainly wipe out any business that refuses to change.
Sometimes, the small guy can't change enough to remain profitable. There's
some whining about a planned Wal-Mart going on near where I live. Mostly,
it's people in business who are complaining about the environment instead of
being honest. I say this because the environmental plan promoted by Wal-Mart
greatly exceeded the minimum requirements and would have resulted in more
than three times the amount of buffer around the local creek than required.
The real problem was the locals were afraid of competition, and were
dishonest about it. Wal-Mart donates more to the area than all of the whiny
businesses combined, and sometimes pays better.

"Pat Flannery" wrote in message
...
You've got to appreciate the Dollar Store's three-pronged approach to
beating WalMart though:
1. Undercut WalMart's prices.
2. Undercut WalMart's quality.
3. Use only suppliers that have been rejected by Walmart for fear of
lawsuits.

Shhh! That's a state secret!

"Andrew Gray" wrote in message
. ..
The leverage to *get* an acceptable contract is what I suspect Ami is
referring to

The error is in assuming leverage on an individual basis- the *market* has
leverage. If a business can fill a position for less than what you are
willing to accept, then clearly what you want is more than what the market
is willing to pay. If *nobody* was willing to work for what was offered,
then the employer would have to either raise the ante or live without the
labor. If there is someone more desperate or willing than you, then *you*
need to reconsider your position.

A union isn't needed, just mutual cooperation. Why shouldn't an employer
take advantage of the employee pool capacity for greed and self-interest?

Your labor isn't worth what you think it is- it's worth what the market will
pay.

"OM" om@our_blessed_lady_mary_of_the_holy_NASA_researc h_facility.org wrote
in message ...
Have you ever heard the term "wage slave"?

...Or "Dell Serf"?

Both of which are *voluntary*. It's amazing, the number of people who get
minimum wage who are *overpaid*.

"Pat Flannery" wrote in message
...
I
still think this is an odd way to fish, but using thermite to boil a
pond full of ducks is a little odd also, but at least does not lack in
imagination.

Depends on how hungry you are. I don't really care about fishing, so if I
was hungry, and had one available, I'd consider dropping a grenade.

Sure, there's not much sport in it, but the goal isn't to enjoy sport, it's
to eat.

Andrew Gray ) wrote:
: On 2005-03-16, Eric Chomko wrote:
:
: MOSSAD, SAVAK, or MI5, or is it MI6? I always get those two confused.

: MI5 - the Security Service - is internal security; MI6 - the Secret
: Intelligence Service - is espionage and related "external security". MI5
: also has the counter-terrorism remit, and in the last ten years has
: been tasked with some serious-crime work. MI6 contains the remnants of
: the SOE, roughly the equivalent of the OSS.

: The MI numbers date back to WWI/II; the current forms come from postwar,
: when all the other MI- departments were abolished. (It stood for
: "Military Intelligence", with an impressive array of groups - MI9
: specialised in POW escapes, for example).

: Other organisations, if memory serves, are GCHQ - the signals-intercept
: people - and the Defence Intelligence Staff, which is pretty much what
: it sounds like it is. There's also the various police forces' Special
: Branches (most famously that of the Metropolitan Police), which have a
: quasi-intelligence role in some contexts.

: There, that ought to thoroughly confuse you...

Actually, no. Thanks for the overview, it cleared up my confusion. The
bigger then number the further away (external = 6).

I guess a rough US equivalent is:

MI5 = FBI
MI6 = CIA.

At least their domains, though the FBI is both domestic and abroad where
the CIA (so we are told anyway) is strictly foriegn.

Eric

: --
: -Andrew Gray
:

Rand Simberg ) wrote:
: On Wed, 16 Mar 2005 15:27:54 -0600, in a place far, far away, Pat
: Flannery made the phosphor on my monitor glow in
: such a way as to indicate that:

: Of course, making fun of Eric is like shooting piscine prey in a
: barrel. On the other hand, the fact that they're in a barrel doesn't
: mean that the fish shouldn't be shot.
:
:
:
: It's going create quite a lot of splashed water though, isn't it?

: Depends on calibre and muzzle velocity. With fish like Eric, though,
: a shotgun is adequate, and one shot will do ya.

You'd probably miss with a shotgun as well. And I wouldn't advise shooting
a shotgun into a barrel. But that's just me.

Eric

Rand Simberg ) wrote:
: On Wed, 16 Mar 2005 21:48:58 +0000 (UTC), in a place far, far away,
: (Eric Chomko) made the phosphor on my
: monitor glow in such a way as to indicate that:

: : So, the govt. stepping in with minimum wage was a lousy idea, right?
:
: : Yes.
:
: You obviously think you'd be on the side of the bourgeoisie rather than
: the proletariat, inherently. I think we are sort of getting to the root of
: your personality with this. You think you have more class than you do!

: I'm not a Marxist, Eric. Class warfare is so nineteenth century.

Perhaps, but you do hold yourself in a position of higher class which is
really un-American. And I have no idea why you do that.

: : Are
: : you aware that we used to have sweat shops like third world countries do
: : now?
:
: : Yes.
:
: Perhaps your grandmother owned the one that my grandmother worked in?

: It seems exceedingly unlikely.

: : We now have welfare for those who can't earn enough in the free
: : market.
:
: Which isn't the same as minimum wage. I'd rather see someone making
: minimum wage rather than be on welfare.

: Minimum wage is a form of welfare, where the money is taken from
: employers rather than taxpayers. Except most employers refuse to pay
: it, instead simply automating and letting jobs go undone. And people
: go unemployed.

And the basis of that comment is? Do you have a reference that employers
refuse to pay minimum wage and let jobs go undone?

: : Everything! The point is that a third party or arbitrator is neseccary for
: : labor.
:
: : That has nothing to do whether or not to have a minimum wage.
:
: Sure it does! Minimum wage keeps a lot of crap out of court.

: Like what? How does it do that?

If an employer doesn't pay minimum wage, then he is guilty by default. No
argument. MW is a standard that every employer MUST pay an employee. If
they pay more than MW, then an employee can't sue as they are getting MW.
If they go under, then the employee has a case. Having the MW standard
eliminates underpaid employees flocking to courts.

Eric