Archive for the Politics Category
Some people know I’m in college now, and just are thrilled for me.
I didn’t think I’d change much as a person, but here it is the end of my first semester (nearly), and I am changing. I can list all the various things that have changed, but there is one thing that I never realized meant so much even though I had such a natural knack at doing it.
Communication. Business communication. From a customer writing a letter to customer service, to a customer service agent writing a letter. I’ve learned so much, even more from using Purdue’s OWL , that I can say I see the business world from a different view now.
I’m only in college for an IT degree, but it seems from the course schedules that almost every student that gets an Associates or a Bachelor’s degree must take at least one Business Communication class. I did very well in school at English, and was good at getting my ideas across.
So imagine my surprise when I find out there is a way to write persuasive letters? Imagine my utter disbelief that there was a concrete and time taught way to write a negative letter!
I’m thinking back to all the ill fated emails I’ve sent over the years that were just plain wrong. I didn’t follow simple rules that would have made my message more effective. I never once thought about audience when I was writing, nor did I even try to build rapport with a person. I always assumed there was rapport there automatically, never remembering that rapport must be rebuilt in most cases. If I didn’t have rapport, the person isn’t going to get your message.
So today, I saw my first mistake due to my first class: I forgot to write the goal setting third part to my business letter back to a client. I was not able to speak to this client and apologize, taking complete responsibly for her feeling like she wasn’t being helped. Someone else handled it that I feel still didn’t realize the well organized (and thought out in college courses) play that was ensuing.
I also learned something else highly important: the customer had made a major mistake as well. While the client might have made more errors than me in the written communication, it was the best feeling in the world. In the past, I would have been upset at the client, possibly angered.
Why was I not angered? How could a client cancel my personal services and I beat myself up? The customer had written a slightly angry email, and from what I’ve learned, had shot them self in the foot. If she had taken the time to consider how to write an email, a business email, the entire situation could have been more easily handled.
So take heed as I’ve learned well: that paper you get is worth every cent.
It doesn’t take much past the first semester for most college students to realize why college exists. I suppose those that don’t…. they just didn’t learn or have way too much ego to realize they truly, really need help.
In the end, I know I could’ve kept the client by simply apologizing, that I hadn’t noted in my last email that if she needed anything further to contact me. No free service to the customer was available, the manager had made it clear his family needed to eat. (Have any of you first years learned that emotional persuasion is a big no no?)
You can really tell when there is blood in the water and the sharks want a taste.
Some consider this last weekend the time when Microsoft admitted there was problems in some cases with Sleep, Hibernate or call it what you will. In short it saves the amount of time you need to boot your computer up. The point being that there is always some problems with the way various devices get shut down and how that affects your kernel as it cleans up.
I remember reading this way back, then trying the different modes of sleep on my PC (AMD64, Nforce4). I had no such problems, in fact, I could do it even when I was playing games and the game would wake back up too.
Then I read notes like this about the state of the repair of the sleep process for Vista and take it to heart, knowing for sure that Microsoft is going to issue patches for things that might be better off fixed in vendor code.
This skidmark over here starts complaining about how horrible Vista is, but he really likes black boxes. You cannot see inside black boxes, you don’t know what’s going on inside of them and you don’t know why they crash. He’s ignorant, and doesn’t even know how to interpret the blue screen beyond the color and throwing google the text he sees. At least some person with moderate sense starts to wonder if it’s drivers and not the hardware causing the problem.
One does have to start wondering why so many people blame Microsoft and not the company who made the laptop. They don’t question the chipsets, or any circuitry that might be inside, trying to do it’s own power saving. Let’s not mention that the same people expect Microsoft to buy every notebook on the planet and make sure Vista works on it. Only one company makes sure their product works on every notebook it’s designed for: Apple.
I take heart when someone posts what their system is and how well it works with Vista sleep, and while granted it would have been better to have a Detailed entry a model number is good enough. (Hey, the chipsets make a good indicator if it’ll support ACPI)
I’ve seen a Dell and an HP so far that work just fine with Vista. But I digress, I do not have the model numbers in my head. I can tell you however that the Dell only had 512mb of ram, so you know how that is going to turn out…. or do we?
As always, you can consider my opinion to be that Microsoft is not the only one to blame here, and we are operating off of insufficient information. There is no non-biased repository of information that talks about the amount of systems sleep -does- work on.
The only conclusion I can reliably draw at this moment is that no company has any business releasing a product or feature that works less than 50% of the time. Saying they would do this only infers that the Titanic didn’t sink because of an Iceberg, it sank because the designers knew 50% of the rivets would come out when it turned left.
The professionals call it “intelligence”. The politicians call it “espionage”. To the rest of us, it’s simply “spy stuff”. Call it what you will, it’s all the same.
I have read that intelligence officers (spies to us) tend to avoid killing their counterparts in other countries, since all that untidy killing gets in the way of the primary mission, which is to gather information.
But that was during the Cold War, where distrust between the United States and the Soviet Union was as normal as going to get coffee in the morning. That information was desperately needed by both sides, so for the most part, “spies” stayed out of the killing game.
Now that the Cold War is over (I guess), I believe that the remnants of the Soviet Union are taking care of some unfinished business. First, a look at the past; then, a look at the present.
Ex-agents, defectors, and dissidents appear to be the unfinished business. Take the 1978 case of Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian dissident whose voice was heard often on Voice of America radio, until he was silenced in rather permanent fashion. A poison-tipped umbrella (believed to have injected Markov with ricin) sounds like something out of a 007 movie, but an agency with the resources (such as the now defunct KGB) would have no problem.
Fast forward now to 2004, and the case of Ukraine’s Victor Yushchenko, a candidate for President. Ukraine is very, very close to the heart of the old Soviet Union, and easily within its sphere of influence, and I’m not sure the Soviets (excuse me, the Russians) were especially fond of Viktor and his policies. Take a look at Viktor as he once was:
Ok, now let’s take a look at Viktor after his “dinner”, which apparently featured dioxin as the main course:
Sorry folks, but you don’t look like this after just a few days on the beaches at Sochi. They found enough dioxin in this guy to wonder how he survived at all.
Forward again to today, and Alexander Litvinenko, an ex-KGB agent who perhaps talked a little more than he should have about his past, and is getting too nosy for Moscow’s liking. Now he’s in a fight for his life in a British hospital, with a diagnosis of Thallium poisoning. Care to guess why? More to the point, care to point a finger at anyone?
There has always been a fundamental difference between America and the Soviet Union. That difference remains despite the state of glasnost and the new political system in Russia. Trouble is, people who talk smack against Russia’s leaders or policies are still dying in the same old way. Here in America, people who talk smack about our leaders or policies usually end up as a talking head on the Sunday morning shows.
Here, we embrace the idea of free speech. There, it is still somewhat repressed, by death if necessary. Here, a man is valued for having the courage to speak up from his heart, even if he is just spitting in the wind. In many places of the world, that will get you killed.
Sadly, Russia’s President, former KGB agent Vladimir Putin, doesn’t seem to realize that the Cold War is over (supposedly). The democratic reforms seen in Russia throughout the 90’s are being rolled back. And maybe, just maybe, ol’ Vlad may be dusting off what’s left of the KGB killing machine, and using it.
It’s a hell of a bad time to have an opinion on anything these days. Hope no one from Russia comes looking for me.
The PanMan, signing off…
Ladies and gentlemen, tonight I find myself at a political crossroads. As a registered independent, I cross party lines where I see fit, because I’m looking at character more than I am at a political philosophy. After all, that changes when you make it to Washington and realize you have to compromise to get anything done. So, give me a man of character who isn’t afraid to go against the flow, and not always toe the party line.
I say without shame that I’ve voted for a Democrat in every presidential election since I could vote (Clinton, 1992). Although his character was a disappointment, it was a great period in our nation’s history, particularly from an economic standpoint. In addition, the rest of the world didn’t hate us as badly as they do now, because Bill cared about their opinion.
But for the first time in my life, I’m considering giving my presidential vote to a Republican, Senator John McCain (R-AZ). He’s a true maverick. For the uneducated, a maverick is wild and untamed, and is a term generally used to describe horses. To me, Senator McCain does what he thinks is right, and he is cognizant of how far-reaching the acts of government are, and therefore aware of the importance of careful circumspection and oversight.
Here is a man who served his country with honor and distinction, a former POW, a man who has at times infuriated the GOP in general and the President in particular, simply because he won’t compromise his most cherished principles.
McCain is acceptable to me because he would be strong, yet judicious, on matters of national security. I think history proves that presidents who served in the military and who have seen the horrors of war are less likely to resort to violent responses (or pre-emptive strikes). Bravely defending U.S. airspace as part of the Air National Guard isn’t quite the same as enduring years of torture and imprisonment at the hands of the enemy.
I also approve of his refusal to support a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. That’s between him and him (or her and her). Even more importantly, McCain wants to expand federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research, which could help us understand and cure many diseases, and perhaps eventually become a feasible way to create replacement body parts without worrying about the body rejecting the organ. Perhaps with a Democratic Congress, this could be an achievable goal.
This is a man I think I could trust, and as long as he stays out of micromanaging my life, helps the middle and lower classes with some real tax relief (not Bush’s sop to the wealthy), does something to fix the train wreck known as No Child Left Behind, and keeps me safe at night from the bad guys without us turning into them, I think I can vote for him. My early endorsement is for Senator John McCain.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15658782/
The PanMan, signing off…
Wow. Wow. I had to say it twice. El Presidente is a smooth, smooth guy. I’ll give him that. Just a day after the election, and the President was being so charming that I thought he was hitting on Nancy Pelosi.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8004316/
I’ve followed Pelosi’s rise in the Democratic Party. She’s ambitious as hell, and a bit to the left (like the Pope, who is a bit Catholic). Dubya, meanwhile, is going to be spending a lot of time wondering how he got into this mess (this mess referring to any of the messes you like, no shortage) instead of working on his “legacy”, whatever the hell that is. Ask me what the first thing I think of when someone says Clinton, and I don’t think about the balanced budget, or his education initiatives, or his way of connecting with voters. I think about him getting some in the Oval Office. So much for legacies.
I can’t wait to see how President Smooth reacts when a completely gridlocked Congress fails to do a damned thing until January. Especially since only the defense and homeland security bills have been funded. Remember the government shutdown a few years back, when the GOP forced a showdown with Clinton? Watch Bush try to flip it in his favor. And I wouldn’t be surprised if some of his pet issues (like legalizing domestic spying) are attached to the spending bills. Nothing like the smooth criminal approach.
I just hope someone gets something done that’s good for all of us. Yup, and I still believe in Santa Claus too.
The PanMan, signing off…
Greetings, and welcome to my new blog, where I’ll be ranting on all things political. I can’t wait to begin sharing my philosophy with everyone, but first, a word about me.
I’m a registered independent from Florida, and I vote in EVERY election. I’m currently living in West Virginia, because I was raised here and I’m working here at the moment. I love talking about politics and religion, probably because those are topics most people like to avoid. Now, to the first edition of my blog.
We’ve all watched with baited breath over the last week or two, to see if the Democrats could make that final push and take over the Congress. As of tonight, it appears that the Dems have pulled it off.
What does this mean to the rest of us? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Ok, back up. I guess it does mean one thing. The majority controls the agenda. The majority controls what bills come to the floor, and the majority controls the form of the bill. So I guess that’s a victory of sorts.
The Dems also get the Committee chairmanships. That’s kind of a big deal, and it guarantees that the Dems have 1 more person in each committee than the opposition.
But in real terms, they didn’t gain much. To have real power in the Senate, for example, you need an unflinching, united group of 60 Senators to wield filibuster-breaking power. And in the House, where the real action is if you’re the majority and the President is not in your party, the subpoena power does come in handy.
But in pure “getting things done” terms, the country didn’t change much. There are too many liberal Republicans, conservative Democrats, and us doggone Independents (2) to be able to predict how the next Congress will vote on anything.
For people fed up with the gridlock in Washington, I suggest you move to another country. It’s a different traffic jam after the election, but it’s still a traffic jam.
Good luck to the new members of Congress, and please: Don’t act like the old one.
The PanMan, signing off…
Six governorships changed from Republican to Democratic hands Tuesday, giving Democrats control of the top state posts for the first time in around 12 years.
To me, this is like the sun peeking around the edges of the clouds. Could there be a dem president not too far from the edges now? I can only hope that everyone I know does see the boost to our standards of living when a dem is in power.
I’m still holding out that the PanMan will come to my blog and setup a proper political forum. I tried once today already 
In another move that could be cast as “doesn’t matter what he says” George Bush announced:
“If they say they want to win the war on terror, but call for America to pull out of what al Qaeda says is the central front in this war, ask them this question: ‘What’s your plan?’ ”
“The truth is the Democrats can’t answer that question,” Bush said. “Harsh criticism is not a plan for victory. Second guessing is not a strategy.”
“We have a plan for victory. We have a plan to secure this country, and part of our plan is to send Jim Talent back to the United States Senate.”
Seems like to me it’s more good old fashioned terrorism.
In the end, who really knows that any Senator or House Rep doesn’t have the plan that will get us out and save the Iraqi people just ready to be vetoed. What he’s really saying is that exactly, but only Republicans can be right.
I can’t imagine a better post election day result.
We’ve all heard the naysayers of the war (me one of them), but even more voiced concern that the war was just plain not carried out right. Everyone in his right mind knows who called for torture, those that carried it out we know very well.
Always one for change, I think it should happen again if results are seen, and seen very soon. We have too many men & women who have been fighting for two years and there is no end in sight. All those that think Bush should’ve released that he’s already queried Robert Gates over the Iraq war should raise their hand now.
Things could get worse, but since Rumsfeld was a war machine things could get better.
http://www.kwtx.com/breakingnews/4591891.html
http://elections.us.reuters.com/top/news/usnN08173511.html
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,20727454-661,00.html
Even stocks did better.
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,20727349-5005962,00.html