Archives
The Cranes are Falling
Sun, 08/10/2008 - 07:56 — Bobbo
They stand over the city like the great predatory wading birds they are named after. And from time to time, like those great predatory wading birds, they come down swiftly on those below and take a life...often more than one. They are the construction cranes, whose numbers grew with the massive lending sprees that fueled the hi-rise building boom in our great cities.
But the construction cranes don't take lives with sharp beaks and unerring vision like their avian namesakes. Instead people get electrocuted when the cranes collide with power lines, operators fall out of them, they fall on top of people, or they crush people in the other gruesome ways that heavy complex machinery can destroy the human body.
A Better Class of Criminal
Tue, 07/29/2008 - 12:22 — Bobbo 
What is left of the Brachs' Candy factory lies crumbling along Cicero Avenue, frequented only by the homeless, the professional junk scavengers, the graffiti artists and the urban adventurers who love to risk life and limb clambering around abandoned buildings. Brachs is only one example. Today most of Chicago's former industrial glory is a Machu Picchu of weedy rusting ruins or has been plowed under to grow a crop of yuppie condo buildings.
Twas not always thus.
Coddling our Crybaby Corporations
Thu, 07/17/2008 - 05:37 — Bobbo
"This is a war on the middle class", an American Axle worker said, "People are losing their homes, while the banks and the rich are getting more profits. They preach they are creating more jobs—but what kind of pay are these jobs?"
The jobs that the striking American Axle worker referred to pay $14 an hour, down from the $28 an hour that the American Axle parts workers had been formerly paid. As peoples' mortgages, car payments, kids' college tuition and health care went down the drain when the strike was lost, American Axle CEO Richard Dauch was rewarded with an 8.5 million dollar bonus for his brave service in the battle against the American middle class.
Now Repeat After Me...We're Electing a President, Not a Messiah
Sun, 07/06/2008 - 18:59 — Bobbo
So Barack Obama is tacking to starboard. That's steering to the right for you landlubbers. But as a politician who lives next to those inland seas we call the Great Lakes, he must have seen sailors do this hundreds of times. He's already tacked to the port or the left side. Now it's time to tack to the right or the starboard side. Paradoxically, that's how you sail in a "straight" line and end up arriving at your destination.
Let's remember that Barack Obama is a South Side Chicago politician. Veering to the right after starting out on the left is a time honored Windy City tradition.
All You Need is Love...and some Pride at Work
Mon, 06/30/2008 - 00:57 — Bobbo
There's nothing you can do that can't be done.
Nothing you can sing that can't be sung...
All you need is love, all you need is love,
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
Shortly after 5 PM on June 16, 2008, longtime lesbian activists Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin were wedded by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsome. Both women were well up into their eighties and had been together for 55 years. They were founding members of the Daughters of Bilitis which began way back in 1955 and became the nation's first lesbian advocacy group.
Given their history, it was fitting that they were the first gay Californians to get legally hitched. They were followed by hundreds more, joining the many gays who had already married in Massachusetts where it has been legal since 2004.
Why the Scottish Highland Games and Festival is Starting to Bore Me
Sun, 06/29/2008 - 02:31 — Bobbo
My dad's parents were both Scottish immigrants and my mom's Scottish ancestors go back to before the American Revolution.
I think Scotland is one of the most beautiful places in the world, though it is not a warm cuddly beauty. The Highlands will take your breath away, but the weather can be dangerous and when the mists come down, it's all to easy to take a misstep and fall off a cliff.
Wusses in the Workplace: Yeah, I'm Talkin' to You!
Thu, 06/19/2008 - 09:42 — Bobbo
The above cartoon is a total misrepresentation of reality. No, not the actions of the boss. That is clearly satirical license showing how American management routinely bullies their underlings.
I mean the actions of the worker. She fights back with a bit of creative guerrilla theater.
But how many people do you know actually push back against the verbal and physical abuse that American management dishes out as a matter of course? This abuse takes on the form of malicious rumors, constant criticism, profanity, unfair punishment, tampering with work equipment, posting nasty pictures, sexual intimidation, spying, stalking, unreasonable work assignments, screwing around with vacation and time off, stealing a person's ideas, internet harassment, physical violence and others much too numerous to mention. Seriously, there are now whole books written on the subject.
Free to Choose Terrorism
Sun, 06/08/2008 - 19:42 — Bobbo
On February 7, 2007, Carmen Cecilia Santana Romaña, a leader of a Colombian agricultural workers union was murdered in her home that she shared with her 3 children and her husband Hernán Correa Miranda, who was also a union leader. Carmen Cecilia Santa Romaña was among the over 2500 union activists killed in Colombia since 1986. Most have been killed by paramilitary death squads with close ties to the Colombian military. The US government has lavished millions on that military.
It's amazing how much terrorism it takes to keep a US approved free market economy going these days. Carmen Cecilia Santa Romaña had visited a Colombian human rights organization in November 2006, and spoke openly of the fear she felt and the intimidation that was part of her everyday life. The father of her children had been murdered and she wanted the killers found. She wanted to return to her home and resume her work as a union organizer, but her actual homecoming turned into a death sentence.
The Free Market and Its Many Wonders
Tue, 06/03/2008 - 16:05 — Bobbo
One of the many things that puzzle me about American life is the notion that the right wing is pro-business...more specifically, pro-small business. Groups like the Republican Party, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and their large corporate backers claim to fight for small business which is supposed to flourish under their version of free market economics.
As a bona fide independent contractor working in a small biz with a grand total of 3 employees (but with a somewhat larger number of associates and co-contractors), I am going to weigh in here from the point of view of a little guy.
Boomers to the Barricades!
Wed, 05/28/2008 - 23:33 — Bobbo___________________________
"It's changin' out there. Just like last time. There's a storm comin' Harry. And we all best be ready when she does."-- Rubeus Hagrid from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
We do love anniversaries here in the USA. This year it was the 40th anniversary of 1968, one of those years like 1776, 1860, 1929, 1941 and 2001 where we stood at some kind of societal crossroads.
Of course the problem with anniversarial history is that the only time we're supposed to think about our history is when the Corporate Media waves its digital wand and provides us with a safely sanitized version that doesn't threaten the present Established Order.
It's the troubles that cause the rebels.
