Study Finds a Large Number of People who Need to Mind their Own Business

HLN reported on this this morning.

Rasmussen Reports: 30% Say Government Should Limit Pay for Athletes and Movie Stars

Thirty percent (30%) of Americans believe the government should make it illegal to pay movie stars and athletes more than $1 million per year.

...

There is a more support—but not much more--for capping the pay of corporate executives. Thirty-six percent (36%) say the federal government should make it illegal to pay any executive more than $1 million a year.

It would be cynical not to point out that the majority of people do NOT support government intervention in this way, but the fact that a third of Americans are petty little tyrants is troubling.

Posted by: Flibbertigibbet at 07:44 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Snotty, Cynical, and Off-Base

I don't know if you saw this resignation letter published by the New York Times, but it is well worth the read.  The EVP, Jake DeSantis expresses a proper amount of indignation over how he has been treated by AIG, Congress, and the American public.

Unfortunately, some snot who probably believe himself to be clever wrote this cynical rebuttal in the form of a pretend response letter from a customer service representative.

I have been a customer service representative at AIG since 1998, and I get paid $12.32 an hour. This is one of three jobs I work to support my three kids and to try to stay in my 750-square-foot Brooklyn home. When I asked my supervisor how much of a bonus check I would be receiving for working really, really extra hard the last 12 months and offering great customer service to the American taxpayer...

Do you know why this person would be paid a mere $12.32 an hour for her job?  Because that job can be performed by just about anyone who can read and exhibits a basic sense of decorum.  It's the kind of job someone who is stupid enough to have three kids and an apartment in Brooklyn (the Bronx is cheaper, fool.) when they only make an hourly wage.  It's the kind of job that, more simply put, just isn't as valuable as that of an executive vice president for financial products.  Not by far.

I'm not saying incentive plans would not be appropriate for customer service representatives, but the truth is that customer service centers are responsible for a mere fraction (if any) of the profitability of most companies.  They're necessary, yes, but they're often poorly funded because the value they provide to customers is difficult to quantify and can suffer for a long time before they result in serious damage to the brand.

But I have a much simpler point for "Miss Rhonda O'Brien:"  You would not have a job at all if not for people like Mr. DeSantis.  Show some respect and shut your cakehole.

Posted by: Flibbertigibbet at 06:30 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Getting Rid of Faith

CNN HLN keeps saying that people are losing their faith, but I prefer to think they're getting rid of it.

USA Today: Most Religious Groups in USA have Lost Ground, Survey Finds

When it comes to religion, the USA is now land of the freelancers.

The percentage. of people who call themselves in some way Christian has dropped more than 11% in a generation. The faithful have scattered out of their traditional bases: The Bible Belt is less Baptist. The Rust Belt is less Catholic. And everywhere, more people are exploring spiritual frontiers — or falling off the faith map completely.

These dramatic shifts in just 18 years are detailed in the new American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), to be released today. It finds that, despite growth and immigration that has added nearly 50 million adults to the U.S. population, almost all religious denominations have lost ground since the first ARIS survey in 1990.

The USA Today link above has a nifty interactive chart on this.

Even though religion is one of those things that is difficult to measure and subject to abuse of statistics, I take this as good news.

Robin Meade is asking viewers to write in with their explanation of why this could be.  I prefer to think that people are realizing that faith is one of the most singularly destructive things a person can do in their brain, but if I were in a worse mood I'd say that it's probably because people are becoming apathetic about religion and not faith itself.

Religion offers little to people and I think they're waking up to that.  We're always hearing how religious leaders are out hiring prostitutes, embezzling money, doing drugs, sexually abusing children, and doing all kinds of hypocritical things.  Plus so many religions rely heavily on guilt to keep people coming and I think many Americans are bucking faith to live without that extra pain.

I found this graph interesting also.

Posted by: Flibbertigibbet at 06:51 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Taxing Strip Clubs to Fight Child Prostitution

I just saw this story on CNN HLN.

AJC: GOP lawmaker weighing strip club fee

A Republican state lawmaker is considering legislation that would impose a fee on Georgia strip club patrons.

State Sen. Jack Murphy of Cumming says he’d like to see the state charge between $3 and $5 for every club goer. Murphy said Monday he would like to funnel the money to child abuse programs and other services for young people who are caught up in child prostitution or other forms of sexual exploitation.

This tax is an implicit accusation against strip club owners and patrons for pederasty.

You might run an honest strip club, but you're being asked to pay for people who kidnap and coerce children into pornography or prostitution.  You may be a patron to whom only adults have any appeal, but you'd have to fund the clean up for people who abuse and sexually exploit kids.

It doesn't surprise me in the least that the Republicans of Georgia are working to associate what they call vice with crime, but we shouldn't be so naive as to believe moral equivalency and legislative busy-bodies are only found to the right of the aisle.  Remember: Democrats have been known to support pornography taxes.

The whole idea of a "vice tax," taxes on alcohol, cigarettes, porn, strip clubs, offends me.  You may think whatever you want about what I do privately, but the idea that I have to stand by while my state points a figure at me and calls me a sinner is so presumptuous, impertinent, and, frankly, criminal.  Criminal because they're stealing my money while also telling me that I'm morally corrupt for not agreeing with whatever they think is right or wrong.

I hope the citizens of Georgia tell their legislators to mind their own business and leave strip clubs alone.  Human sex trafficking is a crime.  Fight it with stronger police efforts.  Don't fight it by insulting and robbing innocent people who had nothing to do with that mess.

Posted by: Flibbertigibbet at 05:05 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Prisons in America

I have noticed that a lot of people like to complain that the United States has loads and loads of people in prison, more than China and lots of other countries.

Personally, this fact (assuming it's true) means nothing to me, but the people complaining about this seem to take it as an indication of some weakness in our country.

The US has lots of stupid laws that put people in jail, like how some drugs are illegal.  But this is true of lots of countries which have fewer prisoners.

I just don't know what they want me to conclude when they point this out.  So, I immediately start thinking that our police are better than police elsewhere and these people are arguing for a less competent police force.

I know!  It makes no sense.  But the fact itself is a non sequitur to me, so I think they must mean something crazy when they point it out.

I'm talking about you, Bill Maher.

Posted by: Flibbertigibbet at 11:33 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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