Ah, Capitalism

Wal-Mart has redone its compensation plan. The change accomplishes two major things. First, it allows Wal-Mart to pay its CEO more and more, even if sales suck. Second, it takes away profit-sharing for most Wal-Mart employees.

Wal-Mart, or more accurately, Sam Walton, defended Wal-Mart's low pay of its employees by pointing to profit-sharing: If the company did well,the employees got a taste as well. As Walton saw it, it gave the employees a stake in how well Wal-Mart was doing, above and beyond their base pay. That's why he referred to his employees as "associates".

But Sam Walton has been dead for almost twenty years. His brother, Bud, who co-founded the chain with Sam, died a few years after Sam's death. Sam and Bud may have thought that they were running a family business, but those days are long gone. Wal-Mart is just another corporation, where the executives do everything they can to push down the pay of their workers, while those same executives take home more and more.

Wal-Mart may not be the Font of All Evil, but they are certainly close by and downstream.

If You Think That the World Will End on May 21st, Will You Sell Me Your House?

I won't give you very much for it, though, maybe a penny or so on the dollar, and only if you own it free and clear. After all, if you think that the world will end in 13 days, then your house isn't worth all that much. And if you think it is worth anything more than a few percent of its appraised value, then obviously, at some level, you don't believe what you say you believe.

It's an interesting legal question, though: If you sell your home cheaply because you thought that the world is going to end and then, on May 22nd, the buyer is standing on the front porch, telling you to get out because you did sell your house, how do you back out of the deal? A smart buyer will give you a "use and occupancy agreement" to allow you to stay until 7PM local time on the 21st (and immediately record the deed), but after that, you were supposed to be raptured up, or so you thought.

How would you get out of the deal? Would you argue that you had diminished capacity? After all, you thought that you were selling your house for above market value, for a house that is sure to be destroyed in an imminent apocalypse is worth nothing. Just because the apocalypse didn't begin according to your schedule isn't much of an excuse.

If you are unwilling to sell or give away all of your stuff, then on some level, aren't you conceding that this particular prophecy is bullshit? And if that is true, then aren't you just going to be stuck here to deal with the zombies like the rest of us heathens?

The Temperature of the Beast?

It Shoots!

Pretty good for an oldster.

25 yards with W-W 180gr bullets. I've got aging eyes and glasses with progressive lenses, which can be a bit interesting to bring the front sight into focus. I need to loosen up the windage adjustment on the sight (probably should have done that before going shooting).

If I shoot this rifle often, I need to start reloading.

Ditch the Heels, Dr. Hunt

I didn't hold out much hope for Dana Delany's new series "Body of Proof". I don't know how many more "medical examiners/fashion plates with messy personal lives" characters that they can squeeze in on the air. But since television is more about copying a formula and tweaking it than it is about anything original, meh.

Jeri Ryan is also reprising the role of being the politically connected boss, which she did in some legal drama a few years back. (I'm too lazy tonight to even bother to Google it.)

But please, can the show just quit having Delany's character, Dr. Hunt, dressing as though she is going to dash off to lunch or for cocktails? Most of the time she is traipsing around homicide scenes while wearing a short dress and platform "fuck me" pumps with 5" heels. Last week, she walked across a lawn in those shoes and strode as though she was walking on concrete, without her heels sinking 3 inches into the turf.

I know that television shows often have barely a tangible connection to the real world, but crimus, does she have to dress like the Caprica Six in Baltar's head?

Mayors Against All Guns

They are not against "illegal guns", they are against all guns. For if they were against only illegal guns, then why would Mayor Mumbles Menino care whether or not Wal-Mart resumed selling rifles and shotguns.

Note, that's rifles and shotguns, not handguns. Wal-Mart only sells handguns in Alaska. So ol' Mumbles is apparently quavering in fear from those terroristic .30-30s.

Note also that mayors are in favor of guns, at least those in their protective details. Maybe that's why outgoing Chicago Mayor Daley wants to keep his. Poor Widdle King Richie the 2nd hasn't driven a car in 30 years, and he's not about to start now.

Fucker can go hire himself a chauffeur.

(H/T1, H/T2)

Caturday

Jake is warming himself on one of the heated cat beds.

George loves to be by the windows.

It's pretty difficult to take a lousy photo of Gracie when she is shining those green eyes at the camera.

UPDATE: Gracie fired off a food/hairball puke at 11:20 last night. She was on my bed when she did that. I have a heavy white cotton throw on my bed as a mess-catcher for things like that. I got up, picked up the solid stuff, disposed of it and went back to bed.

Gracie then walked across me and laid down on my side of the bed.

On a Lighter Note

A War Criminal Speaketh

Namely John Yoo, one of the torturers who will probably never travel overseas for fear of arrest and imprisonment for his well-documented crimes, who apparently feels that bin laden should have been taken alive and tortured.

First, remember the day when Republicans decried any questions of what happened as "second-guessing the operators on the ground"? I guess that only comes into play when there is a Republican sitting in the Oval Office.

Second, I hope it is a very cold day in Hell before this president, or any future president, takes advice from war criminals.

Meanwhile in Alaska, they'll pay good money in order to be lectured at by this war criminal. Which sort of is not surprising, given who they chose for a governor in 2006.

Und You Vill Look Up!

The new Goodyear blimps will be made by Zeppelin.

The existing ones were made by LockMart. I don't believe that Goodyear has made its own blimps for at least 30 years, possibly longer.