Then and now...

Once again the tragic story of Jon-Benet Ramsey is in the news. Now, ten years later they are telling us that a pencil necked pervert is the one responsible for her death on Christmas Eve 1996. First off, how sick does someone have to be to kill a 6 year old child on Christmas Eve? I know it would be terrible to do it anytime but on that particular night is horrible.

Let's flashback to that night. Assume with me for one second that he (or whoever) didn't go up to her room. That they didn't carry her young body to the basement to mutilate and kill her. She would be 16 now. Her father would have kept the company he gave up in the aftermath of her death. If the gods of fate hadn't intervened that morning in Colorado, the family unit that had been happy would have proceded down the information highway of life.

She would be driving now. Probably an SUV of some sort. She would be mourning the death of the mother that had her parading herself onstage during her preschool years. She would have the disappointments and expectations of any teenager. She would probably be on this website instead of on cable news.

Her life expectancy should have been 76 years. She was robbed of 70 of those years. 29,183 children died in the U.S. in 1996. Ten years later we're still talking about just one of them.

From the "In case you missed it" files...

(top) Meet Tiger. He would have been a week old today but he suddenly disappeared Thursday night. The family thinks someone broke into the house and stole him but personally I think the mama cat took matters in her own hand.

(bottom) These are x-rays of a 12 ft. Burmese python after it swallowed an ENTIRE queen size electric blanket w/controls! Now my ex used to steal the covers but this shit is rediculous!

Politics (yes it's that season again)

There's a senate race in our state this year. The good people of Tennessee will be sending a replacement for the retiring Bill Frist. One of the candidates is running a commercial about the price of gasoline. It starts out with him saying, "$45 for a fillup..." He then goes on to talk about the millions that the oil company execs get in pay/bonuses.

After bitching for 30 seconds on the subject, he then gets in the SUV... alone. Talk about conserving fuel!

The need to be productive...

isn't as overrated as I used to think it was.

I've been out of the workforce for over 4 years. There are days that I could just scream if I thought there would be anyone to hear it that gave a shit.

Tin god managers....

Have you guys ever worked for or known a small business manager that thought they were god?

I know that there's a lot of responsibility in running a business. Sometimes you can't please everyone (employees or customers) no matter how much you try. This however doesn't give anyone the authority to throw their weight (no matter how much or little of it they have) around.

I had an older co-worker share something with me one time that I'll never forget. He'd had a very difficult customer just leave the business and I was astonished at how calm he'd remained during the fight she was trying to pick. He pointed towards the door of the store and said, "That's the happy door. Some you're happy to see coming in it, others you're happy to see go out of it."

In every management job I had after that, I applied that reasoning to both customers and employees. I guaged my performance by returning customers and the longevity of employees. Managers that lose customers over stupid shit or has a high turnover in employees isn't doing a very good job.

I have been out of the "salaried work for someone else" life for about 5 years now. I figured out that if I was going to have to work for an asshole that it might as well be me. As far as dealing with "little tin gods" that think they own the world.... I choose where I spend my dollars.

The world is coming to an end....

when Scott Riggs ends up on the pole for a NASCAR race and leads tons of laps when Tony Stewart and Dale are sitting in the back of the pack. Was happy to see that Tony was ok after the wrecks the past 2 days. I think the boy needs to get out of the Busch cars. It's not like he needs the experience or the lunch money he earns there.

Congrats to Kasey for the win tonight. It made my weekend! (Yes I'm a 48 hater!)

This is the latest addition to our family. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Scooter. He is an 8 week old shitz zu. We're in our 2nd week of Marty, our 12yo pompoo, allowing Scooter to live in her kingdom. It's at the point now where Marty will at least enter the room where Scooter is. Any suggestions folks other than, "time will take care of it" are welcomed.