I know that California is ...er...different. Still, this is just too much:

On volunteers, state is up a creek without a clue

A law originally meant to protect union wages has been redefined to prohibit volunteer labor on public projects. Out of the window goes Adopt a Highway, student volunteers, and neighborhood or work groups pitching in to help with projects like neighborhood beautification, stream bed clean-up, etc.

It actually began with a group of students who received school credit for cleaning up a stream bed. A union rep bitched about it and the state fined the nonprofit group that organized the cleanup.

Redding is also struggling with the labor bureaucracy in its effort to build a new city park, in part with volunteer help. A member of a Sonoma County library advisory board tells me that his group fears local Rotary Club members won't be allowed to landscape the library's grounds. And it's possible that groups such as Habitat for Humanity, which use volunteer labor to build homes for the poor, could be swept up by the same regulation.

The problem started in the 1930's when the state enacted legislation that effectively granted all public works projects to union labor. Non-union contractors were forced to pay union wages to their employees if they wished to bid on public projects. In 2001 the state changed the law to define a public project as just about anything that got a dollar of taxpayer money.

So why can't this get fixed? It's pretty easy - get rid of the fucked up anti-market laws that unfairly penalize people who do not wish to surrender their autonomy to a socialist union construct. Since it's California we are talking about this will never happen. Another solution might be to specify that volunteer labor can be free. Only when people are paid money should the mandatory pay scales be used. That won't happen either though as the unions want anything that requires skill to be under the forcible pay restrictions. (Apparently at least one union boss thinks that cleaning up a stream bed is skilled labor.)

I'm just glad I'm in Georgia where I can get a bunch of my friends together and clean up a vacant lot if we want to. Not that we would, being lazy southern boys, but we could!

(Hat tip to Joanne Jacobs)

Posted by: Jim at 10:59 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I'm getting worried about you guys. I only had 31 spam messages this morning. If you take out the 7 virus mails that's only 24 valid spams! Are you not feeling well?

I sure hope you're not getting sick. Maybe you got freaked by those four Michigan spammers who are getting prosecuted under spam and mail fraud statutes. I wouldn't worry about that too much. I mean those guys were selling a blatantly fraudulent product. Your cia|i$ might not really work as advertised but you're always careful to cover yourselves with the "diet supplement" blanket. The most they could get you for would be the five years for breaking the anti-spam laws.

So anyway, if you are getting sick I'd be thrilled to help you out. I've got this vitamin patch that is absolutely guaranteed to reduce your flu and cold symptoms by up to 50% as well as cut the duration of your illness in half. Just keep an eye on your inbox, you'll see it.

Posted by: Jim at 09:07 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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It seems like there is a battle in Japan to place the blame. Is it the Japanese government's fault for not preventing them from going to Iraq? Is it the citizens' fault for going despite warnings from the government that it wasn't safe?

Let me just drop this into the toilet bowl and see if it floats: It was the fault of the fundamentalist terrorists who kidnapped them.

It seems that the blame game isn't just an American hobby.

Posted by: Jim at 08:35 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Lovely Wife and I need help finding an accurate description for the two men in this article. The only thing that we can get out is "Sick fucks. Unbelievably sick fucks." Please see if you can expand on this.

Two men who traveled to Atlanta for alleged sexual encounters with children under the age of six are in FBI custody.

...

Ledbetter drove from Newport last Friday, believing he'd arranged a sexual encounter with a 6-year-old girl in Atlanta,

...

Scott traveled to Atlanta last Saturday, intending to have a sexual encounter with a 4-year-old girl, a 6-year-old boy and the children's parents

Sick, sick, fucking fucks. Fuck!

Posted by: Jim at 07:53 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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So it seems that noted curmudgeon Andy Rooney, better known for America's most inane TV minute, has outed himself. I don't mean that he's come out of the closet (I'd respect him for that), I mean he's openly stated his opinion that America's troops are not brave fighters, the world's most powerful and skilled volunteer military. No, according to Andy they are a bunch of fearful cowards who have been forced into the military because of America's dastardly economy.

Andy proposes that we ask our soldiers in Iraq five loaded questions, as if these would prove his points. I've got five questions I'd like to ask Andy. How do you breathe with your head so far up your ass? Should the words of a marginal talent separated from reality by several decades be given any weight? Is it a standard in journalism to make up numbers and figures from whole cloth or is this just a trick you picked up on your own? Would you rather have a job where you have to work or the one you have now? Are you encouraged by the freaks and losers that think the venom dripping from your pen is gold?

He says that supporting our troops is just a trick we civilians use to keep them at their job so we can enjoy our comfortable lives back home. A trick. He has marginalized all of the support, pride and respect that we feel for our troops into a Machiavellian trick. Well, Mr.Rooney, that might be why you support the troops but it certainly isn't why I support them. But wait, since Andy is against what they're doing and the only reason to support them is to keep them at their job then by his own reasoning he is saying he doesn't support them, right? more...

Posted by: Jim at 09:41 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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That can't be right, can it? Braves: 18, Mets: 10. Damn. 28 points? In baseball?

Hell, if they keep doing that I might have to watch a game.

Posted by: Jim at 10:58 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Don't get me wrong, I love my job. But my job just doesn't compare with this.

What could possibly be cooler than going to work and driving barges into bridge supports? Well, maybe crash testing helicopters, but that's about it.

(Tip credit to Dopple-G)

Posted by: Jim at 09:53 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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