Despite this early resistance to organized labor, I always respected the right of people to unionize and collectively bargin. I don’t have to agree with them, I don’t even have to support them, but it’s a right earned over many battles with business and government. When measured against the negative, the good done by unions always outweighed the bad. Hell, even Ronald Reagan said “… where free unions and collective bargaining are forbidden, freedom is lost.” (He also said “Government’s first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives,” a point apparently lost on the Governors of a few states.)

I got into a twitter argument with a family member today and one his comments struck me. He said (paraphrasing) they [unions] did not care about the company, only their paychecks. And it struck me that that point was exactly where I turned on the issues currently moving through the political sausage machine in this state right now.

It’s not that they care only about their paychecks, but they do care more about their pay than the company does, that’s their point in existing. But the unspoken aspect of that statement was there as well, that somehow businesses didn’t operate this way. Somehow, businesses are operating in some interest of their employees. Which is a complete and utter lie, sold to workers by cheerful HR folks and corporate propagandists. Businesses don’t care about employees,they care about their bottom lines; they have to. When the finances get tough, employees are the ones made to suffer (and not executives either, it’s you and me, brother). I’ve been through the layoff cycle (three rounds in less than 6 months). Hundreds of employees tossed out on the street because the bottom line needed to be firm.

And union workers took the first hit. Factory workers laid off, lines closed down, the whole thing. And management was terrified. Why? Because the union started grumbling. They never said it, never threatened it, but the word “strike” was always just off to the side of conversations. The next two rounds were white-collar only. And not one management type batted an eye.

Why? Because office workers can’t do the one thing that probably saved more factory jobs. We can’t organize. We can’t protest. We can’t. Say. Shit.

This cycle is happening again in Michigan. Public employees make too much (except they don’t). The Tough Nerd is going to save the state, though. And how is he going to do that? By cutting taxes on businesses, and making the rest of us cover the difference. By giving dictatorial powers to financial managers (who, conveniently can dissolve unions and entire governments if they see fit). Take note, patriots: a governmental body just gave a non-elected position the right and ability to dissolve local governments.

This will become the reverberating refrain for our generation, politicians in the pocket of big business leaving working people holding the bag. It’s the kind of behavior organized people can work to prevent. I may not have agreed or supported unions in the past, but I do today.

Baseball was a huge part of growing up. My father played a lot; high school, college, semi-professionally after that. I was, notoriously, at a ball field weeks after my birth. My summers were spent playing or watching my dad play, keeping the books, running the scoreboard, pigging out on concession-stand candy and popcorn. When I wasn’t at a game physically, baseball was on the television or, even more ubiquitously, the radio. And, aside from the strong voice of Ernie Harwell, there was one name that always popped on the radio, the one name that was consistant from season to season.

Sparky Anderson.

I can even hear Ernie pronouncing his name; “Spahrkeeh”. Sparky was The Coach. And to baseball players, Coach was where the bucked stopped. When Sparky made a change in the lineup, pulled Morris, or (even better) stormed the field, conversation stopped and ears craned to the radio.

When I think back to those endless summers on the diamonds, Tigers’ baseball meant two things: Ernie’s voice and Sparky’s face. Sparky Anderson was, to me and so many others, the face of summer. In my Junior year of college, I sat silently with dozens of other young men and women watching ESPN Classic, mouths open as Game 5 played out from our youths. Goose Gossage stood firm against his manager, Kirk Gibson looked over to the dugout, and Sparky mouthed (now, said, thanks to edited footage) “he wants to pitch to you.” He chuckled as Gibby paced around the plate, the chuckle of someone who knew more than anyone else at the park that he’d already won the Series. I want to believe I remember that moment from my childhood, but I don’t. But I happily layer that cold night in Kalamazoo over a slightly warmer night in October to remember a definitive moment.

Every Tigers fan, fair-weather fans included, have similar stories. Sparky factors into many of them. He was Tigers baseball; hell, he will be for some of us for years to come. But those times are passing. An era has passed.

Sparky, I wish I’d had a chance to meet you. May you rest in peace.

I was never fortunate to meet him personally, but he authorized a grant for me to attend a writing conference (after being shot down hard by the Dean).

He was intensely dedicated to the University and it and the city were better for it. The entire system–and Kalamazoo in general–has lost one of it’s great advocates.

Diether Haenicke, former WMU president, dies at 73

As Americans, we should be ashamed that we have enabled this kind of suffering and destruction. This action by the Israelis has gone too far and needs to end.

Find your Representative

Find your Senator

Contact the White House

At almost half the total operating cost of a standard vehicle (at 12,000 miles per year), these are financially attractive vehicles. But, what would it mean to actually power one? In today’s world, filling up is a task done once, maybe twice, a week for the average commuter.

But, with electric, you have to top off daily, if not more than that. The expected range for a Volt upon release is somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 miles per charge. If I live 25+ miles from work, I have a dilemma; round trip exceeds my round-trip range. Let’s do a mental experiment…

Fast forward 5 years. It’s now 2014. 25% of the vehicles on the road are full-electric (yes, it’s optimistic. Deal). In 2006, there were 250,851,833 registered vehicles (wikipedia). Assuming a zero growth rate, that means that 62,712,958 cars will be full-on electric in 2014 (it’s an experiment). Ignoring distribution, socio-economic factors, et al, this means that each state has to deal with 1,254,259 vehicles likely purchased for daily commuting. (Ok, not Arkansas, but you get the idea.) In reality, vehicles would be concentrated around metropolitan areas, large employers, and ideological centers (Berkeley and Ann Arbor).

Which leads to my question. Assume that I, the conscientious consumer and commuter, purchases one of these Messianic vehicles to drive to and from my job 25+ miles away.

How do I charge it while I’m at work?

As a potential driver/charger/employee, I propose the following:

1. Let me pay. Wire up spots, chip my badge and let me scan-in every day. I park at the first available spot, scan my badge at the terminal for my parking spot, and you bill me via payroll for the energy I consume.
2. You pay. Wire the lot, let me park wherever I can and plug in. Since it costs less than $1 to charge the car for a 40 mile trip, you eat the sub-$30 per month cost to get me to work, making up the difference in “parking fees”.
3. We share. You up the parking fee to cover the under $360/year/vehicle cost to charge my car. Since only 25% of driver need the power, you can balance the cost against the drivers who don’t suck down the electric, normalizing the costs.

Which ever method you choose, there are a few things you need to consider now.

1. How will you measure the cost of charging electric vehicles for your employees (they’ll need it)?
2. What is the value of your employees driving electric vehicles? Can you market or enhance your brand by demonstrating your commitment to non-fossil-fuel-based vehicles? Might that not be worth something?
3. What are the tax implications for “fueling” your employees?
4. If you compensate employees for business use of personal vehicles, what are the tax/legal implications of electrics?
5. Do you have the systems or technology in place to accommodate the next generation of drivers? (I’m guessing no.) How fast can you accommodate them?

The heavily-electric world is being sold to your employees today. It will be your problem tomorrow. Are you ready?

The Brighton City Council on Thursday approved an ordinance allowing police in the Livingston County community to ticket and fine anyone who is annoying in public “by word of mouth, sign or motions.”

Welcome to West Michigan-style legislation. As J– called it, this is a bunch of fuddy-duddies grumping over “those damned kids”, but moving their crotchetiness into civics.

A city attorney says there could be situations where the measure would violate freedom of speech…

Yah think? I can’t wait for some well-funded smart-ass to walk around Brighton screaming Blessings From God at passerbys, just to get cited, and then sue the friggen pants off the city. What a bunch of dumb-ass, over-bearing, holier-than-thou bull this is.

Feels just like my hometown.

Detnews.com story

The state prohibits out-of-state retailers from shipping wine straight to Michigan consumers _ unless the retailers have a location in Michigan and are a part of a three-tier regulatory system.

A federal judge in Detroit earlier this week declared Michigan’s law unconstitutional for discriminating against out-of-state retailers.

Woo hoo! Wonder if they’ll appeal.

WOODTV.com

That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy his writing. In fact the opposite was often true. But his stories, while solid sci-fi, never reached me like the work of other writers (such as Isaac Asimov or Robert Forward).

He did make a wonderful spokesman for the hard core of science fiction and inspired many writers and scientists and will be conspicuously absent from the community. Best wishes and condolences to his family and friends.