Sunny cool day so far.. 68 degrees!
01. Social Security .. Computer System
An article in the Baltimore Sun on July 25, 2014 reports "Social Security Computer System not working after six years."
An independent analysis by a private concern was commissioned by the Social Security Administration to determine why a projected computer system is not ready after the spending of $300 million dollars and six years of effort. The analysts studied the system that is supposed to speed the processing of disability claims, and found that the system, being developed by Lockheed Martin, is still in the design stage and has been "mis-managed and poorly executed."
Congress sharply criticized Acting SSA Director Carolyn W. Colvin for this problem and also for the long delays to process appeals. (Nowadays, everyone knows that if they get turned down by SSA for disability benefits, they can get representation by one of the TV Lawyers.. and they don't have to pay until they get their first benefit check. Administrative Law Judges are overwhelmed with disapproved cases asking for reexamination.) Carolyn has been nominated by the President to become the official head of SSA; however, she will now have to be confirmed, and we know how that works with Tea Party and other Conservatives wanting to kill that agency or at least cripple it.
Two of my fellow Social Security Branch Chiefs passed away last week. Elbert Batton and Fred Buddemeyer and I worked on many computer systems at SSA and we were always successful.. and we did it with the staff we had, not with outside assistance. Of course, now that the experts have left the Agency, there is no longer a body of workers who can do what our people did. In that regard, I agree that there was mis-management at SSA, in that our smartest and most knowledgeable workers were not properly rewarded and were encouraged to leave.
02. Crime .. a Bunch
a. An Annapolis teen-ager had his Air Jordan tennis shoes stolen right off of his feet.
b. State Police tactical gear was stolen from a State Police vehicle in Bel Air. Included was a bulletproof vest, ammunition, a pry bar, and a gas mask.
c. The traffic stop of a California truck uncovered $1 million in heroin and $100,000 in metamphetamines. (sp. New word, not in my dictionaries.)
d. Baltimore had eight shootings over the weekend. Three of the shots hit the legs of the victims, all three of whom hobbled into different emergency rooms.
03. *Mr. Peroutka .. Defense
Mike Hagadon of Emmitsburg told the Baltimore Sun that they smeared Mr. Peroutka. "Mr. P. is a respected scholar and teacher of the U.S. Constitution. The Southern Poverty Law Center's portrayal of the League of the South as a 'hate group' is just another meaningless label."
04. Obituaries
The Carroll County Times has been taken over by the Baltimore Sun and their obituaries have changed enormously. They now appear to be written in humor, in a small font, and are in print boxes. Today, I see:
Loyal Swan died at age 91. His obituary says appropriately that he was "honest and loyal to a fault."
William Dean Worthley died at age 53. Mr. W. was renowned for his ability to capture small wild animals bare handed. "Bill made the best catch of his life when he married his high school sweetheart wild thing Judy Phillips." He alo had a beagle named Andrew Reese Worthley.
Mr. Worthley's mother is Jean Reese Worthley (Miss Jean of Hodge Podge Lodge to all of us "good little Doobies". He also had "furry" nieces China and Lola.
05. *Miss Sarah returns
Sarah Palin now has her own online video channel. Buy a subscription and you will be able to see and hear Miss Palin comment on important issues.
06. Georges Bizet
As I am composing this blog entry, Bizet's Symphony #1 in C is playing on the radio. This piece of music has been occupying a corner of my brain since I first heard it in 1955. In that year, I purchased a record of that work and listened to it over and over. I was able to do that because I was stationed on a mountain top in Germany and I had the barracks to myself all day, while my fellow Airmen attended to their radar screens. I, in contrast, worked either from 4 pm to midnight, or midnight to 8 am. However, when my fellows were there I picked their brains because they were all college graduate students who had enrolled in a special Air Force program which would be paying for all of their future college courses. I learned a lot from them.
These enlisted guys liked to talk about the arts, world events, and psychology. The Officers I came in contact with only wanted to talk about their college's football and basketball teams. No offence to them or you, but their conversations were boring as hell to me.
Incidentally, Georges Bizet wrote his Symphony in C when he was 15 years old!
07. *First Amendment News.. Steel Cross at the WTC
A cross formed by steel beams pulled from the rubble of the World Trade Center can be on display at the memorial museum. Atheists had filed to block its display, but the suit was dismissed last year and upheld now by a Federal appeals court.
08. *Immigrant Kids .. A plot ?
It was reported in the New Yorker for July 28, 2014 that some Republicans suggest that the surge of immigrants is part of a plot. "Governor Rick Perry (Texas)...said: 'We either have an incredibly inept Administration or they're in on this somehow,' invoking a theory that children were being lured into the country so that they would grow up to be Democratic voters..." UNBELIEVABLE!!
09. Emoji
According to Fortune Magazine for July 21, 2014, emoji are the next step up from blogging. Emoji were developed in Japan and are now used around the world to spice up correspondence and even to allow persons to communicate without the bother of knowing lots of big words. There are now emoji art exhibits, emoji poetry and even emoji music videos. Check out the Fortune article with this appropriate title: A Return to Hieroglyphics, Author: Erin Griffith. (I wish I knew how to use them in my blogs.)
10. The Law is the Law
Chuck Shepherd reports that while a Califonia workman was installing a sign on a lamppost and waiting for the cement to dry, a policeman gave him a ticket for parking over the "75 minute limit." The cement normally takes more than 75 minutes to dry and the sign he was trying to put up said: "Parking Limit: 75 Minutes."
11. The Boston Job
Chuck Shepherd also reports about Susan Coppinger, who was promoted by the City of Boston to a higher paying job, even though a month earlier, she had been arrested for her second attempt to rob a Bank in Quincy. Luckily somebody remembered seeing her mugshot somewhere, and she was fired.
12. Too many words, Herr Maleckar
Dave Maleckar writes in the Funny Paper: "My friends were telling me about their grandchild, who is a year old and has a vocabulary consisting mostly of 'Mama,' 'Dada,' and 'Please.' Which is nearly enough. By the time we're two, we find out about 'No,' and then we go on saying it over and over for the rest of our lives. It's odd that it takes us only a year or so to learn how to talk, and then so many decades to learn to shut up."
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1 comment:
01. I'm hoping to get a job working on that computer system. Hmmm... might need to rethink that one.
02.c Maybe they meant "Methamphetamines"?
05. I'd rather have a root canal. I figured people would be done with her when she quit her gubernatorial duties to watch her daughter Bristol on Dancing with the Stars.
08. Sadly - and in true American tradition - most of the immigrants I know vote against their own interests (in other words, they vote Republican)
09. That's interesting - maybe that means people are trying to find more visual ways to express themselves on the web.
10. That may explain why those signs are always crooked.
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