OT Pat Robertson whO?

I'm a working engineer, too. I'm surrounded by MBA disease...mostly by the strain of the affliction that causes the thought that you can solve any problem by reorganization...

No wonder my company stock price SUCKS.

You're a cruel man, Al...........but fair ;~)

"The world would be a much better place if every one could pick and choose their obligations, but we can't and we shouldn't." Major Charles W. Whittlesey

Aaahhh, Yes! Ghost Voters! Also a fine old tradition here in Baltimore. I remember some years ago there was a particularly heavy turnout from Greenmount cemetery on North avenue. All voted democratic, of course. Some wag writing for the Baltimore Sun wondered if John Wilkes Booth (he's buried there) climbed out of his un-marked grave to cast a vote for Tommy DeAlesandro.

Bill Shuey

Kurt,

You might notice my beef with the More Bad Advice crowd has to do with thinking in the short term instead of the long term. A number of companies in this area have suffered or flat out gone under due to taking the short term view. For profit businesses exist to make money, no argument but failing to consider the long term health of the company for the sake of this quarter's earnings is stupid and all too common among the current crop of MBA's. I've also seen things like the Fedex commercial (I don't *do* shipping, I have an MBA) happen in real life....I don't give a damn if the guy has more degrees than a thermometer, if the company needs him to fill in for awhile on something, do it, don't tell me your MBA makes you "too good" to some menial task now and then. I've seen MBA's bitch about how much space manufacturing takes up and they have to have small office.....where DO they think the product that the company sells comes from? Do they think techs eat materials and shit machines?

But then I am the guy that made his director clean up the 20 pounds or so of hardware he knocked over and sort it back >

"OSWELCH" wrote

They were running a thing called the Quality Index or something where they tracked the share prices of "quality" companies (including the Baldridge winners, IIRC). I am not a frequent reader of the magazine, but I recall that it did OK vis-a-vis the DJ, but I seem to remember more recent words apologizing for them tanking just as badly as anybody else.

KL

"In the long run, we're all dead."

KL

I don't think it would be a good idea to allow those in prison to vote but why not those who've served their sentence? Mayhap they've rehabilitated themselves and deserve to exercise their rights. Some may even appreciate it more than far too many out here.

Bill Banaszak, MFE

To some extent that's the area covered by the amendments. Any suggestions to change the main body are always a bad idea and should be shot down posthaste.

Bill Banaszak, MFE

And if there were no passenger service because it wasn't cost-effective? We'd all be in our personal vehicles using large amounts of petroleum products. Government had best consider Amtrak like the Post Office - something operated for the common good.

Bill Banaszak, MFE

Been there with that. Every 8 months it seemed we had a new program and high-paid consultants to 'help' us with its implementation. I'm surprised the company's still in business.

Bill Banaszak, MFE

You think he's on something too?

Bill Banaszak, MFE

But Amendments do change the original intent, if not the text. Remember the 3/5ths compromise?

Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states which may be included within this union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.

That's not done any more thanks to the 14th Amendment, where "Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed."

Sounds like the original got changed to me.

Except that everyone can use the USPS. How many American taxpayers have ready access to Amtrak's 'services'?

I see little effective difference between changing the main body and superseding it via amendment. Now a Constitutional Convention would be another thing entirely but I doubt that enough states would ever agree to call for one.

I dunno. Why not allow them to have a federal security clearance while we're at it?

But I thought the Evil Right Wing Bush Administration? wasn't putting any of them in prison!

according to their survy, 64 million. damn northeast corridor has a lot of bods.

So the other 220 odd million are subsidizing them with federal tax dollars. Wonderful.....

And don't forget Article II, Section 1; wherein, originally, the loser of the Presidential election became the winner's Vice President. This got changed by the 12th Amendment in 1804.