From my recent reply to a comment on a story about the future of jobs in America:

[TomClement said]"US law prohibits paying H1B visa holders less than what an equivalent US Citizen would be paid."

Yes, this keeps salaries from falling, but... by preventing shortages of people to fill jobs, the H1-B program prevents salaries from rising. Programmer salaries in the US have been stagnant for some time now, and just aren't as attractive as they once were. Long term, fewer Americans enter programming, so we need MORE H-1Bs.

Worse than the effect on American jobs are the implications for H1-B holders. They're basically indentured servants. You can't quit your job or change employers without being sent back to the country you worked so hard to leave. So you work 70 hours a week, and your employer starts asking the citizens who work with you why they aren't putting in that kind of time.

So American programmers are working longer hours for the same amount of money. H1-Bs are being treated in ways that citizens wouldn't put up with. How does that benefit either group?

My personal life is not (supposed to) be the focus of this blog. But I can't help noting the passing of my father, Pat Flanagan, on October 24th.
I've come to understand more and more how lucky I was in choice of parents. "He was a man, take him for all in all; I shall not look upon his like again." -- Hamlet

According to Salon.com, CBS just killed a segment produced for "60 Minutes". What it's about:

a hard-hitting report making a powerful case that in trying to build support for the Iraq war, the Bush administration either knowingly deceived the American people about Saddam Hussein's nuclear capabilities or was grossly credulous. CBS news president Andrew Heyward spiked the story this week, saying it would be "inappropriate" during the election campaign.

Here's the whole story: The Cowardly Broadcasting System.

Heyward has clearly lost his mind. What's "inappropriate" about factual information about the conduct of a sitting President who's running for re-election? What the hell is wrong with journalism today, and CBS in particular? One thing's for sure, the next time some conservative complains about the "liberal media" I'm going to laugh in his face.

Well, I was wrong about the ads at the top. They're based on the content of the posts, not just the title of the blog. This morning I was getting ads related to fortune cookies.

I should have figured that out already, there's a big to-do right now about Gmail doing something similar with messages.

Still, I can't very well claim Google is invading my privacy, when everything I type into this page is instantly available to people all over the world (who, of course, don't actually read it).

I've long complained that the quality of your average fortune cookie has gone down. I don't mean the cookie -- I mean the fortune. They're not really fortunes at all, now -- you never see "You will meet a woman with dark hair and an unusual past". You're lucky these days if you get some pseudo-wise saying like "you catch more flies with honey than with a fishnet".

Today I got this fortune: "You would make a good lawyer."

I mean, really! If they're just going to insult me, I'm not even going to open the damn things from now on.

Here's a little tidbit from The Washington Post:

Robert Kagan, a neoconservative supporter of the Iraq war, wrote: "All but the most blindly devoted Bush supporters can see that Bush administration officials have no clue about what to do in Iraq tomorrow, much less a month from now."

Bill Clinton won re-election by winning over the moderates, while keeping the liberals in his camp because the opposition was so much worse from their point of view. Just what is Bush's strategy for winning this election? He'd better have something better than "Outspend, Outtalk, Outlast". (Gratuitous Survivor reference there).

Wow, just when you thought the whole Presidential campaign couldn't get any stupider...

Apparently certain Republicans have had the nerve to question whether Kerry deserved his three Purple Hearts: Kerry Defends Vietnam Record

OK, aside from the sleaziness of attacking a decorated veteran that way, this has got to be the dumbest move I've seen in a while. This means Kerry has every right to take off the kid gloves and talk about Bush's war record, and that is one thing Bush absolutely does not need now.

Sometimes the best friends the Democrats have are Republicans.

Meanwhile, a guy who left the NFL to join the army got killed in Afghanistan -- you know, the other war, the one that was justified and necessary.
Ex-Football Star Killed in Afghanistan.
There's the guy that should be an example to our kids, not some quarterback paid millions as basically a glorified entertainer.

Well, looks like the Pentagon has a new solution to the casualities in Iraq -- make sure no one sees photos of them: Pentagon Angered by Soldier Coffin Photos
Maybe it's just me, but I don't think showing pictures of flag-draped caskets is disrespectful to a dead soldier. Looks more like the Pentagon wants to control precisely what we see.
What do you think? Drop me a line.

Well, it looks like Google is attempting to tie the ad at the top of the page to the content of the blog. This morning I see an ad for Animal Control Solutions (http://www.animalcontrolsolutions.com/). Their website offers:
~National Snake Management~
~Beaver Management~

There are too many potential jokes here to list them all. :) I'm not sure this blog qualifies me as "National". But I want to promise my readers (both of you) that I will not be "managed"! This site is and will always be complete chaos.

I'm off now to contemplate just what they might mean by "beaver management"...

Hmmm... Here's a useful little utility for those of you reading blogs at work. (You know who you are!) It's called the Web Fire Escape. It's a button you hit to rapidly go to something that looks like real work. Click the link to see how to set up an appropriate destination for your circumstances.





Someday soon I'll figure out how to put this permanently at the top of the page...

Good quote for the day:

"In the 60's, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal."
-- I don't know where this quote came from. If anybody's got the original author, please let me know.

Coming soon: more examples of just how ****ing weird the world has gotten. Also: ruminations on just how ****ing silly "self-censored" words like ****ing and s*** are.

"Now... What shall we talk about?"
-- from "Indiana Jones"