 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Home |
Credits |
Cast |
1 |
2 |
3 |
End |
Reviews |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Home |
Credits |
Cast |
1 |
2 |
3 |
End |
Reviews |
|
|
|
. . . UNIONS see "CAPITALISM" for related links see "WORK" for related links Join the union, girls, and together say 'Equal Pay for Equal Work.' --Susan B(rownwell) Anthony (1820—1906) American crusader for the woman suffrage movement. In "The Revolution" (woman suffrage newspaper) [18 March 1869]. Had the employers of past generations all of them dealt fairly with their men there would have been no unions. --Stanley Baldwin (1867—1947) British Conservative statesman and Prime Minister. [1923—1924], [1924—1929], and [1935—1937]. Speech in Birmingham [14 January 1931]. In 1954, 35.5 percent of all workers [in the United States] belonged to unions; [in 1995], only 15.5 percent. --Abbott Combs, _New York Times Magazine_ [3 September 1995] Don't waste any time mourning — organize! --Joe Hill [Joel Hägglund] (1879—1915) Swedish-born American labor leader. Letter to William D. Heywood [18 November 1915]. Hill was executed the next day for murdering a Utah grocer. To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical. --Thomas Jefferson (1743—1826) American statesman and president [1801—1809]. "A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom" [12 June 1779]. Unionism seldom, if ever, uses such power as it has to insure better work; almost always it devotes a large part of that power to safeguarding bad work. --H.L. (Henry Louis) Mencken (1880—1956) American journalist and literary critic. _Prejudices: Third Series_ [1922], Chapter 4 Well, we can't stand around here doing nothing, people will think we're workmen. --Spike [Terence Alan] Milligan (1918—2002) Irish novelist, poet, musician, and comedian. "The Goon Show" (radio comedy) The single clenched fist lifted and ready, Or the open asking hand held out and waiting. Choose: For we meet by one or the other. --Carl Sandburg (1878—1967) American poet. "Choose" _Chicago Poems_ [1916] - A union shop steward is addressing a union meeting: "Comrades. We have agreed on a new deal with the management. We will no longer work four days a week." "Hooray!", goes the crowd. "We will finish work at 4 PM, not 5 PM." "Hooray!", goes the crowd, again. "We will start work at 10 AM, not 9 AM." "Hooray!" "We have a 150% pay rise." "Hooray!" "We will only work on Wednesdays." Silence...then a voice from the back asks, "Every Wednesday?" - - TOPICAL Let's just call it what it is: gaming the system. And it's a game that has already resulted in skyrocketing tax increases and the loss of public services across the country from the shutdown of libraries and community centers to the gutting of many local police and fire departments. It is also a game that is played in the nether regions of public finance, in the fine print of lengthy contracts that hardly anybody sees. As with so many other recent scandals - from Dick Grasso's $140 million pay package to CEOs of bankrupt airlines padding their own retirement accounts to big corporations manufacturing "earnings" that don't really exist - this one has to do with the generally ignored realm of pensions. But here the beneficiaries of the shell game may come as a surprise: school superintendents, librarians, sanitation workers, county clerks, and a host of other public servants. By now you can probably guess who's paying for it. That's right: you. If you've read the metro section of your local newspaper - or seen recent reports in the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, or the New York Times - you may have heard about some state and municipal employees receiving outsized pension payouts, far above what they ever made while working. But chances are you have a sense that the excesses are isolated incidents. As shocking as it may be, though, the public pension morass is bigger, more wide ranging, and ultimately more costly than anything you've seen in the corporate world. The practices, quietly approved by elected officials, allow workers to dramatically spike their pre-retirement compensation, to retire on more than 100% of their pay,and to draw both their salaries and pensions, with guaranteed market returns, simultaneously. That's what you'll find in San Diego, for instance, where a city worker qualifying for retirement can instead remain on the job and receive both his salary and an early-activated pension through a so called deferred retirement option plan, or DROP. That pension, deposited into a special account, earns a guaranteed 8% annual rate of interest, plus a 2% annual cost-of-living adjustment. When the employee actually decides to retire - for real, that is - he can either collect the amount that has accumulated in his special pension account or let it keep compounding at that generous rate of return indefinitely. Add it all up, says Liann Shipione, a trustee of the San Diego City Employees' Retirement System, and the average city worker participating in the plan, earning about $50,000 a year, is eligible to collect a lump sum of about $305,000 at retirement. A fire battalion chief will receive $780,000; a senior librarian will haul in $765,000. But don't be confused: That isn't instead of an annual pension payout; it is on top of it. The post-retirement annual pension payout is equal to 75% of their salary for workers with 30 years' service, a payout that increases 2% a year. San Diego, you're thinking, must be one heck of a revenue-generating machine. It must be all those tourists who make the pilgrimage to the famed San Diego Zoo. Try again. The city doesn't have nearly enough money set aside to pay for those lush retirement benefits. The pension fund is short by about $1.1 billion and counting. That's because, for almost a decade now, while it has been continually sweetening the pension plan, the city council has also voted to give the pension system far less money than its actuary recommended. But those pension benefits must be paid - they're protected by California law, just as public pensions are constitutionally guaranteed or protected in 40 other states. As you'll see, the bill is now coming due, and the residents of San Diego are about to pay the price. "I feel like I've been witnessing a crime," says Shipione, who has been an outspoken critic of the city's pension policy. "You look at these numbers, and nobody in their right mind can justify what's being done. Nobody." Houston mayor Bill White can't justify what's going on in his city either. In 2001 Houston sweetened the retirement plan for its 12,500 municipal employees so that any worker with 25 years of service who is at least 45 years old could retire and immediately begin to receive an annual pension equal to 90% of his salary, an amount that automatically receives an annual 4% cost-of-living increase. In other words, within three years, he'd be raking in more in retirement than he ever made working. The generosity of the plan has meant that legions of Houston workers - 44% of the city workforce - can quit within the next five years without taking a major financial hit. That, ironically, has spawned a second monster. To prevent an exodus of some 5,000 of its most experienced city employees, Houston has implemented a plan similar to the one in San Diego, in which those who stay on get both their salary and their pension, which will be credited with a minimum annual interest rate of 8.5%. If the stock market has a great year, they'll get even more. White, who took office in January, says Houston can't afford it. The pension fund is now running a deficit of about $1.9 billion. "The fundamental problem here is a compensation system that makes it more profitable to retire than to work in the prime of your life," says White. And the result is a hole that can only be filled, he says, with either steep cuts in city services or property tax increases of at least 15%, or both. [ . . . ] --Janice Revell "The $366 Billion Outrage" _Fortune_ [31 May 2004]  ;void(0)) UNIQUE . . see "INDIVIDUALITY" for related links Deep down every human being well knows that he is in the world only one time, unique, and that no such strange chance will throw together a second time such a wonderfully many-colored assortment into a unity such as he is: he knows it, but conceals it like a bad conscience. --Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844—1900) German classical scholar, philosopher, and critic of culture. _Schopenhauer as Educator_ [1874] ----- nonpareil (adj.) [nahn-pê-‘rel] Without equal, beyond compare; unique. rara avis [RARE-uh-AY-vis], noun A rare or unique person or thing. Ex.: He was, after all, that rara avis, a Jewish Catholic priest with a wife and children. --Jeremy Sams, "Lorenzo the magnificent," _Independent_, [16 May 2000] sui generis [soo-eye-JEN-ur-us; soo-ee-], adjective: Being the only example of its kind; constituting a class of its own; unique. . . see: "COOPERATION" see: "HELPING" see: "TEAMWORK" see "THE HUMAN RACE" for other related links United we stand, divided we fall. --Æsop (c. 620 B.C.—c. 560 B.C.) (Thought to be a legendary figure.) _Æsop's Fables_ "The Four Oxen and the Lion_" If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. --Bible "Mark" 3:24-25 We must all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately. --Benjamin Franklin (1706—1790) American politician, inventor, and scientist. Attributed. Remark to John Hancock at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Philadelphia [4 July 1776]. . . [QUOTES FOLLOW LINKS] see: ASTROLOGY EARTH (THE) MOON SCIENCE SKY SPACE STARS SUN - The answer to the great question of. . . life, the universe and everything. . . .[is] forty-two. --Douglas Adams (1952—2001) British comic radio dramatist and author. _The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy_ In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry, and is generally considered to have been a bad move. --Douglas Adams (1952—2001) British comic radio dramatist and author. - I'm astounded by people who want to 'know' the universe when it's hard enough to find your way around Chinatown. --Woody Allen [Allen Stewart Konigsberg] (1935— ) American actor, screenwriter, and director. Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. --Winston Churchill (1874—1965) British Conservative statesman and Prime Minister [1940—1945, 1951—1955]. Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe and sometimes I think we're not. In either case, the idea is quite staggering. --Sir Arthur C. Clarke (1917—2008) English science-fiction writer. A man said to the universe: "Sir I exist!" "However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation." --Stephen Crane (1871—1900) American author and journalist. I cannot look at the universe as the result of blind chance, yet I can see no evidence of beneficent design, or indeed of design of any kind. --Charles Darwin (1809—1882) English naturalist. Letter to J.D. Hooker [12 July 1870]. 'The stars are made of the same atoms as the earth.' I usually pick one small topic like this to give a lecture on. Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars — mere gobs of gas atoms. Nothing is *mere.* I too can see the stars on a desert night, and feel them. But do I see less or more? The vastness of the heavens stretches my imagination — stuck on this carousel my little eye can catch one- million-year-old light. A vast pattern — of which I am a part — perhaps my stuff was belched from some forgotten star, as one is belching there. Or see them with the greater eye of Palomar, rushing all apart from some common starting point when they were perhaps all together. What is the pattern, or the meaning, or the why? It does not do harm to the mystery to know a little about it. For far more marvelous is the truth than any artists of the past imagined! Why do the poets of the present not speak of it? What men are poets who can speak of Jupiter if he were like a man, but if he is an immense spinning sphere of methane and ammonia must be silent? --Richard Feynman (1918—1988) American theoretical physicist. The world is disgracefully managed, one hardly knows to whom to complain. --Ronald Firbank (1886—1926) British novelist. _Vainglory_ [1915] - Where does the world come from? She hadn't the faintest idea. Sophie knew that the world was only a small planet in space. But where did space come from? It was possible that space had always existed, in which case she would not also need to figure out where it came from. But could anything have always existed? Something deep down inside her protested at the idea. Surely everything that exists must have had a beginning? So space must sometime have been created out of something else. But if space had come from something else, then that something else must also have come from something. Sophie felt she was only deferring the problem. At some point, something must have come from nothing. But was that possible? Wasn't that just as impossible as the idea that the world had always existed? They had learned at school that God created the world. Sophie tried to console herself with the thought that this was probably the best solution to the whole problem. But then she started to think again. She could accept that God had created space, but what about God himself? Had he created himself out of nothing? Again there was something deep down inside her that protested. Even though God could create all kinds of things, he could hardly create himself before he had a "self" to create with. So there was only one possibility left: God had always existed. But she had already rejected that possibility! Everything that existed had to have a beginning. --Jostein Gaarder (1952— ) Norwegian author. _Sophie's World_ [1996], "The Garden of Eden" - It is very hard to realize that this present universe has evolved from an unspeakably early condition, and faces a future extinction of endless cold or intolerable heat. The more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless. --Steven Weinberg (1933— ) American theoretical physicist and winner of the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics. _The First Three Minutes_ [1977] ----- cosmogony (noun) [kahz-'mah-gê-ni] The creation of the universe or the study thereof. The adjective is "cosmogonic," someone who studies the origin of the universe is a cosmogonist, who must cosmogonize in order to earn that appellation. syzygy (noun) ['si-zê-jee] The alignment of two (or more) celestial bodies, as the moon and sun are in alignment vis-a-vis the earth during an eclipse; by extension, any two distinct objects or ideas in alignment or conjunction with each other.  UNPLEASANT . . assuage (verb) [ê-'sweyj] To reduce something unpleasant. The noun is assuagement. noisome [NOY-sum], adjective: 1. Noxious; harmful; unwholesome. 2. Offensive to the smell or other senses; disgusting. Ex.:The first flower to bloom in this latitude, when the winter frost loosens its grip upon the sod, is not the fragrant arbutus, nor the delicate hepatica, nor the waxen bloodroot, as the poets would have us think, but the gross, uncouth, and noisome skunk cabbage. --Alvan F. Sanborn, "New York After Paris," _The Atlantic_ [October 1906] varmint (noun) A person or an animal regarded as troublesome, unpleasant, or despicable (regional) (offensive when used of people) . . vagary [VAY-guh-ree; vuh-GER-ee], noun: An extravagant, erratic, or unpredictable notion, action, or occurrence. Ex.: Her words are a dreadful reminder that much of life's consequences are resultant of vagary and caprice, dictated by the tragedy of the ill-considered action, the irrevocable misstep, the irrevocable moment in which a terrible wrong can seem the only right. --Rosemary Mahoney, "Acts of Mercy?" _New York Times_, [13 September 1998]  UNRULY . . see "CHILDREN" "Please Will You Take Your Children Home Before I Do Them In" by Pam Ayers Please will you take your children home Before I do them in? I kissed your little son As he came posturing within. I took his little jacket And removed his little hat But now the visit's over So push off you little brat. And don't think for a moment That I didn't understand How the hatchet he was waving In his grotty little hand Broke my china teapot That I've always held so dear — But would you mind removing him Before I smack his ear? Of course I wasn't angry As I shovelled up the dregs, I'm only glad the teabags Didn't scald his little legs. I'm glad he liked my chocolate cake I couldn't help but laugh As he rubbed it in the carpet — Would he like the other half? He guzzled all the orange And he guzzled all the Coke — The only thing that kept me sane Was hoping he might choke. [. . .] He's been playing in the garden And he's throttled all the flowers, Give the lad a marlinspike He'll sit out there for hours. I've gathered my insecticides And marked them with their name And put them up where children Couldn't reach them. That's a shame. Still he must have liked my dog Because he choked her half to death, She'll go out for another game Once she's caught her breath. He rode her round the garden And he lashed her with his rope She's never bitten anyone But still, we live in hope. He's kicked the TV now! I like to see it getting booted Kick it one more time son You might get electrocuted! Yes, turn up the volume, Twist the knobs, my little treasure And when the programme's over There's the door. It's been a pleasure. - The parent who could see his boy as he really is, would shake his head and say: 'Willie is no good; I'll sell him.' --Stephen Butler Leacock (1869—1944) Canadian humorist. _Essays and Literary Studies_ [1916] "The Lot of the Schoolmaster" ----- fractious [FRAK-shuhs], adjective: 1. Tending to cause trouble; unruly. 2. Irritable; snappish; cranky. froward (adj.) ['fro-wê(r)d] Contrary, disobedient, obstinate, even perversely so. obstreperous [uhb-STREP-uhr-uhs; ob-], adjective: 1. Noisily and stubbornly defiant; unruly. 2. Noisy, clamorous, or boisterous. rambunctious (adj.) [ræm-'bêngk-shês] Irrepressibly exuberant, unruly, uncontrollable. . . The horror! The horror! --Joseph Conrad [Teodor Józef Konrad Nalecz-Korzeniowski] (1857—1924) Polish-born English novelist. _Heart of Darkness_ [1902] ----- ineffable [in-EF-uh-buhl], adjective: 1. Incapable of being expressed in words; unspeakable; unutterable; indescribable. 2. Not to be uttered; taboo. Ex.: . . the tension inherent in human language when it attempts to relate the ineffable, see the invisible, understand the incomprehensible. --Jeffrey Burton Russell, _A History of Heaven_ . . see "CHILDREN" ----- carfuffle [also spelled kerfuffle] (noun) [kah(r)- or kê(r)-'fê-fêl] Uproar, agitation, commotion, brouhaha, fuss. hullabaloo (noun) [hê-lê-bê-'lu] Ruckus, clamor, fuss, uproar. . . see: "FUTILITY" You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go! --Oliver Cromwell (1599—1658) English soldier and statesman. (Addressing the Rump Parliament [20 April 1653.]) Half the modern drugs could well be thrown out the window, except that the birds might eat them. --Martin H. Fischer (1879—1962) German-born American scientist, educator, and author. _Fischerisms_ [1944] Not worth his salt. --Gaius Petronius Arbiter (?—AD 66) Roman writer and senator. _Satyricon_, ch. 57 [1st century AD] ----- otiose (adj.) 1. Not effective: with no useful result or practical purpose (formal) 2. Worthless: with little or no value (formal) end page | UGLY - UNICORNS | UNHAPPINESS | UNIONS - USELESS | VACATION - VENGENCE | VENICE - VICTORY | VIGILANCE - VIRGINITY | VIRTUE - VULGARITY | WAGES - WAR & PEACE | WAR (THE CIVIL) - WAR (THE REVOLUTIONARY) | WAR (THOUGHTS ABOUT) - PAGE 1 (A-M) | WAR (THOUGHTS ABOUT) - PAGE 2 (N-Z) | WAR (VIETNAM) | WAR (WORLD WAR I) | WAR (WORLD WAR II) PAGE 1 (A-M) | WAR (WORLD WAR II) PAGE 2 (N-Z) | WASHINGTON (D.C.) - WEAK/WEAKNESS | WEALTH - WEASELS | WEATHER - WELLS (H.G.) | WEST (THE OLD/WILD) - WILDE (OSCAR) | WILL - WINNING | WINTER - WISDOM | WISHING - WIVES | WOMEN - WOMEN'S LIB | WOMEN'S RIGHTS - WORDS | WORK - WORLD | WORLD TRADE CENTER & PENTAGON DISASTER, 11 SEPTEMB | WORRY - WRONG | WRITING | YESTERDAY - ZOOS | | R | S | T | U - END | | Return Home | The Credits | The Cast | Act 1 | Act 2 | Act 3 | The End | The Reviews | Photos | |
||