RENO, Nev. -- A Navy veteran who died after throwing himself in front of a friend during the Colorado movie theater shooting was remembered Friday for his fearlessness and optimism.
Some mourners at the funeral for 26-year-old Jonathan Blunk also said they've been told by officials that there are indications he may have tried to stand up to the heavily armed gunman and stop him during the July 20 attack in Aurora, Colo.
"Law enforcement is leaning toward he was trying to get the (suspect's) gun to save people's lives," said Roland Lackey, an Air Force veteran who officiated the service. "He was a hero, and I salute him."
His service did not end when he took off his uniform. May that knowledge and their memories of this hero bring comfort to those who loved him.
#7
I saw this two or three weeks ago. I've been checking my tomatoes ever since, to see if I get any crosses. Nope. I did get one that said, "THE WORLD WILL END IN 2010." Musta been a typo.
For decades, executives at unionized companies have harbored the fantasy that they could dictate the wages, benefits and working conditions of their employees, just like non-union firms. "Dictate" sort of gives away the author's bias. While I do not belong to a union, no one "dictates" my wages. If I don't like them here, I go over there.
What stood in their way was the unions' ability to mount a strike that would prove more costly than paying above-market compensation. In the language of economics, the strike gave workers market power.
Now, at a hydraulics plant in Joliet, Ill., this corporate fantasy is about to become economic reality. Thanks to globalization, declining union density and years of chipping away at labor laws, Caterpillar is set to prove that even unionized companies can operate as if they have no union at all. Southwest Airlines is not unionized, makes tons of money, but I hear it's a good place to work, not a sweatshop.
In the previous six-year contract, Caterpillar won a two-tier wage structure: Existing employees would get to keep wages that average about $26, but there would be no raises and new employees would be paid wages pegged to the existing market -- roughly $12 to $19, depending on the job classification. Instead of the old defined-benefit pension plan, the company would put 3 percent of each worker's base pay into a 401(k) retirement account, and match employee contributions up to an additional 3 percent. The company would continue to pay 90 percent of the premiums for a generous health insurance plan, and profit sharing that averaged $2,300 a year. This year, the union upped the ante and management said, "No." The union walked out.
The reason Caterpillar has no intention of negotiating with its workers is pretty simple: It doesn't have to. In the three months since the strike began, the company says its Joliet plant has produced all the hydraulic parts it needs. The work is done by supervisors, newly hired employees and employees contracted from temporary help agencies, along with 80 and 100 union members who have crossed the daily picket lines and returned to work. If things really got tight, the company could always import the same parts from other Caterpillar plants around the world.
Caterpillar's success in effectively neutering its unions is the result of decades of disciplined work and billions of dollars in investment. The turning point came in the 1990s when, after two long strikes, 9,000 members of the United Auto Workers at its giant facility in Peoria, Ill., effectively capitulated and went back to work on terms dictated by the company. The strikes demonstrated to Caterpillar's workers that they were not as irreplaceable as they thought, and that their picket lines would no longer deny the company the workers or the raw materials needed to continue operation. As it turned out, the capitulation also allowed Caterpillar to avoid the near-death experience of the Big Three automakers, which accepted the UAW's overly generous contracts for another decade. In other words, Caterpillar bit the bullet a decade before Obama bailed out the UAW. But I don't think Caterpillar could've waited another ten years. WaPo will never admit that this was a good thing...
Caterpillar makes no bones about the fact it intends to bring its scary "market-based" approach to worker pay and benefits to every location. That message, apparently, was lost on the 465 unionized workers at a 62-year-old locomotive plant in London, Ontario, that Caterpillar bought a few years ago. Those workers had been getting $35 an hour. Caterpillar's take-it-or-leave-it offer was for half that, along with substantial cuts in benefits. When the workers balked, Caterpillar closed the plant, took its cutting-edge diesel-electric (railroad locomotive)technology and moved production to Muncie, Ind., where workers lined up for a shot at one of $12- to $18-an-hour jobs. I wonder why Obama didn't bail out the Canadian union?
It is easy to get moralistic It's especially easy for WaPo to get moralistic...
about a company that pays its chief executive $16.5 million as a reward for squeezing the incomes of employees who, even at the top of the scale, earn about one-half of 1 percent of what he does. It's just not fair!
It's easy to get nostalgic about the loss of union power that really did make it possible for generations of workers with only a high-school education to enter the middle class. But the reality is that Caterpillar probably has no choice but to bow to the dictates of the markets -- not only the markets from which it gets it labor but also the markets from which it raises its capital and the markets into which it sells its products. If it can't sell its products at above-market prices or offer its investors below-market returns, it can't afford to pay its workers above-market wages. Then the author goes on about fairness. Caterpillar, he says, pays mid-level guys 15% above market to keep and motivate them. Why not pay the union guys 15% above market, too? It just ain't FAIR! Employers gotta responsibility!
Because of its size and reputation, companies like Caterpillar also need to acknowledge that they have an outsize impact on the social, political and economic environment in which markets operate. WaPo means that Caterpillar should embrace progressive politics and then work to install those politics on the rest of us...
Caterpillar should not expect voters to embrace its aggressive free-trade philosophy if globalization merely gives it license to grind down the incomes of average workers. Most purchasing guys are not worried about politics - get them a good product at a good price.
It shouldn't expect politicians to approve more money for public works projects just because those benefit everybody, or give the green light to increased coal and shale-oil production just to dump the oil ticks -- both big generators of Caterpillar sales -- if the profits from those sales won't be shared fairly with front-line workers. Ask the locomotive workers in Muncie if they are being treated fairly. The profits are shared -- people have jobs. In a society with a U-6 unemployment rate of 15% that's a good way to share...
And it shouldn't expect to win the good opinion of investors or the public if its human-resource strategy is to become the recognized leader in the corporate race to the bottom. $18 an hour plus good health care benefits and employer contributions to a 401K is a race to the bottom?
The reason the union movement is in trouble is because unions abused their market power and overplayed their hands. No, really?
Now, it is Corporate America that has gained the upper hand, and if the news from Joliet, Ill., is any indication, it is about to make the same mistake. The market will decide! Put the unions back in charge, WaPo, and what do you think will happen?
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/05/2012 13:31 ||
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#1
Caterpillar helps oppress Palestinians. Outfoxes unions. Is there anything they can't do?
#3
and the WaPo hemorrhages money, kept afloat only by their Kaplan test-prep biz.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/05/2012 14:35 Comments ||
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Glenmore - I believe you are right.
In contrast to non-union competitor JetBlue Airways, Southwest maintains its profitability and low-fare, low-cost business model while being heavily unionized. The Southwest Airline Pilots' Association, a union not affiliated with the Air Line Pilots Association, represents the airline's pilots. The Aircraft Maintenance Technicians' are represented by the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA). Customer Service Agents and Reservation Agents are represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Union (IAM). Flight Dispatchers, Flight Attendants, Ramp agents and Operations agents are represented by the Transport Workers Union (TWU).
But their flight attendants clean up the cabins, so I think the work rules must be a bit more reasonable.
About ten years ago, I read a study about why Southwest was so profitable. The one thing that stuck in my head was that their pilots flew twice as much as the older, traditional airlines. Yet they manage a pretty good safety record!
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/05/2012 15:51 Comments ||
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#5
I surely was not going to waste my time reading the whole thing. I'm sure he wedged that magic word "stakeholders" in there somewhere.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/05/2012 16:22 Comments ||
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#6
Classic socialist drivel. Good job Cat.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/05/2012 16:35 Comments ||
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#10
In the language of socialist economics, the strike gave workers market power.
FIGY
In the language of capitalist economics, each party voluntarily takes part in a transaction that leaves both better off. Otherwise, the transaction does not take place.
#11
If it can't sell its products at above-market prices or offer its investors below-market returns, it can't afford to pay its workers above-market wages.
Unless in a fascist-crony environment where they nationalize the company for the 'workers' and then stick the extraordinary expenses and loses upon the backs of the common citizen. Never happen here though. /sarc
[An Nahar] Police said Saturday they had rounded up about 2,000 people in an operation to evict undocumented immigrants from central Athens, claiming that "national survival" was at stake for debt-choked Greece.
The aim of the operation was "to send them back to their countries of origin, close the borders and ensure that Athens returns to being a lawful city with a quality of life," police front man Christos Manouras said.
Operation Xenios Zeus, named after the name of the king of the ancient Greek gods in his role as protector of guests, mobilized 2,000 police in Athens and another 2,500 on Greece's eastern border with Turkey.
Manouras said the deportation of undocumented Democrats was a necessity for national survival.
"We must send the message that Greece cannot afford work and hospitality" to would-be immigrants, he said.
Located in the southeastern extremity of the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... , Greece has become a popular transit point for migrants from Asia or Africa seeking to enter the bloc.
But as the country struggles with a crippling economic crisis and sweeping austerity cuts, social tensions are on the rise and the increase in undocumented immigrants has fuelled xenophobia and racist attacks.
For the first time in Greek political history, the country in June voted into parliament a neo-Nazi party, Golden Dawn, which has promised to purge the country of illegal migrants.
Current figures show Greece has about 800,000 legally-registered immigrants, while the number of those without papers is estimated at more than 350,000.
On Wednesday police said they were tripling the number of guards along Greece's border with Turkey to 1,800 to ward off any influx of Syrian refugees.
The Athens operation launched on Thursday came as creditors from the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the European Central Bank meet with Greek officials to discuss the further budget cuts needed to unlock the next tranche of aid in September, worth 31.5 billion euros.
Four months ago, Athens ran a similar eviction operation in conjunction with a number of city halls.
Right-wing Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, who took power in June at the head of a broad coalition, pledged during his election campaign to "win back the cities" and stop the "invasion" of immigrants.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/05/2012 00:00 ||
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So the olympic triple jumper gets cashiered from the team for stating there's a lot of Africans in Athens, but the government rounds them up and tosses them out. I'm all for tossing illegals - what I want to see now is the greek olympic officials who tossed the young lady, get their moment in the spotlight as they get their azzes tossed from their positions - spit!
ANKARA: Turkeys top military council on Saturday ordered the retirement of dozens of generals and admirals who are currently being held on charges of coup plotting, the army announced on its website.
Fifty-five generals and admirals are required to retire due to a lack of vacancies in their positions, and one admiral due to an age limit as of September 1, the army saiin an online statement. Among them were 40 generals and admirals in detention in connection with several probes, including the so-called Ergenekon and Sledgehammer cases into alleged plots to topple the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, reported local media.
As Stalin found out, you can clean out the officer corps just a little too well...
The jailed generals had been awaiting promotion after it was suspended at last years meeting. But the military councils statement said the one-year waiting period for the generals had expired, ordering their retirement instead.
The latest announcement comes as the Supreme Military Council (YAS) began its meeting on Wednesday to discuss promotions and dismissals within the army. The decisions were made public Saturday after being approved by the president. This years YAS meeting however ended without the tensions that marred last years gathering which saw the shock mass resignation of the countrys top brass in a row with the government over officers jailed for alleged coup plots.
Veteran journalist Fikret Bila said the retirement of arrested generals and admirals was the governments preference.
We see the governments preference being implemented, said Bila speaking to the private NTV television. Some of the arrested generals might be released amid the ongoing trials but the decision on their retirement shows they are being dismissed from the army before the cases are concluded."
The order for retirement is considered the latest blow to Turkeys beleaguered officer corps who are the target of a series of probes launched in recent years into past military interventions and alleged coup plots. Hundreds of suspects, including several senior retired and active duty officers, as well as journalists, lawyers and politicians, are separately being tried over their alleged role to topple the Islamic-rooted government.
The trials are widely seen as part of an effort by the current Justice and Development Party (AKP) government to roll back the militarys influence in politics. But critics accuse Erdogans government of launching the probes as a tool to silence its opponents and impose authoritarianism charges it denies.
The Turkish army, which sees itself as the guarantor of Turkeys secular principles, overthrew three earlier administrations in 1960, 1971 and 1980. And in 1997, it pressured an Islamic-leaning prime minister, Necmettin Erbakan, to step down. Erbakan was the political mentor of Erdogan.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/05/2012 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Officials of education department in Bajaur Agency, aka Turban Central ...Smallest of the agencies in FATA. The Agency administration is located in Khar. Bajaur is inhabited almost exclusively by Tarkani Pashtuns, which are divided into multiple bickering subtribes. Its 52 km border border with Afghanistan's Kunar Province makes it of strategic importance to Pakistain's strategic depth... on Friday issued show-cause notices to over 200 teachers of various government schools and collages for remaining absent from duty, as educational institutions in the tribal agency opened on July 1 after summer vacations.
Confirming this, an official of the local education department told this correspondent on Friday that bigwigs of the department had warned the teachers to join their duty immediately or face action. He said that over 200 teachers, most of the women, were found absent during inspections of education institutions.
"An inspection team comprising several assistant education officers has visited various schools of the agency over public complaints about absence of teachers," Sarwar Khan, a bigwig of the department, told Dawn on Friday. The officials said that several schools in the agency, including those in Chamarkand, Nawagi, Charmang, Salarzia and Mamond tehsil, even remained closed on Friday. "Most of teachers of girl schools are non-locals and due to lack of any checks they always join their duty late after vacations," the sources said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/05/2012 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Police in the interior Sindh town of Gambat have cooled for a few years Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! a man and two women and have charged them with "intentions of adultery," BBC Urdu reported on Saturday.
Curiously, the law-enforcers took it upon themselves to register a police case and also decided to act as witnesses to the said "crime."
Reportedly, a video clip is doing the rounds among locals, where the man and one of the women charged by police are shown being paraded naked and are trying to put their clothes back on but are forced against it by police officials.
In a recent development, a local journalist Shafiq Khoro informed Dawn.com that the man tossed in the slammer Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! by police, Mumtaz, had been warned by locals over his antics, where he had been found drunk and involved in unethical activities by his neighbours. "On the night of the incident, between July 28 and 29, Mumtaz was once again found disrupting the peace of the neighbourhood with his activities. The people of the area called the police but by the time the law-enforcers arrived, Mumtaz had already fled. Later, police found him in his courtyard with two women. One of the women was found to be inappropriately dressed," Khoro said.
Earlier, it was reported that when the local SHO was contacted by BBC Urdu, he agreed to give an official statement on the case but was later unavailable to make comments. Meanwhile, ...back at the chili cook-off, Chuck and Manuel's rivalry was entering a new and more dangerous phase... Deputy Superintendent Police Sagheer Mughairi said he was unaware of the incident and suggested the media to contact the local cop shoppe for further information.
According to the case registered by the police, officials were informed by a "local spy" that a man called "Mumtaz" had invited two women over for sexual favours. Police officials claim that when police officials reached the site, they found a man "sitting inside a room, with his arms around two women." Since no witnesses were present on the site to record their statements, two police officials who were part of the raid were made witnesses to the "act."
However, we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by... as opposed to the police statement, it is believed that several eye-witnesses were present at the site and reportedly saw the police force a naked man and a woman on to the streets. While parading the couple through the streets, the police also went past "Sheikh Chowk," which is half a kilometre away from the site of the incident. When BBC Urdu spoke to the eye-witnesses present at "Sheikh Chowk," they said that when they showed their aversion to the police, the woman -- still without clothes -- was forced into a police mobile and Mumtaz was forced to walk in front of the vehicle all the way to the cop shoppe. The second woman, eye-witnesses said, was fully clothed at this point.
According to the police, Mumtaz Hussain Mir Bahar is a local trader, who managed to seek a bail from a local court. Meanwhile, ...back at the fist fight, Jake ducked another roundhouse, then parried with his left, then with his right, finally with his chin... both women have been sent to Larkana jail.
Mumtaz claimed his innocence to BBC Urdu and said he is being victimised by the police. He has filed a petition, which will be heard on August 8 in the Sindh High Court.
While locals have condemned the incident, no official complaint has been lodged.
Gambat is an administrative division (tehsil) of Khairpur district, which is also home to Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah. A large majority of traders is settled in the small town.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/05/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
What? NO burka?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/05/2012 11:08 Comments ||
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A Catholic-run school in the southern Philippines has caused an uproar by banning students from wearing the hijab. The school is thought to be the first in the Philippines to enforce an outright ban on wearing the hijab.
The head of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos, said he had written to Pilar College in the port city of Zamboanga to demand a reversal of policy. Mehol Sadain said, "Pilar College should realise that while educational institutions can formulate their own policies, the same should not run counter to existing laws and state policies."
Sadain pointed out an education department policy stating that Muslim girls should be allowed to wear their head coverings in school and be exempted from non-Muslim religious rites.
But the school said in its letter to the council that it would not "deviate" from its Catholic principles, and said students from other religions were welcome but must strictly follow its non-hijab policy.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/05/2012 00:00 ||
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Cathys comments: We are very much supportive of the family the Biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives.
I can see why some folks would consider that "hateful and hurtful". Perhaps they didn't actually read the words?
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/05/2012 7:17 Comments ||
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#2
Probably the best question to ask those who consider Cahty's position as "hateful and hurtful": Absolutely or Relatively? Univerally applicable to all, or JUST YOUR BELIEF? Why should I accept your Judgment of my hatefulness as binding on me when you dismiss my judgment of the sinfulness of the gay lifestyle as "just YOUR opinion?" Well, "JUST YOUR OPINION". So you scream to rally opposition against us, but FORBID us to make a call to rally support for those of YOUR HATE? When the numbers prove to be against you, you Fall back on "My Rights are not to be violated", but scream when we point to Rahm's statement and state "Cathy's rights are being violated."
You don't listen to "religious bigots", and we don't listen to "hypocrites of all stripes, colors, politics, and sexual preferences".
Squeal and scream all you want: YOU'RE NOT SPECIAL.
#3
I support CFA because I oppose gov't actions to restrain speech or religion.
LGBT oppose CFA because it donates money to groups that work to restrict gay 'rights' - not because of Cathy's comments.
#4
Bobby - what the person said has nothing to do with it - it the mere fact that she holds a belief that is not in accordance with the gay agenda. Holding any other opinion but theres is 'Hateful'. A thoughtcrime.
How long before they want to make it illegal with time in Prison for such a 'hatecrime'? You can already get an much extended sentence for having the wrong (meaning 'anti-gay') ideas while committing a crime.
#6
They also give free water to anyone, which is nice not only as an alternative to soda (fast food water goes $1.50-$2.00 out here, usually like 10% more than soda half the amount).
It is also nice when it is hot outside.
I believe the progs have had an agenda concerning CFA, was it about six months ago some GLAD group started making some rumbles, perhaps someone in their infinate wisdom decided that with a couple quotes and an election issue to pull the trigger.
Homosexuality is the practice of Creationism. Darwinian evolution relies upon the propagation of a species so that desired traits build into a species' genetics over generations.
Homosexuality, in the pure sense of M/M or F/F, not the too drunk or changed mind etc. In the order of the pure Homosexual, based upon the arguement that a person is born that way and is not a choice*. That is, according to Darwinian Evolution, a dead end. In fact, the only way the Pure Homosexual can propigate is by non-natural ways, described as if the process at some point required electricity/industry it is not a pure natural propigation. That is, humans choosing whether or not to create life and if so by means outside the natural normal means of two beings creating offspring. In a way, deliberate consciencely creating life under very specific wishes outside of the default natural world; Creationism.
*I am aware many people visit this site, and I do only want to open a topic. I like happy people, and people in love tend to be happy people no matter the circumstances. When I was around this crowd and had good friends, it was the arguement that they were created this way, and therefore no amount of prayer or exercism would change who they are - that is what I mean by Pure Homosexual, and contrasted with those who over the course of life perhaps are hetero or at least bi which of course due to the course of life would allow for the chance of children.
I also believe happy people tend to see the world in a true sense, why I rise the subject. Throw stuff at me if you will but really just raising and academic point of order.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
RENO, Nev. -- A Navy veteran who died after throwing himself in front of a friend during the Colorado movie theater shooting was remembered Friday for his fearlessness and optimism.
For decades, executives at unionized companies have harbored the fantasy that they could dictate the wages, benefits and working conditions of their employees, just like non-union firms. 
...Smallest of the agencies in FATA. The Agency administration is located in Khar. Bajaur is inhabited almost exclusively by Tarkani Pashtuns, which are divided into multiple bickering subtribes. Its 52 km border border with Afghanistan's Kunar Province makes it of strategic importance to Pakistain's strategic depth...
