Today is the 130th anniversary of Winston Churchill's birth

I have long been an admirer of Winston Churchill. I have read and reread Volume I of his book The World Crisis. The first time I had seen the book was when I was about 12 years old, in a Carnegie Library in Ironwood, Michigan. When I had the opportunity, I bought a copy (which is in sad shape, as I have carried the volume around in briefcase and read the sections about warships, again and again). Churchill was capable of making mistakes. He had real experience in the army, and commanded a brigade in France in WWI, after he was sacked from the Admiralty over the Dardanelles debacle. In WWII, he almost was a bad as Hitler in his meddlings with military and naval matters. All too often, though, he had a better sense about what to do than some of his subordinates. That only encouraged him to meddle.

I have confirmed that Firefox goes into "find" when I type an apostrophe

When I am touch typing my posts for Blogger, I keep having to remember to turn off the page search, as Firefox opens it and gives it focus, everytime I type an apostrophe. I have not looked, yet, to see if there is a way to disable that feature. I really would like to disable it, as I like to use contractions like "can't" and "won't". Conceivably, I'm hitting the CTRL key when I'm typing, but I don't see how it would happen. I just disproved my theory about a straight apostrophe, as the ones I just typed didn't turn on the search. However, a few minutes ago, while trying to enter text into Gmail, it happened. I guess that perhaps I'm mistaken, and it is a (nasty) feature of Gmail.

Mozilla Firefox quirks

I have been using Mozilla Firefox as my browser for 6 days, both at home and at work. I am starting to be annoyed by a few quirks. The main issue is with copying URL's and text and then trying to paste that into another tab. Mostly, it is difficult or impossible to copy with either the copy from the right-click menu or by CTRL-c. I find that I have better success if I copy and past to Notepad, and the copy and paste from there. I do so much copying and pasting, I am really getting irritated with Firefox. Another issue is with what happens when I am typing along and suddenly, the "Find" field opens up and takes focus. It primarily seems to happen when I attempt to type an apostrophe. The "taking focus" part is what really is aggravating. I initially was also aggravated with the entry of an id and password into the Sitemeter page, but I am getting used to how to take advantage of what Firefox is doing for and to me. I had not trusted when Firefox filled in a password when I selected an id from the menu that popped, but I find that it is giving me a userid and password that works. That is fine with me.

Bill at INDC Journal

Bill, proprietor of the INDC Journal discusses the kind of hate which someone who states their opinions in a public forum is subjected. I mainly see the sort of vitriol from those on the left, but I have been assured that such activity is bipartisan. Michael J. Totten has received unwanted attention from both the right and left, as he is a liberal who is in favor of President Bush and the war on terror. Perhaps he is a former liberal, although I have trouble telling where he stands, except on the core issues, I agree with him.

IT Economics

I spoke with an aircraft structural engineer in early 1994, and he told me that his peak year for income was 1986. That same phenomenon has hit the "IT" world. My peak year was 2000, although the first four months of 2001 were even better. By the summer of 2001, I had to leave town to find work. I ended up in Minneapolis, were the market had not declined so percipitously as Dallas. Minneapolis turned out to be just lagging Dallas, not bucking the trend.

The IT field has changed, in that companies no longer place the value they did on skilled services. The prime consideration, now, is cost. I started to see that as far back as late 1996, when FedEx started the process of shrinking their vendor list and reducing billing rates. The people to whom I was contracted kept paying me the same rate despite their rate being cut. Towards the end, they were still getting about 19% while I received 81% of the billing. By January 1997, FedEx had frozen the work week at 40 hours. If we absolutely, positively had to work longer on some day, we had to have permission, and had to take off corresponding time. We were not allowed to bill over 40 hours under any circumstances. And that was before the NASDAQ collapse in March 2000 and before September 11, 2001. That was my early warning sign of "things to come". As I said, my income kept rising from there, so that my peak rate was in the latter part of 2000 and the first four months of 2001. From there, rates have steadily declined, so that I am back to where I was in 1993.

Needless to say, it has been a painful process. The only reason that I am even employed at all is that I kept learning new skills. And employers are now testing people on their skill level. That was unheard of in the 1990's. If anyone was doing testing, they overlooked me. I was always only subjected to the usual interview and questions about resume entries.

When people talk about higher paying jobs being replaced by lower paying jobs, there is some truth to the assertion, at least in some areas. That seems to not be true generally, but IT and manufacturing seem to have seen the greatest hit. We have people near us who had worked for decades at the Western Electric plant who were eventually laid off, as the plant transitioned from AT&T to Lucent, and then to Tyco. I'm sure that this is not an isolated situation.

So we are all sitting around, "waiting for the next shoe to drop" (are there any clichés that I have missed?). My answer is to contemplate a career shift (to doing historical research and writing, full time). The main question is how to successfully make the transition.

I got in trouble with Carrie Newcomer for a pretty tame comment

Apparently, Carrie Newcomer is very sensitive to criticism for her political position. I made the mistake of leaving a comment that was critical of her political speech, and suggested that she separate that from her music. I wrote: "I continue to enjoy Carrie's music. We have been fortunate enough to see her perform live, in Dallas, at Uncle Calvin's. I wish she would keep politics separate from her music, as while her position shouldn't be surprising, it seems pretty misguided an naive, and ignores what need to do to be doing to keep people from harm." I didn't write anything more than that, but she was offended, so I am cut off from any further communication. I'm sorry that she is so sensitive about her stance. I should have realized that this would be off-base, but it didn't occur to me that she would respond so negatively. I suppose the whole election business was a nasty shock, and a repudiation of what she is trying to do. This is how she responded:

Please refrain from using the comment cards as a forum to insult me and everyone who is wise enough to believe that there is a better way to live and approach problems then violence and aggression. It’s rude but even more to the point. . .it isn’t productive.

Good art is honest and has a core of truth to it. If I censor my most deeply held beliefs, then the art becomes an ineffective shadow of what it could be. I am true to who I am and true to my art. . .it’s called artistic and personal integrity. Art of integrity has a habit of ruffling feathers because it asks us to think.

Obviously what I have to say about compassion and justice doesn’t resonate with you. It’s really very easy Jim. If it offends you or you can’t be open enough to consider the spirit of what is being presented . . . . don’t listen. But, I do hope you can consider the growing edge of what I am saying and that what you choose to insult is intellectually sound, spiritually correct and has deeply compelling thought and history behind it. For now, we will have to agree to disagree.

The country is deeply divided and I think it’s more important than ever to encourage an honest and productive exchange of ideas. I will continue to do so in the most loving and positive way I can.

Tim Marshall, reeling from an Indymedia attack

Tim Marshall is a wargamer. He has had an interesting website ("Tim's Toys") with a lot of wargame-related graphics. He apparently also had a place for people to leave messages. As I noted, Niall Meehan, who writes for Indymedia in Ireland, left an offensive comment. As someone who has left a comment that was not meant to be very critical, but which offended, I am more sensitive to the issue about what is appropriate in a comment. As I have previously linked to Niall's piece, you might have already seen what he wrote. We are in more than just a "Red State"/"Blue State" conflict. The conflict transcends international boundaries. Some on the left, are simply misguided (and I don't mean that in a mean way), as Carrie Newcomer seems to be. Others are actively fighting the forces of civilization (anyone one from the Center-Left to the Right). I don't believe that Carrie and the "Friends Services" people are doing anything actively to aid the enemies of civilization, but they are also doing nothing that will keep us safe from them, either. Anyone is welcome to take whatever position they want. I would hope that they would at least not be actively opposing the forces of civilization in this conflict, and would certainly doing nothing that was illegal or immoral. I'm sure that some would even balk at those concepts (as being judgmental).

The ability to leave messages on a web site cuts both ways

A wargamer in New Foundland shut down his website, for now, because of a nasty comment by an ally of the more radical Irish Republican Army. The nasty thing is that these people are the natural ally of Carrie Newcomer and her friends on the left. They differ on the use of violence, but are both opposed to our government and our allies. I'm sorry to say that we seem to be at war, and I am not liking the fact that we are. I would rather that we could carry on a civil dialog, but that seems to be not possible. The Indymedia folk seem particularly radical. Charles Johnson ("The Dark Lord"), at Little Green Footballs, has poked fun at them, and I'm sure that they hate it. They call Little Green Footballs a "racist website", which is not what Charles' site is about. Instead, he is the best source in the blogosphere for news about the war on terror and the threat from radical Islamists.

Carrie Newcomer should stay away from politics

We like Carrie Newcomer's music, but could do without her political commentary. He email newsletter has more politics than I care for, given that she is so politically misguided. Her latest theme is "Betty's Diner", and that sets the look for her website, CarrieNewcomer.com. Be warned that it is all Flash, although it adds a good bit, and you can see and hear her perform songs. I suppose that you must expect that folk singers are pretty far to the left, and probably anti-war, even when it is a nonsensical position.

Demographics are a huge, almost unrecognized issue

If you don't think that demographics are important, ask the Lebanese Christians about how they lost their country. What is going to be the big story of the next 25 years is that the children per couple in Blue States is less than in Red States. The Democrats are doing a whole range of things that is driving their birth rate down. They promote homosexuality and abortion. They promote women working instead of having children. Isn't that enough? The bluest states have a number of children per couple/mother of as low as 1.5. That is a long way below the replacement rate. The Blue State populations will plateau and shrink, while Red State populations will grow, and at a good clip.