After reading this series of articles concerning the Northwest Airlines bankrupcy and the fallout, I believe that the growing ranks of the perpetual entry-leveled and contractor-for-lifers will become of force in its own right. A force that can be easily replaced, downsized, outsourced, and rendered powerless. With unions imploding (by internal and external pressure), will workers’ jobs ever be protected somewhat? Or is this the age of the at-will employees and constant job movement?

Professor Lynne Kiesling points out a glaring flaw in the electric utility industry (regarding the human error in yesterday’s Los Angeles blackout): The more we can automate routine maintenance functions and automate the process of finding faults on a line, the less margin there is for human error to cause such dislocation and disruption. However, the electric utiilty industry is one of the most backward in the application of communication technology to perform these functions. We should ask why the regulated utility (or, in this case, the municipal utility) has so little incentive to implement...

Hey! If your an auto supplier for General Motors, just shut down your US operations, find a few barges, and float your factories in the Pacific. With that cheap island labor, fresh Pacific air, and cleansing salty sprayyou’ll be raking in the greenbacks! GM puts squeeze on suppliers Automaker wants parts makers to open plants in low-cost countries, a move sure to spark fury. By Brett Clanton / The Detroit News DETROIT — General Motors Corp. is launching a three-year cost-cutting plan that will stress the need for U.S. parts suppliers to open more factories in low-cost countries and...

The job woes for this lovely state of mine just continue (entire article posted): Jobs skid: No end in sight Michigan’s unemployment rate rises to 7% in July, and economists predict an even bleaker future. By Louis Aguilar / The Detroit News Michigan’s job picture worsened in July and a wave of expected layoffs throughout the auto industry and other sectors could mean things will get worse before they get better. As most of the nation saw strong job growth, Michigan’s unemployment rate climbed to 7 percent in July from 6.8 percent in June. The nation’s jobless rate is 5...

Dizzy, dizzy heights. Spin! Spin! Spin! — Uschi Classen, “Dizzy Heights” The Left and the Right are both full of sour milk on this Cindy Sheehan situation. The Right bashes her and says she’s dishonoring her son. The Left jumps on her back as the leader of Bush’s Fall. Both are equally dispicable and vile. Once again, here we are in America putting the Hollywood production on everything. Spinning, spinning, spinning! Everyone’s becoming an opportunist to blast each other over Cindy Sheehan’s little protest. Blah! Cindy Sheehan lost her son in a...

LaShawn Barber shares her love of the wonderful dessert known as cake while giving Warren Brown’s CakeLove some love: I love cake. In fact, I love cake so much, I look at people who hate cake as if they’re Martians. “You don’t like cake?

Why do we parents want our children to be the greatest at what they do? To be all that they can be? To acheive the greatest heights? What’s wrong with wanting our children to just be regular? Not forcing them to try to be the greatest. And just raising them to have some common sense at the very least? Do they have to go to college? Why can’t they just find a job and we parents accept that? Why? UPDATE! like recently… Methinks that we parents need to re-evaluate our thinking in this awesome, most splendid, cherry-flavored global economy. College and university tuition aren’t...

For a very simple reason: What good can those days do now when we constantly moving into the future?? Don’t get me wrong my good people, history is wonderful. Just seeing how we humans did things in the past fascinates me. And of course if you don’t remember the past you are doomed to repeat it. But we seem to be in a time where we have a hard time dealing with the future. Generally speaking, I believe we love the “good old days” since it keeps our minds off the future issues. The future is scary and many of us don’t want to tackle it. Look at health care for...

We’re way too logical in picking U.S. Supreme Court justices. Since Sandra Day O’Connor was the recognized “middle” and/or “tie breaker” on the Supreme Court, how about we replace her with a certified nut job? I mean we go to a bunch of mental institutions and find us a solid wackaroon. One that makes decisions by throwing down the bones and reading the pattern of gravy, vegetables, and meat in a piping-hot, opened pot-pie. So after the four over-there make a decision and the four over-there make a decision, our Supreme Wackaroon will be the tiebreaker! ...

This nonsense in the black community called DL or livin’ the down low or on the DL or on the down low has to stop. For those not familar with this term, it applies to a man in a relationship with a woman that is secretly having an affair with another man. The whole term DL just burns me up. Let’s just break it down what that man is: A damn cheater. Doesn’t matter if it’s with a man or woman, he has violated the trust in the relationship and is a cheater. So all you men (especialy black men) that want to romanticize their cheatin’ ways by using the term DL, may...