NPR Believes in Free Speech - But it is not appropriate for their Employees to have this right

The firing of Juan Williams from NPR over his voicing of his personal option when asked about it on a Fox TV talk show means that NPR will just now put in place more definitive rules on why they will fire people.

 

New rules (they will call them "guidelines" to have the appearance it is not really a rule) that all writers to their web sites, on air radio shows, on TV personalities and other contributors to NPR will have to follow:

1) All employment outside of NPR must be approved by NPR before you work for the other company and if you work for someone else without prior approval you are fired. This is also retroactive in that if you currently work for NPR and other firms or have a personal blog, twitter, facebook page etc you must ask approval from NPR to work or have these sites.

2) If you voice your own personal opinion on anything on air, in writing, in any public location that is capable of being recorded via audio or video you are fired

3) Any work done for others must be reviewed and approved of by NPR before anything is published or voiced or otherwise distributed by any means now or in the future possible and if you do not then you are fired. You are not allowed to be on any live show that does not have allow the capability of blocking your written or voiced comments by NPR before it is transmitted.

 

NPR is not stopping you from speaking or publishing anything if you work for them; they are only firing your from you job if you do not follow their rules . .  . they believe in free speech, but for employees it is limited if you want to work for them . . . . just another simple workplace guideline  . .  .

Elect "Governor Mulligan" for Oregon!

Oregon is known for it lush green Willamette Valley and the golf courses that dot the state (well, the western part of the state, not too many on the east side) and Oregon has its own "Governor  Mulligan" in the race this year.

He spent 8 years setting up the current mess Oregon is in, and the follow-on Governor who is leaving largely followed the same policies "Mulligan" did, and now "Mulligan" - aka Governor John Kitzhaber -wants a "do over" -- a "Mulligan" -- to again go with his vision, which he never had the first time and lead the state down the same previous path and he of course expects totally different results in following the same policies he did the first time.

He got elected during a boom time for the state: personal income was up; people were moving to the state and working so income tax revenues were up; building was great so property taxes were up - and he ensured that every single dime was spent and also ensured that additional money - programs and "entitlements" that were never funded was obligated to lots of people based on the current income that the state had forever into the future to provide "benefits" to people who often never pay any taxes without ever ensuring that those obligations could be met in the future.

And now he wants to again do the same thing and get different results.

Governor Mulligan - a do over that we can do without!

 

 

Common Sense

Geoffrey James, Sales Machine "...my favorite boss of all time said: 'Common sense isn't common -- it's special.' "

Mass transit Studies, The Netherlands and the Individual

Every commute is unique for that person; when looking at  aggregate population "studies" transit studies usually only study the most highly traveled route - thus making them totally valid and totally meaningless for anyone who does not travel the route studied. Also, given that they only have 30 minutes commute time in the Netherlands - which means people often live quite close to where they work unlike the USA - what is discovered there is also meaningless here.
And without them publishing the data collection methods, the universe of people, the routes studied, the math behind the results - it is a data point without any context and meaning at all.
I too can measure my public vs car commute time for my 19.7 mile commute from my house to work.
By Car on a bad day from walking out the door to sit down at work - counting a 10 minute walk from parking the car - I can go from a low of 45 minutes to a high of 90 minutes.
By public transportation - completely - I can go from a low of 90 minutes to a high of 110. By driving to a park and ride it can be cut down to 80 minutes to 100.
Of course without a car then if you want to go anywhere else after work, then you MUST go home and get you car and then often double back to go shopping.
Public transportation = giving up YOUR time to let someone else drive and of course be tied to THEIR schedule. Which often means that you will have to waste more of your time waiting for their schedule service to arrive. And if you by any chance stay late at work you can easily waste an 1/2 hour to an hour more of your time to catch that one and only bus / train back to your home - if it is running at all when you get off.
Mass transit NEVER scales well outside a 10 mile radius. And most want to have mass transit in a 3000 x 2000 mile wide country - and compare it to a 150 to 60 mile country in Europe and says it will work here.

 

http://www.smartplanet.com/business/blog/smart-takes/your-commute-is-shorter-than-you-think-it-is-study-says/11344/

A modern version of Joseph Heller's "Catch 22"

"I want to protect my privacy by using a password to protect a file."
"Ah, but by using a password you must be hiding something."
"But if I don't it is not private!"
"Ah true, but now you are guilty of not revealing your privacy so therefore you are guilty of protecting your privacy."