sporadicbull.

If tax cuts for the wealthy were effective at job creation – we would be drowning in jobs.

The 11th commandment. “Thou Shalt Ignore Whatever Is Necessary When Profits, Wealth, or Control Are Concerned”.

From Louisiana – remember David Vitter – Senator. Married congressman, Rep. Vance McAllister (R-La.) was caught on tape kissing his married staff member, Melissa Anne Hixon Peacock. She has been fired. 

The congressman? No worries, mate. “There’s no doubt I’ve fallen short and I’m asking for forgiveness,” the congressman said. “I’m asking for forgiveness from God, my wife, my kids, my staff, and my constituents who elected me to serve.” He has no plans to resign. He says he will seek reelection in the fall “unless there is an outcry for me not to serve, and so far there has been an outpouring of support, not for my actions, but for me to continue to represent the people.” 

I wonder if he asked Mrs. Peacock for forgiveness when he fired her (or, more likely, his chief of staff fired her) or perhaps her husband. 

“I’m just freaking devastated by the whole deal, man. I loved my wife so much. I cannot believe this. I cannot freaking believe it. I feel like I’m going to wake up here in a minute and this is all going to be a bad nightmare,” “He has wrecked my life.”

We can all rest easy though. He has asked for forgiveness and is thus absolved from any personal responsibility or ethical behavior. And, we can be sure he will be voting against Women’s Rights and support for the poor.

A Report from The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society states:

1. Our Reality

“Based on well-established evidence, about 97% of climate scientists have concluded that human-caused climate change is happening. This agreement is documented not just by a single study, but by a converging stream of evidence over the past two decades from surveys of scientists, content analyses of peer-reviewed studies, and public statements issued by virtually every membership organization of experts in this field. Average global temperature has increased by about 1.4˚ F over the last 100 years. Sea level is rising, and some types of extreme events – such as heat waves and heavy precipitation events – are happening more frequently. Recent scientific findings indicate that climate change is likely responsible for the increase in the intensity of many of these events in recent years.”

2. The Risk

“Earth’s climate is on a path to warm beyond the range of what has been experienced over the past millions of years. The range of uncertainty for the warming along the current emissions path is wide enough to encompass massively disruptive consequences to societies and ecosystems: as global temperatures rise, there is a real risk, however small, that one or more critical parts of the Earth’s climate system will experience abrupt, unpredictable and potentially irreversible changes. Disturbingly, scientists do not know how much warming is required to trigger such changes to the climate system.”

3. A Response

“Waiting to take action will inevitably increase costs, escalate risk, and foreclose options to address the risk. The CO2 we produce accumulates in Earth’s atmosphere for decades, centuries, and longer. It is not like pollution from smog or wastes in our lakes and rivers, where levels respond quickly to the effects of targeted policies. The effects of CO2 emissions cannot be reversed from one generation to the next until there is a large- scale, cost-effective way to scrub carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Moreover, as emissions continue and warming increases, the risk increases.”

Man never changes. He is always
greedy, always acquisitive, always vile. I am speaking of Man in the
bulk.

A dozen years ago I worked on a large scale multi-district litigation discovery project. Part of the process included a review of several millions of pages of material. The activity occurred at a time prior to the advent of modern e-discovery software and methods. Thus, we reviewed the material in hard copy. The project was staffed by firm attorneys as well as contract attorneys engaged to review the documents and identify each for responsive/non-responsive, potential privilege and complete the redaction from responsive pages of material that was not relevant. There were approximately 20 contract attorneys employed for these purposes. The review took place in a large office area furnished with meeting tables and used office chairs placed in the room’s center. Every inch of wall space, from floor to ceiling, was covered (in some cases 2-3 deep) with bankers boxes stuffed with paper.

Co-Worker “A” earned the nickname of “Skippy.” In her late thirties she often told us that her friends said she looked “as if she had just graduated college.” As a consequence, we were treated to the daily depiction of her interpretation of appropriate business attire from an inexperienced person’s point of view. Inordinately proud of her style (or lack thereof) and having little sense of modesty, she strode through our presence in short shorts and short skirts, skin tight slacks, revealing tops and footwear designed for the beach. Most of these outfits lacked any degree of color or style coordination. All of this one might have enjoyed but she lacked both the physical attributes to carry off this manner of dress and more importantly her personality (see nickname) prevented any appreciation. Over the months there were countless inappropriate behavioral demonstrations from her relentless pursuit of a gay colleague to her distressing dining habits to her over the top flirtations with firm attorneys. One evening after the departure of the contract reviewers I emerged from my office and was treated to the soft scents of lavender in the review room. Imagine – surrounded by stacks of banker boxes filled with paper, tucked away in a corner I find a reclining Skippy next to a burning aromatherapy candle.

Co-Worker “B” might have had a nickname but I do not recall what it might have been. He too was part of this very substantial hard copy review and, he too was responsible for countless stories. Towards the end of the review we had obtained e-discovery software and loaded pages and pages of material for electronic redaction. Computer workstations were placed in one area of the review offices. In addition we had 3 small glass fronted offices adjacent to that area that contained work stations. There was a long hallway leading to this area. Several contract attorneys were randomly assigned to the redaction review on a daily basis. Workstations were not assigned to specific contract attorneys. The contract attorneys were advised that the workstations were not for personal use and they were not to access the web for any purpose except to use the program. A desktop icon allowed connection to the program all other icons and shortcuts were removed. Co-Worker “B” managed to get himself assigned to the redaction review frequently and established himself in one of the small glass front offices. Late one afternoon, the outer door to our review offices burst open and all 6’5” of the firm’s CIO rushed in and pounded down the hall screaming “What the f—k are you doing???” Co-Worker “B” had found a way onto the web and had downloaded software in order to listen to music. As a consequence he introduced a virus into the firm’s network and shut down all the European offices. A colleague from IT later told me they were running down the server banks yanking cable to prevent further damage.

Years ago I worked at a large law firm in the City of Philadelphia. As with all such organizations there was personnel turnover – some of it voluntary and others not so. In one of the latter situations an associate, soon to be former associate, was advised his last paid day was to be March 31st.  Except for a few close friends and the powers that were, few of us had any inkling of the impending departure, myself included.

The 31st fell on a Sunday. Not usually a day of work for me, I was in that day, unfortunately, and resulting in some unusual wrinkles. I passed no colleagues on the way in (or out for that matter), no one else was in on my floor and I did not see any other persons. I did my work and left just after noon. A little digression is necessary. At the time, confidential communications from the firm were delivered to employees in sealed pink envelopes labeled “Confidential.”

On Monday, April 1st, I arrived in my office before 8 am to find a pink envelope on my desk. Opening it, I found a memo from the Executive Committee, appropriately initialed, advising us, the associates, that as a result of a banner year the bonuses were larger than expected and for those eligible the “check was enclosed.” No check in my envelope. Oh well I was only a second year and ineligible in any event.

A colleague, a senior associate, from down the hall stepped into my office and asked if I had received one of the memos and a check. I showed him my copy and commented – I am not eligible so am a bit confused why I had received it. Anything else about it strike you as odd? he asked. I suggested it seemed an inappropriate way of passing out bonuses. His comment – Exactly. The firm never paid them in this fashion. We concluded it to be an April Fool’s joke. An astounding bit of deductive reasoning you might say from two of the brightest bulbs in the bunch.

I thought little more of it and went about my business. To the prankster’s delight, I am sure, many of my colleagues failed to conclude as we two had and were irate that no check had been included. These brainiacs compounded the prank calling Finance to inquire about their “missing” checks. Now comes the fun part.

The Firm initiated an investigation. First stop, search the entry card database to determine all those who had come into the offices over the weekend. I was called into the office of one of the senior administrators and literally grilled over my time in the office on Sunday. What had I seen, who had I seen, was the envelope on my desk on Sunday, what was my personal copying code to check on how much copying I had done recently, had I ordered any pink envelopes from printing, etc. Of course having encountered no one that Sunday I had no exculpating witness. At the conclusion of the “interview” I was told the investigation was on-going and they would get back to me.

Somewhere removed from the offices, a former associate was having the last laugh – the Firm in an uproar, associates and the like with egg on their faces, a “witch” hunt in progress. The investigation was unable to reach a conclusion as to the culprit though the strong smell of suspicion fell on the departed associate. It was never determined how the memos were copied, placed in so many pink envelopes and distributed throughout the Firm over a dozen floors. Those persons in the office on Sunday, it turns out only 5 in number, were forever tainted by association and we remained suspected accomplices though none had been friends or class members with the departed associate.

Moral – be a Chick-Fil-A – don’t work on Sundays.

Recently, on a cold windy morning, as I approached the office building I work in, I was stopped for directions by a young man – maybe 30 years old. Heading in the same direction we engaged in conversation. I soon learned he was from southern California and unused to the Northeast cold. Nearing the entrance to my building, I spied two of my colleagues on the far side of the entrance enjoying a smoke break. I left the young man from southern California to continue on his way and pass by my colleagues as I turned into the building. Prior to departing, I asked him for a favor. Would he, as he passed my colleagues, tell them that I (and I gave him my name) thought they were f—ing idiots for smoking and for smoking in this weather. He laughed and said he would.
The following afternoon returning to the building from lunch, I was accosted by my two colleagues who were again engaged in smoking. They laughingly informed me that a young man on the previous day had walked up to them and said “Some guy had paid him $5 to tell them they were f—ing idiots.” Imagine my surprise.

Kudos to a fellow blogger Bianca Befana (“BB”) for coining the above as well as TextAge in her HuffPosts.

Recent generations of mobile phones (formerly and sometimes currently “cell” phones) brought us the age of texting. Tie texting into other forms of social media and you have the sister and brother watching a movie with their father texting and posting to Facebook rather than looking up and speaking to one another. I get that in some situations one would prefer to text than dial the phone and speak to the other person i.e. breaking off a relationship (shame!!).

The drive to communicate by the written (digital) word has spawned a slew of texting abbreviations. They run the gamut from simple shortcuts – L8R, GR8, B4N, CYA* and OMG to capturing a little of today’s conversational idioms – TMI, Dilligas, LMAO and ROTFL.

None of these, though, provide the amusement found in military acronyms. Spawned over generations and led by the DON (Department of the Navy)(not Corleone) one sees the full expression of the military experience.

We can begin with MSG – decades old it means what it means today – Message. Though many today order their food without it. We have TFOA – Things Falling Off Aircraft. I really like that one. One can only imagine its genus – a bomb, a wheel, spare fuel tank, hand held compass tumbling from the skies. Well known today is the acronym Whiskey Tango Foxtrot or “WTF.” Same meaning. From there we move on to Charlie Foxtrot aka Cluster F—. With emphasis we have FUBAR (F—ed Up Beyond All Repair) and SNAFU – Situation Normal, All F—ed Up.

More illustrative is BOHICA – Bend Over Here It Comes Again!

The desperate search for demonstrative acronyms gives us VERTREP. Take a guess? It means eating standing up – Vertical Replenishment. Really brilliant!

And for those who have spent any time in Naval Aviation or the Air Force a common punishment when you pissed off your superior was FOD duty. Jet engines suck up a lot of air on take-off and thus paper or other litter needs to be removed from near the aircraft. A regular duty punishment was walking the flight line picking up cigarette butts and other litter to prevent FOD – Foreign Object Damage. The litter was sometimes known as Foreign Object Debris but that pre-supposes the non-foreign object is domestic. More recently FOD also has also come to be known as a Friend of Dechert generating an assortment of value judgments.

You may have noticed my starring of CYA. Generally it is used in texting to mean See Ya. Less frequent is “Cover Your A–.” However, for some us, CYA meant Catholic Youth Association – a group which often sponsored sporting leagues like basketball. Among my friends when you referred to “Covering Your A–” you often used the expression Catholic basketball. A description which takes on new meaning in light of the abuse scandals. We segue into new territory though and rather than cause any Barney we will leave Cockney rhyming slang to another time.