A midnight dreary

May 4, 2010 ~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 9 Comments

The raven that’s been crapping all over the publications biz came a-tapping, gently rapping, on Bicycle Retailer & Industry News‘ door last Friday. Creative director Erik Haugli, graphic designer Wanda Williams, production manager Ron Bertola and classified sales rep/administrative assistant Stacey Smith all got laid off.

The headline on this news item was “BRAIN Realigns Staff to Boost Efficiency.” Just above it was an item on Cannondale shit-canning 92 people with the hed “Cannondale Completes Bedford Plant Layoffs.” I don’t suppose it feels any better to be realigned than to be laid off. But then I’ve only been laid off, job-wise. I leave the realignments to my chiropractor.

A somber tip of the Mad Dog fedora goes out to these latest casualties of the Great Recession. No journalists were harmed in the making of this realignment. Not yet, anyway.

Of winter and discontent

February 22, 2010November 16, 2010 ~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 8 Comments

Here comes the sun, doo doo doo doo . . .

We enjoyed a beautiful morning today in Bibleburg. There was finally enough snow to shovel, just barely, and the Big Yellow Ball In the Sky took a valiant stab at burning through the clouds that have been hovering overhead for the past few days.

Herself has returned from a sun-splashed weekend in Palm Springs and is very much not amused by the conditions here, especially since she has to drive to the office in Denver shortly. This is not unlike entering a demolition derby held on ice, driving your good car instead of some beater.

Last night, as I was gingerly negotiating the slippery streets en route to the Bibleburg Intergalactic Airport to fetch her home, I saw any number of speeding nitwits piloting two-wheel drive vehicles one-handed while jabbering away on their phones. Why not just stay home and shoot yourself in the head? That way you’re performing a public service instead of being a public menace.

Speaking of public menaces, don’t miss this Mother Jones story on the Oath Keepers, a so-called “patriot” organization whose core is men and women in uniform. You can’t grow up in the military or live where I’ve lived without meeting people like this, and they’re much more frightening than their leftist counterparts, with whom I palled around in my younger, dumber days.

I occasionally consider selling my guns. Then I read a piece like this and check to see whether they’re all still loaded, with extra magazines and speedloaders within easy reach.

R.I.P., health-care reform?

January 20, 2010November 16, 2010 ~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 29 Comments

Hm. We seem to have drifted into a parade of obits here. So let’s have another — this one, for health-care reform, which apparently croaked last night with the election of dingbat Scott Brown to the U.S. Senate.

Political Animal’s Steve Benen seems particularly sour this morning, noting that a Senate seat once held by John F. Kennedy, Ted Kennedy, Henry Cabot Lodge and John Quincy Adams “is now filled by a dim-witted wingnut, and that’s a real shame — for Massachusetts, for the Senate, and for all of us.”

I can’t say I’m exactly jumping for joy, either. I’ve never been sold on the idea that this haphazardly stitched Frankenstein’s monster of a health-care bill is the final answer to a complex problem, but f’chrissakes something has to be done. Our premiums just shot up 34 percent, and I’ve spoken with others who report hikes of 40-plus percent. Anyone out there seeing their take-home pay increase by a similar or greater amount? Yeah, me neither. I recently had to make myself very unpopular with an editor just to get paid for work performed, so I’m not exactly counting on a fat raise anytime soon.

And I’m not expecting much out of the Senate, either. Not with Brown adding his wingtips to the Repuglican foot-dragging.

Dingbats over Detroit

December 27, 2009 ~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 4 Comments

OK, one shit-for-brains Nigerian setting his underwear alight aboard an airliner bound from Amsterdam to Detroit doesn’t warrant any snark from me, though I notice the usual clot of Repuglitards just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to piss on Preznit Obama’s wingtips.

But when another one turns up — this time locked into the crapper of an Amsterdam-Motor City flight — a guy can’t help but wonder: Are the Nigerian spam merchants are finally having to lay a few of the dumber folks off?

The forever war?

December 1, 2009 ~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 10 Comments

Well, there you have it: More meat for the grinder, says the prez (video here). Can’t say I’m happy about it, especially the caveat about withdrawals beginning in July 2001 to be dependent upon “conditions on the ground,” the ground in that part of the world being unstable in more ways than one (earthquakes and crazy mean bastards). Here’s the CIA World FactBook rundown on the joint for those of you who, like me, have never been there.

I like the idea of a deadline: “You have this long to help us kick the bad guys’ ass or you can fight them by yourselves.” Ditto the diversion of American money from the mayor of Kabul — a.k.a. President Hamid Karzai, a gent who by all accounts is so crooked that he can meet himself coming around a corner — to local officials in the boondocks.

I also like the long-overdue recognition of the financial toll here at home: “Um, yes, wars cost money, just like everything else, only more so. This one will be in the budget; we don’t care how the last guy did it. Will there be anything else? May I interest you in some health care, environmental action and jobs, perhaps?”

The fact that the Repuglicans are lining up against the prez should be encouraging, but is not, given their behavior to date. It’s not hard to get a dumb dog to bark.

Dexter Filkins, author of “The Forever War,” appears to have his doubts. So do I. I just don’t articulate them as well.

• Late update: Looks like Steve Benen at Political Animal shares my skepticism.