The Future of Marriage

The future of the religious form of marriage is in the hands of the respective clerics and faithful people.

The future of civil marriage is to be placed away from the hands of the State, until it lasts. And for civil wedding to be eliminated.

What is the State for, in fact, but to manage conflict situations also within its own society?

If I establish a friendship with a neighbour, do I have to make that public in the Town Hall? Of course not. But if I start an argument with them, it may go as bad as to warrant the intervention of the Law (the Police, or even “just” a lawsuit).

And so it should and surely will be that there will be no hand at all of the State when two people want to live together: whilst the weakest component of the couple, if the love and friendship disappear, will only have to demonstrate the two were living “as husband and wife” (in Ancient Rome, more uxorio), for the Law to act in their defense.

Even if policies dictate incentives for couples, again all they should have to show is that they are a couple (perhaps, a stable couple in the second year of cohabitation)…how it all started, and if there was a ceremony with a mayoral representative mimicking the religious ritual, all that must surely be immaterial from the point of view of the individual’s rights.

The above will finally re-align legality and societal mores, now so completely at odds with each other. With the added bonus of further separating God and Mammon, as Somebody recommended to do a few years ago…

Yellowstone Report – 2 – Towns

Yellowstone Report (a collection of brief notes about Yellowstone Park and neighborhoods)

(first entry, about the roads I have driven during my Yellowstone trip, available here)

2 – Towns and Cities

Bozeman, MT – upscale and relatively chic, perhaps due to the large University campus

Cody, WY – as artificial as West Yellowstone, but one does not really feel it. The “Nite Rodeo” is no fake wrestling competition

Cooke City, MT – this is the prototype Montana town one would expect, with a celebrated century-old general store still intact and a local cafe’ barbequeing hot dogs for you on the spot

Gardiner, MT – curiously tiny and spread over a long, winding road; somehow it looks like it should have some character, but it’s hard to find. Don’t go there for the the food, period.

Idaho Falls, ID – a curious place where the “downtown” area is also run-down, even worse than central Philadelphia. Then you cross a bridge and it’s a clean, quiet and fun place for the whole family, with impeccable riverside grass, views on the falls, plenty of restaurants.

Salt Lake City, UT – clean and easy to drive, too many strange characters walking about (and I don’t mean the Mormons)

West Yellowstone, MT – the most artificial of the lot, could be missed without missing anything

Visit again: Cooke City, Cody, Idaho Falls

Not by a long shot: West Yellowstone

Why Is Everybody Fixated on Hillary’s Fashion Sense?

Because every other competitor to become US President in January 2009 is forced by society to wear more or less the same style of clothes as everybody else.

Oh well….they have used trousers every single day of their lives for the past four, five, six decades at least, and there is no sign for that to change any time soon.

When the only variation is in the suit’s grayness, and the most revolutionary attire is a dull jumper, no wonder the freedom guaranteed to the female candidate becomes news.

This is quite funny considered all the discussions about Muslim women being veiled by fathers and husbands as a way of keeping them enslaved. 

Time To Go For This Poor Guy

This is a real adieu/resignation letter, written by a guy for whom investment banking may not have been the best career choice…

It is quite entertaining, although I find the final, desperate call to Upper Management a touch too naive to be serious and/or credible

Dear Co-Workers and Managers,

As many of you probably know, today is my last day. But before I leave, I wanted to take this opportunity to let you know what a great and distinct pleasure it has been to type “Today is my last day.”

For nearly as long as I’ve worked here, I’ve hoped that I might one day leave this company. And now that this dream has become a reality, please know that I could not have reached this goal without your unending lack of support. Words cannot express my gratitude for the words of gratitude you did not express.

I would especially like to thank all of my managers both past and present but with the exception of the wonderful XXX: in an age where miscommunication is all too common, you consistently impressed and inspired me with the sheer magnitude of your misinformation, ignorance and intolerance for true talent. It takes a strong man to admit his mistake – it takes a stronger man to attribute his mistake to me.

Over the past seven years, you have taught me more than I could ever ask for and, in most cases, ever did ask for. I have been fortunate enough to work with some absolutely interchangeable supervisors on a wide variety of seemingly identical projects – an invaluable lesson in overcoming daily tedium in overcoming daily tedium in overcoming daily tedium.

Your demands were high and your patience short, but I take great solace knowing that my work was, as stated on my annual review, “meets expectation.” That is the type of praise that sends a man home happy after a 10 hour day, smiling his way through half a bottle of meets expectation scotch with a meets expectation cigar. Thanks YYY!

And to most of my peers: even though we barely acknowledged each other within these office walls, I hope that in the future, should we pass on the street, you will regard me the same way as I regard you: sans eye contact.

But to those few souls with whom I’ve actually interacted, here are my personalized notes of farewell:

To ZZZ, I will not miss hearing you cry over absolutely nothing while laying blame on me and my coworkers. Your racial comments about XXY were truly offensive and I hope that one day you might gain the strength to apologize to him.

To XXZ whom is long gone, I hope you find a manager that treats you as poorly as you have treated us. I worked harder for you then any manager in my career and I regret every ounce of it. Watching you take credit for my work was truly demoralizing.

To XYX, you should learn how to keep your mouth shut sweet heart. Bad mouthing the innocent is a negative thing, especially when your talking about someone who knows your disgusting secrets. 😉

To XYY (Mr. Cronyism Jr), well, I wish you had more of a back bone. You threw me to the wolves with that witch XXZ and I learned all too much from it. I still can’t believe that after following your instructions, I ended up getting written up, wow. Thanks for the experience buddy, lesson learned.

YYY (Mr. Cronyism Sr), I’m happy that you were let go in the same manner that you have handed down to my dedicated coworkers. Hearing you on the phone last year brag about how great bonuses were going to be for you fellas in upper management because all of the lay offs made me nearly vomit. I never expected to see management benefit financially from the suffering of scores of people but then again, with this company’s rooted history in the slave trade it only makes sense.

To all of the executives of this company, ZZZ and such. Despite working through countless managers that practiced unethical behaviour, racism, sexism, jealousy and cronyism, I have benefited tremendously by working here and I truly thank you for that. There was once a time where hard work was rewarded and acknowledged, it’s a pity that all of our positive output now falls on deaf ears and passes blind eyes. My advice for you is to place yourself closer to the pulse of this company and enjoy the effort and dedication of us “faceless little people” more. There are many great people that are being over worked and mistreated but yet are still loyal not to those who abuse them but to the greater mission of providing excellent customer support. Find them and embrace them as they will help battle the cancerous plague that is ravishing the moral of this company.

So, in parting, if I could pass on any word of advice to the lower salary recipient (“because it’s good for the company”) in India or Tampa who will soon be filling my position, it would be to cherish this experience because a job opportunity like this comes along only once in a lifetime.

Meaning: if I had to work here again in this lifetime, I would sooner kill myself.

To those who I have held a great relationship with, I will miss being your co-worker and will cherish our history together. Please don’t bother responding as at this very moment I am most likely in my car doing 85 with the windows down listening to Biggie.

One!

Yellowstone Report – 1- The Roads

Yellowstone Report (a collection of brief notes about Yellowstone Park and neighborhoods)

(Second entry, about the towns and cities I have visited during my Yellowstone trip, is available here)

1- The Roads

West Yellowstone-Madison – gentle forested intro to the park

Madison-Old Faithful – spectacturlarly vaporous in the extreme

Old Faithful to West Thumb – short climbs through a variety of panoramas

West Thumb to Grand Tetons – heavily forested, good access to lakes

West Thumb to Fishing Bridge – perhaps the most boring; it veers on the left and on the right for no obvious reason, and forever

Fishing Bridge to Canyon – Hayden Valley, lots of animals (bisons) especially around sunrise. Plus mud volcanoes and sulphur cauldrons

Canyon to Norris – not much to see by the roadside, but it is short

Norris to Madison – more hot springs

Norris to Mammoth – quite a few spectacular vistas

Mammoth to Gardiner – dramatic descent out of the park

Mammoth to Tower – not much to see by the roadside

Tower to Canyon – this takes much longer than it looks on paper. Road keeps winding up and down mountains, in and out of forests. Very nice if you have the time, avoid if you don’t

Tower to Cooke City – Lamar Valley, large areas of open space, impressive mountainous panoramas

East entrance to Lake – not as exciting as expected, apart from the lookouts on the Yellowstone lake

Beartooth Pass – very winding road, incredible scenery. Should be done both ways, with plenty of resting time at the top

Salt Lake City to West Yellowstone via Idaho Falls – just keep driving (but stop at Antelope Island to appreciate the Great Salt Lake, and Dinosaur Park for impressive amusement)

Grand Tetons (Jenny Lake) to Idaho Falls – better than expected with Teton Pass

Drive again: Beartooth Pass (after anesthesizing the family); Canyon to Fishing Bridge (every day at 6am); Tower to Cooke City (same); Canyon to Tower (just give it a whole day); Norris to Mammoth (most beautiful)

Not by a long shot: West Thumb to Fishing Bridge (walking it may be a more fun option)

Suicide Bombers Few and Far Between

There is something rather odd in the field of terrorism via suicide bombing.

Possibilities are aplenty, but few opportunities are being taken, strangely everywhere but in Iraq and possibly Palestine. Why would that be so?

If there really is a lot of people trained to explode themselves in the middle of innocent civilians, where are they? Anywhere in the world, what is preventing them to walk into a crowded market (as in Iraq), or a hotel’s lobby (as in Jordan), or an airport (as in Rome), and pop themselves (into Hell) and some luckless bystanders (into Heaven)?

After all, to create terror one doesn’t have to kill 2,000 or even 200 people. Just a couple of deaths twice a week or more in wholly unrelated, preferably urban environments, such as train stations (as in Madrid) would be more than enough to establish one’s terror group strength and political importance.

The USA and the world economy suffered because of 9/11, but I am sure the collapse would have been far greater if instead of 4 planes in a day, there would have been 4 al-Qaeda attacks in the space of a month.

Such a tactic would also obviate at the second-most immediate downside of terrorism via suicide bombing, namely the need to hide, from police and other security forces, the procurement and management of explosive material and the bomb manufacturing.

And yet, all of that is not happening. Iraq aside, and Israel and 9/11 included the number of deaths by suicide bombing may add up worldwide to less than 5,000 in the past decade. In the meanwhile, tens of thousands have died in car accidents, by AIDS and other curable or incurable diseases, etc..

The best possible explanation for such a situation, is that in reality, very, very few people are willing to kill themselves.

After all, the topmost immediate downside of that kind of terrorism, is that it takes at least 20 years to replace any suicide bomber. Whatever the propaganda or the inspiration, numbers can only dwindle down to zero in the medium term (a fact explaining, alongside the Wall, the recent sudden mellowing of Palestinian terror groups, after the large rate of suicide bombings in Israel a few years ago).

That of course raises the question of how much propaganda we are getting about Iraq?

How many terrorist attacks over there have actually been committed by suicide bombers, rather than far-easier-to-manage remotely-controlled explosive devices?

It may take hours, not months and definitely not years to find and prepare a new car bomb.

Is anybody playing to us the dangerous game of showing suicide bombing as easy and common in Iraq, thereby increasing our fears and willingness to give up civil rights, but also inspiring a whole bunch of untrained idiots to cobble up the crudest of bombs, as in the Glasgow airport accident?

One day, even the idiots will manage to kill somebody, by chance or mistake.

Darfur Conflict Heralds Era Of UN Stupidity Triggered by Climate Change

The behavior of the UN regarding Darfur and the whole of the Sudan is nothing short of scandalous:

(1) The UN were unable to broker a peace between North and South Sudan, and had to rely on non-UN negotiators

(2) The UN could then do nothing at all apart from chatting, to prevent the Darfur civil war and genocide, started not by chance almost exactly when the North-South Sudanese civil war ended

(3) And now, the UN is trying to blame (global) climate change when it has nothing to do with Darfur, where the conflict is about the local vast, untapped underground resources, something that has bloodied Sudan for more than 24 years now (one wonders if this would be news for the “diplomatic editor” of a major British newspaper?)

There is absolutely no need to shove in “climate change”: look no further than the Sahel area in Niger, where rains have come back after the local government has finally decided to take care of its trees.

The downside of the absurdity of the UN intervention, its stupidity, is that time and money will be spent to tackle a non-problem, whilst the real culprits will get an easier ride simply by pointing out “climate change” is somebody else’s fault.

And so, as the actual issues are not taken care of, we can only expect failure about Darfur.

The Joy of Outsourcing

Clients tells existing service provider’s call-centre he is moving his customs elsewhere, and he is refusing to pay any penalty for that, finally fed up with their proven incompetence at service provision after 3 months of attempts.

Call-centre employee duly notes down all necessary details. End of call.

No arguing, no attempt at winning the customer back, no hassle at all.

Ah, the joy of outsourcing!

Grey-sky Hubris on The Economist

If the effect of clouds on climate is “obscure” and “little is currently known about where [aerosols] end up in the atmosphere” (as recognised on The Economist’s “Grey-sky thinking”, July 5, 2007), what kind of hubris is necessary to state, as at the beginning of the article, that “the general trends [of climate] are clear”?

Late-XIX-century physics looked pretty much complete too, apart from the obscure problem of black-body radiation, solved by Planck in 1900 by discovering the hitherto completely unknown world of quantum physics.

NATO’s Historical Blunders

Sarah Chayes may be right in defending NATO’s contribution to the war in Afghanistan, and in pointing out the USA “snubbing” of its allies immediately after 9/11.

But one cannot blame the situation on a callous/gung-ho American administration.

NATO was in fact not snubbed at all during the Kosovo conflict. The USA did their utmost to present and conduct that campaign as part of the larger NATO umbrella.

Unfortunately, few if any of the other members of the alliance seemed to understand much about military strategy, and they all preferred to play their own form of national politics.

The result was a nightmare for the American commanders, evidently more at ease with fighting an enemy than having to accommodate all the quirky requests and vetos of their own allies.

Having then shown itself excessively argumentative to the point of being almost ineffectual, little wonder NATO was mistrusted by the USA at the beginning of the latest Afghan conflict.

Recover from Live Earth – Join Apocaholics Anonymous

Apocaholics Anonymous

(April 20, 2007) Hi, I’m Gary and I’m a recovering Apocaholic. I am currently Apocalypse free for nearly 18 years. I left the church of the Religious Apocalypse in 1976, over 30 years ago, and I resigned from the secular church of the Financial Apocalypse in 1989. Yes, I still feel the urge to proclaim the end of all things, from time to time, but I white-knuckle my way to a history book for a little perspective, and then I breathe easier. If you wish to join AA, the only requirement is that you give up the adrenaline rush of media-fed fantasies.

Since I spoke to you last on this subject, in 1994, we have survived “Bankruptcy 1995” (the original epidemic of Hockey Stock charts), the Big Bang in Hong Kong, years of Y2K scare stories, a SARS epidemic, Mad Cow disease, Bird Flu, a real threat on 9/11, Triple Deficits (Budget, Trade and Balance of Payments), wars in Serbia/Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan, Deflation in 2003, Inflation since then, The Perfect Storms of 2005 (Katrina, Rita and Wilma, the 3 Witches of the Bermuda Triangle), and today’s reigning fears of Global Warming, $200 Oil and the Sub-prime Housing Loan Crisis Implosion […]

The Three Leaning Towers Of Pisa

While the Leaning Tower of Pisa’s Piazza dei Miracoli is world-famous, its just-as-leaning Pisan siblings are virtually unknown.

One is the Bell Tower of the Chiesa di San Nicola:

It is half a mile south from the Leaning Tower. It is actually an almost identical twin, albeit attached to its church and with the columnade on the inside.

The other church tower that failed to remain vertical is a few miles to the east, by the Chiesa di San Michele degli Scalzi.

In this case, the whole church is leaning to one side too. Apparently, the builders noticed there was something odd about their work, and completed the bell tower with light bricks instead of the heavy stones they had started with.