I can tell you the Chevroford Earth Destroyer 3000 isn't my idea. It's a combination of something I saw on a comedy television show and something I saw in a political cartoon. I can't specifically name which one of either, but I can tell you it isn't my original idea. However, it has become my favorite vehicle. The style and features may change from year to year, but the old favorite remains the same. The Chevroford Earth Destroyer 3000 is the world's largest SUV. It gets between 3 and 4 miles per gallon, and comes with the Saudi Royal Family Seal of Approval. It's also the hottest must-have vehicle ever, even more popular than the Hummer or the Explorer. It's good to know that for those doctors and lawyers that ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO DRIVE AN EARTH DESTOYER 3000 (or a Hummer) to work every day, the federal government has made THOUSANDS of dollars in tax breaks available to them. Isn't it nice to know that Bush can lie right to your face during the State of the Union speech, as well? I just about spit milk through my nose when I heard him say we were addicted to oil and we needed to reduce our dependence on the Middle East. Two things are 100% true about his presidency, if nothing else. 1) He, his family, and most of his cabinet have made millions of dollars off of Middle East oil and they're not about to make any changes now. Bush said he planned to reduce our dependance on oil by 2025 because by that time he and everyone he knows will be so rich they won't know what to do with it all and it won't matter any more. And 2) Bush's presidency wouldn't even have made it into the history books if it hadn't been for the "Middle East." Without Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, G. W. Bush would be as memorable as President Ford or President Taft.
Surveillance Society
When those of us who read 1984 in junior high were reading about Big Brother being able to see what everyone was doing at all times, many of us blew it off as something that would never happen in our society. After all, we knew what the future looked like: it looked like Star Trek. People weren't looking over your shoulder, monitoring your every move. Your civil liberties will still be protected, even in the year 2400. However, the world after 9/11 has a much different look. People everywhere are seeing more and more video cameras go up around them, and many people defend them as necessary to stop crime. The tell us they are "for our own good." Those four little words can lead to a world of hurt for those of us who think people should have more freedoms, not less. In Chicago, for example, the mayor wants video cameras up around bar and restaurants that stay open late, for our own good, naturally. A classic quote from this article, from Chicago Alderman Ray Suarez, says, "If you're not doing anything wrong, what do you have to worry about?" Well, my main worry is not so much what I think I am doing wrong, but what YOU think I am doing wrong. It's for my own good, naturally. Sadly, the Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt said exactly the same thing in this article about video surveillance in Houston.
Hotel Hijinks
I talked about this a while back. The hotel industry pays notoriously low wages for their on-property staff. The front desk, housekeepers, waitstaff, etc. make extremely low wages, oftentimes for hotels that charge more per night than I pay a month in rent. Some positions can justify it because the employee is expected to receive tips, such as doormen, porters and waiters and waitresses. Some positions, such as front desk staff, are really the "front lines" in a hotel. They are the face of the hotel, the staff the guest most likely remembers most. However, they are among some of the lowest-paid employees in the industry. Evidently, John Edwards want to change that. There are a few things about my particular part of the hotel industry that I disagree with, such as lowering our raise percentages after 9/11 and never putting them back to pre-9/11 rates, but I really don't think the reservation-side of the hotel industry needs to unionize. However, I completely understand the desire for hotel employees to want to do it. Let's be honest: it's pretty common knowledge that hotel rely on under-educated minority employees to work in the laundry, to clean the rooms, to hand out towels by the pool, etc. Ultimately, any costs of unionization felt by the parent company would be passed on to the guest, anyway, but hotels don't want to have to do that. Marriott fights against unionization very, very vigorously. Once in a while, a hotel staff will go on strike, but we will have little or no information about it. There are legitimate business reasons. Management doesn't want the reservation agents gossiping about it with guests and possibly driving business away by giving a bad impression of the hotel. But any information we get is most definitely management-centric. As I mentioned before, some of the tactics Marriott used a few years ago when there some scuttle about unionization here at the reservation center almost bordered on illegal. I know upper management would never actually do anything illegal just to squash unionization attempts, but some of the lower-level managers, in their zeal to tow the corporate line, probably said some things or made some "off the cuff" policies that may have bordered on infringing peoples right to collective bargaining. It is definitely something for me to be aware of, working in the industry I do, and I will definitely keep an eye on the tactic used here if the topic ever comes up again. It will be interesting to see how Edwards fares with this venture.
Surveillance Society
When those of us who read 1984 in junior high were reading about Big Brother being able to see what everyone was doing at all times, many of us blew it off as something that would never happen in our society. After all, we knew what the future looked like: it looked like Star Trek. People weren't looking over your shoulder, monitoring your every move. Your civil liberties will still be protected, even in the year 2400. However, the world after 9/11 has a much different look. People everywhere are seeing more and more video cameras go up around them, and many people defend them as necessary to stop crime. The tell us they are "for our own good." Those four little words can lead to a world of hurt for those of us who think people should have more freedoms, not less. In Chicago, for example, the mayor wants video cameras up around bar and restaurants that stay open late, for our own good, naturally. A classic quote from this article, from Chicago Alderman Ray Suarez, says, "If you're not doing anything wrong, what do you have to worry about?" Well, my main worry is not so much what I think I am doing wrong, but what YOU think I am doing wrong. It's for my own good, naturally. Sadly, the Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt said exactly the same thing in this article about video surveillance in Houston.
Hotel Hijinks
I talked about this a while back. The hotel industry pays notoriously low wages for their on-property staff. The front desk, housekeepers, waitstaff, etc. make extremely low wages, oftentimes for hotels that charge more per night than I pay a month in rent. Some positions can justify it because the employee is expected to receive tips, such as doormen, porters and waiters and waitresses. Some positions, such as front desk staff, are really the "front lines" in a hotel. They are the face of the hotel, the staff the guest most likely remembers most. However, they are among some of the lowest-paid employees in the industry. Evidently, John Edwards want to change that. There are a few things about my particular part of the hotel industry that I disagree with, such as lowering our raise percentages after 9/11 and never putting them back to pre-9/11 rates, but I really don't think the reservation-side of the hotel industry needs to unionize. However, I completely understand the desire for hotel employees to want to do it. Let's be honest: it's pretty common knowledge that hotel rely on under-educated minority employees to work in the laundry, to clean the rooms, to hand out towels by the pool, etc. Ultimately, any costs of unionization felt by the parent company would be passed on to the guest, anyway, but hotels don't want to have to do that. Marriott fights against unionization very, very vigorously. Once in a while, a hotel staff will go on strike, but we will have little or no information about it. There are legitimate business reasons. Management doesn't want the reservation agents gossiping about it with guests and possibly driving business away by giving a bad impression of the hotel. But any information we get is most definitely management-centric. As I mentioned before, some of the tactics Marriott used a few years ago when there some scuttle about unionization here at the reservation center almost bordered on illegal. I know upper management would never actually do anything illegal just to squash unionization attempts, but some of the lower-level managers, in their zeal to tow the corporate line, probably said some things or made some "off the cuff" policies that may have bordered on infringing peoples right to collective bargaining. It is definitely something for me to be aware of, working in the industry I do, and I will definitely keep an eye on the tactic used here if the topic ever comes up again. It will be interesting to see how Edwards fares with this venture.
