Month: August 2007

RANT! Why are Americans afraid of an ID card?

RANT! Why are Americans afraid of an ID card?

Why is it that Americans are so afraid of having an ID card? It isn’t like we are not caring a ton of documentation anyway. What is the harm of another card that is required to be presented when we enter or leave the country or when we vote or when we change jobs or enroll in a school?

What is the harm in doing any of this? Most of these locations require the showing of some form of ID anyway and all of those methods are easily counterfeited and not secure. If the method that we are being forced to use now is not secure than we are wasting our time be providing the information anyway – so let’s put something in place that actually works.

US GOVERNMENT: GO AHEAD AND REQUIRE A FOOLPROOF I’D CARD!

Here is some related reading for you to enjoy:
RANT! Immigration is broken
Green Cards and Green Lanterns
Did A National ID Card Kill The Immigration Bill ?
US National ID Card: Security or Citizen Tracker
Social Security card to be national ID

I am done with this topic for now but I reserve the right to rant more on it someday.

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RANT! Immigration is broken

RANT! Immigration is broken

Our entire immigration system in the US is broken! We are addicted to low cost labor available from poorer countries. This has been the case since the birth of the country – why should we expect otherwise now?

I am Irish. When my forefathers came to this country they were likely trying to escape poverty and famine in the old country. When they came here, they had virtually no money and they had to work – in fact they expected to work. That is why they came to the land of opportunity!

Many of the canals of the Midwest and the railroads going west were built with the sweat of Irish labor (along with many other ethnic groups). This is a good thing and was the price of success for entering the land of the free and the brave. This condition is what we need to preserve in this country – hard work and moderately fair pay for those that are willing to do it. Lord, knows that we have enough people in this country that DON’T want to work hard but I will rant on welfare at some other time.

LET THE IMMIGRANTS COME AND WE CAN SEND THOSE PEOPLE WHO DON’T WANT TO WORK TO ANOTHER COUNTRY!

I am done with this topic for now but I reserve the right to rant more on it someday.

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RANT! Pull your pants up!

RANT! Pull your pants up!

Okay, I get it. Teens like to wear clothes that make old people upset. This happened in my day with bell bottoms, embroidered jeans, and long hair (yes, I am that old). But common sense dictates that if you can’t jog down the street or play a casual game of basketball (baseball, Frisbee throwing, hopscotch – take your pick) without holding up your pants, then you aren’t fully dressed. I don’t care about baggy or ripped but can you please pull your pants up?

The sad part of all of this is that this “style” is actually a throwback to being in jail where the guards will remove a prisoners belts to avoid its use as a weapon or noose for suicide. The style was originally called “jailin” or “sagging” and was made mainstream by the Rap culture. By wearing pants below the buttocks, teens are actually making the statement that they are imprisoned and that is simply not true.

The current Atlanta bill and Dallas bill are probably going over the edge. Laws shouldn’t dictate what people wear because then someone will say I need to wear a tie to work again (and that isn’t happening).

HEY TEENAGER – PULL YOUR PANTS UP – I DON’T WANT TO SEE YOUR UNDERWEAR! YOU PROBABLY DON’T EVEN KNOW THAT YOU ARE MAKING A POLITICAL STATEMENT!

Here is some related reading for you to enjoy:
A ban on baggy pants?
Should baggy pants be banned?

I am done with this topic for now but I reserve the right to rant more on it someday.

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RANT! Iranian justice is disgusting

RANT! Iranian justice is disgusting

I cannot believe the story I just read on the Daily Mall that has a man being publicly flogged 80 times for supposedly having extramarital sex and drinking. This man will physically scarred for life! This is the same country that is developing nuclear capability!

There should be a general uproar and outcry about this terrible treatment. Rock stars should do concerts about the amazing abuse of civil rights (instead of doing Live Aid). I read about the story at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=477088&in_page_id=1770

PEOPLE OF THE WORLD – WE NEED TO CONDEMN IRAN FOR THIS TERRIBLE EXERCISE!

I am done with this topic for now but I reserve the right to rant more on it someday.

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RANT! emails again – 2 of 2

RANT! emails again – 2 of 2

Your signature on an email is essential. It should contain the information that allows the reader to contact you without sending you an email. It should not contain images as these will only slow down the transmission of the email and may not be read by the reader’s email program (remember, assume they are reading this on their phone).

Your original email should have quite a bit of contact information. This may include your full name, phone numbers, address, and a link to a website about you or your company. However, don’t be a bandwidth hog and include that same signature on a reply email since it is likely the person already has most of that information. For replies, you should only have the basics e.g. your name and a pertinent phone number.

INCLUDE A SIGNATURE AFTER EVERY EMAIL BUT DON’T OVERLOAD IT WITH WASTED JUNK – EMAIL IS ESSENTIAL SO KEEP IT SIMPLE!

Here is some related reading for you to enjoy:
RANT! Incomplete emails
RANT! emails again – 1 of 2

I am done with this topic for now but I reserve the right to rant more on it someday.

Did you know that you can have these articles emailed to you? Click on the Email link in the upper right corner Subscribe section, fill out the details, and you are set. No one will see your email address and you won’t get more spam by doing this.

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RANT! emails again – 1 of 2

RANT! emails again – 1 of 2

It is time to rant about email again. Yes, I know that email is the greatest thing of the Internet. It has become the “killer app” that has truly driven corporate America to provide computers to all of its white collar work force. More than Word or Excel, email has become essential to today’s workforce. For this reason, we need to chastise those that screw it up.

EMAIL IS ESSENTIAL SO DON’T SPEND TIME TRYING TO MAKE IT PRETTY!

Putting tables and graphs in an email is bad. You should use the rule of thumb that the reader is going to look at it in a pure text view (like on a phone). Don’t use bullets – use dashes instead or an asterisk (*) instead.

If you must have a highly formatted document, put it into an attachment also so that it can be viewed with another program with the formatting. I suggest you simply save the email as HTML to your desktop before you send it and that attach that resulting file. This allows the reader to open the document in a browser to see the formatting.

Here is some related reading for you to enjoy:
RANT! Incomplete emails
Become a Master of E-Mail Etiquette
Email Etiquettes to use

More on this topic later!

Did you know that you can have these articles emailed to you? Click on the Email link in the upper right corner Subscribe section, fill out the details, and you are set. No one will see your email address and you won’t get more spam by doing this.

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