U.S. Hits Zimbabwe Farm Evictions

My long distance service, has taken to hiring kids who cannot speak well --- I cannot understand what they are saying.

However, I want so much for them to succeed and get out of the "community of impossibilities" built up by Jesse Jackson and the Foundation for Hopeless Broadcasting, that I make a great effort to engage these kids in conversations about where they are at.

After a few minutes, they relax and suddenly they begin to actually speak English.

You know it's there all along, but the thought police have these kids bullied so much, the kids are afraid to be ...

Individuals.

R. R. Donnelly & Sons

Great company, based upon my spending time in their shops in New England and elsewhere.

They are serious engineers, fabricators, machinists, machinery operators, etc., because they produce almost 24 hours around the clock, and the equipment must perform --- and safely.

It is not environment for people who "have a 'tude."

It is not sedate, like the automobile plants.

The workers are tough and quite often know the machinery's tempermment beyond what "executives" from other companies would ever care to.

While at R. R. Donnelly & Sons, the suits whom I met, really did know their business: MACHINERY. They know it can kill you, or cut off a part of you, "just like that."

This move by the feds (that's Bush still running 75% of the Clinton Administration) sounds like Clintonistas "leveraging" a decline in standards, so as to help new work-related accidents to increase, and thus feed union-istas with trumped up causes for propaganda.

Press equipment moves at very high speed; it's some of the fastest manufacturing out there.

We wrapped 273 magazines per minute, off the line in Old Saybrook (near Essex, CT).

It is extremely dangerous work.

In another plant, we set up four lines, wrapping magazines for four GIGANTIC Toshiba presses. Each press was the size of 3 locomotive engines lined up --- that's twelve locomotive engines' worth of steel, running at high speed, yet fixed stationary to the very thick plant floor.

The scene looked like something out of a James Bond film. Each press line had a staff of interpreters from Japan; very nice, attractive Japanese ladies; they looked like airline stewardesses. The setup men did not speak English, yet scurried about all day long, building these machines; they were also in uniform.

They had cultural pride, but no "'tude."

I imagine that once in a while one or two of those guys gets crushed flat; we never heard about it in the news.

One of my jobs was to make the machinery work as fast as possible without breaking. I constantly tuned machines to the breaking point and then just "backed off a hair."

Parts wear out fast. The next thing you did not know, is that a hydro-stop failed and the next time a tool arm comes around at over 290 ft/sec, it crushes everything in its path ... kinda hard on the unprepared.

When flying, and as passengers, we must be able to read and understand the aircraft safety procedures pamphlet, that would apparently be "discrimination" for the "affirmatively employed" who are being herded about by the OFCCP?!

It's the exact same scenario as has taken place in the area of (so-called) higher education. The leftist bureaucrats are making inroads into every facet of American society in which we once excelled, standing as an example for the rest of the world.

I've posted on this subject before, so if I've addressed any of those posts to you, just skip the next paragraph (or ten :).

Just as is the case with businesses that contract with the government, colleges and universities which accept federal money (of any sort) are bound by all sorts of federal dictates as regards the content of their curriculum, minority admissions quotas, and even what kinds of food they serve in their cafeterias.

If you (as a business, or an institution of higher learning) have any monetary dealings with the government, be prepared to have your business, or your school, thereafter controlled by that Byzantine array of federal rules and paperwork. The equal employment, affirmative action and employment discrimination policies that will be foisted upon you will do nothing but (1) shred (into even smaller pieces) the Constitution, (2) establish an interminable web of bureaucratic red tape which makes it impossible to accomplish those things (both business-wise and education-wise) that used to be done superbly and efficiently in America before the advent of legitimized federal government meddling, (3) foster mediocrity, (4) destroy free enterprise (in the case of business), and demean the concept of individual excellence (in the case of education), (4) advance all manner of politically correct philosophies, and (5) keep the bureaucrats (the ultimate example of a parasitic species) in business.

As a business, you can bet that your productivity/profits/quality of product will suffer dramatically (because you will be forced to hire unqualified applicants based on their race/gender/ethnicity, and you will be forced to shell out lots of money (that could otherwise have been spent in growing the company) in order to teach management profit- and quality-insensitive business strategies (such as the advantages of diversity in the workplace, the need to acknowledge and accept alternative lifestyles, etc....)

As a school, you can bet that the preparedness of your graduates (and the quality of your undergraduates/curricula) will suffer dramatically (because you will be forced to accept unqualified applicants based on their race/gender/ethnicity, and you will be forced to teach them such life-enriching subjects as the advantages of diversity in the workplace, the need to acknowledge and accept alternative lifestyles, etc....)

Am I stuttering or is there a pattern developing here? Could this represent an agenda chugging along toward fruition?

Grove City College here in Pennsylvania has washed its hands of any financial dealings with the federal government (as far as I know, Grove City is only one of two colleges that has done so .... the other being Hillsdale College, in Michigan). GCC accepts no federal monies (no grants, no research money, no student loans .... nothing). They were even forced to kick ROTC off campus, because the government saw even that as a means to dictate college policies. Grove City kicked the last remaining vestiges of federal government interference off campus about four years ago. And what has happened to the school since? It is thriving. Has absolutely no debt. Has one of the lowest tuitions of any school of its size in the country. Its graduates are in demand in virtually every field (an astounding 98% of its education graduates find teaching jobs immediately upon graduation). It is completely self-supporting (with an alumni loyalty, and generosity in giving, that is unprecedented). And, most importantly, it offers a curriculum that stresses those life-enriching subjects that were once commonplace on all campuses (in the days when colleges were truly institutions of higher learning) -- with stress being placed on the sciences, literature, music, art, and western civilization. You will not find courses in diversity, multiculturalism, women's studies, homosexuality, black history, etc. in the Grove City catalog. Nor, unfortunately, will you find any students who receive federal loans or Pell grants. The school has had to deny admission to anyone who accepts such federal help.

Walter Williams, speaking about the dumbing down of higher education, recently stated, 'There are some notable alternatives where youngsters can get an excellent liberal arts education. Grove City College is one of those colleges that most readily come to mind.' One of the primary reasons students get an excellent liberal arts education there is that the federal government has nothing to say about the content of that education, or the character of the students who will receive it.

Other colleges and universities, and businesses, need to follow suit (I'm glad to hear that Home Depot is one that has its head screwed on straight. I buy my flower pots and potting soil there. I'll do so more proudly from here on in. :)

My long distance service, has taken to hiring kids who cannot speak well --- I cannot understand what they are saying. However, I want so much for them to succeed and get out of the "community of impossibilities" built up by Jesse Jackson and the Foundation for Hopeless Broadcasting, that I make a great effort to engage these kids in conversations about where they are at ..... After a few minutes, they relax and suddenly they begin to actually speak English. You know it's there all along, but the thought police have these kids bullied so much, the kids are afraid to be ... Individuals.

Wonderful strategy, Mike, for bringing them out of their state of passive ignorance, and into the world of personal growth and accountability. Instead of simply complaining about their inability to communicate properly, you are attempting to bring out those latent abilities in them. Bravo! (Your behavior in this regard classifies you as a liberal, in the archaic, noble sense of the word as it used to be defined).

As a tax collector, I speak on the phone with representatives in the real estate tax escrow departments of mortgage companies many times during a typical day. Eighteen years ago, when I was first elected to the position, those representatives were generally very competent and courteous. Now the majority of them are minorities who simply don’t care (of course, there are exceptions). It is obvious from the questions they ask, and their disinterest as to whether the problem at hand has actually been solved, that they are either unqualified, or apathetic about the correctness of the results of their inquiries. And the number of incorrect payments made to me by such people (or payments sometimes made twice, or three times, which requires me to refund them for their incompetence, is mind boggling).

Thanks, also, for your insightful comments on R. R. Donnelly. I couldn’t agree more (with all of your observations). The handful of people I have known who have worked, or do work, there have been people who possess the (old-fashioned, fast becoming passé) American work ethic. That, because of federal government intrusion, they now may be forced to work in an atmosphere with less-than-capable co-workers, and may also someday conceivably be required to attend politically-dictated classes on the job infuriates me.

Donnelly has always been a model of American ingenuity/industry. That the company has capitulated to federal dictates, rather than telling the government to take a hike, signals the beginning of a change in the company’s character. And, when a company’s character begins to allow itself to be molded by federal bureaucrat hands, that company has signed its own death warrant.

Here are a few responses from readers of the Donnelly editorial in today’s Talk Back section of the newspaper’s website:

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Classic case of driving down everything to the lowest common denominator. Just another example of confusing an interest in promoting equality of rights with equality of outcomes. The government should apologize to Donnelley and agree to pay them the fine plus punitive damages.

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From the article: ‘We have a very diverse work force and we're very proud of it,’ added Winn, vice president of manufacturing. God forbid a company hire and maintain a competent workforce. This is a slap in the face to everything America should be about.

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When your grandparents, great grandparents, or whoever came to this country, did the government help then learn English? Did the government help them find a job? I highly doubt it. And if they did, I demand some sort of reparations because I know my granddaddy spoke German and burnt his back all summer working in the fields after his family got off the boat. But he and his whole family learned English and made a living for themselves without the government dole to help. America should be about room for immigrants to work hard to support themselves. Why do they need the government help? I guess it doesn't matter. My taxes will pay for them to be here anyway thanks to the government reliance thinking possessed by the masses.

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The guilt is deserved. We ENSLAVED blacks, for pete's sake. And we treated them very badly, at least until 40 years ago.

Sounds like YOU talking, not, the mood of the country.

We did no such thing, dude.

The colonial Dutch, Portuguese, British, and, a lot of African free-lancer slave traders did.

My people were at all times living and abiding by the laws of free states in the North, where slavery was not legal.

My mother-in-law's grandparents and great-grandparents were abolitionists in Indiana, who set up the first towns in eastern Indiana, around Richmond, for freed slaves to live and be free.

On my side of the family, my ancestors were Irish who came over in the 1845 famine, and I have no idea whether they participated in the Civil War or not, but, if they did, it was on the side of the North, based on where they came from and settled.

The other part of my ancestors came over from Germany in 1882, after the Civil War was old history.

I am responsible for what I do, not what others do, or did.

The concept that a people is responsible for what its ancestors did, or for what any one else did, for that matter, is a very primitive notion espoused by pagans, liberals, communists, and the UN.

As a Christian, I am fortunate enough to be responsible for my own sins, not that of others, alive or long dead.

I recommend this philosophy to you.

You still don't understand what I was saying. I'll try one more time and if that doesn't work, I'll give up.

Blacks were treated badly in this country long ago. That was wrong. Americans today are correct in believing today that it was wrong for Americans to have done that, even though many, if not most, Americans during those years did not engage in slavery or civil rights abuses.

Today most Americans are conditioned to be so politically correct that we bend over backward to make sure that we don't criticize blacks, in this country or elsewhere, even when it is richly deserved. We give them a free pass out of some sense of guilt.

I know that doesn't apply to you, and if you've ever seen my comments on other threads about Zimbabwe you'd know it doesn't apply to me. But it does apply to Americans in general, and the media specifically.

So thanks for the philosophy lesson, but what I've really learned is to be less subtle.

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