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When I listen to the conservative leadership of today – Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, Sean Hannity, my moron of a neighbor Jerry… – it seems clear that they no longer stand for anything but rather against everything. Except for torture. They seem to be all for that. But everything else seems to be no, no, no! One thing is for sure – they hate change. Which is too bad for them because trust me when I say that change – like shit – happens.
Actually, they are fine with some change. They really seem to enjoy changing history. Take for example, two other shit for brain conservatives named Dick Cheney and Bill Bennett, who seem to think waterboarding isn’t torture. That’s funny because when my Harold came back from WWII, we were all pretty clear on that form of torture. If my memory serves me correct – and it does – we convicted some Japanese soldiers for just that very reason.
But Dick and Bill aren’t as old as they look – and they look really old. WWII was before their time. But we actually courtmarshalled one of our own for participating in waterboarding during Vietnam. Things might be more clear for Dick and Bill if they actually served in the armed forces – alas they didn’t. In fact, Dick applied for and received five draft deferments instead of serving in Vietnam. See Dick and Bill. See Dick and Bill run. Run Dick. Run Bill.
These morons have nothing left to offer. There are no solutions for peace. Instead we must always be ready for war. There are no solutions for poverty, instead we must carefully protect the wealth of the wealthy. There are no solutions for the environment, instead we must simply put our heads in the sand and pretend that life goes on forever – unchanging and without consequence. No wonder these guys look bloated and constipated. They’re full of shit, and lots of it.
American values (and Christian values) change. We once valued slavery. We once burned people at the stake for witchcraft. We once looked the other way while Priests molested children. American-made cars used to last forever. Joan Rivers used to look like Joan Rivers. Hell, we once actually thought Rush Limbaugh was funny. But like I said, shit happens.
Every parent who has ever raised a child knows that change is inevitable. They learn from you – how to love as well as how to hate. They listen to you – the truth as well as the lies. They fall. They get up. But eventually they decide for themselves who and how to love or hate as well when and how to lie or speak the truth. My grandchildren are no more like me than I am like my grandparents. Goodness sakes, I certainly don’t make my own butter and, when I shit, it’s in the comfort of an indoor bathroom with all the modern conveniences.
Now that I think about it, there is one thing that never changes and that’s shit. Shit always happens. And shit always stinks. Other than that, change is inevitable. Children grow up. Grandparents die. Life goes on.
I’m 83. For most of my life, I drove a big car and watered my lawn in the middle of the day. Now I think twice about how I live because I realize life goes on and my grandchildren will be here long after I am gone.
For most of my life I never gave much thought about gay people. Now I watch Ellen and really hope she and Portia are happy together. What do I care if gay people want to get married.
For most of my life I really didn’t care too much who ended up in the White House. Then one day a lunatic took up residence and started an unnecessary war, condoned torture and made me ashamed of my country. So now I pay attention… because shit happens. Really. I mean it.
Shit Happens « Margaret and Helen
This article published in Business Week back in May 2005 was accurate as to what the future would hold for GM.
MAY 9, 2005
COVER STORY
Why GM’s Plan Won’t Work
…and the ugly road ahead
If General Motors Corp. were any other company, its problems would have sorted themselves out a long time ago. Logic says that when your cash holdings exceed your entire valuation in the stock market, some Wall Street shark is going to swoop in, snap up the good parts, and toss the rest. Companies with bloated factories and workforces got religion the hard way 20 years ago, in the days of "Neutron Jack" Welch. And with today’s more active boards, CEOs who consistently lose ground to the competition usually don’t need Donald Trump to tell them they’re fired.
But GM, of course, is no ordinary company. With sales of $193 billion, it stands as an icon of fading American industrial might. Size and symbolism dictate that its fate has sweeping implications. After all, GM’s payroll pumps $8.7 billion a year into its assembly workers’ pockets. Directly or indirectly, it supports nearly 900,000 jobs — everyone from auto-parts workers to advertising writers, car salespeople, and office-supply vendors. When GM shut down for 54 days during a 1998 labor action, it knocked a full percentage point off the U.S. economic growth rate that quarter. So what’s bad for General Motors is still, undeniably, bad for America.
And make no mistake, GM is in a horrible bind. That $1.1 billion loss in the first quarter doesn’t begin to tell the whole story. The carmaker is saddled with a $1,600-per-vehicle handicap in so-called legacy costs, mostly retiree health and pension benefits. Any day now, GM is likely to get slapped with a junk-bond rating. GM has lost a breathtaking 74% of its market value — some $43 billion — since spring of 2000, giving it a valuation of $15 billion. What really scares investors is that GM keeps losing ground in its core business of selling cars. Underinvestment has left it struggling to catch up in technology and design. Sales fell 5.2% on GM’s home turf last quarter as Toyota Motor Corp. , Nissan Motor Co., and other more nimble competitors ate GM’s lunch. Last month, CEO G. Richard "Rick" Wagoner Jr. and his team gave up even guessing where they’ll stand financially at the end of this year.
Worst of all, GM reached a watershed in its four-decade decline in market share. After losing two percentage points of share over the past year to log in at 25.6%, GM has reached the point at which it actually consumes more cash than it brings in making cars, for the first time since the early ’90s. GM, once the world’s premier auto maker, is now cash-flow-negative. That’s a game changer. Without growth, GM’s strategy of simply trying to keep its factories humming and squeaking by until its legacy costs start to diminish is no longer tenable. If market share continues to slip, its losses will rapidly balloon.
Hard Times
How bad could it get? BusinessWeek’s analysis is that within five years GM must become a much smaller company, with fewer brands, fewer models, and reduced legacy costs. It’s undeniable that getting to that point will require a drastically different course from the one Wagoner has laid out so far. He is going to have to force a radical restructuring on his workers and the rest of the entrenched GM system, or have it forced on him by outsiders or a bankruptcy court. The only question is whether that reckoning comes in the next year, if models developed by Vice-Chairman Robert A. Lutz fall flat; in 2007, when the union contract comes up for negotiation; or perhaps in five years, when GM may have burned through its substantial cash cushion.
Read Complete Article:
Why GM’s Plan Won’t Work
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