Favre busted, but Sterger should be the one embarrassed!

 
So poor old Brett was finally fined after his little rendezvous with Jets reporter Jenn Sterger. His fine, $50,000 which basically amounts to about 3 minutes of play time based on his salary is nothing to him. And many are saying that because of that fact, Favre was let off easy. But I do not agree. Just simply the way this all went down, Favre is going to lose millions in endorsements. Or so people think. I still believe that regardless of how tarnished his public image may be, he will still make money out of football. He is Favre after all. The Hall Of Fame Ironman of the NFL. And that's alot coming from a life-long Chicago Bears fan.

People all over are also starting to say that this whole fiasco paints a negative picture for females everywhere. Because if he can sexually harass this female and get let off so easy, what kind of precedent does this set. Now wait a minute! First of all let us take a look at the sexual harassment claim. Mrs. Sterger did not take this claim to the proper authorities when it occurred. Had this actually been a sexual harassment claim, don't you think she would have gone to league officials or New York Jets officials? If you were harassed at your work place, you would have went to your boss correct? Why didn't she? She only said anything to them after THEY had questioned her when they heard the story from the Deadspin web site. This leads me to believe that she is after the money in this case.

And why not? Sure Favre has tons of it right? So maybe that is why she got involved with him in the first place. Maybe she baited him into this whole situation. Brett is a guy after all isn't he? It is very plausible that she could have planned this whole thing out knowing full well that she was going to hit him up for cash later on. I mean look at it.. the story took two full years to surface. She did not take it to her boss right after it happened. Why not? Was she hoping she could try to blackmail Favre? That is also possible. Things just do not add up in this case. And when you start to consider all of the possible avenues and the possible outcomes everything points to Mrs. Sterger taking advantage of the fact that she is a female in a typical sexual harassment case. But this is far from typical. Because what do we have here? Some text messages? A couple voice mails and a lewd picture from Mr. Favre? Sure.. it is enough to get Favre's wife mad, but hardly enough to say that he harassed this lady.

I may end up following parts of this case, I may not. It is interesting to me how it has played out so far. The fact that Favre was fined what equates to almost nothing is what has most people annoyed. Here is another star football player getting star treatment. Maybe. But when you consider the facts in the case and how Mrs. Sterger appears to be taking advantage of Favre's position and wealth, I don't think the fine is terribly off base. What else could the NFL have done to Favre anyway? He is most likely calling it quits after next Sunday's game against Detroit. So it is not like the NFL can suspend him for any more games. All they can do is fine Favre. And I don't think giving him a hefty fine so it actually effects his pocket book is fair. Not to mention it would set an awful precedent in the NFL for future players to be fined based on what they did and relative to their league earnings. Based on the situation the NFL did absolutely the right thing here. Mrs Sterger may still pursue Favre in a civil case, which she will most likely do. Now that she can smell the money since the NFL fined Favre. Because that basically means that a "governing body" has found Favre guilty of something. And now her lawyer can take that into court and try to prove that since the NFL found something wrong, a judge or a jury should also.

I surely hope that this goes away. Not for Favre's sake, but for women everywhere. Women should stand up and stop Mrs. Sterger from taking any further action. She is giving all women a bad name. Let's face it, when somebody wrongs another person, especially in a work place, you must follow the proper chain of command. In the case of a work place violation, that would be your immediate boss. Then his boss after that and so on and so forth. Sterger did not do that. She waited a really long time, and then took the story to a tabloid website, got paid (through a third party to make it look like she did not profit. Don't let her fool you - she did), and now since the NFL brought the charges against him she decided to speak up. So she is taking the offensive only after the fact. Then she is going to try and say that she is doing this so other women don't have to feel her pain and embarrassment? Give me a break! She should be embarrassed that she is even taking this public in the first place as she did. And if this is how educated, professional women act in the face of adversity and when being wronged, god help us all.

FavreSterger got paid from the tabloids and will surely win a settlement in a civil case. So she will get her big pay day, which is all she was after anyway. So if we can leave it at that everyone should be happy. Everybody except the viewing public that is. Because face it, this leaves a sour taste in everyone's mouth.

Holidays are here and gone!

Well, well. Another year has come and gone again. I don't know about you, but for me it seems that every year comes and goes just a bit quicker than the last. And 2010 is no exception. It was however a strange year as almost everybody warned that the year would be slow economically. And that shoppers would stay home a bit more than in years past.

But contrary to all the predictions people were out shopping quite a bit. I even heard some reports that claimed shoppers spent more than $450 billion dollars this holiday season. That is approximately 3.3 percent higher than last years number. In today's sour economy and with the unemployment rate at almost 10% that is freaking amazing! So what exactly does that mean? Well, I think it means that people are ignoring the bad taste left in their mouths from everything that happened this year in the US and around the world. They ignored it all and were hell bent on enjoying themselves.

It doesn't mean that society has  turned a deaf ear to the worlds problems. I just think it means people needed a break. With all the earthquakes, oil spills, mud slides, sink holes, murders and everything else that happened, people wanted to escape from all the crap that happened and enjoy themselves. They spent money on themselves, on their families and on their children. They figured' "well honey, our house may be worth 25% less than it should be, we lost money in the stock market, and you lost your job, but I'll be damned if I am gonna let it ruin our Christmas!"

Ultimately this is good for America. It shows that even in the face of adversity we can still come out on top. We can still rescue our economy and support our merchants. We can still have a good time! As a country we are spending more money on luxuries as well. More and more people are going to sporting events, eating out at restaurants and buying cars for themselves. Our economy will slowly rebuild itself if this thinking continues. And why shouldn't it? We are showing everybody that we don't need the government to bail anybody out, all we need to do is what Americans do best. And that is to do everything to excess. If the world thinks that we are all cheeseburger eating, beer drinking slobs who spend money on frivolous things we don't need.. then let's do just that! Because if we do, we will not only feel good and have a great time, but we will rescue our country's financial disaster slowly but surely and have a damn good time doing it!

GM looking to boost its "Green" image.

In trying to find ways to help the environment, GM announced that they will recycle the oil soaked Boom from the BR oil spill. The Boom for all who don't know (myself included) is a protective layer of a plastic type resin laid across a 100 mile stretch of the Alabama and Louisiana coastline meant to shield the marshes and other habitats from the encroaching oil that resulted from the BP oil spill.

The boom will be processed to remove the oil and then shipped to Indiana where it will be recycled into more than 100,000 pounds of plastic resin pellets. The pellets will then be used in molds to produce a part that protect the GM Volt's radiator. The Chevrolet Volt is one of GM's electric vehicles. This is one of the ways that GM is looking to increase their "clean and green" image in the coming years. A trend many manufacturers will follow for sure.

"This was purely a matter of helping out," said John Bradburn, manager of GM's waste-reduction efforts. "If sent to a landfill, these materials would have taken hundreds of years to begin to break down, and we didn't want to see the spill further impact the environment," he added.

GM said they try to recycle materials at every stage of their product life-cycle, integrating those materials into roughly 90 percent of the vehicles they produce. This is surely a great way for a company in an industry that uses oil to help out. I can see this happening more and more as different companies get involved. That is one thing that I have to compliment America on. No matter our faults as a society, when tragedy's occur we usually find a way to pull together and help rectify the situation. This is yet another example of that. I don 't own a GM vehicle, but something like this would definitely play into my decision to buy one. Good goin GM!

Separation of Church and State?

It seems this has been coming up more and more of late. But with people up in arms over taxes and the economy it sometimes gets ignored. It is a common constitutional law that our government, should not promote one religion over another, or promote any religion at all. And it would seem that it would be an easy enough thing to do, however if you pay close attention, you can see violations of this almost everywhere.

I guess it can come down to what degree you consider it a violation of the Constitution. But if you were to ask me, reciting a prayer before a government function of any kind would be a good one. And that is exactly what is happening in New Jersey. Over in Point Pleasant Beach New Jersey, the City Council is taking the time to recite the Lord's Prayer before every meeting. Now they were protested against and the ACLU even got involved and brought a suit against the city council. So it was at that time, determined that they would observe a moment of silence instead.

Well, leave it to those whacko religious types to put one over on everyone. Because as soon as the moment of silence took effect, they counter-protested by reciting the prayer anyway during the silence. The ACLU had dropped the suit when the moment of silence was enacted. But since the counter-protest and the prayer started back up, so did the ACLU. They brought another suit against the city council and a state judgee has now forced the city council to stop until a decision can be made.

I for one applaud the judge and those who are fighting this act of defiance and prayer. Far be it from me to step in anyone's way and stop them from praying. But do they have to do it at a city function? I don't think they are pushing their specific religion on anyone, which I believe is what the suit is fighting. However to impose a prayer at all during a legislation meeting of a city government is just wrong. And as I said at the beginning of this article, the separation of Church and State is as common as any right levied by the constitution. And not just the Federal constitution, but the constitution of the State of New Jersey also proclaims the same law! So c'mon people.. I am sure you would ask someone to keep their prayer rug at home if they were paying respects to Allah before each meeting. So why can't you do the same? Pray at home before you head into work that morning. Or if you need to pray together then you can all meet at Starbucks prior to the city council meeting and pray. No one would argue with you then. Just be sure you order a coffee first!

Government Pay Freeze!

This is not necessarily breaking news, but it is news none the less. Recently President Obama made the decision to freeze the pay for most of the 2 million government workers. The pay freeze applies to all Executive Branch employees including civilian employees of the Defense Department, but does NOT apply to military personnel, government contractors, postal workers, members of Congress, Congressional staffers, or federal Court judges and workers.

Not surprisingly this move has alot of people in the government sector up in arms. The freeze will take effect on January 1st of 2011 pending Congressional approval. And I don't think Congress will try and stop the bill considering their pay will not be effected by this legislation. This decision will save the government $2billion over the course of 2011 and $28 billion over the coarse of the next 5 years! That is a whole bunch of money!!

The problem is that the reasoning behind the move is a bit more complicated then you might think. At first glance, you think ok great.. the bloated government is going to sacrifice just like the rest of us do. But sadly that is not the case. After some research into the bill, you begin to see that most of the people who will be hit with this freeze are the people that work beside our wonderful government in the civilian sector. I guess the one good thing, the saving grace if you will, of this whole fiasco is that it is just a pay freeze. Meaning after the proposed two years are up, people who deserve a raise in pay may be able to get one.

So who does suffer? Well.. it turns out that most government employees and appointees were hit last year when Obama put a halt to all bonuses for those positions. So civilian jobs that work with government officials seem to be the ones that will be effected. As well as government employees in the Department of Defense. I mention this department because many people hear this and assume that it means the military. However this is not the case. The military is not effected by this freeze. So those who protect our freedom and put forth the greatest sacrifice of all will not be touched by the freeze.

But we must remember, this is only a pay freeze. And though it is not exactly good news for those effected, it is not necessarily completely bad news either. A year ago Obama made cuts and took away bonuses and other pay incentives that certain people have grown accustomed to for years. This is a different situation, no one will be losing money. They will just not be getting any extra money over the next couple years. And that is the fact that many people seem to ignore. People see the word freeze and have started to freak a bit. And yes, most of these jobs work long, hard hours. And I bet that most of these jobs are not easy and come with a whole bunch of stress. But so do many other jobs in the civilian sector. Those of us who work every day and usually 6 and sometimes 7 days a week just to put food on the table are no stranger to work. And unfortunately we too have not seen many raises lately. If we can keep from being laid off that is.

As Cheech and Chong have said, "Things Are Tough All Over". And we all struggle to keep what we already have. Many in government are saying that Obama is only putting this out there as a political public relations stunt. Saying that government nurses, border patrol agents, and other personnel are being unfairly targeted for Democratic election losses. And I can see where this would be the prevailing thought. But can any of us say that is positively the case? No we cannot. And when the federal budget will end up saving around 5 billion dollars over the coarse of the bill, it sounds like a good move to me. Yes, it sucks if your the ones effected. But alot of these positions are already being paid over what similar positions in non-government related fields are being paid. So if you do not get a raise for the next two years, I think they will survive. And all of this may be a moot point anyhow as congress will be lobbied hard to put an end to this bill.

So in the end, we stand a chance to save about $5 billion. An amount that will not even put a dent in $1 trillion national debt. We also have a bill that has many government officials up in arms and vowing to fight this to the end. We have many in the civilian world that are of the opinion that this is a good thing. Much like any bill that touts cutting government spending. The public sure loves cutting money from the already over-paid government. But this bill kind of splits it down the middle because it hits the civilians that work with the government. So it will be interesting to see what happens in the end. If Congress allows this to pass or not. One thing is for sure, if this passes you will have many who will be taking a much closer look at pay levels of government officials. And because their paychecks will start to take a hit, they will look for other ways to save the money. And to see what starts to get cut will end up being where the story really starts.

You Shredded What!?!?

A man in Taiwan was seriously hating life until a few days ago. He accidentally shredded $200,000 in Taiwanese bills last month. It amounts to around $6,600 in US currency. He had the money in a bag and somehow dropped the bag into a shredded at the plastic factory in which he works. Now, why he would even have his money in a bag and around this shredder in the first place is beyond me. But oh well.. I guess that's why we all make fun of those crazy dudes eh? Anyway.. so how did he solve his little problem?

Simple. He brought the money to a local official who passed the shredded loot on to the forensics division of the Justice Ministry's special investigations unit, which offers a free service repairing damaged cash. There a 30 year veteran of the office nicknamed the jigsaw expert put the shredded cash back together in 7 days! Forensic scientist Liu Hui-fen was quoted as saying, "it was difficult and required much patience".

If you ask me, this guy with the destroyed cash was very lucky. A local bank declared the money sufficiently repaired and spendable once again. I wish we had a service such as this, as far as I know as long as you have more than 50% of a ripped US bill your ok. But any less and your up the creek. Wonder what was in his fortune cookie?

San Francisco bans Happy Meals with toys.

In a measure to control childhood obesity, the Californian Board of Supervisors today banned toys in Happy Meals that do not meet the new nutritional standards. The move also effects any other fast food restaurant that serves toys with meals that do not meet these standards. If you ask me, these are not "standards" but efforts to control what we eat based on someone else's opinion. This is a ridiculous move. And obesity or not, anyone voting for something like this should be voted right out of office immediately!

This is nothing more than an act that takes our government one step closer to socialism. Why should our government at any level, Federal - State - City - Town, be allowed to control what we put in our stomaches. Honestly, it is bad enough that we allow them to control the other things we put in our bodies, such as medications/drugs. It should not be up to one person to dictate what another person does with their body so long as what they are doing does not effect that other person. And in the case of McDonalds and their Happy Meals they are not hurting anyone. They are in no way forcing you to purchase this particular meal. There are many more cases of companies and other organizations actually forcing people to do things such as pay ridiculous fees or submit to unnecessary tests in order to gain their services.

Take the example of a Doctors office and your medical records. The records a Doctors office holds of your care are your records. Should you want to have these records sent to another office or take the records or a copy of the records for your own safekeeping, the office can choose to charge you an unorthodox fee in order to gain access to the records. Or just flat out deny your access all together. Why can't the government step in there? Or in many of the various other cases of wrong doing happening all over the country? Of course not, because they would rather waste their time and our tax money to regulate how we eat or better yet, how we feed our children.

So back to the law being enforced in San Francisco. The new Lt. Governor who was previously the Mayor stated in his election speech that he would veto the new law. But apparently his veto will be pointless because I guess with the vote being 8-3 in favor of the law, the Board can override his veto! It is sad that in a country where we cannot pass unemployment for the people who really need it but we can surely protect the rich from paying a little more in taxes that a silly little cheap-ass toy that comes with a burger and fries is seen as a problem. A problem that we have to make a law for and we have to teeter on socialism for. Our for-fathers would be rolling in their graves if they were alive today and could see what is happening.

Comcast - The monopoly that was.

To many, Comcast is a Godsend. To others they are the devil! I am kind of in between. I love the fact that their Hi Speed Internet is truley high speed (although that can at times be debatable). However, the fact that they are THE ONLY cable company you can really get is a bit frustrating. Or are they?

Years back I was involved in trying to help get a movement pushed in the Tri City area for a fiber optic cable Internet service that would be run by the city or cities. This effort was quickly smashed by Comcast and their supporters. Why? Because offering the people of this area an actual choice would serve to damage the ability of Comcast to make money. Sure they would still have the vast majority of the area as their customers, however that would slowly begin to dwindle as time went on. And they could not have that. No. Not at all. So they used their great advantage of money and their friends in the various city halls to kill the proposal before it went to a vote. The following year, the same was tried again, and it actually made it to a vote. But by then the support was not enough to beat Comcast, who was very well engrained in the fiber of the community.

Now we are all aware that monopolies are illegal in America. Funny however how many companies can be considered a monopoly if you take a close look at how they operate and where they operate. Now take a close look at Comcast in this area of the Midwest and you would see that they are running a monopoly on the cable industry. Or are they? Today you have many options with regards to Internet service and who provides that service for you. If you take a look online you can find a few companies that are willing to send you the equipment you need through the mail and will set you up with service. But are these companies viable and will they provide reliable service? Especially when you compare what they are actually giving you with what Comcast can give you. Plus, Comcast is a local company. You can literally drive to one of their offices and pick up your modem if need be. Some of these companies are totally viable options. Look at AT&T. They will give you Internet service and they can now do that along with phone and Satellite TV service too. Then you have places like COX or WOW. Both of these companies can provide you with Internet service.

So in a world where just 5 years ago you could look at a company such as Comcast in an area such as the Midwest, and you could call them a monopoly. Today that has changed. The options are starting to come out of the woodwork because technology is growing at an ever increasing rate. The only thing that remains from the days of Comcast running a monopoly is their lack of great customer service. They do an OK job, but that's just it. They do not strive to provide customer service that will blow you away. They are content with just giving you service that will suffice. Since their competition is just starting to really become a viable. They are still not being effected by better service provided by those competitors. Soon however. Soon they will feel the pinch and be forced to do it better. The only problem is we want the better customer service now.

So there you have it. Comcast, not the monopoly they once were, but still in effect a monopoly in how they do business. Does this affect us, the customer? Sure it does. Although we have more options today, the service we get from any one provider is average. I have not heard any reports to the contrary or that make one company really stand out. Everything is just the status quo. Just make do.. that must be the motto of most companies today. Or at least the ones with old money behind them. Because the way the economy is only the new business or the struggling business will go out of their way to please the customer. Everyone else is just happy to get through a transaction. What they should be happy about is having a customer in the first place, and act like it!