I got steaming mad all over again tonight watching a National Geographic special on sexual freedom and government.  They gave a little air time to County Clerk Kim Davis and her one woman protest against the Supreme Court.  She was the lady who refused to issue a gay marriage license to two men because she didn’t want to be condemned to damnation and hellfire.  She went to jail for it.

As ludicrous as her cause sounds to a city slicker, out there in the bible belt a lot of people agreed with her.  One woman went so far as to say “She’s our Rosa Parks.  She’s refusing to obey a law that is unconscionable.”  I was plucked!  I hadn’t seen that little sound byte before.  It didn’t sit right with me not just because I am gay and damn proud of it, but because there seemed to be a logical fallacy embedded in there that I couldn’t name.  I needed a little time to stew over it.

I went to the kitchen, washed and recycled my pudding cup, gave my dog Patsy a treat, and then it struck me.  Rosa Parks was a citizen standing up (or sitting down, actually) in a fight against an extremely oppressive set of laws that were directed towards her from her government.  County Clerk Kim Davis is a government official, trusted to carry out the law of the land.  She is the bus driver, not the passenger.  The laws the Supreme Court passes are part of her job, not part of her private life and certainly not directed towards her.

If she wants to rally against gay marriage in the center of town and spew hate on the steps of the courthouse on her vacation days, I feel she has the right to do so.  In fact, I would actually fight for her to have that right, because denying it to her would be laying dangerous grounds to deny it to anyone else with something different to say.

Religious freedom is extremely important, including the freedom to be intolerant and nasty to people whom you feel are judged in the eyes of God as being lesser than you.  I hate that, but it really keeps things in balance.  It allows others to believe in a more loving God, and it also allows atheists to believe in something entirely different.

I have spent a great deal of time with conservative Christians in the South.  I think a lot of them figured out who and what I was, but they didn’t judge me to my face.  That is, in fact, the Christian thing to do.  As far as they were concerned, if I could sit next to them in the pew and sing, I was welcome in their church.  And I did an awful lot of singing.  I am certain that some folks judged me behind my back.  But they didn’t ask me to leave.  They showed respect and restraint.

I don’t believe that County Clerk Kim Davis showed proper Christian restraint in her dealings with the two men that wanted to get married.  She should have judged them and condemned them to hell silently while handing out the marriage license.  In her scratch-and-win theology, I think that would keep her from going to h-e-double hockey sticks.

When you’re driving the bus, you don’t get to sit illegally in the ‘whites only’ seats.  You’re in the  driver’s seat.  Ms. Davis is in the driver’s seat at the courthouse (assuming she still has her job.)  So she cannot be Rosa Parks in this civil rights issue.  Ever.

Religious Addendum (atheists, feel free to skip this appendix)  In the bible, Jesus didn’t have anything to say about gay people, that was St. Paul, who never actually met Jesus because he was busy persecuting Christ’s followers prior to his conversion.  According to Matthew, Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” So you see, Love is the clincher.  (I was going to say trump card, but it’s too close to election time).  So maybe some of the holy folks in Ms Davis’ church will sit her down and explain this concept to her, so she can stop panicking about stepping on a crack and breaking Jesus’ back.  If she adds to the quality and amount of love in this world, she’s on the road to heaven.  If she hates her neighbor, she’s already in hell.  It’s truly that simple.

I have worked for many companies over the years, and I have seen what a difference engagement makes in the attitude and output of the employees. So why do so many corporations ignore it or treat it like an unimportant factor? In most cases, the leaders of the company have clouded judgment. Here are five misconceptions about engagement that need to be addressed.

1. Engagement is expensive. – Yes, it costs a lot to offer employees a performance bonus. Heck, it costs a lot to offer employees bagels and coffee. But what does it cost to replace a valued employee who leaves because they are disengaged and disheartened? A friend of mine worked at a company that took away the coffee, then the microwave, and finally they removed the bottled water. This was a multi-billion dollar corporation that could afford coffee for its employees. Short-sightedness on the part of some well-meaning bean counter caused the employees to feel undervalued, and they began quitting in droves, despite the job being a union job with benefits. How much did that coffee really cost?

2. Engagement is not a Key Performance Indicator – well why on earth not? The leaders of a company should measure engagement through a company-wide survey and see where they are at – baseline. They should re-measure every year to see if it went up or down. And they should see what their performance in other areas looks like, and whether or not it correlates with the rise or fall in engagement. Correlation is not causation, but there will be a connection – a very strong one – which points to engagement as a key indicator of future performance.

3. My employees are all disengaged, there’s no way to turn this around. – Really? If you run a shop that expects overtime, how much will it cost to order pizza for the people who stay late to get a job done? How about paying overtime to hourly employees and comp time to salaried employees? When you get an employee who wants to make things better, listen and don’t send them packing. There’s a million things you can do to increase engagement. It is true that it is much easier to discourage employees and cause them to disengage. Guess what? That means you are going to have to work harder to turn things around. Don’t you want your employees to work harder? Are you immune from this requirement?

4. I did an engagement survey, and everyone gave positive feedback. – Great! Were they assured their responses would remain anonymous? Did the questions give them an opportunity to voice their dissatisfaction if they had any? Have people been punished for giving negative feedback in the past? Was everyone given an equal voice, or were some voices weighted more than others? These are some questions to ask before resting on your engagement laurels.

5. Engagement has nothing to do with me. Are you an hourly employee who has no interest in staying at the company you work for now? Then engagement may not really matter to you. Do you love your company and want to make it better? Are you a manager with employees reporting to you? Are you a Director, VP, CXO? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then engagement is extremely important to your work life. Disengagement kills companies faster than bankrupt clients. Disengagement means that the sales force can’t really sell a good product, because they know that the people who make it don’t really care if it comes out good or bad. Disengagement makes the workplace toxic. Disengagement makes it impossible to find new hires to replace the excellent employees who jumped ship. You’d better believe it has a lot to do with you!

Get involved. Ask for the results of your last engagement survey. If the people with the results aren’t willing to share them, you know there’s work to be done.

I keep getting mad at this advertisement for an online retail outlet that “pays you to shop.” They proclaim that when you buy things, you “earn” money through rebates. One testimonial says “I earned 400 dollars so far shopping on [this site].”

News flash. You spent thousands to ‘earn’ a few hundred. That is not earning. In business, it would be considered a loss. If you spent a thousand dollars to run your company and earned one hundred dollars, you would not be in business for very long.

Let’s call this “earning” what it really is – a discount. You spend one thousand and receive 100 dollars cash back. You’ve saved 100 dollars off the price. You didn’t earn 100 dollars. You paid 900 dollars instead of a thousand.

If you spend more than you make, it is not earning. Period. Net revenue is negative, so it is not earning. It is a loss.

You have simply engaged in crass consumerism and are now pretending that you’re getting paid to do it. One brand evangelist for the site says “Just shop for the things you would normally shop for, and get paid for doing it. Sounds like a good deal to me!”

I worry about the deterioration of human intelligence. Is it really that often that you go to a department store or other online retailer and buy “the things you would normally shop for?”

What would be cool is if you could find some way to get paid to sit through annoying pop-up video advertisements or those forced 15-30 second commercials that interrupt internet video content. Like my grandfather used to say, “If I had a nickel for every time I had to [fill in annoying activity here], I would be a millionaire!”

Do you remember the cute/terrifying creatures we created in the 1990’s and called them Furby? They mutter aloud in response to our words. Put two of them in the room, and they would jabber incessantly to one another.

Below is my first successful SPam Furby. I forwarded to one Nigerian scammer the scam letter of another. And now I have a response.  Mysterious and creepy.

Thank you for your quick response to my mail, your willingess and ability to help me out of this is highly appreciated and i want to assure you that you will never regret.

I have explained to you in my last mail, the untimely death of my late father was masterminded by his business associates and relations due to his wealth.  But my major concern is your trustworthy and your ability to maintain your word throughout this transaction  as this is my liffe and future  my only hope to start a new life.

Before we proceed, i will like to have your detailed information like your telephone and fax numbers and contact address as to assure me that i am dealing with a human.

As soon as i received these information from you, i will procedd to you the full address contact of the bank where the money is been depossited for safety and security reasons.

Thanks and God bless as i wait for your urgent reply.

Yours

Miss Blenda Rosemary Bakari

Original Message —– From: Duncan MacLeod <duncanwrites@gmail.com> To: Miss Blenda Rosemary Bakari <jdiergh@yahoo.co.jp> Date: 2015/3/21, Sat 03:11 Subject: Re: Miss Blenda Rosemary Bakari

    Hello Dear
    How are you doing today i hope all is fine with you over there ?
    I am F Guido divorced with no kid. I am an American German Citizen and working with a Cargo Shipping Company USA. The nature of my job makes me travel usually once a week, so I try to travel as much as I can.
    I found you, I really like you and will want us to build a relationship, so I decided to write you this short mail to express how I feel about you.
    What is your full name?
    How old are you?
    Are you presently in a relationship or divorced?
    Have you ever love and been loved before?
    Honestly I really want to know much about you. Presently I am working in the ship. We take Cargo to Europe countries, Dubai and Japan. I can only communicate to you through email because; I am using the company computer inside the Ship.
    You can reach me through my e-mail for faster communication, I will let you know more about me as soon as I hear from you.
    Love always,
    F Guido
    Visit www.dunkablog.com 

If you’ve ever wanted to know what it feels like to go crazy, look no further than this book. It’s so vivid and emotional in its depiction of a person’s brain losing grip on reality.

http://www.amazon.com/author/duncanmacleod

via What it feels like to go crazy.

I thought it was odd that she uses the same email address as Idris, but [shrug].

From: “Idris Ngari”<SENDER6666@earthlink.net>
Date: March 23, 2015 at 11:12:16 PM PDT
Subject: Please accept my apologies if this request does not meet your personal
Reply-To: <info_info1900@yahoo.co.jp>

Sir/Madam,

 

Please accept my apologies if this request does not meet your personal ethics as it is not intended to cause you any embarrassment in whatever form. I got your contact email address from international domain directory and decided to contact you for this transaction that is based on trust and your outstanding. I need your urgent assistance in transferring the sum of ($58M) million to your account. The transfer is risk free on both sides hence you are going to follow my instruction till the fund is transferred to your account.

 

If you are interested in this deal, kindly send me your complete information, your full names and address, Your Private telephone and Fax numbers, Your Private email address, Your Age, Your Country, Marital Status, Your Occupation and Your Personal Mobile Number.

 

Having gone through a methodical search, I decided to contact you hoping that you will find this proposal interesting. Please on your confirmation of this message and indicating your interest, I will furnish you with more information also note that you will have 30% of the above mentioned while 70% will be for me.

 

Endeavour to let me know your decision.

E-mail: info_info1900@yahoo.co.jp

Best regards,

 

Idris Ngari

 

Business Project

L. Pow is a man of few words… 

i really should start a dating service. This guy lives near Blenda because he is in Africa. Sailor F Guido was a sailor with any port in a storm…

It turns out that F Guido was a mail order groom looking for gay marriage.  Perhaps Sam Jonah is straight. Still, I wonder what he means when he talks about his huge capital and his intense desire for “a business relationship.”

My friend told me to be careful of the internet because “there’s a lot of shady people on the World Wide Web.” 

Here is Sam. What do you think. Should I take a peek under his investment kilt to check out his huge funds?

between Blenda and Guido the sailor, I thought my share of good luck went from monstrous to obscene. But now I have won the Rwandan supermarket lottery!!! Will wonders ne’er cease?

Dear Beneficiary 

Based on the random selection exercise of internet websites and millions  of Super market cash
invoices worldwide you were selected among the lucky  recipients to receive the
award sum of US$1,500,000.00 as charity Cash donations

Please endeavour to quote your Qualification numbers (UN-U32, N-900-10)in all discussions.  

Executive Secretary, 
Mr.MACLEAN VANNAK
Tel:+855-965-492-278
Email:delivery_agent1@aol.com

You will provide him with the following information: 

First name: 
Last Name: 
Telephone/Fax number: 
Nationality: 
Age: 
Occupation:

Sincerely Yours
Mrs.SONG SARAN
Promotion Coordinator, 
(STRICTLY FOR OWNER ONLY)