Books, news, a temp job with UPS... so much to talk about.

I finished the new Stephen King book, did I talk about that already? That one, and Next by Micheal Crichton. I hate his name, not easy to remember. Next was good, some of it very far fetched, as in his last book. It's fiction, of course, so it is supposed to be far fetched. I guess what sets the good ones apart from the bad ones, as far as science fiction goes, is how shallow the characters are, and how true to life, no matter how outlandish the circumstances surrounding them. King has become very good at complicated characters, has always been, but his plots are getting sort of ho-hum. Crichton's concepts are great, but the characters shallow, almost ho-hum. Still on Samuel in the new testament, decided to stray from it for a while. Now I'm into Red Mars. It starts a 3 books series, but they are long ones and it is unclear if they will keep my interest through all three.

In the news. There was an upset in the midterm elections. Democrats have been touting big changes. I'm not so sure. On Bill HR 6111, here is how congress voted. 330-59 - House. 79-9 - Senate. This is the bill extending the tax breaks, I think. This is from a newspaper in Seattle, found on a cursory search, so I could be off a little. The point is, there are supposed to be sweeping changes, and if there were, the vote would not have been so one-sided. Why are all the democrats voting for this shit, those calling themselves the new purveyors of fiscal responsibilities.

Another topic on the political front. Rodriguez from Texas lost in a runoff to a democrat for a house seat. About his loss, he said he was thankful for the time he had in office.

"This is a different time now," he said. "I can tell you I've had 14 years as a member of the House of Representatives, and I count my blessings."

I'm not sure why he would count his blessings. Aren't people sposed to run for office to represent the citizens of a district?

Then there is the email I got from the democratic party, about a strike at Raytheon. The democrats are supporting the union, because the union thinks the company should guarantee retirement benefits for future employees. This is ridiculous to me. This is a union of employees. The purpose of a union is to represent the employees to secure adequate compensation and working conditions for them. Holding out for retirement benefits may seem like a good thing, but we are talking about future employees. The union is trying to secure things for people they don't even represent yet. Not only that, this union of employees thinks they know better than the people running the company how to run that company. In my opinion, if you don't like the things the company you work for is doing, you quit and find someone to work for that you agree with. That, and if an employee thinks they can run the company better, they should start their own company and put the old one out of business. That's the way it works in America, we are capitalists. Unions are a function of a socialist ideal, something most Americans disdain.

I think I got everything out, with little foul language. I'll have to work on that. There is much to be said about UPS though, and I may or may not get to all that.