That's My Girl!!

I need to brag on my younger daughter for a bit.

Her hubby's car crapped out yesterday.  It would start, but wouldn't run for Sh!+.  She called me to ask for my engine diagnostic reader, and pulled the codes.

The codes indicated a misfire in cylinder 1.  Research said the most likely culprits were a bad spark plug, a bad ignition coil, a bad fuel injector, or a vacuum leak.  She did the troubleshooting, she did the research, and then she consulted me.  We put our heads together and decided the easiest, cheapest course of action was to replace the spark plug.  After swapping out the plug, she reported that the engine was running a bit better, but was still not quite right.

Before continuing, I need to divert a bit... In my day, there was a single ignition coil.  While consulting with her and doing parallel troubleshooting from my house, I found out that modern engines have a separate coil for each cylinder, and the coil is directly connected to the spark plug.  Having learned this, I then researched how to test an ignition coil.  She beat me to the punch... she swapped out two coils and discovered that the trouble code moved to the next cylinder, showing that the ignition coil was defective.  That's right, my girl troubleshot and addressed the problem all on her own.

There's an itty bitty piece of me that wants to give her husband crap for not being mechanically inclined, but I'm not going to do that.  What he lacks in mechanical knowledge and desire to learn he makes up for by being an active, hands-on father, and by being involved in the day-to-day running of the household.  He shares in cooking, cleaning and childcare.  He's a good man who showers my daughter and my grandson with love and devotion.

But that's beside the point.  The gist of today's post is to brag on my little girl for her willingness and ability to identify and fix a moderately complex mechanical issue with virtually no external assistance, which is a rapidly vanishing skill in today's society.  That's my girl!!

Suicide Drone?

I saw an article yesterday that referred to "suicide drones."  The definition of suicide is the taking of one's own life.  This means, by definition, there is no such thing as a suicide drone for the following reasons:

-The drone is not alive, therefore, there is no life to take.

-The drone is not self-aware, so it did not choose to take its own life.

-The drone is controlled remotely by a human, so the drone did not take its own life.  In fact, if the drone were alive and self-aware, this so-called suicide drone would technically been murdered by the pilot.

U.S. and Israel Attack Iran

I woke up this morning to news that we have attacked Iran.  This is the second country we've invaded in two months.  If you include our oil blockade against Cuba, we are actively working to destabilize a third sovereign entity.

I'd like to remind people that the POTUS who did this is also the same guy who promised to get the U.S. out of "forever wars" ... the same guy who said that he could end the conflict in Ukraine ... the same guy who believes himself worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize... the same guy who promised no new wars.

The article I read said that Israel joined us in our strike, and that we have been planning this strike "for months," meaning the course of action was premeditated, not reactionary.  If any country deserves to be invaded, it's certainly Iran.  But I'm not convinced this is the right course of action at the right time.

I've said it before and I'll say it again.  It's hubris on our part to believe that everyone in the world wants our specific brand of freedom, and it's stupid for us to try to force it on the unwilling.

Run!

I got fired a couple of years ago from my previous job.  I was not fired for cause, though they tried unsuccessfully to dig up dirt on me.

The job started off great.  I was a high performer and was rewarded with a promotion after about a year.  Unfortunately, the CEO retired, and the new guy was radically different than his predecessor.  The old CEO came up through the ranks, personally knew the founder of the company, and fostered a culture that valued the employees.  The new guy was (and still is) the exact opposite.  He's laser focused on maximizing profit at all costs, and has zero tolerance for dissent in the ranks.  He's a know-it-all bully.  I made it about nine months into his tenure before I got the boot.

During that time, he cut staff by about 1/3, and he cut with a hatchet, not a scalpel.  Many of the best and brightest were dismissed, and there was a strong correlation with age and salary.  Those left behind were overworked, underpaid, and inexperienced.  As you can imagine, the environment radically shifted from being a place where people were happy to a culture of fear.

When I left, I was offered an insultingly low severance, which I declined.  A condition of that severance was a non-disparagement clause, meaning that I'd be unable to tell my story.  When they canned me, it was shortly after one of my employees committed suicide.  These bastards used his death to launch an investigation into me, alleging that I engaged in bullying behavior.  I was suspended for two weeks (with pay) while they conducted their "investigation."  When they "interviewed" me, they took something I said completely out of context and tried to say that I was behaving in an inappropriate manner.  Furthermore, this "incident" occurred completely outside of work.  It was an impromptu gathering of my team to celebrate the life of our deceased co-worker.  It was not company-sanctioned in any way, shape or form.

Since investigation did not yield anything that could get me fired for cause, they at-will fired me.  I know they fired me because I was highly compensated, because I stood up for my team, and because I did not quake in fear over C-Suite executives.  From my perspective, part of my job is to speak up if I see something wrong as opposed to cowering in the corner, keeping my head down and my mouth shut.

While I hate what the company has become, and have nothing but contempt for the leadership, I do keep in touch with former co-workers.  I also see a lot of activity on LinkedIn from these people, and from the company.  This evil empire still touts itself as a great place to work, and it's a total lie.  I constantly see people sharing LinkedIn posts saying "I'm happy to announce that I've landed a job at [company]" but to my knowledge, headcount has not grown at all.  This, of course, would indicate high turnover and a culture that remains $h!++y.

When I see these LinkedIn posts -- and I see them weekly -- I feel like I'm watching a horror flick.  I want to scream "run!" but I know they wouldn't listen any more than the characters in the slasher film.

Part of me wants to post my story on LinkedIn or Glassdoor, but I'm going to refrain.  That's a good way to get myself blacklisted, meaning I'd screw myself if I were to go job hunting in the future.  Employers tend to avoid potential employees who would dare speak truth to power.  

Let's Watch Rome Burn

It's been reported that Attorney General Pam Bondi has said (and I'm paraphrasing) if we were to prosecute everyone involved in the Epstein files, the whole system could collapse.  Let me start by saying that I haven't seen a concrete verification of this statement, but if she did say it, I would counter by saying that's not a reason to NOT do it... it's a reason TO do it.

We are supposed to live in a system that provides equal justice for all.  We ostensibly live in a society that protects the innocent.  By choosing to not enforce the core tenets of civilized society because doing so "could cause collapse," that system has already ceased to exist.  We're not supposed to do what's comfortable or convenient; we need to do what's right.

I'd like to clarify that I'm not talking about sex.  Heck, I've done the sex thing once or twice and I'm a big fan.  If you're an adult and you want to go to an island to to let your freak flag fly, then by all means knock yourself out.  The only conditions are that everyone involved in that snake ball must be a willing participant, and old enough to give informed consent.  To clarify further, I don't care if some or all of the participants are prostitutes, as long as they are willing, and of legal age.  In the grand scheme of things, that's a pretty low bar of acceptability.

If we're not prosecuting people because the system could collapse, then I say let's watch Rome burn.  I'll bring the fiddle... and the marshmallows.

Eliminate the State of the Union Address

Here's a fun fact... a lot of people mistakenly believe that the annual State of the Union (SOTU) address is required. It's not. While the Constitution mandates that the President periodically give Congress information on the State of the Union, there is no requirement that it be delivered in person, that it's annual, or that it's broadcast to the public.  I believe it's time to get rid of the dog and pony show that SOTU has become.  The longstanding "opposition response" should demonstrate how SOTU has devolved from a constitutional duty to partisan showmanship, which in my opinion undermines the original idea.

I need to share that this is not my original idea.  I read or heard the idea, thought about it for a bit, and realized that the idea has some merit.  Let's quit giving these @$$ clowns so much attention, so they can get back to their actual jobs, which is running the country.  And to clarify, I'm talking about all of the elected clowns in the car, not just the executive branch, and not just a single party.

While there is no concrete proof or consensus, there's a general agreement that elected officials tend to have a higher rate of narcissism than the population at large.  It's also established that narcissists thrive on attention.  The most effective method of reshaping that attention-seeking behavior is to ignore it.  We need to stop paying attention to negative and manipulative behavior.  By eliminating the State of the Union address (in its current form) we are removing one of the stages our elected officials use to seek and gain attention.

Do Atheists Believe in Soul Mates?

I find the concept of soul mates a little far-fetched.  After all, there are over 8 billion people in the world right now.  If there is one perfect fit for each person, the odds of finding that specific individual is infinitesimal, because geographically speaking that person could be anywhere.  It's also statistically likely that any two given soul mates can't speak the same language.

If soul mates exist, the most likely demographic to find their one and only would be citizens of India.  Their population is about 1.5 billion, meaning at least they have just under a 20% chance of their perfect match living in the same country.  By way of comparison, citizens of Monaco, a country with a population of about 40,000, stand less than a hundred thousandth of a percent chance of living in the same country as that special someone.  Specifically they have a 0.000005 percent chance of living in the same country as their soul mate.

Mathematically speaking, this means that if soul mates exist, either you're almost guaranteed to never find your soul mate, or some external factor would need to exist that guides one to the right individual, at the proper time, in the correct place. Anecdotally speaking, this external factor would need to possess some form of awareness, otherwise it would be unable to identify the correct pair before bringing them together.

This, of course, brings me back to my basic question.  Do atheists believe in soul mates?