Month: September 2004

Just in time for Labor Day, the Bush administration presented its plans for eliminating overtime pay for war veterans. That’s right: if you learned your trade in the military, Bush’s “pro-labor” plan now makes you an exempt, salaried employee, ineligible for overtime.

Bush’s plan also proposes that employers convert exempt employees to hourly employees at a lower rate of pay which, without overtime, reflects their actual work hours.

What if you provide “skilled advice” as part of your trade? You’re also ineligible for overtime pay. Exempt Professionals once included doctors, lawyers, and those with specialized degrees. Now, it covers any person with specialized knowledge.

And you only need to read through 15,576 pages of Federal Register to find this delightful information. Even more interesting? That the “comp time” Bush gleefully extolled the virtues of during his nomination acceptance speech doesn’t exist in this proposed mammoth law, while the pay cuts do.

Happy Labor Day, newly-minted exempt salaried employees formerly known as “laborers”. Welcome to the sixty-hour work-week for forty hours’ pay.

As most of you know, about two years ago I abandoned the religion of my parents. It wasn’t working for me, and since then I’ve been a much happier, healther, more honest person.

One of the unfortunate things I found in taking the Socratic “I know nothing” approach, though, is that of building a “personal ethic”. Many people assume that without a god to lay down an ethic for you, like the Ten Commandments, you’d be left to your own devices and become this wicked, evil person. I’m living proof that that’s not true 🙂 Nevertheless, I’ve often thought that this road would be much easier for other people to grasp if there was a succinct summary of ethics which I could point to and say, “That’s what I strive for”.

Luckily, my acquaintance John B. Hodges penned just such a summary, as “The Ten Points of Ethical Wisdom, an Atheist Moral Compass”:

1. Do not mistake obedience for morality. Ethics is a tool for living with other people. It is not based on authority, but on reason and compassion.
2. Do not seek to deceive yourself or others with pleasing lies. Things are as they are, and the consequences of actions will be what they will be. The wise will be truth-seeking and truth-telling.
3. If you value anything in this life, on this Earth, you should value other people, for they are the only help you will have in times of trouble. Seek friends and allies, do not make enemies unnecessarily.
4. Reason and compassion together imply other commitments: to democracy, freedom of thought and speech, equal rights for all, community support for the disadvantaged and handicapped, humane treatment of animals, and preserving the Earth for future generations.
5. Why does a person deserve the protection of the law? For one thing, we are persons also, and force uncontrolled by law would threaten us as well. We are all at risk, of illness, accident, poverty, and aging; by protecting the weak, we protect ourselves.
6. We find ourselves alive and conscious. What shall we do with our lives? Beware “fishers of men”. If we demand that someone else supply us with a purpose, someone else may DO just that. Purpose is ours to choose.
7. There is a natural “default” purpose, which we may choose if we like. We all have parents, as did they, back to the beginning of life. Every one of our ancestors had children. Health is the ability to survive; the goal favored by natural selection is “promote the health of your family.” We are all the offspring of uncounted generations of family-health-maximizers, so we may find adopting this goal consciously to be congenial. Beyond our near relatives, we may choose to draw our circle of friends and relations as widely as we wish. We are all members of Darwin’s family, all kin from the beginning of life.
8. The Good is that which leads to health, The Right is that which leads to peace. If you want to maintain peaceful and cooperative relations with your neighbors, don’t kill, steal, lie, or break agreements. If you want peace, work for justice. As Shakespeare wrote, “It needs no ghost, Milord, come from the grave, to tell us this.”
9. Fairy-tales about the supernatural are not necessary to give meaning or purpose to life. Meaning is the story we choose to join. Instead of seeking a ticket to Heaven by being an obedient slave on Earth, we can gain meaning by taking a positive role in history, seeking to make this Earth a better place.
10. Enjoy the life you have, appreciate the world you live in, make the best of the opportunities that reality offers you. Do not seek to live forever, for nothing does. The Universe is vast and wondrous, and more than enough. We have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.

Although I realize this will not resonate with all readers of barnson.org, it really resonated with me. It’s a bit too long to hang it as a cross-stitch on the wall, though…

Well, today is Friday. I have been swamped at work. But just wanted you to know that I spent 4 GREAT days with the Barnson clan in Utah. I got to know my nieces and nephews again and became reaquianted with my brother and sister-in-laws. And in that process, I think we all became closer. It is honestly the best experience that I could have gone through. It is wonderful to have a family that cares so much for you even though you have divorced their brother. Everyone was warm and welcoming. Genna and I were extremely tired when we got home and I think she is still on Utah time. As for me, I had to get over the jet lag quick if I was going to make it into work on time.

I just wanted to thank everyone for a awesome time!!! I told Genna last night, we might try and make it next year, money permitting.

Love you all!!!