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I’m pretty shocked by an article appearing in today’s New York Times Magazine. One the featured essays tried to support the notion of a rebounding economy by downplaying the loss of jobs in major sectors and demonstrating a growth of jobs in the hidden US service sector. Specfically, the article stated that the Bureau of Labor & Statistics tests job losss in such sectors like manufacturing, technology, and engineering to cheaper overseas providers, instead of honing in on jobs gained in masseuses, spas, and manicurist shops.

I’m not joking. The article referenced the American Massage Association when it spoke of the tripling number of registered masseuses and spa employees. Yes.

I first thought it was a largely-sarcastic article using the ludicrous as a way to demonstrate that we’re not only losing jobs in important sectors to overseas but that the trillion-dollar trade deficit isn’t getting reduced in the process. I thought the article was eventually going to end on the ideal that we’ve got to stop giving training and financial support to service jobs that don’t help in producing buy-end goods that can be exported. Instead, the article was dead serious, and really tried to use spa growth as an indicator that there is NOTHING to worry about. That even though other countries are picking up jobs from our manufacturing and software development, those people here who lost those jobs can always find work giving massages.

I figured the editors of the NYT were on crack for letting that thing run. I can’t wait to see the number of Letters To The Editors ripping on the author. How can she seriously write that we’re not too worry because the invisible hand of market demand is pushing us from creating tangible, exportable goods to become personal relaxation experts? How many Shiatsu professionals vs. automobiles are we importing from Asia?

The cause for alarm is that by losing jobs to overseas we’re stuck with having to win clearhandedly in fewer sectors, including education, medicine, science, technology, and entertainment. The latter is crucial, I think, because it what gets shoved down the throat of the rest of the world. It’s what marks the US imprint on the foreign household and street level. God help us if the US is really turning into a country of masseuses. 🙂

Sam

Today, I had a beverage with our illustrious poster, Sammy G, and his beautiful girlfriend at the Starbucks across the street from our old High School.

It came as a surprise to Mr. G that there was indeed a starbucks there.

You see, when we went to school, there was a crappy pizza place, a wendy’s, a “High’s” convenience store, a McD’s, a CVS, and a Pizza Hut within 2 blocks of the school, on opposite sides of Darnestown road.

Today, there is the same Wendys and McDs, CVS, and pizza hut, as well as a Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, Subway, Comic Book Store, Sushi, Fuddruckers, Chinese Food, Mexican Food, Papa Johns (where the Crappy Pizza place was), Deli, Bagel Shop, and a host of other stores.

When we were in high school, the new Movie Theatre and Arcade was a building called the Rio. Now that is a whole plaza with RioGrande, 18 movie screens, A 2nd Mex Restaurant, hamburger Hamlet, Target, Borders, Galyans, Pier 1 Imports, Joe’s Crab Shack, Macaroni Grill, Starbucks, Taco bell, and a host of fancy outlet stores.

This can go on and on.. Shopping centers and movie theatres are popping up EVERYwhere here.. (there are literally 4 Multiplexes of over 10 screens within 10 miles of my house… and at least 15 Starbucks).

Frankly, I like it.. yup.. call me nutso.. but its cool for me. I hold little nostalgia of having to drive to Bethesda for decent food.. but there is an environmental and cultural cost.

The Small towns are going away. Frederick, the next burg up in the north, looks much like this now, and there is nary 15 miles of unadulterated highway between us and them. 10 years ago, we were the boondocks and they were a backward town. No longer.

So, Those of you here and there.. what do you think about the Sprawl. I’m divided, to be honest.

Oh, And Sammy looks much trimmer than I would have thought. The years have been kind.

Our favorite Sunday topic-starter, Justin Timpane, has just released his latest tune, Miracle, to the web. Check it out.

My review:

OK, dude, I know you don’t have a real piano, and that piano sounds fantastic. What did you use?

Nice ballad. Good slow-dance tune. You should do a version that includes drums for the dance floor 🙂

Only complaints: a couple of sung notes were off, and near the end, there’s a sudden drop in volume that is jarring. Oh, and you need to fix up your MP3 ID3 information (you can set that in Cool Edit, just go to “View”, “Wave Properties”, then pick “MP3 ID3” (the default is “Standard RIFF”) and fill it out. That way when I play it in Winamp, I see artist, title, etc.

Overall, though, I dig it.

Not to rekindle our previous debate regarding same-sex marriage, but I’d like to rekindle our previous debate regarding same-sex marriage…

It’s one thing for President Bush to state his personal views on same-sex marriage. It’s another to deliberately gather the press corps to express his support for amending the Constitution to ban same-sex marriage.

Whatever happened to separation of church and state? Yes, this “moral decay”, this moral decline, this moral miscontrsuct, is based on Judeo-Christian views. There are plenty of people out there in the conservative majority who feel that same-sex marriage violates decency on moral ground, but I believe this springs from religious tenet. The major religions hold up the Bible/Testament and point to it, shunning same-sex marriage.

Terrible.

Because, last time I checked, we live in a country where religion technically has no impact on our legislative and judicial agenda. Amending the Constitution to ban gay marriage is ludicrous, and having a President advocate for it lets me know that he’s someone who is comfortable alienating the populace and estranging the minority. This country is based on inclusion (“give us your tired, your poor”) and accepting all persons of culture, faith, etc. is what makes us strong. Yes, we compete internationally on our intellectual developments, our science, our management, our engineering, our medicine, and our military. But there’s a foundation of inclusion underneath it all that taps into the collective power of people who bring their talents to the table. Excluding blacks because of prejudice. Excluding women from voting. Excluding foreigners because they talk and look different. Amendments to our Constitution and additions to our laws are based on “inclusion” not on exclusion. Have we learned nothing from our past?

The last 25 years shows that our economy is beseiged by globalization. The barriers of the world have been torn down. Do we want to start building cultural barriers at home? Alientating people is the worst thing this country can do, economically and socially. Whether I believe in homosexuality isn’t the issue. The issue is whether our laws are explicity written to protect the minority and ensure their place beside the majority in the pursuit of happiness. And anyone at the top of the political food chain who wants to step up to the microphone and express his sentiments of alienation in election year better be prepared to face a harsh rebuking.

This reminds me of former Presidents who shunned racial integration, who laughed at women in the workplace, who mocked the inclusion of external cultures into our mainstream. People didn’t have choices before. “You don’t like it, then leave our country. Oh, you can’t? Well the deal with it.” Well, now people have choices. And creating a society which tells people that they’re not welcome is awful.

Besides, it’s a state issue anyway. Right? Right?

A few pictures of the boy for your perusal.

Laughing Boy Yo quiero Taco Bell! Look who’s walking! (sort of) Kid’s got big feet!

Holy crap… when did we all get so old?

Why is baseball such a collection of idiots?

I don’t mean the players, but the owners and the players union? C’mon! How hard is it to look at your league (MLB) and see declining attendance and ratings, and then to look at another league (NFL) and see the exact opposite, and figure out that the main reason is that 95% of the teams are out the playoff race by the end of July?

It’s great in the NFL now, because I know that my Ravens are going to challenge for the playoffs at least once every 3-5 years. Every team has a shot now. The Bengals look good for the coming year, so now maybe even the Cardinals may make a run.

But my poor Orioles, they make some good free agents signings this year (Tejada, Javy Lopez) and fall even farther behind the evil empire. How can this be good to anyone outside the major markets? Granted, you might get a team like the Marlins who put together a good year and make a run, but they’ll be the anomaly.

Who won the year before them? The Angels. Where are they now?

The year before that? The Diamondbacks. Where have they been?

(I love the fact that since Mike Mussina deserted us for the evil empire, he hasn’t won that ring yet. HAHAHAHA!!!)

So, the players union states that this is good for baseball and the players, to have the rich get richer. How? It’s almost like a whole other level to MLB, where if you’re good, you make the majors, but if you”re great, you make the evil empire!

Why not have the All-Stars from the AL & NL play the evil empire at the All-Star break? That would be as fair!

I’m done ranting. MLB should get a clue and share revenue and balance things out. Explore a salary cap. Learn from the success of the NFL.

My $.02 Steve

I’m not applauding the latest RIAA tactic, but I think I may be sliding over to their corner.

About six months ago, a friend of my roomate, who lives in LA, was tagged by RIAA with a file-sharing lawsuit. RIAA did a “John Doe” lawsuit because the complaint was filed against an IP address with the ISP provider, rather than directly against a human identity. The ISP has to forward the suit to the individual and then provide RIAA with the person’s name. Anyway, the roomate’s friend was freaked out to get a serious lawsuit against them, especially considered that it was friends using her Internet connection to swap files.

**Sidebar — what if someone is out there in the neighbordhood hijacking my wireless internet connection and swapping files and I get sued? RIAA can’t physically prove it was me swapping files, right? Can they search my hard drive?**

Anyway, the friend ultimately had to settle. Sort of like many of the other teenagers out there who are having to settle. Just goes to show that your home-based activity can become publicly available.

So the point of this entry was to say that I think I’m in corner of RIAA. They are an association protecting the sound recording industry and have decided to sue people who are allegedly stealing their members’ property. I may not be in favor of the tactic and the public relations decision but I understand the rationale.

Before everyone response with “invasion of privacy”, let’s just recognize that the RIAA is successfuly suing people, so there’s some judge somewhere that affirmed RIAA’s assertion that swapping files is not protected under an home-intrusion defense. We don’t know the law but we know it’s working for RIAA right now. I think that I might be interested to see how long the suit siege continues.

I wonder if there’s some kind of application that let’s you trade files while blinding your IP address or the file type/title to the ISP…

I’ll stop typing now.

Sam

Do you believe in Absolute truth?

In Star Wars, Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back, Obi Wan Kenobi says, “Many of the truths we cling to depends on our point of view.”

Then again…

The belief in “absolute truth” contends that what is true continues to be true, whether or not you or I believe it is true. My definition of truth falls in this category.

If I hold the point of view that water is not wet, it will not make it so, and it is from this perspective that I see the world. Others could argue that I believe this way because of a complex combination of genetics and upbringing, nature and nurture, and that truth is indeed malleable depending on point of view. This is an argument that has the potential to spiral out of control.

To assert that truth is indeed malleable and not fixed is to make a fixed assertion about truth itself. It does not follow that truth can be malleable because that point of view would have to include the idea that truth could be fixed, which would then, paradoxically negate the argument that truth can be malleable. It can therefore be taken as an axiom that truth is fixed, or rather that there is “absolute truth”.

But then again, what do I know?

That being said, how do you respond to the concept that others may hold vastly different opinions than you on what is right, wrong, true, or untrue?

I wrote recently about the difficulty of choosing appropriate Valentine’s Day gifts. Well, the day arrived.

I thought that a cake like this would be an ideal Valentine’s gift for the twenty-first century 🙂

But I was more traditional. I got her candy and flowers, and we went on a really nice date. We chilled out in our basement with some popcorn, sodas, snacks, and watched Charlie’s Angels II: Full Throttle together. Fun movie, but quite a bit more risque than the first one. One scene in particular, where the Angels play a part in an exotic dancing troupe in order to snag some keys, seems like it went on gratuitously long. I liked their approach in the first movie, doing almost the same thing to get the fingerprints of an executive, and then it was much briefer. This time around, the amount of time spent on close-ups of scantily-clad butts seemed a bit excessive.

Still fun to watch, though, and an enjoyable Valentine’s Day date. Right now, Christy is out shopping by herself (something she really, really enjoys); I took my son out earlier today for lunch and a Valentine’s Daddy-Son date.

Tonight, we’re going to grill some burgers and go over to a friend’s house to play cards. How did you end up spending your heart day?