Well Yeah

Of course, I already know this.

Voice over IP rollouts, PC refreshes in certain vertical industries, and point-of-sale installations remain IT project bright spots even as the world continues to be mired in a recession. That’s according to SmartSource, an IT staffing firm that specializes in serving IT solution providers.

While pointing to IT projects that continue to show growth, SmartSource’s CEO Joe Iovinelli says that the recession has been a boon for his company. As IT solution providers lay off full-time employees, they have made use of temporary workers to fill the holes as they sign on for IT projects, such as big PC rollouts, he says.

......

Iovinelli says he’s noticed a particular increase in demand for IT temporary services over the last six months.

“I think a lot of firms have been doing layoffs and cutbacks,” he says. “They’ve cut so deep, and still they are afraid of bringing full-timers on. They are needing to use subcontractors to get the work done because customers are starting to call again.”

...but when I tell people they give me that "Yeah, right" look. It doesn't fit in with the whiny all-IT-jobs-are-going-overseas meme. But it's not the most annoying thing I tell professionals in my industry. The single worst reaction I ever got was when someone told me they weren't making enough money in IT and I said "Maybe you should go get a law degree." I don't think that dude ever brought up the subject with me again. Or any other subject, for that matter.

Cultural Sensitivity

HT to Dianonymous for sending me this funny-but-not-really piece about Hillary Clinton trying to be Catholic in Mexico.

During her recent visit to Mexico, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made an unexpected stop at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe and left a bouquet of white flowers “on behalf of the American people,” after asking who painted the famous image.

The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was miraculously imprinted by Mary on the tilma, or cloak, of St. Juan Diego in 1531. The image has numerous unexplainable phenomena, such as the appearance on Mary’s eyes of those present in the room when the tilma was opened and the image’s lack of decay.

Mrs. Clinton was received on Thursday at 8:15 a.m. by the rector of the Basilica, Msgr. Diego Monroy.

Msgr. Monroy took Mrs. Clinton to the famous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which had been previously lowered from its usual altar for the occasion.

After observing it for a while, Mrs. Clinton asked “who painted it?” to which Msgr. Monroy responded “God!”

I bet that was at least a semi-awkward moment. Maybe the Monsignor could have tried to make it less awkward by pointing out that the Holy Virgin is sort of God's Secretary of State. Or maybe not.

I suppose it would be a good thing if you were making a diplomatic visit to another country to sort of know the stories, customs and traditions of that land whether you believed in them or not. Especially if you are going for butt shark points as the big girl obviously was by giving flowers to Our Lady. Seeing that her statement would be an intentional insult had she known the story, we can only pronounce a verdict of abject ignorance.

This evening [Mar 27, day after "honoring" the Virgin] Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is set to receive the highest award given by Planned Parenthood Federation of America -- the Margaret Sanger Award, named for the organization's founder, a noted eugenicist. The award will be presented at a gala event in Houston, Texas.

Maybe dead flowers would be more appropriate for this occasion? We could have a human artist do an impression of Margaret Sanger as "Queen of the Underground".

Umbilical Cord Blood Bill Introduced

(Columbus, OH) State Representative Todd Book recently introduced a bill to promote umbilical cord blood donation (H.B. 102), which requires the Ohio Department of Health to provide information via its web site containing information on umbilical cord blood banking and donation. The Department of Health would encourage health care professionals to provide the materials to pregnant women as well.

Umbilical cord blood is an excellent and ethical source of stem cells that can be obtained with no risk to the mother or child. Stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood have been used to successfully treat over 70 diseases including sickle cell anemia, leukemia, and lymphoma.

Unfortunately, most umbilical cord blood is currently being discarded after birth. This is especially tragic because cord blood is often matched by racial and ethnic background and many patients who are most in need of a transplant cannot find a suitable match.

"Ohio Right to Life strongly supports H.B. 102," said Mike Gonidakis, President of Ohio Right to Life. "Better public awareness about cord blood donation should increase the number of donations and increase the likelihood of patients obtaining the matches they need."

H.B. 102 enjoys strong bipartisan support as outlined by the bills following Co-Sponsors: Dan Dodd; Brian Williams; Marian Harris; Kenny Yuko; John Adams; Jeff Wagner; Randy Gardner; Sandra Harwood; Matt Huffman; Robert Mecklenborg; Peggy Lehner; Mark Okey; Tim DeGeeter; Scott Oelslager; Tim Derickson; Kris Jordan; Lynn Wachtmann; Ron Amstutz; John Domenick; and Jennifer Garrison.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Mike Gonidakis
DATE: 12-09-2008
PHONE: (614) 547-0099 x - 301

Del Toro, Penn & Carrey in new Stooges flick?

From Geeks of Doom:

While all three of the above names aren’t etched in stone as of yet, they are the target three. Sean Penn is a definite for the role of Larry (and probably the most fitting, look-wise), and Jim Carrey is currently in negotiations for the role of Curly. Word is that Carrey is already making plans to gain 40 pounds for the chubby character, so that makes his participation seem a lot more likely. Benicio Del Toro isn’t in negotiations yet, but he’s been singled out as the choice for Moe for a while now, so that’s a wait-and-see.

I was always a big Larry Fine fan.

Don Surber on Romer's McCain

Heh. Guess it doesn't matter to Romer because she isn't running for Prez. Surber's conclusion is worth repeating.

All I know is President Obama has bad-mouthed the economy for 6 months, which undermines investor confidence. His willingness to spend trillions we do not have on junk we do not need is frightening the Chinese, who own much of our debt.

Instead of answers, we get partisanship.

The Obama plan seems to be do the wrong thing and then blame Republicans if it fails.

But you know something? McCain was right. The fundamentals were there in September to ride this worldwide recession out. The recovery would have begun by now, if Obama had not pushed fear and if Obama had not borrowed another trillion.

HT NYT Opinionator

Good Polling News for GOP

From National Journal. Excerpt:

In the new National Public Radio poll conducted by the Democratic polling company Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research and its Republican counterpart, Public Opinion Strategies, 42 percent of the 800 likely voters surveyed March 10 to 14 said that if the next congressional election were held today they would vote for the Republican candidate; an identical percentage of respondents said they would vote for the Democratic one. For several years, Democrats held a substantial lead on this question.

Democrats still outnumbered Republicans in terms of party identification in this poll by 6 points, 45 percent to 39 percent. Democrats also favored their own party's congressional candidates 83 percent to 7 percent. But voters who call themselves independents gave GOP candidates the edge by 14 points, 38 percent to 24 percent. And self-identified Republicans supported their own party's candidates 85 percent to 3 percent.

Republican pollster Glen Bolger, who worked on the survey for Public Opinion Strategies, says that this is the first time since 2004 that he has seen independents favoring Republicans on the generic ballot test. Although he concedes that poll participants agreed -- by margins of 6 to 11 points -- with Democrats more than Republicans on each of the issues tested, he contends that the generic question's results are "evidence that voters, particularly independents, are worried that they overcorrected in the 2006/2008 elections combined, and now have more of a liberal slant to government than they want. They want change but with checks and balances."

Great production and concept

I'm back in this country

Current mood = Such a scream by Tom Waits.



Lolz to "one more.... one more".

Lyrics from Bone Machine

Well Pale Face said
To the Eyeball Kid
She just goes clank and boom and steam
A halo, wings, horns and a tail
Shoveling coal inside my dreams
There are no laws
She's made of cream
She's such a scream.

Qui bon tres bien, nails in cement
A Donnie gal from mortal clay
The plow is red
THe well is full
Inside the dollhouse of her skull
A cheetah coat fills up with steam
She's such a scream.

All crooked lines
Her fireplace
A milktrain so clean
Machine gun haste
You'll ride the only wall of shame
And drag that chain across the state
Her lips are red
She is the queen
She's such a scream.