And we all know that peanut butter is not allowed in schools because one of the kids might have an allergy to peanuts.

Now Detroit city employees can’t wear cologne. Or much of anything else.

Susan McBride, a civil servant in Detroit, won a $100,000 settlement from the city after officials failed to accommodate her allergy to perfume. McBride complained to superiors about a coworker’s perfume, claiming the smell made it difficult for her to breath. When managers did nothing to address the situation, McBride sued under the Americans with Disabilities Act and won.

In addition to paying the hundred grand, the city, as part of the settlement, will post signs asking employees to refrain from wearing “scented products, including but not limited to colognes, after-shave lotions, perfumes, deodorants, body/face lotions, hair sprays or similar products.”

The complaint chain should have been: coworker, unit manager, their manager, upper management. I don’t know exactly what happened, but it’s really sad if Susan did go through all the steps and it didn’t work. I can’t imagine being that coworker and saying ‘No, I think I’ll keep on bathing in cologne that makes you sick’. Or management, who apparently couldn’t step up and work out a simple solution.

Who’s to blame for this ruination, Susan or Management? I vote for Coworker/Management.

Dear President Obama,

My name is Harold Estes, approaching 95 on December 13 of this year. People meeting me for the first time don’t believe my age because I remain wrinkle free and pretty much mentally alert.

I enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1934 and served proudly before, during and after WW II retiring as a Master Chief Bos’n Mate. Now I live in a “rest home” located on the western end of Pearl Harbor allowing me to keep alive the memories of 23 years of service to my country.

One of the benefits of my age, perhaps the only one, is to speak my mind, blunt and direct even to the head man.

So here goes.

I am amazed, angry and determined not to see my country die before I do but you seem hell bent not to grant me that wish.

I can’t figure out what country you are the president of. You fly around the world telling our friends and enemies despicable lies like:

” We’re no longer a Christian nation”

” America is arrogant” – (Your wife even announced to the world,”America is mean-spirited. ” Please tell her to try preaching that nonsense to 23 generations of our war dead buried all over the globe who died for no other reason than to free a whole lot of strangers from tyranny and hopelessness.)

I’d say shame on the both of you but I don’t think you like America nor do I see an ounce of gratefulness in anything you do for the obvious gifts this country has given you. To be without shame or gratefulness is a dangerous thing for a man sitting in the White House.

After 9/11 you said,” America hasn’t lived up to her ideals.”

Which ones did you mean? Was it the notion of personal liberty that 11,000 farmers and shopkeepers died for to win independence from the British ? Or maybe the ideal that no man should be a slave to another man that 500,000 men died for in the Civil War ? I hope you didn’t mean the ideal 470,000 fathers, brothers,husbands,and a lot of fellas I knew personally died for in WWII, because we felt real strongly about not letting any nation push us around because we stand for freedom.

I don’t think you mean the ideal that says equality is better than discrimination. You know the one that a whole lot of white people understood when they helped to get you elected.

Take a little advice from a very old geezer, young man. Shape up and start acting like an American. If you don’t, I’ll do what I can to see you get shipped out of that fancy rental on Pennsylvania Avenue .You were elected to lead not to bow, apologize and kiss the hands of murderers and corrupt leaders who still treat their people like slaves.

And just who do you think you are telling the American people not to jump to conclusions and condemn that Muslim major who killed 13 of his fellow soldiers and wounded dozens more.

You mean you don’t want us to do what you did when that white cop used force to subdue that black college professor in Massachusetts who was putting up a fight ? You don’t mind offending the police calling them stupid but you don’t want us to offend Muslim fanatics by calling them what they are, terrorists.

One more thing. I realize you never served in the military and never had to defend your country with your life but you’re the Commander-in-Chief now, son. Do your job. When your battle-hardened field General asks you for 40,000 more troops to complete the mission, give them to him. But if you’re not in this fight to win, then get out. The life of one American soldier is not worth the best political strategy you’re thinking of.

You could be our greatest president because you face the greatest challenge ever presented to any president. You’re not going to restore American greatness by bringing back our bloated economy. That’s not our greatest threat.

Losing the heart and soul of who we are as Americans is our big fight now.

And I sure as hell don’t want to think my president is the enemy in this final battle.

Sincerely,
Harold B. Estes

McAlpin , FL

I don’t know about you, but I hear the Drum & Bugle Corp playing softly in the background…

God Bless Harold Estes and all his brothers in arms.

Reminds me of the scene in Independence Day where the clueless wait atop a tall building for the fuzzy wuzzy aliens to come get them. Or blow them to bits, which is what happened.

Why assume they love us?

State Aid Funding For Public Libraries To Be Eliminated

Florida Library Association Press Release:

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. –

On March 10, appropriations committees in the Florida House and Senate adopted positions eliminating all funding for Florida’s State Aid to Public Libraries program. This devastating action will result in some Florida library branches closing and will seriously cripple libraries’ ability to serve Floridians. Libraries have already taken their share of local and state budget cuts. This will be especially damaging to libraries in Florida’s rural communities, as these libraries rely heavily on provisions in the program that help communities with lower tax bases.

This action comes at a particularly bad time for Floridians who are turning to their public libraries for help during these challenging times:

Job seekers turn to libraries to learn about and apply for jobs.

Floridians needing to apply for critical E-Government services and benefits are getting help from library staff, computers, and Internet service.

Florida families are relying on library books, cd’s, and dvd’s to stretch household budgets.

Families continue to rely on libraries to help children learn to read and help parents and caregivers learn to be children’s first teachers.

The library community knows that the state budget is seriously challenged, but library funding has already been cut by over a third, from $33.4 million in 2001 to $21.2 million today. Local library funding has been deeply cut in the last 3 years and more reductions are coming in 2010-11. Many libraries are reporting cuts exceeding 30%. If state funding is reduced below the current level critically needed federal funds will also be lost.

Library funding was saved last session when the program was threatened at the last minute and Florida residents rose up and legislators restored the funding. The Florida Library Association (FLA) is calling on Governor Charlie Crist and legislative leaders to find a way to fund this critical program, which has helped support public library service to Floridians since 1962.

I did a search and found that libraries all over the country are facing closure after losing their funding. If this were a case of too many branches, then consolidation would be in order… but funding simply cut off? It seems unreal that a cornerstone of our civilization would be treated in such a manner.

After many of the offices closed and reorganized under new names, Judge Nina Gershon has decided that federal funds to ACORN should continue. And as of two days ago the group was still under federal investigation.

NYC judge: Govt must stop blocking money to ACORN

A federal judge who found it unconstitutional that Congress tried to cut funding to the activist group ACORN has rejected a government request to change her mind and has ordered government agencies to make it clear the funding isn’t blocked.

In a written ruling Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Nina Gershon made permanent her conclusion last year that the cutoff of funding was unconstitutional. She ordered all federal agencies to put the word out about it.

The Brooklyn judge said ACORN was punished by Congress without the enactment of administrative processes to decide if money had been handled inappropriately. She said the harm to ACORN’s reputation continues because the government never rescinded its advice to withhold funding after it was distributed to “hundreds, if not thousands, of recipients.“

Ain’t about the money being handled ‘inappropriately’.

Ever feel like you’re being screwed by an unworthy, apathetic, useless partner? Taxpayer, meet Lucky, a.k.a. ‘Uncle Sam’.

Today they added another, less patient pup. A young dog snubbed to the fence who feels it his solemn duty to scream bloody murder every few moments. My dogs are frazzled.

Taken from my bedroom window:

Poor little thing.

These people have obviously never heard of xpens, crates, gates or any other means of retention. And since this is *Blue House and they loathe me, I won’t be educating them. Might call the cops, though.

*Lost to the great archive swipe of 2009.

Fishermen’s fear: Public’s ‘right to fish’ shifting under Obama?
By Patrik Jonsson Patrik Jonsson – Tue Mar 9, 6:17 pm ET

Atlanta – The Obama administration has proposed using United Nations-guided principles to expand a type of zoning to coastal and even some inland waters. That’s raising concerns among fishermen that their favorite fishing holes may soon be off-limits for bait-casting. In the battle of incremental change that epitomizes the American conservation movement, many weekend anglers fear that the Obama administration’s promise to “fundamentally change” water management in the US will erode what they call the public’s “right to fish,” in turn creating economic losses for the $82 billion recreational fishing industry and a further deterioration of the American outdoorsman’s legacy. Proponents say the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force established by President Obama last June will ultimately benefit the fishing public by managing ecosystems in their entirety rather than by individual uses such as fishing, shipping, or oil exploration. “It’s not an environmentalist manifesto,” says Larry Crowder, a marine biologist at Duke University in North Carolina. “It’s multiple-use planning for the environment, and making sure various uses … are sustainable.” (Amateur outdoorsmen have been fighting for their rights for years, as the Monitor reports here.)

New way to manage marine resources Faced with the prospect of further industrialization along America’s coasts and the Great Lakes (wind turbines and natural-gas exploration, for example), the task force is charged with putting in place a new ecosystem management process called marine spatial planning. Marine spatial planning (MSP), according to the United Nations, is “a public process of analyzing and allocating the spatial and temporal distribution of human activities in marine areas to achieve ecological, economic, and social objectives that usually have been specified through a political process.” That kind of government-speak scares Phil Morlock, director of environmental affairs at the reel-and-rod maker Shimano. Mr. Morlock points to references by the ocean task force to “one global sea” as evidence that what’s really being proposed are broad changes to America’s user-funded conservation strategy, potentially affecting even inland waters. “I suggest that the task force recommend our model to the United Nations rather than us adopting the United Nations model,” he says in a phone interview. “The American model is the best in the world, so our question is: Why seek the lowest common denominator?”

Protections for recreational fishermen Mr. Obama has said he will not override protections put in place by Presidents Clinton and Bush that established recreational fishermen as a special class.

But critics still worry about the Obama administration’s ties to environmental groups that espouse “anti-use” policies that put some habitats out of reach even for rod and reel fishermen, who take only 3 percent of America’s landed catch every year. “Angling advocates point out that senior policy officials on the task force seem inclined to ally themselves with preservationists and environmental extremists who want to create ‘no fishing’ preserves, with no scientific justification,” writes ESPN.com’s Robert Montgomery. On the other hand, nonpartisan experts say the task force has already made strides in better recognizing various stakeholder groups, including recreational fishermen, and that it doesn’t intend to undermine the ability of states to manage their natural resources, as many fishermen fear. “There’s been huge progress by the task force in terms of being more inclusive in thinking about economic, ecological, social, and political concerns,” says Mr. Crowder at Duke. “The paranoia – and there is paranoia on all sides – is that the process will be captured. My hope is that mutual concern gets people to the table.” The final report of the task force is expected in late March. Congress will decide its fate, unless Obama issues an executive order establishing MSP as the law of the water.

I’ve seen a lot of stupidity my life, but this takes the cake. Mows the lawn. Buys me a Hershey bar. Flogs the trapeze swinging midget. Well, you get the idea.

Of course, this begs the question: what if I don’t want to tell the cretins in D.C. everything they want to know? I understand the need for the census… and it’s constitutional. But other than persons residing, which questions must we answer under penalty of law?

And what about the GPS coordinates?

Why is the Census Bureau using Global Positioning Systems (GPS)?

The Census Bureau uses Global Positioning Systems (GPS) to help locate addresses. A handheld computer is equipped with GPS and is used during our address canvassing operation. Address canvassing is a field operation where census workers systematically travel all known and new streets and roads to identify every structure where people live or could potentially live and update our address list and maps. For the 2010 Census, we attempted to collect GPS coordinates for each structure to make sure it is recorded in the correct location. The census workers also confirmed, added and deleted addresses using a GPS-equipped handheld computer. All this work was done to ensure a complete and accurate address list for delivering the 2010 Census questionnaires next year.

Are the GPS coordinates collected during the 2010 Census operation kept confidential?

Yes. All address information, including GPS coordinates, is protected by the confidentiality requirements of Title 13 of the United States Code. All Census Bureau employees take an oath for life to protect identifiable information about individuals and businesses gathered by the agency. By law, the Census Bureau cannot share respondents’ answers with the IRS, FBI, CIA or any other government agency. The penalty for unlawful disclosure is a fine of up to $250,000 or imprisonment of up to 5 years, or both.

You can be sure that I’ll fill out the form because I will not open my front door to census workers. And there will be 1.2 million of them crawling our streets…

Across the country, the 2010 census will require 1.2 million temporary workers to conduct the decennial head count, which begins this month.

Most of the jobs, about 700,000, will require knocking on doors for six to 10 weeks from May to July to find people who didn’t mail in their census questionnaires. Hiring is going on now.

“We want to encourage people to get in the system now,” said Jenna Steormann Arnold, media specialist for the U.S. Census Bureau in Central Texas, adding that some workers can start much sooner than May.

“The majority of the work and training will start in the beginning of April,” she said.

The massive hiring effort will require more than 3 million job applicants, and the U.S. Census Bureau is targeting unemployed workers to find them.

At a news briefing recently, Census Bureau Director Robert Groves said that his agency would advertise the job openings in unemployment offices as well as in the local media so that “everyone who needs a job knows about the job opportunities.”

“We want to hire people in the neighborhoods where they’ll work,”

The Better Business Bureau cautions us to be cooperative, but cautious regarding census workers.

• If a U.S. Census worker knocks on your door, they will have a badge, a handheld device, a Census Bureau canvas bag and a confidentiality notice. Ask to see their identification and their badge before answering their questions. However, you should never invite anyone you don’t know into your home.

• Census workers are currently only knocking on doors to verify address information. Do not give your Social Security number, credit card or banking information to anyone, even if they claim they need it for the U.S. Census. While the Census Bureau might ask for basic financial information, such as a salary range, it will not ask for Social Security, bank account or credit card numbers nor will employees solicit donations.

• Eventually, Census workers may contact you by telephone, mail or in person at home. However, they will not contact you by e-mail, so be on the look out for e-mail scams impersonating the Census. Never click on a link or open any attachments in an e-mail that are supposedly from the U.S. Census Bureau.