The NFL Impasse

As a union member I am rather annoyed when professional athletes call themselves a union. The most important thing that unions do is negotiate pay through collective bargaining. The NFLPA doesn't do that. The NFLPA is a specialized professional guild like the AMA. The NFLPA negotiates working conditions and the circumstances under which teams may sign players to the contracts that they negotiate themselves through their agents. (Football players would shit their pants if they had a union that negotiated pay for all based some kind of a fair system that rewarded all position players using a  formula that quantified  production while taking seniority into consideration.) The owners and the players both represent exclusive groups: Those who own NFL franchises and those who can play at the highest level of football.

The average worker  in a union, the average person, cannot identify with either group because he could not qualify as a member of either elite set of people. But the average person's interest and attendance makes those gigantic contracts possible.

The players are doing the union movement a disservice by trying to set themselves up as downtrodden workers.  I understand that players have problems that need to be negotiated with owners. Workplace safety, health care and pensions are important considerations for football players. Medical Doctors may have issues with hospitals and pharmaceutical corporations, but that doesn't put them on a par with workers who are scraping by. And doctors are smart enough not to try to present such an equivalence. Football players, in general are not as smart as doctors. Unions do not  need rich guys trying to present themselves as laborers at this time. It brings the stench of overpaid entitlement to working people who are trying to keep the hard won achievements of a living wage and benefits while being demonized by plutocrats and their political stooges. It is not beneficial for wage workers to be associated with professional athletes who are set up for life simply because they played a game for a few years. The NFLPA's use of the decertification ploy also indicates that they really don't value their "union" as an entity.

Have we seen any NFL players marching in solidarity in Wisconsin? I can't remember that I've seen any. I understand that the (now defunct) NFLPA announced it was in support of Wisconsin public workers. But talk is cheap. I suspect most of the former members of the NFLPA are sympathetic with Governor Scott Walker and vote Republican. The minimum wage in the NFL was $320,000 in 2010. And most of the owners are  rich guys who cannot really identify with the average citizen and donate to Republican politicians who are trying on their behalf to destroy the real union movement that represents real workers.  Twelve NFL owners just made Forbes List of the 1,210 billionaires in the world today. Neither side has bargained in good faith. The union had a decertification scheme in place that they had every intention to use. The owners had their lock-out plan.  So I guess I'm just saying a pox on both of their  houses.

And who are the athletes who really could  use a union and will never have one because it is too late and the sport is basically dead? That would be professional boxers.

Cushing's Screen Test
As 'Renfield' for the 
Upcoming Film "Doggy Dracula"


THE FLY

 Little Fly, 

 Thy summer's play 

 My thoughtless hand 

 Has brushed away. 

 Am not I 

 A fly like thee? 

 Or art not thou 

 A man like me? 

 For I dance 

 And drink, and sing, 

 Till some blind hand 

 Shall brush my wing. 

 If thought is life 

 And strength and breath 

 And the want 

 Of thought is death; 

 Then am I 

 A happy fly, 

 If I live, 

 Or if I die.

William Blake

The Stingy 11.2 ounce bottle. 

Thieving Euros?


Perhaps the title of this post is a bit harsh. 
I usually don't purchase beer from the old world.
There are ample quality brews available brewed in the United States now.
At one time such beers were rare.
From time to time I enjoy one of the British Bitters or Trappist Ales, a Stella Artois or a Heineken, especially when in the islands of the Caribbean.

I bought a box of Löwenbräu yesterday.
I did it because I noticed that the version suddenly common in the stores is brewed in Germany again.

For many years Miller Brewing concocted an American Löwenbräu that contained corn in the recipe. It didn't taste much like the former import beer. It tasted like Miller. They thereby destroyed the reputation of the brand over a thirty year period and it was discontinued here early in the twenty-first century.
I knew that Löwenbräu is now owned by the same international conglomerate (AB InBev) that owns Budweiser and I was curious about this Löwenbräu.

The flavor I found in this Löwenbräu, which is described as a 5.2% malt liquor on the label, was OK. But it is as bland as German beer can get. And it is not as tasty or as fragrant as the remembered  imported Löwenbräu of my youth.
But memories of youth can be illusive.

Then I noticed a disturbing fact.
This beer from Europe comes in an 11.2 ounce bottle.
That means you get 9.6 ounces LESS in a twelve pack of beer.
I had subliminally noticed that some beers from away came in a smaller bottle.
But for the first time it really annoyed me.
I am finished buying beer that comes in the 11.2 ounce bottle.
Brewers, stop stealing 80% a bottle of beer from me when I buy a twelve pack and I will reconsider my decision.
At least prominently display on the box that the bottles contain a measly 11.2 ounces of beer.
Before great American beers become available I suppose I would have accepted the 1/3 liter size bottle as the price one had to pay for an imported beer. But no more.
On my next beer buying excursion I will research bottle sizes of various brands and report in this space.

Anheuser-Busch InBev produces 25% of all the beer in the world and bottles the following brands:

International

Budweiser, Stella Artois, Beck's and Brahma 

Some Local and Regional Brands

Staropramen, Alexander Keith's, Leffe and Hoegaarden, Bud Light, Skol, Quilmes, Labatt Blue, Michelob, Harbin, Sedrin, Cass, Klinskoye, Sibirskaya Korona, Chernigivske and Jupiler.  

The 330 ml bottle brings a lot of extra profit when you consider how big AB InBev is and how much imported beer they sell in the USA to people who may not be aware that they are drinking from a short-measured bottle. 

The Phantom Sprayer

I've finally seen the mysterious cat who has been spraying on our back door

Fifteen minutes ago I heard a little howling in the yard.
I crept to the light switch.
I flipped on the light and swung open the door.
And there was a big grey tom cat on the back step.
I hooted at him,
Startled, he ran away....
I may be fortunate he was not lined up and ready to spray on the door as I opened it.

FOOLING SPYCAMS!


Mr. Corbett suggests in this video that IBM is working on A.I. that will allow a computer to predict criminal activity based on body movements picked up by cameras monitoring public places.

I recommend that we perform quirky bizarre and random body movements in public places to foil their dastardly schemes.
Or, one could assume a guilty and sneaky Spy vs. Spy persona.
We could all just skulk around holding our capes to our faces in public.
Or just wear a damn burka,
Or an outlandish costume.
Never, ever, act like just like yourself.
Impersonate someone.
"All the world's a stage."
Today I am Mr. Spock.

Suggested Costume

In Progress Part 2

Persons I Would Like To Meet


The first man or woman who climbed upon a horse with the intention to ride.
The first person who gazed at a snowcapped mountain in wonder and successfully climbed to the top.
The guy or gal who made that possible by figuring out that one could skin the hide and fur off an animal and fashion clothing so as to wear it.
The first one to string a bow, cut and arrow and use them to kill for food.
The first person to flake a stone tool.
The genius who first could repeat the miracle of making fire.
The first person to draw a representative and recognizable form on a surface.
Whoever first plunged deeply into the ocean to retrieve a sponge or oysters for food or pearls.
The first man who ate an oyster... and mushrooms.
The first guy who got in his boat and purposely sailed beyond the sight of land.
The one who figured out how to smelt metals.
The first person to measure something.