by El Zorro Viejo (aka; Jim)

by El Zorro Viejo (aka; Jim)

by El Zorro Viejo (aka; Jim)

The Old Fox's Den is proving to be the place I spend most of my time these days. So, if you are coming here from an older link, all I can say is that I am now to be found at The Old Fox's Den and that is where you should be right now...

For the foreseeable future this site will be quiescent. Thanks for looking and I hope to see you in the Den....

by El Zorro Viejo (aka; Jim)

I haven't changed ISPs as yet. They make it sooo fucking hard to do it seamlessly. Plus, my dear wife had second thoughts when she heard a couple of horror stories about Verizon. I haven't heard that many negatives, but she is freaked. Seems that she has become really hooked on the DSL speed for her Internet connection and she doesn't want anything to jeopardize it. So, as a result, I am still here, and will be for a little longer. I'll start dealing with this change once I get other changes made. (For what it is worth, I am looking for a new job; anybody who might know of something, please feel free to contact me!!)

by El Zorro Viejo (aka; Jim)

So, I was listening to RadioParadise last night when I heard Mary Gauthier's Mercy Now. It is a stunning song. So I went to her web site and pretty much listened to the whole album. While one or two of 'em are a little too country, for the most part these are superb examples of the singer/songwriter. Actually, Mary doesn't really sing all that much. Her delivery is more like a poetry reading set to music; sort of chanted/spoken/sung, and the music itself is very country. But, when you really listen to the lyrics, the music is...perfect. Falling out of love and Mercy Now are two great songs. I highly recommend Ms. Gauthier (pronounced "go-shay"); she has become one of my "must listen to" musical artists.

by El Zorro Viejo (aka; Jim)

Yep, just about a month on the nose since I last posted something here. I've been posting on another blog and experimenting with other things. I don't have the time I once had to devote to things computer, so moving on takes much longer. The depressing thing is that, by the time I move on, what I'm moving on to is already obsolete. *sigh* But this isn't what I really want to talk about today.

I am about to switch ISPs, or, rather, DSL providers. They are, of course, one in the same thing. It's become an economic rather than emotional issue. I've been with Earthlink, and its predecessors since some thing like 1994. Before that I was a Delphi subsciber and, before that, a Compuserve member. And that brings us back to before there was an actual Internet. But I digress. I am moving from Earthlink to Verizon primarily because Verizon implies speeds almost 9x faster downstream and 3x faster up. And all this for about $12/mo fewer dollars.

This almost sounds like a no-brainer except that I did this last year also. Last year, though, Earthlink made a counter offer that was close to what Verizon was offering. So, I cancelled the move because it was worth the few extra dollars not to have to go through this. This year, when I informed the customer service guy at Earthlink that I was cancelling my account, all I got was the canned patter for their regular service. Of course, I suspect that the customer service person I was talking to lives somewhere on the Indian subcontinent and doesn't have a clue about what he is really talking about. It would be nice to actually talk to a fellow citizen, but, in this day and age, that is probably too much to expect.

The long and the short of all this is that there is a very good chance that this URL is going to disappear in the next few days. I will post my new URL on both of my other blogs as soon as I know it. The LiveJournal feed is over to the left someplace, and my other Blogger site is http://guaridadezorro/blogspot.com. Both of these should be unaffected by the move.

OK, that's all for now. You may now continue whatever it was you were doing before this public service announcemnt. *grin*

by El Zorro Viejo (aka; Jim)

So, this is Time Magazines Cover Story this week(Note: this site requires a paid membership to access the complete article.) It is an expose of a well known but little discussed fact: Corporate America is abandoning all pretense of being in any kind of partnership with its non-executive employees. It seems that only 20% of America's corporate employees are now covered by any form of private pensions. And who are the people doing the "bottom-line two-step here? Why, they are the same people who support George Bush et al. These are the oligarchists could care less that your wife may end up collecting aluminum cans to pay for her groceries each week. These are the same people who push for the end of Social Security which would mean that American workers would end up with nothing to get them through their "golden" (hah!) years.

It is time to send these people messages: First, if you have a pension plan in place, it needs to become against the law to abandon it. Therefore, pension plans should be outside of Corporate Bankruptcy laws. If you bankrupt a company and the pension plan is not 100% funded, then all corporate executives and Board members become personally liable for funding. Further, that group also becomes eligible for a vacation at Hotel Greybar. Second, we need to enact a new surtax on corporations to fund an agency whose mandate would be to pick up the slack in private pension plans. You want to save money by screwing your retirees? Not any more...that's the message that should be sent.

by El Zorro Viejo (aka; Jim)

OK, here's the deal: When Bill Clinton was President, the Republicans went after him hammer and tongs for perjuring himself when he lied about having oral sex with Monica. They were beating the drums about how this lapse was of major importance...important enough to warrant impeachment. Now, however, when it is the Republicans who are hoist on that same petard, they are singing a different tune. According to their talking points, a little perjury is acceptable when you are doing the nation's business.

This is unacceptable. What is sauce for the goose is also sauce for the gander. If Bill's attempt to avoid sleeping on the sofa for the rest of his life is an impeachable offense, then surely lying about the reasons this administration has sent over 2000 of our fellow citizens to their deaths must also be worthy of censure. If we, the American Public, let the Republicans get away with this, then we cannot complain when the Bush Administration finishes its agenda of turning this democracy based Republic into an Oligarchy run by the Bush handlers and cronies.

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