Author: coastcontact

I am a somewhat cranky but mostly optimistic 65 plus who refuses to give up on this maddening world. The purpose of this BLOG is to express my feelings, thoughts.

Egypt – Oh! It’s Just Another Protest


February 9, 2011: What part of this Daily Beast summary from Reuters do you believe?

The third week of protests in Egypt could be the biggest: Following Tuesday’s enormous demonstrations, in which record numbers of protesters poured into Cairo’s Tahrir Square and Google executive Wael Ghonim spoke, the opposition to President Hosni Mubarak is organizing another big protest for Friday. The White House, meanwhile, had Joe Biden push Vice President Omar Suleiman to end Egypt’s 30-year emergency law and for “prompt, meaningful, peaceful, and legitimate” transition. The BBC says the U.S. is no longer focusing on President Hosni Mubarak’s future, but rather pushing for concrete reforms.

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 The United States is the leader of the free world. Most of our presidents throughout the 20th century espoused the idea of democracy but made deals with dictators. Both President Barack Obama and former President George W. Bush have been outspoken advocates of spreading democracy. Most recently it was George W. Bush who insisted that removing Saddam Hussein as the dictator of Iraq would spread democracy throughout the Middle East. So America can’t back down. The problem is the confrontation between America’s political values and its economic interests.

Look at the results of democracy in the Middle East. Iran now has a theocracy with a government that does not permit free elections. Gaza had free elections that the United States supported and the consequence is Hamas in control and little chance there will ever be another free election. Iraq’s government is in turmoil because too many people in that country do not subscribe to the idea that there are winners and loser in every election.

We have seen uprisings before and few have ended as we had hoped. The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 ended with the Chinese army killing several hundred people. The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was a spontaneous nationwide revolt against the government but ended when the army and security forces killed 41 people. The uprising in Tahrir Square, Cairo will most likely end as those two events did. There is no indication that anyone will remove the government of Hosni Mubarak.

I believe that U.S. economic and security interests will prevail within the American federal government. Thus next February all of this will be just a memory. Perhaps this will be a lesson to Obama and subsequent presidents.

Today’s 20 Fastest-Growing Occupations

Acccording to Anthony Balderrama, CareerBuilder.com writer

Here are the 20 fastest-growing occupations between 2008 and 2018*:

1. Biomedical engineers
Percent change: 72 percent
Number of new jobs: 11,600
Annual median salary: $77,400
Why they’re growing: As the population ages, demand for new health-care equipment designed by biomedical engineers will increase.

2. Network systems and data communications analysts
Percent change: 53 percent
Number of new jobs: 155,800
Annual median salary: $71,100
Why they’re growing: Companies will continue to upgrade technology (such as networks) and will need to expand their IT workforce.

3. Home health aides
Percent change: 50 percent
Number of new jobs: 460,900
Annual median salary: $20,460
Why they’re growing: As the population gets older and lives longer, home health aides will see a rise in demand.

4. Personal and home care aides
Percent change: 46 percent
Number of new jobs: 375,800
Annual median salary: $19,180
Why they’re growing: The aging population will require more medical attention, often at home rather than in medical facilities.

5. Financial examiners
Percent change: 41 percent
Number of new jobs:  11,100
Annual median salary: $70,930
Why they’re growing: Financial institutions are under increasing watch by the government and will continue to be for the next decade, which provides many new opportunities for financial examiners.

6. Medical scientists, except epidemiologists
Percent change: 40 percent
Number of new jobs: 44,200
Annual median salary: $72,590
Why they’re growing: Advances in biotechnology have created new opportunities for medical scientists over the past two decades and are on track to continue.

7. Physician assistants
Percent change: 39 percent
Number of new jobs: 29,200
Annual median salary: $81,230
Why they’re growing: Health-care facilities will use physician assistants to ease some responsibilities from physicians who are being given heavier workloads.

8. Skin care specialists
Percent change: 38 percent
Number of new jobs: 14,700
Annual median salary: $28,730
Why they’re growing: Spas and other cosmetic centers are expanding at a fast pace and skin care specialists are some of their most in-demand employees.

9. Biochemists and biophysicists
Percent change: 37 percent
Number of new jobs: 8,700
Annual median salary: $82,840
Why they’re growing: Continued advances in biotechnology create opportunities for new research and development careers.

10. Athletic trainers
Percent change: 37 percent
Number of new jobs: 6,000
Annual median salary: $39,640
Why they’re growing: As Americans focus on preventative health care and organizations support these efforts, athletic trainers will see an increase in responsibilities and job opportunities.

11. Physical therapist aides
Percent change: 36
Number of new jobs: 16,700
Annual median salary: $23,760
Why they’re growing: In general, all physical therapy services will be in higher demand, and the need for aides will rise along with them.

12. Dental hygienists
Percent change: 36 percent
Number of new jobs: 62,900
Annual median salary: $66,570
Why they’re growing: Due to the aging population and an increased emphasis on health care, dental health services will create more opportunities for dental hygienists.

13. Veterinary technologists and technicians
Percent change: 36 percent
Number of new jobs: 28,500
Annual median salary: $28,900
Why they’re growing: The need for technologists and technicians will outpace qualified candidates who are graduating from institutions, creating an increased demand.

14. Dental assistants
Percent change: 36 percent
Number of new jobs: 105,600
Annual median salary: 32,380
Why they’re growing: Due to an aging population and better preventative dental care habits for adults and children, dental assistants will see rapid growth in the coming decade.

15. Computer software engineers, applications
Percent change: 34 percent
Number of new jobs: 175,100
Annual median salary: $85,430
Why they’re growing: Advances in technology and a continued reliance on computer networks ensure organizations of all industries will need software engineers.

16. Medical assistants
Percent change: 34 percent
Number of new jobs: 163,900
Annual median salary: $28,300
Why they’re growing: Medical assistants will increasingly assume some health-care provider roles in order to alleviate the increasing demands of physicians.

17. Physical therapist assistants
Percent change: 33 percent
Number of new jobs: 21,200
Annual median salary: $46,140
Why they’re growing: As the population ages, many people will turn to physical therapy for an increased quality of life.

18. Veterinarians
Percent change: 33 percent
Number of new jobs: 19,700
Annual median salary: $79,050
Why they’re growing: Pet owners are willing to spend more money for the health and well being of their pets, thereby putting veterinarians in high demand.

19. Self-enrichment education teachers
Percent change: 32 percent
Number of new jobs: 81,300
Annual median salary: 35,720
Why they’re growing: The types of coursework offered in this field are expected to broaden and create new positions for teachers.

20. Compliance officers, except agriculture, construction, health and safety, and transportation
Percent change: 31 percent
Number of new jobs: 80,800
Annual median salary: $48,890
Why they’re growing: Compliance officers are one of the fastest growing occupations due to tighter restrictions and more scrutiny on financial institutions.

*Growth rates and salary information for all occupations based on data from the BLS.

Canada Is Booming


Canada’s population is less than the population of California.  They released their jobs report on Friday for January.  As the United States created 36,000 jobs, Canada created 69,200 jobs.  In other words a country that is very similar to the United States but apparently different is flourishing.  The consequence is that American dollar is now worth less than the Canadian dollar by one cent. Ten years ago the Canadian dollar could be bought for 75 cents.  One year ago the Canadian dollar cost 90 cents.


What are they doing in Canada that the United States isn’t doing?

Freedom of Speech or Mob Rule

The question is: Does freedom of speech include the right to disturb a meeting through vocal protests? Does the fact that this disturbance was conducted by Muslims against the Israeli ambassador have any bearing? 
 
Conspiracy charges filed against Muslim students
by GILLIAN FLACCUS

From Associated Press

February 05, 2011 12:29 AM EST

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A group of Muslim students accused of disrupting a speech by Israeli ambassador Michael Oren at the University of California, Irvine, were charged Friday with misdemeanor conspiracy counts, ending speculation about what would come from their actions nearly a year ago.

The 11 students each face one count of misdemeanor conspiracy to disturb a meeting and one count of misdemeanor disturbance of a meeting, the Orange County district attorney’s office said. If convicted, they could face anything from probation and community service to six months in jail.

The students were arrested Feb. 8, 2010, after shouting and protesting during Oren’s speech on U.S.-Israeli security, forcing the diplomat to stop his remarks for 20 minutes. Eight of the students were from UC Irvine, and three were from the nearby campus of the University of California, Riverside.

Muslim students from the Irvine school protested outside the district attorney’s office earlier this week after word leaked that a grand jury had been convened in the case.

Jacqueline Goodman, an attorney for all 11 defendants, said they would plead not guilty at an arraignment scheduled for March 11.

District Attorney Tony Rackauckas defended his decision Friday, saying the protest was a pre-meditated attempt to quash the speaker and prevent the 500 to 700 people gathered there from hearing his remarks.

That made the incident about more than free speech, he said.

“This is a clear violation of the law, and failing to bring charges against this conduct would amount to failure to uphold the Constitution,” he said in a statement. “We must decide whether we are a country of laws or a country of anarchy. We cannot tolerate a pre-planned violation of the law, even if the crime takes place on a school campus and even if the defendants are college students.”

Goodman said that just because the district attorney can bring charges doesn’t mean he should, particularly in this case where the students protested peacefully and didn’t resist arrest.

“The district attorney enjoys wide discretion as to which crimes he’s going to choose to prosecute. We don’t prosecute every crime ever committed. We don’t have the unlimited resources to do that,” Goodman said. “It becomes very dangerous to a democracy when we allow the district attorney to prosecute a peaceful protest on a campus based on the contents of that speech.”

The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California said it is “deeply troubled” by the decision and called on the district attorney to dismiss the charges immediately.

“We are unaware of any case where a district attorney pressed criminal charges over this type of nonviolent student protest,” the ACLU said in a statement. “The district attorney’s action will undoubtedly intimidate students in Orange County and across the state, and discourage them from engaging in any controversial speech or protest for fear of criminal charges,” the statement said.

Many of the defendants are top students applying to medical schools or pursuing master’s degrees, said Hamza Siddiqui, a senior at Irvine majoring in political science.
“This is beyond ridiculous,” he told The Associated Press in a phone interview. “They have a whole future waiting for them, and this little minor incident has a chance of ruining their future.”

The incident was captured on video and enflamed tension between Muslim and Jewish students at the university, which has already run high for several years.

The university revoked the Muslim Student Union’s charter for one year and placed it on probation for another year after launching its own investigation. In September, the school softened the sanctions by restoring the group’s charter effective Dec. 31, but it added a year of probation and 100 hours of community service.

Cathy Lawhon, a university spokeswoman, has said the university has completed its disciplinary process and has no connection to the district attorney’s investigation.

WRONG E-MAIL ADDRESS

This one is priceless. A lesson to be learned from Typing the wrong email address!!

A Minneapolis couple decided to go to Florida to thaw out during a particularly icy winter. They planned to stay at the same hotel where they spent their honeymoon 20 years earlier.

Because of hectic schedules, it was difficult to coordinate their travel schedules. So, the husband left Minnesota and flew to Florida on Thursday, with his wife flying down the following day.

The husband checked into the hotel. There was a computer in his room, so he decided to send an email to his wife. However, he accidentally left out one letter in her email address, and without realizing his error, sent the e-mail.

Meanwhile, somewhere in Houston , a widow had just returned home from her husband’s funeral. He was a minister who was called home to glory following a heart attack.

The widow decided to check her e-mail expecting messages from relatives and friends.. After reading the first message, she screamed and fainted.

The widow’s son rushed into the room, found his mother on the floor, and saw the computer screen which read:

To: My Loving Wife
Subject: I’ve Arrived
Date: July 19, 2010

I know you’re surprised to hear from me.. They have computers here now and you are allowed to send emails to your loved ones. I’ve just arrived and have been checked in.

I’ve seen that everything has been prepared for your arrival tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing you then! Hope your journey is as uneventful as mine was.

P. S. Sure is freaking hot down here!!!!

Toastmasters: Making Every Word Count

This article appeared in  Bloomberg Businessweek’s January 24-30, 2011 edition.  The print edition includes photographs that are missing in the on-line copy.

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By helping workers find their inner voices, Toastmasters has become a behemoth

 

By Joel Stein

The 1,500 people walking around the Desert Springs Marriott appear as diverse as the Pitt-Jolie family. Yet despite being of both genders and of every age and race, they all seem like old, white insurance salesmen. They’re confident, friendly, and wearing boxy blazers affixed with thick, plastic name badges. And they’re probably not people the Pitt-Jolie family would hang out with.

They gathered in Palm Desert, Calif., last August for the annual Toastmasters International Convention. While Toastmasters has been teaching people how to improve their public speaking since 1924, the nonprofit started aggressively pushing for international growth when Daniel Rex became executive director in 2008. The 250,000-member organization now adds global Toastmasters at about 10 percent per year. (Much of the growth comes from India and Sri Lanka, places where people want to learn business skills—and English.) This month, Toastmasters begins its 2011 International Speech Contest in which 38,000 contestants from 113 countries compete for the chance to walk around a hotel next summer in a boxy suit and name tag—and the title of World Champion of Public Speaking.

Read the rest of this article here.

Freedom of Speech

Freedom of speech does not justify bad manners.

WordPress.com provides a platform for people everywhere to express their opinion. I just suggested yesterday that perhaps it’s time to riot in the streets of America. No one has knocked on my door telling me that I can’t write that. I can criticize the president of the United States and call him names without fear of retribution. This freedom of expression is now accepted by most western nations. It includes the right to demonstrate, pray, and speak out without fear.

There are of course some limitations. Most obvious is yelling “fire” in a theater or inciting a mob.

Eleven Arabic students in Orange County, California at UC Irvine have been the object of a grand jury investigation that could lead to criminal charges for disrupting a speech by the Israeli ambassador last year.

Protesters at the University of Ottawa prevented Ann Coulter from giving a speech on March 23, 2010. Ms. Coulter said she has been speaking regularly at university campuses for a decade. While she has certainly been heckled, she said this is the first time an engagement has been cancelled because of protesters.

In both of these instances bad manners prevailed over reasonable discourse. Trying to stop someone from speaking because you disagree with their point of view is not a legal regulation. It’s refusing to accept the fact that there are differing opinions.

Perhaps It’s Time to Riot in the Streets of America

It was reported just the other day that John Paulson earned $5 Billion in 2010. Since the earnings are all based on capital gains his tax rate is 15%. You may remember him as the the hedge fund manager who predicted the collapse of the economy in 2007 and bet on the collapse of US house prices. That 2007 deal netted him a mere $1 Billion.

The new CEO of Hewlett-Packard Company, Leo Apotheker, signed a contract that provides him with a $1.2 Million salary, a $4 Million cash signing bonus, and $4.6 Million in relocation costs and reimbursement for non-compete payments for his former employer, German business software maker SAP AG. That’s according to a regulatory filing by the company. His pay also includes a payday that will come from restricted stock worth nearly $38 million. That is a total of $47.8 Million on just the first year. The value of Apotheker’s contract could go as high as $100 million over a three year period.

It was reported just last week that Walt Disney Co. has awarded CEO Bob Iger a 2010 pay package valued at $28 Million, up 30 percent from a year ago, according to an Associated Press analysis of data disclosed in a regulatory filing on Friday. That includes $11.8 Million in stock options that when sold will be subject to that capital gains tax of 15%.

So while the average American household income in 2009 was $49,777 (reported by the U.S. Census Bureau) there are millionaires who live life styles the rest of us cannot begin to imagine.

Never mind the rioting in the streets of Cairo, Egypt perhaps it’s time to riot in the streets of America.