The Health Administration Bureau
From the Sam Adams Alliance, “Health Rations and You.”
And be sure to visit the web site!
(Yes, it’s satire. Hat tip to Hot Air.)
Metro union boss demonstrates why Metro’s public image sucks
If you ever needed to confirm why Metro’s operators appear to have an attitude that Metro’s customers are more of an annoyance than anything else you have but to observe the customer-service tone deafness on display by the operators’ union boss:
Metro train and bus operators deserve some respect. That’s the word from the head of the union that represents those workers.
Since a Metrorail operator was caught on video texting on the job, bus and train operators have had a virtual bullseye on them as the public tries to sniff out bad operator behavior. Another train operator was caught on video recently, apparently sleeping while his train rolled down the tracks. Pictures of bus drivers who seem to be reading books while behind the wheel also have surfaced.
Jackie Jeter, president of Amalgamated Transit Union local 689, doesn’t want the situation to get out of hand.
“Being watched 24/7 is a problem. I don’t think any of us would like that. And I ask (riders) to respect the operators and the jobs that they do.”
Apparently Jeter’s forgotten the maxim that respect is earned, not demanded. Considering the actions and, frankly, piss-poor attitude of these union operators I’d say Jeters would be better served cleaning up her own house first before making demands of Metro’s paying customers. The comments section of this WTOP story is boiling with resentment over Jeter’s comments. One commenter identified as “Burt R.” sums the general feeling perfectly:
This is exactly the mentality that makes people despise union employees.
How about when my Smartrip card doesn’t work, I don’t get some glare from the “station manager” when I ask them to check and see if the card is working properly, like I just ruined their afternoon. Maybe then I will start showing these folks some respect.
How about your union realizes the PR implications of operators getting caught being negligent, and then no one being fired? These people should be fired immediately for failing to fulfill their duty as an operator.
How about you tell your employees to shape up, instead of asking riders to cut them some slack. If I am in a car where I can see the operator, you bet I am going to be watching to see what they are up to. I don’t want to be on the train with the guy dozing off, reading a book, or watching a YouTube video on his phone.
What if people weren’t reporting these incompetent employees? How many incompetent station staff have been reported for poor customer service with no changes in staffing?
Would the union rather have another accident than to have to discipline their employees? Does the right of a train operator to not be “watched” outweigh the rights of the few hundred people on the train to get the safe trip they paid a fare for?
Absolutely ridiculous.
Yes, it is. Jeter’s implication that her union people are being watched, personally, around the clock is equally ridiculous. No one’s following the operators home and reporting on them. The only place these people are being observed is when they’re on duty, which is precisely what should be happening. The fact that Jeter appears to be concerned about the level of vigilance on the part of the paying ridership sounds suspiciously like she’s well aware that there’s something she’d rather not get seen. The black eye she’s being given in the public is going to transfer to Metro in general and I believe Metro will live to regret it.
Has the time come for LegalCare? (Updated.)
Consider this: A Modest Proposal, 2009 Edition.
Ladies and gentlemen of the Hot Air community, I have discovered an unfair disparity in access to a vital resource based on the economic condition of the consumer. This disparity is not just egregious, but it threatens the very core of our American way of life. People routinely get denied adequate and competent service on the basis of their ability to pay, even though they have a right to it, while the rich eat up all the resources with their ability to access the best and brightest in the field. And in the instance of fairness, the federal government needs to find a solution and impose it on the industry as a whole.
I refer, of course, to legal representation.
Sure it’s satire – a point Morrissey makes at the bottom of the post just to make sure people get it – but it’s good point. I encourage you to read it and think of the broader points, here.
Update: Hey, why not make another proposal? How’s this, from Rep. John Fleming: that any member of Congress who votes to enact a national health care public “option” be required to drop their Federal Health Benefits Program and sign up for that public option instead.
Science again not on the AGW side
Anthony Watts over at Watt’s Up With That? reports on a new study published in Natural Geoscience that shows conclusively that the models used by such groups as the UN’s IPCC that predict the dire temperature increases are flawed beyond any reasonable measure of reliability.
No one knows exactly how much Earth’s climate will warm due to carbon emissions, but a new study this week suggests scientists’ best predictions about global warming might be incorrect. The study, which appears in Nature Geoscience, found that climate models explain only about half of the heating that occurred during a well-documented period of rapid global warming in Earth’s ancient past. The study, which was published online today, contains an analysis of published records from a period of rapid climatic warming about 55 million years ago known as the Palaeocene-Eocene thermal maximum, or PETM.
“In a nutshell, theoretical models cannot explain what we observe in the geological record,” said oceanographer Gerald Dickens, a co-author of the study and professor of Earth science at Rice University. “There appears to be something fundamentally wrong with the way temperature and carbon are linked in climate models.”
Emphasis mine and it’s something I’ve emphasized before. The facts that have come forth from any true scientific effort show that CO2 increases follow temperature increases, not precede them. Simple chemistry shows this mechanism: heat a volume of water and it reduces the water’s ability to retain carbon dioxide dissolved within it. In short, if the oceans heat up, they outgas CO2 which is then present in the atmosphere in greater concentrations.
The study focused on the models used as applied to the historical record of the PETM and determined that, if the models’ assertions about CO2 being the driving factor of temperature increase that is claimed, the temperature increases would have been about half of what is shown to have happened. In short, the models can only account for half of the increase. Something else, not accounted for in the IPCC’s models, was at work to produce that temperature increase thus rendering the models suspect, at best.
We need to get this nonsense of the “we’ve-got-to-shut-off-all-the-lights-now” mentality out of the way and start talking about a reasonable path to cutting our dependence on fossil fuels, something sustainable that won’t cripple us. We can’t have that discussion so long as people are screaming in our faces that we’ve got to take action – action that will hamper our abilities to come up with real solutions – this immediate second.
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