Author Archives: Jon Lowder

He’s More Than a Dirty Guy

3 Replies

Mike Rowe, the Dirty Jobs dude, testified before Congress about the lack of skilled labor we have in the US and the related problem of the marginalization of vocational education in our society:

I believe we need a national PR Campaign for Skilled Labor. A big one. Something that addresses the widening skills gap head on, and reconnects the country with the most important part of our workforce.

Right now, American manufacturing is struggling to fill 200,000 vacant positions. There are 450,000 openings in trades, transportation and utilities. The skills gap is real, and it's getting wider. In Alabama, a third of all skilled tradesmen are over 55. They're retiring fast, and no one is there to replace them.

Alabama's not alone. A few months ago in Atlanta I ran into Tom Vilsack, our Secretary of Agriculture. Tom told me about a governor who was unable to move forward on the construction of a power plant. The reason was telling. It wasn't a lack of funds. It wasn't a lack of support. It was a lack of qualified welders.

In general, we're surprised that high unemployment can exist at the same time as a skilled labor shortage. We shouldn't be. We've pretty much guaranteed it.

In high schools, the vocational arts have all but vanished. We've elevated the importance of "higher education" to such a lofty perch that all other forms of knowledge are now labeled "alternative." Millions of parents and kids see apprenticeships and on-the-job-training opportunities as "vocational consolation prizes," best suited for those not cut out for a four-year degree. And still, we talk about millions of "shovel ready" jobs for a society that doesn't encourage people to pick up a shovel.

I think he's absolutely right.  College isn't for everyone.  Desk jobs aren't for everyone.  Our society needs to get back to the point where we applaud and appropriately reward hard work, whether or not it takes place on a computer or in a ditch.

By the way, my favorite part of his testimony was at the beginning when he was talking about his grandfather, a jack of all trades, who inspired him to create Dirty Jobs:

I remember one Saturday morning when I was 12. I flushed the toilet in the same way I always had. The toilet however, responded in a way that was completely out of character. There was a rumbling sound, followed by a distant gurgle. Then, everything that had gone down reappeared in a rather violent and spectacular fashion.

Naturally, my grandfather was called in to investigate, and within the hour I was invited to join he and my dad in the front yard with picks and shovels.

By lunch, the lawn was littered with fragments of old pipe and mounds of dirt. There was welding and pipe-fitting, blisters and laughter, and maybe some questionable language. By sunset we were completely filthy. But a new pipe was installed, the dirt was back in the hole, and our toilet was back on its best behavior. It was one of my favorite days ever.

I loved this part because, quite frankly, I've held the role of Turd Man of Alcatraz for far too long and I'm in the midst of a long-term land war with my septic system.  Let's just say my appreciation and admiration of those who do the dirty jobs is quite high.

Family Hairloom

Leave a reply

Celeste is practicing curling Erin’s hair in preparation for the West Forsyth prom next week. The curling iron is the same one Celeste purchased before our first formal over 20 years ago and that she used to curl her hair for our wedding. Yep, it’s an hairloom.

Go ahead and groan.

Media CardBlackBerrypicturesIMG00735.jpg

My Advice to Rep. Bachmann – Don’t Do It!

Leave a reply

BachmannDebateLetter
The image I'm sharing here is of a letter sent to Rep. Michele Bachmann by a high school sophomore in which the student essentially calls the Congresswoman an embarassment to all women:

Though I am not in your home district, or even your home state, you are a United States Representative of some prominence who is subject to national media coverage. News outlets and websites across this country profile your causes and viewpoints on a regular basis. As one of a handful of women in Congress, you hold a distinct privilege and responsibility to better represent your gender nationally. The statements you make help to serve an injustice to not only the position of Congresswoman, but women everywhere. Though politically expedient, incorrect comments cast a shadow on your person and by unfortunate proxy, both your supporters and detractors alike often generalize this shadow to women as a whole.

Then she goes on to challenge Rep. Bachmann to a public debate or fact test on the US Constitution, US History and US Civics.  As the parent of three public high school students who revel in making me look/feel like a fool via such stunts I feel compelled to strongly urge the Congresswoman not to do it because I'm certain the kid will eat your lunch.

National Jukebox

Leave a reply

Who said you can't get somethin' for nothin'? The Library of Congress has put a bunch of the recordings from its archives online in what's called the National Jukebox.

About the National Jukebox

The Library of Congress presents the National Jukebox, which makes historical sound recordings available to the public free of charge. The Jukebox includes recordings from the extraordinary collections of the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation and other contributing libraries and archives.

Way cool.

Splitting Important Hairs

2 Replies

At last night's Lewisville Planning Board meeting we were reviewing the town's 2010 update to its Comprehensive Plan.  The Comprehensive Plan is a document that is created and revised by a series of task forces made up of volunteer citizens and then sent to the Planning Board for review and from there to the Town Council for final approval and adoption.  The task forces working on the 2010 review took the 2005 version and made necessary updates and edits based on changes in the town over the past five years — changes in the regulatory environment (ex. new Federal stormwater requirements), new developments over the past five years, etc.

One of the additions made was the mention of social media as a form of communication that the town should use to engage and inform its citizens.  During our discussion of that addition we hit on the fact that hyperlinks would be included in the document for the first time since the 2010 version of the Plan will be the first to reside online and not merely in print.  What ensued was a discussion that reminded me of President Clinton's famous quote that it "depends on what the definition of is is."

One of us (it might have been me) said that it would be great to have the ability to go back and add appropriate hyperlinks to the document if new sources of information became available.  For instance if the Comprehensive Plan references a map that isn't currently online, but becomes available online at a later date, it would be great to be able to insert a hyperlink to the map at that time.  The town attorney stopped us and said he'd be hesitant to say that would be allowable, mainly because it would change the document from whatever form the task forces had created, the Planning Board had reviewed and the Town Council had voted to adopt.  I, for one, wasn't sure that adding a hyperlink changed the document since it was merely adding a link to a source that was being referenced by the original document.  Then the question of who would confirm the accuracy of the linked document arose, and it doesn't take much imagination to see that we got started down a pretty serious philosophical rabbit hole from that point on.  

We're not done reviewing the Comprehensive Plan, and I'm still not convinced one way or another on whether or not the addition or deletion of a hyperlink changes a document.  I know our attorney well enough to be 100% sure that he's right legally, but I'm not sure that I agree philosophycally with the law in this case.  In the end I think the rabbit hole we started down will lead to one very significant choice that needs to be addressed: should a document like a town's Comprehensive Plan be a static piece that is changed only when the community comes together every X number of years, or should it be a living, breathing document that is updated on a regular basis? I won't tell you what I think, although you could probably guess, but I'd love to hear what others think.

Earl Weaver Played in Winston-Salem?!

Leave a reply

Somehow I stumbled onto Bob Lemke's blog post about the 1950 Winston-Salem Cardinals and when I did I was shocked to learn that Earl Weaver, the great Oriole manager I idolized when I was a kid, played for the team.

Recently, as the result of a posting on a vintage card collectors forum, I dug up the Winston-Salem sacrapbook for a closer look.

The book included team photos of the 1948-1951 squads, along with three partial sets of player portrait photographs, from 1950-1952.

The player photos were all the work of a Winston-Salem studio, Coppedge Piedmont Photo Finishers, Inc., whose advertising was rubber-stamped on the back of each picture. The photos are 4-1/4" x 5-1/2" with wide white borders…

The 18 players I have, plus future Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver, who was a 19-year old second baseman on the team, seem to comprise the full set of these player photos. 

A “Did You Know?” About Tennis

Leave a reply

I recently subscribed to a great daily email newsletter called Now I Know that delivers a seemingly random piece of information each day.  Today's was about tennis, and more specifically, about the gold medalist in tennis at the 1896 Olympic Games in Greece.  What fascinated me about this was:

  • Tennis was one of the nine athletic events at the first modern Olympic games
  • The guy who won the gold medal started out as a spectator but was convinced to play and, having no proper gear, played in dress shoes with heels.
  • The gold medalist also won the gold in doubles by partnering with a guy from another country he'd defeated in singles, meaning the gold medal for doubles is shared by two countries.

I highly recommend you subscribe to the newsletter. It hasn't disappointed me yet and I've learned something new every day.

Medicare Reform

2 Replies

Health care reform ain't for the faint of heart, and it's also an issue that I think will define the modern era of American politics.  Having just renewed our small group health insurance with BCBSNC to the tune of a 28% increase in premiums I'm going to throw my two cents in and say that I agree that this is a defining issue for our country.  Unfortunately I'm nowhere near smart enough to know what the solution to our health care issue is, but I also suspect that such a person doesn't exist considering the issue is so complex.  Thus I think we're destined for an extended period of sausage making as we try to figure out a better mouse trap and that's why I'm not exactly surprised at what's going on in Washington these days. 

From this Tax.com article on Rep. Ryan's proposed changes to funding for Medicare:

So what happens if we buy the Ryan plan? For those age 55 and older, not so much. But a lot changes starting in 2022, when today's 54-year-olds turn 65, through 2084, the end of the 75-year period covered by Social Security trustee projections.

David Rosnick and Dean Baker, economists at the Center for Economic Policy and Research, crunched the numbers. Whether you like their liberal views or hate them, Rosnick and Baker are just spreadsheet mechanics in this exercise.

Reduced to net present value, Ryan's plan would save $4.9 trillion in taxes from 2022 through 2084, the numbers reveal. That's not chicken feed. In fact, it is within range of the close to $6 trillion shortfall in Social Security between now and 2084…

So for every dollar Americans would save in taxes, they would shell out $5 more from their own pockets using Ryan's preferred baseline, and nearly $8 using the standard baseline. When you stack a plan in favor of its advocate and the additional costs are five times the savings, like the story of the mechanic trying to keep getting paid for fixing up a clunker, the plan should be greeted with laughter, derision, or disgust. I go for all three — in that order.

Rosnick and Baker call this net extra spending of between $20 trillion to $34 trillion waste. That's their political judgment. I'll stick to the facts: The Ryan plan shifts costs and raises them at the same time. Spending $5 to save $1 is nuts. Spending $8 to save $1 is lunacy. (Emphasis mine).

I've become so accustomed to getting smacked in the side of the head with healthcare expenses that I can't really say the numbers shock me at all, but I do find them disheartening. My family pays what I consider a healthy chunk of change just to insure ourselves against medical disaster, and we've been blessed with relatively good health so I don't even want to think about what that insurance would cost if we had real issues.  That said I was hoping that I could pay the piper now and then some day have a "Medicare" party so that I'd at least be able to enjoy "Cadillac benefits" in my waning years, but I'm beginning to think that's a pipe dream.