Like an unmanned firehose, I’m all over the place this week…
Chula Vista’s business community, or would-be business community, must have felt tingly and warm Tuesday when they heard Chula Vista Mayor Cheryl Cox pledge to “make the city a more pro-business, streamlined organization in order to attract and retain companies and provide effective customer service.”
That’s good news for the moms and pops who have reportedly been suffocated by miles of red tape and regulation.
Ostensibly, that’s also good news for larger companies that might want to create hundreds of jobs by locating headquarters or manufacturing plants here. But the proletarian in me can’t help but wonder how that attitude will ultimately affect workers and labor unions…
Speaking of labor unions and workers, Cox also publicly praised public employees for taking a huge Mike Tysonesque cross to the chin in agreeing to cuts in pensions and paychecks.
Time and again government workers are bashed and bloodied and seldom appreciated for the role they play in holding a community together, helping it run smoothly (most of the time).
But in watching videos and and perusing photos depicting the devastation in Japan following last week’s earthquake and tsunami, I’m reminded that government workers are often the first to respond in times of tragedy and upheaval. From emergency crews to phone operators, public employees provide aid and assistance to the public when it’s needed most. Politicians on the other hand…
From Japan – where some communities are suffering from food and water shortages – to Arizona, where a larger than life spokesmodel recently died.
Blair River, 29, tipped the scales at an impressive 575 pounds. That’s hefty even for a man measuring 6-foot-8.
River was the public face of a joint called Heart Attack Grill, a restaurant that proudly allows patrons weighing over 300 pounds to eat free all day every day. The eatery features double-, triple- and even quadruple- sized burgers, and fries cooked in lard.
The greasy spoon is a magnificent ode to the gluttony of our country, where we gleefully pig out at places like Hometown Buffet, Soup Plantation and any Las Vegas buffet.
I’m all for letting everyone eat, smoke or drink what they want as long as they’re not harming anyone else.
But man, watching people here stuff themselves with food while in Japan there are people rationing balls of rice … something’s just a little off with the world these days.
