Comments on: Return From The Darkside

By: Desertrat

Desertrat — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 18:02:51 +0000

Steve, the rate of increase in functional illiteracy in these last several decades is astounding to me. Way too many people can’t make change. Can’t read fractions on a ruler. Can’t balance a checkbook, much less figure out what interest charges on credit cards mean.

They can read street names or store signs, but that seems to be near the limit. Out of masochistic curiosity one day, I watched a high schooler with a comic book. Lips moving–slowly. Must have taken two or three minutes before a page was turned…

By: Tex Norton

Tex Norton — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 15:48:41 +0000

Thanks, All, for the comments. I’ll try to respond to the questions.

Steve: I know this will come as a “shock” to you but most people read at the 4th grade level and cannot integrate what they’ve read. In other words, they can’t learn something new by reading. In addition to my DVD comment to provide “identical” training to all, the “visual” teaching is much more effective in today’s dumbed-down society.

Joe: I spent much of that first 10 years of “real work” designing, developing and manufacturing hardware that went to the Moon and back. As a sub-contractor, we had to work with NASA. I stated at the time that private industry could have done the same job quicker, cheaper and made a profit in the process. It took 40 years but we’re now seeing the beginnings of private space travel.

Erik: You hit a nail on the head. Neither I nor my Enumerators were terminated and then re-hired, but I know of many other instances where this did occur. Furthermore, those folks were then encouraged to apply for unemployment benefits during the “down” time.

Rat: We had our share of those “roads” with which to contend. I can immediately recall at least three (3) of my Enumerators who had to purchase new tires due to the poor road conditions. A few reported to me that they parked their respective vehicles and walked the roads that were not passable even to 4-wheel-drive vehicles. In one instance, an enumerator reported that she found a street sign indicating the road she was seeking but that there was a 1-foot diameter tree growing in the middle of what was supposed to be that street. We speculated that the road hadn’t been used for a few – ya think?

Cheers, Tex

By: Lynne

Lynne — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 04:42:36 +0000

A perfect counter-point to all those young kids to go into “Public Service” . I won’t begrudge them getting any job right now but just remember kiddies if it would make sence in a Gov’t job you should do the opposite as a rule of thumb.

By: Desertrat

Desertrat — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 22:49:15 +0000

Tex, just be glad you were in “little” country. Think of the poor city types who worked in places like Brewster County. It’s around 150 miles from Alpine to the Adams ranch in the SE corner of the county. The 200,000-acre Terlingua Ranch development has some 1,100 miles of dirt roads, many of which are more accurately described as jeep trails. There are folks living on the 06 ranch, with its 28 miles of highway frontage and 17 miles of depth–in the west pasture.

In 2000, we had folks from El Paso in little snot-bubble cars with street radial tires. Our tire repair folks loved it! And one census lady was bitten by a pet javelina–which provided much entertaining gossip.

This year, they hired more locals, which eased the pain somewhat. Since everybody knows everybody and the local-hires gotta live here, there was no pushiness at all.

By: Linda Brady Traynham

Linda Brady Traynham — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 22:09:20 +0000

Welcome, Joe and Jack. Jack, thirty-year veterans of the USN are among life’s finer things. I know. I have one. Don’t turn to dust, please. Linda

By: Erik

Erik — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 20:56:45 +0000

Tex, were you hired, fired, then hired again in several iterations, or were your Enumerators? I had heard of shenanigans like this as a way of pumping up hiring numbers for the BLS job number releases, wondering if you encountered any of it.

By: Jack L. Dennis

Jack L. Dennis — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 20:25:18 +0000

As a 30 year veteran of the U.S. Navy I never ceased to be amazed to learn each time that our government and the president of our country so openly and flagrantly violates the oaths of their offices in failing to protect the citizens from all enemies foreign and domestic and be so openly in defiance of our national perogatives. It just boggles the mind. My hope is that there isn’t any blood in the streets before this insanity can be stopped if it can be stopped? Good job, Tex, have you a solution?
An old sailor about to turn to dust

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 17:53:26 +0000

Thank you, Tex.

As you know, I have been working with NASA for a couple of years. I did not have a real clue how the government works until now. It is unbelievable how they operate! There is no explanation for some of the things that they do. They seem to operate in their own world.

In years past, I worked with aerospace companies that have to satisfy government contract requirements or they do not get follow-on contracts. These are for- profit companies and operated on a different system than the government does. In spite of what you might have heard, it is a better system to get work (projects) accomplished and better at it than our government.

Joe

By: Carol Gonzales

Carol Gonzales — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 17:43:05 +0000

Hey there,
I know it won’t surprise you if I say I know exactly what you mean. Myself, I had no intention of getting involved in the 2010 Census.

By: James the Wanderer

James the Wanderer — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 16:46:35 +0000

Thanks, Tex. Now we can have a clear conscience as the system collapses under the overwhelming weight of its own incompetence.

Just don’t be underneath it as it falls.