UC should not be an endless trough

Found an interesting column in Time Magazine arguing that unemployment compensation benefits should not be extended for eternity. Nina Easton, a Fox News contributor, thinks that the numerous extensions create a continuous cycle of unemployment.

I agree with her argument. Although I am thankful for the unemployment extension we received recently, I do not believe that we should be allowed to keep spinning the welfare wheel. At some point, the benefits have to end and we must make difficult decisions on how to proceed. Whether that be taking a lower paying job, slashing every non-critical expense or selling the house.

But I'll let you read Easton's column and decide...


A Limit to Compassion

By Nina Easton
Jan. 19, 2010

Have a heart. It's what Democrats like to think they do best. So President Obama's reaction to the economic crisis has been a predictable spending of trillions to soften the blow. But compassion can have consequences that aren't so compassionate — a nettlesome economic truth that now needs to be applied as Congress plans to extend unemployment benefits for the fifth time since the dark fog of recession settled in.

Continually easing the pain of jobless Americans, it turns out, can contribute to high jobless rates by warping incentives to look for work. "The consensus estimates show that unemployment benefits do prolong unemployment spells by quite a bit," says University of Chicago economist Bruce Meyer, who has produced academic studies on the issue dating back to the recession of the early 1980s.

Read more...

The bread line gets longer

An old college buddy called me Friday night with some news. We've remained close over the years -- I was in his wedding party in June 2008 -- so I was hoping for the best. Instead, Dan told me that his engineering firm outside Scranton, Pa., had let him go... just days before Christmas. This wasn't a surprise to him, though, because business had dropped off as the economy continued to sour. But the questions of what he would be facing still were upsetting.

Then I received a text message this afternoon from my step brother, Tony, saying he would be joining me "in the bread line on Monday." He heard from his boss today that the office supply company for which he has worked for nine years will be letting him go after the weekend. Tony spent most of his time working there to earn enough money to pay for his business degree at a college near his home in Jacksonville, Fla.

I explained to both of them the steps to file for unemployment, and the process for registering for COBRA. They both have expressed interest in sharing their stories through this blog. But it is still unsettling for me to know how many in my generation are without work. Dan, Tony, Amanda, Greg and others are hard workers and they deserve better. It is very upsetting that this supposed world super power has turned into a joke. We want to work, America, and are waiting for a fair opportunity with sustainable wages.

The ball is in your court.

401,000 scrooges

It was a long and winding road to change my 401k employee contributions from the Observer-Reporter's account to my personal investment portfolio. With no one left at the newspaper to help me figure out how to transfer the money properly, it took about six months to finally complete the process.

Then I received an update of my portfolio, only to find that I had lost more than $1,000 from the account. Was it taxes or fees or a miscalculation? None of the above.

Instead, it was the O-R's share of the 401k because I wasn't fully vested with the program. I had been with the newspaper for nearly three years, so I can only assume that I earned only 50 percent of the money (it takes four years to become fully vested). This was not a decision I made. This was a decision the Observer-Reporter made to release me and the 401k obligations. They should be ashamed for withdrawing this money, and I urge them to restore our full 401k contributions to 100 percent.

Because while I was putting my money into the market and trying to plan for that retirement years away, the Observer-Reporter was making dividends off my contributions. I hope they'll be able to buy plenty of new laptop computers and/or coffee machines with my money. Enjoy it.

Rantings of a sane man

Three items caught my attention this morning as I perused the morning newspaper. Each was more laughable than the next, and shows the sheer greed and stupidity that runs rampant through this great country of ours. After today's headline trifecta -- in sports, entertainment and politics -- let there be no more questioning why our country is so screwed up.

SPORTS: Football coach Lane Kiffin has a thoroughly unimpressive resume. Sure, he served as offensive coordinator for the USC Trojans in the early 2000s and helped develop a crop of star athletes. But after spending less than two years as the Oakland Raiders' head coach (in which he compiled a mammoth 5-15 record) he was fired by owner and true raider Al Davis. A couple years later, he landed a posh gig as head football coach at the University of Tennessee. There, he alienated the Vols from the rest of the SEC, ripped Florida coach Urban Meyer for, well, winning and racked up NCAA violation after NCAA violation. Oh, and this was before leading his team to a 7-6 record last season that included an embarrassing bowl loss. Yet, ole Lame Kiffin bolted the Vols this week for the open coaching position with the Trojans. Then Kiffin has the audacity to claim in a 40-second farewell press conference that he left the football program in better shape than when he arrived 14 months ago.

ENTERTAINMENT: It's hard to determine what cog in this comedic wheel deserves the most blame. With "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" and "The Jay Leno Show" both floundering on NBC, the peacock station has decided to alienate everyone. They want to bump Conan back to 12:05 a.m. and give Leno his old time slot after the local news. So, let me get this straight: Conan O'Brien waits 17 years for Leno to retire, then is given just seven months when the job is finally his? I don't necessarily feel bad for Conan or his wallet, but there are certain ways of treating people, and this is obviously not one of them. At least he's still having fun on his show, ripping NBC with just about every joke during his nightly monologue.

POLITICS: With our wonderful state legislators in Harrisburg continuing to suck pints of blood from the taxpayers, it should only be assumed that they also have a golden parachute when they retire. In this case, House speaker Keith McCall announced that he will retire when his term expires at the end of the year. Great! One more legislator is dethroned as we continue our march to slay the bloated General Assembly. But, whoops: The 50-year-old McCall will receive a $90,000 pension from the state. I don't know of ANYWHERE (except maybe on Wall Street) that offers that kind of compensation for doing nothing. Obviously this is not shocking news, but that does not mean we don't have to be outraged. So I'll challenge our local representatives, Matt Smith, Nick Kotik, Jesse White, Tim Solobay, Pete Daley, Mark Mustio, John Maher, David Levdansky, Bill Kortz and others to introduce legislation extending pension eligibility to at least 35 years of service and/or slashing the annual payments to something more in line with Social Security checks. Will you please vote AGAINST your personal interests just once?

Thanks, and have a nice day!

Former liquor store filled with new spirit

By Michael Jones
For the Tribune-Review
Jan. 7, 2010

Members of the Swissvale United Methodist Church found an unlikely place to reinvigorate the spirit of their congregation.

With the 80-year-old church on South Braddock Avenue becoming too large and expensive to house the decreasing membership, the congregation and church leaders decided to move services to a former Wine & Spirits store in the Swissvale Shopping Center.

"Most of us just love the irony," said the Rev. Dai Morgan.

Morgan said that when he arrived as pastor in 2006, many in the congregation thought the church would have to close eventually. The antiquated church required a lot of resources and money, which were estimated to run dry by late 2009.

As the congregation pondered what to do early last year, Morgan said the Pittsburgh Mennonite Church contacted it about purchasing the building. The sale was finalized in June, leaving the Swissvale congregation in limbo for the next few months.

The 50 active members spent four months sharing worship services with nearby Presbyterian and Lutheran churches, which Morgan said was an "excellent experience" for all sides. There were low points, though, he said, as the members discussed a different direction.

"We needed to envision a new image for the congregation, and that was a hard thing to do," Morgan said. "Being an old and traditional congregation, there was no way we would grow. We needed to change ourselves."

Read more...

(Above photo by Philip G. Pavely - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

Shoddy reporting at its best (or worst)

My cell phone buzzed early Tuesday afternoon with a text message from a buddy asking, "Why is everyone happy about the Steelers firing Bruce Arians?" This was news to me, because I had heard nothing about the Steelers cutting loose their enigmatic offensive coordinator. A few minutes later, I received an e-mail from another friend asking if Christmas had come late for Yinzer Nation?

What was going on? Where were these "news" reports coming from?

Then I found a Tweet by ESPN Radio 1250 reporter Ken Laird signaling that Arians would be fired... eventually... maybe. Ahhhh, yes: Twitter... where all shoddy reporting goes to die (unless it resurrects itself as the truth a few days later).

His Steelers Blog was no more definitive. The headline shouted "Bruce Arians OUT". But when you clicked on the link, Laird merely reported that he was "hearing strong rumblings that the Steelers are going to let go offensive coordinator Bruce Arians. As to when this will officially be announced by the team, I am not sure (presumably by the end of the week)."

Splendid reporting, Ken. So, BA might be fired, and if he is, it might happen on a day that ends in a Y. That's like me saying that I might have a job offer, and it could come at the end of the week (or not at all).

Of course, this sent the Pittsburgh media into a tizzy trying to locate the source of these rumors. And by the end of the day, not a single media outlet had any information. They only could cite Laird and his "strong rumblings." How lazy can the media be to report a single reporter's hunch/inside source that something might happen. Everyone was so concerned about getting the story before another competitor, they seemed to disregard the fact that Laird could be wrong.

Now I watch from the sidelines as a bunch of purported professions stoke the rumor mill fires. If Laird's report is correct, then he will be seen as a veteran reporter getting the story right before anyone else. And if he's wrong... well, what was that Tweet about again?

Another interview

This applying for jobs stuff is for the birds. For the second time since Pink Slip Paradise began in June, I have been called to interview for a job in which I never applied. So, now I'm 0-for-2,153,048 on applications, yet 2-for-2 on out-of-the-blue interviews. Strange.

This time, it's with a little weekly newspaper based in northern Allegheny County, but under the Trib Total Media umbrella. The editors at the Trib sent my name to this newspaper editors when they inquired about possible reporters. The interview is Thursday morning at the old Clark Building on the North Shore, so I'll get to take a nice day-trip downtown. I figure I'll also be able to drop by the Tribune-Review newsroom and introduce myself to the Trib editor for whom I've been freelancing.

Should be fun times.