Another brilliant dumb idea up in smoke. It’s the “Just In Time” management concept designed to reduce overhead, and max out profits, by ordering supplies and material when they’re immediately needed rather than maintain stockpiles or reserves. Let’s take a car plant, for example. Say at full production the plant
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The Disaffected Lib: Montana Judges Stare Down Corporatist US Supreme Court, Reject "Citizens United."
Judges of Montana’s Supreme Court have defied the US Supreme Court and refused to apply the perverse Citizens United decision in their state. The court upheld Montana’s right to regulate how corporations can raise and spend money for political purposes. One judge dissented, Justice James Nelson, holding (properly) that
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: In Israel, Even the Top Court is an Outlaw
When Israel’s top court runs headlong into international law it’s an ugly day for the rule of law. The Israeli Supreme Court had to decide whether Israeli companies can exploit resources in the Palestinian territory, the West Bank. International law forbids occupying powers from doing just that. Faced with the
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Living in Wonderland 2012
What really makes my skin crawl about living in the world of the Far Right is how seamlessly, yet powerfully, fantasy is interwoven with reality. Let’s name it. How about hyperconservativopathy? Extreme conservatism taken to pathological levels. We can even shorten it to an acronym, HCP disorder. H
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Let’s Hope She Takes Losing Well
Michelle Bachmann, just one of the nutjobs running for the Republican presidential nomination, is reported to be in trouble. One of her Iowa campaign chiefs bolted to Ron Paul and another was sacked after contradicting Bachmann’s claim the defector was paid to jump ship. It’s looking like the Iowa primary
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: We Need to Talk
In some ways my late dad was not a deep thinker. Just crawling out from under the Great Depression and severe wounds from combat in WWII likely had more than a little to do with that. Yet, to his eternal credit, he made the most of the object lessons he
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: This One is for James Morton, Happy New Year James.
I watched it, had to post it. Enjoy, James
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Time to Break Our Growth Addiction
Imagine being trapped in a society that considers heretical the notion of living within its finite means. That is very much the civilization within which you and I and the rest of humanity live. Life on Earth, in all its many forms, lives within our biosphere which is today about
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Harper’s Diabolical Christmas Gift to Big Oil – Selling Out Canadian Workers
Any doubt that the federal government has turned Canada into a petro-state beholden to Big Oil can be put to rest by this chilling account from yesterday’s G&M. The Alberta Oil Patch appears to have persuaded Ottawa to let them fill Tar Sands jobs with Third World labour. Alberta is
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Not Your Standard Christmas List
The High-Tech Priests at CNET have published an unusual, Top 10 List that they describe as the 10 technology trends that “keep us up at night.” Most of their tech worries concern technological destruction of personal privacy and the spread of the surveillance society including geo-tracking. Another was the development
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: If You Want to Fight Climate Change (and Harper) Get Loud About It
An interesting piece from Grist.org suggests that getting action on climate change is a noisy business. The trick, it claims, is to be outspoken and brutally honest about what’s happening and what’s coming because that’s the only way to reach the magic, 10 per cent threshold. “…there’s a whole cottage
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: That Was Fast. Iraq Stumbles Into Civil War.
Iraqis knew they were getting something special for Christmas this year, the departure of American combat forces. And a good many Iraqis also knew that marked the time for settling old scores and balancing the books. Power struggles are opening in Iraq, several of them. That’s largely because the central
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: WTF? China is Driving Canada’s Purchase of the F-35?
If you have any doubt about how feeble Canada’s corporate media have become you need only read the PostMedia scribe Matthew Fisher’s article proclaiming that “Canada will buy F-35 joint strike fighter, no matter the cost.“ This joker has the critical thinking skills of a 6-year old at Christmas. Who
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Dear North Korea. Sorry For Your Loss. Maybe We Can Help.
Our sincere condolences on your loss. A guy like Kim Jong-Il doesn’t come along every day and he’ll be hard to replace. Sure you’ve got his pork pie kid but he’s untested, unproven and, let’s face it, a bit of a long shot. What if he turns out to be
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Future Thinking
If our civilization is to have a future we’re all going to have to change the way we think. We’ll need a new way of seeing things, new values and principles – call it Future Thinking, thinking about what we need to do to ensure we can provide a future
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Reviews Are In. Canada Sucks.
It’s hard to believe anyone was surprised that the Harper regime reneged on Canada’s Kyoto Accord commitments. But even though they knew it was coming, at home and abroad people find Harper’s actions repulsive. From The Guardian: “I regret Canada’s withdrawal and am surprised over its timing,” said the UN
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: It’s Over. US Troops Leave Iraq.
The United States military mission in Iraq is over, eight years, eight months and 26-days after American tanks first poured in from Kuwait. Some 4,500 US soldiers have died. No one can be sure how many Iraqi civilians were killed. The usual, obscene estimate is “more than 100,000.” The departure
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Canada Needs Answers Or It Should Scrap the F-35 Deal
The recent Iranian downing of America’s latest, high-tech stealth drone, the RQ-170, raises a load of questions that nobody is asking. Begin by asking just how Iran managed to down the thing in the first place. This technology is supposed to be so stealthy the bad guys aren’t even supposed
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Krugman Warns It’s a Depression and Democracy Itself is at Risk
New York Times columnist and Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman is now calling the developed world’s meltdown a depression. And he’s warning that we’d better wake up to the threat that poses to our democracy. “True, it’s not a full replay of the Great Depression, but that’s cold comfort. Unemployment
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Just Askin’ That’s All. Is the F-35 Still Stealthy?
Early American stealth technology, the F-117 kind, relied heavily on angled plates and special paint to prevent radar waves from being returned to enemy receivers. The current stealth technology relies on curved surfaces and anti-radar coatings to prevent radar waves from beaming back to enemy receivers. This technology is used
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