Author: R J Adams

According to an American Management Association survey, just over half of employers review and retain employees’ email messages. Three out of four employers monitor the internet usage of their workers.

Federal workers are now being told by their unions that every keystroke on their computers is being recorded and scrutinized. This is not just in departments such as Homeland Security, but in every Social Security office in the country.

This scrutiny is not simply of the computer’s hard-drive, but also covers private email accounts such as Hotmail and Gmail. If an employee accesses their private online email account from their work’s computer, the content can be intercepted and read by their employer.

There is something incredibly sinister, to my mind, in the manner employers and government consider this to be their justifiable right. Because they own the computers, does not give them any moral right to pry into an employees’ personal life, simply because it can be accessed online. If an employee accesses their bank account during lunch hour to check a balance, is that information then available to the employer?

Most likely, it is.

There are few laws relating to this subject, and there should be a damn sight more – protecting the employee. It’s not likely to happen though, unless we the public, demand such action of our political representatives.

After all, the government owns all the postal equipment used to deliver our mail, but that doesn’t give it the right to open and peruse anything it cares to.

At least, so we are led to believe.

Filed under: Big brother

Much praise has been ringing out over Congress’s new bill to raise the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 an hour. After all it is the first increase for over a decade. Low paid workers must be jumping for joy.

Many of them are – because they haven’t yet realized the increase they will get is only $0.70c an hour, and then not till sixty days after the legislation becomes law.

According to Bloomberg.com:

“The wage increase would be accomplished in three stages, rising to $5.85 an hour 60 days after enactment, then to $6.55 an hour one year after that and $7.25 an hour two years later.”

The full increase – to $7.25 – won’t happen for another two years. By which time inflation may well have reduced it substantially.

All Hail to our New Democratic Congress!

Filed under: Garbage

European madness appears to be rollicking its way across that continent of late as politicians vie and jostle for position amid their never-ending displays of vanity and political coquettishness.

Italy’s richest man and ex-premier, Silvio Burlusconi, had to swallow his pride – quite an achievement, even given the size of his mouth – when his second wife, Veronica, publicly accused him of “damaging her dignity” by flirting with a group of bellisima senorinas at a TV awards dinner. That she chose the publication, La Repubblica – a left wing paper critical of Berlusconi – to publicize her outrage was truly rubbing salt into the wound. Berlusconi apologized profusely to his wife, but only after the paper had gleefully splashed her demands all over their front page.

Just across the border in France, presidential election fever is rising as the Socialist candidate, Segolene Royal, demands the sacking of her main rival, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, whom she accuses of pulling “dirty tricks” to scuttle her chances in the election. Apparently, Sarkozy has used his position in the government to dig the dirt on the former head of Greenpeace France, Bruno Rebelle, now adviser to Segolene Royal on matters of the environment. Unfortunately for said lady, she has committed a few gaffs of her own in recent weeks by praising the Chinese justice system and calling for independence for Quebec. The Chinese hierarchy love her, but Canada’s not so keen.

While many may criticize the French, they can be eminently rational. A fine example of French commonsense is displayed in their present attitude to the new government ban on smoking in public places. One might expect these exponents of the Gaulloise and Gitanes to rise up in revolution at the very idea of authority displacing their major pleasure in the bars and cafes of gay Paris. Not at all. Seventy-five percent of the population has voiced its approval for the new law and even the most ardent of smokers admit it’s une bonne idée.

Meanwhile, across the English Channel, a furore (or, as they say in American – “furor”) still rages in the British parliament over large sums of money paid to the Labour Party in exchange for the title “Lord”, “Earl”, or possibly “M’lud”. Super-wealthy British businessmen, who love to swag about in ermine robes and fancy wigs, are it seems prepared to pay big for a seat in the parliament’s Upper Chamber, or “House of Lords”. The Labour Party appeared quite happy to take the cash and dish out the peerages, even though it is just a teensy-weensy bit illegal. So far, four people have been arrested, one of them twice. This was Lord Levy, the Labour Party’s chief fundraiser and a Middle East envoy, who was fingered by the police for a second time on suspicion of perverting the course of justice. It may well transpire that Lord Levy becomes Britain’s answer to Lewis “Scooter” Libby. Of course, Tony Blair is well and truly in the midst of this kerfuffal, and has himself on two occasions been the subject of police interrogation.

Today is a great day to be a Tory in Britain.

More on these stories: HERE, HERE, and HERE.

Filed under: European capers