On 30 May 2001, Kristin M. Fitzsimmons wrote:
> On Thu, 31 May 2001 05:56:53 +1200 (NZST) Penguina
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> So, correct me if I'm wrong here, but I believe the above
> comments were actually thanking James for his comments on
> the US system as a whole (re: Second Amendment rights, and
> some other things he mentioned), as it's easy as a US
> citizen educated in US public schools to just think that the
> US is always right, and it's nice to have someone outside of
> the US say that the US system is pretty cool. I'm not sure
> how the cool bits about the US system have contributed to
> "lazy surfing children who think the world owes them a
> living..."
Don't know how it got that way, either. The fact is, however,
that that's what you've got in the US. The EU, where I lived
for several years, is far worse -- you get things like postal
clerks carrying on long personal telephone conversations at
their post while a line builds up out the door. Waiters who
can't be bothered to bring a simple tass de l'eau du robinet
to a table because they're busy smoking. Belgian companies
taking over really good technology providers like Dragon and
running them into the ground.
The things that certain countries in the EU have got right
over the US are substantive things like paid family leave
and far better support for child care (e.g. the French creche
system).
It would be a shame if the EU right to surf for porn on company
time were used as a red herring to deny US workers the right
to paid family leave and decent child-care, all lumped in together
as "an absurd level of employee rights."
This practice of lumping in of stupid issues with real issues as
a way of torpedoing the substantive issues is very typical in US
politics. The ERA was torpedoed by people that were all up in
arms about the "fact" that it would "require" unisex bathrooms.
The Republican party tried to torpedo the Civil Rights Act of
1963 by lumping in equality for women. They also dragged the
gays-in-the-military issue into the debate over the Family and
Medical Leave Act of 1993, as a way of trying to torpedo the
whole thing. In the latter two cases, they were important issues
that were lumped together with the main issues, not stupid at all,
but it was done so deliberately to sidetrack the legislative process
on the main issues being debated.
> > If you want to protect your "privacy" to surf for porn
> > during business hours, go out and build your own
> > business, and then get back to us... if you still think
> > it's such a great idea.
> >
>
> I'm completely not understanding here. If your employees are
> not getting their work done on time, or if their work is
> sloppy, or if they generally are not doing their job well
> (all of which should be effects of viewing too much porn,
> spending too much time writing illicit emails, playing
> quake, etc.), can't they be disciplined, or even fired?
Yup. And I've done it. The surfing logs, you don't even
have to confront them with their logs, but it does offer a
valuable clue as to who's performance to keep an eye on.
> <personal rant, feel free to ignore...>
> This is quite similar to an argument that the profs here at
> Dartmouth use against the Greek system. Frats, they say,
> contribute to an anti-academic culture, and result in
> drunken students in class, or students simply not going to
> class on days after big parties, or after house meeting.
> This is, they say, an argument why the Greek system should
> be abolished. Of course, if the profs were doing their jobs,
> classes would be hard enough to ensure that no one could get
> through 4 years at Dartmouth if s/he showed up to class
> drunk/high on a regular basis, and morning quizzes given
> after big party nights would surely force students to come
> to class.
> </personal rant>
The other problem with frats we saw at Cornell was date rape,
gang rape and drug rape (since that's what getting a girl so
drunk that she can't defend herself IS). Schools at which the
greek system HAS been abolished, e.g. Princeton and Harvard,
have far higher academic performance out of both students and
faculty...and a far lower incidence of rape committed on campus.
And I'd sooner hire a Princeton, Harvard or Radcliffe grad than
a Cornell or Dartmouth grad as a result, even though Cornell is
my alma mater.
Penguina
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