Category: Politics, Religion & Money

Parkinson’s Claims Another Cartoonist

Stuart Carlson’s final cartoon, May 31, 2022

Six years ago, Richard Thompson, creator of the Cul de Sac comic strip, died after some years of coping with Parkinson’s Disease. The previous year, Wisconsin political cartoonist Stuart Carlson was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. Carlson passed away on Friday.

https://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2022/06/13/stuart-carlson-rip/

I was somewhat taken aback, seeing that Carlson and I were born only days apart. We even lived near one another, until I was seven. Carlson stayed with, and succeeded at, a career dream that I decided to abandon. The newspaper where he worked for 25 years notes his passing, but doesn’t mention he was forced to accept a “take it or else” buyout in 2008.

https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/2022/06/13/milwaukee-journal-sentinel-editorial-cartoonist-stuart-carlson-dies/7603770001/

Welch’s Jelly Brain

Jack Welch was a chemical engineer who thought he was the world’s greatest CEO. Many of his admirers agreed, but in hindsight he was a terrible executive. Like the far less accomplished Trump, Welch’s actions were extremely destructive.

To me, Welch’s management ideas were bogus on their face, especially the annual culling of the ranks, based upon the “stacked ranking” of employees. If a company lets go of the bottom 10% of its staff every year, even assuming valid criteria are used, competent employees will be lost. All you’re doing is providing talent for other companies to hire, and lowering morale in the process. Ultimately, productivity will decline, and that was exactly what happened at General Electric.

No, I don’t get any money if you buy Gelles’ book. I have no relationship with Amazon, other than being a customer for the past 26 years.

Great Escapist Entertainment

For Memorial Day, TCM is showing two John Sturges movies back to back. Bad Day at Black Rock, and the inspiration for TV’s Hogan’s Heroes (with a nod to Stalag 17), The Great Escape, which is still playing as I write this.

Something that stands out immediately in both movies is how artificial the sets and costumes are. For all the attention to detail put into the productions, their overall appearance is much too clean and new, as was typical in movies of the time. The hotel in Black Rock was made to seem old and worn, but it’s sitting on a freshly poured concrete foundation. The German POW camp in Escape is said in the story to be new, but nevertheless there is a Disney-esque fakeness to it, even inside of the tunnel as it’s being dug.

On Facebook, I’m seeing posts about the price paid for freedom by American soldiers who died in the service of their country. I certainly agree with honoring those who died in military service, but since WWII, depending on the conflict their deaths may not necessarily have helped to keep Americans free. Most recently, invading Afghanistan after 9/11 was definitely justified in my view, but redirecting and expanding the conflict into Iraq — George Bush Jr. finishing the job his dad declined to do — was a monumental mistake.