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Originally published at customerservant.com. You can comment here or there.

After the breach of the Israeli defensive wall and kidnapping of Cpl Gilad (ben Aviva) Shalit on Sunday, , Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has finally said enough is enough.

Mr Olmert has put the army on standby for an extensive military operation against Palestinian militants to free Cpl Shalit and Israeli tanks and armoured
vehicles have been assembling on the Gaza border.

“The question of freeing [Palestinian] prisoners is in no way on the Israeli government agenda,” Mr Olmert said during a speech in Jerusalem.

“There will be no negotiations, no bargaining, no agreements.”

Mr Olmert said that Israel would not allow itself to become the victim of “Hamas-terrorist blackmail”, warning that “a large-scale military operation is
approaching”.

“The time is approaching for a comprehensive, sharp and severe Israeli operation. We will not wait forever,” Mr Olmert said.

Source.
This is exactly what Olmert should have said, and I’m glad to see he’s acting on it.
As of this writing, Israel has attacked a bridge in Gaza in order to prevent Shalit’s being transferred from the Strip.
Meanwhile Secretary Rice is doing her best to encourage Israel to lay down and take this, like the good little dog the State Department and the Administration expect her to be.
Thank G-d Israel is giving the Administration, the State Department, and the international community the finger.
Hat-tip Euphoric Reality.

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Originally published at customerservant.com. You can comment here or there.

I got another message today, telling me that the button-hanging problem should be fixed, and asking me to test it again.
Of course, it’s not fixed.
And, even more to the point, the button-hanging issue is very small in the grand scheme.
The standards issue has yet to be addressed.
Really, I tried to make sure I didn’t come in here today with my hopes in the clouds.
I think I dealt with the possibility that we might actually have a solution to this huge mess very reasonably, trying my best to keep a waight-and-see approach.
Nonetheless, getting that message was a real let-down, because it means we’re right back where we started.
It’s yet another sign that we’re going to keep running this circle until it either runs itself out in the form of someone in a position to do something finally taking the initiative to act, or until I quit.
I suppose whatever information John has that he can’t give me might contain an actual solution, but that all depends on whether or not he gets shot down.
I don’t know anything about what he’s been involved in, so I really can’t speculate.
It’s hard not to get angry about this latest round though.
Then again, I can get angry, but there’s nothing I can do.

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Originally published at customerservant.com. You can comment here or there.

For a long time now, I’ve been making it a point to read David Bonner’s bloog, because it serves as a source of entertainment my days would otherwise lack.
Well, I was reading it just a minute ago, and the block monster struck.
By way of explanation, the block monster is what denies me access to many of the web sites I try to visit during my time at work.
It usually strikes when there’s something that seems really good behind the next link.
Sometimes, it has the added disadvantage of blocking the source of the link I was trying to click on.
For example, if I’m reading Dov Bear, or Orthomom, I have to hold off on reading the comments until I get home, by which point I’ve totally forgotten what was so interesting that it caused me to try for the link in the first place.
Once the productivity problem gets fixed, this will become a virtual non-issue, as I won’t be surfing blogs all day.
But until then, I’ll continue to combat the block monster, and savor the occasional victories.

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Originally published at customerservant.com. You can comment here or there.

“What, I’m a loser?” (Shimon Peres asks the Labor Party central committee, and they yelled back a resounding “YES!” )

That’s great.
I only wish we could see that kind of thing in politics in this country, and I mean on the official level.
Hat-tip: Jameel.
He’s got more quotes, so go over and read the post.

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Originally published at customerservant.com. You can comment here or there.

I thought I was going to come into work and find that I would finally be able to be productive, but John can’t give me any details.
Oh well, we’ll try again another day, or wait another six years until things get worked into their final form.
At least something’s headed won the pipe though, which is a better prospect than I had last week.

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Originally published at customerservant.com. You can comment here or there.

When I go into work this morning, I’m supposed to find out about the solution they’ve come up with to fix the non-productivity problem.
I think they’ll have me doing admin overflow work at first, which is fine with me.
Here’s hoping things don’t snag.
I hope to be able to post less from work, or at least have work-related stuff to post about, and post most of the news items at home, as it should be.
I had digital cable installed yesterday, (or at least, the cable guy brought the boxes by), and I’m switching to VOIP phone service as well.
Sprint really stuck it to me, and I’d like to be able to save some money.
It looks as though I’ll be able to pay only $70 a month for cable, high-speed internet, and phone service.
Not bad.
The VOIP guy’s supposed to come back out this evening because he had the router set as a bridge, so it wouldn’t get its own IP.
I should have all that working by 21:00 this evening, assuming everything goes well.

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Originally published at customerservant.com. You can comment here or there.

I talked to the detective responsible for arresting Michelle and her thug accomplices this afternoon, and he says they’ll be indicted in the next few weeks.
He says he doesn’t think it’ll go to trial, but I’m not sure if that’s because the DA’s going to give her another deal, or because the evidence is so overwhelming that their lawyer has convinced them they have no choice but to plead guilty and hope for the best.
I’m going to call the DA tomorrow to see if I can get some more information.
I sure as hell don’t think any of them should get a plea bargain after what they did.
Being robbed and assaulted like that has caused some huge problems.
On top of the wages missed due to having to take time off, I’m a lot more paranoid than I used to be, especially at night.
I’ll be glad when it’s all over, and the three of them are in jail for a very long time.
I’d love to put them under the jail, but that’s just not possible, and won’t be as long as we have a legal system that cators to criminals.
And I still wish there was something I could do about the company allowing her to come back and work after serving the sentence for the first time she robbed me, because I’m sure there’s something in the Code of Conduct that talks about being fired immediately if it comes out you end up in jail for committing a crime.
Oh well, at least she’s not on the streets.
Here’s hoping she doesn’t see them for a while.

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Originally published at customerservant.com. You can comment here or there.

I was in the breakroom a little earlier for lunch, and someone was microwaving chitlins in there.
Not only did it stink up the entire place, but since I was standing next to the microwave stand waiting for my own food to finish nuking, my shirt now smells like I imagine innards to smell like.
I don’t understand how people can eat food that smelly.
Not just once, mind you.
They had to cook it at home, and then bring some left-overs in and nuke them.
Jesus.
At least with other smelly foods like fish, you can really do a lot with it to make it taste good.
I wouldn’t nuke that either though, because it just wouldn’t taste good reheated.
And I sure as hell wouldn’t bring it into work.
I can’t wait to get home and bathe in some sort of disinfectant.
I’m definitely going to have to wash this shirt tonight, or it’ll stink up the rest of the clothes in the basket, as well as the rest of the room.
Stupid, ghetto rednecks.

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Originally published at customerservant.com. You can comment here or there.

It seems I have a post that keeps being resubmitted.
I’ve deleted over one hundred instances of the damn thing.
God I hope that’s done with.
I don’t know what the hell caused it, but I’ve disabled the post-via-email script for now until I can figure out what’s going on with it.
Probably spammers.
Shoot them all.

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Originally published at customerservant.com. You can comment here or there.

I’m starting to get feedback from other blind and visually impaired users of customerservant.com, and it seems as if, though I’m used to dealing with sites that aren’t as accessible as I’d like them, and so I hadn’t considered that this one was a huge problem, it apparently is a huge accessibility challenge.
I think we’re going to have some huge problems further down the road, given that Web 2.0 is the latest rage, and it seems everyone wants to make their applications web-based.
I don’t see this going anywhere but more and more graphical, which will present problems for screen readers unless something comes up that allows for them to be a little more interpretive of dynamic web content.

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Originally published at customerservant.com. You can comment here or there.

I can’t sleep, so I decided to get up, turn the TV on in the living room, and make rice crispy treats.
Not the usual thing you do at 3AM in the morning.
But I was going to do it later today anyway, and this just means they’ll be done cooling, and the chocolate they’re smothered in will be all nice and solid, and they’ll be sitting in the fridge tempting me to eat them.
I’ve managed to get some of my coworkers addicted to them, and I promised I’d make them some more this weekend.
And no, you can’t have the recipe.
The weather wasn’t bad here on Shabbat, although the mosquitoes were out in full force last night.
I ended up taking my dinner outside and eating it out there.
I made a tomato sandwitch and a salad.
I had forgotten how good tomato sandwitches were.
It’s been years since I’ve had one.
That tomato’s going to be gone in three days.
This week I should actually have a paycheck that’s very close to normal.
With the exception of coming in to work late two days in a row two weeks ago, it should be the full amount.
I had almost forgotten what it was like to see a normal one.
I still haven’t heard any word on what’s going on with my robbery case, but I’d really like to go and burn the jail down as long as Michelle and her hoodlum buddies are still in it.
I’ll feel a whole lot better once this goes to trial, and if they all get sentenced to forever in prison, and it’s done and over with.
Now back to your regularly scheduled program, already in progress.

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Originally published at customerservant.com. You can comment here or there.

I’m sitting here at my desk, and I can’t seem to get situated.
These chairs are just the other side of comfortable, so it’s hard to find a position that’s good enough to stay in.
I’d leave and go outside, but it’s hotter than Hell out there.
I was out there eating my lunch.
I may go out and check my messages as an excuse to go out and get some air, even though the air is pretty non-existent, and there’s enough humidity to last for the rest of my lifetime. I’m really sleepy, and I shouldn’t be because I actually got eight hours’ sleep last night. I’m currently reading Harry potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in order to try to pass the time.
I’ll be glad when this evening gets here and I can leave.
Next week will be seven months with no work, excluding the speratic tasks John gives me to do, which are greatly appreciated.
Just maybe, sooner or later, I’ll become productive again.
But then, Hell might freeze over too.
Mr. Frodo is such a moron for allowing this to continue.
No, never mind, it’s all the sighted people responsible for causing this problem and allowing it to continue who are morons, and, although it’s hard to admit, in the grand scheme, Mr. Frodo is pretty insignificant.
He’s just the closest idiot.
Apparently we have yet another referral training thingy to go through.
We did the second part Wednesday, and it was a fine example of the kind of effort that gets put into being negatively productive I’ve ever seen.
I didn’t say unproductive, I said negatively productive.
There’s productive, then unproductive, (which means you’re not doing anything either way), and then there’s negatively productive, where you deliberately waste more than twenty minutes of your time at someone else’s behest, just because they want you to.
That’s been the referral training.
Every last word is in the information system we have, so there’s no point in anyone getting together for four hours at a time, three different times, to read through it.
And while I’m at it, the company needs to offer training on how to speak proper English, or at least something that resembles it.
Sunt is not a word, sent is.
It’s not a consonant thing, it’s a constant thing.
How exactly is it that people manage to get through high school not knowing how to speak their native language.
Morons, every last one of them.

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Originally published at customerservant.com. You can comment here or there.

From Lazer Brody

This is not an easy subject; I didn’t want to deal with this in public, but after having to advise a heartbroken Baal Tshuva in the USA what to do when
a blue-blooded Cheder Rebbe molested his beloved child, we can no longer remain quiet.
First of all, a child molester is the lowest form of villain. If he carries an appearance of being religious, such as a warped cheder rebbe, he’s lower
than low by causing chilul Hashem, a defamation of Hashem’s name, for which there is no atonement. The minute he lays a hand on a child – or on any other
human – he gets the judgment of “rodef”, literally “chaser” or attempted murderer. Any person has the right to kill a “rodef” on the spot. By molesting
a child, the villain is literally maming the child’s tender soul for life.

Unfortunately, as you say … many community leaders are not aggressive enough against this cancer. By not acting and protecting children from molesters,
those leaders are “standing on their blood”, a severe transgression of Torah. Here’s what we do over here, with iron-fist rabbinical approval:

The minute a molester (or potential molestor) is identified, he gets a “house call” by 2 or 3 good ol’ boys with long payis and very big biceps; they don’t
lay a finger on the villain, but put a good 10 pounds of fear in his heart and inform him that he must do the following: 1) Tshuva; 2) Resign immediately
from the cheder, and to never teach children again; 3) No severence pay; 4) To stay put, so he doesn’t move to another town and begin molesting children
there. 5) Pay damages to the injured party; 6) Mandatory counseling and emotional rehab. The villain then falls under close scrutiny, and if he even looks
at a child, somehow bad things begin happening to him. Such a system prevents Chilul Hashem and is usually adequate.

If however, the villain tries to hide behind his “meyuchas” relatives or weak rabbis, or fails to make tshuva, we turn him over to the police. Child molesters
in Israel get 18 years in the slammer. I used to be the Rav of a prison – I can tell you that the other inmates hate child molestors, and make their lives
unbearable. As such, the fear of a stint in an Israeli prison is also a deterrent. Yet, not long ago, one second offender that didn’t heed a rav’s warnings
was sent up the river for the full 18; he went to jail with a cast on his right arm, too.

Although the thing I love most is “Kiddush Hashem”, and the thing I hate most is “Chilul Hashem”, protecting the life of a child comes before Chilul Hashem
considerations. Hashem is willing to have His holy name erased to make peace between a husband and wife – all the more so to guard the life of a child.

Rebbe Nachman of Breslev teaches that not all rabbis – especially in these times before Moshiach – are not exactly worthwhile. If your local rabbi doesn’t
come down like a ton of bricks on a child molestor – or seek the aid of others that will – don’t have faith in him.

Parents – look for the early warning signs! Don’t ever let your child stay after school alone with a teacher, and beware of a teacher that seeks to be alone
with a child. Teach your child about the sanctity of the body, and that no one is allowed to touch it.

Yes, this abomination is in the tradition of the Flood Generation. May Hashem wipe these villains from our midst.

May we merit to talk about happier subjects always, yours with blessings, Lazer Brody

I’m very glad to read pronouncements like this when it comes to horrors like the sexual abuse scandals that have erupted over the last few weeks.
Rav Lazer has not only refused to shrink from or apologize for anyone’s despicable behavior, he has called a spade a spade.
Rav Lazer, may you merit many blessings!

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Originally published at customerservant.com. You can comment here or there.

I guess the referral training doesn’t start until 13:30.
So I’ll fiddle around till then.
I’m in a very vicious mood today.
I hate this place, and most of the people, and the rules, and everything associated with this hellhole.
I was supposed to be on vacation this week, but my sweetheart got the “Needs of the Business” treatment from his boss, so that got nixed.
Meanwhile his boss will get to take his Memorial Day weekend off.
I hope it really sucks for him.
My ‘Net connection’s down at home, so I still have to deal with that later on.
I hope to get that fixed tonight, otherwise I’ll have two tons of email to go through.
Wait, I’ll have that to do anyway, since I haven’t gone through my email in at least two days.
This week’s dragging on, probably because I was looking forward to a break spent with someone who’s actually intelligent, capable of really deep conversation, and just plain fun and a genuine pleasure to be around.
Corporate America sucks.

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Originally published at customerservant.com. You can comment here or there.

I had forgotten that any form of protest is practically illegal around here.
I had taken to not wearing my badge in protest against my current situation, but apparently that’s unacceptable.
I’ll have to find something else.
It’s better than just accepting the idiocy that passes for management in this case.
I’m off to referral training for the rest of the afternoon, or most of it.
Yeah, that’s highly illogical too, since I can’t get into the damned system, but, once again, it’s the rules.

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Originally published at customerservant.com. You can comment here or there.

I was surfing down the XM dial, trying to find something to listen to, and I came across one of the most horrible pieces of auditory trash I think I’ve ever heard.
It was on the hits channel, and it was the tail end of a song.
The “artist” was spelling out the word “bananas” as if that was supposed to be something novel or insightful, I think.
Or maybe the point of pop music is to make sure there’s as little meaning and insight as possible.
Maybe that’s what they have to do to make sure they sell hit records.
And it seems to be getting worse and worse.
If you comb through the music of the 70’s you’ll find a lot of good stuff, as you will with the 80’s and even the 90’s, although I think the good started to be seriously outweighed by the bad by the mid-90’s.
But even now, if you really dig, you can find something worthwhile on the albums being released today by the most popular artists.
You just have to have a lot of patience, as in the patience of Job.
Is it just me, or does music seem to be getting worse by the decade?
I’ve even gone through some of the music of the 80’s and 90’s, and none of it seems as bad as the crap coming out today and being forced down the throats of the listening public by the record industry and the big radio conglomerates.
This doesn’t speak for the occasional anomalies, like Vanilla Ice, but I think it’s generally accurate.
I shudder to think of what pop music’s going to sound like in twenty years.
God help us.

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Originally published at customerservant.com. You can comment here or there.

I’ve finally got the site working with Firefox.
I’ve started using it a little myself, and it works, with the exception of some hangups it seems to have with Jaws.
I do like the tab functionality though.
And the cool thing is I got the errors (and there were quite a few of them) fixed in a week.
Client’s development team, you really bite hard.
You’ve had six months to fix the accessibility issues with your kloogy software, and you haven’t done a thing.
I went through thousands of lines of code, (thanks Yaakov and Heidi), and got the problems fixed.
You guys are total slackers.