A COOL, IF PLEASANT, MORNING UP HERE IN THE MINNWISSIPPI AS I WRITE THIS, having just come back from selling a load of 139 lb. of aluminum cans from the motel I work @ here in Winona.

Said load sold @ 57¢/lb., for a return of just under $80, of which I got $32 as my share of the proceeds.

Not to mention gas selling now @ $3.85/gallon ($1.017/litre) for regular unleaded, a jump of 16¢/gallon (4.6¢/litre) overnight.

And one factor explaining the high oil and gas prices of late, as have set an ongoing string of records, would have to be some nasty ultraviolence in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria by local clans wanting a greater share of oil revenue from the Abuja government--and expressing their discontent by sabotaging crude oil pipelines and terminals.

*************

AND YOU THOUGHT WE "MORALLY SUPERIOR" AMERICANS WERE THE ONLY ONES WORKING HARDER ALL THE MORE WITH NO REAL PROSPECT OF TIME OFF, excusing such as one with National Identity as much as True Patriot Love in All Thy Sons Command:

The Japanese automaker Toyota has been ordered by a district court in Nagoya to pay compensation to the family of a 30-year-old assembly-line worker who collapsed on the line last fall, subsequently succumbing to karoshi ("death from overwork"), after working 106 hours of unpaid overtime in his last month on the job.

As well, Toyota has announced that it will increase overtime pay for such employees participating in "voluntary" quality-control discussions, up from a previous limit of two hours' overtime per month.

It's not known whether such steps will have an adverse effect on corporate profits, let alone applying to Toyota facilities only in Japan or elsewhere in the world Toyota has production facilities.

=============

MEANWHILE, IN BILL O'REILLY'S ANSWER TO OCEANIA'S PREVAILING ENEMY OF THE HOUR (EURASIA OR EASTASIA, AS THE OFFICIAL LINE MAY BE), otherwise known as France, warning strikes and "work-to-rule" actions are bringing the Gaullic hexagon to a near-standstill over French Government proposals to denationalise workers' pension schemes and require employees to work 41 years (rather than the current 40) to qualify for full pensions, which can be procured starting @ 55 years of age.

Seems the Zealots and True Believers of Social Security denationalisation "complete, final and binding" in the United States are all the more afraid of such a prospect occuring here in a "morally superior" society such as the United States, especially should denationalisation be decreed. And especially so if some of the more vehement protesters are from the Lower Classes, which denationalisation supporters want to see as only "benefitting" from denationalisation.

Why? you may ask.

Simple, they will tell you: They need "a renewed healthy respect for industry, self-reliance, personal responsibility, thrift based on cash economy and a wholesome and simple home life" which the "failed and failing" State systems of welfare and Social Security "recklessly held to contempt and disregard."

And the preferred way for "winning of hearts and minds" among the working poor over to "wholeheartedly" embracing denationalisation?

None other than lies, half-truths and distortions, many of which are likely to employ anti-Semitic appeals tending heavily to the old ad hominem.

*************

YOU MAY HAVE HEARD OR SEEN RADIO AND TV ADVERTS FOR LIFELOCK AS FEATURE THEIR BIG KAHUNA, TODD DAVIS BY NAME, giving out his "real Social Security number" to show how his company's programme supposedly prevents identity theft.

Now customers of LifeLock in three states are suing the company for non-performance, and consumer-protection agencies in two states are taking them to ask for deceptive and misleading advertising (one case challenging its $1 million guarantee, claiming such applies only if there is some class of a fatal flaw in its systems).

In other words, it looks as if LifeLock has become hoist by their own petard, so to speak. Especially considering where many of the same actions they claim to provide to deal with identity theft can be done by consumers free of charge or @ reasonable charge. Not to mention exercising common sense and prudential behaviours.

*************

THERE COULD ACTUALLY BE A MORAL DEFENCE TO ANTI-WAR PROTESTS INVOLVING DISRUPTION OF BUSINESS @ MILITARY RECRUITERS' OFFICES such as occured back in March here in Winona.

It's called "claim of right," a defence being used by an anti-war protester who had been arrested to protest the ur-RAHOWA in Iraq and Afghanistan and faced charges of Trespass and Disorderly Conduct, only to have the court unable to come up with a verdict.

The Winona Daily News elaborates on the defence:

The facts in the case weigh heavily against him, [John Edward] Heid admitted. Two Winona Police sergeants, one officer and two Army recruiters testified Heid had blocked the entrance and refused to leave.

The case seemed clear-cut for Assistant City Attorney Brian Glodosky, even after Thompson dismissed the disorderly conduct charge for lack of evidence. Glodosky issued a closing statement, saying Heid repeatedly disregarded the law, and by his own admissions, refused to remove himself from the recruiting station door.

"Mr. Heid is guilty of trespassing," he said.

But behind the facts is a moral obligation, which Heid asked the judge to consider before ruling.

Heid said he did not act with criminal intent, but rather by a "claim of right," which means he acted in good faith with permission by a statute, rule, regulation or other law. Citing international law—namely the results of the Nuremberg Trials and the Geneva Convention—Heid told the court he believed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are illegal and the military is committing war crimes against humanity, which he intended to stop by preventing the enlistment of new, potential criminals.

To help his case, Heid presented Thompson with a set of jury instructions drafted by Hennepin County Judge Jack Nordby in Dec. 2004, when Heid was on trial for a very similar incident and made the same arguments to a jury. Nordby explained the claim of right to the jury, which subsequently found Heid not guilty of trespassing.

Heid said an angry juror approached him afterward and said he was guilty of trespassing but that the stuck jury had acquitted him because he acted in good faith on the claim of right.

Thompson recessed Wednesday to consider the document and arguments. When he reconvened court about 20 minutes later, he said he would take the case under advisement for a week so he could do more research and consider Heid's claim of right.

*************

A GROUP OF BRITISH MENTAL-HEALTH PROFESSIONALS HAVE GONE ON RECORD WARNING ABOUT THE CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER of a new generation of anti-psychotic and anti-Alhzeimer's medications being perverted by weird and unwholesome types acting under the delusion that such would improve mental performance and boost memory.

Has that prospect actually been considered during the clinical-trials phase?

*************

NO WONDER MINNESOTA GOVERNOR PAWLENTY WAS (AND, IN A WAY, IS) SO HARD-WIRED TO THE FLAWED ARGUMENT OF "LOW TAXES=JOBS=SOCIAL STABILITY" to the point where fiscal mismanagement may have played an indirect, yet significant, contributing role to the I-35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis last August.

Mismanagement reflected in the rather warped notion of keeping fuel taxes all the lower, not to mention discouraging conservation efforts, so that increased and wasteful consumption, not to mention automotive use @ the expense of public transportation in particular, would maintain a consistent revenue stream for the highways fund @ prevailing rates.

Is this not reason enough to call for the recall of Governor Pawlenty, let alone the Legislature having to go into special session to consider his removal from office for mental incapacity?

Or what exactly stands in the way? Machiavelli on steroids and amphetamines?

*************

FURTHER TO REMARKS POSTED PREVIOUSLY COMMENTING ON PASTOR JOHN HAGEE'S FLIPPANT TRIVIALISATION OF THE HOLOCAUST (mit Video):

Trick and deception were Nazi hallmarks of the carefully-orchestrated campaign to decimate Europe's Jewish poplation in the name of "national honour [and] racial betterment."

As witness the main gates of concentration camps (Auschwitz and Dachau in particular) proclaiming (rather ironically) Arbeit Macht Frei ("work makes [you] free") or Jedem das Seim ("each for all"), as the case may be.

Shipments of the Zyklon-B cyanide gas to individual concentration camps being euphemistically referred to on shipping labels as "material for Jewish Resettlement."

And the victims being told before heading to the "showers" as would be their sadistic demise that they were being "deloused" or "disinfected" prior to their going to Palestine. (History reveals otherwise.)

Have you no shame, Pastor Hagee?

Have you no shame, John McCain, in having such a warped student of history on your campaign staff as "spiritual advisor"?

Or what otherwise stands in the way?