What Caught My Eye Today

Congress - The House passed landmark legislation banning employment discrimination against homosexuals. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, passed on a 235-184 volte, wold be the first federal law protecting gays, lesbians and bisexuals against employee discrimination. However, the billl's prospects in the Senate are dim, and President Bush has vowed to veto it if it passes, citing concerns that the bill could spawn extensive litigation and that it tacitly endorses same-sex marriages. Dude, if you are going to veto a bill, be honest about the reason for doing so. It's pretty far-fetched to claim a law protecting against employment discrimination also endorses same sex marriages. Vetoing a bill to placate your Conservation voter base--now that's a lot more believable.

FBI - The FBI has concluded that Blackwater security guards shot and killed 14 Iraqis "without justification" during a September incident in which 17 Iraqis died. The FBI report found that at least 5 Blackwater guards opend fire on a crowd with automatic weapons during a traffic stop in Baghdad. Investigators found no evidence that Iraqi civilians fired at the guards. The findings pose a dilemma for new Attorney General Michael Mukasey, because U.S. law may not cover the actions of private security contractors overseas, making prosecution problematic. I guess, I'm a bit slow, because I don't see the dilemma. During his confirmation hearings, Mukasey made it clear that he would enforce whatever the law told him to. No law, no enforcement. Seems pretty cut and dry to me. Wrong, but cut and dry.

Spain - King Juan Carlos of Spain received a round of applause from Latin Americna leaders this week for telling Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to "shut up." Chavez had annoyed just about everyone at a Madrid summit with his repeated interruptions of Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero. Chavez kept insisting that Zapatero's predecesor was a fascist. King Carlos apparently found Chavez's rudeness and grasp of history tedious. "Why don't you shut up?" he snapped at the leftist Venezuelan leader. Chavez later compare the incident to the persecution of Jesus Christ. Oh yeah, I can so totally see his point. I saw a video of the incident where right after Carlos' remarks, Chavez was nailed to a cross. What a putz. And how about a shout out to King Carlos for showing some moxie. I bet you'd never seen Queen Elizabeth exhibit such a display (but boy, wouldn't that be a sight).

Finland - The Finnish government announced that it would raise the minimum age for buying guns from 15 to 18, in response to a school shooting last week that left 9 people dead. Finland has extrememly loose gun regulation and the third-highest concentraton of fireamrs in the world, after the U.S. and Yemen--but it has little gun crime. Initially the part of this story that got me was that in Finland you could own a gun before you could drive, but that was quickly replace but that little statistic at the end. I love it--the United States, with all of its gun control laws ranks second only to Yemen for firearms. You have to hand it to the gun lobby. Clearly they're doing something right.

Time Management - Payscale.com just launched a new widget called Meeting Mizer to calculate the cost of attending meetings. Using its database of 10 million income profiles from 4,000 companies, it estimates meeting participants' salaries. A user enters the attendees' job titles and the company's regional location, and the electronic meter calculates the cost per second. As it ticks, the meter can also be projected alongside PowerPoint slides.

As a courtesy to my faithful audience, I gave this a trial run. Here's the results from a recent meeting.

Mr Tibbons, the pinhead (department head) - $15/min
Chris, the kiss-ass (eager intern) - $0/min (hey, interns don't get paid)
Gloria, the whiner (project lead) - $10/min
Hank, the pessimist (poor slob doing the work) - $5/min
Chet, the player (jerk supposed to be doing the work) - $5/min
Luis, the disinterested onlooker (janitor) - $.15/min (dude has a schedule to keep; those trash cans don't empty themselves, you know)
Clare, the savior (hot pizza delivery chick) - who knows, but whatever she makes--it's not enough

Meeting duration: 60 minutes
Meeting cost: $2109
Analysis: Given the probability that nothing was actually accomplished in that hour, hopefully the pizza was good.