Latest Tweets:
Real Eating Disorder Recovery: Don’t confuse health with weight loss. DON’T CONFUSE HEALTH WITH...
Don’t confuse health with weight loss. DON’T CONFUSE HEALTH WITH WEIGHT LOSS. DO NOT CONFUSE HEALTH WITH WEIGHT LOSS. I see this so often on every social networking website I go on, and something needs to be said about it. When you analyze your health, instead of asking yourself “How much do…
Working Families Flexibility Act Passes House Over Opposition Of Democrats, Labor
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Depression-era statute that serves as the bedrock of U.S. labor law, hourly workers must be paid time-and-a-half for every hour they work over 40 in a week — both to reward workers for their extra hours and to discourage employers from pushing workers too hard. The Republican measure would instead give employers and their workers the choice to use earned “comp” time instead of pay, an opportunity already afforded many public-sector employees. According to Democrats, such an option would be ripe for abuse by employers, and in practice it might not be an option at all for some workers. By lowering the cost of overtime for employers, labor advocates worry the measure would dilute the primary governor on the 40-hour week and pressure workers into taking comp time rather than pay, even if their choice is ostensibly protected by law. The bill would give workers the option to “cash out” their accrued comp time at a later date if they choose, but Democrats noted that such a situation would amount to an interest-free loan for employers. Labor unions and worker advocacy groups strongly opposed it. In a sign of the union opposition to the bill, Chris Townsend, political director for the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America union, told HuffPost that such a measure could “liquidate the whole concept of paid leave.” Rather than giving workers the standard two weeks of vacation or a handful of sick days, Townsend argued, employers could invite workers to “earn” their time off by working overtime. If you want to give workers the ability to commit time at home, advocate for mandatory paid sick leave and paid time off. All this does is erode the 40-hour work week, which really does help families achieve balance, and cut costs for employers who work their employees in excess of 40 hours a week. Time-and-a-half is better than comp time because 1) an employer can arbitrarily decide when a worker can and can’t take their comp time, meaning it might not be flexible for employees at all, and 2) workers aren’t paid the extra dollar amount for working in excess of a standard work week. It will be a 1:1 payout situation instead of a 1.5:1 payout, and the point of making overtime more expensive is that working in excess of 40 hours a week is difficult for families and makes work-life balance almost impossible to achieve. You might as well call this bill “Work Harder for Less Act.” This is bullshit.. (via stfuconservatives)
Republicans love free enterprise, the entrepreneurial spirit — right up until they hate it.
Slate: From the state that brought you the nation’s first ban on climate science comes another legislative gem: a bill that would prohibit automakers from selling their cars in the state.
The proposal, which the Raleigh News & Observer reports was unanimously approved by the state’s Senate Commerce Committee on Thursday, would apply to all car manufacturers, but the intended target is clear. It’s aimed at Tesla, the only U.S. automaker whose business model relies on selling cars directly to consumers, rather than through a network of third-party dealerships.
The bill is being pushed by the North Carolina Automobile Dealers Association, a trade group representing the state’s franchised dealerships. Its sponsor is state Sen. Tom Apodaca, a Republican from Henderson, who has said the goal is to prevent unfair competition between manufacturers and dealers. What makes it “unfair competition” as opposed to plain-old “competition”—something Republicans are typically inclined to favor—is not entirely clear. After all, North Carolina doesn’t seem to have a problem with Apple selling its computers online or via its own Apple Stores.
Still, it’s easy to understand why some car dealers might feel a little threatened: Tesla’s Model S outsold the Mercedes S-Class, BMW 7 Series, and Audi A8 last quarter without any help from them. If its business model were to catch on, consumers might find that they don’t need the middle-men as much as they thought.
According to the report, “Apodaca received $8,000 in campaign contributions from the North Carolina Automobile Dealers Association last year, the maximum amount allowed by state law.” He has not responded to a request for comment.
Ironically, this sort of thing is almost exactly what Ayn Rand complained about in her novel Atlas Shrugged — a business group and the government were forcing an industrialist to share his process for producing a new alloy, using “unfair competition” as their reasoning. I suppose it hadn’t occurred to her that they could ban it for the same reason.
The GOP has taken to praising Rand in recent years — especially post-Tea Party. Like so much else Republicans say, that praise is obviously horseshit.
Free markets, amirite?
(Source: standupfordownthere, via stfuconservatives)
I SWEAR THIS IS LIKE A BAD CHRISTIAN ROCK ALBUM COVER
Like this?
This post has been featured on a 1000notes.com blog.
(Source: luciferotic)
I’ve honestly never laughed at anything this hard in my entire life. I’m crying.
OH DEAR GOD WHAT WHAT SHIT
I need this on my blog again.
This is gold!
(via that-gif-person)
I felt sorry for this polar bear so I made him look cooler.
This post has been featured on a 1000notes.com blog.
Needs more views. Beautiful.
I saw this a while ago but I agree it needs more views! Check it out!
Anya! Another fellow awesome animator from Griffith University Queensland College of Art!
(via fuckyeah2danimation)
(Source: givemecoffeeorparaish, via lookingthroughthekeyhole)
