Starting from the bottom and working my way up

As I mentioned, I'm familiar with the FIRE people from my days in college.  They are solid people, and some of the speech codes at colleges are legitimately suppressing speech.

Federal workers are definitely not underpaid.  If nothing else, they're being "compensated" with more job security (or, in the case of DOJ, prestige), and they're "buying" more free time.  But it sounds as though they're also getting paid at a level similar to the private sector.  No wonder they never want to leave... I will reiterate my desire to work in the private sector for as long as I can.

I hate unions - I'm just throwing that out there.  I imagine there are a lot of people who try to raise a family by working at a low-level Walmart job, and I don't envy their obviously formidable task, but I can't say that I want to do anything about it from a policy perspective.  But I kinda object to this whole labor system.  Walmart employees should have the right to come together, but Walmart should have the right to fire them if they do, but maybe collective action in this case should really be an antitrust violation but for the law excluding union activity, but maybe that law is dumb.  I should have left it at "I hate unions."

That OkCupid article was better only in that I could read it at work.  That actually made it worse because it meant that I finished it, and it wasn't that great.  A bunch of atheists met up on OkCupid?  Neat-o.  Them and Tom.  Hooray.

Aww!  But I should still go to the gym and earn that bonus...

I'll comment on the other ones tomorrow, but until then, how to live without irony.  Plus this because it might be relevant (I haven't actually read the NYT piece yet).

Also, at around 1:50 in the morning I took a little break and watched this live version of "Gangnam Style."  I've seen a lot of awesome concert footage on Youtube and elsewhere, but I don't think I've often seen that many people go completely nuts and know all the words and be genuinely happier than ever in their lives to be there.  Also, the regular music video has over 750 million views.  Damn.

B