It is great that this dog was saved.

Now after one person gets him, will everybody else who inquired run down to the nearest shelter and save a stray? Then have him spayed or neutered, please. The Atlanta Humane Society is located right off  75 at 981 Howell Mill Road. Most Petsmarts have some kind of rescue organization offering adoptions on the weekends. Access Atlanta has classifieds for pets. Lifeline Animal Project runs a virtual shelter for may rescue organizations. They have a database of over 600 adpotable animals! Not all are in no-kill shelters; pick those animals first. More on this last organization later.

      your note []

United Airlines is in deep doodoo!

There are some serious lessons that need to be learned here.

United suffers from unsustainably high labor costs in a business suffering from excess capacity.

Many of the bigger airlines have been strangled by unions for sometime. Now I am a liberal and feel unions have done some very important things for our country, but I also feel some unions are getting wages that too high for the skills required. They can also needlessly limit tasks that employees are asked to perform. Pilots and mechanics are obviously skilled positions. How skilled do baggage handlers and flight attendants need to be? How much are they actually worth? On many airlines, the flight attendants will not help straighten up the plane between flights. Paid cleanup crews come in to do so, and they seem to do so poorly. On Southwestern attendants do straighten up, and even pilots help in some circumstances. Southwestern probably pays a more realistic wage to their employees and has more job requirements. Southwestern is a profitable and healthy company with happy employees.

Regulators should not oppose some consolidation among major carriers, while guarding against airlines' obtaining monopolistic strangleholds at individual airports.

True competition among airlines cannot happen until airport access is opened up to all airlines. Atlanta is monopolized by Delta. Their employees know it, and treat their customers like they are doing us a favor by flying us. I would rather have more gates opened up to other airlines so that we can truly have some choice as to which airline we want to fly. We could choose airlines with good prices and friendly employees. Smaller airlines could come in and compete with the giants and not be locked out.

Salon's "Ask the Pilot" has a good comparison of European airlines verse U. S. Airlines. It is this type of customer service that smaller airlines could implement and challenge the bigger ones with.

      your note []

This is why every house needs to keep a handgun nearby.

"There was only two beers left, so I took one, and I told Willie not to take my last beer," Brasher said in a taped statement that was played during the trial.

Hey Joe, where you goin' with that gun in your hand?
Hey Joe, I said where you goin' with that gun in your hand?
Alright. I'm goin down to shoot my old buddy,
you know I caught him stealing my last domestic beer can.
Yeah! I'm goin' down to shoot my old buddy,
you know I caught him stealing my last domestic beer can.
Huh! And that ain't too cool.

      your note []

At lanta Braves fans are pissed!

Some are pissed at the Braves, some are pissed at Tom Glavine. I think everybody is going to make out well.

The Braves need to keep their payroll from going completely through the roof and get players who excel in the playoffs. Signing Glavine, and older pitcher, was going to take $30+ million for three years with a fourth year option. However, he was not effective in post season play this year, and at his age nobody could promise he ever would be again.

Glavine is at the end of a long and successful career. This is probably going to be his last contract. He has to get all the money he can now. If he signs a short contract, and his performance slips, which tends to happens when ballplayers hit their late 30's, he could not command the same amount of money. He had an offer of $18 million form the Braves and $35 million from the Mets. This is guaranteed money. He would be an idiot not to take the money.

Fans of the Braves should be happy that Glavine is going to a rival. The Mets payroll is going to be eaten up by a player that has been ineffective lately in playoff appearances.

Fans of the Braves have been irritated for years by Glavine's quotes while speaking as the players union rep to the press. Well, this is what all that was about; older players being able to get huge amounts of money. It is not about the fans, the younger players, or the minor league players trying to get to the majors. This is a business. It is a business decision for the Braves. It is a business decision for Glavine.

The Mets still suck.

      your note []