Hell Week

Towards the end of every month we have at my work what I like to refer to as Hell Week, which is actually about a week and a half long, all things considered, and which is when I come home and just don't want to do anything, and that includes post here. But I didn't want people to think the blog was dead. It's not. So I figure I'd pop in and put up a quick hello.

Hello.

In the meantime, as we wait for me to get around to all the grand things I've been promising to write about, here's a fun post from DailyKos. In accordance with the so far halfassedly outlined philosophy of this blog, who wants to take a wild guess as to what I find horribly wrong with it? That's right: still looking to the Democrats to save us when we should instead be looking to ourselves. Still urging people to spend money on the Dems (this time on Dem think-tanks) when we could instead be using the money for more valuable things (like what? Use your imagination. We spent approximately $2 billion on Kerry, and no doubt we could have found a better way to use that money if we'd tried).

OK. Later.

Good Corp, Bad Corp

I keep promising to do an entry on my idea for a consumers' union, and I will get to it, hopefully sooner rather than later. In the interim, here's a little something to tide us over: one thing the union will do is research and rate the behavior of individual businesses, from world-wide conglomerates to smaller, local shops. Businesses that behave well will get the union's seal of approval. Those that behave poorly will get a big thumbs down and we'll encourage our members to boycott those businesses or take other effective actions.

What I would like to start here on the blog are two lists, one of good corporations, and one of bad corporations. I fully expect the bad list to be the longest, since those companies will be easiest to find information about. A company with a great environmental and labor record is hardly newsworthy by today's standards -- and so, for the time being, we might be going with a "no news is good news" ratings system as far as that's concerned.

I'll be Googling and hitting Lexis Nexis, but doubtless there are lots of useful nooks and crannies of information that I'm sure to miss. So, if anybody out there knows of a good resource for learning about corporate behavior, please post it.

And I'll try to have the lists going by the end of the week.