Island Dweller checks in on employment.

Data posted today on the web indicates at least one sector of the economy is experiencing an employment boom, with numbers of these employees increasing 18 percent since 2009. The employees I mention contribute nothing toward increasing the productivity of a business, nor do they assist with marketing or sales in any way, thus helping the business owner. They are in fact a sort of lamprey on the body of a business, but a necessary lamprey given the times in which we live. They are known as compliance experts, whose job it is to know all applicable Federal, state, and local laws pertaining to the operating of a business and ensure the business stays out of trouble with the EPA, DOL, DOJ, and the myriad other agencies which a hapless businessperson has to cope with nowadays. In a military sense, these people are a necessary defensive measure but contribute nothing toward a business’s “offense” – selling products and making money. So let it be said Dear Leader has in fact created a few jobs during his tenure, and his period in the throne room – er, the Oval Office – has not had an entirely negative effect on our nation’s workforce.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.