Category: Rants

In which I go off on the stupidity of politics, politicians, world affairs, religion, and whatever else I deem to be screwed up.

Crackberry Chronicles

Posted on by chappyshi

It has been bad enough that people have to use cell phones everywhere all the time.  Driving, parking, grocery shopping, etc.  Signs not to use cell phones in doctor’s offices are blatantly disregarded…  The use of Bluetooth ear pieces initially led me to wonder who all these people were talking to.  I had never seen so many incidents of what I gathered were whack jobs talking to themselves.  I have sort of gotten used to that but it is still unnerving.

Crackberry’s and other smart phones loosely based on RIM’s Blackberry have recently moved out of the corporate world onto the street.  It was disconcerting at work to see so many people walking down the halls typing away on their Crackberry seemingly oblivious to that which was going on around them.  Company policy forbade using the devices in a moving vehicle without and earpiece but that didn’t seem to stop people from using the phone and/or the email feature.  I did it myself.

However with so many more people using them outside of corporate America, I see the Crackberry as the new threat to my survival and sanity.  The though of more and more people typing messages on the device or messaging on their phone while blazing down the motorway really scares me.  That says nothing about the inconsiderate fools who interrupt the flow of foot and vehicle by typing away on the Crackberry without a care in the world about whose progress they might be impeding.

I had a woman walking toward and in front of my obviously idling car pecking away at her smart phone while I tried to get out of my parking space at the grocery store.  She looked right at me and just kept coming toward me typing away without the thought that she might stop doing so and get out of my way in a timely, considerate manner.  I guess maybe I am being sensitive but it really is the little things that matter when it comes to being polite.

I would have loved to see the look on the woman’s face had I leaned into my horn…  But I was too considerate to have thought of doing that.

Cat’s Not in Cradle and He’s Loud

Posted on by chappyshi

My cat Hamlet, who I have commented on before,  is loud.  I came home from physical therapy for my knee today, got out of my car, and heard this unworldly noise.  It took me a second  but I realized it was Hamlet.  He sounded like cat being waterboarded.  When I got in my apartment, he was looking out the sliding glass doors  to my balcony.  He’s been know to vocalize there before.  I actually stopped by the rental office to see if anyone had complained about him…

Taxing Times, Class Inequities, and Ignominy

Posted on by chappyshi

Tom Daschle, “nominated to be secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services,” purportedly “did not pay more than $128,000 in taxes over three years,” according to the Washington Post article, Daschle Owed Back Taxes That Exceeded $128,000, dated 31 January, 2009. Will he get the job? Probably… loser. If you make enough money to screw up your tax filing by way more than I make in a year, get a frigging accountant.

In the same article the Washington Post reveals that “Timothy F. Geithner, who was chosen to run the Treasury Department, disclosed that he had not paid some taxes and subsequently paid $43,000 in taxes and penalties.” Will he get the job? Maybe… loser. See trailer above.

WTF? I had the IRS come after me last year because my Social Security number was wrong on an E-Trade account that I closed two years ago which was never worth more than $4000. That took me three or four phone calls to clear up. And for what…so I’d have a clean record for my upcoming Cabinet post nomination? Losers…

Cat’s Meow and Why I Really Have to Find a Job

Posted on by chappyshi

My cat Hamlet just will  not shut up.  If he is not meowing at me, he is roaring at something else unknown, doing his Tony the Tiger imitation.  He meows when he is hungry, meows when he wants me to go to bed so he can cuddle up to my overweight, warm body, and he meows when he thinks  I should get up,  even if all that means is that I am going to go back to bed to read.

I found something on the Internet that reflects my cat’s behavior almost exactly.  It is called “Rippling/Rolling Skin Syndrome.”  I never thought it possible that my cat was anything other than whacked, he is Korean, but there may be some some scientific basis for his behavior.  He is 18.  I just figured he was old.  Ironically, the article says the syndrome is most common with younger cats.  Unfortunately, he is also so deaf that I don’t think he even realizes how much noise he is making.

I thought it was bad when I was working and not home all the time.  Now that I am around so much more, it is making me even crazier.  If monetary needs and Hamlet don’t drive me back to the job market, nothing will.  I do have a couple of work arounds planned though.  I have three multi-day ski trips planned between now and the end of February so  at least I’ll get some respite before I start working again.

CBS 60 Minutes – The Electronic Wasteland

Posted on by chappyshi

I read or saw something one or two years ago about how shipping containers of electronic waste from the U.S. were shipped to China where Chinese laborers without any kind of protection were stripping the waste down to parts from which the precious metals could be retrieved and recycled.  It was and is against the law to ship this scrap out of the U.S. so some unscrupulous types were amassing loads of scrap to ship to China where more unscrupulous types would buy it and have the various devices/parts stripped down by poor Chinese laborers who were not aware of the health and environmental risks posed.

Since I have, through work, disposed of 15 to 20 thousand pounds of electronic parts over the last four years, I have tried to ensure that the product was disposed of and/or recycled in an environmentally safe manner that did not involve some poor uneducated laborer in a third-world country.  Unfortunately, I can only do so much.  I quiz my recyclers about where the scrap goes after they separate it and sell it to their business partners.  I have been told that they carefully screen those business partners to ensure that they are being as ecologically and humanly friendly as I wish them to be.  The bottom line is that once the scrap is out of your hands, you lose control and really have no idea where it goes.

Watch the clip from CBS.  Apparently, even after an expose one to two years ago, shenigans are still going on.  I wonder what really happened to the scrap I have disposed of through the years:

The Electronic Wasteland

Time to Return to Our Roots

Posted on by chappyshi

In the Washington Post OpEd, “End of the Open Road -The Land of the Perpetual Frontier Meets $4-a-Gallon Gas,” dated 23 June, 2008, by Bill McKibben, Mr. McKibben discusses a few of the impacts of the high price of oil: automobile use is down, airlines are cutting routes, food costs are higher, and more people are gardening, presumably, growing vegetables. He notes that “local farmers markets are the fastest growing part of the food economy” and “in many areas the number of small farms is on the rise for the first time in a century.”

I have been thinking for years that I would like to get out of the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Ideally, I’d like to relocate to Upstate New York or Vermont. I would like to live in a smaller community where we provide more for ourselves rather than relying on huge chains of grocery and department stores to which goods have to be shipped from the four corners of the globe. We, as humans and communities, have to become more self-reliant and less dependent on “world-trade.”

I don’t have the sources immediately at hand to prove what I am about to say but, though it may not happen in my generation or the next, fossil fuels will soon become so scarce and so expensive that the mobile life we now know, be it in our own cars or in planes, trains, and ships for vacation or transportation of goods, will not exist. We may be able to maintain some semblance of the life we currently know through nuclear, solar, wind, tidal, and geothermal power but that is likely to provide power only for homes, businesses, and telecommunication systems…not transportation. Accordingly, we will have to be able to provide sustenance for ourselves and each other locally and regionally.

The bottom line for me is that beginning next year…should have started this year…I will try to grow some of my own vegetables wherever I might find myself. And if I have more than I can use, I’d be glad to trade them for some local product or service that someone else can provide for me.

Virginia’s Self Serving Rural Interests Hamper Transportation Infrastructure Upgrades

Posted on by chappyshi

According to the Washington Post editorial, “Virginia: Congestion Ahead,” dated 23 June, 2008, Virginia’s “…funding for new road and rail projects will, at current projections, all but disappear within a decade as available money is sponged up by maintenance needs…” Republican leaders are blocking state-wide tax increases in favor of regional increases for Tidewater and Northern Virginia.

Don’t these narrow-minded twits realize that Tidewater and Northern Virginia are the economic engines of the state? Sure they suck up a good percentage of the tax revenue for roads and such but they certainly generate a huge percentage of the tax revenue. Without Tidewater and Northern Virginia, Virginia would be just another struggling Appalachian backwater like West Virginia and Kentucky.

If rural Virginia wants to continue to benefit from the prosperous regions of the state, it needs to sit down at the table and ante up.

Food for Thought, If You Can Afford It…

Posted on by chappyshi

As I am sure everyone is aware, the price of most food items is rising. This is due to few issues, none of which I believe, are easily remedied.

U.S. and EU countries unreasonably subsidize agriculture operations including those that make $150,000 per year. Asian countries countries with recently booming economies such as India and China are increasingly consuming more meat, rice, and soy products. Poor harvests in Europe and Australia compounded by Russian satellite states such as Kazakhstan banning exports have made wheat that much more scarce.

U.S. farmers are producing less wheat due to “climate change” and the fact that wheat is more susceptible to disease than corn. More corn is being produced due to “climate change” and the fact that the price has risen dramatically due to the demand for fuels such as ethanol that emit less carbon dioxide when burned for energy. The growing of corn for bio-fuels is also largely subsidized by the U.S. government, again artificially increasing the desirability of growing corn and, unfortunately also, increasing the price of products based on the consumption of corn such as many meats and milk.

Due largely to government mismanagement of agricultural research to increase crop yields and of continual agricultural subsidies, many countries haven’t increased there crop yields per acre in years. The Philippines reportedly can’t even grow enough rice to feed their own people let alone export it. Top that off with an official policy against birth control and you have a dramatically increasing population and not enough rice to feed it.

My last note for the day will touch on the fact that contenders from both parties for the presidency have suggested that the government suspend the gasoline and diesel fuel taxes for the summer, “Truckers Rally to Protest High Costs for Fuel.” Now there’s a fucking brilliant idea. We are in enough trouble as it is with our national debt…let’s cut taxes some more. Where is the benefit? The price is likely to rise enough to cover any reduction incurred by eliminating the tax. And finally, why should we reward people for driving more at less cost all the while producing more pollutants?

Self-Checkout Honeymoon Is Over

Posted on by chappyshi

The self-checkout honeymoon is nearly over for me…the one at the grocery store that is. Not only do the stores seem more crowded than usual but all those individuals who were afraid of using the self-checkout lines when they first came out all of a sudden found their balls. It doesn’t help that there might be only three checkout lines, two of which might be 15 items or less, manned at a time, but there are often self-checkout lines that are not open. What’s up with that? Is the computer tired or on a break?

Now people who might only have gone through the line with a few items are going through with carts full because there aren’t enough regular lines manned. Then you have people who really can’t figure out the device interface, don’t have their store card and/or means of payment ready, or who are just plain slow or stupid.

Today I got stuck behind a woman who was doing it all one handed. You know what I mean? The old one-handed self-checkout? Not a pretty sight. She had this purse the size of a Hefty bag locked in to her body with one hand and arm. Somehow she was scanning her items while facing away from the scanner. Needless to say she was not too speedy. Then the chute filled up and rather than have her perfectly capable and energetic son fill the bags, she did it herself in no big hurry.

Then to make matters worse, she had two large plastic containers from the salad bar, one of which had two beets and a few beans from a three bean salad and the other of which had about two tablespoons of shredded carrot. First of all, what a waste of plastic. Second of all, the one with the carrots wouldn’t even register on the belt because it was too light. So we waited for the guy to clear the error. He just cleared the entry and put the item at the end of the chute with one of those WTF looks on his face.

Rant on:  First of all the self-checkout lines are not the convenience they once were. Second of all, what the hell can you make with two tablespoons of shredded carrots, two beets, and some three bean salad that necessitates wasting two perfectly good plastic containers, which hopefully but doubtfully were made from recycled materials.

Rant off: