Land of Oz

Web Sites

I spend a lot of time on the web, both at work and at home and I've come up with some stuff that really bugs me about sites. In fact, many times I'll just close the page if some of this stuff happens. If you're a site developer and happen to read this, you might take some hints. I hardly think I'm the only one who this stuff really bugs.

Noisy pages - I don't mind opting in for sound, but I really hate sound sneaking up on me.

Ads - for the most part I don't mind ads. I understand that for you to put stuff up I like, you need to get some advertising revenue. However, there are ads and there are ads. I really dislike those that cover a page and either don't go away, or are hard to close. I'll usually leave a page that has a noisy ad. I hate those extra ads that appear behind the browser. I guarantee I'll close every one before I read it. And if I do see the product, I'll do my best to never use it.

Multi-column articles longer than a monitor window. While this works in print, it doesn't work online. I hate to page down, then back up and back down again.

Wide formatted text pages that don't let me resize the browser. I like narrow columns to read and when I can't squish them down without having to scroll right, I get greatly irritated.

News videos - give me text to read. Online video is usually too slow, too small and too hard to listen to.

Graphic intensive pages - graphics are good until they slow your page so much it takes forever to load. Rather than watching all those little icons get replaced with images, I'll move on.

Dark text on dark backgrounds - I need contrast. It may look cool, but if I can't read it, I'm moving on. This happens a lot when a photo is used for a page background.

Too many links - while I understand web pages are supposed to be interactive some pages have so many links on them you end up launching ads by just trying to bring the window to the front.

Labels: computers, gripes

Neighbors

We got a new neighbor who moved in a couple of months ago. He's really not a bad sort, but he does a lot of stupid things that really don't fit in the neighborhood. The house he bought (at nearly list) had one of the best lawns in the area - now it looks like a hayfield. He has this huge riding lawn mower, waits for the grass to get high, then scalps it down and leaves the cut stuff sitting there. There was one pile about 8" high and 8' long in his driveway for a month.

As soon as he moved in he put in a fence. Naturally for the three (large) dogs he has. I've had more than a few evenings ruined by his beasts barking for hours on end. While the stupid dogs could be worse, I shouldn't have to plan my outside time around his. And one dog pretty regularly runs loose. We've planted some shrubs to hopefully block the view of his fence and yard and dogs.

He has two cats that spend more time pooping and peeing in my yard than they do in his yard. And they love checking out my bird feeders. I keep hoping one of my other neighbors will shoot them.

He rarely sorts his trash for recycling. Our area had a cut in trash fees last year because so many people do recycle.

He parks his car in his back yard. He's got a pretty nice set of ruts across the front yard (not that he cares about his yard) where he pulls it in.

His kids keeps their car in the street where the snowplows have to work around them.

The last time he plowed his driveway, he scalped about a two-three square foot of sod up and has never put it back down. Of course this week we had a new snow that buried his sod and he doesn't seem to shovel his drive.

Another new neighbor on the other side of me told me, "I'm glad you live between him and me." One of the older neighbors across the street mentioned she couldn't understand why they moved here.

This guy has cars in his backyard, his yard looks a mess, he parks just about anywhere and he has three dogs who bark too often and snarl quite viciously when I walk past their fence. While we do live somewhat in the country, it's still a subdivision. This guy should have bought some house farther out in the boondocks where he could be the unthinking slob he strives to be.

Labels: freedom, gripes, michigan

Bail outs

The buzzword for this month is bail out. One meaning is when you leap out of a dying vehicle before it smashes into a million bits. Another meaning is to remove slimy bilge water hopefully fast enough so the boat doesn't sink. One more is paying money so some crook (OK, alleged crook) can walk free. I wonder which fits the banks and automotive industries.

What I really wonder is why them and not the local businesses that are going down the tubes faster than sign-makers can put up "out of business" signs. Has anyone done a cost analysis to see if giving $500 billion to a couple of big banks saves more jobs than giving $50,000 to Mom and Pop to save their coffee shop? And why does a CEO need to be coerced into taking a pay cut from $25 million annually to show he's determined to rescue the business he led into the red?

I'd like to know how much of this banker and auto money has filtered down to the people it's supposed to help. I have a house I can't sell that's worth much less than I paid and somewhat less than I owe (so, yes, I'm better off than some). It's a nice older 1600 sq. ft. home with central air, new siding and a two car garage and no one can come up with $45,000 to buy it. Sorry Mr. CEO, but that fact you feel $25 million a year is just barely enough to put a kid through college doesn't impress me much. How do you manage to spend $25M a year anyway? I realize you have business entertainment expenses and security issues, but my god man, $25M worth?

Don't get me wrong. I'm not asking for a handout right now. I'm doing OK. But I'd really like someone else to get some help so they can buy my house, raise a family, and even send their kid to college - and I'm sure they could manage it on a lot less than $25M.

Labels: government, gripes

Auto Bailout

Here's some random thoughts about the automotive industry bailout. Not all are my independent ideas, but here's my thinking:

It's not an automobile industry bailout, it's a Detroit automobile industry bailout. There is a difference.

The business plan of Chrysler, GM, and Ford is broke and throwing more money after bad isn't going to fix it.

I read somewhere that GM is something like $60 billion in debt now - what good is a &25B loan going to do?

Even if they don't have that debt, GM and Ford are burning through a few billion a month. $25B will last them until roughly April when they'll be broke again.

I know the UAW workers will be hurt - but no matter what happens, bailout or no bailout, the UAW is going to be hurt. Hundreds of thousands of workers are losing their jobs every month in an assortment of industries (DHL just laid off 10K) and nobody helped them out.

GM needs to consolidate and trim their brands. Do we really need Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Daewoo, GMC, Holden, HUMMER, Opel, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn and Vauxhall? I'm guessing way over half of those vehicles are basically the same anyway.

The USofA needs to push mass-transit and smaller, more energy-efficient vehicles and should look at tax breaks and other monetary incentives to the public for using them.

So you know what? I have no idea what to do with the so-called Big 3 that isn't going to hurt a lot of people very badly.

And just as an aside, retirement is no longer something to really look forward to. The cost of everything is skyrocketing, any financial savings plans are dying and pensions are being modified into non-existence and jobs are paying less and less. The houses that could have been a pension fund are worth poop and no one has the money to buy it from you even if you could sell it to supplement the savings that went down in flames along with the house equity.

Labels: government, gripes

Big Box

If you haven't heard, I'm not entirely thrilled with the service levels at places like Home Depot or Lowes. Sometimes I think they'd be better off if they just officially had no workers and just planned on letting you go it alone. Today I went to Home Depot for some stuff and had the usual irritations. First, the one aisle I had to enter to pick up some Minwax finish was next to the aisle they were doing material handling on. That means of course, you have to cool your heels outside the kiddie gate while they decide to finish whatever they finish.

Then comes checkout. I love to use the self-checkout lanes in grocery stores and department stores. I can quickly run through the line with my few items, swipe my credit card and leave. But not Home Depot. Today I bought a couple of tiny batteries for my wife's car's remote. I went to the self-checkout lane (primarily because since they put them in, it's hard as hell to even find a cashier). I scanned my masking tape and Miniwax stuff and put it in a bag with no problem. Then I scan the first battery and toss it in the bag. The bag doesn't register it. The screen sneers and tells me I'm an idiot and will I put the damn article in the damn bag.

I find the self-checkout helper talking to her friend and tell her the scanner isn't scanning correctly. She tell me I'm wrong and it is working. I point out the message on the screen and she goes, Oh, and pushes her button. I scan the second battery and guess what. I tell her again and again she says it is and again and again and finally she pushes her button and I get out of there. And once again the hot dog vulture tries to sell me a hot dog as I leave. (See previous Home Depot Rant).

I put the stuff in my car and go to the gardening center. I ask the two clerks if they have weed and feed stuff for my lawn and I get the classic answer that is guaranteed to piss me off. "If we have any, it's over there..." pointing towards some corner of the building.

If I wanted to wander the store looking for your product that I want to give you money for, I'd wander the store and look for it. I'm asking you because this is your department and you should be able to tell, or at least find out if you have the stupid product. This is like K-Mart and their damn phone that they say they put in for the customer's convenience. If they really cared about customer convenience, they'd have a few more clerks around to help instead of making a customer (who's already in the stupid store) call them on the phone. Quit telling me if you have it, it's over there and just let me know if you have it.

Labels: gripes

$700 Billion for them

And none for us. The us being not them, not the bankers or investment folks or insurance companies. Us, as so often in the ways of government by the people, for the people, get the shaft. If you haven't looked at the so-called bail-out, you'll notice that it isn't really going to help the little greedy folks who bought houses and properties they couldn't afford and now can't pay for. The people it's going to help are the big, really-greedy folks who made it possible for the little-greedy folks to buy beyond their means.

At the end of this bail out, the babies will be out there floating with the bath water while the rubber duckies cash in their golden parachutes, stock options and retirement bonuses. You, along with your uncle Fred, aunt Mary and cousin Glenda, who can't pay off their mortgage still won't be able to pay off their mortgage and will probably lose their house. The bank that lent you the money will get your house from you and money to repay the lost mortgage money from the government. Which means that not only will you have a mortgage you couldn't pay for, you'll now have to pay higher taxes to pay for that mortgage anyway. Or as the ABCNews says: "…require the treasury secretary to implement 'a plan to mitigate foreclosures' and to 'encourage servicers of mortgages to modify loans.'"

But, you say, the government said it wouldn't raise taxes to bail these folks out. Yeah - and I heard London Bridge is back up for sale as well. Did you notice in the haze of $700 billion that there's another $25 billion going to the automobile companies? Those same companies that have been selling $50,000 SUVs to folks who could no more afford them than they could their $500,000 homes. I'll wager those folks won't be getting any relief paying for their 12 m.p.g. dinosaurs either.

Labels: government, gripes

Decisions

I just finished reading about some folks in Texas who were once again made homeless by a hurricane. It seems their places were destroyed by hurricane Rita in 2005 and now in 2008 by Ike. Some of the folks were still living in FEMA trailer that were destroyed by Ike. One of their complaints was that insurance would be going up to high.

I can't tell you how many times I've heard about folks from New Orleans who have been made homeless - again. There's all kinds of TV shows rebuilding houses and businesses from Louisiana - This Old House being one of the latest. We still have people here up north putting together care packages to be sent down south to bail out yet another community mashed by a hurricane.

What do you expect? If I decide to build a house on a railroad track, I ought to expect it to get mashed by a train every so often. Building a house on the Gulf Coast - especially the actual coastline, you have a one hundred percent, no doubt about it, guarrantied, without question certainty you're going to get nailed by a hurricane.

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I've heard suggestions that Obama should switch out Biden for Hillary - do you think Palin will decide to switch out McCain for somebody else?

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The Kalamazoo Gazette reported [Judge] Lightvoet had considered sentencing Cleland to 7 months in jail on a felony charge of retail fraud. He also faces a misdemeanor retail fraud charge and has at least six previous felony convictions. Cleland said he's trying to get out of "a really big hole." Lightvoet said it's his last chance to avoid jail.(Cleland will wear a sign on his sleeve for 7 months saying "Daddy, don't steal")

His last chance? Geez, he's already had at least seven of them. I can see a similar article in about six years. He'll have 14 previous felony charges and the Judge will say, it's his last chance - really it is.

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toe-may-toe or toe-mah-toe?

Labels: gripes

Elections

More election stuff. I just saw a headline where McCain is trying to distance himself from Bush - I wonder why. I started to think of what is different in my life over the last 8 years. In general, my pay is smaller and my costs are higher. The value of my house dropped like a moose in Palin's sights - assuming I could sell it. The gas I use went from $1.40 six years ago to $4.40 this year. My taxes have been spent to fight a bogus war in Iraq to remove WMD that have never existed. More taxes will be used up this month to bail out businesses that can't seem to make any money except those millions paid to their CEOs. Countries that used to tolerate us don't like us and those countries who never really liked us, now hate us. Entering the USofA after visiting Canada is now a royal pain-in-the-ass since you no longer have any idea of what the latest good/bad stuff is for immigration and customs. The loonie and euro have both recently hit record highs against the buck. About the only good that's happened is I got a good wife - and Bush had nothing to do with that.

Yep - just what we need - another hawkish Republican to carry on...

Labels: government, gripes

Why!

It remains to be seen what sort of compensation package Robert Willumstad, CEO of AIG, the world's largest insurance company, will get now. On Tuesday, the Fed promised to back loans to the teetering company to the tune of $85 billion, in exchange for 80 percent of its stock. Willumstad owns homes on Park Ave in Manhattan; on Long Island, N.Y.; and in Vermont. According to BusinessWeek, in July his minimum cash bonus for 2008 was set at $4 million and his target bonus was set at $8 million. In 2006, Freddie Mac's CFO, Anthony Piszel, bought a reported $3.6 million, five-bedroom, 8-bath Colonial in Great Falls, Va., that is situated on five acres "with a lake, a floating staircase and two kitchens." Despite steering their companies into financial disaster, the CEOs of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stand to make even more money up to a reported $25 million in so-called golden parachute packages John Thain has been CEO of Merrill Lynch for less than a year. He received a $15 million cash bonus when he signed on with the struggling company.

And there isn't a damn thing we can do about it. The CEOs bleat platitudes about ethics and honor within their companies and then when it goes bust, they take their money and run, while the peons who made them the money get nothing but a letter telling them their stocks are now worth less than the paper they weren't printed on.

And now the government is into it. If you lose your house, oh well. If a CEO loses his company, the government will step in with billions to bail them out. How about getting some of CEOs, CFOs and C-whatever-Os to cough up some millions to help their own companies out - the same companies they ran into the ground.

Labels: government, gripes, scams

Idiots - again

Hurricane Ike ... forced the U.S. Coast Guard to launch helicopter evacuations of local residents. At least 50 people on the Bolivar Peninsula became stranded by high winds and rain and are being rescued, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. This drama is unfolding despite a blunt warning from the National Weather Service to residents of Galveston in advance of the storm. "Persons not heeding evacuation orders in single-family, one- or two-story homes, will face certain death," the warning said.

What part of certain death don't these idiots understand? And it's not just them. I've read other articles about folks in Texas who are living practically on the beach and have no intention to evacuate. That means that more Coast Guard, and other emergency response, folks are going to have put their lives on the line to save some idiots who don't deserve saving.

It probably makes me sub-human, but I think there are types of behavior that just aren't acceptable and that society shouldn't have to put itself in danger to rescue those people. There's a site/book/phrase The Darwin Awards that document, and in fact award, certain destructive types of stupid behavior. Their logic is that humanity is served when the genes of people too stupid to live are removed from humanity. To me daring a hurricane is one those behaviors we can do without. Not to mention those folks, unfortunately not idiots, who continually rebuild their homes and businesses on sites that past hurricanes/forest fires/floods/etc. have wiped clean. I'm tired of paying for them to continue their idiotic lifestyle. You don't thing their insurance companies are going to repay them out of the goodness of their hearts do you? Nope, the payoff comes from increased premiums to the rest of us.

Labels: gripes, scams

Fannie my Fanny

Well, this is a pisser. We recently bought a house. A nice, attractive small house. Relatively small anyway - 1400 sq. ft. We spent a few months looking at houses ranging from under 1000 to over 3300 sq. ft. And you know what? We could've gotten a mortgage to buy any of them. Actually the 3300 sq. ft. house was pretty cool. Two stories, full basement, monster master bathroom, most all hardwood floors with natural wood trim for doors and windows. Two and a half car garage. The works.

But you know what? While we could've bought it, I wasn't too sure we could have afforded it - or the others in that size range. We looked at another that was over 2500 sq. ft with huge cathedral ceilings for about the half the house. And while my wife really loved them, we decided to aim a little lower and get something that not only we could afford to buy, but that we could afford to keep.

And now the government has decided to bail out a couple of mortgage firms that have lent themselves into penury. And since the government is the people, guess who pays? Yep, us - you and me. So for all those folks out there who bought beyond their means using money they didn't have - you and me are going to have to give them our tax bucks to bail them out. Tax money that could've been used for education, for building new mass transit, for fixing our crumbling roads and bridges is now going to go to pay off people who over spent their means. Yes, there are some who are in default because of stuff beyond their control - losing a job, medical costs, etc. but there are also those who just got greedy.

If a person can qualify for a $400,000 mortgage - why not spend $400,000? How about spending what you can afford? Pass on the second new SUV, the new furniture and the 60" TV and save some money for a rainy day.

Labels: government, gripes

Me, Me, Me

The latest issue of Time has a cover of President Bush with the tagline of "What Bush Got Right." And as soon as I saw the cover, I got to thinking, rather selfishly since I'm an American, what he got right for ME -- and came up with the initial answer of damn little. Is he personally responsible for the problems. Not really, but it has happened on his watch. Could things have turned out differently had he done his eight years differently? Probably, but then again things may have gotten even worse.

In the last six years, gas has gone from under $1.30 to over $4.00 . My friends have run into an immigration nightmare - they being handicapped by doing the immigration process legally. And not just immigration, but simply a visit to the USofA from a foreign country has become a royal pain in the ass. My house is worth less than I bought it for and I can't sell it even at a loss. My pay hasn't increased in 8 years. The retirement package offered now sucks. It's lost substantial value in the last year or so.

The infrastructure of the USofA is literally crumbling away. Brown outs, water breaks and bridge collapses are an everweekly occurrence. We've got roads here in Michigan that will rattle your teeth when you drive them. Not to mention wheel eating potholes. Mass transit in most places in the USofA is something you can only pray for. We used to be able to take a nice train ride from my home to Toronto. Now that same train ride, between immigration and customs is so unwieldy, that a two hour car ride to a Canadian station is preferable.

Unfortunately, I don't really expect anything better from whoever wins in November. Candidates are so afraid of upsetting anyone, that they no longer satisfy anyone. By the time November gets here, both candidate's platforms will be fundamentally identical.

Labels: government, gripes

Rich Folk

An American woman blinked back tears of joy Tuesday as she cuddled puppies cloned in South Korea from her beloved former pit bull terrier. ... Ra's company [South Korean cloning] originally charged 150,000 dollars to clone Booger. ... But it agreed to come down to 50,000 dollars to celebrate what it calls the first commercial deal for a pet dog.

The price that lady was going to pay would have almost been enough to pay for our new house. It could replace my and my wife's cars six times over. I could go down to the animal shelter and adopt 2,884 dogs, most of whom are probably destined to be killed. My wife and I could take an annual 18 day cruise to Europe every year for the next fifteen years. I could bank it and take me and the neighbors out to dinner every month for a long, long time. I could buy a CD and look at $7500 every year.

And she cloned a pit bull of all things with it.

Labels: gripes

Sears

At one time I had the highest respect for Sears and its products. Craftsman was my tool of choice and Diehard batteries couldn't be beat. Now Craftsman tools are found in K-mart and their quality is something that I would expect to find in K-mart. And their salespeople are climbing out from under rocks.

I made the mistake the other day of signing up for a Sears free home estimate for some doors. I was told that they wouldn't call until Monday (this being a Weds) to confirm the appointment. About two hours after talking to Sears in Saginaw, my cell phone gets a no name call (407-551-6000) from Florida. When I answer there's someone just talking on it. I wait for a pause, but it doesn't happen, so I hang up.

There's a pretty cool Web site (http://800notes.com/) you can search for telemarketing and other annoying calls. I checked the 407 number there's a long list of complaints about Sears. I called an 800 number to Sears and canceled the appointment. Since then, even after canceling within three hours, I got at least on other call at home, and have received snail mail ads from them. I'm glad I canceled since this seems more and more like a scam as the harassment goes on.

Labels: gripes, scams

Detroitblog

Here is a very cool collection of essays on Detroit. It explores and displays what's left of the glorious past of Detroit. At the same time, it emphasizes what is happening now. This guy has a way with words and pictures to show what's left of what once was. Boarded up wrecks still show flashes of old-time elegance among the winos and drug addicts. This guy brings it to life. It must have been quite amazing to wander the streets of prewar Detroit. For all our accomplishments and advances of today, those days of the 19-teens had some cultural significance that is a major loss.

Like most cities, especially those of the midwest, much of Detroit is collapsing upon itself. What was once known as MoTown and was at one time the center of automotive excellence is now a festering expanse of abandoned and dying neighborhoods and retail areas. Sure, I know there are new developments going on, but much of Detroit looks like the aftermath of a war. A couple of times when I've had to drive there, I made a wrong turn or looked out while motoring down the expressway and have seen buildings and people that are boarded up and have given up. Flint and Saginaw are part and parcel of that metropolitan disease of abandonment to crime and apathy. It is really sad to see just how far Michigan has fallen.

Labels: gripes, michigan, oldies

$tupid

Here's a few quotes from a recent story from Los Angeles about a person buying a condo there:

The widow of producer Aaron Spelling paid a whopping $47 million for a two-story condo atop a Century City residential tower that's still under construction, her lawyer said.

Her current abode, a 123-room mansion that she and her husband dubbed "The Manor," is the largest home in Los Angeles County at 56,500 square feet.

The house in the affluent Holmby Hills neighborhood sits on six acres and has 11 bedrooms, 16 bathrooms and amenities such as a bowling alley, doll museum and gift-wrapping room.

Related Cos., developer of the Century project, said Spelling's new digs will have a living room with two working fireplaces, a dining room for 25 guests, a 4,000-square-foot master bedroom suite and a conservatory with a rose garden, as well as a swimming pool and deck.

Goldberg said Spelling was moving in order to downscale her living space after her husband's death in 2006. She'll now seek to sell her lavish estate, which was built between 1986 and 1990, he said. (emphasis mine)

Believe me, there is no envy here on my part. Not that I wouldn't mind having a few of her millions to waste on my own. But I find it amazing that one person could be such a pig. What on earth can any person possibly do with a 4000 sq. ft. bedroom? That's over three times bigger than my entire house! Actually, when looking at new houses, we passed on an affordable 3300 sq. ft. house because the size would have been wasted on us. One of the big problems in the USofA is reading something like this in the same week where I read a letter about a local charity that gives $350 to a person so he won't be kicked out of his one-bedroom apartment (I'm guessing that bedroom is a tad under 4,000 sq. ft.). I find it a little sad that we live in a country where one person can spend $47 million on a second residence and another person can't come up with $350 to pay the rent.

Labels: celebs, gripes

Favre

Say it ain't so, Joe...
What a revolting change of affairs. Last year he retired like a hero - the old grizzled iron-man of football from a storied team. Now he's sounding just like any other whining, multi-millionaire, spoiled sports person. Waaa - they won't let me play; Waaa - they won't let me not play; Waaa, I wanna take my ball home.

Damn, Brett; why couldn't you have just faded away like the hero you were? Why do you have to do this crap? Why couldn't you just settle down to catfish hunting back in Mississippi, or open up a Brazil-based beer distributorship in Green Bay? Noooo. You have to play the spoiled prima-donna now. I can't begin to tell you how disappointed I am.

Labels: gripes, oldies

Codgerdom

I've officially hit codgerdom. Here's just a few of the many things happening to this old guy in the last few days to prove it:

Clothes

This weekend I picked up a pair of pants on sale at the local grocery store for $15.95 and actually like them. In my defense, they are Dickies bluejeans, but still; from a grocery store?

Internet

Both google and yahoo have changed their home page to a new and improved version that I hate. Google just pushed it without a hint. Bam - new and crappy page full of text. What happened to minimalist google? At least yahoo let me know it was coming and allowed me to keep my old version. This week the old was gone and I'm stuck with the new. Why do things that work well have to attempt to become new and improved; What's wrong with old and good?

Driving

I'm now one of those hunched over the wheel drivers doing just at or under the speed limit, droning along in the right hand lane, complaining about speeders and cell phone users passing me. And if you're the lady who passed me last week yakking on your cell phone with one hand and gesturing at the caller with your other, will you shut up and put at least one hand on the steering wheel?

The Fourth

I actually looked forward to a nice, peaceful and quiet Fourth of July. And I actually got it. Our neighborhood was abnormally quiet over the Fourth. I doubt I heard twenty illegal fireworks go off for the whole weekend - unlike the warzone I last lived in.

Music

Not only don't I recognize the music on award shows any more, I don't even recognize the artists any more. And the music I used to drive my parents crazy with? It's now elevator music.

Video

I mention Pong or Asteroids to the guys at work and no one knows what I'm talking about. I have no desire to watch TV on a 2 inch screen. I can remember fiddling with the horizontal and vertical hold knobs trying to get my picture to settle down.

Communications

Don't bother calling me on your cell phone to ask if I've read the email you sent ten minutes ago. I'm so old I may not check my email for a day or more. And all I want a cell phone to do, is phone. I don't need pictures, MP3s, cameras, silly-ass ring tones or designer colors. Why can't I just get a cell phone that has clear sound and is easy to dial?

Clothes

Yep - me too. Sorry about that, but I really think wearing your pants down around your knees like they are full of poop and need emptying is pretty stupid. I have no idea if it's gang related or not, but it sure looks dumb.

Body Modification

See above. If you want to stick holes in yourself and fill them full of bits of metal, plastic and bone, fine. But don't expect to serve me dinner with a stud in your mouth. I'll go elsewhere - and I have. If you want to talk to me with a ballbearing in your tongue, you'd better be ready for me to spend more time staring at tongue than listening to your message. Same with tats. You may think a blue flower on your butt is sexy, but I think it looks stupid now and in twenty years, it'll look like a wrinkled old weed or worse. Narrow-minded? Probably, but that's the way it goes.

Labels: gripes, oldies

UFC

Here's something on TV I discovered since getting my digital converter box. And to tell you the truth, I'm a bit embarrassed to be watching it. UFC stands for Ultimate Fighting Championship, which is just one minor step removed from the Roman gladiator bread and circuses fights. In one of the matches I watched a couple of weeks ago, the blood ran so freely, the fighters were literally fighting in a puddle of it.

First, let me say, the I realize these are mostly superbly trained and conditioned fighters. Six pack abs and bulging biceps are the norm and there is without doubt highly trained combat moves going on during a fight. It looks like several minutes of free-form mayhem, but you can see the skills there. They may squirm and tussle about on the mat for several minutes and all of a sudden one guy is tapping the other guy because he's in a hold he can't escape.

Secondly, however, I'm a little ashamed I'm enjoying this. Many of these guys have bizarre haircuts and tattoos ranging from mom on a shoulder to practically full body artwork. At the end of a fight, they are often blood spattered and the loser is often barely able to get up. I've seen cuts over their eyes so large, they look like an extra mouth. It makes you wonder just how bizarre people will behave to make a few bucks. It's actually pretty shameful that we are willing to pay to watch events like this.

The only thing we're missing is a thumbs down signal from the emperor watching in his private suite for the winning gladiator to finish his opponent off with a trident. I can see in a year or so, when the UFC seems everyday and is losing their audience, that they'll go to the next level and have them fight until the loser is unconscious. And then how long before they have a celebrity sitting in a box suite giving the thumbs up or down for the losing fighter.

Labels: gripes, misc

spam - revisited

I've been getting my usual several hundred spams a day across various accounts. Some of the stuff I wonder about is why some email accounts I have get hundreds of spams a day and others get 1 or 2 a month. I have one rather odd domain that I don't use at all that gets several hundred spams a day. That account deletes them at once.

Another thing I wonder about is why some spammers don't even take the effort to correctly configure their spam machines. I get many emails with something like $NAME or $$MAIL_ADDRESS in the subject which obviously is a missnamed variable.

And then there's the ones that are spelled with all the correctness of a high school shop class dropout. I'm guessing a lot of the misspellings are an effort to circumvent the spam filters, but I think those kinds of things play right into a filter. Not to mention the numbers as letters versions, as in s33 the m4n 1n th3 m00n. I am somewhat intrigued by a batch this month that have a subject similar to You're pretty stupid . At least they're a bit more honest than most.

Please people, quit responding to these idiots. If people would just quit sending in money to Indian drug stores, Nigerian banks and Hong Kong software stores, they'd eventually quit sending out the email.

Labels: computers, gripes, scams

Savings?

What happened to saving money? Lately it's gotten to be almost a lost cause. I keep hearing that a strong economy needs invested money and the way money gets available for investment is by the people saving money. My understanding, admittedly simple-minded, is that you put money into a bank account, the bank uses that money to make more money and you get a little extra money back. If you want to be a little more risky, you can invest in stocks and bonds and hopefully get more money back under basically the same mechanism.

The main difference is that in a bank, you could count on getting 4-5% back with very little risk. In bonds, you could get 8-10% or in exceptional cases hundreds of percent back, but with a correspondingly higher risk that you could also lose it all.

My experience with stocks has sucked. I was hired into a dotcom several years ago and one of the bennies was stock options. I invested for a few months until I finally realized that the market stock prices were consistently lower than my stock option price - much lower. Eventually, our company, like so many other dotcoms, went bankrupt. And essentially, all stocks become worth zilch, nada, zip. All the peon investors, and we had some young employees, who having bought into the "invest in your company fable" had invested heavily in the company. And ended up with nothing (zilch, nada, zip) - which still pisses me off. And my 401(k) lost a few grand just in the last couple of months. Retirement money that I'll need that I'll never see again.

My bank account isn't doing any better. Lately, every month sees a decrease in interest paid, and of course a corresponding increase in prices paid. Now I'll be lucky to get half of what I've invested into my house. And honestly, if I get half, I'll also be happy about it. The one bright spot is our small cars are now worth a bit more because everyone is getting worried about gas mileage. (On the one hand, while I do get a little bit of a vicious thrill when I watch some Neanderthal drive his oversized super-magnum, hyperhorsed 4X4 past a gas station with $4.29 on its price sign, I would've liked to have the option to get one of them myself as a hobby vehicle.)

Anyway, it seems like nowadays, you can put your money into some savings and watch that savings evaporate or buy stuff today before the price goes up tomorrow. And economists wonder why Americans don't save.

Labels: government, gripes

Backwards

Why is that things are heading backwards now? Things that should be helping people are going down. Houses, savings and wages are all dropping down. My 401k and house have both dropped a bunch. The percentage on my savings is going down as fast. Worker's wages keep going down. American Axle, just one of many, watched their pay drop 30-50%.

On the other hand looks what's going up. The cost of almost everything is going up - and not just a little. Gasoline, milk, eggs, bread; all that stuff that has no substitute is climbing rapidly. The government's consumer price index was just published and showed only a small increase. The problem is that those idiots in government who put that report together don't include food or fuel! That is beyond reasoning to me. What the hell do they check? There's a lot of stuff that you can do without, but fuel and food aren't part of it.

My parents had their 30 year pensions - I've got one from the military. How many folks working now are going to get a pension? They have to put savings in a 401k or other account and hope the account doesn't disappear. My 401k lost thousands last quarter and everything I'll have to buy has increased. What a way to retire. Thank goodness I'm not thirty and thinking about raising a family.

Labels: government, gripes

The American Worker

There's a company in Michigan, American Axle, that has been on strike for several weeks. Here's some of what they end up agreeing to: workers who were once eligible for 200 hours would top out at 160 hours of vacation time; holiday bonus: cut from $1,000 a year to $500; holidays; Five fewer; cost of living: new hires are not eligible; shift premium: Reduced from 5% and 10% for second and third shifts, respectively, to 55 cents and 80 cents per hour; breaks: Cut from two, 23-minute breaks to two, 15-minute breaks.

For instance, a skilled-trades worker who was paid about $33 an hour, including a cost of living increase in the last contract, would see their pay drop about $7, to $26 an hour. That buy-down would be about $55,600. Some pay is dropping down to $10 an hour.

And all this in a time when food and fuel are skyrocketing.

Labels: gripes, michigan

Stupid Things

Some of these I've mentioned in the past, but some are new.

Take out food from Hooters - if the waitresses don't fit in the bag, why bother? And if they do fit in the bag, they shouldn't be working at Hooters.

Drinking bottled water at home. And complaining about the $4 a gallon for gas and ponying up $5 a gallon for water you can get for free from the tap.

Complaints about being Tasered. Yeah, just suck up the .357 and take a round like a man.

Hate crimes. How many murders and assaults do you know of that were because the people were loving?

Making gun ownership illegal. The last I heard murder, rape and robber were illegal; but people are still doing them.

New ones added after reading today's news:

Family sues Little League over unsafe baseball bat. Soon all kids will only be allowed to play with foam bats and marshmallow balls.

GI doesn't want to fight anymore. You volunteered - remember?

Barbaro and Eight Belles. If folks worried as much about people as they did horses and dogs, this world would be a much better place.

Labels: gripes

// posted by Jim-of-oz @ 5/18/2008 10:27:00 PM

Stupid Government

Wall Street Journal:WASHINGTON -- U.S. consumer prices were under wraps last month, a government report showed, especially when food and energy prices were stripped out, further evidence that the economic slowdown is easing some of the inflationary effect of recent sharp gains in food and energy prices.

Makes you wonder what people this government is about. How on earth can they say consumer prices under control but not count food and energy. I haven't met too many citizens of the USofA who don't have to buy food and energy. That's kind of like saying Death Valley will be a fine place to live, as long as heat and water aren't counted.

It makes you wonder just how far from reality the government has really gotten. The president is so far removed from you and me that he hasn't a clue what is going on in "normal" America. Wouldn't you like to take him for a ride down some subnormal American urban street to watch the pushers and gang bangers hanging around in front of some local market covered with PayDay Loans and WIC Accepted signs on it. Hell, I'll bet JCPenny or Sears would be enough to send him for a loop. Can you imagine Cheney or Bush going out to fill up their truck with gas and pick up a pack of hotdog buns? The problem is that they all so many layers of sycophants standing by they have completely lost contact with us - the people.

But you know? Thank goodness our government has decided that consumer prices haven't gone up - I feel much better now since I'm only imagining my $4 gas and $3 bread.

Labels: government, gripes

The 'creaking' US airline industry

Like much of America these days, the airline industry feels tired, worn down, and old.
That is surprising in a country that often likes to think of itself as the best.
Arguably, it once was, but the airline industry - like the health system, like schools, roads - you name it, feels like it is just creaking along and leaving its passengers ever more frustrated.

That's a recent quote from a BBC reporter.

That should bother you, assuming you're an American, quite a bit. Not that it should surprise you, just bother you. If you read this very often, you'll see I've already talked about the 30% graduation rate in Detroit's schools. Half of this city looks like a set from Dawn of the Dead with abandoned buildings and weed covered lots - and that's downtown. A road here in Saginaw recently won a statewide competition for the biggest pothole. Also here in Saginaw we just finished a trial where a bunch of teenagers were convicted of murdering a 14 month old kid in a drive by shooting. Every street around the area has houses on sale - and some of those have their copper pipe or aluminum siding stolen and sold.

Yeah, we've got people doing good stuff here, but there is so much doom and gloom. It seems like for every teenager who works for Habitat for Humanity there's three others who are dealing guns and drugs. Did I mention the 75 college kids recently busted for drug dealing in one college in California this week? How about the three cops who were videoed beating up some suspect? Yep, we have our postal service running a charity drive this weekend while at the same time they have to stop service to some homes because it's too dangerous to deliver mail. Think about that - it's too dangerous for a mailman to deliver a letter in broad daylight.

What the hell is going on?

Labels: crime, government, gripes, michigan

Too Much Money

You know you have too much money when you can spend US$1 million on a violin (does calling it a fiddle make is sound cheap?). And then you spend another US$120,000 to fix it after you fall on it.

From
the BBC:
"Virtuoso musician David Garrett smashed a $1 million (£540,000) violin when he fell over after a concert in London over Christmas, he has revealed.
"I fell down a flight of stairs and landed on my violin case," he told the BBC. "When I opened it up, it was a total mess."

The 230-year-old instrument will spend the next eight months in a workshop, with a repair bill of around £60,000.

"I think it's worth the money," said Garrett.

You really have to wonder about our race when people are making US$1 a day and starving while at the same time some guy can spend US$120,000 to fix his fiddle. And nothing against Mr. Garrett personally. At least you can do something with a fiddle. How about people who spend $20 million on a painting or some three thousand year old broken statue?

I guess it's a matter of priorities. To me spending US$1 million on a violin is pretty stupid; for that matter so is spending a million on a house. However, I find that spending the million on a house is infinitely more sensible than spending the same amount on a violin, which in turn is better than spending that one million on some old painting.

I guess it's also a matter of how much a person's worth. To me, spending $45 on a set of drill bits that is also available for $15 makes sense because the $45 set is built better. However, if I couldn't afford the extra $30, I'd probably make do. The same goes for other people. For some folks spending $1 million on a house actually takes a smaller percentage of their worth, than it does for me spending $200,000 on a house. I figured out one time, when Michael Jordon was taking flack for betting $5,000 on golf, that his bet of $5,000 was roughly equivalent to me betting five or six dollars when taken as a percentage of income.

Labels: gripes, misc

Gas Tax

What do you think of the politicians latest bit of pandering? The suspension of the federal gas tax for the summer. Isn't that just stupid? You're going to end up saving under 7% (the fed's tax is around US$0.19 per gallon) - and if the gas keeps going up, even less. For the couple of months during the summer. And then come September, gas will pop up US$0.19 again out of the blue.

How about you tell folks to just drive 10% less. Or better yet, drop the national speed limit back down to 55 mph. Actually, if you really want to save 10% just drive slower - that's pretty easy. At least slow down a bit. I drive 11.4 miles to work and most of the traffic is whizzing by me, by quite a bit. I'm not driving slow, I'm actually at or just a tad above the posted limit. I watch the lights and try to manage my drive so I don't catch any reds. That means slowing down early and watching traffic as I go. The funny thing is I drive a little New Beetle getting around 28 mpg and most of the folks passing me are driving full size pickups, SUVs and large American cars.

Even if I did drive like an speeding idiot, I'd probably be getting double the mileage of many passing me on my way to work.

Labels: driving, government, gripes

Think Again

Another reason why I think religious people aren't quite all here. Around the world people are starving to death, dying of disease, and killing each other in wars so old, they don't even remember why they started anymore. On a purely materialistic level, people can't afford their doctor or house payment and ignore one and lose the other. Children are killing and raping other children in the cities and you have teenagers feeding their babies crack.

And with all that, people are going to waste their time and efforts praying so they can pay less for gas! If anything demonstrates just how completely fucked up we are getting, it has to be the fact that a church group is going to gather at a gas station to pray for cheap gas! How many SUVs do you think will be in worship?

They have a Web site (and a toll free number of course) and not only can you worship on it, but you can also place your order for a NutriSystem diet plan, get a free cell phone and get $5 in free calls to the Philippines. And the most annoying part of it, is that I'm only guessing mind you, but they are also probably tax free.

Labels: gripes, religion

Surveys

Here's another subject that really bothers me. How can people make conclusions based on survey answers? One today read, "One in six drivers drink sometimes: report." This was reporting about how many people drive drunk. This reminds me of the police scam where they send letters to people with warrants and let them know they've won a free TV or car or some such stuff. When the bad guys shows up, the cops toss them in the slammer.

The cops should try a survey scam. Ask people on the street if they've indulged in some kind of illegal action like using illegal drugs, shoplifting or even, say, driving while impaired. Then when the moron says, "Yes, yes I did drive drunk," they can toss him in the can.

I've taken surveys about stuff. Do I like Coke or Pepsi (Coke) or how often do I shop at Lowes (too often). Stuff like this I don't mind talking about. Even politics is OK. You know the kind, "If the election were held today, who would you vote for? Candidate A, B or C."

I don't do the stupid ones however. You know the kind, the kind with two or three questions that are written with one answer in mind, like, "I oppose letting vicious murders out early so they can terrorize my neighborhood and stomp on my pets? Do you strongly agree, agree or disagree?" I've noticed that those types of surveys usually also ask for a donation of some kind.

So, the next time a survey asks you "Do you cheat on your taxes? Yes or No," will you disagree, strongly disagree or follow your questioner to court?

Labels: government, gripes, scams

Elitism

I love the presidential candidates arguing about who is the least elite. As if any of them have any idea of the average joe american. When's the last time you figure Hillary wore clothes from Sears or Walmart or grabbed a quick lunch at Macdonalds - without it being a set up photo op anyway. Come on, she made $100 million dollars in the last few years! How many common Americans have done that? Not to mention attending Wellesley College and Yale.

Obama isn't any better. His house, according to the Chicago Tribune, "a 96-year-old Georgian revival home that has four fireplaces, glass-door bookcases fashioned from Honduran mahogany, and a 1,000-bottle wine cellar...", cost him $1.65 million ($300,000 under asking price). BTW, that whole real estate deal is interesting - does anyone else notice that Obama has a lot of old acquaintances who have suddenly become bad choices? And his alma mater, Columbia University isn't exactly a community college either.

Now both of them are trying to be like what they think the average American is. Bowling, beer drinking and eating hot dogs. Let's face it, what chance does the average American really have to become president? Even if you came from average roots, by the time you've become a viable candidate, you've traveled so far from those roots, you'll be lucky to remember them.

Labels: celebs, government, gripes

Crime is Crime

I've been following a blog entry about a fellow citizen who using a web cam, caught some lowlife stealing Netflix DVDs from his mailbox. I just love this story. What also interests me are the comments. I'm guessing (hoping) a couple of the comments are from trolls, but I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't. I've seen the same basic comments, although perhaps a bit more literate, appearing in other topics where a rather minor crime has occurred and the dirtbag who did it was caught and convicted. For some reason people seem to be upset that someone can actually get serious punishment for a crime.

Probably the best examples are from the various three strikes and you're out stories. The most well known is probably the guy who stole a slice of pizza and was convicted to 25 to life. [Note: he had six prior felony charges, is 6-foot-4 and took the pizza from some kids, and two, he was let out after six years]. Another crime that raised a stink lately was some guy who got time for stealing a donut from some lady. The one I started with was some kid who was convicted of a federal crime of stealing Netflix DVDs and fined $750 which some people seemed to think harsh.

OK - here's my take on this. All these people were convicted of crimes. Whether it was a slice of pizza, a donut or a DVD, they were convicted of stealing stuff that didn't belong to them from another person of whom the stuff did belong to. Would you rather the dirtbag beat a kid over the head with a lead pipe before stealing the pizza? The criminal obviously doesn't feel he has follow society's laws about not taking stuff that doesn't belong to . Granted, I'd like to see the punishment for stealing a car harder than for stealing a donut, but I still want to see punishment. Crime is a crime and people seem to be forgetting that. Snitch! - Improve your neighborhood!

BTW, the other night on my walk, the police stopped me and asked if I'd seen a loose dog they'd had a complaint on. I can't tell you how nice it is to have police who have the time to look for loose dogs instead of wasting all their time chasing hoods with guns.

Labels: crime, gripes

Politics Suck

The noble profession known as politics. What a bunch of choices we have this year.

We have one dude who has been listening to some preacher bad mouth the USofA for 20 years, and just now decided that's a bad thing - ooh, do you think now being an election year has any bearing on his feelings?

We also have a dame who can't remember the difference between running across an airfield under sniper fire and greeting some little kid in front of TV cameras. Oh yeah, she also claims to have brokered the Irish peace treaty - more or less; or at least had a lot to do with that, or heard of it anyway.

There's another dude who plans on a 100 year Iraqi war. And the way that party has been going for the past eight years, may just end up with a thousand year Reich instead.

We have a current president who wasn't aware gasoline prices were approaching $4 a gallon and thinks thousands of foreclosures and major banks going bankrupt make for "interesting times."

The vice-president, who is in power to serve the people of this country, when told the people don't think the war in Iraq is a good thing says, "So?"

There's a mayor in my home state who feels he's been sent by god to lead the city and just coincidently has no problem with committing adultery. He also apologized to his wife and the city for the act, which he also claims he didn't do.

There's a governor who got caught with his, er, stuff, in a (more than one?) prostitution ring - at $4,500 a night, or over $80,000, and was replaced with a fine upstanding politician who immediately confessed to having several affairs - and so did his wife. I wonder who apologizes to who in that case. Oh, did I mention this shiny new governor also confesses to using heroin and coke?

Isn't it nice we have such an all-American, apple-pie clean sport like baseball to fall back on?

Labels: crime, government, gripes, michigan

4 - 4 / 5 - 5

Four dollars a gallon

Four thousand dead GIs

Five years of war

Five hundred billion dollars war cost
Ain't those numbers cool?

Labels: government, gripes, military

// posted by Jim-of-oz @ 3/27/2008 07:31:00 PM

What?

Am I conservative or liberal, if I:

support gays using assault guns to shoot people who spray paint anti-Muslim sayings on synagogues.

want my body donated to science or put in a Hefty bag with the trash.

save energy by shoveling my snow and using a manual lawn mower only to relax in a scalding hot tub of water later.

enjoy veggie pizzas and rare steaks.

drink imported beer from Europe and prefer water from the tap.

patiently wait for several minutes at a railroad crossing but spout epitaphs when someone spends 4.56 seconds before moving at a green light.

like to listen to classical music while reading Guns and Ammo.

donates to ACLU and NRA.

thinks rabbits are cuddly and tasty.

loves to watch kittens and puppies frolic, but feel little remorse when their owners allow them to get run over. Remorse about the puppy, I feel nothing but contempt about the owners.

Labels: gripes, misc

// posted by Jim-of-oz @ 3/24/2008 05:42:00 PM

So? 2

It is nice to know that all those kids and spouses who lost their mom or dad in Iraq can't hold a candle to the burden the president is lifting. For a guy who isn't even aware of the price of that gas that us peons are paying, I think that's might generous of him to take on that burden.

Cheney said in the interview, conducted in Turkey. "It places a special burden obviously on the families, and we recognize, I think — it's a reminder of the extent to which we are blessed with families who've sacrificed as they have."

"The president carries the biggest burden, obviously," Cheney said. "He's the one who has to make the decision to commit young Americans, but we are fortunate to have a group of men and women, the all-volunteer force, who voluntarily put on the uniform and go in harm's way for the rest of us."

I'm sure that Jenna and Barbara are happy that the president is carrying that burden instead of them. We all know how well our government's members kids are holding up their end of the democratic bargain. I'll bet there are at least three or four dozen kids from congressmen and senators that are spending their second or third tour in Iraq. Actually, I'd be surprised if it's three or four.

Labels: government, gripes, military

BORG

Big Orange Retail Giant, or in other words, Home Depot. Today I wandered around during my lunch browsing the store. I'm looking for an electric lawn mower. Naturally, there's no one there to answer questions. However, I did find some stainless steel kabob sticks on clearance, (loose in a package), so picked them up.

Another thing I was looking for was supports for some heating ducts in my house. Menards had some, but I wasn't ready to use them when I saw them. Naturally, there was no one around the ductwork. I walked past a couple of aisles and finally found a Borg drone taking pictures - I think she was a vender. She tried to help after I showed her where the ductwork was, but finally handed me off to the plumbing guy, who after taking me to his plumbing section told me he didn't carry duct supports (he could have told me that in the ductwork section).

So while in the plumbing department, I picked up some foam insulation for my 1/2" and 3/4" copper water pipes. This is lightweight (more on this later) split foam tubes that go around water pipes to help the hot water pipes from cooling off and the cold water pipes from dripping condensation. They're about 6 foot long, floppy, and a little awkward to carry.

I head for the checkout lane and lo and behold, there are no open checkout lanes. All the lights are off and all the little anti-customer checkout gates are pulled shut. The only thing open is the self-checkout lanes. Normally, I have no problem with, and in fact prefer, the self-checkout lanes. However this time, because of the type of materials and the lack of price tags it would have been nice to get a little help.

OK. I scan the kabob sticks (they do show the clearance price) and because the package was broke, put them on the shelf. However, the scanner won't accept that shelf and beeps at me to put the stuff down in the right place. When I finally figure out what it wants and comply, it generously allows me to scan another item - one of the insulation tubes. I put that down, but it's too light to trigger the machine (I told you they were light) and the scanner tells me again to put it down correctly. Finally a Borg clone comes over to reset the machine. The next tube I want to scan doesn't have a tag, so I pick up the one I just scanned to use the tag on it. This time the machine yells at me to put it back, having decided that it isn't too light after all, and of course the Borg clone has to come over and reset the machine. So I scan one with a tag, and when I put it down, I step on the counter to tell the machine I did put it down. Naturally, the machine isn't too happy with my fat foot, and once again the Borg clone has to reset the machine.

I finally tell her that not all tubes have tags and that I have 4 large ones and 3 small ones. She hand scans the one I earlier scanned and marks up 7 more. I tell no, 4 large ones and 3 small ones. She has to reset the machine and removes the 8 large ones and again has to reset the machine and finally scans in 4 large ones. I have to pull one of the small tubes out so she can reset the machine and finally scan the 3 small ones. Eventually I get to the point where I can pay the Borg for their quality service and products. I put in my $20, get my change and pick up 7 long, floppy foam tubes and a broken package of loose (and sharp) kabob sticks and try to get out of the store without dropping anything.

So as I'm wandering out the door, with loose floppy tubes and sharp pointy sticks in my hands, and my change falling out of my pocket, another vendor asks me if I want a hot dog! Thinking about telling him where he could put his hot dog as I juggle tubes and sharp pointy things, and loose change, I say no, (surprisingly I'm still polite) and walk out to my car.



I've heard it called this more than once. Not only does the acronym fit, but Home Depot tends to have a Borglike (you gotta know Star Trek) effect on local hardware stores. The Borg motto is, "Resistance is futile, prepare to be assimilated."

Labels: gripes

Good Friday/Easter

Well, it's pretty obvious I'm going to hell thinking about this, but I really don't see the big deal about this holiday. Friday is supposed to commemorate the death of Jesus and then Sunday he comes back to life. As I understand it, one of the basic tenets of Christianity is that God gave his kid's life for us. My question is why is that a big deal?

If it was you who gave up your kids life (I don't have one to give up) for someone, that would be a big deal. After all, once your kid is gone, it's gone. God, on the other hand, is immortal and always been and always will be. I'm guessing that's genetic so so is his kid - Jesus. Which means that God lets his kid die for three days and suffers for a couple of weeks, knowing all the time Jesus will be coming back to life shortly.

Since he always has been and always will be, it seems to me that a couple of weeks of pain and agony and then three days dead, isn't such a big deal. There's a lot, too many actually, mortals who if they only had to suffer for a couple of weeks, would be ecstatic. Honestly, compared to mortals in places like Treblinka under Hitler, Cambodia under Pol Pot, European pagans under the Inquisition, Iraqis under Saddam and Nanking under the Japanese, and too many more to mention, Jesus had it pretty easy.

Now if God decided to let kids be born without birth defects, that would impress me. But giving up his kid for three days out of an infinite life - I don't think so.

Labels: gripes, religion

Bush and Co.

This is what is so great about living in a democracy where the people tell the government how to run things and government leaders show genuine concern for their constituents.
I often wonder what happened to ours.

Informed that two-thirds of Americans now think the war was not worth fighting, Cheney said: "So?" on ABC's "Good Morning America.

Labels: government, gripes

Government Rebate

$600. While I'm not complaining they're giving us something, I have my doubts about this. First, since it's from the government, it means it's our money in the first place. In other words, instead of paying a few grand in taxes, I'll be paying a few grand minus 600. And while $600 seems like a pretty good chunk of change, it isn't really that big. Basically I'll just use it to make a teeny-tiny dent in my existing bills.

The other thing is that this is going to add yet another bill to the government's bank account. Of course, the USofA is so far in debt, what's another few billion dollars among friends. And if the USofA doesn't show any financial responsibility why should its citizens. So, we have 100,000+ mortgages failing, gas prices that seem to go up 10% a week, flour that has tripled in price in a year, and new jobs falling through the floor; yep, $600 will let me sleep better.

Labels: government, gripes

Extinction

Why do we get so upset when a critter approaches extinction these days? Whether it's something like a big, ugly condor, or a cutsey-wootsie panda or even a virtually unknown green-gilled aquatic whatsis, my question is - so what?

Let's face it, extinction is just a normal part of life. We'd be in a heck-of-a mess if the dinosaurs hadn't mostly gone extinct. If you're going to get all upset over a carrier pigeon, why not get upset over the trilobite - granted there's about a 250 million year gap there, but extinct is extinct. The main thing that the panda and koala have today is that they are cute. Look at the panda who was either dumb enough or unlucky enough to only focus on one food source - bamboo. That isn't a way to succeed. I'm sure homo sapiens will be eventually following the dodo, wooly mammoth, and snow leopard. Especially since we're evolving to focus on one food source - fast food.

Sure, it's a little sad the masked face of the bamboo-eating panda or the cute furry little snow leopard will probably soon be gone, but that's life. They weren't good enough to survive - they goofed someplace. Either geographically or physiologically, they didn't have what it took to survive. And to be honest, as we approach 7 billion humans on this planet, it wouldn't hurt if some of us started to go extinct; like home robber and homo assaultist, and homo rapist. (And not to change the subject, but why does the idea of a eating a furry canine bring up so much disgust - when eating a feathered chicken bothers hardly any at all.)

Labels: gripes, oldies

Simplify

I've been noticing that most tech items are built with more options and features than most people could even discover in their lifetime, let alone use regularly. It makes you wonder how much R&D time and effort is spent on developing those features that most people don't use. And in contrast, how much better could the basic functions be if that time was spent on them. Here's just a couple of examples.

Word Processors. I'm a professional writer and probably don't use 80% of what most processors, like Word have in them. Since being forced to switch to Word 2007, I can't even find most of those features anymore. I just checked and my Word has roughly 200 fonts listed in a dropdown. Most of them border on the unreadable. How many do you think I use regularly? Maybe three or four? One of the guys in our office seems to have just discovered his font pulldown and consequently, I now get nearly unreadable content from him a couple of time a week. Usually, I ctrl+a the doc, then select Times to print or Verdana for screen use. I also get docs that try to use every formatting option in the package - usually with disastrous results.

Video. My video tastes are pretty simple. I have rabbit ears to watch the four networks and PBS, and a DVD and VCR player. So basically, I turn it on, select a channel, and adjust the volume. For the DVD or VCR I will check the time on boring movies and sometimes fastforward or reverse. The above describes 98% of my video actions. Do you know what sits on my coffee table just to let me do that? Four remotes with about 100 buttons on each. And even though I've spent the last thirty years fiddling with computers, radios, televisions and other high-tech devices, I still don't have a clue about what three-quarters of those 400 buttons do. I understand there are remotes for home theaters now that run Windows and the installer has to give you a class just so you can turn on your TV. What's wrong with on/off, play/rewind, louder/quieter, and which channel. Instead of spending all that R&D on features I'll never use, how about designing a system that knows that when I click ON, I want everything on. And if I have a DVD in the player, when I click PLAY, the DVD, not the VHS tape or the stereo or my neighbor's garage door should do its thing automatically.

Phone. I have a remote phone at home with twenty or so buttons on it, most of which don't make a lot of sense to me. If someone calls me, I have to press TALK, even though I'm going to listen. When I type in the phone number, I also have to press TALK, even though I'm dialing, not talking. And even though the info screen lights up, the buttons don't, so I have to turn on the lights just so I can figure out which button I need to press to dial a number. And with all its buttons and power, it won't stop some cretin from calling in at eight in the morning to sell me a septic tank cleaner or some such bullshit.

See, even I can manage to turn a simple rant about simplifying into a multiparagraph complicated document that covers far more than it needs to. Oh, one more thing about word processors. In the preceding line I originally spelled manage, with an extra r as in manager . And though that makes absolutely no sense at all, the $400 word processor's spell checker didn't catch it. Due eye make me gravel downloading?

Labels: computers, gripes, tech

Microwaves at Work

You would think that by the time a person becomes a worker in an office, they'd have some experience with microwave ovens. Why do people mess up microwave ovens so much? Today, I brought some leftovers for lunch and went to warm them up in the microwave. Sounds simple, except for the people around the office.

How many times have you gone to use the office microwave and find something cooking in it and no one is around? The bell dings. Do you take it out and start cooking yours or do you wait for someone to show up? The idiot I was waiting on was no where to be found, and his hot pocket had leaked cheese all over the turntable. The janitor keeps paper towels on top of the microwave to stop this kind of stuff. He knows it's too hard for someone to reach more than 12 inches to grab a paper towel. He also keeps a plastic cover to prevent spattering the oven. This guy didn't, so hot, melted cheese was all over the oven. At least it hadn't splattered all over the inside of the oven. At that point I wandered off to find another microwave in the building.

When I came back after eating to clean my container, there was another guy using the microwave who had taken out the item that had been in there. Naturally whoever put it in there wasn't around when it finished. She came in as he was heating his, and rather pointedly asked him if her's had finished before he'd taken it out. If she wouldv'e have waited the entire three long minutes it took to heat her food up, she wouldn't have had to ask.

These are some serious microwave ovens too. You don't have to wait long before they heat up (and spill) whatever you stick in them. I think if you're not around when the bell dings, the next person waiting should take yours out, start heating theirs, and you have to wait until they finish (unless they leave too).

Labels: food, gripes

Our Government at Work?

Let's see now, what's going on in the USofA:

Foreclosures are at an all-time high

The budget is over $1 trillion (honestly, I have no idea how big
that number is)

The war in Iraq is coming up on 4000 USofA dead, and no one knows
how many Iraqis

Gasoline just keep going up in price

The Soviets, oops, Russians are overflying our carriers with bombers

Afghanistan, Pakistan, Myanmar, Sudan, Nigeria, Venezuala, and on
and on

Crashing satellites

The biggest beef recall in history

Monthly mass shootings

need I go on?
And what is Congress worrying about? If a baseball player took a steriod
shot in his ass six years ago...

Labels: celebs, government, gripes

// posted by Jim-of-oz @ 2/19/2008 09:35:00 PM

$ports and Lif€

Baseball, steroids, football, video spying, NASCAR, fisticuffs, million$ of dollar$. Does anyone really believe professional sports are some kind of fairy tale land of good sportsmanship and clean living? Come on, billions of dollars are involved here. A tenth of a second faster or slower, a foot longer or shorter can make the difference between a multi-million dollar star's contract or a hundred-grand player's contract. Try figuring the advertising dollars or ticket sales difference between a 15 and 2 team and a 3 and 12 team.

With all that money involved how can anyone honestly believe that all the participants are going to be constrained by using just their natural talents. Can you really tell me that you wouldn't swap a couple years off the end of your life versus making a few million more bucks during the prime of your life if you had a chance. If you can, you are a much better person than I am.

Sure, not everyone is on the take or taking some kind of performance booster. There are honest folks out there. But I have the feeling there are a lot of shades of honesty out there. Are you going to tell me that those players who hobble around like an old man on Friday didn't take something so they can run like the wind on Sunday? Maybe they're not pumping illegal steroids or stimulants, but they gotta be doing something. And I think whatever they did will come back to haunt them in later years. But then again, so what.

OK, you might be one of those who lives to be 93 and still goes jogging. More than likely, if you make it to 75, you'll drooling into your bran fortified oatmeal. Go to an assisted living home someday and remember that the folks in there are lucky enough to be able to afford to be taken care of. Dinner time looks like an outtake from "Night of the Living Dead" as the folks who can still walk hobble their way to dinner. And you really wouldn't swap a few years of that for a few million more in your paycheck?

Labels: celebs, freedom, gripes

Berkeley

Money talks? Berkeley was once again in the news for threatening to boot out the military, specifically Marine, recruiters. While I disagree with that, I do support Berkeley's right to do so. And they can kick them out of their city if they decided to do that. However, it seems they've changed their mind about that. Now they have decided that the military recruiters aren't such a bad bunch of guys afterall.

I wonder why they changed their mind? Do you suppose it was because the government threatened to recall more than $2 million in federal funds as well as federal monies for the University of California-Berkeley? And that is action I also support. If you don't want to support your country's endevours in some places, don't expect your country to support yours. It's the same all over. Everything you do has repercusions. If you vote to cut back on city taxes, don't gripe about losing police and firefighters and bus service. If you buy a 300 horsepower 4X4 pickup truck to drive back and forth to 7/11 don't gripe when gas is $3.10 a gallon. And if you don't want some government services, don't gripe when all government services are gone.

Labels: freedom, government, gripes, military

Foreclosures

Big, big news lately. And today, yet another government program to save those in foreclosure has been announced. Now I don't mean to sound cold-hearted, but some of those folks shouldn't get saved. They were greedy and stupid. We recently went through a bout of home looking. It's amazing the kind of house we could've bought. And I don't mean because we could've gotten a much higher mortgage - although we could have. And I also think that getting a mortgage too big is what put a lot of these folks in the hole in the first place.

Because the housing market is so bad in this area, there are a lot of low-cost (relatively) and foreclosed houses on the market. We looked at a couple over 3000 square feet that probably could have been bought for under $200,000. We also looked at some real nice homes near $200,000 that we could have easily purchased.

It's not all price and square feet (or meters) that should be included in the purchase plan. One of the things I thought of when looking at the +3,000 sq. ft. of empty rooms was what I'd have to pay to heat and maintain it. The realtor said $140 a month for utilities - right. My wife thought about how much we'd have to pay to furnish that castle. Let's face it; a 3000 sq. ft. house is going to take about twice as much furnishings as a 1600 sq. ft. house (which is what we ended up with). Cathedral ceilings are nice but why pay to heat those upper ten feet or so where no one is.

So I wonder just what kind of ideas were going on in the minds of the folks who are looking at mortgage payments they can no longer afford. Do that many people get into a mortgage not knowing what they will have to pay in three, or five, or seven years? Or did they just figure, since I can get the mortgage, I must be able to afford the mortgage. To be honest, the house we are now in, a nice 1600 sq. ft. normal house, is definitely cheaper than we could have ultimately bought. But it is also definitely one that we can afford.

Labels: government, gripes, michigan, scams

Michigan Woes

If Michigan doesn't have enough problems, the biggest city has a mayor who also figures on creating a theocracy. This is the same mayor who was just exposed as lying to a grand jury about his extramarital affair with his chief of staff (who has resigned). I just read an article that states "The mayor said that he believes he is on assignment from God to run the city of Detroit and he has no plans to resign."

Man, who's god is this guy praying to? It must be a new god who support playing around on your wife and the chain of command. I haven't seen any ethic regulations from city hall, not that it seems it matters, but usually screwing around with your underlings (and yes, take the sentence however you wish to) isn't normally considered one of the better business practices. These god quoting hypocrites piss me off to no end.

Labels: government, gripes, michigan

Michigan the Leader Again

Story from Forbes about "America's Most Miserable Cities":

Detroit in the top spot, with its sister city Flint ranked third, is probably not a great shock.

Once again Michigan hits the top of a list and once again the list sucks. Actually, if you're one of those with a fairly decent job and don't live in one of the big cities, Michigan is a pretty cool state to live in. The scenery is great with lots of green big trees and blue water all over and the climate isn't actually that bad. Sure you can live in the Upper Peninsula you can wade through several feet of snow at a time or see regular below zero temps, but all-in-all, it's not bad.

The Flint area really has great weather. We get snow, but not usually a lot. It gets hot and humid in the summer, but not really for long. And it's cold in the winter, but again, the serious cold doesn't last. I don't know about you, but having four seasons is pretty neat. And no earthquakes, mud slides or forest fires around here to worry about either. We do have wild fires now and then, but honestly nothing to really worry about.

If we could just get the kids from killing themselves off and manage to move a few more jobs into the area, it would be pretty close to a perfect place to live.

Labels: gripes, michigan

Driving and Lights

Or rather the lack of. Last night I was heading for home and it was dark and rainy/sleety and I work out in the boonies with little or no street lamps. There's a row of cars coming and two out of the first four have a burned-out headlight. One of the car's remaining lights wasn't all that great either. My first thought was what is the problem with these idiots driving around with half-a-light/brain on such a nasty day. So I wait for a couple more cars to go on by and then pull out.

Whoosh, some idiot with no lights at all breezes by just missing me. Had I been just a bit slower, I would've been t-boned in the drivers door at 45MPH. What on earth was that cretin thinking? It's not like it was just past dusk and hard to tell it was dark. Maybe he was wearing night-vision goggles or something, but I sure couldn't figure out that one.

Slow Drivers on the Left

I take a new route home now and instead of local neighborhood backroads, I drive a four-lane almost highway home. I can't figure out what is going on. Going to work (eastbound), I'm usually being passed by most vehicles as I putter along at allegedly just over 55MPH. On the same road, but heading home (westbound), I usually get trapped behind cars doing about 50MPH - one in each lane. I don't understand the difference. Does a bit of darkness scare people than much? I'd think people would be in more of a hurry to get home instead of speeding to work. This road is straight with few driveways and fewer crossroads. And it's not like it's a busy road either. And this road behavior has been consistent now for the month or so I've been driving it. Strange.

Right Turn on Red

Come on folks, this is a law for a reason. Why sit there when no one is coming from the left? There's no sign that says, no right on red . Why wait? However, when you do decide to pull out, why do you wait until there is a car almost in the intersection? Yes, I do realize it's only a matter of several seconds, but yes, I'm impatient. If there's traffic coming, by all means wait, but if it's clear, GO. What really bugs me is being behind someone waiting to turn right on red and there's two or three cars that making a left turn from the direction we're waiting to go. Hey, if they can make a left turn across the traffic, you surely can make your right.

Sigh... Ok, that off my chest for a few moments.

Labels: driving, gripes

G1G1

I don't know how many of heard of this, but there's a movement out trying to set up a new paradigm (hate that word) for teaching kids. This particular one is known as OLPC (One Laptop Per Child). A pretty cool idea of coming up with a simple, yet robust and inexpensive laptop that could be purchased by third world governments for use in educating their kids. As part of that, they also had a program back in November called G1G1 (Give 1 Get 1). This is where you could pay for two computers, get one of them and the other would be donated as part of the program. Sounds good, but boy, did they screw it up.

There are several wikis and web sites around full of folks complaining and other folks who are complaining about the complainers. Miscommunications abound, no communications is the rule, and in my experience so far, this thing is currently FUBARed beyond belief (but there is a bit of light at the end of the tunnel - maybe).

I was an early participant. I put my order in the first day and as it turns out, I was in the first 10,000 orders. Supposedly, this meant (and the shipping info web site still states) that I would more than likely get my computer by December 24. I waited until the end of December before making a email inquiry about the order and was rewarded with an autoresponse saying they'd get back to me in 3-5 working days. And today (Jan 17) I finally got that response which asked for the same information I sent them in the first email so many days ago.

I did find the 800 number to call and tried that a week or so ago. The first call I made I found out that they couldn't send it because I had used a PO Box. When I told them I'd already given them a change of address (discovered the non-delivery to PO Boxes buried in the terms and conditions which I finally discovered Nov 18) they said, yes they'd gotten that and I would get my laptop by Jan 15.

As you can imagine, Jan 15 came and went and when I was able to call them again, I was told it would be delivered Jan 20 - which of course is a Sunday. Today I finally got an email from them and it asked for order information all over again. Unlike some others, I'm not going to cancel - it's too late anyway to do that - but I'm really unhappy with the whole experience.

OK, now let me answer those who think I'm too judgmental about the process. Yes, I do realize it's a non-profit run by a lot of volunteers and their first priority should be the kids for whom the whole program is about. However, they still should have some responsibility to their supporters. I don't need much, just a mass-email once in awhile (they have my (and others) email address) saying, "oops, we mucked it up big time and you really need to wait until we get it all straightened out hopefully by December, January, February, March..." Instead, it's been almost a month of silence on their part. That's what ticks me off.

Oh, by the way. I just got a response back from them. My computer should be here by January 15^th. Sigh...

Update - Jan 23A couple of days ago there was an email posted on various OLPC forums saying how the G1G1 program had just found out there were many unfilled orders. To fix that, they'd put aside 5000 computers to be shipped on Jan 21 and would email people their Fedex number. Guess what I haven't seen.

Yesterday I once more called to check on my laptop. This time I was told it would be delivered late February - no reason, just late February. Guess what? This morning I get an email (at least I got an email, that's an improvement) saying they have no record of me for shipping!!#@#%@#! and they give me another number to call. So I call it, and good heavens, no wait -- the lady answering the phone takes my shipping address -- once again -- and now says the laptop will be delivered in 7-10 days. Needless to say, I'm not holding my breath.

Update - Jan 28There's been a veritable flurry of info flying around about the G1G0 problems. The latest news seems to say not to expect a computer until later in February sometime. Thank goodness it's a leap year, that gives them one more day. They have also updated the shipping status page where you can enter your order number and see the status. In my case it states, "Your donation is at our warehouse and your laptop is in the process of being shipped." Which means who knows what. I also entered the order numbers one before and one after mine. The one before got their computer Dec 19^th and the one after mine got theirs Dec 18^th.

And I have to honestly admit, I didn't get into this only to give some kid in some third-world country a computer - although that did enter into the offer. I really want one of those little green things, which I guess makes me a selfish, greedy techie capitalist, unlike all those who gave for the express purpose of giving.

Labels: computers, gripes

Homeowners

Here's a term you see constantly in the news lately - homeowner. As in, "homeowners losing homes to foreclosures" or "homeowner's adjustable rate mortgage payments skyrocket." The problem is that if they (or me) were truly homeowners, we wouldn't have that problem. The problem is that very few homeowners actually own the home in question.

At best, we're partial homeowners, which is just the same as not being a homeowner at all. Most homes are owned by some sort of financial organization. And you know what? If you stop paying them for the house you lose it all. You don't just the lose the 20%, or 50%, or even 98% that you've paid for, you lose it all. It'd be nice if you could just whack off a bedroom, bath and dining room and return that while keeping the 60% you already paid for.

I wish the news would use the correct terminology. How about homebuyer ? Usually you're considered a homebuyer until you sign the mortgage; but actually you've just started to be a homebuyer. Until that point you were looking at homes - a house hunter, or house seeker maybe. Not until you've signed the paper, do you become a homebuyer, and then not for another 30 years or so, unless you're lucky, will you become a real homeowner.

Labels: gripes

Race

Our company recently had us fill out a race survey. Supposedly, it had something to do with a demand by the Feds. According to the survey, you could opt to not respond with a specific race. Anyway, I wonder about the racial segregations. The one which probably should apply to me is:

White (Not Hispanic or Latino) – A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, North Africa or the Middle East.

Now supposedly, my grandparents all came from Poland around the turn of the century. That leaves, I'm guessing, someone from about 500,000 years ago or so to pick from. It does say original peoples. There was an ice age that ended about 8,000 years ago which probably would've kept people out of the Poland area, but I'm not sure. I'm guessing there were probably a few folks there (my great-several-hundred-times-removed grandfather I suppose) but I don't know for sure. I guess I should have declined the survey, since I'm not exactly sure who were the exact original peoples of Europe.

Labels: government, gripes

Michigan's Primary

Politics is so full of crap. It's very unfortunate that politicians are needed -- in all their backstabbing, lying, two-faced ways. Politicians have to lie - it's the way they work. Unfortunately, that means you can't trust them any further than you can through a railway car full of crap. You have to wonder if any of them even know what they themselves actually think after a campaign. Almost all of them promise to decrease taxes and increase services - bullshit - it can't be done. Somewhere the money has to be found to pay for stuff. You may not pay it in a tax next time, but rest assured, you will pay for it. Want your house tax to decrease? No problem, but be prepared to pay more for trash pickup and water delivery. Want cheaper taxes on gasoline? No problem, but look for higher tolls on bridges and more expenses to fix your car after hitting a pothole.

I do find it interesting that the Democrats have basically written off Michigan from their slate. It seems there's some powerplay among the Democratic party that has effectively cancelled the Democratic presidential primary from the state's elections. It's as if they've decided that Michigan is so screwed up now, they don't even what to appear to try to fix it.

My letter to the local newspaper:

I used to tend to vote for Democratic candidates. But now that Michigan is among the top states in crime, foreclosures, unemployment and other problems, it seems the Democrats have decided that the opinions of Michigan in the upcoming presidential election aren't worth bothering with. Well, I can think of other things that aren't worth bothering with as well, like the Democratic candidates.

From a story about the Michigan primary in the BBC World News: "Michigan and its main city Detroit used to be famous for making cars. But it now has the highest unemployment rate in the US." It's nice to know how the world now thinks of us.

Labels: government, gripes, michigan

Misleading Ads

Why do companies seem to appear that they try to mislead customers? They send you offers via email or newspapers and then when you want to use them, the store says, oops, that isn't any good for that. A good example happened today at lunch. I drove to the local Woodcraft store in Saginaw to buy an air filtration device. Last night I had gotten a %20 off coupon via email. Like all coupons designed to mislead, it has a pretty extensive caveat printed on it. This one excludes, "Power tools , Sawstop, Leigh Jig, Steel City, FESTOOL and gift certificates, etc...."

I come to find out that Woodcraft considers anything with a cord a power tool. Maybe it's just me, but I would never have guessed that an air filter is a power tool. Routers, lathes, band saws and circular saws, I can understand, but not an air filter. I guess they also consider lights and heaters to be power tools. (I just did a search on their web site for "POWER TOOLS." It seems they also consider things like lathe stands, vacuum tube connectors, PROXXON Micromot Collets And Three-Jawed Chuck, Woodcraft Biscuit Joining Set, FLEXEEL 25' Polyurethane Hose and more to be power tools.)

By the same token, after my disappointing stop at Woodcraft, I stopped to pick up a couple Whopper Juniors at Burger King. I was at the payment window in the drive-through and noticed two different signs posted. Several say that Burger King wants to sell you a gift card. Right next to these were more posters saying they aren't honoring any gift cards. In other words, buy it here, but don't use it here.

And what really ticks me off about all this is that the employee is the one who ends up taking the grief from the pissed off customer when in actuality it's the damn company who is making their life miserable.

Labels: food, gripes

Within your Means

These are the kinds of folks that make me wonder just how much of an effort there should be to protect from foreclosure. They bought a $412,000 house. I don't know what kind of down payment they had (5% would be $20,600), but I'm just guessing it wasn't all that much. I just looked at a web page mortgage calculator and plugged in $391,400 at 7% for 30 years with no insurance or tax included. The monthly payment is $2600. The folks in this article are only making $3250 a month - with six kids to boot! That leaves them $650 every month to feed and cloth six kids as well as ouse taxes and utilities, and any other expenses they might have. How did they ever figure on buying a house that expensive ($412,000) on their wages? I make more than them, have no kids, and have been worried about buying a house under $200,000.

Agnes Kallon and Bai Turay, a Staten Island couple, are among the people that Ibrahim is trying to help. Kallon, a nursing assistant at Richmond University Hospital, and Turay, who receives disability allowance, have a combined income of $39,000 and six children to support.

In 2005 they took out a mortgage for a $412,000 house with a low introductory rate, based on their mortgage broker's assurance that they would easily be able to refinance when the rate went up. But when their mortgage payment reset to $3,000 a month, far beyond what they can afford, that assurance didn't hold up.

Labels: government, gripes