Maybe it is being in a new and healthy relationship, maybe it is getting adjusted to working a graveyard shift, but lately, I have just been very angry lately, much to my friends disgust. I can be pretty schmaltzy when I am happy, which Bacon Betty has made me in the extreme these last few months.
With that in mind, a piece in this afternoons (morning’s) paper had me spitting coffee across the table.
Effective Thursday, a new law goes into effect that frees that enslaved class of Americans, the flying public.
The new regulations are a result of an incident that occurred in December of 2006, when passengers were held on board an American Airlines flight that was en route to Dallas and was diverted to Austin. Passengers were held on board the aircraft for 11 HOURS!
The new regulations will impose a fine of $27500 per passenger on any airline that holds passengers hostage for more then 3 hours. Another example of government reacting to a real problem for a change, score a victory for the little guy, right?
Well, not according to David Castleveter of the Airline Transportation Association of America, an industry lobbying group.
According to David the new regulations will only cause more cancellations, more missed connections, more mishandled bags and more passengers who will not get where they want to go.
DA’Fuck?
How fucking hard is it to pull an air stair up to a cabin door and let people get off the aircraft to stretch their legs and take a leak, David?
How deeply would it cut into corporate profits to have a facility located inside the secure area of the airport equipped with restrooms, coffee, a few vending machines and maybe a phone or two, and maybe (gasp) a smoking area, so that the passengers YOU strand could maybe feel a bit human.
You would only need one such facility per airport, I am sure all these big airlines can learn to play together, a few bus’s to transport the passengers, and maybe a TSA officer or two to keep passengers from wandering off.
Come on now David, it’s not like that facility is NEVER going to get used or anything.
I find it interesting that instead of embracing these changes and vowing to better serve the customers that pay your freaking bills, the airline trade associations instead decide to issue threats. Pretty telling, don’t you think?
I don’t fly very much these days and, knock wood, I have never had to endure being stranded on the tarmac for hours on end, but considering the fact that they are charging a fee for everything but breathing, opps, wait a minute, strike that, I don’t want to give the airlines any ideas, you would think that the airlines would be just a bit more concerned for their customers.
I guess I just have to be a little more realistic, it isn’t as if sheeple are going to stop lining up to be abused in the name of profits, right?
You would think in the age of identity theft and consumer rip offs, collections agents would be on the cusp of security and understanding about an individual being hesitant to reveal personal information over the phone.
You would be wrong.
Allow me to explain.
A few years back, the X and I lost our home. Through no fault of my own, the mortgage got too far behind to recover and we were forced to do a short sale. It all turned out pretty well, I even made a small profit on the deal in the form of the coffee cup I swiped from the title company.
Now, about 6-8 weeks ago, I received a call from a collections agent. After the usual back and forth of;
Is this Mr Angry Jew?
Who is calling?
Is this Mr Angry Jew?
I can do this all day, who is calling?
This is an attempt to collect a debt. Am I speaking to Mr Angry Jew?
A debt for what exactly?
I can only discuss this matter with Mr Angry Jew? I need to verify your identity.
Well, I need to verify yours, how do you propose we proceed?
they explained that the debt was for the amount of $50.00 owed to my former homeowners insurance company. They explained that the company had sent several letters to my old address in an attempt to collect before turning the matter over to collections.
This was starting to sound legitimate for me. The X would have more then likely have had her mail forwarded from the old address, but who knows what could have happened.
Anyway, I gave them my current contact information and asked them to send me a letter with the details of the account and that I would talk to the insurance company and if the debt was indeed legitimate i would pay the account.
I never heard another word. No letter, no calls, no nothing…until today.
Again, I get a call from a number I do not recognize and go through the whole “who is this?” rigmarole.
Finaly the kid explains he is calling about the whole insurance debt.
WTF says I.
I explain my prior conversation with his professional debt servicing company and he seems befuddled.
Don’t you have a record of my prior conversation with one of your people?
I don’t see anything in the file.
How do you think you got this number and my address…let me save you some brain cells dumbass…I gave it to you.
Oh, here is a note saying they sent you out a letter on the …
No you didn’t, because if you had, I would have called the insurance agent, asked what the hell was going on, and then cut a freaking check.
Well, would you care to settle the account today, I can take your credit card information over the phone.
I am sure you can, we live in a very technologically advanced society, but if you think I am giving a stranger my credit card number over the phone, then I want to see the results of your last drug test.
Oh, they dont drug test here.
Shocking.
Well, if you will sit on hold, I am going to look into why the letter was never sent out.
Uh, listen, whatever the problem is, it is on your end of this transaction, not mine, so you will forgive if I don’t give up my valuable time while you try to figure out where YOU fracked up. So just send me the fracking letter and I can get this done and over with.
Sir, I have to advise you that the debt collection process will continue.
What process?
You mean you will continue to call me to explain that you cant seem to figure out how to mail a fracking letter.
If you are an eccentric pop star who touches little boys, your death will result in a media frenzy lasting for months.
If you are a bloated, never was been who happens to marry a gazillionair and gets a reality show so the world can watch you stagger around in a drug induced fog, your death will be the lead item on every tabloid show for weeks.
Slash up your ex wife and a guy who happened to be returning her glasses to her, the entire world will learn your name.
If you are an educator who changes forever the lives of inner city youth, you are guaranteed a two inch piece, below the fold, on page 2.
Jamie Escalante, who was able to motivate and educate his students in one of Los Angeles worst schools, died Tuesday after battling bladder cancer for several years.
In 1974, Escalante took a job at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles, California. He found himself in a challenging situation: teaching math to troubled students in a rundown school known for violence and drugs. While some had dismissed the students as “unteachable,” Escalante strove to reach his students and to get them to live up to their potential. He started an advanced mathematics program with a handful of students. In 1982 his largest class of students took and passed an advanced placement test in Calculus. Some of the students’ test scores were invalidated by the testing company because it believed that the students had cheated. Escalante protested, saying that the students had been disqualified because they were Hispanic and from a poor school. A few months later many of the students retook the test and passed, proving that they knew the material and that the company was wrong.
Escalante’s achievements were chronicled in the 1988 motion picture “Stand And Deliver”.
Vaya Con Dios Amiga, your contributions will not be forgotten.
I have been experiencing what is truly wrong with our health care system over the last four or five days and I thought I would share it with you all.
Regular readers know that I recently tried a new drug to help me deal with concentration and frustration issues at work. I had to build up to the drug slowly, over the course of weeks, to get the full effect. For the first two weeks I was unable to work as my body adjusted to the medication. As the dosage increased, I began to notice some truly unpleasant side effects. All of them were normal for this drug, but that did not make them any easier to cope with.
To my dismay, the drug was doing its job, making it possible for me to focus and concentrate, and by doing so control some of the paralyzing anxiety I have been suffering over recent years. The advantage of the drug, it being a non narcotic, and the fact that it was working, seemed to balance the scales somewhat for the nasty side effects.
So when I met with Doc Ray, my prescribing nurse practitioner, I had mixed emotions about continuing the drug. After some pointed questions and heated debate, the decision was made to continue the drug at a lower dosage in the hopes it would reduce the side effects and still be effective. He wrote me a scrip for the reduced dosage, the first months supply of graduated dosages came in the form of an office sample pack, which I dropped off at my local drug store to be filled.
This was on Tuesday last and I still had two of the higher dosage pills left.
This was when the “fun” began.
On Wednesday I get a call from the pharmacy, my insurance wont pay for the drug without a prior authorization from Doc Ray. I have been down this road before and was not particularly concerned. The pharmacy would fax the paperwork to the doctors office, he would fill it out and send it to the insurance company, and I would get my meds. I ask how much it will cost me to buy a seven day supply to get me through, they quote a price in the three digits. For seven pills. Its a rent week, I don’t have the money
On Thursday I took my last dose and received a call from the docs office. They needed ME to contact the insurance company and request that the paperwork be sent to them.
Didn’t the pharmacy send you the paperwork?
Yes, but we need a number to fax it back to.
OK, whatever, I call the insurance company and get them the info.
Friday arrives, no meds, no word from the doc’s office.
I call them, they tell me that Doc Ray wont be back in the office until Tuesday…
What What What?
Wait, I am out of meds and I have to work, can you get a message to the doc and see if he can hook me up until the prescription goes through?
We will give him the message.
I go to work.
It is a disaster.
I can’t hold a thought in my head, can’t find my ass with two hands, a flashlight and a GPS system.
I make it through the weekend, no sweat. I am not doing anything that really requires the kind of focus and concentration work does. I do find myself getting frustrated easier, but I keep it under control. On the plus side, the side effects are slowly disappearing. Good times. Now I am starting to think I made a bad call by agreeing to continue the drug, even at the reduced dose. I vow to talk to the doctor about it when he calls.
Monday morning comes, still no word from the Doc. Now the frustration is getting harder to keep in check.
I call the Doctors office and again explain the situation. There is no help to be had, would I care to leave a message? OK, tell him I have been out of meds since Friday, that I don’t feel I can work in this state and that I am going to go back to my old meds, the narcotic stimulant, of which I still have a supply.
Then I call the insurance company.
It takes me ten minutes to navigate the phone system, the computer is convinced my member number does not exist. I finally speak to a human being and once again, explain my predicament.
Hmm, says the insurance company, I see the problem, your coverage will not cover the drug because it is a non formulary drug, ie, a name brand without a generic equivalent. They need documentation that the drug is necessary to treat my condition.
He wrote me a prescription for it, I have been taking it for a month, that seems like proof enough to me.
Yes, that is true, but we can not authorize it without the documentation.
But I can’t work without it.
Sorry, says the insurance company.
I call my boss, I explain the situation, and tell him I am going to be out for a day while I go back on the old meds. He is not happy and I don’t blame him.
I take the meds and feel the rush…my hands shake, I cant sit still, my conversation with BB, who has been a witness to all this craziness, skips from topic to topic, seemingly at random. Slowly I adapt to it, I take two more doses through the day, the rush fades, my concentration returns.
It is Tuesday morning…no word from the doc’s office, I continue to take the old meds, I feel liker crap, probably the remnants of the new drug left in my system fighting with the old, you are not supposed to take them at the same time. I have no choice but to go to work…
How about it Mr. Obama, do you have a fix for this one?
When it comes to keeping tabs on it’s own population, our friends in Great Britain have us beat hands down.
Along with having the most CCTV cameras of any nation on earth, the English also maintain the largest DNA database per capitia and are currently hard at work crafting legislation to allow even greater powers to track EVERY email, text message and phone call made in the UK.
It’s getting so you can not even enjoy a London pub without running into laws designed to control the populace. Recent laws laws designed to control so called “lager louts” have done away with many popular drinking games and promotions. On the horizon is a government mandate to make pint glasses from an unbreakable material to prevent drunks from using glass shards as weapons.
So, you might ask, whats next?
How about a trash can that can nark you out.
That’s right friends, since 2002, the British government has surreptitiously installed 2.6 million microchips in trash cans that will allow the government to monitor how much it’s citizens are throwing away.
The government is saying that the chips could serve a variety of purposes, from tracking the location and status of the cans, tracking the actual weight of the cans, or, as privacy advocates warn, to charge residents for throwing away too much.
Most British municipalities have yet to activate the chips, wary of backlash to this latest and decidedly unpopular law.
Big Brother Watch, a privacy watchdog group, is claiming that the government could use the chips to monitor whether some one is home or not and to discriminate against larger families, who would naturally produce more trash and would have to pay larger fees under a “pay as you throw” policy.
Is this a wave of the future?
Would Americans consent to this level of monitoring?
Would it matter if we didn’t.
In my humble opinion, yes, no and sadly no.
Now, if the could invent a trash can that could walk itself out to the curb every Thursday morning, that is something I could get behind.
Speaking of the English nanny state, I came across a BBC miniseries, The Last Enemy, that paints a pretty alarming picture of what the future might hold in a surveillance obsessed society. I give you the first episode with the rest available without charge on HULU.com.
Finally some good news for American consumers from behind the “Bamboo Curtain”.
The good news is that this story is NOT about lead being found in products for children coming from our economic masters to the east.
The bad news…
THE LITTLE FUCKERS HAVE REPLACED THE LEAD WITH THE HEAVY METAL CADMIUM, A KNOWN CARCINOGEN THAT CAN HINDER BRAIN DEVELOPMENT IN CHILDREN.
Now, before parents blindly panic and overreact, swallowing the material is really not an issue, because toxic levels of the material can be created in the bodies of our young by just sucking or licking products containing the material.
In the course of their investigation, The Associated Press purchased 102 cheap pieces of jewelery aimed at kiddies were purchased over a two month period in New York, Ohio, Texas and California.
12% of the items were found to contain at least 10% of the poisonous metal. Some items were found to contain as much as 80%.
How can this be happening you ask.
Well, it isn’t illegal, that’s why.
If this stuff was in painted toys, you would not be able to import it.
If even the smallest percentage found in the children’s jewelery were present in your household garbage, it would be classified by the government as toxic waste.
Put lumps of it on store shelves and sell it to kiddies as charm bracelets…Hey…No Harm, No Foul.
Not to fear though, our leaders have sprung into action.
Wal Mart, or as I like to think of them, the Western Division of China Loves killing Americans Inc., has announced that they will be pulling suspect products off the shelves and has promised to take swift and decisive action to eliminate the threat.
Oh yea, and The US Product Safety Commission is said to be investigating the AP test results.
Could it be that I am becoming even crankier as I get older or should there be penalties for the technologically impaired?
Case in point.
Last night, as I worked, I became somewhat obsessed with Lox.
No, not liquid oxygen, but lox, Jewish soul food, cold smoked salmon.
You see, on my new diet I am allowed a snack when I get home, and I was becoming somewhat burned out on a piece of fruit or some crackers and cheese. As I pondered what I could do instead, it hit me.
A bagel with a schmear of low fat cream cheese, a slice of red onion, and some lox. YUM!
So, after stopping by The Happy Atheist’ home to meet the latest addition to his family, a four month old chocolate lab pup, I swung by the grocery store to pick up my the fixings for my midnight snack.
It took me no time at all to grab the onion and lox, I had everything else I needed at home, and get in the only available check out line behind HIM.
Worse then any check writer, this guy was paying for his purchases with an Oregon EBT Card, which is a debit type card used in our fair state to distribute Food Stamp benefits.
Now I don’t fault the guy for needing a little help, we all do, but even with the checker explaining to him step by step what to do it took him five freaking tries to get it entered and pay his bill.
I was patient. OK, maybe I rolled my eyes during try number 3, and I am pretty sure I let out an audible sigh when he failed to enter his PIN right on number 4, but I lost it after number 5 when, with the clerk reaching over to start ringing up my two items, he smiled at the checker and said…
“Opps…I forgot…I need some cigarettes too. Can you grab those for me.”
I am very proud of my self.
I did not say aloud what I was thinking, after all, I may need to shop there again.
Instead, I simply left as he and the checker were debating the cost of various brands at the convenience desk.
As I walked out, I came up with a plan that will revolutionize the grocery industry…The Two Tries Or Less Line.
Similar to the 10 items or less line, this line is dedicated to the more technologically savvy among us. Think of it as a thinking mans express lane.
In the Two Tries or Less line, only debit or credit is accepted and you have two tries to get your pin entered properly. If it takes you three tries, you have to pay for the groceries of the person behind you in line. Four tries, the two behind you, and so on.
Exemptions will be made for mechanical malfunctions and network problems.
Never again should a midnight snack be denied because the person in front of you in line just happens to be a moron that can not follow simple instructions.
Now ladies, before you break out the pitch forks and torches, please allow me to explain.
This fine Sunday afternoon, as I do on many a Sunday afternoon, I stopped by my local Safeway store (Rut Roh, he used the store name, he must be really pissed).
When I walked in I was greeted by a group of tweens selling pink balloons for a buck a pop.
“Would you like to buy a balloon to help raise breast cancer awareness?” they asked in cheerful unison.
Ahh Youth.
No thank you I reply and go about my merry way.
As I roamed the aisles, there was a never ending series of PA announcements asking me to please buy a balloon so this store could be the number one fund raiser in it’s district.
Your going to have to do it without me.
When I get to the checkout, the little computer keypad where I enter my club card asks me if I want round up my purchase for …anyone…anyone…yup…Breast Cancer Awareness.
I tap the NO key and swipe my debit card.
Then, because I apparently had not been harassed enough during my 20 minutes in the store, the checker finishes my order, looks me straight in the eye and says;
OK, Mr Angry Jew, your total comes to $42.87. Would you like to round up to $43.00 for Breast Cancer Awareness?
My Response?
Are you NUTS?
..and it’s not because you schmucks have hounded me to death for 20 minutes when all I came in for was a can of corn and some fucking toilet paper.
The fact of the matter is that I also wont give money for Parkinson’s research, Prostate Cancer, and especially Muscular Dystrophy. I mean come on, how long is Jerry going to be pimping out those poor kids before someone actually admits the sad and ugly truth.
And that truth is simply this,
THERE IS NEVER GOING TO BE A CURE FOR ANY OF THEM.
The reason is simple, there is no money in it.
If you cure a disease, create a vaccine, find a way to completely eradicate it, where is the opportunity for repeat business?
The money is all in treatment of the disease, managing it, ensuring an ongoing quality of life for the poor customer victim, that’s what the drug companies are all about.
Look at HIV/AIDS. Treatable
Hepatitis? Treatable
Most forms of Cancer? Treatable.
A cure for any of them?
Fat Chance.
I do feel for the unfortunates who contract these life ending and crippling diseases. I am more then aware of the incredible hardship and pain they bring to every single person they touch. I wish there was something that could be done, but wishes don’t make the world go around.
Money Does.
Much like the green movement, until someone figures out a way to make a true and ongoing profit off a cure, it is just not going to happen.
So, until then, I’ll just hang onto my cash thank you.
Am I just too simple a human being to believe in it?
Lets face facts here, in the modern age, truth had become a victim of expediency. If the truth is inconvenient, we deny its existence. The phrase “We May Never Know The Truth Of what Occurred” is now the rule rather then the exception.
In 1997, the heads of the 5 major tobacco companies took an oath before God and swore to tell the truth.
When they were asked if they believed nicotine was addictive they responded;
Mr. JOSEPH TADDEO (United States Tobacco): I don’t believe that nicotine or our products are addictive.
Mr. ANDREW TISCH (Lorillard Tobacco): I believe nicotine is not addictive.
Mr. EDWARD HORRIGAN (Liggett Group): I believe that nicotine is not addictive.
Mr. THOMAS SANDEFUR (Brown And Williamson): I believe that nicotine is not addictive.
Mr. DONALD JOHNSTON (American Tobacco): And I, too, believe that nicotine is not addictive.
Is this truth?
As recently as last week, when confronted with video evidence that their employees would willingly aid a supposed pimp and prostitute in setting up a bordello for teen prostitutes, the national director, Bertha Lewis, in response to the congressional vote to eliminate funding for the organization released a statement to the press.
“We’re disappointed that the House took the rare and politically convenient step of attempting to eliminate federal funding for a single organization, one that has been the target of a multi-year political assault stemming variously from the Bush White House, Fox News, and other conservative quarters.
Fortunately, ACORN derives most of its income from its members and other supporters, so the decision will have little impact on overall operations. The only real victims of today’s vote are the families who have benefited from ACORN’s important work.”
Is this truth?
If the truth is so readily available, so wide spread by mass media and the internet, why do web sites like fact check.org even exist? Why does the second page of my daily paper contain an article titled “FACTCHECK: Your Report Card On Accountability”, where the news of the day is dissected and inaccuracies are revealed and debated at length. Who is checking their facts?
Is the truth so scary that our leaders feel they must protect us from it or do they just feel it gets in the way of accomplishing their own agendas. When a Governor decides to hike the Venezuelan Trail and we don’t run him out of town on a rail, who’s to blame?
The fact is, Corporate America, Government and the guy selling knock off Gucci Bags all have one thing in common;
THEY ARE ABLE TO GET AWAY WITH IT BECAUSE WE ALLOW THEN TO DO SO
We are to blame for not calling for accountability
We are to blame for not calling BULLSHIT when an oil company executive cries poor after posting record profits.
We are to blame every time a politician tells us that God has forgiven him for taking that graft or getting caught with his dick out.
As long as we continue to accept this crap as “Truth”, as long as we fail in our duty to hold those who abuse it accountable, as long as we are able to go about our days more interested in American Idol then Meet The Press, we are going to continue to be lied to.
Drop to you knees America and give praise to the Transportation Security Administration, those soldiers on the front lines of our war on terror. Those stalwart defenders of America’s sky’s stopped this vicious terrorist before he was able to board an aircraft at the airport in Philadelphia two weeks.
Screeners became alerted after they detected a pair of stereo speakers in his backpack. A further search found evidence that all but confirmed his evil terrorist intentions.
He was taken into custody by TSA officials, then turned over to the Philadelphia Police Department. Handcuffed, he was secured in a holding cell and awaited further questioning by agents of the FBI. After being interrogated by FBI agents he was…with apologies… released to continue his journey.
Whats that you say? He was a terrorist…they found evidence on his person…Why? Oh dear God, why?
Well, apparently, short sighted federal officials have failed to make it illegal to carry Arabic Language Flash Cards.
Nick George, a physics major at Pomona College in California had the flash cards in his bag, he was learning Farsi to translate for Al Jehzira, the Arabic news service. He has studied in Jordan and backpacked in Sudan and Egypt.
What The Fuck People.
I have yet to hear of an actual terrorist being caught by TSA, have you?
We waste time and money arresting college students, taking knitting needles away from grandmothers and roughing up Arab Americans. When screeners are tested by GAO and FAA officials, they routinely miss items such as simulated explosives, guns and hand grenades. To ad insult to injury, officials cringe when stories of actual guns and explosives being discovered at the end of a passengers journey by mistake after a bag is placed on the wrong belt.
When are we going to say enough of this shit and demand of our public officials that we be allowed to keep our dignity and our shoes when we fly.
How am I supposed to feel safe when our sky’s are in the hands of The Three Stooges Security Service?
These morons can’t tell a terrorist from a college student unless they lock him up for 5 hours and question him about his political affiliations.
Our institutional paranoia virtually guarantees that this scene will be repeated again and again and again.
I feel safer already.
All I have to do is keep my flash cards in my checked baggage.
