Category: BullShit

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I call Bullshit on Oil Companies

An article in the Christian Science Monitor talking about the gas prices in California has really convinced me of a couple of things. Read the article here

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First, I’ve come to believe that the oil companies USE California as a test bed to see how the public will respond to ever increasing gas prices. They raise the prices till the bitching gets really loud and the people of California start demanding hearings in congress.

Then the oil companies back the prices down after apologizing and giving some lame ass excuse.

At the same time they’ve modeled how fast the gas prices can go up before people start really bitching. Then they halve that rate of increase and apply it to the rest of the country. But… and this is the interesting thing… The cost of gas never returns to it’s “Pre-Crises” value.

If the crises is over why doesn’t the cost return to the previous level?

Second, California environmental regulations play directly into the hands of the oil companies. Fully .50 of every gallon of gas is nothing but state taxes. Which means that even those people in California trying to pay attention to the actual price of a gallon of gas have to separate out the state, county, and city taxes on the price per gallon and since those rates are all over the map depending on where you fill up in your 4 hour commute per day you may have all or only one or two of those additional fees.

Southern California is particularly vulnerable to this kind of manipulation. Because the mass transit system SUCKS!

Yes… the politicians would have you believe that mass transit in Southern California is wonderful…

But the reality is; If you happen to live in the Inland Empire (Pomona, Glendora, San Dimas, Riverside, Ontario, Corona, San Bernardino, or Fontana) and you work by necessity in Orange County or Los Angeles you’re kinda screwed. If you live in Orange County and work in LA you’re just as screwed.

 Taking a train to Orange County is pretty much pointless because after you’ve gotten there the transit system is unreliable as hell and you’re talking busses or calling a taxi… there’s nothing else. If you’re trying to get from OC to LA that’s an expensive and painful trip via train, provided you don’t get a message like this;

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TripMaster found NO trip(s) leaving from ORANGE COUNTY AIRPORT to LOS ANGELES INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT. You are traveling on Saturday and Leaving at 12:12PM . Fare class: Regular. Max walk: 1/3 Mile. Mode: ANY. Try changing walking DISTANCE or travel TIME or MODE or FILTERING. Make sure the locations are correct.

Getting to LA from the Inland Empire via train isn’t that bad then you can grab a metro rail (like the “L” in Chicago but not elevated) the problem is that using the train/metro rail system/bus can literally add hours to your commute and god help you if you have to work late, or you have a swing shift you might get to work but you can’t get home.

Essentially, the people of Southern California are faced with spending 5 or 6 hours commuting via train versus 4 hours commuting via their cars. Which would you choose, given that you do want to spend some time with your loved ones. You’d like to see your children and perhaps have an opportunity to have sex. Then there’s the issue of maybe trying to work out and get some exercise.

I know… I’ve done that madness for years! Give me my car not because I like sitting on the freeway but because I like getting home before 10PM.

The point is the Oil companies have a mostly captive audience.

Los Angeles, Orange County, The Inland Empire are these wonderful petri dishes where Big Oil can float higher gas prices and see just what kind of lame assed excuses the moronic public will accept.

The article I referenced above says that three factors are driving the cost of gas up in California.

1) State refineries have lowered production as they get ready to switch to “winter blend” (This is all about California regulations and pollutions controls. It also causes excessive wear & tear on our engines and a commensurate drop in our MPG. So we’re at the gas stations more often buying more shitty gas.) This is a yearly event and yet… The Oil companies always shut the refineries down at the same time. How about this MORONS? Try scheduling one refinery at a time being shut down then when it’s switched to winter blend, and running again take the next one offline to make the switch and so on. You can do the same damn thing when you switch to Summer Blend so you don’t screw the hell out of the public as they’re trying to get set for their paltry 2 week vacations. (Don’t forget it’s not just Gas. It’s also Airline fuel, and diesel that are suddenly in short supply twice a year.)

2) A power outrage at a Torrance Refinery, and partial shutdown at a Richmond refinery. Really? Just how long was the refinery without power? Months? I think not… And why is the Richmond refinery partially offline?

3) Several refineries in the Central Valley have been shutdown for weeks because of “High Organic Chloride Levels in the Crude”.  SAY WHAT??? So what exactly does that mean? Are they shipping the High Organic Chloride crude to another refinery? Are they throwing it away? What EXACTLY does that mean?

 SO I call BULLSHIT on Big Oil and think that everyone else should too.

Time to BITCH LOUD LONG and HARD

Write your representatives and demand the oil companies stop fucking with us. 

Off to write a letter to politicians

Because I’m not going to pay 4.99 a gallon for gas. Oh and don’t even try to make me say “Oh goodie” about 4.99 a gallon by pointing out that Europe is over $8 per gallon.

Big Deal! So What? 52% of their oil isn’t coming from under their feet.

Don’t even mention a Prius, or accuse me of driving a gas guzzler. I’ll give you an earful that will feel like an ice pick through your brain.

 

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Legalese!!!! Everywhere you look…

I understand that we live in a litigious world. 

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I get that people and companies want to protect and preserve their rights.

But FUCK!!!!

Ever tried to wade through a Microsoft agreement? You have to BE a lawyer to understand what the Lawyers wrote.

Worse yet, are the Apple Agreements that are in your face all the time. If you use iTunes, have an iPod, use an iPad or god help you have an Apple Computer every time you bring up a piece of software it seems, you’re confronted with YET Another licensing agreement from Apple.

Enough already!

These agreements are so ubiquitous to have become irrelevant. I have no idea what I’ve agreed to anymore!

I used to diligently read them start to finish but they became longer, more complex, filled with more legalese and longer still. Now I don’t even try. Invariably I’m confronted with a document that is as long as War & Peace which might as well be written in Aramaic when I’m just trying to do something simple…

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You know, something like sync my iPod before I head out for the day. More than once I’ve said screw it! just leaving the iPod sitting on the desk.

This morning was a classic example. I fired up iTunes to listen to some music, My iPad started syncing. I noticed that there were a bunch of application updates. Oh, I thought, I’ll start those downloads while I’m eating breakfast.

I come back to the computer 30 minutes later to discover that NOT One of the updates have downloaded. Why? Because Apple made some changes  to the terms of use, or the licensing  agreement or they changed the toilet paper in Cupertino or something!

What ever it was that they changed, required that I accept a document as cryptic as the writing on access hatch to the Alien ship that crashed in Roswell. This document is  longer than the recorded history of mankind. I’d be better off, and have several Phd’s to my credit if I read half as much.

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The practical upshot is that I scrolled & scrolled & scrolled & scrolled to the bottom of this overly complex tome, found the little checkbox next to agree, clicked it and then the aptly named “submit” button.

I have no clue what I agreed to. Did I just give Apple my left testicle?

These agreements aren’t fair!

I, like most consumers just want my damn computer to work. I want my software to work.

I honestly don’t give a crap about the companies that are oh so intent on protecting themselves.

If they make good shit I’ll buy it, and use it. If they don’t… or their shit stops being good, or they update it and I don’t’ like the update I’ll find something else. In fact I’ve done exactly that.

We all know that Quicken Products have become something to be replaced as quickly as possible. It’s interesting that Quickbooks (Which BTW I paid $300 for 10 years ago, and then $149 for 7 years thereafter) is discounted on the Intuit site to $199. I know a lot of people that are searching for less expensive alternatives, and they’re finding them.

Those of us that helped the Omni Group build the popularity of their products aren’t updating their products anymore unless we absolutely have to. Mainly because the Omni Group is greedy, charging WAY TOO MUCH for upgrades. 

Several years ago I had enough, I no longer have any Omni Group programs on my computer.  I was a serious fan. At one point I owned the professional editions of all their core applications. Now, I use Powerpoint, or Adobe Illustrator instead.  

The cost of upgrades aside, I absolutely can’t stand being held hostage to an agreement from Apple so that I can update applications I purchased from 3rd parties. The agreement Apple threw in my face this morning was exactly that. Had I not agreed to it, I wouldn’t have been able to update the applications that I’d purchased.

And people talk about Google being “Evil“… 

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Apple really needs to understand, they’re the ones that created the app store / update mechanism.

They probably shouldn’t remind all us Sheeple that we’re hostages. Otherwise we’re likely to see what alternatives are available.

Wha… I see an update server… Baah Baaaaahh.

 

 

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The Evil of Express Scripts

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I’ve written before about some of my travails with Express Scripts.

The latest dealings with them is simply too annoying for me to let pass without comment.

Two weeks ago, I noticed it was time for me to order the single medication that I use daily.

I went to the Express Scripts web site, placed an order , got a confirmation number and then heard nothing else.

I didn’t get their usual string of annoying emails;

“We’re processing your order”

“We’re really processing your order”

“We’re putting your order in a box”

,“We’ve put the stamp on your order”

“Do you want to schedule automatic home delivery?”

“We put your order on the shelf”

“Are you really sure you don’t want to schedule automatic home delivery?”

“We’ve moved the box containing your order to another shelf”

“Why don’t you want to schedule automatic delivery?

“The post man picked up your order”

“Your tracking number is…”

Normally, I’d get the tracking number a couple of days after I had the package in hand.

I didn’t think too much of their new terseness, I actually thought, “Great, I’m not being spammed to death with irrelevant B.S.”

Then I forgot about it… It’s not uncommon for them to take as long as 10 day to get my stuff to me. That’s rare but it’s happened in the past.

On the 10th day I log into the Express Scripts website, to see where my order is. I find that it shipped on September 11. I check the supplied tracking number and discover that the order was apparently delivered via a post office in Calimesa, CA. Apparently someone received the order… it’s listed as delivered by the Calimesa Post Office.

Whoa!, First, Calimesa is about 65 miles from me. Second I didn’t pick up the order.

I call Express Scripts and get this really snotty little bitch.

I wasn’t particularly upset when I started the call, I just needed to know what was going on.

But after speaking with little miss bitch I was angry!

Turns out Express Script policy is not to worry about it until 12 days after a package has gone missing.

OK fine what then? According to Ms. Bitch then they’ll send me another order but in the mean time I’m the one that has to follow up with the Postal Service.

WHAT? I’m not the one that shipped something only to have it go missing.

Every other vendor who ships something will initiate a trace in the event that a package goes missing. But not Express Scripts.

Which caused me to ask the question “What would have happened if this prescription was an opiate? Vicodin, Darvon, Demerol, Percodan? Those are heavy duty controlled substances, would Express Scripts be so cavalier about a package of that going missing?”

Little Ms Bitch interrupted me 5 times while I was asking that question, then bitched at me for talking over HER!

Her response was “my hands are tied, our policy is clear” which I thought was a pretty defensive and pat answer.

I asked another question and little Ms bitch talked over me AGAIN. “What happens if I run out of my RX?”

“If the patient runs out of their medication,

The patient has to contact their physician to get an new RX to have filled at a local pharmacy. “

Which is seriously annoying because Express Scripts has the RX and could easily arrange with the local pharmacy to provide a small supply while the shipping issue is being sorted out.

Needless to say a stronger letter will follow to the fine dumb asses at Express Scripts.

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Saturday I couldn’t do anything, since I needed normal business hours to speak with supervisors.

I will be sending a letter to the FDA, the DEA (Both of whom are involved with the regulation of online pharmacies) Another letter sent to the California “Board of Pharmacy”. All of which will be CCd to Express Scripts Corporate offices.

Oh, By the way, you have to Google for Express Scripts corporate office address because it’s not on their damn web site!

It’s not just that I’m missing a single package.

I can’t be the first or only person to have a package go missing.

As a customer it shouldn’t be MY responsibility to track down that package.

There is the whole can of worms about what happens if the drugs being shipped are Schedule 1 drugs (Highly addictive or subject to abuse) and those go missing?

There’s the issue that if I’m out of the drug I need now I have to take my Doctors time un-necessarily to clean up Express Scripts mess.

Then there’s the problem that what my Doctor prescribes and what Express Scripts actually sends are two different things. Express Scripts has no problem taking a patient off a perfectly good medication that works effectively and predictably to put the patient on a “Generic” medication.

I don’t care what the hype says… A generic medication has a slightly different chemical makeup therefore It’s NOT the same as the prescribed drug. (I can produce proof that Generics aren’t as effective as the “real” drug I was prescribed. That proof is of course strictly about my own body and your milage will vary. But the ineffectiveness isn’t pronounced enough to FORCE Express Scripts to give me the “REAL” drug again.)

What the hell is Express Scripts doing prescribing medications without having ever personally seen the patient in question? 

If I have the RX filled at the local pharmacy, I’m going to get what the Doctor prescribed, which means I get to go through an uncomfortable re-adjustment to the “REAL” drug, and guess what? I get to go through that painful re-adjustment AGAIN when Express Scripts gets their shit together and sends me my damn order.

Express Scripts is Evil… They’re the Wal-Mart of the pharmacy world.

Most shopping plazas have a grocery store and a pharmacy. There’s a reason that became the norm, we all buy groceries and it’s no big deal to drop by the pharmacy when we’re picking up the weekly supplies.

That is, by the way exactly what I used to do. I’d call the pharmacy, place the order and schedule to pick it up on whatever evening after work when I was getting groceries. Simple, efficient, and it was good for the economy.

Yeah, think about that…

How often have you gone into the pharmacy to pick up a prescription and realized you’d forgotten vitamins, or shampoo, condoms or whatever?

Now, because of Express Scripts and companies like them, you don’t go into the pharmacy nearly as often.

This translates to a loss of sales on all those little incidental items, or seasonal items that you’d have purchased in the past. Now, you’re not likely to even see them.

Guess what? That means that local jobs in your community are at risk. Stockers, cashiers, and the staff of your local drug store won’t be as necessary because the drug store loses business.

Highly trained individuals like Pharmacists will not be in demand so their jobs are at risk too. Overall that degrades the quality of the local community.

I miss going to the pharmacy and picking up my prescription. I miss talking with the pharmacist and the human touch. I miss the confidence I had in my local pharmacist. They not only had my prescription records, but that they checked them for drug interactions.

I get NONE of that using Express Scripts. What I get from Express Scripts is inconvenience, and a snotty little Bitch that has no courtesy, and reads a script instead of being actually helpful.

I’ve said it before, RESIST! REBEL!

It’s your health and your body that these people are arbitrarily playing with. You don’t have to accept the B.S. they’re peddling.

Don’t agree to an insurance plan that includes Express Scripts, choose other insurance options if at all possible.

If your company has already bought into the Express Scripts kool-aid, You can try to force your company insurance programs to stop using Express Scripts.

Complain to your HR people every single time Express Scripts screws up, or swaps your working prescriptions for a generic without bothering to tell you.

Eventually, your company insurance administrators will get tired of hearing the complaints and fielding phone calls. When they do… you can be sure they’ll drop Express Scripts… because dealing with Express Scripts is too much trouble.

Check your prescriptions carefully

When Express Scripts substitutes a generic for the drug you were taking make sure they spoke with your physician.

Even though they claim in their letters that they speak with your Doctor about sending you the generics… They apparently don’t. My doctor has no record of them ever speaking with him.

Stop buying into this concept of cheaper is always better!

Sometimes cheaper is just another word for shitty.

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I’d actually hoped to get off the Muslims but…

I couldn’t resist.

After reading the news today out of France.

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Normally the French are wrong just out of habit.

But this morning I woke up read the news and started laughing my ass off, after I  had an epiphany. 

It’s become clear is that Muhammad is the Achilles heel of the Islamic world.

So us evil bastards in the West need to start using it to our advantage.

We need to get England to publish something about Muhammad, then have Sweden follow on with something else about two weeks later.  Then have the other EU countries follow on at 2 to 3 week intervals. 

All we have to do to win the war on terrorism is to keep insulting Muhammad… The radical Muslims will destroy themselves and their countries in a rabid foamy mouthed orgy of hate and stupidity.

Let them keep burning, looting, and bombing their cities and countries. It’s far more effective, cost efficient, and safer way to deal with the problems of the Middle East.

After all, why spend a million dollars on a cruise missile when we can drop a flyer showing a crudely drawn image of Muhammad taking it up the ass from a camel?

The damage the radicals would do to a city or their country is far greater than the damage that would be done by 100 cruise missiles.

Yeah, there may be some collateral damage and we might have to be a lot more careful in public places but that would only last for a little while, Eventually the radicals will decimate themselves and those that don’t actually kill themselves will be too weak to be much of a threat.

It beats the alternative plan… Sterilization of the infestation area with Nukes.

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As an alternative to nukes we could always steer asteroids into an orbit that would be appropriate for planetary bombardment.

Targeting the exact areas in the Middle East would be tricky but we could stop global warming and still have access to the oil reserves after a few well placed asteroid impacts.

Pssst don’t tell the Primitive Islamic Savages, AKA “PIS” we don’t have that capability quite yet.

On the bright side… I’m sure that someone is working on it.

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Again???!

The news out of Benghazi is that yet another American has lost his life to ISLAM!

Yes, I fucking said it. 

ISLAM

I don’t care how “Peaceful” the educated followers of Islam claim their religion is. The actual man in the street practitioners of this “Peaceful” religion are anything but seekers of God, Wisdom, Understanding, or Peace.

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These “average people” are a rabble… a mob… whose so called “Peaceful” beliefs are tossed to the wind for any perceived slight.

In this case a movie called “The Innocence of Muslims” that was perceived as (and frankly is), an overt insult to Islam.

There’s no way around it, the clips on YouTube are really bad, if you’re interested go take a look. This is however an expression of Freedom of speech no matter how bad the acting or the content.

Sadly this movie has been blamed for the burning of an Embassy, the murder of an Ambassador and 3 other staff members… Violence in Egypt, OH and by the way a declaration of war on the United States.

Yeah, In Old School terms… the murder of any countries Ambassador was considered a declaration of war against that country.

As it turns out, reports from other sources are saying that the protests and violence were days in the making and the movie angle is nothing more than an excuse to go do shit that true believers in God know better than to do.

So I assume this means a state of war exists between Libya and the United States. Regardless of our current diplomatic ties? It this why the current president of Libya is shitting himself trying to round up the perpetrators?

Or more properly does a state of war exist between Islam and the United States?

If that’s the case then I suppose it’s time to deport every single follower of Islam, or we could fire up Manzinar again, just interring the Islam folks until the end of hostilities. Or we could simply start killing the warriors of Islam wherever and whenever we find them. If that means firebombing entire cities and villages so be it. These people only seem to understand terrorism… Lets show them terrorism done right!

God! That’s not at all a nice picture is it? It’s sure as hell not something I’m comfortable with.

I should point out many of the followers of Islam would think this would be a great fucking idea if they could do it to the infidel Western Countries.

So what’s the alternative?

Sanctions? Don’t fucking work.

Condemnation? The mob doesn’t give a shit. These people blow themselves up to prove a point.

War? Wouldn’t work, also that option would probably end up in genocide and none of the civilized world wants that.

Education? Nope, the funds just get channeled into a madras that preaches radical Islam with a side order of terrorism against the West.

Aid? Nope, the money goes to a madras, and the food gets sent only to the males in the madrases or the army so that essentially we’re feeding our enemies and making them stronger to attack us.

How about this?

Terminate all relations, No aid, No Embassies, No Visas, No Students, No immigrants, No purchases, No Anything.

We currently don’t import that much Libyan oil (at least as of 2010). So while there’s no denying it would hurt us a bit… We could do without them.

We would be harder pressed to ween ourselves off the rest of our dependance on the Islamic Middle East.

Although, according to the US Energy Information Administration we’re only importing 14% of our crude oil from Saudi Arabia. Overall in 2011 we imported approximately 22% of our crude from the Persian Gulf.

Most of our oil comes from the Western Hemisphere. (52%) We do have the natty little problem of the 20% comes from Africa which is becoming more Islamic all the time. 

My point is that if we decided not to deal with Islamic nations and I mean any Islamic nations we would also demonstrate that we’re not interested in their politics or anything else, other than them and their religion leaving us the hell alone.

Granted the Chinese and EU will easily make up the difference in oil consumption so the financial impact of the US positioning itself to do without Middle Eastern oil would be negligible, but then it’s the Chinese and the EUs responsibility to stabilize the region NOT US.

Fighting Islam is a no-win proposition. The only choice that seems remotely viable is to remove ourselves from the equation.

Imagine the savings. No more military spending to stabilize some shit hole country that hates us anyway. No more food shipments, we turn that excess corn into methanol. No more money wasted educating the next generations of terrorists.

I’ve said this before. Personally I’d be a lot happier if our technology wasn’t being shared via higher education with every hostile foreign nations children. That’s a mistake we have historical precedence to avoid. (See Arminius, or the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. )

It’s pretty accepted that Arminius was educated in Rome, become a Roman commander and citizen and then used his knowledge of Roman tactics against ROME. It’s a pity we so often refuse to learn from history.

In my opinion, educating the children of your enemies is planting seeds to your own destruction.

If we as a country plowed all that saved cash and resource back into our own educational system and really concentrated on our own people we could probably come up with a safe alternate energy technology in short order, so that we wouldn’t need crude oil for fuel. (I think we’ll likely be using oil for plastics and lubricants well into the foreseeable future.)

That would be the best way to win the battle. Render Islamic voices irrelevant by utterly destroying their economic hold on the world.

It’s time for us to stop trying to reason with Islamic nations. We shouldn’t be trying to bring them into the 21st century and we sure as hell shouldn’t be supporting them in any way. We should leave them all to their 15th century beliefs and leave them to live or die as they wish… 

…By the will of Allah.