Category: Things that make you say hmmm?

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NOM as the Victim?

Say WHAT????

Brian Brown of NOM is playing the victim card. You can read the Advocate article here. It would be funny… if he wasn’t serious.

One paragraph really caught my attention.

He’s referring to Marriage Equality advocates. But this paragraph itself is amazing.

“can only win if they can get us to accept and internalize the second-class status they propose for us. To accept our own marginalization, to be quiet, to stand down and keep our heads down. To live in fear, instead of acting, with courage, out of hope.”

I read this twice before my brain melted down.

NOM is in fact DEMANDING that gay people accept just what NOM says it’s members cannot.

NOM pulled this paragraph straight from The Fear Mongers, Despots, & Dictators Speech & Operations Manual. This is from the chapter titled “How to win and keep popular support for immoral ideas“. The next chapter in the book is “Political Prisoners and how to disappear them“

This paragraph is all about demonizing your enemy by capitalizing on the fears of the people you’re trying to win over. In the case of NOM, they’re talking about marriage, but this could as easily be plugged into any context.

Here are some other examples of the way in which this paragraph can be used.

White People “can only win if they can get us to accept and internalize the second-class status they propose for us. To accept our own marginalization, to be quiet, to stand down and keep our heads down. To live in fear, instead of acting, with courage, out of hope.” 

GAY People “can only win if they can get us to accept and internalize the second-class status they propose for us. To accept our own marginalization, to be quiet, to stand down and keep our heads down. To live in fear, instead of acting, with courage, out of hope.” 

Black people “can only win if they can get us to accept and internalize the second-class status they propose for us. To accept our own marginalization, to be quiet, to stand down and keep our heads down. To live in fear, instead of acting, with courage, out of hope.”

Christian People “can only win if they can get us to accept and internalize the second-class status they propose for us. To accept our own marginalization, to be quiet, to stand down and keep our heads down. To live in fear, instead of acting, with courage, out of hope.”

Islamic People “can only win if they can get us to accept and internalize the second-class status they propose for us. To accept our own marginalization, to be quiet, to stand down and keep our heads down. To live in fear, instead of acting, with courage, out of hope.”

Chinese People “can only win if they can get us to accept and internalize the second-class status they propose for us. To accept our own marginalization, to be quiet, to stand down and keep our heads down. To live in fear, instead of acting, with courage, out of hope.” 

Jewish People “can only win if they can get us to accept and internalize the second-class status they propose for us. To accept our own marginalization, to be quiet, to stand down and keep our heads down. To live in fear, instead of acting, with courage, out of hope.”

The list of examples goes on … apparently the readers of the The Fear Mongers, Despots, & Dictators Speech & Operations Manual need very specific instructions.

Hitler made these kinds of statements and later used similar statements to justify the murder of millions.

Have we learned nothing? Why is it that our attention spans are so short that we cannot see the hatred and bigotry that groups like NOM spout for what it is? This is not new, groups like NOM have existed for as long as mankind has. We need only look into the history of our planet and we find abundant examples.

For gods sake, right NOW we’re fighting two wars against exactly this kind of theocratic zealotry.

One thing that we should all be mindful of, is that theocracies even veiled ones like NOM would like nothing more than to remake our country in their image. Shall we consider for a moment what that might look like?

All abortions would be illegal. The rape victim would have to understand that it was Gods will that she carry and raise the baby of a psychopath. 

Gay people would be imprisoned for their own safety and subsequently executed. (So that the gene pool of God fearing Christians could be preserved.) After all a lot of gay people reproduce before they go gay. Later, the families of gay people could be sterilized to prevent further contamination. 

All genetic research would come to a halt. Who is man to tinker with Gods perfect creation? 

All Technology would eventually be banned. The bans would start in the communication sector. Too much communication and free flow of ideas is BAD. It distracts the people from their prayers. (The Fear Mongers, Despots, & Dictators Speech & Operations Manual, suggests that long distance communications be restricted immediately to government official channels. Anyone engaging in unmonitored communication of ideas must be made an example of… Public brutal executions such as stoning are recommended.)  

Dissenting ideas would be punished. God speaks only through the religious leaders

All guns would be banned. Every citizen must turn turn their guns over to the duly appointed representative of Gods army. There would be no financial compensation but the rewards in heaven will be great.

Education facilities will teach ONLY the approved curriculum. Any mention of evolution would be strictly forbidden. Abstinence is the only God approved sex education. Masturbation is a MORTAL sin. Religious studies are of the highest importance. Reading is taught only so the people can read the Bible. Math, & Science, are taught only to so that God’s army can maintain readiness for the apocalypse. 

Does ANY of this sound familiar?

NOM and other ultra conservative religious groups have far more in common with conservative Islam and the TALIBAN than they do American Democracy.

Please folks, understand that Marriage isn’t religious in nature. It is a contract that became imbued with religious significance.

Strip away the religious overtones and see it for what it is. Two people binding themselves together and by extension their families for the betterment of all parties.

Marriages brought larger grazing lands, pooled wealth & resources, and strengthened community relationships.

The gender of the participants doesn’t change that fundamental dynamic.

It’s that pooling of wealth / resources, the tax benefits, and ability to make medical decisions for their partner that same sex marriage advocates want.

Separate but equal didn’t cut it with African Americans and it sure as hell won’t cut it with Gay Americans.

Civil unions simply don’t provide or protect the rights of the parties the same way that Marriage does.

In fact apparently state sanctioned marriage doesn’t either. The case of the New York couple split up by Federal Immigration & Naturalization comes to mind.

The bottom line is that whether they admit it or not, NOM and organizations like them are advocating and supporting an unfair, biased, hateful agenda against a group of people that have done absolutely nothing wrong.

Except that is… exist then challenge the prevailing dogma.

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Alright Now I’m starting to get Annoyed.

A couple of days ago I wrote about the stupidity of the California Employment Development Department and their debit card as payment mechanism.

Well here’s the follow-up to that piece.

I got the pretty EDD card in the mail.

Like all credit cards you have to activate it.  There was an 800 number and a web address on the card. I typed in the web address, answered their questions and ended up having to create another online account so that I could figure out what the hell the balance on the card was.

I’m trying to simplify my life not complicate it. Yet another URL/Password combination is heading in the wrong direction.

Thus far, since I’ve begun dealing with EDD / Unemployment I’ve actually ADDED 3 new web addresses and passwords to the 90 or so that I already have.

After signing up with Bank of America & providing them with a lot of my personal information. By the way Bank of America is NOT my bank for a number of reasons which I will not get into right now. I was able to see the available balance on the card.

EDD withheld 1 week even though I’d been unpaid for three weeks, I’ve never understood that. Since it’s Unemployment insurance, shouldn’t they start paying on the date of loss? That’s the way other insurance companies pay.

In any case there was $450 available so now what do I do? In reading the supplied paper work and the instructions on the web, it appears that I have 3 choices.

I could PAY BofA  $15.00 for the privilege of being forced to use them and request and “Emergency” transfer of funds to another bank

I can set up a specified transfer of X amount to another institution.

I can set up a transfer of the available balance to another institution.

The “Normal” transfers require 2 days to process.

This got me to thinking

The reported California Population 37,000,000
The reported Unemployment rate is 11.8%
That says that the number of unemployed people on the EDD roles is something like 4,366,000

If the Payment per person is $450, (I know it’s not. The payment amount is variable dependent on how much you made, and how much you’ve contributed to the system. I’d imagine a standard deviation calculation would be more conservative. On the other hand in my entire career, I’ve never been paid less than the maximum payment per week so I’m going with the Max.)

That means that BofA is processing $1,964,700,000 Per week.

Since Unemployment is paid every 2 weeks BofA is getting a pretty hefty rolling influx of cash to play with.

I was thinking about the “Your funds transfer may take up to 2 days” and realized that if B of A was playing the short term interbank loan game with only half of that money they must be turning a pretty good profit.

My figures aren’t terribly accurate, and lord knows my math skills suck! But follow this line of reasoning, and remember that this profit is being made ON THE BACKS of desperate people trying to pay their bills and stay out of default.

Let’s say for the sake of argument that Half of the people who are unemployed elect to transfer their entire balance to their home financial institution.

That’s $982,350,000

Now apply the overnight interbank loan rate 0.7368 (Which appears to be the current rate. I wasn’t able to locate in a quick Google search what the ACTUAL rate is today. I suspect I wasn’t asking the right question.)

In any case if you take the $982,350,000 and charge an interest rate of 0.7368 you get $7,237,954

Not a bad return for 1 night… But since it takes BofA 2 days to complete the transfer you could double it to $14,475,908 in profit.

Then consider that California pays unemployment twice a month, and you’re looking a BofA making $28,951,816 per month.

Maybe a little more since I’m sure they let the interest earned “ride”. That’s a pretty good deal for BofA. I find it difficult to believe that it would cost them anywhere near that amount in overhead.

So does California get any part of the profit? Over the course of a year that would add up.

If California EDD got a small taste… IT MIGHT BE ENOUGH FOR THEM TO ANSWER THE PHONE!

Another item of interest is that EDD sent me via mail, another form to fill out for the next unemployment payment.  Before all this debit card bullshit, the form asking if you looked for work over the last 2 weeks contained the check for your previous claim.

Since EDD had to mail you a form to fill out, it made sense that the check was part of the form. After all they’re sending you paper anyway why not use the same envelope and get a two fer out of it?

The form still has the spot where they used to print the check, it’s blank now. You still have to detach it except now you throw it away instead of taking it to your bank and depositing it. If this is an example of how “Green” our state is, I’ll take wastefulness…

Trying to comply with the new system…

On July 25, I started the transfer. I got a confirmation email from BofA stating that they’d received the request.

Yesterday this notice appeared in my checking account.

 07-27-2011      Transaction COMMENT /  DEP PRENOTIFICATION FROM BANK OF AMERICA   0.00

Now I know that they have the right account number for the transfer.

It’s July 28… By my count July 25, to July 28 is Three days… Not two days… And you can be DAMN sure the bank would be charging me late fees if I pulled the same stunt.

—————————————————–

So EDD and Bank of America, 
I have this simple question for you…

WHERE’S MY FUCKING MONEY!?!?
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Saw this and thought it was pretty funny

An Article at California Watch reports that all those ever so important Compact Fluorescent light bulbs that California has been shoving down our throats may have a sinister side.

When rebuilding my house, the building code REQUIRED that I have X Fluorescent light fixtures in the house. In point of fact the building code mandate actually INCREASED the number of overhead lights in my home. This was done to save energy! I have yet to figure out how having MORE fixtures saves energy!

It seems to me having NO Fixtures saves a lot more power.

California being the ultimate NANNY state, and all the wonderful elitists who only have my best interest at heart forced their will on me via building code and I had no choice in the matter. After all it was for my own good.

Well it seems that someone forgot to file an environmental impact statement! It turns out that if you drop and break one of those compact fluorescent bulbs it emits mercury vapor. Not at all surprising if you know anything about how those bulbs work.

What surprised me is that they emit vapor for 10 weeks or more. And that vapor is at levels that are considered unsafe for people.

So the California MANDATE… has placed hazardous materials in our homes!

I think it’s FUNNY AS HELL!

Of course the news media will downplay it IF they report on it at all…

See… no matter what, the elitists CAN NEVER be publicly shown to have done something that could be embarrassing or that they were wrong.

After all, if the Elite were shown to be less than perfect,  the Sheep might start asking questions…

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The Car saga continues

This entry is in general about the car but there are broader implications in what I’m about to say.

To recap, the car started acting up then I got a check engine indication.

After a  day or so the dealership said the problem originated from both turbo waste gates malfunctioning.

Aside from the strange coincidence that both units malfunctioned at the same time and that I’ve been chasing some kind of gremlin around the car since 2009. I’m more or less happy that finally some hard indication of a problem existing in the car has been documented.

I’m MORE than annoyed that when I started reporting issues I was WELL within the factory warranty and now that someone actually saw a problem I’m close to the end of the extended warranty. But that is simply the way things are and there’s nothing to be done about it.

90% of the issue in this case is the reliance of the dealerships on their diagnostic and onboard computers, then doing ONLY the minimum required NOT actually engaging in diagnosis.

Diagnosis being the logical testing and elimination of potential problems until the actual problem was found and corrected.

In many if not all of todays vehicles the “Technician” (Give me a good old fashioned MECHANIC any day.) interrogates the onboard systems and if they say nothing is wrong… Well then NOTHING is wrong!

I swear, The car could have come in on a tow truck with the engine not even turning over and if the computer said everything was fine, then some of these “Technicians” would return the car still not running with “No problem found”.

There is however an overarching problem in our society.

In my opinion this problem will continue to undermine us until we put a stop to it, or until the United States we know is just another 3rd world cesspool.

The problem is the minimalist approach.

Let me give you an extreme example.

You go in for surgery. Your doctor and surgeon have determined that you have a cancerous tumor in your gut. So they prep you and slice you open. While they’re inside you they see another tumor of a slightly different kind. They note in your records and remove ONLY the original tumor as required by the insurance company and per the legal documents you signed when you were admitted. 

Then they schedule you for another surgery next month to remove the OTHER tumor. Of course the doctors get to hit you with double the costs and drive up the insurance payout. So literally everyone in the situation WINS….

Except of course the poor bastard that’s being sliced and diced.

This makes no fucking sense, we all know it defies logic. Yet we have examples of this kind of thinking all over the place.

There was a place I worked where we tested software. I’m a black box, start to finish, end to end, front to back, kind of Quality Assurance Engineer.

I’m proud of that and I take pride in my ability to find problems in software. (Except when I’m finding issues with software I’m not being paid to test… Windows? Anyone?)

This company was all about process, procedures, and documentation. Problem was they only tested to prove the requirement was met. It didn’t matter that the software under test didn’t actually fucking work!

The focus was so narrowly on meeting the individual requirement that they’d lost sight of the overall system. Requirements are, in general the MINIMUM thing necessary.

That’s the problem. Accountability means meeting the minimum. In a homogeneous work environment where the person that excels is never rewarded for their excellence, you build in mediocrity. You really cement in that “It’s not my job” mentality.

Another aspect of this is that costs are driven up and MORE busy work is being created, customer satisfaction drops into the shitter, customer loyalty becomes a thing of the past, OH AND you increase waste and consumerism.

Why? Because usually in these situations the customer spends an inordinate amount of time dicking with getting their problem SOLVED!

More often than not the customer in frustration SOLVES the problem by tossing the offending “Whatever” in the trash Then they buy another similar item from another vendor.

 In this age of being green, hugging Mother Earth, carbon credits, and political posturing for environmental responsibility, you’d think the first thing to work on is fucking quality!

Here’s another example.

This is an actual email thread I had with the guy at the dealership today.


ME:

It occurred to me that there is a lot of oil going through the turbos.

If I remember general turbo construction the turbos depend on oil for a part of their cooling and they may even use oil bearings dependent on design.

This begs a question.


The next service interval was about 7000 miles in the future. It doesn’t make any sense to me that you’d put new turbos on the car and then subject them to OLD oil. Does this turbo replacement INCLUDE the OIL CHANGE and whatever other service is indicated?

It makes sense for the health of the car and frankly my convenience to just do the next service early. Is there any way we can take care of this now?

THEM:

The issue was not with the Turbo it self but the waste gate. The waste gate is attached to the Turbo

ME:

OK,

Are the waste gates external to the turbochargers? I know that’s a possible arrangement.

From the expense of the repair I assumed that both the turbochargers were being replaced as units which contained the turbos and gates

If it’s a whole unit replacement then it still makes sense to drop the oil and do the other service. Just so the turbos have a clean start.

If the waste gates are external, then i wouldn’t have expected them to be quite as expensive since there’s nothing particularly exotic about them.

In any case. The point is that I’m planning to take the car on a couple of trips over the next 6 weeks because of those plans I want to make sure it’s fully up to par before I leave.

Another question, I just want to confirm this is an N54 engine correct?

THEM:

Yes, It is an N54 engine. We can change the oil is you would like. I have a coupon for $99.00

ME:

OK

Do the oil change.

Change the Air intake filter.

Change the micro-filter.

I realize that those items are not included and will cost additional money. If it’s not over 200.00 then do it

Otherwise let me know what the estimate is.

Also and this is vitally important. Make sure that I haven’t missed ANYTHING that would be included in the service that is DUE in 7000 miles.

I’m looking at the “Service and Warranty guide.” And didn’t see anything that jumped out at me. If I did miss anything let me know.

IF there is nothing else that should be done for the upcoming service,

Then reset the service interval (CBS) system.

I’m attaching the oil service coupon.

To Recap

I currently Owe you for the Air conditioning service

I will Owe you for the oil change

I will Owe you for the air filter

I will Owe you for the micro filter

THEM:

Ok

THEM 2nd Email:

It’s about 364.45 for the oil & filter, air filter and micro filter

ME:

Do it

THEM:

Ok


IS IT ME???

There are several places in this email exchange where this guy is JUST not answering the questions.

I’m not naming anybody here but for FUCKS Sake! Why did I have to go digging up information,
Why was this apparently some kind of issue? Frankly this guys approach seems to me to be EVASIVE as hell and being a QA person this is like putting blood in the water in a school of great whites.

Again this is indicative of the minimalist approach.

This service guy SHOULD have suggested that we do the interval service NOW.

As I pointed out it makes ME the customer happier so I don’t have the car BACK in for service in a month or two.

Yet because the FUCKING computer didn’t tell him to THINK! He was just going to let it go.

I STILL don’t know if the DAMN turbos are being replaced in their entirety or if the waste gates are EXTERNAL to the turbos.

What I DO know is that you can’t ever hurt a car by changing it’s oil. I know that you can’t hurt a car by changing it’s air filter, and I KNOW that I drive in a dusty environment so it’s likely that the air intake and cabin intake filters are dirty. Yeah, maybe not dirty enough to require changing, but for FUCKS sake it isn’t going to hurt and in fact may help the new hardware get off to a healthy start.

At least mention the option… I can take it or leave it but DON’T make me feel like I’m having to fight you for it.

Again meeting requirements but not going beyond what the computerized program SAYS to do…


If all we are doing is reading scripts from our computer screens, in no time the computer will be reading the script and the humans will be living under an overpass like every other 3rd world cesspool..

I just can’t wrap my head around this kind of thinking, It’s so wasteful and irritating and then you see news articles speaking of low customer satisfaction and the writers are at a loss as to why.

All anyone has to do is try to have their car repaired, or call customer service for their computers, cellphones, game consoles, or televisions, or telephones.

Don’t we all cringe when we hear

“Yes Sir, I understand your concern…”
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Bad… Spooky bad

I read this article this morning and it sent chills down my spine.

This is bad ju ju… very very bad ju ju.

Apparently in addition to having to worry about your credit score (BTW… a completely subjective, fictitious number anymore after the banking / mortgage disaster…) now you’re going to be graded, rated and judged on your influence score.

Yep, Your Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts now are going to be used to create an influence rating. That rating may be used by others to decide if you’re worthy of perks. The article suggests that perhaps even jobs would be offered or withheld based on your influence score.

Klout allows you to log in a see your score right now. I didn’t check mine…

Personally, I see this as a very good reason to delete all my social media accounts so that I’m not in the system and therefore not scored.

I could see a situation 20 years in the future… “Oh no sir we’re not allowed to perform medical procedures on you… Yes Sir, I understand you have enough cash but your influence score is just too low. You’re not relevant enough to continue to live. NEXT! Please sir, step aside for someone who is more motivational.”

After all, we all know just how well the credit scoring system worked. If your credit score is too low you couldn’t buy houses, or cars, or get credit cards. That way the financial system in the United States is protected from bad debt. YEAH RIGHT!

Folks we need to move away from shit like this!

Already some employers are asking for your social media accounts and blog addresses as part of the application process.

If an HR person doesn’t like something they see, or you don’t “friend” them fast enough you can loose job opportunities. It’s no longer about what you can do for the company…  it’s about your personal life as well.

We need to start dealing with each other Face to Face again. Arbitrary indexing and scoring is simply another way to strip us of our humanity.

Maybe I’m wrong here but this just feels like a very slippery slope.