Category: WTF?

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What a racket!!!!

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Ok this is a rant. It’s probably not very coherent but I’m madder than hell!

I live in a recently rebuilt house. That means that I now meet the Kalifornia standards for new construction. You’d think that would be a good thing wouldn’t you?

Well it’s not!

Because of California code, I had to add more overhead lights to save energy…

Don’t ask… someone seemed to think that if you had nasty assed fluorescent lighting in the ceiling you’d be less likely to have actual lamps in your house, BOY WERE THEY WRONG!

The builder fought me about putting skylights in the bathrooms because the building inspector “Might” not like them. GO Figure!

I still don’t get that.. I was trying to be energy efficient and they fought me tooth and nail even when I asked why there had to be x number of fluorescent light fixtures in the house, when fewer fixtures obviously translated to lower building and lower overall energy costs. the answer as it turns out was… It’s the law. (Re: those nasty assed fluorescent lights… If I keep this house I’m ripping those things out and replacing them with LEDs.)

Add to this,  I also by law have to have a fire suppression system, and basically the hands of our Komrad Kalifornians are well and truly up my ass with no lubrication.

The previous house had a fire suppression system too.

Every year I dutifully had the system inspected and certified pursuant to the law referenced here .

It is completely arguable that the fire suppression systems FAILURE was entirely due to these annual inspections.

See a few years back, when my house had burned, I came under suspicion because the fire inspector found the fire suppression was actually turned off.

Yep, I’d paid for inspections and maintenance which left my home with a NON-Working suppression system. Fanfuckingtastic!

The water company sends out these notices yearly about having your system inspected.

I’m frankly at odds about the whole thing. Given my personal experience… I wish I didn’t have a sprinkler system. After all it’s just another useless yearly expense and maintenance hassle because I own a home.

Truth to tell, I’d rather have a house without a fire suppression system. It’s like living under a loaded gun.

I can’t tell you how many homes up here have suffered water damage because the fire suppression system malfunctioned or the pipes froze. Well, I can tell you about my next door neighbor…

But when you don’t have your shit inspected exactly on time the water company sneaks up on your doorstep and hangs a little bullshit tag on your door. They threaten to turn your water off if you don’t have the inspection.

Say what????

Ok so lets get this straight, you’re going to turn my fucking water off, to force me to have a fire suppression system inspected, a system that REQUIRES WATER to operate?

These MORONS are essentially going to disable a fire suppression system to force me to have an inspection???

Where the hell is the sense in that? I pay my fucking water bill every month, I’m never late, I don’t even raise my voice when I get bills from them that say (1) I’m late, and (2) I’m 6 months behind! When I call them, they call up the account and say, “Isn’t that strange, your bill is paid and has been for the past year. This is a billing error I’ll notify accounting.“

And yet the California Department of Forestry and Fire protection forces new homes to have these systems, then they force the homeowners to pay every year to inspect and maintain them.  There’re penalties for disabling the system too. Prison time for example.

Humm, I wonder if I could have the asshole arrested who turns my water off?

By definition that person is disabling a fire suppression system. Now there’s a thought!!!

And the insults go on.

Recently, the State sent out a notice that they were going to start billing those of us who lived in rural settings an additional $150 to $200 per year to pay for the additional fire support. Excuse ME??? What about my taxes? What about the fact that my Fire department is paid for BY the County?

Oh and there is no-one more attuned to the issues of Fire safety than the people in the mountain communities. WHY? Because in the past we’ve seen these communities burn to the ground.

Sadly those fires were entirely preventable but the “Smart guys” at the State level refused to listen when these communities suggested that the fire threat could be mitigated simply and efficiently. The solution was start clearing the sick, dying, & dead trees out of the forests. 

Well the smart guys in Sacramento told everyone they were stupid for making such a suggestion.

Then there was the Arrowhead fire. Nature cleared the sick, dying, and dead trees for us. 

The communities that fared better were those where the people had paid out of their own pockets or their community coffers to remove the hazard. Sacramento got all up & arms because these communities had cut trees that were in some cases inside a national forest. Cuttng dead and dying trees in a national forest is bad… even if the State or federal government won’t allocate the funds to take the preventative steps themselves. But they’ll pay a fortune in fire fighters and risk lives and property when the fire breaks out.

It was all about Sacramento having the last word and refusing to admit that the locals actually knew what they were doing.

It’s statist crap. The government always claims it knows better than YOU do.

I’m sick and of Nanny governing!

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I’m also sick and tired of the Golden State Water Company. There is the particular person who delivers these notices. He likes to sneak up on your porch and hang the notice in hopes that he can escape without having to deal with an angry person.

I’ve been trying for at least 2 months to get this inspection done mainly because I don’t want to have to deal with the hassle and bullshit. It’s just really difficult to find a certified inspector that will haul their asses up here. 

In my opinion the fucking water company should be doing it FREE! After all they claim that they’re protecting the water supply from the antifreeze in the system. You’d think it would be in their best interests to deal with it. But no… 

It’s an opportunity to have the plumbers with the right certifications come out to your house, charge you $150 for the house call and potentially leave your system off. I come from a place that says “If it ain’t broke… don’t fix it”

I’m really starting to believe it’s time to leave.

More and more lately I find myself thinking about just putting this place on the market and leaving this town, this state, and I swear… Even this country.

Hell, I seriously doubt that there much difference between living in California and oh say any EU country in terms of the regulations and controls the average citizen has to deal with.

I want to be free! I thought I lived in a free country… I suppose the only places that are truly not under the government thumb are the “Flyover States”. Of course that’s only because the snooty fuckers that like to impose their will on everyone else know better than to get too far from the city.

Well 20 years ago when I moved to this town… I was far enough away from the city that we lived pretty much according to our own thoughts and as long as we didn’t hurt anybody everyone pretty much minded their own business.

Now, I guess it’s time to move on… It’s a real pain to say ahead of people who are “smarter and know” more about my life than I do.

Now wheres’ that map of the “Fly Over” states?

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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

Gas prices california e1349449021752

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;

Trip Options

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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SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM… and More SPAM! (Updated)

I love the SPAMBOT Postings (I had to stop reading political stuff)

So lately rather than immediately deleting the SPAM that people try to post to this blog, I’ve been reading it.

You’ve got to be kidding!!!

Do any of these things work at all?

These comments have all kinds of flowery speech and it’s obvious that some of them have been written by translation software.

Here’s a few examples;

I really enjoy this theme youve got going on on your site. What is the name of the design by the way? I was thinking of using this style for the website I am going to construct for my class room project.

It is rare for me to discover something on the cyberspace that is as entertaining and fascinating as what youve got here. Your page is sweet, your graphics are outstanding, and whats more, you use reference that are relevant to what you are talking about. Youre definitely one in a million, great job!

Hello There. I found your blog using msn. This is a really well written article. I will be sure to bookmark it and return to read more of your useful information. Thanks for the post. I will certainly comeback.

Don’t get me wrong, I like compliments as much as the next person. But, I don’t like empty compliments that are supposed to make me approve a comment just so the commenter can “Build Links” or redirect someone to their sales site.

All of the above comments are linked to sales sites. Things like Gucci knock off bags, or shoes, or whatever Chinese knockoff someone thinks they can entice someone with.

The really scary part is that some of these links track to websites that are full of malware. Many of these sites are in foreign countries, The largest majority appear to be originating from Asia, at least that’s as far as I wanted to track them.

These messages come from SPAMBOTS, they apparently scan for new blog entries and then post a comment. If you’re not paying attention you’ll approve the comment and potentially give the spammer distribution of their website address and god forbid one of your readers will click on the link and it’s a malware website.

These comments end up in my deletion queue immediately. But sometimes they’re funny.

Then there are the tons of email SPAM I get.

RevoIution – home business (Followed by a web address that appears to be hosted in Amsterdam.)

Learn how to turn successful at home (Associated with a website hosted in France)

Up to $2,500 NOW. Bad or NO Credit OK. (This one actually came from an American Website)

The BIGGEST Auto Clearance of 2012 Is On NOW.  LAST CHANCE To Save THOUSANDS! (This one comes from the same site)

Then there’s my ALL TIME favorite! This one sets off the Virus detection every single time!

From: UPS Information

Subject: Delivery information # Error ID3122

Usually in the preview you’ll see something like;

I did disapprove of your following me here, for you know that

This one is a malware /virus laden email that originates on a juno site apparently in Russia.

I get about 10 of these a week on an ancient yahoo mail account. What’s interesting about this one is the rambling text that’s embedded in the message. It looks like random clippings from some kind of story / literary website. 

I can only assume that it’s a method to evade the spam detection software many servers and email programs use.

Then there are the SPAM Faxes;

Crap1

Crap2

Tell me does anyone actually call these people? 

I’ve set my fax machine to route anything it doesn’t recognize to a directory on my server. That way I’m not wasting ink printing stuff that shouldn’t be coming in to my fax machine unsolicited.

For a while, I dutifully reported junk faxes to the appropriate government authorities, but the faxes kept coming in. After a while I concluded that either the government authorities couldn’t care less or… they were simply overwhelmed.  I tried setting up an auto forwarding to the proper government authorities but they told me that would be spamming them.

Now I purge junk email, and faxes about every 3 months. That’s is exactly what I’m doing today and why you have the “JOY” of this random sampling of crap.

Just remember… YOU Came to this blog, I didn’t send it to you!

As always be careful opening emails, and make sure that your anti-virus software is up to date.

Have a great day.

 

Apparently, the SPAMBOTS loved this blog post. Since it was published, there have been a 127 spam comments attached to this one post. Who’d have thought…

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While I’m not meaning to defend the wealthy… I have to ask.

Lately, there have been tonFeng shui wealths of politicians and Über Liberals doing a lot of talking about the Wealthy.

I really don’t get it on a number of levels.

1) Why is it wrong to single out certain Other groups for special treatment or discussion but not the wealthy?

2) Why do politicians or the general populace think it’s OK to levy higher taxes on this small group?  (Sounds like discrimination to me. You’d never get away with it if instead of wealthy you said Muslims, or Mexicans. )

3) What happened to that concept of “Equally distributing the burden“? Why is it apparently OK to force the wealthy to pay more?

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Don’t get me wrong, the wealthy have done nothing to warrant my love or concern. Like most Americans I’ve suffered, and continue to suffer at their hands.

Here are some examples the Politicians and Occupy Whatever cite. You’ll get no argument from me about the abuses. Although most politicians avoid the H1B1 issue. Democratic politicians usually won’t comment on Offshoring but some Republicans and the Teaparty will.

Offshoring / Downsizing / H1B1 Abuses (It’s bullshit to import someone from India or offshore when you’ve got unemployed American workers with the same training and who speak, read, write the language well & who understand the culture. The ONLY difference between the H1B1 Visa worker / Offshore workers, and the American worker is that the H1B1 worker will work like a slave, kiss ass, suck cock, and generally do ANYTHING to bolster his bosses ego to stay in this country or keep their jobs. Including but not limited to implementing “Solutions” that are wrong on their face, just because they’re too scared of deportation or being fired to point out that the proposed “Solution” isn’t going to work. I can’t count how many millions I’ve personally seen wasted this way)

Oil prices (Lets be real here… The wind blowing from the West doesn’t justify a speculative panic that drives up crude prices.)

Banking abuses / Bad Mortgages / Housing implosion

Pension / 401k devaluation

However, as abusive of the system and people as the wealthy are, (THIS INCLUDES HOLLYWOOD ACTORS AND The KARDASHIANS), it’s still no reason to single them out for special taxation.

Let’s look at the pure math of the situation.

If I make $95,000 and I pay 20% in taxes then I pay $19,000

If a wealthy person makes $250,000 and pays 20% in taxes they pay $50,000 

SO obviously the wealthy are already paying more into the system.

Isn’t it unfair to say the wealthy have to pay 40%? Isn’t that just pure greed on the part of the politicians?

Stairliftsuk

I know that the poor would pitch a bitch fit if THEY were called upon to pay higher taxes. This would be especially true if someone constructed a case that went something like this.

The poor are more of a burden on the society. They require more government services, offices, and assistance. The poor also require a disproportionate level of emergency medical care per capita. Therefore the tax on all people below the poverty line will be 25% in an effort to cover their disproportionate burden on the society at large.

Of course you could make the same case for the elderly paying higher taxes too.

Can you even imagine? There’d be riots in the streets. The elderly from the old folks homes would be tossing molotov cocktails from their motorized chairs and golf carts.

“Harold… Harold… stop the cart! I just tossed my catheter bag at that Bentley! We’ve got to go back those things are $15 a piece.”

“Aww screw it Betty just hang the hose at the side of the cart, you can piss on Beverly Hills as we head back to the home! Now throw the burning bottle at the Kardashian house!”

We see the obvious wrongness of disproportionately taxing the poor or the elderly.

Why is it that we choose not to see that same unfairness in disproportionately taxing the wealthy? (I could however get behind a “SPECIAL” tax on the big mouths in the entertainment industry.)

There are those that would rightly point out, the wealthy often use all kinds of tricks to avoid paying their full measure of taxes.

While this is entirely true, I have to ask how many of us look for those same exact loopholes and deductions? The difference is the wealthy simply have better accountants and lawyers.

I’ve long wanted a simple flat tax. I think that would stop the wealthy, politicians, industry, & everyone else from playing games.

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Here’s my wish list for tax reform.

15% flat tax across the board right off the top for everyone! No exceptions!

No more IRS filing, No more April 15th, No more IRS at all.

I’ve thought that if we eliminated the IRS and stopped changing tax laws yearly the country could save a fortune in office supplies alone. We’d also save money because Congress wouldn’t be debating new tax codes and would get on with other business.

There would of course be corporations who might require additional assistance calculating their tax burden but I suspect that the Government Accounting Office could handle those audits.

If you’re unemployed, you get to raid your 401k or pension with NO penalties and tax free. Raiding your retirement is NEVER a good idea, but if it keeps you from becoming a burden or loosing your house you shouldn’t be penalized for doing it.

We should make sure that our Government felt the pinch of a poor economy just as keenly as the people.

Since the politicians salaries are funded from tax dollars, their salaries should be indexed to the GDP, Government Debt, and Stock Market.

As it is now, they get paid either way. Why not change their pay structure to give them some incentive?

Make it something like As the GDP and stock markets fall, and Debt increases the salaries for our politicians decline proportionately. Hopefully something like that would focus our politicians attention on actually tending to the country instead of grandstanding and not working together.

If you wrote the equation as simply as possible you could have the politicians seeing their salaries increase and decrease directly coupled to the financial heartbeat of the country.

It’s possible that the politicians could even see negative cash-flow, meaning that in addition to the FLAT tax they and everyone else pay, politicians could conceivably have to write a check and pay for the privilege of really crappy governance.

I bet, we’d see fewer dishonest politicians and more that were genuinely interested in the country doing well under this kind of pay schedule.

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I know that my wish list will never be fulfilled. I also realize that some of my ideas aren’t possible and are too simplistic.

I do think that every single one of us, rich, poor, or middle class realizes it’s time for some serious changes to the way our government collects and uses money.

I don’t think that setting a special tax rate for a specific group of people is the right or fair way to go.

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Again, the Sacramento politicians use “The Children” as Pawns

No on Prop 30 California 2012

Here we are again.

Proposition 30 in California is nothing  short of yet another tax hike designed to close a budget shortfall caused by the incredible mis-spending in Sacramento.

One of the talking points of this proposition is 

Preventing Deep School Cuts,

However, the very first line on their web site says “After Years of cuts, California’s Schools, Universities, and local public safety services are at the breaking point.”

So which is it?

Are they saying that they’ve been cutting from the schools to fund other programs for years and have depleted the funds and NOW they need to raise taxes to cover the shortfall that they created?

Is it just me or does this make no damn sense?

The Sacramento Politicians want to raise the sales tax and… wait for it… Impose more taxes on the rich.

You know the rich… those evil bastards!

The ones who have been taking money from the schools (not), the wealthy who’ve not been paying their share of taxes.

Those successful motherfuckers who’ve made all that money and who are making donations to charities or starting charities that support research or the arts, or the environment.

The bastards that are building new larger buildings for their filthy money making companies. So that they can employ yet MORE filthy workers and keep the construction businesses busy.

YEAH! Those rancid thundercunt FUCKS!!!

When you think about it that way… raising taxes on just the wealthy starts to seem a little stupid.

I’m not saying that all business people or wealthy people are saints… in fact a lot of them are cut throat bastards. BUT you really have to remember that without them we’re all pushing tacos at the local taco stand for 1.98 an hour.

I’ve said it before, the wealthy have the means to bail out.

They can leave this state and this country any time they want to.

What will Sacramento do if the wealthy leave California and take their businesses with them?

How long would it be before someone puts a proposition together to authorize a sign saying “Will the last educated person please shutdown San Onofre before you leave?”

And this isn’t even the worst of it…

The politicians are going to THE CHILDREN Again. Essentially, they’re attempting to hold every single child in the state hostage to force the people of California to vote to raise taxes instead of responsibly spending the money California currently receives in revenue.

If you’re interested… Head on over to CalTax.org. This is a watchdog organization that researches how California spends it’s tax payers money. On that site is an interesting report that details the waste between 2000 and 2010. This is very interesting reading. It’s doubtful that anything in California’s spending pattern has changed.

Instead of raising taxes and threatening the school system… Why doesn’t Sacramento clean up their spending before going back to the taxpayer?

The document is linked in PDF here.

201003_CalTaxResearchBulletin_Decade of Waste.pdf

After reading this… If you still think that these politicians really need more of our money you go right ahead and vote for Prop 30.

The rest of us will be voting no… 

After all how many times can Sacramento expect us to fall for those scare tactics? Especially when in the past we have fallen for it and found out well after the fact that the money allocated to the schools got cut anyway…

Tell Sacramento to KISS OUR COLLECTIVE ASS and vote a resounding NO to every single measure that seeks to raise taxes!

Force Sacramento to actually be responsible for their spending.