Tag: Bullshit

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Why we can’t have nice things…

Four years ago I was leaving a grocery store near my apartment when a complete stranger walked up to me and commented on my watch.

It wasn’t uncommon for my colleagues to notice it or comment on it. It was not even that uncommon for a clerk in a shop to notice my watch, (particularly if they were male,) and say something like, “nice,” while looking at my wrist.

That day in front of the grocery store, this guy who appeared homeless commented about my watch in a very loud voice. He said something like, “That’s a really nice watch, what did that set you back 10 grand 15 grand?” What caught my attention was that he was speaking loudly enough for pretty much the entire shopping plaza to hear him. I’m a suspicious person, and in the back of my brain a thought popped in, “Why is this guy announcing this? Is he calling to an accomplice?”

I politely said in an equally loud voice, “Thank you for the compliment, it’s amazing how many compliments I get on this cheap $200 Hong Kong knock off. Would you like to hold it? “

At that point the man lost interest. Thank god he didn’t call my bluff.

This event was about the 3rd or 4th I’d experienced in 2 weeks. Admittedly, I wasn’t living in the best neighborhood at the time, but up to that point I hadn’t felt particularly unsafe.

The watch in question is not a knock off.

I purchased it 14 years ago for about 7K. I’d lost a rather large watch collection in a fire and decided that I simply wanted a single very nice watch that I never took off. I’d worn my watch continuously since I put it on in the store.

There were some who scolded me for wearing such a nice watch while doing yard work, working on a car, building, painting, swimming, or just living. I really thought nothing of it.

It is my watch, and since it was the only one I owned, it was easier to keep it on my wrist than to keep track of it, if I took it off.

The watch itself has held up very well. I sent it in for routine service on its tenth birthday. The service center gave it a tune up, and a clean bill of health. complemented me on two things. 1) it was in excellent shape and 2) that they’d guessed I wore it every day and thought that was very cool.

They didn’t even charge me for the replacement of 2 links in the band that had taken the brunt of a saw kickback. The watch band had saved me from a very nasty cut on my wrist. As part of the service the watch was also appraised. I was a bit shocked, and pleased, to discover that my watch had more than doubled in value.

After the repeated incidents in public where the watch garnered unwanted and intrusive attention, (it’s still considered rude to ask a stranger what they paid for something isn’t it?) I decided it was time to put my beautiful functional timepiece in a safe and buy something cheap and ubiquitous.

I’ve enjoyed the lockdowns over the past two years because if I’m around home, or in my little mountain town I’ve been able to wear my nice watch. I also wore it with complete confidence on a recent trip to Florida. Some men in Florida noticed my watch, they just nodded in appreciation, and smiled. You know… “Old School Politeness.”

My cheap watch is an Apple watch. It’s nice, but having to recharge it daily is a pain in the butt. The advantage is that everyone has one and in that homogeneity is safety.

No-one is likely to mug me for an Apple Watch.

The sadness is that my beautiful, simple, functional, watch sits in the safe. I do wear it if I’m camping, diving, or know that I’m not likely to encounter crowds of people. I also wear it more in the Winter when a jacket or long sleeves afford cover for it.

Within the past month or two, I read a news item where a man in Los Angeles had been robbed of his Rolex, at gunpoint after an induced car accident.

Today There was a report from England in The Sunday Times talking about an apparently organized group of thieves who are targeting high end watch wearers. The article is here and it’s brazen.

Most of the men report being approached by lovely women asking for their signature on a petition or something. In some cases the women become handsy and quite forward, talking non stop. In a few cases they’ve offered sex or other enticements.

Often the men are so flabbergasted they don’t realize their watch is gone until the woman has left.

I’ve heard of expensive hookers, but these guys aren’t even getting blow jobs for their 10 to 20K!

The article mentions that the thieves seem to be targeting Rolexes.

The supply of Rolexes is thin and the resale market is booming.

Rolex among other high end watches retain their value worldwide. They’re easy to transport, and with a hot resale market the thief can dump the merchandise quickly.

I’ve been jonesing for a watch that I can safely wear daily that doesn’t require recharging or batteries.

I guess you could say I’m bored with the Apple Watch and its attendant software updates, power requirements, and fiddling.

I think fondly of my nice watch. Ten years, one watch, and zero trouble. Ahh, simplicity!

I’d been looking at a nice simple Omega. But that too is a high end watch and subject to the same targeting by thieves. That being said, I may get one anyway.

I suppose that a venerable Timex might be the best way to go.

It does make me wonder how long will it be before we’re all driving the same car, all wearing the same clothes, all wearing the same watch, and all using the same mobile phone?

Is that where this is going, will we all be stuck with a “one size fits all” solution just to fight crime?

That’s not freedom. That’s the old Soviet Union, North Korea, or China. I want the freedom to have nice things without worrying about becoming a target.

I’m also just old school enough to want a concealed carry permit and a stout .45 on my hip. I’d rather leave the thieves gut shot and bleeding out on the sidewalk. (Why gut shot? Because it’s an agonizing death.) People don’t usually think of me, and mercy at the same time.

I find myself thinking that all it would take is 1 year of would be criminals stacking up in the morgues, and crime would be almost nonexistent. I figure we’d either run out of criminals, or criminals would decide crime itself was too risky.

Unfortunately, especially in California, criminals have been given the upper hand and they’re continuing to press their advantage. Apparently this is also true elsewhere in the world.

Maybe I’ll go with a Timex until I’m able to move to a state where they’ve remembered, “An armed society is a polite society.”

Maybe sometime in the near future folks will wake the hell up and realize The “Wild West” era came to a close in part because we all agreed that a robust police force was preferable to daily shoot-outs at the saloon.

That’s provided that the morons running things haven’t burned the history books or forgotten how to read them.

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I read the “News” today… I Feel like I’m in a time warp.

Everything I read was reminiscent of the Obama Years.

Perhaps this time around is a little more chaotic but nothing has changed.

Reading the news was a bit like watching a soap opera. You can skip days or weeks, but when you do get around to watching, you haven’t missed much, if anything at all.

I did happen to notice that Kamala Harris is notably absent and has been for at least a week or two.

President Biden is still bloviating on about the Russian / Ukraine issues, While the President of the Ukraine has been quoted as saying the issue is resolving.

Justin Trudeau is being heckled in Parliament and openly laughed at. I’d guess his career is at an end. Doesn’t Canada have a no confidence vote?

Ah well, the soap opera goes on, and nothing changes, except the price of goods and fuel. They keep going up.

I’m as disinterested in the “News” and politics as I was during the Obama years. The nut jobs have full control of the asylum and the midterms can’t come soon enough.

Maybe this time we can get some people in office that actually do their jobs. I’m not holding my breath or anything but I’d love to see a bunch of non-politicians swept into office. You know, folks that had businesses and employees and actually produced something.

That is, of course, until they were forced out of business by mandates and lockdowns.

It seems to me those are the people who have the time, the knowledge, logic, and will, to stand up to the establishment powers and say, “NO!”

Maybe, they’d be able to set things back on course by applying their business acumen and common sense.

The one thing I’m certain of, is that all of the career politicians of any political stripe need to get THE BOOT.

I’m probably just whistling past the graveyard. There are a lot more people caught up in their individual divisiveness and specialized causes than there are people who look at the larger picture. I’m fairly sure that whoever is elected in the midterms will just be more of the same old crap.

Well, back to ignoring the news for a week or so unless something really interesting captures my attention.

I’m over the soap opera.

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Oh Apple…

What are you thinking? Are you thinking at all?

There’s a report from Apple Insider where a former employee alleges that Apple changes their job title to “Associate” once the employee leaves.

While that probably didn’t hurt Jonny Ive when he left, for the hundreds of other employees that simple change in their job title after they leave, can be devastating.

Just imagine yourself working for Apple for 10 years, working your way up the corporate ladder. You started out as an associate, and through hard work, education, and perseverance you make it to manager of your department. Then your spouse has to take another job in a different city.

You’re faced with divorce or moving to be with your family.

You choose family, thinking that your years at Apple will be worth something as you attempt to find a new job in your new city.

Your resume says you were a department manager but when new prospective employers contact Apple, they say you were an associate for those years. So now you’ve “lied” on your resume and job applications.

Not to mention being an “Associate” for 10 years doesn’t look like you’ve got much ambition.

It also means that your career is being torpedoed by a company you gave your all to. Most HR people wouldn’t question a major corporation like Apple. They’re the “Good Guys” after all.

It’s almost as if Apple is being the hurt lover. “If you leave me, I’ll make sure no-one will want you!”

This is abusive and wrong!

Apple looks a little less fresh and a lot more rotten.

There have been rumors for years that Apple wasn’t particularly fair or nice when it came to their treatment of employees. Up to now, I’ve wondered if the rumors were true, or just ex-employees being upset. I’d chosen to believe it was sour grapes on the part of the employees.

After all a shitty executive can make the entire company seem bad to those suffering under their direction. I’d chalked these rumors up to that sort of thing. Now, I’m not so sure.

When I was dealing with hiring directly, all I could ask a former employer was if the person had worked for the employer, their last job title, and the dates of employment. Way back in the day, I could ask about last salary, and if the employee was eligible for rehire. A discrepancy between the last job title reported by an employer and the job title listed on a resume was a red flag.

It honestly never occurred to me that any company would change a former employee’s last job title after they’d left the company. That’s just super unfair and pointless.

Perhaps I’m just sensitive from my own eternal job search. But I’m glad Apple has never responded to any of my applications. The last thing I need or want is another job that should be amazing to turn into another shithole experience. If Apple is changing job titles like this, I rather think Apple might be the latter instead of the former.

I’ll be wondering, and thinking about this, the next time I consider an Apple purchase.

Will my concern be enough to prevent me from buying something from Apple? I think it will depend on the item and if I can find something similar at a better price.

Apple may well have become evil, just like Google, Twitter, Facebook, Microsoft, and God only knows how many others.

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And Airbnb is officially deleted from my phone…

Wednesday, Michelle Malkin and her Husband were banned from using Airbnb over a speech she gave in November.

Michelle Malkin is a conservative author and journalist.

Malkin explains, “The speech delved into the K-20 metastasis of anti-white curriculum, the corporate media’s whitewashing of black-on-Asian attacks, and the long campaign to censor nationalist dissidents who put America first.”

Malkin tweeted out:

I’ve been #bannedbyairbnb (along with my husband!) as retaliation for my free speech and #AmericaFirst journalism. It’s insane & un-American – and I could use your help fighting back. Stay tuned. https://t.co/JjZvLzRzSl #michellefightsairbnb@Airbnb pic.twitter.com/Ko6DH7IIaL

— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) February 2, 2022

Airbnb explained,

“This is consistent with action we’ve taken to ban people associated with this conference in past years. Removal means that your account will no longer be accessible, and you won’t be able to create another one. As we can see that your Airbnb travels are typically reserved via your husband’s account, we will also proceed in removing his account.”

So I ask, “WHAT THE FUCK?”

Is this where we’re going?

In an attempt to silence anyone with dissenting opinions, daring to exercise their first amendment rights, corporate America will take it upon themselves to be the arbiter of The Constitution?

Airbnb is not alone. PayPal, GoFundme, and others in the financial sector have done similar.

GoFundMe as of Wednesday Feb 2, 2022 has reportedly frozen 10 million dollars donated to support the Canadian Trucker Convoy. I ask again WTF? Who is GoFundMe to tell donors that they cannot donate money to a cause they believe in? Ohhhh, right… You are only allowed to donate to approved causes. Got it!

Here’s a thought… Fuck off! GoFundMe.

I cancelled my PayPal account years ago because they started picking and choosing which businesses they would send MY Money to. Uh excuse me. It’s my fucking money! You PayPal need to be reminded that without me putting cash into an account, YOU don’t earn transaction fees or interest.

That’s a lesson that all banking institutions need to be reminded of.

Airbnb is no different. I’d bet that since many of the properties are still owned by individuals they’re not going to take kindly to Airbnb telling them to whom they can and cannot rent their properties.

I’ll personally find a KOA Campground and sleep in a tent before I put any money in Airbnb.

Airbnb is an availability and transaction processor. The odds of the property owners actually knowing how many missed rental opportunities for their properties is low.

They’ll never see that someone was interested, because Airbnb is by default censoring their view and limiting their income in doing so.

Ms. Malkin rightfully asks, “will Airbnb also delete the accounts of my children? How many other families had Airbnb done this to?”

The conference that Malkin spoke at is associated with a group the Southern Poverty Law Center, and The Anti Defamation League, has designated as a hate group.

That’s interesting since SPLC often designates hate groups as racists and Ms Malkin is clearly of Asian descent.

Why would a minority speaker be asked to give a talk at a racist hate groups conference?

This to my eye, is nothing less than a blatant attempt at corporate control aimed squarely at silencing conservative voices and it should not stand.

Unfortunately, the only way to register our displeasure is with American dollars. That means that Airbnb will continue this behavior until they see their application deleted from phones and their revenue fall.

I wonder if they could sustain the monetary losses that Facebook has seen over the past 24 hours?

232 Billion dollars, “poof!” Zuckerberg personally lost 30 Billion in personal worth.

I believe that Airbnb owes Ms Malkin a personal apology, and they owe the American people an apology for attempting to infringe upon the First Amendment in violation of Constitutional law.

Corporations, need to be thumped on their noses with a baseball bat, and told “NO! BAD DOG!”

They need to be reminded that the freedoms guaranteed by The Constitution of the United States apply equally to everyone regardless of the persons political beliefs.

Further, corporations need to be reminded that they exist to perform a service or manufacture goods, nothing more. They are paid based on their performance not their political leanings.

Americans will pay for goods and services that offer value and those that do not, will end up in the burning dumpsters of history.

Airbnb, GoFundMe, and Facebook may well be the first services that should end up in that flaming dumpster.

Ms Malkins’ story isn’t being picked up by the main stream media. That’s unfortunate, because it should be. It would be, if Don Lemon had been treated in similar fashion.

Take a look at your phone, if you’ve got Airbnb loaded, delete it. Most of the time, someone with a rental in an area you want to visit, has the rental information on a local community web site as well.

Contact them directly and perhaps you’ll save a few bucks because if the owner of the property doesn’t have to pay the Airbnb transaction fee they may be willing to pass some savings on to you.

Stop using GoFundMe! This isn’t the first time they’ve failed to perform their function. They’re not providing the service they claim to provide. Cash out and leave them with no new revenue.

While Ms Malkin is a conservative, her political affiliation doesn’t matter. You may not agree with the Canadian Truckers and that’s okay just remember; Eventually, corporate entities will increase their control on everyone unless we as a people thump them on the nose.

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I was looking for a new keyboard, but…

Maybe a month or two ago I ran across a nifty computer keyboard in some publication. At the time I thought, “It’s really nice, I like that it’s mechanical, It’s cool that you can order it with switches that are firm, medium, or light, which allow you to have a keyboard that is exactly what you want, but dang that’s really expensive,”

So I moved on to the next thing and forgot the manufacturers name. After all, the 8 year old keyboard I’ve got works just fine and I’m used to it.

Then yesterday, my reliable old keyboard started missing space bar presses and occasionally other keys as well. I considered the problem and admitted that it might be time for me to pony up the cash for a new one. I tried to go back and find the article in my Apple News History. I haven’t found the article I was looking for but did stumble across the Alec Baldwin, George Stephanopoulos interview where Baldwin tearfully claims he didn’t pull the trigger.

What a load of runny horse shit!

I was able to let the statement of the Armorer from the production “Someone must have put a live bullet in the gun,” go because that statement was so stupid it required no comment.

Had I commented at the time, I’d have said, “No Shit dumbass!“

But Alec Baldwin crying and saying he didn’t pull the trigger?

Oh hell no, I can’t let that one go.

The gun reportedly used in the crime, (Yes, it was a crime!) was a period specific Colt revolver or a replica of the venerable Colt revolver. This gun, as are most guns, is a purely mechanical machine. There are no batteries, no electronics, no circuitry, and no software.

Guns in general are relatively simple machines that exist in the real physical world and require real physical actions to operate. They can’t be hacked.

The person holding the gun is the power source and the directing intelligence.

As you can see from the diagram, (Thank you Nichols Ranch), There are approximately 24 components in a revolver. (24 in the diagram, there could be fewer in other models) The last two components in the diagram above are the Bullet and its shell.

Functionally, you could loose the grips and the logos, possibly the ejector rod and spring, and the cylinder cover, and still have a functional weapon. It would probably bruise your hand if you fired it without the grips but the weapon would still work as designed.

There is no magic here. This is simply an elegant mechanical system.

To fire the assembled weapon requires the following steps.

Open the cylinder cover
Put rounds (a bullet and its shell) in at least some of the chambers of the cylinder. In this case a maximum of six chambers can have rounds inserted.
Close the cylinder cover
Cock the hammer.
Take aim
Pull the trigger

Repeat the last three steps as necessary five more times, then start at step one.

Note there are three inherent safety mechanisms present.

If rounds are not loaded, the gun is not ready to fire
If the hammer isn’t cocked, the gun is not ready to fire.
If the trigger is not pulled, the gun will not fire, even if rounds are present and the hammer is cocked.

I’m not a gunsmith, but if I’m looking at the diagram correctly, it appears that the action of cocking the hammer is what causes the cylinder to rotate, moving the next round to firing position.

This mechanical simplicity is why the revolver and integrated shells & bullets revolutionized guns.

Prior to the revolver, the choice was a cap and ball pistol, which basically gave you one shot, then you had to spend a minute reloading before you could take a second shot (think about a cannon). That’s probably why everyone carried a sword with their pistol.

For close to 200 years, the revolver has been around, it’s well understood, reliable, and has undergone some evolution but not a whole lot.

There is a variation of the revolver where pulling the trigger also cocks the hammer.

This is why when handling a weapon you never put your finger on the trigger, and you never take anyone’s word for it, that the weapon is not loaded. You always check!

Even then if you need to pull the trigger (as in you’re checking proper function,) you always aim in a safe direction. You do not pull the trigger unless you are sure that no-one is downrange.

Given the simplicity of the revolver that Baldwin was probably using, for him to claim he didn’t pull the trigger is a bald faced lie. He may not remember pulling the trigger, but he sure as hell did.

The only other scenario that has a remote possibility is that he partially cocked the revolver when he pulled it from the holster. In that scenario though, it’s far more likely that he would have had the weapon fire the moment it cleared the holster.

I rather suspect that in that scenario Baldwin would have shot himself. I also suspect that the mechanism that rotates the cylinder would not have brought a round into correct firing position since the hammer wouldn’t have completed its travel.

That being said, if the weapon was worn or had been abused it’s a remote possibility.

However there wouldn’t have been enough of a delay for Baldwin to have brought the weapon to a firing position for the view of the camera. (They were rehearsing, the assumption is they were trying to frame a shot.)

No matter what. In this situation Alec Baldwin was the person holding the weapon. Baldwin was the person who violated gun safety protocols. Baldwin is the person who clearly still has no idea how guns work.

Ultimately, Alec Baldwin is the person who shot two people, one fatally. Alec Baldwin is therefore the responsible party and must answer for his negligence.

Update: I was just reading another article on Baldwin’s interview.

Baldwin said, “So, I take the gun and I start to cock the gun. I’m not going to pull the trigger,” he continued. “And I cock the gun, I go, ‘Can you see that? Can you see that? Can you see that?’ And then I let go of the hammer of the gun, and the gun goes off. I let go of the hammer of the gun – the gun goes off.“

Was the gun cocked Alec or was it not? In this type of gun if you’re holding the trigger down and you pull the hammer back then release it the gun will fire. You’d know that if you’d paid attention in any of the on-site gun training you’ve no doubt received during your many years of movie making where you were handling guns. You’re essentially describing that you “fanned” the hammer.

Stephanopoulos stated, “There are some who say you’re never supposed to point a gun on anyone on a set no matter what.”

Baldwin replied, “Unless the person is the cinematographer, who’s directing me at where to point the gun for her camera angle,” Baldwin replied. “I didn’t point the gun at her, and she said, ‘Hey, man, don’t point the gun at me.’ I pointed the gun in a direction she wanted.”

Is it me or does Baldwin’s reply sound like he was trying to blame the victim?

“Do you feel guilt?,” Stephanopoulos asked.

“No. No,” Baldwin said. “I feel that someone is responsible for what happened, and I can’t say who that is, but I know it’s not me.“

What a piece of Shit Alec Baldwin is!

He goes on to describe how he has dreams and emotional distress. Trying to paint himself as the victim.

Really? Alec Baldwin, you are filth! I cannot even describe how reading your responses has sickened me.

I hope the family, the members on set, and everyone in the production sues you into poverty. I hope the police, the district attorney, the judge, and a jury throw the book at you. I hope you end up doing hard labor in a prison in New Mexico for the rest of your miserable life.

It’s one thing to have this be an accident. It’s quite another for you to try to slime your way out of responsibility and essentially say, she was asking for it.

BTW… I still haven’t found that keyboard site!