The Yankees Are Sweating Bullets...
Everyone that stops by here regularly knows that me and my family have dealt with hurricanes for the past nearly 200 years in south Alabama.
Without any FEMA or Salvation Army or other Government/non-Government help.
Yet in spite of more than a dozen substantial Hurricanes passing over or near where I live over the past 51 years and 11 months, I'm still here today.
Now don't get me wrong here Ladies and Gentlemen...I'm not asking that anyone get hurt or that there be any substantial property damage, but still...
I have to take a slight bit of enjoyment watching all of the Big City Liberals up in New York and DC and Boston--those same people that are always looking down on us living here in the south offering advice on how to live our lives and "tutt-tutting" while wagging their fingers--offering advice and federal assistence where generally none was needed or asked for historically.
All I have to say right now about this weekend's weather forecast for New England is this:
LOOK OUT FOLKS...BECAUSE HERE COMES IRENE
I want you to show all of us Rednecks and Hillbillies down here how ya'll do things up NORTH.
(See you Monday if you're still alive and still have power and phones...)
Heh...
Friday, August 26, 2011
The Death Of Common Sense
I've Missed Him For Quite A While Now...
I found this Essay on the BBC Website:
"Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape.
He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:
Knowing when to come in out of the rain; why the early bird gets the worm:
Life isn't always fair, and maybe it was my fault.
Common sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults are in charge not children)
His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of an 8 year old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate, teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch, and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.
Common sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children. It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an aspirin to a student, but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.
Common sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses, and criminals received better treatment than their victims,
Common sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.
Common sense finally gave up the will to live, after a women failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.
Common sense was preceded in death, by his parents, truth and trust
His wife, discretion
His daughter, Responsibility
His son, reason.
He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers
I know my rights
I want my rights
I want it now
I’m a victim.
Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone. If you still remember him, pass this on.
If not, join the majority and do nothing."
Now look at this story on FoxNews:
Clergy Banned From 9/11 Ceremony
Religious leaders are calling on Mayor Michael Bloomberg to reverse course and offer clergy a role in the ceremony commemorating the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.
Rudy Washington, a deputy mayor in former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's administration, said he's outraged. Mr. Washington organized an interfaith ceremony at Yankee Stadium shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
"This is America, and to have a memorial service where there's no prayer, this appears to be insanity to me," said Mr. Washington, who has suffered severe medical problems connected to the time he spent at Ground Zero."
Looking at the above essay, and then reading that story, I couldn't have said it better myself.
I believe that we are in deep trouble as a people and as a country when we are so concerned about not hurting the feelings of our enemy (the muslims) that we ban all clergy from a memorial service for the victims of Muslim Jihad.
How about you?
I found this Essay on the BBC Website:
"Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape.
He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:
Knowing when to come in out of the rain; why the early bird gets the worm:
Life isn't always fair, and maybe it was my fault.
Common sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults are in charge not children)
His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of an 8 year old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate, teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch, and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.
Common sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children. It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an aspirin to a student, but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.
Common sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses, and criminals received better treatment than their victims,
Common sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.
Common sense finally gave up the will to live, after a women failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.
Common sense was preceded in death, by his parents, truth and trust
His wife, discretion
His daughter, Responsibility
His son, reason.
He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers
I know my rights
I want my rights
I want it now
I’m a victim.
Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone. If you still remember him, pass this on.
If not, join the majority and do nothing."
Now look at this story on FoxNews:
Clergy Banned From 9/11 Ceremony
Religious leaders are calling on Mayor Michael Bloomberg to reverse course and offer clergy a role in the ceremony commemorating the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.
Rudy Washington, a deputy mayor in former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's administration, said he's outraged. Mr. Washington organized an interfaith ceremony at Yankee Stadium shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
"This is America, and to have a memorial service where there's no prayer, this appears to be insanity to me," said Mr. Washington, who has suffered severe medical problems connected to the time he spent at Ground Zero."
Looking at the above essay, and then reading that story, I couldn't have said it better myself.
I believe that we are in deep trouble as a people and as a country when we are so concerned about not hurting the feelings of our enemy (the muslims) that we ban all clergy from a memorial service for the victims of Muslim Jihad.
How about you?
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Comcast Sucks
No Customer Support...
I just got through spending yet another half hour trying to understand why my so called Comcast "Full Basic" cable TV service has lost it's mind in the past two weeks.
Over that period of time I've come to realize that it is impossible to talk to an English speaking human located within the United States about service related issues.
I have however talked to several individuals named "Peggy" who...regardless of what you tell them the problem is...proceed to read from a script and ask a whole bunch of inane questions as I've explained in an earlier posting.
Generally I think they don't want to (or don't know how to) fix anything really technical, they're just trying to:
A. Avoid having to send a technician out to your house, and...
B. Keep you on the phone long enough answering stupid questions about things you already know can't be the problem so that you will get pissed off and hang up on them.
I've hung up twice so far in the past week.
Then this morning I spent another half hour trying to trouble shoot my problem using the "Comcast Live Chat" with someone else named "Peggy" and after "verifying my account info twice" (info I had already had to type into a form before the Live Chat session began), and waiting for them to pull up my account, I finally was told that there was a "channel service outage in my area and that they were working on it."
"Sorry for the inconvenience..."
Gee...isn't that lovely.
Here's the deal as I see things with Comcast, Ladies and Gentlemen.
I understand through the process of elimination that Comcast's primary goal is not to service their existing customers/accounts who are already paying monthly a fixed fee regardless of the quality of their product delivered.
Comcast's primary focus is to utilize their resources to direct their limited service personnel in the area of CONNECTING NEW CUSTOMERS to their crappy Cable TV/Internet/VoIP Phone network so they can start billing them full price for partial service.
Thus if I want to establish new service I could have a service technician out here with 3 to 5 days.
And I am 99.9 percent sure that the problem here at my house is in the wire between the house and the utility pole. I remember that the guy that installed my service 3-1/2 years ago pointed out the age and condition of the wire but didn't have time and materials with him to change it out (he needed a bucket truck.)
He also at the time said "just call if we have trouble and we'll come back out."
But things have worked most of the time since at a semi-acceptable manner (except when it rains) until the past two weeks.
I guess if Comcast keeps screwing around the will be a new Direct TV satellite dish hanging off my house in September.
I just got through spending yet another half hour trying to understand why my so called Comcast "Full Basic" cable TV service has lost it's mind in the past two weeks.
Over that period of time I've come to realize that it is impossible to talk to an English speaking human located within the United States about service related issues.
I have however talked to several individuals named "Peggy" who...regardless of what you tell them the problem is...proceed to read from a script and ask a whole bunch of inane questions as I've explained in an earlier posting.
Generally I think they don't want to (or don't know how to) fix anything really technical, they're just trying to:
A. Avoid having to send a technician out to your house, and...
B. Keep you on the phone long enough answering stupid questions about things you already know can't be the problem so that you will get pissed off and hang up on them.
I've hung up twice so far in the past week.
Then this morning I spent another half hour trying to trouble shoot my problem using the "Comcast Live Chat" with someone else named "Peggy" and after "verifying my account info twice" (info I had already had to type into a form before the Live Chat session began), and waiting for them to pull up my account, I finally was told that there was a "channel service outage in my area and that they were working on it."
"Sorry for the inconvenience..."
Gee...isn't that lovely.
Here's the deal as I see things with Comcast, Ladies and Gentlemen.
I understand through the process of elimination that Comcast's primary goal is not to service their existing customers/accounts who are already paying monthly a fixed fee regardless of the quality of their product delivered.
Comcast's primary focus is to utilize their resources to direct their limited service personnel in the area of CONNECTING NEW CUSTOMERS to their crappy Cable TV/Internet/VoIP Phone network so they can start billing them full price for partial service.
Thus if I want to establish new service I could have a service technician out here with 3 to 5 days.
And I am 99.9 percent sure that the problem here at my house is in the wire between the house and the utility pole. I remember that the guy that installed my service 3-1/2 years ago pointed out the age and condition of the wire but didn't have time and materials with him to change it out (he needed a bucket truck.)
He also at the time said "just call if we have trouble and we'll come back out."
But things have worked most of the time since at a semi-acceptable manner (except when it rains) until the past two weeks.
I guess if Comcast keeps screwing around the will be a new Direct TV satellite dish hanging off my house in September.
Monday, August 22, 2011
Doin' The Texas Tulsa Two Step
Busy Day Again Today...
Well Ladies and Gentlemen...I made it.
It was a LooOOOOnnnNNNNGGGG day beginning about 4 AM and just now finally ending at 11:30 CST.
I traveled in the air all morning and ran around the East side of town all afternoon and then had a really good dinner meeting.
All in all a successful day I think.
Now after a little sleep everything starts over at 9 AM, followed by a late afternoon return flight on Monday.
Regards Y'all...
Well Ladies and Gentlemen...I made it.
It was a LooOOOOnnnNNNNGGGG day beginning about 4 AM and just now finally ending at 11:30 CST.
I traveled in the air all morning and ran around the East side of town all afternoon and then had a really good dinner meeting.
All in all a successful day I think.
Now after a little sleep everything starts over at 9 AM, followed by a late afternoon return flight on Monday.
Regards Y'all...
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Goodnight Irene
Hurricane Season Drives Me On The Road...
So I'm up early this moring in anticipation of catching an 8 AM flight out of Knoxville, going through Memphis, and ending up in Tulsa, Oklahoma later this morning.
Don't ask me why because if I told you the reason I'd have tokill you wrap your head in duct tape and make you watch CNN 24 hours a day for a week (or something like that because it's a secret right now.)
Needless to say the trip has to do with business, and depending on the outcome things could be changing a good deal around here at the Turbo Pup Compound on the Banks of the Mighty Tennessee River.
Looking at the weather map, I see where there's a tropical storm named "Irene"running its way through the Lesser Antillles this morning.
This one could be the first real storm the Atlantic or Gulf Coast has seen in a couple of years based on the dynamics of the upper and lower level weather patterns, but I don't have time this morning to explain it to you.
Go do your own homework and write me a 250 word answer to my question.
And wish me luck and a safe return on my journey...if you will...
So I'm up early this moring in anticipation of catching an 8 AM flight out of Knoxville, going through Memphis, and ending up in Tulsa, Oklahoma later this morning.
Don't ask me why because if I told you the reason I'd have to
Needless to say the trip has to do with business, and depending on the outcome things could be changing a good deal around here at the Turbo Pup Compound on the Banks of the Mighty Tennessee River.
Looking at the weather map, I see where there's a tropical storm named "Irene"running its way through the Lesser Antillles this morning.
This one could be the first real storm the Atlantic or Gulf Coast has seen in a couple of years based on the dynamics of the upper and lower level weather patterns, but I don't have time this morning to explain it to you.
Go do your own homework and write me a 250 word answer to my question.
And wish me luck and a safe return on my journey...if you will...
