Friday, March 27, 2009

Bullsh**, Officer Powell, You're Just A Merciless Bigot

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/03/27/national/main4898503.shtml?source=RSSattr=HOME_4898503

"I was just doing my job!"

Phooey! All you needed to do was escort them into the damn hospital and let the Moats' say goodbye to a dying woman.

You're nothing but a merciless, pitiless bigot and no amount of trying to cover your tracks with excuses is gonna change that fact. In my opinion, you are morally and spiritually corrupt. You disgust me and I hope you get fired and banned from police work. You're unfit to serve!

Monday, March 02, 2009

Short Time Off The 'Net

In this economy, my hubby and I are struggling with the basics like keeping up on our house payments so it is with increasing frequency that I'm not able to afford my cable internet connection.  I'm also unwilling to go back to the slower speed of dial-up not to mention the frequent service issues that go with dial up.  So I've been reconciling myself to the fact that some months I may have to wait a few days before getting back.  Other things, like paying for my dog's insulin, are more important.

Heresy?  It nearly sounds like it but as an older person, I spent more of my life off the net than on it. 

Oooh Those Bank Execs And Their High Flying Ways

So Bank of America's honcho flies to Washington in one of the private jets held by the company. He said it was a 'time sensitive' thing so that makes it worth it instead of flying business class. It's a buncha bull. He could have been driven to the airport, made the flight, taken a taxi and gotten to his meeting with Congress on time.

He just doesn't wanna give up the perks. That tells me that he thinks he's too damn good for the rest of us! Given our country's economy, it rankles. Given that I'm broke and struggling, it rankles and I find I'm bitter.

I had a credit card with Bank of America. I'm paying it down slowly since I'm broke as hell and struggling to pay when I can. The amount is under two thousand. Not much, but with the interest that kept going up after missing payments following a long illness that ultimately left me unemployed for nearly a year... well... I reckon if the interest had been frozen at the 3% interest rate it was when I got the darned card (and regulated to stay at 3%), instead of the 29% it went up to, then I'd have had it paid off a year ago. I never abused the card either and had a great payment history for several years prior to getting sick.

I feel like we consumers are getting the short end of the stick. The profits from exorbitant interest rates are driving us down while the bank's highest ranking executives steep in unnecessary luxuries. And let's face it... we ordinary folks are never going to see the inside of one of those corporate jets in real life, much less fly in one! We get by flying coach when we have to. We get by driving more than we care to on our daily commutes. We get by using public transit like riding buses, street cars and trolleys in the places that have them.

What makes these executive's work so costly to us consumers? What do they do that is so beyond price? These high flying execs have made a passel full of bad decisions over the years costing their employers millions. If they get fired, they walk away with golden parachutes sometimes in the 10s of millions of dollars. If we ordinary people did that in our jobs, we'd be fired and our (by then) ex-employers would be looking to have us prosecuted and put in prison!

Why can't the bankers getting all this bail out money look at the things they've got on their calendars -- sponsoring golf tournaments, sporting events, concerts, & more -- and cancel them until things have turned around for the better? They need to shut down the corporate sponsorship of things that are nothing more than show -- a smoke and mirrors show at that!

In the over all scheme of things, I wouldn't bitch if B of A was sponsoring a city's public schools and funding applied science teachers in things like computers, biology, health sciences including nursing, pre-med, dental hygeine. We need schools teaching sciences like horticulture, agriculture, and animal husbandry, we need student learning engineering fundamentals so they can go to college and study biomedical engineering, electrical, mechanical and civil engineering and more.

I wouldn't gripe if they were sponsoring magnet arts schools either. I love watching all kinds of dance, seeing beautiful paintings and sculpture, and looking at beautiful design and crafts work in furniture, lighting, and that stuff. We need the arts every bit as much as the sciences.

I do mind them sponsoring the bread and circusses. I've actually minded for a long time, but given how close to the edge we all are, I think it's beyond unconscionable.

Why can't these bankers limit themselves to the things we ordinary consumers are already limited to so we can all get back in the business of producing?