I listen to a great many talk radio hosts, and they all have something in common: They point out with glee when it's unusually cold or cold and raining or cold and snowing because environmentalists are talking about global warming.
Now, I'm no scientist, but I get filled not with glee but with confusion when I hear all these idiots saying that global warming means only "warming" and that snowfalls and icing all over the U.S. in April and that freezing temperatures in all parts of Texas in late spring and that the lowest temperatures recorded in Florida in April in more than 100 years mean that global warming isn't happening. Environmental conditions go haywire as climate changes spread, and that includes unusual warming and unusual cold and unusual bad weather in varying climates. Arctic and Antarctic shelves break up and too much warm weather or rain or cold or drought in various parts of the world don't prove your non-global warming theories, they disprove them. Wake up, American conservatives! You are making us look like idiots to the rest of the world (scientific and otherwise). You're so narcissistic you say humans can't make that big a difference environmentally but are narcissistic enough to say only the United States is blessed by God and is the greatest nation to ever exist, and that it will last beyond Ancient Rome or Tsarist Russia or the Mayans or any other great civilization because of its Christian background and heritage, and only by our U.S. history and Christian ethics and standards can the rest of the world survive in a civilized manner. According to the conservatives who disbelieve all the environmentalist crap: Didn't God create the world, ask us to look out for the earth and our own sacred temples [i.e., our bodies], and ask us to be humble? So, no big deal to all these Christian conservative American capitalist narcissists who say we have no influence on global warming but what about pesticide and bio-hazard poisoning of water resources, endangered species due to construction and drilling and expansion, poor air quality due to exhaust and factory and power-generation pollution, agricultural run off, and deforestation? According to them, God must be letting and even encouraging and supporting the U.S.A., the most "righteous" country in the world, in this our-right-to-everything-but-morals-and-ethics attitude, right? So we're screwing things up with His blessing, or what?
Sunny
Friday, April 27, 2007
Wal-Mart Parking for RVers
Thanks to a concerned citizen giving me notice, I sent the police by the local Wal-Mart to apprehend a miscreant who had parked there overnight. Although the Wal-Mart had provided general consent to all travelers needing rest, they had no right to grant any such convenience to law-abiding adults, as they were impinging on the rights of private property owners wanting to make money in the best democratic and capitalistic traditions.
The apprehended reprobate (and his wife and dog) had ignored local laws requiring them to stay at RV parks recognized by our great state. Freedom to choose doesn't apply to RVers and travelers wanting a nice, safe, free, well-lighted place to park a vehicle and to rest. After all, in this great country, adult, law-abiding men and women are allowed only so much freedom, and RV park and camp owners wanting to assert their rights to earn money and ignore your rights to drive, travel, park, and stay where you wish fit right in with the communist mentality we're trying to adopt, right? Oh, wait...somehow I lost the democratic and capitalistic tradition (basics of our American freedoms) part somewhere. Oops.
Sunny
The apprehended reprobate (and his wife and dog) had ignored local laws requiring them to stay at RV parks recognized by our great state. Freedom to choose doesn't apply to RVers and travelers wanting a nice, safe, free, well-lighted place to park a vehicle and to rest. After all, in this great country, adult, law-abiding men and women are allowed only so much freedom, and RV park and camp owners wanting to assert their rights to earn money and ignore your rights to drive, travel, park, and stay where you wish fit right in with the communist mentality we're trying to adopt, right? Oh, wait...somehow I lost the democratic and capitalistic tradition (basics of our American freedoms) part somewhere. Oops.
Sunny
Utilities
I'm not sure what people outside of Texas experience, and even people inside of Texas experience different companies, so this may fall on deaf ears. But absolutely, without a doubt, one of the worst companies in Texas is Monarch Utilities. Since they bought out a certain local water company (rural), they have indiscriminately disconnected people who've paid (late or otherwise), charged disconnect fees whether the service was disconnected or not, and given people little or no warning about being disconnected when they actually have a credit on their accounts, are less than one month (as in 10 days or less) behind, or have late fees/disconnect charges due that they're unaware of (even though the actual bill's been paid).
I've lived all over and have never seen a utilities company disconnect a good customer for being late in one month or disconnected not for the bill but for the late fees. Most companies tack a late charge onto the next month's bill and let you know you're delinquent or must have forgotten or (benefit of the doubt) may not have received the bill. Monarch Utilities disconnects you quickly and quietly (sometimes without notice) even if you have a credit on your account from the previous month(s) if that credit doesn't meet the full amount due (or overdue) for the next month. So you have a credit and are disconnected??!!!???
One month, they charged me for something like 20,000 gallons of water, and I spent three months arguing, getting shut off, getting that credited, getting shut off again anyway, and arguing some more. My basic fee is for 2000 gallons, and I rarely go over it. I live alone, and my usage for the three previous months and for the same months for the previous year, were all 2000 gallons, or actually less (whether I use it or not, that's the minimum charge). Although the meter reader changed his numbers after being sent back out out to double check, I couldn't get an exact figure for what I owed, and the company refused to changed their due date, so I sent in what a customer service agent said was the basic amount due. I got cut off anyway because the amount owed was more. Rather than work with me and recognize that I paid the bill (and that they had made the initial mistake), this company screwed me and, apparently, uses every excuse to screw all of their other customers out here in the Boonies too.
Because they are a monopoly, Monarch Utilities can get away with this shit. I'm about to start proceedings to have them investigated. I hope most people don't have to deal with this crap. But we all know about Enron instigating the rolling brownouts and blackouts in California and about the current scrabbles going on with TXU that affects many Texans. So my shitty water company is not alone; it's just not as big as Enron or TXU, and neither is their customer base.
Legislatures and politicians and representatives in this country need to start remembering what they're about. Not kissing up to lobbyists and courting monopolies/corporations and earning big bucks, but representing and protecting the people. We normal people have forgotten this little tidbit too, or we'd oust more of these gold (actually, dirt) diggers. Frankly, we've become lackadaisical and apathetic and have just decided there's nothing we can do. More friends than I can count say they don't bother voting or complaining or fighting or speaking up because it doesn't matter anyway. I disagree, but I can see why they think that way. I've fought with these assholes for more than a year, and it is beyond frustrating and time consuming, but maybe one of these days, I'll win.
Start standing up for yourselves again. It's time.
Sunny
I've lived all over and have never seen a utilities company disconnect a good customer for being late in one month or disconnected not for the bill but for the late fees. Most companies tack a late charge onto the next month's bill and let you know you're delinquent or must have forgotten or (benefit of the doubt) may not have received the bill. Monarch Utilities disconnects you quickly and quietly (sometimes without notice) even if you have a credit on your account from the previous month(s) if that credit doesn't meet the full amount due (or overdue) for the next month. So you have a credit and are disconnected??!!!???
One month, they charged me for something like 20,000 gallons of water, and I spent three months arguing, getting shut off, getting that credited, getting shut off again anyway, and arguing some more. My basic fee is for 2000 gallons, and I rarely go over it. I live alone, and my usage for the three previous months and for the same months for the previous year, were all 2000 gallons, or actually less (whether I use it or not, that's the minimum charge). Although the meter reader changed his numbers after being sent back out out to double check, I couldn't get an exact figure for what I owed, and the company refused to changed their due date, so I sent in what a customer service agent said was the basic amount due. I got cut off anyway because the amount owed was more. Rather than work with me and recognize that I paid the bill (and that they had made the initial mistake), this company screwed me and, apparently, uses every excuse to screw all of their other customers out here in the Boonies too.
Because they are a monopoly, Monarch Utilities can get away with this shit. I'm about to start proceedings to have them investigated. I hope most people don't have to deal with this crap. But we all know about Enron instigating the rolling brownouts and blackouts in California and about the current scrabbles going on with TXU that affects many Texans. So my shitty water company is not alone; it's just not as big as Enron or TXU, and neither is their customer base.
Legislatures and politicians and representatives in this country need to start remembering what they're about. Not kissing up to lobbyists and courting monopolies/corporations and earning big bucks, but representing and protecting the people. We normal people have forgotten this little tidbit too, or we'd oust more of these gold (actually, dirt) diggers. Frankly, we've become lackadaisical and apathetic and have just decided there's nothing we can do. More friends than I can count say they don't bother voting or complaining or fighting or speaking up because it doesn't matter anyway. I disagree, but I can see why they think that way. I've fought with these assholes for more than a year, and it is beyond frustrating and time consuming, but maybe one of these days, I'll win.
Start standing up for yourselves again. It's time.
Sunny
Great Movies
Sunny here.
I saw The Fugitive for the first time in a long time tonight. Alth0ugh TV editing makes no sense to me (some of the bits and pieces removed weren't about bad language or nudity or adult situations, just shortening it without any merit, I guess), seeing that movie again reminded me that this is one of the greatest thrillers ever made. Although Harrison Ford is great here, Tommy Lee Jones and his team steal the movie with how "normally" they interact (like they've been hunting escaped prisoners together for years) and with how Jones finally comes to "see" Ford's innocence without saying so. Jones's best scene occurs on the stairway in the Chicago jail when his minute facial changes cause the audience to realize that Jones now believes Ford is innocent. He still does his job and chases after and even shoots at Ford, but he's started to wonder, and it shows (just barely, but at the same time, profoundly, which is why it's such a great acting job).
This is an incredible remake and just a plain ol' good movie. We root for Ford the whole time without losing our respect for Jones, who is just doing his job in chasing our hero. With a few exceptions (like the prison guard who not only leaves his partner to die on the train but then lies about being a hero), we also like the other characters who are chasing and/or aiding Ford, and we believe in their personalities. This is a great movie without being hinky.
Sunny
I saw The Fugitive for the first time in a long time tonight. Alth0ugh TV editing makes no sense to me (some of the bits and pieces removed weren't about bad language or nudity or adult situations, just shortening it without any merit, I guess), seeing that movie again reminded me that this is one of the greatest thrillers ever made. Although Harrison Ford is great here, Tommy Lee Jones and his team steal the movie with how "normally" they interact (like they've been hunting escaped prisoners together for years) and with how Jones finally comes to "see" Ford's innocence without saying so. Jones's best scene occurs on the stairway in the Chicago jail when his minute facial changes cause the audience to realize that Jones now believes Ford is innocent. He still does his job and chases after and even shoots at Ford, but he's started to wonder, and it shows (just barely, but at the same time, profoundly, which is why it's such a great acting job).
This is an incredible remake and just a plain ol' good movie. We root for Ford the whole time without losing our respect for Jones, who is just doing his job in chasing our hero. With a few exceptions (like the prison guard who not only leaves his partner to die on the train but then lies about being a hero), we also like the other characters who are chasing and/or aiding Ford, and we believe in their personalities. This is a great movie without being hinky.
Sunny
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