Michael1942's Blog

The recent move of the State Legislators to take pay cuts and unpaid furlough days is a step in the right direction. The positions held by these officials was never meant to be a lifetime job. The reason many of them have remained in office is the laziness of the voters and only recently have the voters rose up to “say no more”. Those who feel they can’t live on 65 thousand dollars annually need to look at their constituents who live on 12 thousand annually and less. These legislators are the ones who should be targeted by their voting bloc for removal and get some one who can manage on the current salary. Do these erstwhile ladies and gentlemen understand that they work for the people and not for themselves and in that capacity have sworn to faithfully fulfill the duties of the office? These very legislators are the reason we need term limits as some members of the legislature have forgotten who put them in the office. I will cry no tears for folks who have become elitists while supposedly carrying the flag for the common man.

We are still being represented by elected officials chasing their tails and hoping we won’t notice. In several states there is redistricting going on and while the guidelines appear to state that the divisions should be drawn according to natural boundaries, the states are having a problem just performing a simple act of creating a graph that would divide the state in as near equal parts as possible. Instead we have politicians who are concerned with how many votes they will gain or lose, the party they associate themselves with backs these thinly veiled machinations and leaving their bosses (voters) out of the loop.We have legislators who are crying like children because of cuts in their pay, well get over it and serve as you said you would when you were knocking on doors and blitzing us in every available media. We have a group of folks who are lawyers,business people and other areas of industry who should know how to conduct themselves in this government environment yet act like children. It is time for the voters to take back control.

Years ago when I was younger (many decades), the most common line to young wannabe smokers was , “smoking will stunt your growth”. The truth is the growth part has more to do with the mother smoking and being around second-hand smoke. This still has implications altered by the genetics of the parents. So smoking after you have gained most or all of your adult growth has no effect in your final height. What it has to do with is your lifetime health. As we all have heard and will continue to hear will be the effects of actually smoking, second-hand smoke,etc. Think about the cost of smoking on families having lost a loved one due to a lifetime of smoking and breathing second-hand smoke not to mention the cost of smoking products and the oral types of tobacco. Smoking is a bad habit that goes beyond the smoker and their health, it includes families, friends and relatives. So smoking does not directly stunt your growth but it certainly is not healthy.

After trying every BK in this town I have concluded that I cannot have it my way.Each individual restaurant got my order wrong at least twice. This reminds me of some lines from one of the “lethal Weapons series” ( they F**k you in the drive through!). They also get you when you go inside! After watching the person at the counter punch in the correct information, I felt sure my order was correct, well I was wrong, I still got my order the wrong way. When I discovered the error I was miles away and obviously could not return to get the order corrected. This last goof was not bad enough so to top it all off, I fell victim to the onion ring scam. This was the dumbest scam I have ever seen! This is how it works: there are two sizes of rings, one from the value menu and the other from the regular menu. The packaging for the value rings is a paper open end envelope and the other is a cardboard container. The look of the 2 packages gives the impression that they are different sizes but after a less than scientific test, they hold the same amount of product (I dumped the value size into the regular package and there was no extra space in the package). This so-called difference in size costs .77 cents and the staff at BK take no time to explain the difference (or they don’t know the difference). All of this on top of the zombie like actions of the employees at each place, they appear to want to be somewhere else while they take your order. So My BK days are over.

Let us look at the real reasons behind the fiscal problems. First the people we have elected to represent us (the Scamocrats and Dupublicans) have for the past 20 to 30 year gotten “theirs” while taking ours. If you look at the situation as a balance sheet you will see their well being on the plus side and ours (the voters) on the negative side. The idea is to balance the budget so the two sides are as even as possible. This leaves a bit of wiggle room to adjust for various outside influences. Where we are now is that the politicians we elect represent themselves and special interests, this has been the case for years and is now coming back to bite the voters in the butt as the elected politicians are taking no responsibility for it. The only people who get the heat is the commander in chief (whoever that happens to be). The legislative branches of each state and the federal government are mostly long time office holders who have feathered their own nests while plucking the feathers from their constituents. Now the local state legislature is being called back in session at additional (paid) overtime to finish work they did not finish in the regular session. These same folks will be spending the campaign funds we provide to persuade us to retain them ( as millstones?) to look after our interests. There is a sure cure for the political morass we are in and that is voting them out of office.

After several months of trying various well known fast food outlets, I have unscientifically rated them according to the taste of the sandwich, the service and general attitude of the workers.
1. I did not enjoy Mac Donalds as the burger is grilled in grease and has the special sauce (content unknown) but their Mc Chicken sandwich is pretty good.
2. I tried the single burger at Hardee’s, this was not bad but poorly dressed, no lettuce , tomato, just pickle slices, mustard ( I do not get the ketchup and onion).
3.Wendy’s wasn’t too bad but the dressing appeared to be slipshod and as a presentation was lacking in look. The taste was OK.
4. Burger King has the best taste and presentation.
5. Finally DQ has a good taste but the sandwich was poorly dressed, just having pickle, mustard and ketchup.
The employees at most of these establishments seem to be more robotic and zombie like in their interactions with customers. They tend to mumble at you with a so what attitude.They give the impression of wanting to be somewhere else.

Several weeks ago a known consumer advocate spoke against the purchase of extended warranties.To ad to that information. I purchased a mini fridge and the extended warranty, as luck would have it the unit died at about the end of the year (7 days prior) the manufacturers warranty expired. My choice was to follow the instructions send a copy of the receipt, a 8″ piece of the AC cord and a check for 14.95 for shipping and have a replacement sent out to me. I elected to buy a replacement at Sears, with an extended warranty which gives me the opportunity to take the defective or non working unit back to Sears and receive an on the spot replacement. During this time the manufacturers warranty on the old non functioning unit expired and the extended portion kicked in. This allowed me to receive a gift card in the amount of the replacement with the tax included without having to send the non working unit or any parts of it in.The replacement unit at Wal-Mart (which is where I bought it originally) now costs 99.00 plustax and the replacement gift card is in the amount of $80.96 total (loss to me of almost $30.00). To reach the point )at last) when I went to Wal mart to redeem the gift card for cash or something, I was met with a customer service person who was not sure of what i needed and got her supervisor who after several minutes of conversation she stated I need to have the unit in order to geta replacement, I attempted to explain the warranty to her but her mind was closed and it became obvious to me that she did not know how the warranty worked. I requested a manager to be present and the customer service manager forwarded that request.The First customer service person then swiped the card and found that card was activated and had the full price amount (including tax) of $80.96. She reported that to the customer service manager who by the way had disappeared somewhere else. After learning that the card was active and the amount (which was all I needed to know), I left the store. This experience has taught me to never buy anything from Wal-mart along with an extended warranty. If an item has a manufacturer’s warranty of a year or better it is wiser not buy an extended warranty as is usually cheaper to buy another than to have a conflict with customer service people like the one I encountered at Wal-Mart.