They Don't Work Like On TV

Ever notice how well cellphones work on the TV and in the movies? Crystal clear sound and no fumbling for the speaker "button." No matter where the user is, no matter the conditions, the cellphone gets a signal and has perfect reception.

I don't know about you but mine isn't that good. Much better than my first one(analog and huge), I'll admit, but still...in my house, I am lucky if I can get two bars on signal strength. That might have something to do with my Wi-Fi router, the TV, and the refridgerator... as well as the electrical wiring. Still, no one on TV or in the movies seems to have any trouble at all except when the script seems to call for it. Like when the woman is stranded on a dark road and the killer is approaching.

Maybe it's because I don't have an Iphone.

An Elaborate Hoax?

I have been thinking about the Democratic Party's nomination process lately. Especially after watching the debate in las Vegas.

Let's see... There's Lincoln Chaffee, a former "moderate" Republican senator and governor of Rhode Island.

Lawrence Lessig; a law professor at Harvard.

Martin O'Malley; former governor of Maryland and former Mayor of Baltimore.

Bernie Sanders; calls himself a Democratic Socialist and claims to be an "Independent" but votes pretty much lockstep with Democrats. Also a senator from Vermont.

And, of course, Hillary Clinton; former First Lady and Secretary of State under Obama during his first term.

Jim Webb; former senator from Virginia, war hero, former Secretary of the Navy (dropped out of the race recently).

I think it (the Democratic contest for the nomination) is a sham. I believe that Bernie got in to show that Hillary had a contest. But her inevability was never in doubt. But surprise, surprise, he caught on with the extreme left wing of the party. I think the plan was to distract the extreme left with Sanders so Hillary could coast in pretending to be middle of the road.

None of the candidates, other than Hillary, are important and were just window dressing to distract outsiders. 

And The Rich Get Richer

Have you heard about Oprah Winfrey's recent windfall? She just made $72 Million on Weight Watcher's stock.

Let me quote from the article above: "Weight Watchers (WTW) announced Monday that Winfrey bought 6.4 million shares at $6.79 a share, which was Friday's closing price." She was already the richest woman in the country (or so it seems) but I guess that isn't enough. She's worth at least $3 Billion.


So why aren't liberals villifying her? Or those actors in Hollywood who get $20 Million a picture?
　

Places I Don't Patronize

I am sure they don't miss me either.

MacDonalds - Stopped going there in the late 70's after missing the breakfast by 3 minutes. No big deal, I preferred Jack in the Box in California and Burger King on the east coast.

Ruby Tuesdays - Stopped going there about 5 years ago when we (me, my sister, and my aunt) were ignored for 45 minutes by the waitstaff (no one seemed to know whose table we were).

Outback Steakhouse - Faye gave up on them a few years ago when the local franchise couldn't cook her steak properly and I go along with her (less strife that way).

Sam's Club - They promise to build a Sam's in Sebring (I was driving 55 miles each way and getting real tired of it) and then didn't... They bought the property, razed the buildings on it, and have let it sit for 3 years.

Kohl's, Best Buy, Target, BJ's, and Costco - None in town but I was not a fan of Costco anyway.

In fact, there's a lot of places that we don't go to simply because they have no presence in Sebring. But, when we're in some town that has them, I have no problem going to them.

I Got A New Toy

I get toys all the time now. Since I became an adult, I learned that I can buy things for me. The toy I got is a Golf GPS unit, a watch that doubles as a golf gps. I bought one some time ago and it had some problems but the company who made it was responsive and it got resolved. Therefore, I looked kindly on them and, this time, I bought a newer model of the same type. It still has some of the tricky charging attributes of the older model but worked well enough to charge it yesterday when I received it. You never know if any device is fully charged when it arrives.

It looks like the old one but slimmer and with some blue hi-lites on the watch and band. It is noticeably lighter too. The real test is today when I use it on the course.

What Lives Matter?

I watched a little bit of the Democratic debate on CNN last night... it was a Hillary "lovefest"... at least that part of it I saw (I recorded it to watch later today because I am a masochist).

Just as I was shutting down the TV, a question was posed via Twitter (or maybe some other social media). An interesting question, "Do black lives matter or do all lives matter?"

To me, of course, it's the wrong question, it should have been "Do black lives matter more than any others?" Because that is the real meaning of the Tweeter's question.

We seldom hear about Hispanics getting shot by police, or Asians, or anyone else.

Why is that? Are they not getting shot?

Just curious...

How To Vote

As always, I am fascinated by the way we arrive at decisions. Especially how we decide who (whom?) to vote for. What is your primary criteria? Do you vote for party first? Or are you truly independent and ignore party designation?

We often use name recognition in our selection... which gives the incumbent a huge advantage. And, sometimes, an advantage to the more famous of the candidates. Like Clinton or Trump. Sometimes it works against the candidate, like Jeb Bush, where the family name has been successfully smeared. But that never happened to the Kennedys; regardless of the scandals tied to the name. Many of today's voters are too young to remember what happened in the 90's so they rely on emotion and what they are told by others whom they hold in some kind of esteem.

But, I think, they shouldn't. They should approach each election as if they know nothing about the candidates. They should ignore all the rhetoric, the promises, the propaganda and do research on their own. Even then they will be overwhelmed by the hype and packaging of the candidates.

I heard something interesting yesterday... Alan Colmes was talking about Hillary Clinton and was saying that she may sound like a populist but we don't know that she will behave like one as president. And that is one of the problems in deciding who to vote for. Most candidates make great promises about what they will do once elected but, as we know, these are often empty promises they have no real intention of fulfilling.

Could Trump build that wall on our southern border... and would it make a difference?

Could any candidate deliver on the promises, even some of them?

Smart or Knowledgeable?

I just saw a commercial that I consider misleading, at best. It was a spot for the Khan Academy. I am sure they are aboveboard but, still... the ad started with the statement that "no one is born smart." That is simply untrue. It is true that we are born without knowledge but not without intelligence. Now, the ad goes on to imply that they are talking about knowledge rather than intelligence but you would think they would be more clear about the matter. After all, they are in the education business. They are, however, non-profit... a good thing. And I suppose they are simply taking advantage of the general public's confusion over "intelligent" versus "smart."

But it irks me. I know the difference and I am sure you do also but millions of us confuse the two terms, even conflating them. Hence, we tend to associate education with intelligence. Trust me, just because someone went to college doesn't mean he is smart. He might be but he might be but he also could be pretty stupid.

I didn't complete college, for example, but that doesn't mean I am stupid or even below average in intelligence. It just means I don't have a degree.

Intelligence is the ability to learn and I agree with the Khan Academy that we can all learn (I don't believe we all can learn anything, however). It just bugs me that they do not take the opportunity to explain what they mean.

Want To Stop the Gun Violence?

Here's what can be done to end gun violence. It is very simple:

1. Repeal the 2nd Amendment.

2. Confiscate all existing guns in the country.

Yes, I know... fat chance.

But it is the only possible way. And no liberal is proposing it. Of course, the criminals will still have guns because they will not give them up willingly. And, I suspect not all gun owners will either. What will happen is that most gun owners will refuse to disarm because the government wants them to. Possibly because the government wants them to.

I write this because the president is on the TV calling for legislation to curtail gun violence. And taking potshots at the Republicans in Congress because they will not pass the gun laws he wants. So why doesn't he just push for a repeal of the 2nd Amendment? Because he knows that will never happen, just as every liberal anti-gun advocate knows it too.

Yet none of them are even trying to do it. Cowards.

I Am Disgusted

I wanted you to know that I flushed my water heater. It didn't go as smoothly as I pictured, of course, because there are always snags. And I may have panicked a bit soon when the water flow from the tank was poor to non-existent and called a plumber. It just seems that plumbers make more per hour than lawyers but it isn't true.

Anyway, the plumber showed me the error of my ways and helped me immensely. And then he left... after he presented me with his bill. It turns out that I instinctively did the right thing when I turned on the inflow water  to force the water through the tank after getting a weak stream from the tank's drain. I just didn't wait long enough or bang on the drain valve gently to clear it from time to time.

And I thought the pilot light would stay on throughout the procedure but that wasn't so.

But what I am disgusted with is that Obama went into his predictable anti-gun rant in the wake of the shooting at that community college in Oregon. In his rant, he claimed that cities and states with strict gun laws had lower gun violence but that isn't true.