US Primary Elections

Someone called the BBC radio show I regularly listen to, complaining that there was altogether too much coverage of the US elections on UK broadcast media.

I have to differ with this view.

The US elections affect us all, as evidenced by their disastrous foreign policies over the last many years.

US elections are far too important to be left to Americans. History tells us how they so very often get it wrong. It might be an idea to ban Americans from voting in their elections, and let the rest of us help them.

From "Cheers and Jeers"

This pearl from DailyKos:

"JEERS to moments we wish we could take back. Ten years ago, on January 21, 1998, allegations of Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky first became public via the Washington Post. The president was later impeached by the House when it was discovered that his Oval Office blow jobs resulted in the deaths of nearly 4,000 American soldiers and cost over two trillion dollars. Thank god his successor restored integrity to the White House, huh."

Priceless

Absolute evidence that our child has started school ..

We, as a family, don't watch much TV. We have a nice TV, and a full service satellite subscription, but there is always something better to do.

This is, I think, a *good thing*.

Sometimes we watch TV together. Last night we decided to have an *American Idol* catch up session. This was met with approval from the Gremlins, and we all sat down to enjoy.

Part way through, Simon Cowell (the other English guy in the lives of our kids) said, of a perfomance, "What the bloody hell was that?"

Michael (6) was amused. "What did Simon just say?"

Natalie (4) responded from her cosy perch between Jodie and I, "He said What the fucking hell was that"

What can you do? She now understands that some words are best not used when Old People are listening, but really, we haven't stopped laughing yet.

Happy Birthday Karl

Keep pulling the wings off the Angels mate.

Steve

A note to American restaurant staff

I enjoy eating out, m'kay? There is variety, decent prices and a generally wider choice than I am used to.

Service is pleasant, a nice smile goes a long way in any country.

But here is the thing ..... When you have brought me my meal, and I am eating, more often than not enjoying interesting conversation with my Wife or family, then I am fine. All is well. I am enjoying my meal, the food is great, the service fine. I don't need anything, and if I should want something, I will ask.

I do not need you to interrupt, continuously, with questions about my general well-being, the weather or sundry other subjects they taught you at waiter-school. Indeed, the size of your tip is inversely proportional to the number of times my meal is disturbed.

Less is more, my friend. Once we clearly understand this, I shall be happier, and you will be better rewarded.

Have a nice day!

Understanding Oklahoma

I am frequently asked, by both Europeans and Americans what living in Oklahoma is like.

Many are bemused by perceptions of life here being dominated by, on the one hand, gun-totin' shoot anything Rednecks, and Bible Thumpers on the other. There is a third group .... they have a gun in one hand and a Bible in the other, but I jest :)

I recently heard this joke, which sheds a great deal of light on the matter:

An Evangelical Missionary was on a grand tour of the 50 States. His aim was to visit major Churches in each State to study the way Christians worshiped in different parts of the Union.

He started his mission in Illinois. On entering a big church he noticed a golden telephone, beneth a message which read Direct line to God. Calls $10 000 per minute.

As he travelled through the rest of the nation, in each church there was the same telephone, golden, with the identical inscription above it.

Eventually the guy wound up in Tulsa, and his first call was the Victory Christian Center. In the foyer he spotted the familiar telephone, gold in colour, with a familiar sign above it. On closer inspection he realised this sign was different. It read Direct Line to God. Calls 35c per minute.

This intrigued the missionary so he sought an explanation from the Pastor. Why, he asked, was the call charge here 35c per minute, yet $10 000 per minute everywhere else?

Well son, came the reply, you're in Oklahoma now. It's a local call!

Update re: Dish Network

Despite the assertions by Dish Network that I didn't call to cancel the premium packages, because they have no record of the call, they did indeed cancel two of the three free premiom packages.

I am wondering how they will explain the cancellation of two packages, when, according to them, no such request was made.

Idiots!

Meet my 2nd Ex-Wife

Right as of now, should you be demented sufficiently to type the search words my husband is useless into Google, then the very second result would be this:

http://jodiebsblog.blogspot.com/2007/06/my-husband-is-ginormous.html

That is a link to a post in my Wife's Blog, but I'm not buying her feeble excuse.

/me, retiring hurt :(

Dish Network - See you in Court

Following my recent experience with the US Justice System, I am keen for more.

At issue is Dish Network.

I have been trying to bring our payments to this company in line with the statements they are sending, regularly paying about $20 more in the hope that over a brief period this will catch us up. The problem has been that it has only been keeping pace, so we appear to be being charged around $20 per month more than we should be.

Back in September, I contacted Dish and told them I wanted to upgrade the package. I wanted America's Top 250, plus HD service, and nothing else. This should come to around $80 per month.

It seems that they remembered to note the increase, but somehow forgot to note that I asked all other services to be stopped (principally, 2 special offer premium packages that were included as a free trial on sign-up).

Fancy.

So, today, I contacted Dish Network again. They were willing to stop the premium packages from today, but unwilling to refund the excess charges back to September (the time I asked for them to be stopped), on the basis that they had supplied the programming and had no record of my having requested it to be removed. I patiently explained that I was not responsible for their record keeping, and as I HAD asked them to stop those packages, and had never watched them, and had no knowledge that they even existed, that I wasn't going to pay for their mistake.

I was informed that they hadn't made a mistake, and that the proof was that they had no record of the request.

At this point I wondered if I was in the Twilight Zone, or when Mulder and Scully would appear .... or even when I would wake up from this bizarre form of logic.

Dish Network appears to hold the view that it never makes a mistake, and cites as proof the fact that they have no record of making one !!!

A quick search on the Internet reveals many thousands of similar customer errors, all people trying to screw Dish Network for having the temerity to help themselves to cash from checking accounts and credit cards because their customers are willfully refusing to pay for services they have been supplied with; whether they asked for them or not.

I suspect the disputed amount is less than about $60. But it is MY $60, not theirs, and they are not getting it.

So here is the next step.

Today, when their website will consent to allow me to sign in, I will pay the amount I think brings us up to date. They will carry the disputed amount forward to our next statement, and continue to add $5 per month late charge. From today, that amount is in dispute.

Tomorrow I shall call Echostar, in Colorado, and inform their Executive Dispute Resolution Centre that I am holding them in breach of our 18 month contract, and ask them how they intend to remedy the breach. If they try to deny the breach I will cease paying, and request that they collect their equipment at their earliest convenience.

They will cancel my service, and bill me for breaking my contract. This is a bill I will not pay. At this point I have no recourse against them, as they don't owe me money. If they try to debit my checking account (which I shall watch daily), I will have the charges instantly disputed and reversed. I will tell the bank we will sue them if they allow those charges to post to our account.

If Dish Network sends the account to Collection, I will inform them they will be sued under the Unfair Credit Reporting Act, and the damages are around $1000.

I am on a mission here. The money is small, but the principle is not, and they are doing this to many thousands of people all over America.

Tune in and I'll follow this up as and when there is new info.

Now .... what is the phone number for Direct TV?

Life in the Fast Lane

I have a confession to make. I recently managed to collect a speeding ticket. It was my first on this continent, and my first for 25 years on ANY continent. Indeed, my darling wife laughs at me for setting the cruise control at 60mph on the highway, usually accompanied by unnecessary remarks about me being already too old to be able to afford the luxury of driving so slowly.

Now we have clearly demonstrated that I have either been lucky, for 25 years, or that I generally don't drive too fast, we can get to the meat of the story.

I need to tell you all about *School Zones*. I can already hear half of you laughing, and the other half groaning, but my less American family don't know about School Zones, so bear with me.

School Zones are areas of highway close to schools, that have reduced speed limits at certain times of day, and usually have flashing lights to indicate the reduced speed limit times. The speed limit here is reduced from the normal 40 to 45mph, down to 25mph. The penalties for exceeding the limits are severe, tending to be at least double the normal speeding ticket, and require a Court appearance just in case the Judge had a particularly bad bout of indigestion and wanted to jail you for thirty days too.

I am religious about School Zones (if nothing much else), and it would never cross my mind to exceed 25mph while driving through one. And I wouldn't have, had I known I was in such a place. I was driving, ironically from school, to collect some wood from a supplier. I thought the speed limit was 40mph, and I was doing about 35mph because I was aware that the schools had just emptied for the day. I knew this, at least in part, because I had just left one.

When the Policeman, on his motorcycle, pulled out behind me with lights ablaze, I genuinely thought he must be after someone else. He wasn't, and this soon became apparent. Ho hum! ..... I pulled over in a nice safe place and we conversed. Well actually, he spoke and I listened, nodding and agreeing with him at the appropriate moments.

He wanted to see my Driving License and Insurance. Bugger! The License was all present and correct, but the Insurance Verification appeared not to be. Not to worry, said the helpful Policeman, I can just write you two tickets. This level of generosity appeared a little uncalled for, but I already suspected that he was unlikely to be referring to two tickets for the upcoming OU v. Missouri game, and these doubts were soon firmly embedded in reality. While he disappeared to check my Driving License I called Jodie. She helpfully assured me that the Insurance was safely stuck on the side of the fridge. I looked all around the car, but couldn't see the fridge anywhere, so *helpfully* is a word I use advisedly.

She also asked me if the Police Officer was being nice, or an ass .... I told her that, under the circumstances, it was I who was the ass. As part of my efforts to persuade the Policeman that I was indeed a decent guy who had made a genuine mistake, I repeated this conversation to him. He took the view that I was making his boring job a little less tedious, and wrote down my speed at 34mph, not the 36mph he had clocked me at. This was a significant piece of kindness. Less than 10mph over the limit is way less of a deal than more than 10mph over. The latter would cause an entry on my driving record, and increased insurance premiums (and probably a larger fine). Under 10mph wouldn't. Thank you Tulsa, for decent Law enforcement.

Anyway, a few minutes, and two tickets later, I was on my way, complete with Court date and helpful instructions on how to get there.

This would be simply a sorry tale of one man's stupidity, and there is little of any real interest in that. But there is a sting in the tale, and that became apparent yesterday, in Court.

Tulsa Municipal Court is, I soon came to realise, a cash register for the City. As I sat there for an hour listening to case after case, the fines were racking up thousands of dollars income for whichever departments benefited. Now don't get me wrong. I am not complaining about this, just astonished by the revenue flowing in from various traffic and other less savoury crimes committed daily in this city. It goes on, day after day, month after month, and must add up to a tidy amount per annum. I was simply hoping that, when my turn came the penalty would be bearable. We are not wealthy people and can ill-afford for me to squander hundreds of dollars in this manner. In the end it was a bearable $175 including costs, and I count our blessings.

There were a good number of defendants who were out of work. Some of these unfortuanates were racking up fines in the hundreds (actually, thousands, for one guy), and clearly didn't have the means to pay them.

Tulsa has a *Workday* scheme. I am sure they are common, but this was my first encounter. Basically the Judge, when satisfied a defendant couldn't pay, was able to offer a number of days Community Service in lieu of the fines. I did the math .... He was offering a rate of exchange of about $50 a day (tax free, of course).

I did some more startling, more revealing and much less palatable maths too. At my rate of pay as a Substitute Teacher, I would be financially better off taking the Community Service, than I would be by paying the fine and spending the equivalent time teaching classes of High School students.

Pitiful.

Pitiful is the only word I can readily think of to describe a situation where the City values a few hours cleaning graffiti, or sweeping up leaves, or whatever, at a higher rate than they will offer to those who regularly spend days, weeks and months educating our children. Their commitment to Education is underwhelming, and this City, and local School Districts should hang their heads in shame. If the experience of shame was an emotion ever felt by politicians.

Nope ... we need grandiose schemes to develop the River, or a new Exhibition Centre, or tax breaks for business. Meanwhile we will appear on TV wringing our collective hands when school results crop up, when it is demonstrated that half the City schools are on the "need of improvement" lists, or otherwise failing.

Pitiful! There it is ..... Now then, you can start by giving MY $175 to the school my kids go to. Maybe then they won't have to rely so heavily on cash from Quick Trip to fund necessary school activities.

Bemused

I find myself in a large measure agreement tonight, with the Southern Baptist Convention.

This is a first. Hopefully it will happen again, I am nothing if not for decent people living together in harmony, while respecting each others differences.

At issue is the Oklahoma Legislature House Bill 1804. I have spoken about this racist law before, and now the Southern Baptists have spoken too.

They have written to the Governor of Oklahoma, expressing an intention to break this law by passive resistance. In doing so they join the many Churches and Charities who have expressed similar intentions.

So, tonight, I raise my glass, and tip my hat in their direction.

So, it's not just Oklahomans who are nuts!

I am a man. Ok, now we established that I'll further state that I generally hold that what happens in a woman's body remains her private business; until such time as a new life emerges and takes it's place as a Citizen.

Apparently, not everyone feels the same way.

A small group of demented and power crazed (my analysis) Coloradans believe that it is THEIR business too. They believe that they have a right to interfere with women, in particular with their wombs, in a manner that is quite unprecedented. If the Government wished to persue such intrusion it would require a warrant. Well it would have required a warrant had the 4th Amendment not been so severely wrecked by the Knuckledraggers.

See: Medical News Today

In this instance a Judge in the Colorado Supreme Court has given these mysoginists permission to raise the required signatures (76000), to place this on the Ballot.

Let us examine the implications and motives for this move. If a fertilized egg is to be regarded as an individual, with full rights, then a pregnant woman will be guilty of child abuse everytime she does something the "State" disapproves of. A drink, a cigarette, too many late nights, not enough vitamins ..... all would become criminal offenses.

More significantly, abortion would be first degree murder, and any action taken by the woman that caused, or contributed to the death of the fetus would become probably second degree murder.

A minor car wreck that caused a spontaneous miscarriage would be vehicular homicide, and every miscarriage would be a matter for the Police and Prosecutors to *mull over*.

The second major implication is for contraception ..... everything other than a barrier method, or possibly the mini-pill, would be murder. Any method that prevents a fertilised egg from implanting would be murder.

I hear Colorado's entry into the World Series was almost abandoned when the Pope advised them to "pull it out at the last minute".

Curiously, the proposal doesn't explain how the State is to deal with the minor matter of there being no "Good Samaritan" law, or Constitutional provision. If the fertilised egg is to be considered a Citizen, there is currently no way the State can force a woman to allow it to use her body, possibly at the expense of her health or well-being, for nine months. There is no way, in US law, that one citizen can be forced to aid another. Mothers cannot be legally be made to care for their children, even after birth. They are legally constrained from neglecting or abusing them, but they are not compelled to raise them. Nor can they be.

It's probably not a well thought out proposal, but it might actually reach the ballot, this being the USA.

I suspect that contraception is behind this move. The Fundies around here cannot control sex. They would like to, but they mostly cannot keep their pants shut, as an endless prossession of sordid revelations continually reminds us. What they can do is continue to control women, and make them as subservient to old white men as much as possible, for as long as possible.

But only if we let them.

Find the bigots and nutcases who hide behind religion. Find them, expose them, ridicule them and humiliate them. That is precisely what they wish to do to you. Especially, it appears, if you happen to possess a womb.

If that girl gets out of bed ..

... one more time tonight ....

I am going to forget to be nice !!!

When will America ....

... get up off it's burger filled ass and start complaining?

Let us start with a few facts, not jingoistic opinions.

Fact: Americans have fewer freedoms than Europeans.
Fact: Americans have worse healthcare than Europeans
Fact: American children are less well educated than Europeans.
Fact: American employees have pitiful job security.
Fact: Service levels in the USA are appalling.

I could go on ... and most probably will at some time, but today two things have seriously pissed me off. Not, you understand, because I think Europe is better than the USA; but because, in certain areas it clearly is, yet Americans have swallowed the shit peddled to them by politicians and media to such an extent that they actually believe the lies.

My commitment is to life here ..... but I pay taxes, and have opinions, and while there is breath left in my body I will shout and scream that you need to shake off this ridiculous belief that you are always right, and start complaining that you are not, and that only this way will we make America the country y'all think it is.

First ..... I was teaching today. My School District pays Substitute Teachers $50 per day. You, and your children, get what you pay for, by and large. If you agree that your children and Grandchildren should be taught, sometimes for days on end, by people who could earn more at McDonalds, then we have nothing else to discuss.

If you think the students deserve better, then why are you not bitching about it all day every day? I chatted, during Gym, to a full-time teacher. She was asking me about life in the UK, and the conversation turned to Healthcare. She was a self-confessed Conservative, Republican Christian (nothing wrong with that), who believed that free enterprise should run the health service, and that the USA had the best quality healthcare in the world. I was blunt. No, you don't. France, Germany and the UK all have superior healthcare, and so does Canada. The very wealthy here indeed have wonderful healthcare .... the rest have the highest rate of infant mortality in the Western World, many citizens having little or no access to any but the most basic of services.

"But I have heard about the waiting times in the UK", she said. "Well", I replied, "that is part of the lie they feed you to keep you quiet. In fact, for urgent care the UK system has service standards that rival the best in the world. How long are the waiting lists in the US, if you don'tt have health insurance?" I asked her.

Why do Americans pay up to 25% of their salaries for healthcare, only to be denied treatment by an insurance company, even when doctors recommend it? Why do you not scream, shout and complain? Why do you keep voting for those who put you in this position, then do everything they can to keep you there?

Another point we covered was TV advertising. The UK prohibits Political and Religious ads. She was aghast. What about freedom of speech? Well that is one of the biggest red-herrings of all. Britons do not feel that their right to express a view is particularly impeded, but they are simply not prepared to see the entire democratic process debased and reduce to the guy with the biggest pocketbook.

Case in point. Tulsa will vote next week on a sales tax increase to fund River Development. Now there are many cogent arguments both for and against the proposed development and it's funding. Both sides have strong arguments with merit on each side. For the last month, however, the TV has carried hundreds of *Vote Yes* ads, and not a single *Vote No*.

The vote yes campaign is being funded by individuals and businesses whose identity is obscure. My question is how does this serve democracy? How is this *Free Speech* in the best interests of the community? And if it isn't, then why was the right of people to freely express a view allowed to be used to buy election results?

Fact: Americans have fewer, not more, rights than Europeans.

We even still hang on to Habeas Corpus .... fancy.

When UPS tells you one thing, and does another .... complain. When three doctors say you need treatment, and the Insurers disagree, moan, go camp in their fancy offices, be a pain in the butt. When your kid fails to graduate High School, or misses a scholarship, make the District Superintendents life a total misery. When store personnel tell you something just can't be done, don't accept it, demand to know how it CAN be done.

America ... quit lying down and rolling over when every petty beaurocrat and official refuses to provide a level of service that America should be demanding. Vote for the other guy, watch the other TV channel, and email Producers and tell them what you are doing.

Use your much vaunted Free Speech, loud, long and clear. Maybe then you will find out what Europeans have long known:

Telling you you have Free Speech gets rid of the difficult part in the title ... when you really start to use it, watch them panic, and count the improvements.

News (sic) Reporting

It is neither fun, nor rewarding to watch News Broadcasts here in the USA. What makes it worse is that it is rarely informative either.

More than anywhere else than I have experienced, it is slanted, biased and the worst of "lowest common denominator" I have witnessed.

The so-called News reports do little other than pander to an uneducated, and largely uncritical audience. That, at least, is the impression they give of the Broacasters respect for the viewers.

A case in point toninght. The local affiliate of ABC broadcast a piece about the falling school roles in Oklahoma. They attribute at least some of this to the latest round of Immigration Legislation passed by the Oklahoma Legislature, and will become law in November.

This particularly odious piece of law is both Un-Constitutional, and discriminatory; but that is another post. Clearly though, local community leaders and business have been reporting falling trade and numbers of Hispanic families coming here, and reports that, so far, up to 20 000 may have already left for more humanitarian States.

Of course the Extremists here see this as a victory .... and have little understanding of the concept of "Phyrric" None of this excuses News Channel 8 for it's story. They were suggesting that the Education and Social Services would benefit to the tune of $200 million anually, in Oklahoma, from reduced costs.

That assertion is both bogus and intellectually dishonest. Bogus because it simply isn't true, dishonest because they know it isn't true, and if they don't, then they are absolutely in the wrong business.

Last year, the IRS published figures that showed they received contributions totalling $56 Billion (yeah, you did read that right) from residents with no Social Security Number. Of these, an estimated 10 million people were adjudged to be illegal immigrants. No one particularly disputes these figures, even the Republicans seem to stipulate to them. Most estimates put the social costs of accommodating the same group of immigrants at around $26 Billion per year. Do the math!

What News Channel 8 seemed to be suggesting is that as Ford Motor Company might save around $7500 for every car they don't make, the company would indeed benefit from selling no cars at all.

Of course the "cost" of any operation is never, and never can be, judged by the investment, but only by the Return on the Investment. It is dishonest, willfully so, and rather stupid to suggest any other.

What is even worse is that others who trumpet the economics of the Madhouse, are elected to high office, and returned to office time and again.

There is a possibility that they are right, and I am wrong. News Channel 8 did little to persuade me of that tonight.