Monday, April 29, 2013

Comcast is a dishonest government monopoly

A cable company playing fast and loose? Shocking I know.

 I was paying 69$ but switched to the 99$ bundle for the phone cause cell coverage in my apt sucks."Somehow" I got put on a different package that costs $139. So I discovered Comcast had been over billing me for the last few month just today. I pay online and the bill they send me doesnt include the amount, just confirmation for the auto pay feature, so I only see the change on my bank statement. Anyhoo I call them up and ask them for an explanation and apparently they were giving me the wrong package. Fine..but they wont refund the money as the  money back satisfaction guarantee only applies within 30 days and only to new customers. In order to change me to a different package, regardless of the fact that I shouldnt be on this one to begin with, they have to take me off the "promotion" rate, which ends up costing me 20$ more money than my original package, even with fewer features.

I would LOVE to ditch these thieves but alas, Comcast has a government supported monopoly and are the only option for high speed internet in the area. Free market my ass.

HB 913

So Florida passed a bill on to the Governor allowing the State to seeking restitution against Nazis.

The measure was one of Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater's legislative priorities

Really?? A priority? The need for this is up with Jay Inslee's gender neutral language bill. I cant imagine who would be actually lobbying for this stuff..which leaves me thinking politicians are inventing this stuff so they look like they are actually working..Someone should sue these guys for fraud..I understand the newest way not to actually work is to run for an office and get loans against your campaign to pay your living costs.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/04/26/3366580/bill-to-help-holocaust-survivors.html#storylink=cp

Friday, April 26, 2013

Book report : Author James Corey aka Daniel Abraham

Ive been reading and really enjoying the collected works of an author who goes by multiple names:

US gov sets sugar price..not free market?

I heard a story on NPR this morn about how the candy manufacturers are leaving the US because they arnt allowed by the government to buy sugar at the world market price. I was under the impression we didnt do this sort of thing in our country. What happened to the so called "free market"? Why can the government set the price for sugar but not for gas; a recourse everyone needs.

Its because no one cares about agriculture - its perceived as boring and thus the only people who pay any attention to the laws congress enacts are the people with a serious motivation to set those laws. Same problem with social services - the only people who care about how the social safety network actually works are the people directly involved with it, and like farmers, they tend to be very busy doing there own thing and too poor to hire lobbyists. It seems to me like this problem stems from federalism - price points for this sort of product should be determined based on the local needs and local economy and above all by the market not who pays the most to political campaigns. But we need a system that makes sure issues that dont interest the public or make headlines dont get swamped by ones that do.

This is just one problem with the agri-bill that no one is paying attention to. We still are subsidizing the mega farms who dont need it and paying farmers to grow certain crops which arnt useful for feeding people.

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Lyrid meteor shower peaks tonight (Sun)

The Earth is once again rolling its way through the spotty slime trail left by the travel of Thatcher's Comet. I guess tonight is the best time to see it but the moon is near full so their will be a bit of light pollution.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

"The Hell of American Daycare"

Heard about this story on NPR today. Quality of a daycare comes down to the quality of the people running it since government doesnt have the resources to enforce rules and teachers only get paid ~19k a year so one cant expect quality. More than foster parents I guess. Comes down to the kids luck (cause they cant often count on mom to research these things) whether they get a good start to their education or something else entirely. Another American social problem that would be solved with public boarding schools. Or we could keep spending money on military, drug enforcement and making sure people here illegally can work and go to school.

Monday, April 15, 2013

Israeli military still arresting children

Face of a cold hard Jihadist ya ?. I'm sure imprisoning him and mistreating him will make his less likely to be one. Israel is an apartheid state I've  ever seen one..but really lets keep sending them money. Why are we doing that again? Oh ya "gods chosen people" and "the holy land". Religious nutjobery.

Joe's Music Pick of the Week: The Future Soon



Music by Jon Coulton..he's got a show on NPR now..visuals are from World of Warcraft

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Military accidently sells US radar light spectum to Mali

Going to cost us 1Billion dolars to replace the radars with ones that can use the new frequency. I guess there are no takebacks? Not really suprising that government can do something so dumb, but what boggles the mind is that amount of money casually being tossed around. We have human families living in slums or homeless. Kids who go hungry and dont grown mentally or physically tio their full potential. Can we liquated some of these BILLION dollar toys we dont need (When was the last time anyone shot down a B-52 bomber?) and give the money to people who can use it to survive?

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Movie Review : Iron Lady

Big Thumbs Down. I was hoping for a quasi epic history documentary and what we got was a seriously depressing (but well acted) commentary on the various symptoms of dementia. This movie does not show Margaret Thatcher in a good light. She's pitiful through most of the movie and thats when the director isnt rubbing in the point that she abandoned her family for politics. I really dont feel I came out with more info that I went in with about Margaret Thatcher, but I'm pretty sure I never want to have dementia and hope my family doesnt green light any movies about me suffering from it, especially while I'm still alive.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Joe's Music Pick of the Week: City on a Hill



Casting Crowns remains one of my favorite bands. The music is great, the live concerts are a good mix of music and interaction and the band has a great blog with interesting videos and life lessons.

Quotes

At a certain stage the realization strikes through that one must either live outside of society's bonds or die of absolute boredom. There is no future or freedom in the circumscribed life and the only other life is complete rejection of the rules. There is no longer room for the soldier of fortune or the gentleman adventurer who can live both within and outside of society. Today it is all or nothing. To save my own sanity I chose the nothing.

-James Bolivar DiGriz