Category Archives: Random Access

Random Access, the op-ed.

Kill the Pigs

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[please note that the title has nothing gekko’s porcine potluck provisioning poast.]

Neighbors shot it out in Liberty City yesterday. Again. A 3-year old girl was caught in the crossfire. The shooting started as a dispute between neighbors when bullets started flying. She was outside playing with her brother and friends when she was hit. Cops and paramedics rushed in. The little girl will be OK.

That’s just another day in the life of a police officer. It might have included a traffic stop (will they shoot me or spit on me?), a crash with injuries (will an innocent die?), a next of kin notification (how can they do that?), a burglary (is there a perp with a gun in the house?), a mob of looters (is that a brick or a stolen radio or a ham sandwich?), or a shoot out in Liberty City.

All of those incidents are adrenalin-rich but they may feel less dangerous than walking down the street to the cop on the beat who knows there could be a sniper in a shelter or a bomber with a backpack or a criminal on crank increasing his pressure on the trigger right now.

My daughter found this public troll on Facebook. She reproduced it with her own comment:

Somebody Needs to Kill Them All

“This is a posting from someone who lives in Vermont just five minutes from my house. For the purposes of this lesson, I removed the identity of the owner of the post; however, I was able to see the post without ‘friending’ him.

“The anger is real and it is on our doorstep. As the wife of a police officer, these are troubling times. Simply being a police officer makes a person ‘guilty by association.’

“We need to stand up for our police officers. I’m ready for a picket line in support of our officers. It’s about time.

I’d walk that line, too, but it will take more than that. See, this isn’t the first time — even in Vermont — for some nincompoop to put a target on the men and women who serve.

Kill the Pigs
In this case, our Vermont poster could well be the idiot offspring of a 60s flower child who chanted the title phrase in San Francisco before moving east.

Those seminal protesters weren’t so original after all. Cecil Adams at
StraightDope tell us, “If you thought the term pig arose in the 1960s, you’re in for a surprise.

“The OED cites an 1811 reference to a ‘pig’ as a Bow Street Runner–the early police force, named after the location of their headquarters, before Sir Robert Peel and the Metropolitan Police Force. Before that, the term ‘pig’ had been used as early as the mid-1500s to refer to a person who is heartily disliked.”

For the record, I’ve yet to meet a liberal who liked being called “pissylittledramaqueen” or a police officer who liked being called “pig.”

Did you ever wonder why that cop looked you over — twice — when you walked past?

Did you ever wonder if it were the fact that cultured, ivy league you just screamed “Kill the pigs” and he wondered whether you meant to do it right now?

I don’t wonder about how we raise protesters. This country was founded by protesters.

I do wonder how we raise people who can praise burning down their town, praise looting my store, and praise murdering all the cops all while they condemn a cop for killing a likely lawbreaker.

Who will save your butt:
Remember that the “talk down, not take down” proponents are the ones who run away from the flying bullets and that police officers run toward them.

 

Gruber Was … Right?

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“If you’re allergic to Farxiga…”

The most annoying ads on television, now that the political circus has moved back inside the beltway, include a phrase straight from Jonathan Gruber’s playbook.

That annoys me. I’m smarter than most fourth graders. I’m pretty sure you are, too.

• “Do not take if allergic to Farxiga,” the upbeat announcer tells us 38 seconds into the ad.

Maybe Mr. Gruber was right.

Maybe Americans have proven their stupidity.

The FDA has regulated prescription drug advertising since the 1962 Kefauver amendments of the Food and Drug Act of 1938. AstraZenica wouldn’t put almost a minute of caveats into this ad without regulations.

Or maybe We the Overtaxed People aren’t smart enough to know not to take a drug we’re allergic to. More likely the lawyers included the Do not take if allergic line to keep us from noticing the This stuff can kill you line.

There’s plenty of stupid to go around.

• The Unaffordable Care Act requires each and every one of us to have health insurance. It’s a tax. It’s the law. Which makes me wonder about the radio ad running here in South Puffin: “Thank goodness for Urgent Care! I don’t have insurance…”

Hello? ObamaDon’tCare? I’m thinking a provider maybe shouldn’t advertise that people are still not covered.

Or maybe We the Overtaxed People aren’t smart enough to notice.

• And we’re now in the “open enrollment” period for health insurance. Americans with employer-supplied health insurance can freely join or change plans. Americans with ObamaDon’tCare can freely join or change plans. Americans with Medicare can freely join or change plans.

Whichever category is yours, your premiums are going up.

Premiums for coverage under the Unaffordable Care Act will increase dramatically in the Florida Keys for 2015. A 52 year-old Marathon man in with a Florida Blue “gold” plan paid $645 per month for his insurance last year. Florida Blue will raise his 2015 premium to $879 per month. That’s 36% even with common core arithmetic.

It’s bad on Medicare, too. A 71 year-old woman in Vermont with a United Health Care Medicare Advantage plan paid $0 per month last year. UHC will raise her 2015 premium to $43 per month. That’s a gazillion%. A 66 year-old man in Vermont with a Blue Cross Medigap “Plan F” paid $140.70 per month last year. Blue Cross will raise his 2015 premium to $155 per month. That’s “only” 10%.

By jeezum, the Federal Bureau of Living Management says the cost-of-living has risen just 1.7%. Have any of the MSM nightly news broadcasts reported how wrong that one is?

Dammit. Jonathan Gruber was right.

ObamaDon’tCare had the chance to fix all this. We had hope. He promised change. He really could have changed the health care system. Instead, We the Overtaxed People got the Unaffordable Care Act. Some Americans voted for this. Some Americans approved this. And now all Americans are paying for it.

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
 

Distracted

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A friend posted this: “I guarantee you’ll hear the phrase ‘My ancestors came here legally’ in the aftermath of President Obama’s immigration address. It’s almost impossible to find any conversation about immigration — between elected officials, pundits, online commenters – in which at least one participant doesn’t use the phrase.”

While the Obamanation and his Kool Aid quaffing crowd distract us with illegal executive orders and net neutrality, we still have crumbling roads and bridges, failing schools, and the slowest and most expensive Interwebs in the world.

Oh, yeah. And a still-broken healthcare system (dammit, I thought the Unaffordable Care Act was supposed to change things).

This newspeak argument over the illegal aliens the left wants to recast as “undocumented immigrants” is a decent stand-in for the criminal behavior across government.

If you are Abenaki, Eastern Pequot, or Mi’kmaq, your ancestors illegally displaced the Red Paint people. If your ancestor came over in 1642 at the invitation of Billy Penn with my greatx6 grandfather, you maybe displaced the Lenni-Lenapi. Mr. Penn had a legal charter and my greatx6 grandfather was a British subject because there was no United States. His grandson became an American citizen. His greatx2 grandson was born one. If your ancestor came in with my other great-grandfather, they used the then-normal immigration process and became citizens. They followed the law on the ground at the time.

No matter how they got here, the problem isn’t our ancestors (unless they were criminals). The problem is anyone who is here illegally now because they are criminals. The problem is this attempt on the part of so many to pretend that that ain’t so.

crim·i·nal /’krimənl/ noun
1. a person who has committed a crime.

The Obamanation has accumulated an extraordinarily long list of major crimes in just six years. The following is just the short list. If a business or a crime family got caught at all of this, we’d see million spent on RICO prosecutions.

• Mr. Obama stole General Motors from its owners and gave it to his cronies so they would vote for him. Grand theft is kind of against the law. Of course, car theft on that scale is now laudable.
• Mr. Obama stole your doctor and your health plan from you and gave it to the Big Insurance so they would pay for his election. Graft is kind of against the law. Of course, graft on that scale is now laudable.
• Mr. Obama exchanged five Taliban terrorists for an American deserter. That’s not just against policy; it’s against the law. Of course, breaking the law in the oval office is now laudable.
• Mr. Obama’s Justice Department illegally sold thousands of guns to criminals and refused to comply with congressional subpoenas about the operation. A sting is deceptive, probably unethical, but common; Fast and Furious wasn’t a sting. Supplying weapons to criminals and terrorists is kind of against the law. Newspeak calls it merely a “management problem.”
• Mr. Obama’s people falsely portrayed the Benghazi terrorist attack as a spontaneous protest against an anti-Muslim YouTube video, and then lied about White House involvement. Perjury is kind of against the law. Newspeak calls it merely a “management problem.”
• Mr. Obama’s IRS illegally targeted conservative groups for heightened IRS scrutiny. Using government agencies for political acts is kind of against the law. Newspeak called it merely a “management problem” — Liberals said the IRS did it to liberal groups, too.
• Mr. Obama’s IRS refunded more than $46 million to nearly 24,000 illegal aliens using the same Atlanta, GA address. Fraud is kind of against the law. Newspeak calls it merely a “management problem.”

And there you have it.

A crim·i·nal /’krimənl/ is a person who has committed a crime.

The newspeak argument to recast crimes as “hope and change” or “management problems” or “good politics” is worse than giving the burglar the keys to your house or the murderer a deadly weapon or the used car salesman your checkbook. We trust burglar and the murderer and the used car salesman to do us wrong. We’re supposed to trust those we elect to do us right.

The Obamanation has not only violated the law, they have shredded that trust.

 

Not Bait. Definitely Switched

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I went to Walgreens to cash in my 4,050 points against the two gallons of $4.19 milk I bought yesterday. They wouldn’t let me.

“Plenty of points. In plenty of places,” the Walgreens ads trumpet. The store’s “Balance Rewards” appear on featured items in the store fliers and online each week. They promote buying “more for healthy behavior.”

Walgreens, at the corner of Happy and Healthy chocolate barsThis week, the flier offers 1,000 points on Lindt Chocolates, 1,000 points on Schweppes seltzer water, 1,000 points on Planters winter spice or brittle nut medley, and 1,000 points on Hallmark greeting cards. Yep, healthy choices all.

“Oh, we have a policy not to redeem those points on dairy,” the manager said.

Turns out the fine print does say that points are “good on next purchase. Points are not earned if Store Credit or Redemption Dollars are used in a transaction and cannot be redeemed on some items. Complete details at Walgreens.com/Balance.”

I wondered about the policy that sells healthy chocolate and soda and nuts and greeting cards but won’t redeem them on milk, so I turned to the Interwebs.

“Due to state and federal laws, points cannot be earned on some items. Points will not be awarded to anyone who currently is or was at any time in the 6 months prior to purchasing Pharmacy Items covered by Medicare, Medicaid, Tricare or any other government-funded healthcare program. Pharmacy Items must be purchased at participating Walgreens Drugstore, Rxpress, Duane Reade, or Walgreens Pharmacy locations (“Participating Stores”) to earn points. Excludes Pharmacy Items purchased from AR, NJ or NY pharmacies and prescriptions transferred to a Participating Store located in AL, MS, OR or PR. See Balance Rewards terms and conditions for full details.” [Emphasis added]

The Terms and Conditions of the loyalty program offered by Walgreen Co. to its customers (also referred to as “the Program”) (I presume the loyalty program is referred to as “the Program,” not the customers) runs to five dense, single spaced pages of legalese. Buried near the bottom of page 3, I found this:

“Redemption Dollars may not be used for the purchase of the following: dairy; alcohol; tobacco; stamps; phone/pre-paid/gift cards; money order/transfers; transportation passes; charitable donations; prescriptions; pseudoephedrine or ephedrine products; immunizations, health tests or other healthcare items or services; Prescription Savings Club membership fee; clinic services.”

Walgreens may, of course, at any time and without notice, change, eliminate, or terminate the Point earning and redemption procedures and offerings.

I can understand that a drug store might not want to encourage discounts on booze and tobacco and would “lose” money on cash stuff like stamps, cash cards, and money order and the like. I don’t understand why a drug store “at the corner of happy and healthy” would discourage discounts on prescription, immunizations, health tests, items and services.

CVS annoys me, too, but I really wish they hadn’t left town.

“I dislike CVS,” Liz Arden said, “simply because they refuse Google Wallet and Apple Pay forms of payment. I like Walgreens because they accept Google Wallet.”

There is that, of course.

As far as I know, Walgreens does not sell bait. I feel happier and healthier already.

 

Schooled

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Time for a little readin’  ‘ritin’ and ‘rithmetic.

The Wall Street Journal reported last year that 15-year old U.S. high-school students “made no progress on recent international achievement exams and fell further in the rankings, reviving a debate about America’s ability to compete in a global economy.” Results of the survey can be found at oecd.org.

Classroom ChalkboardOur teens slipped from 25th to 31st in math in just three years, from 20th to 24th in science; and from 11th to 21st in reading.

The U.S. used to turn out the best students. Then we grew complacent. Then political correctness and inertia overcame the search for knowledge and growth.

Back when I was in high school (heh), we learned readin’,  ‘ritin’, ‘rithmetic, and ‘terpretation. Frank Wright (<== his real name) taught us history and social studies, and critical thinking long before “educators” made it a buzz word instead of an orderly process. Mr. Wright wasn’t an “educator”; Mr. Wright was a teacher. Oh, he did worship FDR (making him the most liberal man I had ever met) but he was bright and caring and good at his job. And the only politics that got in the way of teaching us history and life were the ones we freely argued about in the classroom.

Mr. Wright, my parents, and many of our public servants of that time were all life-members of what Tom Brokaw aptly called the “Greatest Generation.” They didn’t just grow up in the Great Depression. They didn’t just win World War II. They didn’t just teach. They learned. The 15-year old U.S. high-school students they once were could read, could write, could do arithmetic, could think critically.

Each succeeding class of 15-year old U.S. high-school students has dropped a little in what they could read, what they could write, what arithmetic they could do, how well they could think critically.

Look where that has brought us.

Today the average 15-year old U.S. high-school student can’t be bothered. That’s not because the average 15-year old U.S. high-school student doesn’t want to be bothered; that’s because our schools aren’t bothering them enough.

Today, our “public servants” (current, past, and would be) are still too busy to fix it. In fact, they are so busy telling you how much you should hate the other guy, they aren’t even telling you how they will pretend to fix it.

I see a tie-in between the failing school results and the failing electoral results.

Here in South Puffin in the vast expanse of Florida sunshine, we’ve learned from Tom Steyer that Gov. Rick Scott is “too shady for the sunshine state.” And the Brothers Koch tell us that former-Gov. Charlie Crist is a “slick politician, lousy governor.”

Up in North Puffin in the People’s Democratic Republic of Vermont, we find (pretty accurate) attack ads against incumbent Sen. Bernie Sanders’ everyday hypocrisy when he isn’t even on the ballot.

Boy, howdy, I feel better informed already.

I know so much bad stuff I don’t have time to worry about life getting better.

My friend Chris Bohjalian wrote yesterday that the dump was once a part of the stump. It’s a good read if your schooling was above average.

Vermonters are not voting for a president or either senator tomorrow, “and the race for our lone congressional representative is not exactly a nail-biter,” he wrote.

Every elective office is important. Even the Mosquito Control Board. And the High Bailiff. The Mosquito Control Board here in the Keys has a $15.51 million budget and a significant air force. The High Bailiff and perhaps only the High Bailiff can arrest the Sheriff.

My rules haven’t changed. If you’re an incumbent, find a new job. If you’re vying and trying and lying for our vote, find a new job. And if your ads even mention the other guy? Find a new job because I ain’t gonna vote for you.

Make tomorrow a nail biter. Don’t send the same Vermonter back to Congress. Don’t send your other scoundrel back to the Senate. Write in someone you know from the dump. He simply can’t do any worse.