Category Archives: What? Are They Nuts?

Giving Thanks

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AAA predicts that 43.6 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home during the holiday weekend. That’s up about 1% over the 43.3 million who traveled last year, mostly because of “lower gas prices.” This is the fourth consecutive year for holiday travel growth since 2008, when Thanksgiving travel plummeted 25% as the economy tanked. Nationally, 90% of travelers will take to the road rather than fly, up about half a percent.

The Associated Press says “filling up the tank will take less money than people expected” when AAA conducted the survey early last month “because of a dramatic drop in gas prices.”

Dramatic? Drop?

Gasoline cost $2.87/gallon for Thanksgiving, 2010.

Gasoline cost a record $3.32/gallon on Thanksgiving Day last year.

How is it that gas prices “dropping” to $3.44 is better?

Ben Franklin thought the turkey should be America’s bird so I’m thankful to have found a big inflatable turkey in a local yard for this week. The real Thanksgiving column is here.


ahh, supper

We are staying put for the day but I am thankful that we have friends coming from afar. Joe will join us. He lives next door. Ed says he is very, very hungry. He lives across the street.

ID Required

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We made the long drive from North Puffin to South Puffin last week. The consensus was to “avoid New Jersey” which we did, but I still saw the results of Shredder Sandy in the firewood on lawns and highway shoulders across Pennsylvania and parts of Maryland. We had to detour around the Delaware Water Gap on some lovely, twisty windy roads that got my rally juices flowing. Those roads didn’t appear on my map, so I’m not sure I could find them again.

A very nice lady at the Florida border handed us a waxed-paper cup of freshly squeezed orange juice; Anne had seconds, then we put the top down and continued along.

 

I voted in person on Tuesday. Despite the news reports about the horrors of voting in Florida, all true by the way, the hopelessly long line leading to the South Puffin voting booths had (wait for it) three people waiting. It really did take longer to read the 8-page ballot than it did to get to the booth and that despite studying up on it ahead of time.

I had to show my photo identification (my driver license) to get in the door so I wondered, aloud, why Florida had given me a voter ID card. No one at the polls knew because they weren’t accepting that card.

Now I know.

 

eye exam formRegular readers may recall that I had cataracts sucked out of my eyes a couple of months ago. The end result is that I have a really neat form from my ophthalmologist certifying me. OK, certifying that my vision is adequate to UNcheck the CORRECTIVE LENSES REQUIRED box on my Florida driver license.

We all know that just having the eye doc fill out a form is far too simple for a state that employs more bureaucrats than the entire population of Vermont. State government employee numbers had grown to 184,237 by 2011. County and local government employees increased to 703,922. That’s more than the population of South Dakota, Alaska, North Dakota, or Wyoming. Heck Florida government employs more people than the population of Vermont plus the population of the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands twice. Combined. (Worth noting: in the 50 years from 1957 to 2006, Florida’s population increased 302%, but the number of state and local government employees increased 583%. Corporate layoffs have been in the news as companies fight costs, but that’s another story.)

None of the 184,237 people ever answered the phone at Florida DMV when I called, so I eventually tried the county driver license office to find out what I need to bring to my get my license changed. I need to bring a lot.

The state website shows that Florida law requires one to bring “identification and proof of residense (sic) documents” for a new license but doesn’t make clear if that applies to changing the vision requirements as I need. A very nice lady in the Marathon office told me that, yes, I need a:

1. Valid United States Passport
2. Social Security Card or any 1099
3. TWO Proofs of Residential Address, such as

  • Utility bills, not more than two months old
  • Current homeowner’s insurance policy or bill
  • Florida Voter Registration Card

The voter registration card is your ticket to a driver license, the document you need to … vote. Plus your existing driver license that they collected all this stuff for in the first place.

Of course, if I simply renew my driver license online, the state doesn’t require any ID.

Readin’ and Writin’ and Lousy ‘Rithmetic

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“Show-me-your-papers!”

Christopher Kieras of Seymour, Connecticut, may have fibbed about his residency when he enrolled his daughter in an elementary school in Westport. That’s what the school district said when they sued Mr. Kieras back in June to recover $27,911 in tuition. Actually, the district which investigates more than 30 student residency cases each school year wants to recoup triple the tuition as damages.

familiesonlinemagazine.comIt seems the Kieras’ daughter is an illegal alien in Westport.

Oh. Sorry. An undocumented child.

Meanwhile, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in August that Alabama public schools can’t check the citizenship status of new students. That’s unconstitutional, the federal appeals court said.

Judges said fear of the law “significantly deters undocumented children from enrolling in and attending school ….”

Say what?

If the results in Westport and other Connecticut towns are any indicator, illegal aliens darned well should be afraid. After all, if we don’t let kids from the next town into our local schools, we certainly can’t let kids from the next country!

Oh. Wait. We really don’t let kids from the next town into our local schools but kids from the next country get a free hall pass.

Connecticut’s neighboring Weston school district now requires deeds or lease records, or statements from landlords. Here in Vermont, residents have to declare their homestead on their income tax returns — the form includes a box for school district, too. The Weston school district (and the Vermont Department of Taxes) better watch out that the American Civil Liberties Union doesn’t take us all to task over the Connecticut version of “show-me-your-papers.”

“Nobody quarrels with wanting the best for your children,” school district attorney Catherine S. Nietzel said, “but it’s not fair for people who do pay taxes and part of those taxes are used for schools.” OK, nobody but the ACLU. And the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Imagine that.

Fees Fees Fees

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In these “non-inflationary” times, the rates are going up today. This notice came from Vonage.

Vonage logoEffective 09/24/12, the Regulatory, Compliance and Intellectual Property (RC&IP) Fee associated with your plan will increase from $1.99 per month to $2.99 per month. This fee enables Vonage to maintain our commitment to customer privacy, anti-fraud protection and innovation while delivering important new services.

Despite this increase, we are confident that Vonage provides the best value in unlimited calling throughout the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico and to more than 60 countries worldwide.

Sincerely,
Your friends at Vonage

I applaud a business that can figure out a way to cover their costs and make a profit. I just wish they wouldn’t try to spin it as a “recovery of fees.”

Taxes, materials, payroll, advertising and a host of other items are part of the cost of doing business. Business can follow about three paths to keep those costs in check: improve efficiency, reduce the size of the product, or raise the price. Guess what the phone companies do?

Phone companies apparently don’t think we’re smart enough to know when they raise their rates.

For the record? Comcast and Verizon are even worse. They just haven’t sent any stupid emails this week.