General Homsar's "Whine and Rant" Board!

I have to at least half-agree with the General here. The rub is that occasionally one person's "monumentally stupid lawsuits" are another person's sincere work for their idea of "justice."

The problem is that the same system that enables a family to win medical costs and damages after, say, a child is injured through the gross negligence of a physician, manufacturer, or restaurant chain also means only very wealthy condos and apartments have diving boards at the swimming pool any more. And I'm not going to get started on the disgusting practice of shopping for jurisidctions to drive up jury awards.

I tried hunting up a Bloom County archive that matches the excellent one for Doonesbury, but "lefty" Mr. Breathed appears to have cut a deal with a greedier comics web site. I still highly recommend the "Steve Dallas, Lawyer Lost in Time" series. It's an interesting meditation on this problem and the "anti-liability" gear that Opus is wearing when Steve finally returns to "now" is hysterical.

My rant: Just got done getting 'raped' from the Colonial Penn insurance guys at work. Gee, take my measly 270.00 a week take home and then knock another 40.00 a week off for life, accident, and cancer coverage. Let's not forget the 106.00 for BC/BS on me and the wife, which is also every week. That's what takes me down to the 270 mark. At this point it would almost be more 'fiscally' savvy to just get sick, hurt or maybe even die... I think I would make more!

Insurance is a bit of a scam. They're like mobsters but instead of threatening you directly they just hope that you'll never need to use it - and the odds are in their favor.

If you and your wife are healthy and have no children, drop the insurance and put that money in savings. Make sure you correctly fill out your W4 so the least amount is taken out and put even more in savings. Instead of letting the state borrow it, you'll have more control over your income and are able to generate a little interest or invest however you choose.

My whine and rant:

I ran out of food last night, so I got to go shopping today. Due to a receant storm, I had 8 inches of snow on my hood and windshield, with a nice underlayer of ice. That was no fun to scrape off, especially since I forgot my gloves, and was too lazy to go back to my apartment to get them.

I need a garage.

Got you guys one better. How about this the AIA (international architechural association) and the Disablities act has people design handicapped access into ... way for it... explosive storage and heavy industry. I have never seen or heard of one working in that feild nor do I think they would hire one but because of liablity it has to be put in. It all started with lawyers... you can sue him.

John

Methinks General Homsar has 'opened up a can of worms' with this post. I imagine we could all flood the gates with dozens upon dozens of rants like:
Why do you still pay the CAT fund on your traffic citations when the 'law' was supposed to be lifted some fifteen years ago?
Or how about the PA Turnpike. Back when they began construction they said the idea of a 'toll road' was just to make the money to pay for the highway. Once paid for it would revert to a normal non-toll route. Still charge a toll, still raise the toll annually.
Getting back to traffic citations (if you couldn't tell, I just got pulled over on the 27th for speeding... hee hee)why do I have to pay for the court system's computer system? That's another 10.00 added to the fine. Put another way, the speeding fine is 75.00. Add all the various 'charges' and it's up to 157.00. Hmmm, good racket huh?
Let's talk about welfare... well, on second thought, let's not.
What about the rising price of EVERYTHING... where's our 'real' cost of living increase, not some measly 27 cents or dollar or whatever little tidbit the employer/government wants to throw at us?
Or what about that ancient concept of supply vs. demand? It seems that anymore they want to have it both ways... if there's a heavy demand and little supply, raise the price. If there's little demand and little supply, raise the price. If there's heavy supply and little demand, raise the price... you get the point, I don't have to type the fourth one.
The biggest rant topic of them all: Why the hell do I have to jump in my little steel coffin and run the relentless rat race day in and day out essentially to make someone else 'richer'? I mean I realize that everyone has to work... but anymore this is pretty much wage slavery.

Me says yes!    Why should my taxes go to a family of lazy, ignorant people who don't want to get a job? HUH? I think welfare should have a short term way to keep a family a float. If a man just lost his job and has been trying desperately for months to find a job, he should be able to be on welfare for a period of time...

BUT! a big fat person that works at mcdonalds is fired for eating the last of the bigmacs and doesn't find a job in three years should NOT be applicable for welfare. I pay for them to sit on their big fat a*ses. Sorry, but this IS a rant post don't cha know?

Evil's surely right about the sprawl potential here, but I've loved me spaghetti since I was a wee sprat...



The fact that this is sound financial advice is exactly why this "medical savings account" crap is so wrong. Public health is as important as individual health and health care in the US should be treated the same as our other major public goods, e.g. national defense, interstate highways, air traffic control, national parks, or hydroelectric power.

I hope we do get public healthcare.

The faster we drive this government into bankruptcy the better.

Yeah...THAT'S gonna help.   

Yeah! Who needs fire departments, paved roads, defense from foreign militaries, and civil order! Let's not forget how we can get rid of hydroelectric dams, prisons to hold serial killers, the ability to mail a letter from anyhwere withen our borders to anywhere witehn our borders for less then fifty cents regardles of how cost ineffective it is, power grids, sewage, and safety standards!

All sarcasm now aside, another thing that I don't like are all the angry youth of today that have no reason to be angry, and no real information about what they are expressing thier anger towards, while openly ignoring all the positive benifits of said thing that they take for granted everyday of their lives.

Ever heard of FEMA?

Imagine them in charge of your healthcare.

It'll be GREAT!

Here's my 2nd rant (or 1st whine, depending on who you ask): That global warming has become nothing more than a tool for politions to get a few extra votes. And my first (or second) whine, also conected to global warming:Those commercials for fightglobalwarming.com (and i think i saw "Sponcered by the NSA" one one of them, but i'm not sure) are annoying!

yea too many laws by far!

this pretty much sums it all up.... 'if it's fun then regulate it, if it's dangerous then ban it, if you can make a good living from it then tax it and attach compliance laws, licences and university degrees to stop the poor from doing it too!
discrimination only appllies to minority groups, the rest of us - tough!
you can hate and bash other races, you can take their jobs and be first in the queue for benefits so long as your not white - otherwise it would be called racism!

oooh this might be fun:

MY rant:

"In 20 years, I have not been in a place where the people held so much Hate for each other. I have never seen best friends plotting each other's defeat nor the joy of destroying a person. In my home, these weapons would not even be used upon my greatest adversary. I wonder, how can you all survive stabbing from the shadows at all you claim to hold dear? You must learn to let go of your hate before you turn your maliciousness upon your very own souls. Why spend your time breaking each other when you can spend that time spreading joy and love?"

Translation: I seem to be very concerned with the "me 1st" attitude that I am finding more and more prevailant in today's cultures. People seem more interested in talking than listening, more opionated than understanding. They would blame everyone and anyone for anything so long as it doesn't fall on themselves. People today are too involved with themselves to really notice what's going on around them. Too foucised on thier own idea's to really look at the information out there and make a rational decision.

agree

but i have to say i don't blame people for being like that, i blame what has happened to our schools. Kids are no longer being taught dicipline, and how to get along in society and relationships. so yes, of course our society is falling apart -I say 'fix the schools and save the world'!

edit: sadly bleeding hearts won't allow dicipline in schools so basically were all screwed!

Way to not get how things work.   

It's not necessarily the schools per se, but the parents, or at least what the parents go through these days. I am a firm believer that there should be an at home parent, regardless of whether it's mom or dad. Hell, even gram or pap watching over the little rugrats is better than having some underpaid stranger raise your child.
Unfortunately, the rich keep us down by not allowing us the financial freedom to have only one parent working while the other raises the child. It seems that the generation that received the benefit of a stay at home parent has totally forgotten what that was like, since they make up the CEO's and general nasty board room types who which to take more and more of our money from us and give it to themselves.
It just kills me to see how the rich/politicians (hell, is there a diff between the two anymore?)live their lives so much better than we live our own, all thanks to having money, our money of course.

Annother thing that irks me: How easily something cam become "evil" just because a bumper sticker says it is.

On the more-than-just-me front, it isn't only the rich keeping "us" down. It's many of "us" being unquestioning lovers of spending money. Advertising works in at least the general sense of spreading a sense of "needing something" whether it's from the grocery store, the mall, a telecom company, a car dealership, or an airline. If we had an economy that put at least as much value on labor (time) as it does on ownership (stuff), things might be nicer all around, whoever your particular "us" might be.

p.s. I heartily agree with Evil's core point about the death of the family wage. I used to think it was just an unintended outcome of the success of woman-power in the '60s and '70s (kind of a corrollary to vanity becoming common for high school boys). But these days I put more of a political economic read on it: keeping most adults in the paid workforce means that most economic activity is available for corporate control. And yes, when I read most of the gov't-bashing in this thread I think you folks are missing the point: corps *own* our governments and corps want to both dominate your waking hours and shape your dreams.

IT's been said by someone wiser then me, concerning the problem of debt in the US (and the self imposed economic slavery that it brings to it's victoms) that too many young people want tohave right now all the nice things thier parents speant a life time earning. So the people go into debt, and before you know it, most of thier income isn't going to building a secure financial future, but instead is being used to pay off interest.

If more people would realize that you don't NEED: a computer made in the last several years, cable or for that matter a television, new furniture, a new vehicle, an Xbox/PS2-3/console system, alcohol, cigarettes, etc, then there would be far less poverty. I'm not saying it would cure all of our poverty ills, but I know it would cure a lot of them.

When I lived in Mobile Alabama I speant a lot of my times in some of the most gang filled, drug infested streets in the south. I noticed that many of the homes that would be lacking glass for their windows, working front doors, and that would be falling apart in general, would often have a big television and a modern game system. It was truely sad.

I personally don't buy into the whole "corperate capitolism is keeping us down" trend. The reason why (and my brother, whom you know as Teancum, can attest to this) is that for many years our family struggled to get by. Times were hard, and my dad worked two jobs to try to make ends meet. After years of hard work, we were blessed with the oppertunity to get out, and are now doing fairly well. If we can do it, others can also.

But they are 'keeping us down' by not allowing the wealth to redistribute itself and trickle down (about the only thing trickling down is their shit down their leg and onto our head). And as far as the people who have no working doors/lights/windows... well I attribute that more to the way they are raised and the levels of respect that they have for themselves and others. You are obviously of a younger age than myself so you might not fully grasp what seems to you as the 'have to have' crowd and their ways. Nowadays, people who work 40 to 60 hours and usually just walk away from the ATM on payday with a few dollars left to spare 'NEED' to spend their money on something frivolous for themselves otherwise all their work is basically for nothing more than paying the bills. True, some people go overboard and don't pay bills that they should and run out to buy the latest, greatest game or other must have item... but the majority just want to feel like they've accomplished something for themselves aside from making someone else more rich by paying their electric bill, water bill, heating bill, car payment, mortgage/rent payment, health insurance payment, gas, food, taxes, doctor bills, lawyer bills, childcare bills... if all you work for is to pay bills then what do you have left in your life?

if all you work for is to pay bills then what do you have left in your life?

Maybe you have too many bills. My wife, who works literally across the street from our house, just bought a Ford Expedition because it was shiny. When I suggested that maybe she didn't need a $15K car for her grueling 3 minute commute it became apparent that this was not a topic for discussion. So now I get to laugh with the dogs when she is griping about her car payment.

Where did this need come from? Why was this a good decision? I drive a 10 year old Jeep that runs like a champ. We can all make better decisions about how we use our resources. This idea that we all need everything right now is disturbing - and costly!

Have you watched teenagers playing video games lately? My kids have all the latest cheats so they can get it all right now. What happens when (O Blessed Day!) they grow up, get jobs, and move out? Where are the cheat codes for real life?

Are you doing anything different with them to make sure they do 'grow up' well adjusted and with some common sense like yourself? If so then kudos for attempting to influence how your children 'should be'. If not then shame on you for you are nothing more than the root of the problem of which we both speak.
Furthermore, your example with your wife is obviously the extreme of the scenario, and I thought I conveyed that even I didn't agree with that kind of extremism. Surely there was more to it than having a car for the commute to work, wasn't there?

Hmmm, I had to ponder that one for a few moments. Comments aimed at me like this one really entertain me, seriously they do. I mean, hell, all that gas I waste driving 50+ miles a day to work round trip... I guess I could go without and ride a bicycle up the highway, yeah. Oh, and that thermostat that the wife and I keep at 68 degrees all winter, I guess I could use less heat... shivering is for pussies anyway, right? And in the summer, running a ceiling fan and keeping the windows open as much as possible, irresponsible and contributing to my bills I guess. My BASIC phone service that charges me the most to call across the street, a fifteen dollar a month bill before actual calls and minus a few surcharges... whatever was I thinking? You might have read elsewhere that I finally put out the money for the most basic AOL you can have at 9.99 on dial up... so I can update this game if they take internet away at work. But I guess I could just play it as is and hope I never need to download it again.
I imagine I could shave off some more un-necessary expense when we food shop... maybe the butcher can save some ground chuck off the floor for me at a drastically reduced price of course!
There is only one thing in my life that I definitely could do without yet I continue to spend on it... CIGARETTES. Other than that I think I proved my point.