Monday, October 07, 2013

Television wars erupt again

I think the most frustrating thing in my life at the moment is not my health issues but the fact I can't get someone who isn't a dummy to realize that he is at least part of the problem in the television conflict.

Our new resident came to see me yet again yesterday.  He says that the other residents who are "controlling" the television are cretins, but swears he isn't name calling.  The two staff employees who say they heard him call the others cretins seem to make his statement dubious.  Every staff member of the facility he's interacted with regarding his television issues is either stupid, incompetent, or incapable of remembering things long enough to enforce the rules.

As I keep trying to make him understand, much of life is about the perception of what has gone on, rather than one's individual perspective of what happened.  If I think I behaved perfectly, but someone felt I treated them rudely, their perception means that in their mind I was rude.  I can't get him to grasp this fact.

If it weren't for the fact that I like the two other residents involved in this situation, who don't have televisions in their own rooms, I'd tell management to just shut off the cable in that room and be done with it.

Stay tuned for further developments.

* * *

Do the sins of the father mean the sins of the daughter must be forgiven?  Tatiana Thebes is in jail after being convicted of participating in a burglary ring.  She was sexually abused by her father for 19 years.  He kept her prisoner in their home after pulling her out of school.  He fathered her three of her five children.  He used a combination of alcohol, drugs and threats to keep her in line.  He tortured her.  He ultimately stabbed her.  It's a horrifying tale.

But does it excuse her own crimes?  The three gang members she was helping to rob houses each got at least 12 years in prison.  State law mandates a prison sentence because she was on probation for a felony DUI conviction at the time of her arrest.  Should she be given a sentence in a rehabilitation facility instead, so she can live with her children?  They've been taken from her until the issue is decided.

* * *

The House Republican majority wants to discuss entitlement reform.  Okay.  What do we reform?  Medicare?  That was part of the changes to our health system under Obamacare.  Nothing to reform at the moment.  Not until we see whether or not those changes work.  Welfare?  We went in the workfare direction under the Clinton Administration and now the Obama Administration wanted to give states flexibility to extend welfare benefits.  The Republican majority didn't address this by defunding welfare.  Why not?

Social Security?  We have a contract with all of the current recipients who are getting benefits that we can't void after they spend a lifetime paying into the system.  Now if you want to means-test benefits somehow, so that people like Warren Buffett and the Koch brothers; who don't need Social Security, be my guest.  But it isn't going to make meaningful change in the amount we're spending on entitlements.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistant Program (SNAP) that is now what was formerly known as food stamps?  Spending on this program is way up.  We hear the stories of "welfare queens" who drive new cars, put their brand new iPhones in their Coach bags while buying steak and lobster with their EBT cards.  That some of these cases exist is inarguable.  But the fact that they represent a small minority of those getting food stamps is also inarguable.  That surfer/musician who Fox News used to distort the SNAP picture is actually receiving only a small amount of food stamps monthly.  There isn't a lot of room to save money here.

But if we can move to eliminate fraud and waste in such programs, a billion here and a billion there and we're saving real money.  I've ranted before about how many billions are lost through fraud and poor administration of the Medicare program.  Truth be told, we should completely privatize the processing of Medicare claims and offer the contractors incentives for accuracy, speed of processing, and monitoring of fraudulent claims.  There's more than just a few billion to be applied against our deficit there.

Face facts, Speaker Boehner.  We need to make a deal on the debt ceiling and we need to make it before the deadline.  It won't be the same as a nuclear bomb going off if we don't, as some hyperbolic "experts" are claiming.  However, it won't be pretty.  And you must recognize that in the long run, the people of the United States will be forced to pay more as a nation to borrow money because you, Harry Reid and the President couldn't stop playing chicken.

* * *

While the only things in life that are pretty much unavoidable are taxes and death (and you can avoid taxes if you want to run and hide in a country that has no extradition treaty with the U.S.), until recently several credit card issuers had a way to avoid your outstanding balance if you died.  Chase is doing away with its Payment Protector Program.  Until now, if you would pay a small fee each month, based on your balance, when you died, your bill would be forgiven, up to $25,000. 

One woman has paid over $15,000 so far in those fees.  She owes $38,000 on her cards.  She was counting on that program to protect part of her savings when she passes away.  Now if she lives beyond June of next year, that protection is gone.

She paid for it.  Why is it fair to remove it after collecting all those fees?  Because, it was disclosed in the terms and conditions she was furnished when she signed up, according to Chase. 

Other banks are doing the same thing.  Shame on them.

* * *

Random Ponderings:

If the Dodgers win tonight with Clayton Kershaw on the mound, Don Mattingly will be seen as a genius.  If they lose and the Braves get to game 5, and they win, he'll be an idiot.  That is how fickle fans are.  I think it's the right move, win or lose.  Good work, Don.

While it might bother me a tiny bit, and some scientists more than me, in the long run it doesn't matter that some of the science in the science-fiction film "Gravity" is bad.

Another union leader going to prison for corruption and it barely rates a mention.  Business as usual??

Why is it the people who talk about the environment are the ones flying private jets, have huge carbon footprints and drive gas guzzlers?

Why is it that the people screaming for immigration reform are the first in line at Home Depot to illegally hire a day laborer to save their own money?

Why is it the people pushing for higher minimum wages are also pushing so that household employees in California don't get overtime?

Read an online article about what the "real" meaning of excuses women use for not going ahead with dates are.  Reminded me of a scene I wrote for a screenplay on personal ad dating.  The woman had arrived late for dinner with the man and she'd excused her failure to let him know she was going to be late was due to her cellphone having died.  Then as she's in the middle of talking about what a straightforward, honest person she is, and how she prizes that in others, her cellphone rings.

Kudos to the cop with the sense of humor who put an abandoned vehicle ticket on a Barbie jeep that he found in a quiet residential neighborhood.

I can't imagine how embarrassed one entertainment journalist must have been when he was asking a question of Hugh Jackman on the "red carpet" at a film festival.  Turns out that this reporter had been a student of Jackman's when the Oscar nominee  taught at a high school in England, and he turned the tables on the reporter by asking him some questions. 

A man was en route to Disneyland with his family when he stopped to save a big rig driver whose truck had crashed and burst into flames.  That's a brave man, delaying a trip to Disneyland.

Best news I've heard all month?  Ratings for Keeping Up With the Kardashians are down.

* * *

This Date In History:

3761 BC – The epoch reference date epoch (origin) of the modern Hebrew calendar (Proleptic Julian calendar).
1477 – Uppsala University is inaugurated after receiving its corporate rights from Pope Sixtus IV in February the same year.
1513 – Battle of La Motta: Spanish troops under Ramón de Cardona defeat the Venetians.
1542 – Explorer Cabrillo discovers Santa Catalina Island off of the California coast.
1571 – The Battle of Lepanto is fought, and the Holy League (Spain and Italy) destroys the Turkish fleet.
1582 – Because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar, this day is skipped in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
1691 – The English royal charter for the Province of Massachusetts Bay is issued.
1763 – George III of Great Britain issues British Royal Proclamation of 1763, closing aboriginal lands in North America north and west of Alleghenies to white settlements.
1776 – Crown Prince Paul of Russia marries Sophie Marie Dorothea of Württemberg.
1777 – American Revolutionary War: The Americans defeat the British in the Second Battle of Saratoga, also known as the Battle of Bemis Heights.
1780 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Kings Mountain American Patriot militia defeat Loyalist irregulars led by British major Patrick Ferguson in South Carolina.
1800 – French corsair Robert Surcouf, commander of the 18-gun ship La Confiance, captures the British 38-gun Kent inspiring the traditional French song Le Trente-et-un du mois d'août.
1826 – The Granite Railway begins operations as the first chartered railway in the U.S.
1828 – Morea Expedition: The city of Patras, Greece, is liberated by the French expeditionary force in the Peloponnese under General Maison.
1840 – Willem II becomes King of the Netherlands.
1862 – Royal Columbian Hospital (RCH) opens as the first hospital in the Canadian province of British Columbia
1864 – American Civil War: Bahia Incident: USS Wachusett illegally captures the CSS Florida Confederate raider while in port in Bahia, Brazil in violation of Brazilian neutrality.
1868 – Cornell University holds opening day ceremonies; initial student enrollment is 412, the highest at any American university to that date.
1870 – Franco-Prussian War – Siege of Paris: Leon Gambetta flees Paris in a balloon.
1879 – Germany and Austria-Hungary sign the "Twofold Covenant" and create the Dual Alliance.
1912 – The Helsinki Stock Exchange sees its first transaction.
1916 – Georgia Tech defeats Cumberland University 222-0 in the most lopsided college football game in American history.
1919 – KLM, the flag carrier of the Netherlands, is founded. It is the oldest airline still operating under its original name.
1924 – Andreas Michalakopoulos becomes Prime Minister of Greece for a short period of time.
1929 – Photios II becomes Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.
1933 – Air France is inaugurated, after being formed by a merger of 5 French airlines.
1940 – World War II: the McCollum memo proposes bringing the United States into the war in Europe by provoking the Japanese to attack the United States.
1942 – World War II: The October Matanikau action on Guadalcanal begins as United States Marine Corps forces attack Imperial Japanese Army units along the Matanikau River.
1944 – World War II: During an uprising at Birkenau concentration camp, Jewish prisoners burn down the crematoria.
1949 – The German Democratic Republic (East Germany) is formed.
1955 – American poet Allen Ginsberg performs his poem Howl for the first time at the Six Gallery in San Francisco.
1958 – President of Pakistan Iskander Mirza, with the support of General Ayub Khan and the army, suspends the 1956 constitution, imposes martial law, and cancels the elections scheduled for January 1959.
1958 – The U.S. manned space-flight project is renamed Project Mercury.
1959 – U.S.S.R. probe Luna 3 transmits the first ever photographs of the far side of the Moon.
1960 – Nigeria joins the United Nations.
1963 – John F. Kennedy signs the ratification of the Partial Test Ban Treaty.
1971 – Oman joins the United Nations.
1976 – Hua Guofeng becomes Mao Zedong's successor as chairman of Communist Party of China.
1977 – The adoption of the Fourth Soviet Constitution.
1985 – The Achille Lauro is hijacked by Palestine Liberation Organization.
1985 – The Mameyes landslide kills close to 300 in the worst landslide in North American history.
1987 – Sikh nationalists declares the independence of Khalistan from India.
1991 – Bombing of Banski dvori in Zagreb.
1993 – The Great Flood of 1993 ends at St. Louis, Missouri, 103 days after it began, as the Mississippi River falls below flood stage.
1996 – The Fox News Channel begins broadcasting.
1998 – Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming, is found tied to a fence after being savagely beaten by two young adults in Laramie, Wyoming.
2001 – The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan begins with an air assault and covert operations on the ground.
2003 – A historic recall election takes place in the U.S. State of California in which the sitting Governor Gray Davis a Democrat is overwhelmingly voted out of office. Actor/bodybuilder and Republican candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger is elected to be the 38th Governor of California over fellow Republican Tom McClintock and Democrat Cruz Bustamante who at the time was the sitting Lt. Governor of California. This is the first recall election in the history of the State of California in which a sitting Governor has been successfully recalled from office.

Famous Folk Born On This Date:

John Marston
Caesar Rodney
Niels Bohr
Claud Ashton Jones
Henry A. Wallace
Uncle Dave Macon
Joe Hill
Elijah Muhammad
Heinrich Himmler (burn in Hell!!)
Vaughn Moore
Diana Lynn
Desmond Tutu
Joy Behar
Oliver North (no Ollie, the means do not justify the ends)
Dave Hope
John Mellencamp
Vladimir Putin
Yo-Yo Ma
Jayne Torville
Simon Cowell
Allison Munn
Alexander Polinsky
Taylor Hicks

Movie quotes today come from an oldie but goodie from John Wayne's filmography, "In Harm's Way":

Captain Rockwell Torrey: What is Vicki Marlowe's secret?
Commander Egan Powell: Well, it's not what it says in here. Vicki Marlowe's secret is that she's making a half a million bucks a year and she still collects alimony from me, in my present reduced circumstances. Well, anyway... I have the satisfaction of knowing that all of her pictures have been stinkers since I stopped writing them. Rockwell, my boy, never, I repeat never marry a movie actress.
Captain Rockwell Torrey: You married three of them.
Commander Egan Powell: I know. It was like eating peanuts. Once I started, I couldn't stop.

#2

Captain Rockwell Torrey: Well, I'm here to see a nurse. What are you here for?
Ensign Jere Torrey: To see a nurse.
Captain Rockwell Torrey: It looks like we have something in common after all.
Ensign Jere Torrey: I'm just a chip off the old block, sir!

#3

Rear Admiral Rock Torrey: Just how far can I go in dealing with Admiral Broderick, sir?
Admiral Nimitz: Well. Ya can't kill 'im.

#4

Captain Rockwell Torrey: Get a message off to Pearl. "Have taken two torpedoes." Fill in our position. "Extent of damage unknown. Will advise."
Commander Burke: And break radio silence, sir?
Captain Rockwell Torrey: Burke, don't you think the Japanese know by now where we are?