Weapons and gun ownership

Assault rifles and automatic weapons (like Uzis) are NOT for hunting or home protection. They are ANTI-PERSONNEL weapons created for WAR to give your military enemy the maximum opportunity to die for their country. 

Even law enforcement does not need anything that can SPRAY bullets at high speed. The bullets that miss the target can go for great distances and/or ricochet off to unintended directions. Completely innocent people several blocks away can be hit without ever knowing what hit them. Bullets in populated areas ABSOLUTELY need to be controlled, and that means firing them ONE AT A TIME intentionally at a SPECIFIC target so you can see where they go and account for them. 

NO civilian ever NEEDS an automatic weapon. You want to hunt and protect your home - fine. Do it with a weapon that you can actually CONTROL. One that fires one bullet for each time you pull the trigger. TAKE LESSONS! Get training. Practice. Become an expert in the weapon that you own. Be responsible for it. It's not an extension of your dick! You're not a bigger, badder, more manly man because you own a military grade assault rifle that you're not competent with and can't control. You insist that you have a right to own such a weapon?  Okay, fine.  Then when you fire it, you deserve to go to jail for all the damage that you caused with it.  Street gangs and criminals think automatic weapons are cool because they don't require any skill to spray the front of a house, or a car and kill everyone in the vicinity of their target. Home grown gang violence is just another form of terrorism.

Sadly, when you make something illegal to own, sell or use, you only take it away from honest citizens.  Yes, I agree that automatic weapons should be banned and not be on the streets of our cities and towns.  But how do you stop black market military weapons dealers from selling the damn things to gangs, criminals and terrorists?  Taking them out of stores and gun shops is not going to take them off the streets.  It will just make them harder to get and more expensive to buy out of the trunk of a car.  The law isn't going to stop that.  It only gives law enforcement additional crimes to charge them with when they get caught.

Update:  July 1, 2015 - http://www.ibtimes.com/omaha-nebraska-most-dangerous-place-america-be-black-1548466

Omaha, Nebraska not only has the highest murder rate of Black people in the country, but it is double the national average.  This is ridiculously sad.

IT'S STILL GOING ON...

...or, THE CONTINUING SAGA OF FINDING A WHEELCHAIR VAN

See post entitled, "Power Wheelchair Lift Van Difficulties"

http://mrstigercat.blogspot.com/2014/11/power-wheelchair-lift-van-difficulties.html

When I wrote that post last fall, I was barely able to walk at all.  For all we knew (then), by this time (summer 2015) I could be severely disabled and needing a nurse.  Such a prediction was not unreasonable paranoia, but likely considering the normal rate of Corticobasal Degeneration (CBD) in nearly every other CBD patient, including me. Therefore, the plan last year was to get a conversion van with a built-in ramp that was easy to operate and required no walking from me and no lifting from Joe, who has arthritis in his back.

Then, something odd and unexpected happened:  I got better.  No, not better better, but just not worse.  The pain in my foot improved so that I could put my weight on it.  I can walk short distances. The rate of degeneration slowed to an imperceptible rate.  I no longer feel like I'm going to die in 2 to 3 years.  So then I got to thinking about an SUV and having one of those carrying platforms mounted on the back. I can get a decent SUV with less than 50,000 miles for just under $20,000.  I could buy it from a dealer and know that it's been checked out and certified.  I would feel a lot more comfortable about my purchase, and the process of making it.  

The proper name for that lift is Bruno Out-Sider^®. They are reasonably priced at $2600 installed, and can be mounted on the back of trucks, vans, SUVs and some larger sedans...or so their literature says. Then I called the local Bruno distributor. It will not work on the back of my existing Subaru Legacy station wagon (slightly longer than an Outback). Surprisingly, it won't even work on a Forester. Then, I got to researching and found out why. Sport Utility Vehicles are getting smaller. A lot smaller. They started out more like big, square, enclosed trucks with 4WD or AWD. You could tow a trailer or boat with one. They had big engines and big frames and were strong and heavy. That's why they got such lousy gas mileage. Because of the environmental concerns and the economy, SUVs are now smaller and lighter and get reasonable gas mileage. They are no longer trucks. They are more like AWD hatch-back cars. They no longer come with trailer hitches because they no longer have towing capability. And you can't mount a 142 lb lift that carries a 250 lb wheelchair onto the back of them. Shit. That puts me back at vans.  See my earlier post for my problem with vans.

Then something expected happened:  Joe's Honda Element started breaking down.  We have reached that inevitable point in an old vehicle's life where it is costing more to repair it than car payments on a new(er) one would be. It is broken down right now.  We have to get it repaired to trade it in. This is not good.  It means that I have to make a decision about this van NOW, or at least, really damn soon.  I'm still really confused.  And the used ones are $30,000 and up...WAY up. So the guy at the lift dealership suggested I look into getting a VA grant to help me pay for it.  Shit.  More complication.

I'll keep you posted.

 

David Letterman

I guess I'm the only one who doesn't like David Letterman. I'm glad that he is retired because it means Stephen Colbert is returning to television.  I miss Colbert.

One time, I was watching Letterman (something that I rarely did because I watched little TV back then, and his show was on too late for me), and during his monologue he addressed the people waiting in line outside the theater.  He focused on this one beautiful woman, and asked her name (this was before he was married).  She introduced herself and her husband who was standing next to her.  Letterman asked why such a beautiful woman would marry such a fat, ugly man. The man was heavy, but not terribly, and plain, but not ugly. The woman looked horrified and the man looked crushed. The poor guy's face just dropped. It was so sad.  I felt so badly for him.  I was furious.

As a long time member of the fat and ugly community, I took high offense on that man's behalf.  That was just plain mean. I don't care how famous someone is, or how rich they are, they do not have the right to go around being mean to total strangers for the entertainment value.  It wasn't funny. Letterman, who has always been ugly in my view, was being a first rate jerk.  I have been pissed off at him ever since.  I have made no attempt at forgiving him. I'm glad he's gone.

And, yes, I do recognize what my unwillingness to forgive says about me. 

Lost Pets

What is wrong with people?  There is a Facebook page called "Lost Pets of Omaha Area."  People who have lost or found pets post photos and contact information. The ONE CONSISTENT factor on all these posts: no collars and no tags. Sometimes the pets have collars and no tags. WTF?  Why have a collar and no tags? I said that out loud and hubby said, "So they have a place to attach the leash."

Here's my problem with this...it's irresponsible.  Dogs dig under fences, people accidentally leave the gate open, cats charge the door whenever you open it, cats go outside but don't stay in the yard and get lost. These are totally normal, common events that you can expect to have happen. Some pets break their leash to take off after a squirrel. Some dogs, like pugs, wiggle out of their collars or harnesses.  It happens - everywhere, every day. It is so common, that you should EXPECT it to happen at least once per pet. 

So, what's the best preventative medicine: collars, tags and microchips. Even if you are a scofflaw and don't have your pet licensed, at least get one of those tags at the pet store with your name and phone number on it. They are not expensive. Both PetsMart and PetCo have the machines to engrave the tags right there in the store. How can people not take this one simple precaution? 

To be fair, registering a microchip is actually a little pricey. I had cats for several years before I discovered that their microchips weren't registered with the Humane Society. I totally didn't hear, or didn't understand, the instructions when we adopted our cats.  But tags...tags are easy. With a microchip, you have to take the animal to a vet or the Humane Society to be scanned, and then call the company to find out the contact information. There is an annual fee. There is more than one company.  A tag is right there, right now. Call owner. Pet returned. Why, in a million years would you not have a collar/harness and tag on any pet that goes outdoors?

Excuse one: It bothers him/her.  It does at first.  Give them a week or two, and they'll get used to it.
Excuse two: They itch it constantly.  Some pets are allergic to nylon collars. Use leather or other material.
Excuse three: The license and ID tag jingle and drive me crazy. My Dad used to put a piece of duct tape on the backs of the tags so they wouldn't jingle. Nowadays, the tags from PetsMart came with a little piece of rubber tape to put on the tag for exactly that reason. Excellent. :-)
Excuse four: The collar smashes down his/her beautiful fur. You are whining. Get over it. Isn't it worth it to have your pet returned to you safely?
Excuse five: He/she wiggles out of their collar. I've tried several types. This is a legitimate problem. You will need to use a harness instead of a neck collar.
Excuse six: My dog pulls at the leash when I walk him and chokes himself, so I took it off. You will need to use a harness instead of a neck collar. And a few classes at doggy obedience school (also PetsMart and PetCo) will solve that problem. I read about how to train my dog to walk on a leash from a book. Only cost a couple of bucks. You just have to do it.
Excuse seven: I don't allow my cat out of the house. Yeah, mine either - intentionally. But damn if she didn't charge the door every time I opened it. I don't believe for a second that I would have been able to catch her if she didn't want me to. Indoor cats know nothing of cars or navigating their way in the big, scary world. When they get lost, then hungry, they will go to the first door or people they find to get fed. "No tags? No microchip? Mine now." Or worse, they get abused by people who don't like cats, or attacked by dogs or other animals.

The first cat we ever owned, Princess, was listed as a "stray" at the Humane Society.  Stray, my ass.  She was somebody's spoiled house cat that got out and got lost. The third day we had her, we found out how she got out. She pushed on screens until she found a loose one. Hubby saw her do it. All the window screens were reinforced the next day.

Our boy kitty, Felix, wants nothing whatsoever to do with the outdoors. But when we moved to a new town, he got a collar and tags. My girl kitty, Mittens, greets people at the door, and tries to get out. She's had a collar from the start. They are both micro-chipped and registered at two places. I am in no condition to be trying to chase and capture a cat. They have each gotten out into the hallway of the apartment. Scared the hell out of me. Fortunately, they were able to be herded back to the apartment. I would be beside myself with grief if one of my babies got outside and got away.

My husband has a coworker whose little dog slipped her leash and got lost. She had tags and a chip. She was returned to her family by that evening. Why can't everyone else see that?  

Internet Advertising

This is one of those things in life that I'm just supposed to suck up and deal with because there's nothing that I can do about it. 

When reading articles printed on paper, I could just turn the page and ignore the advertising. Now, with the internet, I click on an article that I want to read and I have to wait for almost 45 seconds (f-o-r-e-v-e-r!) for all the fucking video advertisements and commercials to load. The article that I want to read comes right up - 3 seconds, as it is just text. But the "Jake from State Farm" commercial, a survey, a car video, some sort of shock value article about some starlet's big boobs, and an ad about this "new skinny pill has doctors alarmed" bogs down my ability to scroll down the page (until after all this shit loads). Aaaaaand, there's at least one large size pop-up that blocks the article and has the little "x" to turn it off both very well hidden, and the last thing to load, so I can't just flick it away like a bug and get back to my article. I have to wait for the entire fucking thing to load before I can do anything. I can't close it, move it, see around it or see through it until it is damn good and ready to let me. 

What really happens about half the time is I get pissed at being fished in, and I close the whole page without reading the article. I often get the feeling that I'm getting spam, spyware, malware or viruses loading themselves onto my computer by how much the computer sounds like it is laboring under the workload of trying to open the page.

If I were looking at Hollywood gossip or porn or some shit like that, I would deserve to get viruses and spyware, but this morning I was trying to read a legitimate newspaper article about some recent NASA satellite photos of Alaska, and what they revealed about global warming.
http://www.seattlepi.com/national/article/Why-NASA-s-latest-photo-of-Alaska-is-freaking-4612565.php but that newspaper is so bogged down with crap that I gave up. 

Then, I Googled the subject and went to the source. Here is the NASA website link which includes the first part of the article and photo that was on the other site: 
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_2534.html#.VIH3f9LF-So  but it doesn't discuss the aspect of global warming.

And yes, I have pop-up blockers and virus protection that includes spyware/malware blockers. Modern advertising programmers have figured out how to get around them. Sometimes the ads are programmed in such a way that if your pop-up blocker gets in their way, they won't let you read the article at all.

Another one that pisses me off is the ad that pops up on EVERY YouTube video that I've ever tried to watch. It says "Update your Windows XP Drivers." It blocks part of the screen.  I have to click the "X" but if the video has an embedded link to subscribe (or something) then trying to turn of the pop-up activates the link.  Then I have to re-watch the first 5 or 10 seconds of the video to see what I missed while I was dicking around with the stupid banner ad.

And furthermore, anything that I look at or search for ends up being the "star" of all the pages that I normally go to FOR WEEKS.  I bought a Bissell spot clean carpet scrubber.  The ad for that is now EVERYWHERE I go.  I was searching steering wheel covers on Amazon, now they are everywhere. There are advantages and disadvantages to the whole "Big Brother is Watching" thing, but this whole "Marketing is Following You" thing is starting to piss me off.

The Holidays

I've been trying very hard to keep up my spirits and not be a grumpy old lady.  Lately, however, I'm feeling decidedly grouchy.  I think it's the holidays.  I hate the whole holiday season.  Halloween and Christmas are for kids, either being a kid or doing for a kid. Not having kids, I find it really unpleasant to watch all this greed. I refer to it as "American Retail Christmas."  It's all about gimme, gimme, gimme. 

Jewelry store commercials are the worst.  They brainwash men into believing that they are bad husbands, boyfriends, sons, fathers and brothers if they are not handing out jewelry to the women in their family every Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and Christmas. It's bull shit. Worse, they are teaching women that jewelry is the expected norm.  Do you really want the men in your life to put themselves into senseless debt just because of your greedy expectations? Do you really want a boyfriend/husband that's so financially irresponsible that he would put himself into ruin because he's been bullied by the media to give you jewelry every stupid holiday? How often can you really wear all those diamonds anyway?  You can't wear them to work.  They'll get damaged, lost or stolen. Do you really dress up enough to justify all that jewelry? Then, you have to get extra insurance to cover it all. I am a very pragmatic person, and this is impractical in my book. It's just stupid to me and pisses me off every season.

Christmas is supposed to be a celebration of the birth of Jesus. Not in America. Not any more. Jesus is practically being outlawed. It's not a religious event any more. It's about the celebration of greed by the retailers. You simply HAVE to have the latest electronic thingamajig....that costs hundreds of dollars...that will be obsolete in four months. Kids go back to school and ask all their friends, "What did you GET?" "How did you make out?"  How much of that stuff are they still going to be using in two months?  Next time you take a load to Goodwill, notice how much of it is stuff that came into your home as a Christmas gift. You think you want all this stuff, and then when you get it, you find that you have no practical application for it. You set it aside and get on to wanting the next thing that the commercials tell you that you can't be happy until you have one now. 

Before I understood marketing, it didn't bother me as much. I was a sheep being herded just like everyone else.  Now that I know how it works, I find it insulting and degrading. I resent being manipulated on every level. The advertising around the holidays make me feel like I'm strapped to a metal table with electrodes attached to my skull, and the input has been cranked up until it physically hurts. Picture the scene from "A Clockwork Orange."  Merry fucking Christmas.

September 2016 edit:  My favorite book author, Richard Paul Evans addressed this topic in his blog.  He is very PRO Christmas.  So, in the interest of equal time, I'm including his post here:  http://www.richardpaulevans.com/index.php/2015/12/03/stop-whining-that-christmas-is-too-commercial/

Product Marketing

I have allergies - a lot of them.  When I use a product, it is because: a) I'm not allergic to it, b) It does it's intended job, c) It is reasonably priced.  (I have been known to pay more for something to get those first two features, but I'd rather not.)

It really pisses me off when a product that I use, and have used for years, changes it's packaging and/or formula.  I understand that product marketing people want to attract new customers.  I get it.  But what they don't seem to get is that if you radically change the packaging (and especially the name), you are likely to lose your existing customers. 

I go to the store to get more of something that I use all the time, example> Pert Plus Dandruff Control. I don't see it in the usual place. (Don't get me started about store Plan-O-Grams).  I stand there for ten minutes looking for my item because I know some asshole has justified his job by changing the box/bottle, size, color, font, logo or name. There for awhile Pert Plus was changing the bottle color and shape about every four months.  This gripes me for several reasons:  
    1) I can't tell whether they've changed the formula of the product, or just tried to make the packaging pretty to younger shoppers. If they change the formula, then it's not the same product.  I don't know whether I'm not allergic to it. So I buy it, take it home, try it and maybe, just maybe I can continue to use it, or it makes me sneeze, wheeze, or break out in a rash. 
    2) Making the product difficult for your existing customers to find puts you at risk of losing those customers because they give up and pick something else. Not everyone is willing to stand there and read all the labels of the 200 brands of whatever to find the one that they like.  If they don't have allergies, they are likely to grab whatever is cheaper and be on their way.  
    3) If I can't find the one that I like, then I have to try to find something new.  I hate doing that because once I've opened it and used it once, I can't return it.  It goes into the trash. Less personal things I can give away to neighbors and co-workers.

Case in point: deodorant.  I can't use antiperspirant because I break out in a wicked rash within two hours.  Deodorant-only has gone out of style.  Nobody but me wants it, and I'm not enough to support a product line.  I was really happy with Right Guard original scent. I can not use the spray type because of my asthma. Surprisingly, that stuff still exists. Go figure. Anyway, they changed the name to Right Guard Sport.  I wrote to Gillette. They assured me that it was the same stuff, different packaging.  Then the original scent was discontinued.  After lots of sniffing in the store, and failed trials, I settled on "fresh" scent as being the least offensive. Then they changed the name to "24/7".  Fresh still existed, so I used that.  It worked.  It lasted longer.  It didn't make me wheeze.  Good.  Then they discontinued the deodorant-only formula. All their Right Guard versions are now anti-antiperspirant/deodorants. 

Once again, I am on a quest to find a deodorant that meets the criteria from the first paragraph.  But, wait - there's more. You may be thinking, "Just get the hypoallergenic, unscented, organic deodorant.  There are several."  I've tried them.  They don't work.  I sweat a LOT.  I stink pretty highly by 3:00.  Those products crap out on me by noon.  And they're expensive.  I tried one that is based on organic sea salt that's supposed to block/kill/prevent bacteria that causes odors.  It was $8.00.  Was supposed to last a year.  Didn't work worth a shit, and I threw it away. I've tried Burt's Bees, Jason, Arm & Hammer, Crystal, and Tom's.  All went into the trash.  I'm not allergic to them, but they don't get the job done.  I made the mistake of trying the "fresh scent" of Old Spice - sneeze and wheeze.  I gave it to my husband. Back to the store. I've been settling for Speed Stick, which is only okay, it's not great.  It gives up about 3:00, but now that I'm retired that's not so awful as it was when I worked. I'm still searching. What a pain in the ass.

Conclusion, changing the packaging of existing products is a pain in the ass to the long time customers who use it.  I don't know the statistics, but it seems to me that if you lose 2 customers to gain 4, you're not accomplishing much.  There is something to be said for keeping your loyal customers happy.