So I thought long and hard about the question for oh…. at least 1 second and came up with a much better answer:

COVERAGE.

However, gas prices now are significantly less than that high that was reached. As a result the prices I pay at the grocery store should also have dropped accordingly. After all, as they said at the time, it was the price of gas causing the problem, not them. But they haven’t. Not at all. I am still paying the same price in a lot of cases and MORE in many others.

Grocery prices in the US are much higher than elsewhere in the world anyway. Many years ago that wasn’t the case. Back in 1973 when I first lived in the US grocery prices were significantly cheaper than the UK – where I hail from. When I came over here in 2003 that position was reversed. The UK was way cheaper. What happened America?

Anyway, back to the present. Gas prices have gone down – my grocery bill has headed in the other direction. Not even for a few weeks was the drop in gas reflected in supermarket prices. So just who is responsible for me feeling ripped off? Trucking companies not dropping their “unavoidable” rise in delivery costs? Or the supermarkets who liked the higher prices which once gas prices dropped meant higher profits?

Fortunately for us we have a log fire and a reasonable supply of logs which meant that we weren’t totally without heat. It wasn’t great – we could get the den up to about 62F – but it was certainly better than the rest of the house which very quickly dropped to 40F. We always have food and water on hand for emergencies and thanks to a camping gas stove we could at least cook after a fashion.

We also have a small radio (also for emergencies) and so we tuned in to try and find out what was happening. There’s half a dozen local stations so we didn’t think that would be too hard. Boy, were we ever wrong. What we needed to know were details of the power outages (and what steps were being taken to repair the downed lines) and whether our area had even been reported as out and of course what Verizon were up to as regards downed phone lines. With the phone out we couldn’t report the power out. Cellphone coverage where we live (a whole 25 miles from the state capital) is non-existent.

Every station told us that it was snowing and going to snow some more. Really? I’d never have known that. Unless, of course, I’d looked out the window. Only one station had anything about power outages – a recording of some jerk saying they’d spoken to the power company who said they didn’t know when power would be restored for anyone. This information was deemed so useful they repeated it every hour. Nothing about the phones at all. That was Saturday.

On the Sunday even that “useful” bit of in formation had disappeared. In it’s place we got a really, really, really useful list of churches that would be closed and that was it. Nothing else at all. What the fuck? We were relatively ok but undoubtedly there were people out there actually in danger. How about (at the very least) some useful info for them? Like… oh… I don’t know… oh yeah! Emergency shelters so they didn’t freeze to death?

One broadcast that caught my attention was the governor “calling for answers.” Aha! maybe he’s not impressed either I thought. Apparently though he only wanted answers as to why the turnpike hadn’t been closed resulting in many motrists being trapped. Of course, not a word that they were dumb-ass enough to be on the turnpike with a snowstorm forecast. And not a word about the shitty infrastructure. I guess Joe had heat and phone service in his mansion.

To cut a long sad saga short it was Christmas Eve (6 days after the outage) that we got power back and 9 days after the outage that we got the phones back. I am not for one second criticizing the guys out there doing the repair work – that’s a hard-assed and very cold job. I do criticize the companies behind them though. Not enough staff for dealing with something that happens every winter here.

As for Verizon, when we could finally get off the mountain and into a cellphone area with coverage, my wife reported our phone out and was told it would be a further 8 days before the line got fixed. Our line was actually fine it was a trunk line that was screwed. We rent two lines through Verizon and it’s far from cheap. We also both work from home and Verizon’s incapacity to cope had already cost us a $1000 and so she complained saying that wasn’t good enough. The Verizon rep immediately replied with an extremely snotty “Do you realize it snowed ma’am?” No shit Sherlock. Like we didn’t know.

I have lived in Canada where the snowfall makes West Virginia’s “storm” look like a brief flurry. Did the power go out there? No. Did the phone lines go out? No. I have also lived and worked in Iceland. Same thing only they get 50MPH winds as regular as clockwork to go with the snow. Same story. No interruption to service.

If power lines hadn’t been done on the cheap here (as in most of the US) and had been buried (there’s a novel concept) as many countries have done the power wouldn’t have gone out would it? Phones yes. Power no.

As for the radio stations I consider their contribution to the community to be the crappiest I have ever experienced any time, anywhere. They were about as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike. God help this country if the weather ever truly causes the wheel to come off.

Per the FDA’s press release:

“Under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, a substance added intentionally to food (such as caffeine in alcoholic beverages) is deemed “unsafe” and is unlawful unless its particular use has been approved by FDA regulation, the substance is subject to a prior sanction, or the substance is Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS).”

Now personally I wouldn’t buy any of these energy drinks. I don’t need them and I doubt you do either.

The FDA obviously has our best interests at heart. Doesn’t it make you feel safer to know they’re being so vigilant on our behalf?

It’s just a thought but don’t you think they’d be better off (and we’d be safer) targeting stuff that lists such side effects as lymphoma and death and getting the companies that market them to prove that they are safe instead?

That Keen member is called Astrodaija.

The e-mail unsubscribe button doesn’t seem to work – she’s unsubscribed 11 times now.

Reporting the member to Keen doesn’t work – that’s been done 3 times. They still let Astrodaija’s unwanted mail spam her.

As for the much vaunted CAN-SPAM legislation I wonder if that’s worth the paper it’s written on as reporting Astrodaija there 3 times hasn’t had any effect either.

Keen’s service provider doesn’t seem interested. Despite their “we don’t tolerate spam” spoutings they haven’t even had the courtesy to reply.

So… just what do we have to do to get this damn spammer off our backs?

1.Afghanistan
2.Antigua/Barbuda
3.Bahamas
4.Bahrain
5.Bangladesh
6.Barbados
7.Belarus
8.Belize
9.Botswana
10.Burundi
11.Cameroon
12.Chan
13.China
14.Comoros
15.Congo (Democratic Republic)
16.Cuba
17.Dominica
18.Egypt
19.Equatorial Guinea
20.Ethiopia
21.Guatemala
22.Guinea
23.Guyana
24.India
25.Indonesia
26.Iran
27.Iraq
28.Jamaica
29.Japan
30.Jordan
31.Kazakstan
32.Korea (North)
33.Kuwait
34.Lebanon
35.Lesotho
36.Libya
37.Malaysia
38.Mongolia
39.Nigeria
40.Oman
41.Pakistan
42.Palestinian Authority
43.Qatar Saint Christopher & Nevis
44.Saint Lucia
45.Saint Vincent & Grenadines
46.Saudi Arabia
47.Sierra Leone
48.Singapore
49.Somalia
50.Sudan
51.Syria
52.Taiwan
53.Tajikistan
54.Thailand
55.Trinidad & Tobago
56.Uganda
57.United Arab Emirates
58.United States
59.Viet Nam
60.Yemen
61.Zimbabwe

For “extraordinary” crimes there are also:

1.Bolivia
2.Brazil
3.Cook Islands
4.El Salvador
5.Fiji
6.Israel
7.Kyrgyzstan
8.Latvia
9.Peru

There are some thirty odd countries that still have the death penalty on the statute books but do not practice it. So… take a look at the company you keep America and then tell me that you’re at the forefront of society.

The number of so-called experts (almost everyone I meet apparently) who feel qualified to pass judgment is quite staggering. Which is really quite strange as not many Americans as a percentage of the population have ever actually been there and of those who have I wonder just how many of them had to use our medical services. Funnily enough 65% of Americans can’t even find the UK on world map. Actually if you think that’s bad 20% of Americans can’t even find America on a world map.

As I said the number of lies spouted as fact has finally pissed me off. American health care sucks in comparison. And yes I do have knowledge of the system here. And in the UK of course, and also Canada, Iceland and New Zealand.

I really felt like banging my head against the wall over all this – I can’t believe that Americans can be so dumb as to fall for all the crap being talked about health care. As for a protester carrying a placard saying “get your government hands of my medicare” well, words failed me.

Still, on a lighter note (at least to me anyway – it stopped my feeling quite so angry at all the morons), the following statistic illustrates quite nicely why the “experts” can safely be ignored (and why the gene pool is in such danger) -  18% of Americans think the Sun revolves around the Earth.

I kid you not.

I have about twelve web sites at the last count and not one of them has ever used this technique. Nor will they ever. Pop-ups (or unders) are annoying and iniquitous. No visitor likes them. And for all you web masters out there that think pop-ups are the greatest thing since sliced bread try conducting a survey and see what results you get. I did years ago and the results showed that an overwhelming 98% “hated” them. And the other 2% “didn’t care.” Nobody voted in favor of them.

Back then I was relatively new to web design and although I hated the damn things personally I was prepared to use them should my visitors want them. Well, they obviously didn’t and neither do I.

One of the beauties of the Internet is that there is a vast amount of choice available. I have seen pop-ups result from mouse movement on the page, clicking on a link, time spent on page, closing the window, and just plain old appear as soon as you get to the page. I don’t care what technique is used I will immediately go elsewhere and I will not go back.

As a user I do NOT have to put up with this insidious crap.

Let me put it this way…

If somebody came up to you in the street and shoved a flyer in your face without asking, would you…

1) Say “Oh gosh. Thanks so much. I really wanted to see that.”

or…

2) Say “Fuck off” or something similar?

Think about it and then change your mind about using them.

Well… here we go again.

I was in Clendenin today and as I was entering a tobacco store two cops were leaving. Not too much out of the ordinary there except that…

… they had entered the store in order to warn the manager/proprietor that they were going to be conducting “stings” in that store in the next few days.

Ummm… I thought the idea was to:

1. Catch tobacco stores that don’t card.

or…
 
2. Catch tobacco stores that allow underage buying of tobacco.

or…

3. Catch tobacco stores that allow underage buying of cigarettes.

How fucked up can you get?