Mild Rants

One has to love the perspective of this guy who posted pseudonymously as warofwords at the web site guardian.com. I think he is right on with his incisive observations as to why the United States has become a breeding ground for Elliot Rodger types who brag about their evolutionary fitness despite evidence to the contrary. The evidence being that women would not be caught dead with him. OH MY GOD!, that was a horribly inappropriate  unintended pun: ........these wacko mommy-hating dudes are out there en masse, not just on Reddit-inflected(infected sp?) sites and not just in prison for serial rape of women and little girls. Seems Rodger's otherwise useless life served a purpose after all: to show the world there are too many violent narcissist males who think they're "nice guys" and to make a lot more women consider the benefits of lesbianism. Women were opting for lesbianism long before it was so easy for psychos to carry out the countless mass murders we see i...

Stucco is a very popular exterior surface to homes in southeastern New Mexico. The French Brother's home that you see located on Positano Loop in Roswell,NM has not been stuccoed on its front side yet. That could be because the construction site workers spend a lot of time talking boisterously while listening to loud music. The second floor scaffolding you see in picture is already in place to help them finish up their work before noon the next day. We don't know this firsthand, but were told by our babysitter who told us their loud music was really blaring one morning. She went out and looked their direction making eye contact, but that did no good. We tried to call the Alamogordo home builders to complain, but only got their answering machine repeatedly. They never replied to our message, but it did get quieter, so our message requesting that the noisy workers shut up was not ignored. I do empathize with the long hard hours that these skilled craftsman have to work, b...

The following segment of text was taken from the Los Angeles Times and requires scrutiny and objective critical analysis. This writer takes exception to the usage of the word victim in this context.  The company was aware of problems with the faulty switches, which can disable the vehicles' air bags, and owes "straight answers" to the families of the victims -- however many they may be. The company in question is General Motors and the faulty switches are ignition switches that can have the effect of disabling the car's air bags that are supposed to deploy in event of a crash.  GM most certainly did not intend for the faulty switches to result in the death of folks who were passengers in GM made vehicles. A victim is somebody who was harmed by willful or intentional actions or neglect. This standard definition relieves GM of any guilt with respect to being victimizers. Also, half the people who died in these vehicles with faulty switches could not afford a car ...

Some of the backlash from the mass murder in Isla Vista, California is certainly justified, but some of the commentary is irrational with no basis. Women attend frat parties in skin tight pants for a reason. They are trying to attract a mate or have sex. Still, if the guy makes unwanted advance, the girl always has the right to tell him to get lost. If he continues to be aggressive and won't back down, he should be disciplined or arrested. Please, let's not forget that what Elliot Rodger did is exceptionally rare. The city of Detroit has gone years without this type of horrific event ever happening! Sure Detroit has all kinds of violence, but nothing that matches the nature of what happened in the convenience store near the Santa Barbara university. I think the commentary of Maddie Clerides, while very understandable, is somewhat of an overreaction to an outlier event. Did she live in fear before gunman's rampage? She speaks of the "difficult part of our reality...

If Russell Westbrook and Sege Ibaka continue to play at their high level of game 3, then the Spurs will lose to OKC Thunder. A guy posting as Mike has a lot of contempt and disdain for Russ, to wit, here is what Westbrook says about his advantage over Tony Parker who mysteriously got tired of Eva Longoria: “At my position, my advantage is my size, my quickness and being bigger than my opponents (he already covered that when he mentioned size), so I’ve got to use it to my advantage,” Westbrook said. “Be smart about it, but use it to my advantage.” … Now Mike pretending to be Russ says "My disadvantages are my decision-making, my inability to play within a system, my ego, my overwhelming arrogance and my compulsion to do whatever I want without any thought of benefiting my team." My guess is that Mike is not very well endowed and compensates for it by criticizing the exceptional OKC guard in a setting where he does not have to look Westbrook in the eye when h...

The following harmless sounding description of what hospitals around the country are doing should be read very carefully. In particular, the phrase hoping to push them into signing up for coverage under the Affordable Care Ac t is really saying if you do NOT sign up for ObamaCare you will not be able to afford a trip to the doctor! Hospital systems around the country have started scaling back financial assistance for lower- and middle-income people without health insurance, hoping to push them into signing up for coverage through the new online marketplaces created under the Affordable Care Act. Push is a euphemistic way of saying force. Yes, we now live in a country where hospitals are being coerced into scaling back financial assistance for their poorer to middle class patients leaving these poor sick patients with only one choice which is to sign up for the ACA! Let me repeat the travesty many of our nation's citizen are facing. Around 90% of the population of America ...

Most certainly nobody can blame a grieving father for his perception of what caused his son's death. I know I play the blame game for much lesser grievances such as blaming my daughter's teacher for her failing grades, etc. However Richard Martinez blaming the NRA for his son's death in Santa Barbara, California is like blaming a baseball bat manufacturer for a beating death. His son Christopher Martinez was one of those killed in the rampage that claimed seven in the Isla Vista area near UCSB on Friday night. Dad exclaimed "When will this insanity stop? When will enough people say, 'Stop this madness!' Too many have died. We should say to ourselves, 'Not one more!'". I teared up when I read this quote. It is impossible to understand a parent's grief after they have lost a child in such a senseless way, but I still don't believe it is right to disarm the entire citizenry when 99.99% of the population is safe when shopping for groce...

This rant pits misspelled words against neurotically vertical newspaper columns. It deals with a highly attended school board meeting in Silver City New Mexico. Police and the town fire marshal were asked to attend for security and capacity concerns in the event of a fire. The criticisms levied by the attendees were rather vague, only citing a failure of leadership in the school district at the very highest level. Justin Wecks stated that teachers, staff, and even administrators live in fear of retaliation, but nothing specific was stated in this RDR article as to why many employees have been put on administrative leave for alleged disruptive actions. OK, now for the mild rant related to this Regional Roundup article. At issue is the necessity for column type articles to have each sentence end in the same position on the page even at the cost of misspelling words. Examples are failure being spelled as the "two words" fail and ure. The same for contract being spelled at ...

I know what I am about to write does not rate as a News Flash, but I just have to warn you about the American Express EveryDay credit card. In particular, they need to be exposed on the surreptitious and deceptive way they promote their 25,000 welcome points offer. Amex appears to be willing to give card holders 25,000 welcome points for $2000 worth of purchases if said purchases are made during first three months of card membership. As you can see from the pic of the offer we received via snail mail, the digit 4 is next to the offer which we all know is equivalent to a footnote that must be read to find out the true terms of the offer. This footnote indicates that only qualifying purchases apply to the $2000.  The meaning of qualified purchases was not made clear, so we called an Amex phone rep who did not seem to really know what constitutes a qualified purchase. We asked her if paying rent and bills would count as qualified purchases towards the 25,000 points. She sai...

I still remember Miss Green, my algebra teacher at Nimitz Junior High School in Odessa, TX, spanking kids who misbehaved with a hard wooden paddle. One smack on the butt was called a lick. Depending on the nature of the infraction, a kid could get one, two, or three licks. Spitballs and paper airplanes in the classroom were one lick. Kissing a girl in the hallway was two licks. There were plenty of young horny males who would kiss their girlfriend in hallway in front of teachers, knowing they would get two licks AND also knowing they would impress their girlfriend with their chivalrous, brave act willing to take a lick for their sweetheart! Getting licks was not that common because they served the function of deterring bad and disruptive behavior. I read with dismay at the soft stance our society is taking with respect to school discipline. What follows is from a 2005 article in the Houston Chronicle and does not cite the sources for why corporal punishment is bad. Inflicting mini...

The quote that follows was uttered by police commissioner Robert Copeland, age 82, of Wolfeboro NH.  "I believe I did use the 'N' word in reference to the current occupant of the Whitehouse," Copeland said in the April email sent to the two other commissioners and forwarded to O'Toole. "For this, I do not apologize — he meets and exceeds my criteria for such."   Jane O'Toole, a resident of Wolfeboro, overheard the octogenarian's harsh,contemptuous, racial epithet while she and Copeland were dining at the same restaurant. I wonder if O'Toole's life is so empty and void of substance that she had nothing better to do than report the results of her eavesdropping to city officials?  Robert Copeland's admission that he referred to our president as the F____ing N-Word is quite refreshing when politicians routinely lye about what they believe and say. Witness Chris Christie's prevarications about causing the traffic jam between Ne...

Thomas Sowell, author of Conflict of Visions, coined the phrase articulated rationality, partially, to describe liberal thinkers who thought their description and solutions to the problems of the world only had to be implemented or put to law in order fix things. I want you to read the following articulated rationality penned by P.J. O'Rourke in his acerbic fake commencement speech to graduates of Rutger's University. While I agree with O'Rourke that university grads these days are way weaker than kiddos who graduatec in the 70s and 80s, I wanted to point out a substantive flaw contained in the following paragraph of his pseudo commencement speech. He did not actually give the commencement speech, but I would have paid big bucks to be there if he had! What intrigues me is that there are 31.1 million Americans between 18 and 24, and 21.8 million of you—70 percent—are going to college. It is not possible that 70 percent of you are among the 50 percent of you who are above...

Do any of your remember the long road trips with your parents back in the 60s where you would pull over and help a motorist with a flat or maybe even pick up a hitchhiker? Those days are long gone in the United States. Most people have plans with their cell phone or Smart Phone service provider. We pay Sprint a little bit each month for road side emergencies such as a dead battery or flat tire. We also never pull over and help anybody due to the chance of violence or foul play. These days people will cheat and steal to get what they want a lot more than they did when I was growing up. Read the following account of what a mother did to fool people into giving her $31000 in donations for her "sick daughter". She did this behind her husband's back!  Teresa Milbrandt shaved her daughter's hair and gave her sleeping pills to make it seem like she was receiving chemotherapy treatment, made her wear a protective mask and put her in counseling to prepare for death. ...

Buying a brand new home can be very stressful. New neighbors, HOA, property tax, the burden of maintaining homes appearance so as not to become an eyesore that will diminish the neighborhood's property value, nosy neighbors who do not have the guts to tell you face to face that your weeds exceed the 6 inch height limit imposed by the city of Grand Junction in this case!!, etc. We still do not know who ratted us out to the city back in 2008 when we lived near what was then Mesa State College. My wife had not adapted to the move from Amarillo, TX and missed her old friends. She was supposed to have been the "weed eater" of the family as I was stressed at work with a control freak, micromanaging boss. Our lot was certainly under an acre and did not comply with the 40 year old law that said a property of this size was required to have all weeds cut. We received a violation notice giving us 10 days to be compliant. My wife ignored, due to depression and fear of being ou...

This is not a personal rant as I have never worked at Chase Bank, but I would hope the reader will allow a 3rd person rant for the daughter of a close colleague I will call Jill. Jill was employed as a personal banker at Chase Bank. Jill's first beef with them was her job title of personal banker. Her perception of what a banker's duties and responsibilities entailed was the traditional role of an individual who sized up her client's risk as a borrower and then made an informed choice about whether to lend and how much to lend. Was Jill ever wrong. She said she was more trained to have a high percentage of customers purchase chase products like checking accounts, credit cards, annuities whether these products were a really good fit for the particular customer's needs or not! Even if she knew they could get a better APR by just going online, she still had to push the "incredible advantages" of qualifying for a Chase credit card. She was micromanaged t...

It appears that Apple got away with financial murder in a recent class action suit involving 64,000 class members! If you believe the words of former Apple employee and freelance programmer Michael Devine, then Apple's punishment was far from commensurate with the financial harm and stress they caused all their former employees. Please read Mr. Devine's words which, in plain language, accentuate the flagrantly unfair court ruling that did not justly compensate members of the class action lawsuit. I guess a company with 150 billion dollars in cash, which exceeds the cash reserves of Israel and Britain, can purchase justice that screws over the little guy who can not afford the legal counsel required to get fair compensation.  “As an analogy,” Mr. Devine wrote, “if a shoplifter is caught on video stealing a $400 iPad from the Apple Store, would a fair and just resolution be for the shoplifter to pay Apple $40, keep the iPad, and walk away with no record or admission of wrong...

At least twice in Houston,TX, Walmart has been sued by the family of a shoplifter. Yes, that's right! Somebody stole goods from Walmart and their theft control employees tried to restrain the thief resulting in the world's largest retailer having to defend themselves in court. The following theft occurred at the 1960 Atascocita location back in 2004. The perpetrator appeared to be a meth head who ripped off around 100 dollars worth of merchandise and then ran out of the store with loss-prevention employees in hot pursuit. The perpetrator, Stacy Driver, was pinned to the ground in Walmart parking lot. Driver continued to struggle rather than admit he had stolen the items and await his day in court. Driver died in the Walmart parking lot, one of the causes of his death being  hyperthermia with methamphetamine toxicity. His family sued Walmart retaining Jim Lindeman as their legal counsel. I don't have any idea what the basis of their lawsuit could be. A guy high on me...

The newspaper headline read fast food workers plan protest for US and other countries. Union representatives from Panama, Hong Kong ,New Zealand, Italy and Argentina assembled in New York this week to formulate their strategies for protests and demonstrations. One of the protester's demands is $15 per hour for any US fast food worker. This initiative is getting support from the service employees international Union which has around 2 million members. Our change president Obama and Democratic lawmakers will be delighted to raise the federal minimum wage in an election year. All the poor people and lowlifes voted him into office to begin with, so what's new? Giving fast food workers $15 an hour is the same thing as saying it's okay that you screwed off in school and made nothing of your life, the government and hard working tax payers will take care of you anyway. Part of the reason for the widely publicized income gap is the existence of lazy people who have ...

With all the school shootings that have plagued our nation, let's not forget the brutal revenge type of shootings that have gone on in the work place frequently with the some type of murder-suicide pattern. There is as much bullying in the work place as there are in United States schools. I enjoy seeing a bully get what he or she deserves as their actions are disruptive and often unchecked.  This work place shooting blast from the past, pun intended, occurred in July of 2004 in Kansas City, Kansas and should remind bullies to think twice before picking on people. Everybody has a breaking point or a snap threshold. Give people their due respect and quit being domineering and arrogant or you could end up the subject of a National news piece.                   A disgruntled worker at a meatpacking  plant killed four fellow                employees and wounded three others  Friday aftern...

The following snippet came from an article in the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel back in 2006. It deals with the difficulties many older couples face in their quest to remain independent . It details the plight of an elderly gentleman, who has lost his driver's license, but wants to still be able to drive to grocery store to help and take care of his invalid wife. The city of Cedaredge must perceive old folks in golf carts as a safety hazard.            A “lot of golfers are upset” because the Cedaredge        town marshal decided to keep golf carts off city streets, but        no one is more upset than 92-year-old Bill Glassford.       Glassford said because he can’t drive a car any more, he has        used his golf cart for close to a year to get to the grocery       store to shop for himself and his wife Lillie, who is 95 and       confined to ...

Kevin Durant's poignant heart-felt MVP speech about the indispensable role of his courageous and sacrificing mother was sincere and moving to all who listened as his dear Mom was shedding tears in the audience. Do any of you remember the days where there were certain things that were NOT for sale?  I miss those days but know we will never be able to revert to them.  Durant's mother often went hungry to feed her growing family and is obviously an exemplary parenting model for all to follow. Read the following quote from KD's agent on offers that could, combined, triple his 15 million dollars NBA contract.  Ever since Kevin Durant's speech acknowledging his NBA most valuable player award, his agent says offers are coming in like a 5-on-1 fast break. "Everyone is calling and saying that's the kind of guy we want to be affiliated with," said Michael Yormark, president & chief of branding and strategy for Roc Nation, the sports agency recently start...

Calling this even a mild rant is a stretch, but I was quite amused at this advertisement by an advertiser in a local small town newspaper. This Roswell Daily Record ad rightly points out that newspaper advertising is a destination and not a distraction. This is an obvious criticism of the intrusive nature of the pop up, screen changing ads that we are annoyed by online.  The new editor, Tim Howsare, of this paper offers price savings via decreased rates for business owners or individuals who want to increase the frequency of their advertisements. However, the irony of an entity who makes their living advertising delineating the benefits of advertising in the form of their own advertisement is self referentially humorous! Welcome Jeff Tucker, a former Marine, semi-pro baseball player,coach, and Purdue BoilerMaker to the staff of the RDR.

All conscientious citizens are aware of the crucial role farmers play in their well being. A scarcity  of farmers means food shortages and higher prices to get sustenance imported from other regions or countries.  I don't know of a farmer that does not rely heavily on his pick up truck which leads to the corpus of this rant. It involves a hard working United States farmer who has never had any traffic tickets and has faithfully paid his insurance premiums on time every month of every year for the last 11 years! What follows is the farmer's account of the struggles he met trying to insure a used truck he paid cash for: This day started off great. Found me a truck,and paid cash for it. Went to the title department. Then on to get my tags. every thing went smooth. I said to myself, all that's needed now is to get it insured at State Farm. Might mention here I have been a customer for over 30 years. Have a 92 Ford Crown Victoria Full coverage for 6 months $158.00 a...

I know individual state laws vary for a good reason as each state is unique and we all can not be forced to comply with an all encompassing, monolithic  set of federal  laws. However, I still wish what Portland, Oregon calls accessory dwelling units were legal in all 50 states. We call them garage apartments in New Mexico or just a backyard house. I get that next door neighbors may not be too fond of having two families living on a single family lot. After all, they moved into the neighborhood under the assumption that single family lot MEANS single family lot, but having a sick relative living closer than next door has many obvious benefits for the caregiver and could save the expense of an impersonal nursing home. I am not sure why Oregon appears to be one of the few states that allow backyard houses as it seems the neighbors in the great state of Oregon would be just at likely to be irritated by such domiciles. What follows is a snippet from the New York Times which d...

I remember loving Math until I took statistics at Mesa State University in Grand Junction Colorado. The professor was a nice guy, but could not get the stuff across to most of the class. It was that way with all the stats teachers there. They understood it, but only the brightest kids in the class came close to understanding them. I think that is the way it is with statistics everywhere. It's just hard to understand it the first time through the class. I wanted to mention a problem the prof went over the SECOND time I took statistics. I was usually bored out of my mind in class, but this problem was fun and interesting and actually happened to me near the Eisenhower Tunnel. I was only 8 over the speed limit but that damn cop must not have met his quota that month! Anyways I pasted this problem from one of his exams into this post because it was cool how you could calculate your chances of getting a speeding ticket. I am not sure if he was talking about the Eisenhower Tunnel...

Read what Mary Sanchez had to say about the execution of Clayton Lockett: In the minds of many, cruel and unusual was just what Locket deserved. In 1999, he forced 19-year-old Stephanie Neiman to watch as her grave was dug. He shot her as she stood in it. The gun jammed. He shot her as she begged for her life. Then, the teenager was buried, alive. Nobody disputes Lockett's guilt or the horror of his crime. But what was done to Lockett was an unjustifiably gruesome act of homicide. And the United States' obsession with finding a more comfortable, "humane" way to commit government-sanctioned homicide has led us to this place. Clayton Lockett buried a 19 year old woman alive and Mary Sanchez is pining against what she refers to a government-sanctioned homicide. What she characterizes as an unjustifiably gruesome act of homicide was a series of mistakes in administration of the lethal execution. I doubt the relatives of Stephanie Neiman are losing any sleep over ...

First, I want the reader to know that this writer is not trying to detract from the stellar performance of the Portland Trailblazers in round one of the NBA playoffs this year. They eliminated a very talented Houston Rockets team in 6 games with a thrilling close out win in Portland where Damian Lillard canned a walk off 3 pointer as Chandler Parsons was late on his defensive assignment. Here comes the rant. Parsons had grabbed an offensive rebound and put the ball back in the bucket to give the Rockets a 98-96 lead with 0.9 seconds remaining(according to the score keeper) to set up the game winning heroics by Lillard. Parson's layup off the glass after the rebound was bouncing around on the rim with 2.5 seconds remaining level with the rim at 1 second. The score keeper stopped the clock with 0.9 seconds before the ball even made it through the net! None of the Rocket's coaching staff noticed this error or intentional premature stoppage of the official game clock thus...

This CNET headline titled Google brushes off a self-described Google employee's account of serious and widespread AdSense fraud as a "complete fiction." has all the earmarks of a disgruntled employee.   The alleged former employee claims that some AdSense accounts set for big payouts are being unfairly suspended. It is likely that this former employee is committing an act of retaliation for perceived injustices committed by his employer. Google only suspends AdSense accounts if account holder is superficially driving traffic to his website, telling his friends and relatives to click on the ads with no intent of purchasing products or service, publishing objectionable adult content, etc. Google is fair about paying AdSense Publishers as long as legitimate, organic traffic driven via search engines is directed to the Publisher website resulting in an inquiring click about a product or service.   What is meant by an organic search or traffic? Rephrasing the abov...

Louis Cherry of Raleigh,NC had applied for and received a building permit for a home that he had designed and was building in a historically designated region of the city. Cherry, an architect, after completing the construction of 80% of his dream house came to realize he had a neighbor from hell. The meddler and apparent curmudgeon apparently believes their opinion of what constitutes code violations supersedes a legally obtained building permit. Any opposition to the homes erection should have been voiced before it was almost complete and 100,000 dollars had been spent! What follows is a snippet from local newspaper His neighbor appealed the decision, saying the house did not follow the historic guidelines. Cherry says he was aware of the complaint but was told by the city that the appeal was procedural and not a threat to the project. Last month, the Board of Adjustment agreed with the neighbor and overturned the approval. By that time, the house was 80 percent built, ...

Michael Shermer may be the most skeptical man in the world. One of his tweets at the world famous micro blogging site seves to illustrate: @michaelshermer: My retort: Adding "alien intelligence" to explaining the pyramids is not legit bc no evidence of ETIs, but lots of evidence of Egyptians. Shermer stating there is no evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence is a little like him saying there is no evidence of a God. Many at Twiiter poke fun at Shermer's dyed in the wool, extremely skeptical vantage point.  Shermer chose to waste a lot of time tweeting a photo of a bridge he was crossing as though people cared. He wanted to know how many Tweeters recognized the bridge. One of his followers shot back: @michaelshermer the bridge of unyielding,monolithic,recalcitrant,eternal skepticism no doubt :) There are many powerful over sensitive egos at Twitter competing to say something witty or clever. Many of the famous subscribers rarely if ever acknowledge the t...

I had to comment on the following quote from an exceptionally intelligent person. The ethnicity of the person penning the quote is most certainly black even though I can not conclusively assure the reader of this claim. At issue is an article by Charlie Gardiner-Hill, who wrote what many think is a knee-jerk racist article. Hill seems to have construed the "Blacking Up" that happened at the Hatfield Charity Fashion Show as overtly racist. I don't think Annie Robinson or Flo Perry crossed any racial lines or offended anybody other than Charlie himself. I certainly do not know of any Durham students who construed the events at this charitable function as attacking blacks even in subtle ways. Easy Charlie, if you don't have anything to write about, then do not create unnecessary drama! I always thought Brits had much more thicker skin than most Americans. How surprising, another white guy thinking his voice is the most important on this issue which actually has lit...

I realize that cheating spouses are a major problem often destroying families and ripping apart   child supporting relationships. However, I was still disappointed to see the following advertisement which only fans the flames rather than attempting to strengthen the crumbling institution of marriage. The ad, named Is He Cheating On You?, urges you to enter your husband's email address so it can search for hidden pictures or profiles on social networks or online bulletin boards. Any man who was fooling around on his wife would likely be using many different alias emails. I am not condoning anything that would catalyze marital discord. However, a married woman surfing the internet, who has no reason to believe her husband is fooling around, might have the seeds of doubt planted only because she viewed an online private investigator advertisement.

I know the title of this article is hackneyed and has been written about countless times, but I could not resist after hearing a story of one of my relatives. Jenny lives in a very conservative region in south eastern New Mexico and is surrounded by devout baptists. Many of her friends almost convulse when describing testimonial moments where they were convinced God had made a life changing difference in their life. One of her friend fools around on her husband who is always out of town on business partly because she believes her husband is cheating on her when he travels. Her friend believes that going to Church every Sunday will set her straight in God's eyes even though she has rough sex in seedy hotels the Saturday night before she is bowing her head in forgiveness on Sunday.She preaches the 10 commandments to her kids particularly emphasizing that lying and stealing will not be tolerated in the eyes of the Good Lord. Jenny's friend works a job where she is issued...