A Little Environmental Advertising

Wonder why we don't see this type of advertising during out evening tv. Courtesy of tree hugger.

Way of Life

Currently congress (passed in the house, pending in the senate) is debating a climate bill that will have sweeping (probably not) effects across this country; restricting global warming pollutants and promoting green energy. Republicans and some Democrats are fighting the bill saying, "it will increase the price of energy." and "it will effect our standard of living." As if, we have a god given right to the higher than average standard of living we have become accustomed to. Prior to the 50's the average America family spent just under 20% of their income on food, today that's dropped to around 9% of our income. All thanks to government and tax payer provided food subsidies, resulting in our becoming the fattest nation in the world. When gas prices hit 4 dollars a gallon, we threw a fit because our highway and car dependant nation can't cope with paying that much for a gallon of gas to fill our SUV's and trucks. When people stop spending in our consumer based economy, we end up in a nation wide depression. Last month, we finally made the switch to digital television, a switch that kept getting postponed because we wanted to make sure everyone could get converter boxes. As if going without television equates to being water boarded in Guantanamo. We expect cheep clothing and electronics, despite the fact that they are manufactured by a nation of Chinese making less in a day than we make in a week.

Why should we be forced to conserve electricity, perhaps turning off one of the 3 televisions in our homes, while surfing the net, with all the lights on or air-conditioning cranked up? Why should we walk to the park or the children's game when it's so much easier to fit everything in the minivan?

What a bunch of spoiled disgusting slobs we have become, with our expectation and rights as Americans. Our country of Christians and god worshiping people, without concern for the future as long as we pray and pay every Sunday. A nation of blind eyes to the world, of takers who donate a few bucks to that tax deductable charity so that we can feel good about ourselves for Christmas. An ever increasing nation that will exceed 400 million within 50 years, only to consume more with our expectation that our governments job is to continue this way of life.

Assuming the bill ends up passing, and Obama signs it, special interests will have had such an effect on it, that any real significant impact on the environment will be so reduced, so as to make all the effort worth less than the paper it's written on. But at least I will still be able to type these blog posts with my cheep electric bill.

Jacko

"So sad, so shocking"
"The world mourns"
"From Indian to infamy to immortality"
"The Death of an Icon"
Fans gather to mourn and shed tears"
"A star for the ages"


Really! Two days ago, if someone mentioned Michael Jackson it would be in the form of ridicule. Now that he's dead, every news source on the planet is splashed with headlines about his death and what a great loss. This world disgusts me! You know who else died yesterday - Farrah Fawcett. Not that anyone would know about that, as her death is relegated to the back pages behind Wacko Jackson. But then again, it's all about headlines and hypocrisy. We thought he was a sicko perv when he was alive, but now that he's dead, we are all devastated.

Walking down the hall this morning, and the music coming from an office... Michael.

I need a drink.

Sanford Goes Down

I will fully admit that I'm one of the first people to cry fowl when a Republican Politician, steps across moral boundaries. This doesn’t have so much to do with what that person did, in so much as it has to do with Republicans claim to be the party of moral authority. Now, having said that, I think we are getting a little out of control in the way we are treating members of both parties for things like stepping outside of the marriage. Today South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford announced that he was having an affair with another woman and some people want him to step down from office. Until this week, I had never heard of the guy, but from what little I've read it sounds like he wasn't that bad of a governor. Even going against his own party on occasion. Many of our greatest political leaders throughout history have had extramarital affairs; Jefferson, Kennedy, FDR, and of course recently Bill Clinton.

When will this hypocritical moral authority that perpetuates this country end? When will we allow others to live and let live? Be and let be? Or sleep with whom the hell they want?

According to the story, Sanford's wife knew about the affair, and if she chose to stay with him, then let it be. The conservatives cry, "It's a family matter." when we trash talk Bristol Palin, yet it's not a family matter when someone has an affair. We as a nation can't separate the home life and the work life when it's a man stepping outside of the marriage? Yet a girl who's a proponent of abstinence only education, proves why that type of education doesn't work, is allowed to go without criticism?

Let the persons on the job record stand for who they are on the job, and let the personal record stay personal. And let God deal with it, when it's time.

A Break From the Break Room

As my overwhelmingly negative disposition continues from each day to day towards my co-workers in the never ending vat of Monotony that is my job. I find myself with a constant urge to bitch slap nearly everyone I encounter in the break room. Is it the holier that thou attitude that goes along with the blue badge they are provided with upon hiring? Possible, but I doubt it, as I'm sure many that I encounter are contingent staff such as myself. Is it that I'm in a hurry to retrieve my liquid refreshment and they are interfering with the retrieval? No, not really. There is no meeting that I'm running late for, or last minute project in need of completion. In fact, standing waiting on someone to continually rinse out there cup in the sink, is that much time away from my desk staring at the screen that is my life. And at that, I think we hit on the head of the problem. These people don't have the look of disdain for the life they have chosen to lead, the desire to be out living in the world, doing something worthwhile. They accepted this is there existence, and are proud of the job they do; working for the soulless corporate giants that have overtaken this country. Could I leave and do something worthwhile, something I enjoy? I could, but as a slave to the dollar: that check I receive paying the most I have ever received, while doing the least, is hard to give up. And so I stay, hating others as I hate myself for a job well done.

Barking Bitches

I live in a pretty closed in neighborhood. Neighbors beside, behind, and all around me. Directly behind me, just on the other side of the fence is a family that has a small dog. It's one of those dogs that barks at everything at all times. It doesn't matter what, it could be my dog just laying in the back yard, or it could be the wind. Occasionally the owners will try to quite the dog, but it's rare that they do so. Most of the time, no matter what time of day, they just let it bark.

Yesterday afternoon while walking my dog, I decided to walk past the front of there home. My actual intent was to scope the fence out. I had been thinking quite a bit about making the dog disappear. Now don't freak out, I wasn't going to kill it. I was going to take it to a pound as a lost dog in some neighboring city.

Anyway, as I was walking past, the owners of the dog were in the garage. So I changed my mind and decided to do the neighborly thing and talk to them nicely. I introduced myself, and brought the subject up. The guy was actually pretty cool about it.

"Yes, we know." he said, "She even has a hard time on conference calls from home with him barking."

The woman on the other hand, got all bitchy about it. "He doesn't bark that much." she told me, "and when he does, I bring him inside."

"Actually, he barks constant all the time." Right now, he's in the back yard barking." We paused to listen.

Throughout the conversation, she blamed everything under the sun as to the cause of the barking, without taking any responsibility. "he's only a year old." to "He's barking at your dog." to even, "Your dog barks to."

WTF is wrong with women! Why is it the guy can be cool and say, "sorry, we'll try to work on it." to a women who responds with, "it's not my fault - it's your dogs fault - he doesn't bark that much."

I've never experienced this with my generation, but what ever happened to the time when neighbors actually tried to be nice to one another? I've heard rumors that there was a point in America, that people actually were "neighborly". What's being neighborly get you these days? Nothing. I should have just stuck with my original plan of disappearing the dog. Now I can't do it because I'd be the first suspect.

Gods Wrath Reaches the Scouts

"The LORD is slow to get angry, but his power is great, and he never lets the guilty go unpunished" - Nahum 1:2-8

According to some douche-bag over at a site called Republican Faith Chat the swine flu is Gods way of punishing non-believers, Catholics, and Mexicans. For what reason is God punishing these people, we can only guess? Is he punishing for a lack of faith, or perhaps he's just thinning out the flock? Or maybe he's punishing those of us for worshipping false idols? For example; the Boy Scouts of America and their worshiping of the false idols attached to their shirts in the form of badges. Sure, the Boy Scouts have shunned the gay and lesbian community as per their perceived word of God. And sure, they teach children useful survival skills that they will need during the apocalypse. But darn those children for the constant desire to get those badges instead of focusing on God and the desire to reach heaven like they should be.

Ten Boy Scouts attending camp near Asheville, TN tested positive for the flue with more being tested due to symptoms. Eight scouts in Dunwoody, GA tested positive for swine flu and six others reported symptoms in the camp, and two more in Florida have tested positive.

I’ve figured out the pattern. It’s a southern states thing. So there can be only one explanation for this outbreak in the Boy Scouts of the south… Southerners, God is pissed and he's coming after your conservative taught children! That's what you get for voting George Bush into office twice. That's what you get for preaching the word of God on the weekends, all the while treating your fellow man (gays and lesbians) as sub-humans. That's what you get for causing the U.S. Civil War in defense of slavery. That's right southerners, he's let it go on way to long, and now it's time for biblical style retribution. You better pray harder and start treating others with respect.

Fish-Ray Glasses

My gal pal over at Seattle Freeze had an interesting post today about PETA stinking up the fish market in Seattle. Speaking of fish, check out this video from Greenpeace.

But It's Not Google

Not the typical Cranky Monkey post, but since I work for the company, and usually smack talk it in the process, I feel I should balance it out by speaking positively about the company when they deserve it.

I've been using Microsoft's new search engine bing, since before it's launch last week (previously called kumo) and have to say, I don't hate it. Yes, the search relevancy still isn't quite on par with google ,but other than that, I'd say it's a nice tool. It does an excellent job of organizing the results. Video and image results are also pretty top notch.

Microsoft has spent a lot of money and effort to overtake yahoo as the number 2 search engine, and as of last week it has, according to PC World. Of course, we'll have to wait for the novelty to wear off and see if it stays at number 2, and/or possibly move closer to number one. It wouldn't surprise me though, if we see some of the existing bing functionality show up at some point in google search.

Drinking American Airlines Pilot

This isn't really that big of news, but since I can't stand American Airlines I feel the need to post any negative news I see about the company. A pilot who was about ready to fly a plane got busted for drinking before the flight. - full story on MSNBC -

Washington Worst for Tickets

Yea! Washington State made the top 10 for being one of the worst states for tickets, according to a National Motorists Association rankings, Washington came in 9th. It makes me so proud to know that my tax dollars, are going towards some jackass sitting around writing BS tickets.

Click -here- for full story about how cities are using traffic laws to generate revenue

Stupid Sun Screen

80 degrees, hanging out on the water in the Puget Sound on a nice little sail boat all weekend long. Add to that a nice breeze to fill the sails, and cool the skin. What could be more pleasant? Nothing until you get home to find the sun burn you are sporting from your neck up! WTF sun screen?!?! I thought your job was to project this shit from happening, you dirty whore?

So for my cranky monkey moment of the day- I've decided to add sun screen to the list of things I hate. SPF my ass!

Police Academy Dropout # 23

How many of us at some point have wanted to do this. This guy noticed a cop flying past him, who wasn't on a call, so he decided to chase the cop down and confront him. The police are the ones who are supposed to enforce the law, it's unfortunate that more often than not, they don't feel they need to actually follow the law themselves. They speed, the run red lights, and they drive in the carpool lanes. The only times they aren't doing those things, is when they are writing the rest of us tickets for doing them.

Here's the video of the chase with the cop. It's a bit long, so you might want to skip ahead to the actual confrontation. Or click here for the story on wavy.com

Un-Green America

A couple of months ago Seattle had a “Green Festival,” which was mostly a bunch of venders selling their “environmentally friendly” products. Being one who cares a little about the environment, I decided to go and check it out. I was given a bag full of paper products upon entering. The bag could be used to fill with more paper products that were being handed out at each booth. One of the things I was given was a free subscription to Green America. A magazine I assumed was dedicated to environmental crap, and not being one to say no to free crap, I signed up.

A week ago, I received my welcome packet full of paper crap, I don’t need or want. And today I received even more paper crap I don’t want or need.

Even if some of the paper used came from recycled sources, and I throw all the stuff sent into the recycling (which I did) energy is still used in the recycling process, and waste is spent. Not to mention the gas consumed for the mailman to deliver all this.

The welcome packet had a 300 page green phonebook. I did with this the same thing I do with any phonebook I’m sent, I tossed it directly into the recycling bin.

Coming Soon – more paper crap that I’m going to throw out.


A thank you letter letting me know all the paper they will be sending me along with my subscription.

Of course it would have to include an ask for money.

And a new member survey. This survey, by the way, was so long that my scanner couldn’t scan the whole page.

An envelope to mail the survey back.

Today’s mail had a letter that could have easily been included in the welcome packet. It’s blotted out, but they also spelt my name totally wrong.

Today also included a return envelope, even though nothing was sent that needed to be returned.


There are many things in this world that piss me off; religious nuts, people who own little yelping dogs, republicans, and up with all them are companies that use “green” and “environmental causes” to make a buck all the while not following what they preach.

No Comparison - Volt vs. Model S

I'm not going to add the video clips, so you'll have to search for them yourself, but a few weeks ago Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors, was on David Letterman showing off the Tesla Model S. The car will be available around 2011 and is a full electric car that will get about 300 miles on a charge and cost around $50,000. After that Bob Lutz was on Letterman comparing the Chevy Volt (coming out about the same time)to the Model S. The Volt gets 40 miles on a charge before a gas engine kicks in. the Volt will sell for about $40,000.

Do we need further proof of why GM is going bankrupt? For an extra 10 grand, you get car that competes with BMW and Lexus in luxury, and is fully electric. Or you can save 10 grand and get a car that looks like any other POS Chevy, that still burns gas…

Beautiful

Fugly

Credit Card Protection My ASS

As many have heard, Congress passed legislation this week that is supposed to make it tougher on credit card issuers to screw consumers, (Story in CNN.com). What a bunch of bull shit! Sure, it's nice for people who miss a payment, or exceed their limit, but for the rest of us, it's a worthless bill. They added a provision that requires longer notice when a company decided to raise the interest rate, or add a fee to the card, but there is little in the bill that restricts when they can raise those rates. For example; one comment on the article is from a guy who just got a notice that they are raising his interest rate even though he has good credit. When he called to complain they responded with "because of the current market." That's right, they raised his rate, just because they felt like it. This recently just happened to me as well. Last month I received a notice from my Discover card that they were raising the rate. I've got stellar credit, never missed a payment, never exceeded the limit, and they raised the rate. Absolutely nothing in the bill passed by congress protects consumers from this! I can afford to pay off the balance and stop using the card, but most consumers can't. So most consumers are still going to get fucked by the credit card companies… thanks for nothing Democrats!

One more thing - the Republicans slipped in an amendment to the bill that would allow people to carry firearms into national parks. What the fuck does that have to do with credit card lending?!?! What a BS way to get a law passed! You just slip in an amendment to a bill that is going to pass, even though that amendment has nothing to do with that bill.

What the Fish You Eat, Eat

This is pretty gross. It's about halfway through the video, this guy catches a fish with the intention of eating it. He guts its it and …. Look to see what he finds.. Something to think about the next time you are eating that fresh catch.



Something to think about next time you toss that trash out the car window.

Pay or Trade at the DMV

This last weekend I had to get my tabs renewed for my car. I also had to do my emissions. And I found out, I also needed new license plates all together. Apparently in another way to be weasels, the Washington State government has a law that says after so many years, a automobile owner is required to get new license plates, or pay an additional $20.00 fee to keep their old ones. I'm sure they expect most people to pay the fee, especially those who have their current plate number memorized.


First and foremost what a jackassary way to make money off people. Many years ago, we voted down a massive tax we were paying on licensing, and the government in all their weaselness , has come up with ways around it. And for those of us, who decide not to pay the fee, and get new plates, now we are stuck knowing that we just added more to the trash that is filling the dumps when throwing our old ones away.

Sprawl Be Gone

Since I work for a company that has chosen to destroy acres and acres of land to build hundreds of two and three story buildings, rather than just build a few really tall ones. And living in an area, where I've seen trees chopped down, and replaced with McMansions: it would be nice if more people and urban planners took to heart the message in this video.

Passenger's Bill of Rights

Having been a disgruntled passenger on an airplane, when I saw that there is a bill in congress to force airlines to provide basic services to passengers on delayed flights, I felt it was my duty as a blogger for change to post it here…

Dear FlyersRights.org supporter:

The question of whether or not Congress will legislate airline passenger's rights this year is coming down to the wire. If we're going to get across the finish line you have to call or email your senator as soon as possible.

The Senate Commerce Committee is now working on the “FAA Reauthorization Act of 2009”. Just as it did in the previous Congress, that Act must contain our Airline Passenger's Bill of Rights provisions - and you made it happen last time! Although last year's bill didn't pass, it was only because of unrelated funding disagreements between the Democrats and the Republicans in the U.S. Senate. The U.S. House of Representatives 2009 version of this legislation (H.R. 915) is already moving, so our focus now shifts to the Senate bill, which will be shaped in the next 10 days.

For more information, please read the enclosed letter that FlyersRights.org sent to the leadership on the Senate Commerce Committee:

http://www.flyersrights.com/letters/FROLettertoSCC04-21-20091652.pdf

Please contact your U.S. Senators now!

If one of your senators is on the Senate Commerce Committee, it is critical that you email or phone his/her transportation staffer. Here is a the contact list:

http://www.flyersrights.com/letters/SENATECOMMERCECOMMITTEE.pdf

Urge them to co-sponsor S. 213, the Sen. Boxer/Snowe “Passenger Rights Act of 2009” and to support including its content into the draft “FAA Reauthorization Act”. And please be sure to ask them to respond to you by return email or phone as to whether the senator agrees with you.

Please email or call me and let me know the outcome. We need to know who was contacted and what the results were so we know where to focus our attention. And please let me know if you or someone you know is a personal friend, contact, or campaign donor for your senator.

If your senator is not on the Senate Commerce Committee, please contact them anyway and make the same requests outlined above. This year, we have to work even harder to get our language incorporated into the bill -- because lobbyists for the major airlines are working even harder to keep our language OUT of that bill.

Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE who cares about these issues needs to act now. Just last week, a family with three young children, one child only two years old, told us their airplane at sat on a tarmac in Columbia, SC for six hours after a four-hour flight. No food or water, restrooms overflowing. They didn't get anything to eat for over ten hours. Imagine not being able to feed your two-year-old for that long. The week before, a blind man was literally dragged off a plane and thrown in jail just for asking if the passengers could wait in the terminal instead of sitting out on the tarmac.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! So please, contact your senator on the Senate Commerce Committee.

If not you, then who? If not now, then when? This is our moment. Please act now.

Yours,

Kate Hanni
FlyersRights.org
159 Silverado Springs Dr.
Napa, CA 94558
707-337-0328