Category Archives: My take on…

MMeM, Vol. 14 Issue 17 – Do Not Call Registry

“Hello?” wait for a human

Do you remember the nationwide Do Not Call Registry? That was such a landmark BIG DEAL! It was supposed to stop all of the telemarketing calls for good. It was implemented in 2003. You signed up your phone numbers and BOOM! No more unwanted bothersome calls. Wah-LAH! However, as soon as it was implemented it began to show cracks in its supposed rigidity.

First of all, as I remember it, you would still get sales calls from companies with which you were a customer. Sure, that made sense. But, the super fine print, and never mentioned beforehand clause, was that said companies could also share you with their “friends” if they were “business-partners”. That was the first crotch kick in the suddenly less than Holy Do Not Call Registry. By 2017 there were more than 230 million phone numbers signed up on it to block unwanted phone calls. The FTC, who implemented and manages the NDNCR, receives 19,000 complaints A DAY from list members about getting unwanted solicitation calls.

Fast Forward to 2018. That National Do Not Call Registry is a worthless piece of CRAP. Today everyone is subjected to more bot-robo-nonHuman-computer-answer-“Hello?”-wait for a human to pick up the call AFTER YOU ANSWER than EVAR!!!!

Back to that landmark house bill that implemented the NDNCR in the first place. “The House bill to create it passed 412 to 8. Only Ron Paul, Jeff Flake and a handful of other shrink-the-state types dissented.” Just curious, do any of those mentioned among the dissenters sound familiar? Hmm?

See the technology of VoIP and computers making thousands of calls in the hopes that thousands or even hundreds will be duped into picking up or even calling back about some bogus scary message is just too effective. The FTC even offered $50,000 to anyone who could come up with a way to block robocalls back in 2012, more than once. It’s just an unstoppable mess. To be fair, 412 representatives’ hearts and minds were in the right place at the time back in 2003. However the government is just getting lapped by the cyber criminals, again.

MMeM, Vol. 14 Issue 12 – Hunting?

…raises SO many questions.

This week there was a news story about a woman who “hunted”, killed, and posed with a dead rare black giraffe. Obviously, people all over the world were quite shocked and upset about this report. This story raises so many questions.

  1. The continuous never-ending controversy around Conservation and Rare animals with Legal Hunting came up. Again. How can hunting a rare black Giraffe even be legal?
  2. The correct spelling of the word G-I-R-A-F-F-E? I mean let’s be honest, it doesn’t really make its way into a person’s spellcheck engine very often.
  3. How difficult is it to actually HUNT a giraffe?
  4. Is there tracking involved? It seems like they might be somewhat easy to locate.
  5. How does one hunt a giraffe? Look up? You don’t have to search under things, or be in a tree stand do you? Yeah, I’m struggling to find the “sport” in this one. Now, if it was done using anything other than a high-powered rifle like say, a person’s hands or a club then maybe a sport, it could be called.
  6. Seems they would be fairly easy to find, follow, and shoot or am I missing something here?
  7. Do they crouch when they see a gun yards across the savannah?
  8. Do they duck?

Yeah, I don’t know man, maybe it’s just me but I am failing to see the “sport” or any real difficulty with this target.

I wouldn’t feel real proud about being in that pic, nor would I if I was the shooter either.

MMeM, Vol. 14 Issue 3 – a hard place

slab and a hard place

So we are always told by science about the dangers of the sun and skin cancer. Use sunscreen, no exceptions, especially if you are in or around water. Following these guidelines as we are told, many of us know our SPF needs better than our own blood types.

But, apparently many sunscreens contain chemicals that aren’t safe or friendly to the environment. Case in point, the coral reefs in the oceans as you may have heard are dying at an alarming rate. I don’t care who you are, hearing about this even if you’ve never snorkeled around an ocean reef gives you a sick feeling. Helpless and hopeless are the only feelings that come to mind for me.

Subsequently, officials in Hawaii have proposed legislation to ban sunscreens that damage sea life, i.e. coral. “Environmental groups and lawmakers gathered Wednesday at the Capitol in support of a bill to ban coral-damaging sunscreens.”

Thus, we find ourselves between a hard place and a hard place, because I don’t think there are those among us that like the term “rock & a hard place” anymore. Ok, “slab and a hard place”.

MMeM, Vol. 14 Issue 2 – Flat Earth?

HOW is this possible ?

What is the reason or purpose of the Flat Earth Society way of thinking anyway? I mean seriously, what is the end goal here? Are Flat Earthers saying that the Earth is flat and there has been a more than 500 year conspiracy going on to hide this fact? If so, why? What would be the benefit to keep this a secret from, anyone? Why would all governments make sure that all high altitude pilots, astronauts, people with telescopes, and humans with IQ’s higher than 80 keep this a secret?

Usually, there is some hidden agenda by a secret power-playing-organization to control such a huge secret for hundreds of years. But with this one, I’m coming up with nothin’. No reason.

So, who are the Flat Earthers? Well, apparently they are largely composed of “Millennials”. I’m sorry, but recent surveys reveal it. I know it’s a shock to me too. I mean, the same generation that has brought forth the “The Cinnamon Challenge”, the “Tide Pod Challenge”, and most recently the “Condom Snorting Challenge”. Yeah the results surprised me too. I just don’t know what to say other than always being connected to an infinite amount of information is simply dangerous. While we first thought this was a recipe for extreme intelligence, it has instead proven to produce expansive vacuums of empty craniums (craniums, niums, iums(echo))) .

YouGov.com asked the question of 8,215 US adults on Feb 6, 2018. Results are weighted to be representative of the US population.

In short, “Just 66% of millennials firmly believe that the earth is round”. How, is this possible?

MMeM, Vol.13 Issue 46 – Powerball was NOT 8

…relieved to HAVE NOT WON the LOTTERY!

Look, I don’t usually play lotteries as a rule. Every now and then, I’ll get sucked into the madness like everyone else. Take the MegaMillions and Powerball jackpots that are currently running at $393 and $356 million respectively. Just like the time last year when one of them got north of ONE BILLION I dropped a couple of dollars on a ticket or two.

I look at lottery like this, IF I am to buy tickets, don’t stand behind me because I am due. However with all of the reasons making that way of thinking legit to me, comes much of the anxiety that led me to the very reason for that belief.

To wit, the night of the last Powerball drawing that caused another rollover I had a MAJOR mental malfunction. I had both of my recent single MegaMillions and Powerball tickets in the visor of my truck. I was driving with the windows down trying to save money by not using the A/C and sucking down more gas. All of a sudden, a ticket whips past my face from out of the visor and out the window!

I quickly check the remaining ticket hoping it was the MegaMillions which had rolled over the day before. NO! It was the Powerball ticket! To make matters worse, all I could remember about this quick-pick ticket was that the Powerball was 8. I don’t consider myself to have a “lucky” number, rather 8 is my “favorite” number. What are the chances? What do I do? The drawing is at 10pm CDT tonight!

I didn’t turn around and look for the ticket in the road or roadside, but I debated doing so for about 15 miles. Rather, I worried with a sick feeling thinking about what to do if

  1.  the Powerball was an 8 tonight
  2.  the winning ticket was sold in IL

It was a long, sickening, hard, and harrowing night. Never, have I been so relieved to HAVE NOT WON the multi-state $300+ million lottery!

This is my world. My reality. My life.

%d bloggers like this: