Deja Vu

One of the advantages of being an old fart is that nothing is really new.

Yesterday I read how bell-bottom  blue jeans were the new "it". Remember the 70's anyone?

Now I am listening to President Obama speak about reducing our dependence on foreign oil.  Did you know that that is why the Energy Department was created? I was a brand new program under President Jimmy Carter. Its budget has inflated wildly as has the number of barrels of oil we import.

Let's get another Government program with our taxpayer dollars.

Hip Hip Hooray

blech

Oh shit Oh dear

I have recently come to the conclusion that at heart I am a Libertarian.  The Republican party is too involved with the assorted "Christian" agendas to understand that by excluding people they are being decidedly un-Christian.  The Tea Party is too anti everything to really get n board, I actually think they, too are falling into the "Christian" agenda trap.

As an avowed Libertarian, though, I do every once in a while see a headline that makes my blood boil:

I.R.S. Sits on Data Pointing to Missing Children

The whole raison d'etre of the IRS is to collect data on us to pay our taxes to be part of a bloated and uncontrollable system.  Yes I am a fan of privacy laws, and the IRS should sit on 99.9% of that data as a fiduciary of public funds. But for all of those sad faces I see on the sides on Milk Cartons ... they need Federal protection and all the resources that our government can provide 
 

4 letter words

There are certain things I do that I feel require the liberal use of 4 letter words. I am actually doing one of those things now. After dealing with a "press 1 for English" telephone tree at 1-800-BEST BUY, I have been getting shuffled around from department to department to figure out why I am not getting confirmation emails from them. My big worry is that my Kaspersky will not renew when due.even though my credit card number is on file for automatic renewal.

PS If anyone at Best Buy  reads this turn down the volume on your hold music.

Phony Internet Advertising

Does it sound too good to be true?  It probably is. I clicked a link from an About.com news story. Should be okay, it's the New York Times for Pete's sake.
http://markets.about.com/about/news/read?GUID=17855217

I read this: Read our shocking news report on e-cigarette. You will be surprised what we found.

So I did. It brought me to a "news" site http://www.channel7wbc.com/electronic-cigarettes.htm 

It is a "Channel 7" News station that tells of a news anchor who quit smoking lickety split with an electronic cigarette that could be smoked in public places. The problem is that the call letters WBTV belong to a TV station in North Carolina, and they have no such news anchor.And it is on channel 3.

Are you getting all this? I did a little more fooling around and there actually is a "channel7wbc" web site with news from September 27, 2010. Interestingly enough, the links work to some extent. This is a very elaborate hoax.  It works on several levels, all the way to the point where the venerable New York Times takes their money for their phony advertising.

In sum, it might be in writing, but if it on the internet it can easily be a phony. Please my friends, be careful.