Back on Line

I'm back on line folks and not a minute too soon.  So much to discuss.


Well, it turns out the problem with the Internet connection was inside.  My telephone cord went bad.  Just like that, it went bad.  I didn't touch a thing.  


Vicky, my Verizon service person (who I know quite well now from her numerous visits for my numerous service calls) checked the DSL speed coming in my house.  I have a direct line from outside the wall into my home office.  That speed was 7 MP.  At a loss at what to do now, we switched the telephone line inside that goes to the router.  Viola!  That worked!  


I am humbled.  I was wrong.  It wasn't Verizon's fault but my own negligence for having a bad telephone line.  Uh, and just how was I to know that.  Well, "things happen."  


So I'm back on line and now it's Catch Up Time.


I have a lot to write about the TSA and their Security Theater at the airport.  I will do that in a future blog posting.  I'll probably do that tomorrow after Bill and I return from Sam's Club in Dover.  This is our last shopping trip before the Christmas Deluge which begins Black Friday.  When all the Christmas shopping craziness starts we stay and home to keep out of everyone's way.  Nobody needs two doddering old men hindering their Christmas shopping experience.


Now it is time for me to watch "Dancing With the Stars".  Yes, I finally have local (aka network) TV!  I want to see what all the fuss is about Bristol Palin and if she really is that fantastic dancer the Palinites keep voting back week after week.  


Hey, I don't care if she wins.  Reality shows aren't really reality shows anyway.  They're nothing but popularity shows.  That's fine with me.  They're scripted just like any other TV show.  They're about as "real" as professional wrestling.  

TSA and the "audacity of grope" - On Liberty blog - Boston.com

TSA and the "audacity of grope" - On Liberty blog - Boston.com

I found this blog that expresses my feelings about the absurdity of the new enhanced methods of airport security which gives the passenger the option of a Full Montny naked body scan or a "check your junk" pat down with gloved hand (like that makes a difference whether or not you're being sexually molested.)

My Internet connection at home is still being held hostage by Verizon's "not over the weekend" service. I got an automated call from Verizin today that said a service technician will be at my house by 7 pm. Oh goody, I didn't have anything to do all day anyway than wait around for a telephone service rep.

Bill said it right yesterday, we really are getting to old for this aggravation.

Two weeks ago I had the DirecTV guy in to straighten out my satellite signal. Now I gave another precancerous growth on my neck and I was just at the dermatologist at the VA last month and they don't want to see me again for another year. Looks like I'm gonna have to make some phone calls tomorrow to look for a local dermatologist.  Last time I called there was a six month wait.  So much for health care in the good ole USA.

I'm still looking for that week (or two) that everything goes smooth. I don't know if it's me or life that is getting more complicated.

Pictures with my blog again tomorrow. I don't know how to add them with the iPad I'm on now. Just another complication.

Well, at least I have my Chirstmas cards addressed, stamped and sealed. One benefit of not being glued to the computer this weekend.

Lost Internet Connection

Hi folks! I lost my Internet connection.......AGAIN! Thank you very much Verizon.

I'm working from my iPad at work now. I'm glad my workplace has a wifi. I'm glad I have an iPad, one of the best investments I've ever made.

So here I am, thwarted from expressing my usual creative juices through my blog postings.

Verizon is coming out Monday afternoon to "fix" the problem. What the problem is that Verizon just doesn't have the capacity to handle it's customers here in lower Delaware.

If they can't fix this problem with my slow and dropped Internet connections I may had to go back to Comcast........humbled and with my tail between my legs.

I hate Comcast. There customer service skills are atrocious. They're too expensive. But at least they have reliable service. That's because they're operating through a cable and Verizon is operating through a phone line.

Who knows? Maybe Comcast will surprise me and dropped their arrogant attitude and actually have customer service. One can only hope.

But you know what they say....sometimes you don't have a choice. Verizon has been so unstable that I don't have a choice.

Maybe Comcast will surprise me and actually improved their customer service. One can always hope.

Don't Touch My Junk!

"Don't touch my junk!" is the new phrase de jure.  Actually the exact phrase was "If you touch my junk I'll have you arrested for sexual assault!"  It was uttered by a young man from San Diego who was undergoing the new "enhanced" airport security measures.  


I stopped flying when you had to take your shoes off before boarding an airplane.  Hey, I make most people take off their shoes before they enter my house but this idiotic requirement to take off your shoes to check them for explosives is asinine.  How many potential shoe bombers have we caught since the practice was put into place? 

 NONE.

Now we have new "enhanced" requirements that the TSA airport screeners use the front of the hand to go around a woman's breast and up and down a man's leg.  I don't know about you but the last time I underwent a "procedure" of that sort was when I was in a gay bar on New Year's Eve.  Back then we called it groping.  And that is what it is today, GROPING.  


The way they keep escalating the invasive security checks it is only a matter of time before everyone will be required to strip to buck ass nude and undergo full cavity searches.  


You think I'm kidding?  I put NOTHING past the stupidity of our government, no matter which political party is in charge.  


Airport security checks are a shame.  They're phony.  It's all cosmetic to make it look like they're doing something when in effect, there is no airport security.  


Osama bin Laden and his henchmen are sitting in their caves now laughing at us.  


The terrorists have won folks.  We're jumping to their tune.  


Now is the time to get serious about airport security and do it the way the Israelis do, check the people waiting in (which they have to do anyway) and look for tell tale signs of a potential terrorist. 


Of course this means the government has to do some real training of TSA employees, not just hire any Jim, Judy or Jack off the street to feel you up at the airport security check.  


Will the government finally get serious?  I don't know.  What I do know is that this new security check isn't going to work.  


All those politicians, especially the Tea Baggers who complain about Big Gubment, here's a real intrusion on your personal liberties. 


Where in the Constitution does it say the government can grope its citizens?  But maybe that's a moot point because the Gubment has been screwing us for a long time.  Just saying.

Four Years and Counting

Yesterday, November 17th, was the fourth anniversary of our move to Delaware.


I will always remember that date, not only because it was the traumatic ending to the nightmare of selling our house in Pennsylvania but it is also the birthday of my favorite (and only)  sister-in-law, Barbara Tipton.  And yes, I did call Barbara yesterday and sing "Happy Birthday" to her over the phone.  I can't sing but she said she liked it.  That's Barbara, just about the best sister-in-law a guy could ever have.  We're both Scorpios, maybe that also helps to explain the special affinity we have for one another.


The picture on this blog is of Bill, me and my brother John.  I don't remember what we were studying but we were in our new house.  Whatever it was, it was important.  Don't tell anyone, but John is the smart one in our family.  That is a big admission for me to make since I am the oldest brother.  John is the youngest and Isaac is in the middle.  We are brothers but we're about as different as three men can be.  We don't even look alike.  I look like our father. I don't know if that's good or bad but apparently I got the major dose of his look-alike genes.


So how has the past four years been since I moved to the Diamond State?  My answer is:

WONDERFUL!

I love living in Delaware.  Love it, love it, love it!


Have a great day!

Holocaust Museum

Nazi Propaganda Poster from the Holocaust Museum

Yesterday my friend Bob C. and I took a church sponsored trip to visit the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C.


The weather was appropriated gray, overcast day with slow, intermittent rain for such a solemn visit to this memorial of one of the worst episodes of man's inhumanity to man.


I thought I knew just about all there was to know about the holocaust.  After a day at the Holocaust Museum I have a new awareness of the true extent of evil of this dark period of human history.


One thing that impressed me mightily was how well done everything was done.   From the architecture of the building to the visual displays.  


Within five minutes of entering the building and seeing the first photographs and film, I was overwhelmed. 


My throat choked up and tears welled in my eyes.  


I can now see the need for the numerous benches and places to sit.  Sometimes you have to stop and just gather yourself before proceeding on.  


What really impressed me about the displays was how tastefully they were done.  I guess I expected a circus sideshow quality but there was none of that.  While many of the images (both photos and film) were quite graphic and nothing like you've ever seen before, they still somehow managed to maintain the dignity of those who were persecuted  


The most overwhelming of the tour for me was when I had to actually pass through one of the cattle cars that sometimes transported as many as one hundred of my fellow human beings to their ultimate doom.  


As I walk through those darkened walls I could sense the cries of desperation of those long gone souls screaming out to me.


I didn't think it could get any worse until I came upon some of the actual bunks that some of the concentration camp inmates slept on.  It was quite an  overpowering experience.  


One thing I do know for sure, I will have to go back.  


Lest we never forget. 

Our church group entering the Holocaust Museum yesterday

Almost There

Hey folks!  I'm almost back to my ornery self.  My arm is MUCH BETTER!


Today I engaged in a tete a tete with one of my Tipton cousins on FB.  We had a political discussion.  


He is of the conservative Republican persuasion that believes in no government or social programs.  


Do away with Social Security, Medicare, the VA. 


You know, the Glenn Beck/Bill O'Reilly/Sean Hannity mantra.


No taxes.


No government except to declare war so those of us in the lower socio-economic order can sacrifice our sons and daughters in this mindless destruction.


I've been holding off commenting on the recommendations of the Deficit Commission.  I can't hold off any longer.  Here goes!


How about those two bozo's who are chairing the commission?  Alan Simpson, the Angry Old Man from Wyoming.  Did you ever see a better candidate to play The Grinch?


Then there is Erskine Bowles?  WTF kind of name is "Erskine?"  He looks like an "Erskine."  You just gotta know this clown comes from inherited money.


So there they are last week.  Erskine Bowles sucking on the arm of his glasses in his too small mouth while Alan "The Curmudgeon" Simpson hunches over and spews out the bad news.


Cut Social Security.


Cut Medicare.


Cut taxes.


Charge a fee to use the VA.


Notice no where in their recommendations did they mention letting the Bush tax cuts for the rich expire at the end of the year?  Oh no, these birds are SO concerned with the deficit that they are willing to make those tax cuts permanent.


Well, it isn't going to work former Senator Simpson and former White House Advisor to the Clinton Administration Erskine Bowles.  Crawl back under your respective rocks.  


Let the Bush Tax cuts expire at the end of the year.  


Put the members of Congress, including retired members like Simpson, on Social Security and Medicare like the rest of us schlubs.  


And by the way President Obama,  step up to the plate and start leading.