The answer to BP's answers is simple... boycott BP! 760 safety violations, no solution to fix their continued flow of oil into our Gulf of Mexico... its simple, DON'T BUY THEIR GAS!

If it were a disaster off the coast of Wales, you could bet your arse that we'd be held accountable, already have had this sealed, and be dealing with countless lawsuits, which pretty much guarantee all but the folding of a publicly traded company.

Let me make this clear, I'm not bailing this company out, and I do NOT expect my tax dollars to do so either. They made mistakes, they cost lives, and they destroyed an ecosystem as a result. They should not profit from this in the least bit. Please join me in boycotting BP until this is fixed, or until they no longer operate.

TSA Fail

Straight from the desk of WTF?

I recently travelled from Virginia to my home in Florida to see my family for a weekend. Going through the security checkpoint headed up by the illustrious TSA, my carry-on bag was flagged.

Whenever this happens, we jump, did I leave a pair of scissors in my bag? A butter knife? God forbid something in my bag from a drunken night with a group of teenage-minded thirty somethings with fireworks? No, my bag was flagged for a half used tube of toothpaste... which because it was half used made it fall within the the security requirements, but because the tube itself said 4.3 ounces, they confiscated it.

What makes this hilarious, is that although I'm a computer geek by profession, I'm also a certified locksmith and a former Military Police Officer. As such, my carry on belongings contained a police issue handcuff key, and an expensive set of lock picks costing around $200.

Today, I travelled again, and made the same mistake. What got flagged this time? Not the handcuff key, not the lockpick set, but my shaving cream... which fortunately fell within the limits for travel size.

So let me paint the picture... If I were a terrorist, which I am obviously not, and if an air marshal arrests me, I can open the cuffs and finish the job. Not that the average Joe can't buy a handcuff key at any gun show. If I get locked up somewhere, I always have my pickset for an escape... but my toothpaste or shaving cream are items of concern?

TSA, I salute you.

United Airlines baggage scam

So I arrived at the airport in Charlottesville Virginia this morning two hours prior to my flight and proceeded to check into a kiosk for United Airlines Express to Washington DC with an ongoing connection to Las Vegas.

"Please swipe your credit card or passport to check in." Ok, they can't swipe my passport, but they do take my credit card. I go through the painstakingly requirements to satisfy the TSA... mind you no picture ID required at this time, and tell the kiosk I'm checking in one bag. It wants my credit card as there is now a bullshit charge for a round-trip checked in baggage.

My tickets get printed, spit out and what do my eyes see? A $35 charge for a second checked in baggage which I did not have. I notice this and explain to the counter person that I have no second checked in baggage. Charles, the United rep at the counter initially just shrugs his shoulders and offers up no explanation other than I must have pressed the number two. I ask Charles for a refund as this was an obvious error at least on the calibration of the touch screen. The kiosk did not at any time indicate that I was checking in two pieces of luggage.

Charles again shrugs his shoulders and tells me there's nothing he can do. I politely persisted, and Charles gave me a telephone number to call. I called the number, got transferred around nine or ten menus none of which were any help and was put on hold for a half hour. One hour later while still at the terminal in Bangalore India helpdesk hell, they tell me there's nothing they can do over the phone and refer me to their website... www.united.com go through their menus, and request a refund. Something my mother obviously would NOT be able to navigate through.

So, to be clear here, a kiosk can make a mistake, but their counter person cannot fix it, they can direct me to a phone number, but that's an hour of hell, and still no one can fix it, at the end, I'm forced to go to an impersonal website with a brief explanation and hope for the best.

While waiting for my connecting flight, I told my story to a coworker, who said, "Yeah, the same thing happened to me!" Apparently this is NOT an isolated incident... which raises a bigger question, "How many of our computer illiterate relatives travel through airports and get these charges and don't do anything about them or don't even notice them?"

Current news media out of touch?

Is it just me. or do we not need the modern news media anymore? I mean seriously, you cannot get any more polarized views unless you watch Faux news' Oreilly or Hannity... and shouldn't Hannity be catching that mouse? That being said, yes, I lean to the left... but I also believe in gun ownership.

CNN's recent 10 sites that will guarantee to make you laugh were anything but that, and you can't mod them down or introduce new sites... blagh. By the way CNN writers, if you're reading this, we're sick of hearing about MJ. He's dead, and we get it. How about keeping the focus on Iran's election? That's relevant to tomorrow.

Newspapers are dead. You can't mod down or up a writer for a biased article. You can't be heard in newspaper print... you'd be lucky to get a print correction blurb in the editorial column that no one reads because the page is full of sponsored ads. I will say however, that at least the ads are not annoyingly animated to distract you from the article itself. On the web we are resorted to employing adblock plus and the like to prevent our kids from seeing porn advertisements whilst researching homework.

Newspapers, like ISPs exist for one reason and one reason only... advertisers now known as spammers pay, and they pay well. I suppose the question ultimately remains... how much would you pay for uninterrupted and unbiased news be it either print, television, or online? and can you even find such a resource?

I digress...

William M. Nett

2001 Honda Shadow Questions

I've scoured the interwebs for simple questions regarding my bike and have thus far found nothing helpful that didn't require a paid for subscription... Seriously? I own a 2001 Honda Shadow and was wondering about basic maintenance, like oil specs, spark plug gapping, the usual stuff that's included with the bike.

To be specific I was curious about the oil requirements and after my bike's battery died at McDonalds on my way to work, only after dissembling the bike did I discover that which Clymer's holds so dear. I live in Florida which gets a lot of rain, so I was concerned.

The 2001 Honda Shadow uses by default 10-40W oil, and while they don't recommend bump starting or jumping off a car battery (both of which I call BullCrap on). They conveniently suggest contacting the dealer. I did perform a jump twice, with no issues. What I didn't know was that the bike was supposed to be trickle charged every 30 days. She's charging now, but I digress and ask is the battery supposed to be draining if the power and engine switch is turned off? By my rationalization, there should be no load or closed circuit on the bike when everything is turned off. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Will

Ban the tasers!

Ok, as a former Military Police Officer, I completely comprehend the necessity of escalation of force and the use of non-lethal weapons to subdue a suspect or offender... but this taser device has just got to go. Since 2004, 300 'suspects', 'detainees', and yes 'criminals' have died due to being tasered. I think that's enough to revisit the device's use and or deployment. For some a single dose was enough, for others... it took several applications.

For some reason we've dropped the use of pepper spray, and gone to tasers. We even have an incident of a BART Officer mistaking his gun for a taser, and killing a face down and handcuffed 'detainee'. Make no mistake in training, I've been pepper-sprayed, gassed, and water gunned, all effective methods of disabling a person without having to send 10,000+ volts through a person's body. I can only think of one other device designed to the same thing... the electric chair. Believe me, having three feet of mucus dripping from your face changes your whole perspective and yes, it slows you down. These tasers are abused and are not being used by their designer's ideals, and its no wonder why.

Bad cop makes a mistake (surprise!) Agency gets sued. Agency has less money, hires cheaper cops. Agency hires idiots who watches C.O.P.S. on TV... and ends up with idiots like these:






FYI.... you cannot be arrested for trespassing unless a sign has been posted or you've been asked to leave and you refuse.

Idocracy is here!!! Run for the hills!!!

Is it just me or is Idocracy becoming a reality? Seriously... Florida's Publix is selling obviously cheaper garbage bags at the same cost with the same specs, Verizon doesn't know the difference between $.002 and .002¢, and Vonage thinks that they can just change their term of service imposing customers at will with no recourse? I have no recourse but to face palm and wonder... How did this happen?

Florida's Publix is selling a thinned out version of their trash bags with the same UPC code of lesser quality. Here's the proof:


I'm not done yet...



And Vonage? From their their Terms of service...

6. LENGTH OF SERVICE.
6.1 Service Term.
We provide our service to you indefinitely. Your service term refers to the period of time for which we will bill you periodically in advance (for example, one month or one year). The service term is the term that you selected from the options available when you signed up for our service. Your first service term begins on the subscription date, which is the date you first ordered service or the date we successfully process your payment, whichever is later. It is not the day you receive the equipment you ordered or the first time you use the service. Your service will continue until canceled by you or by us as provided for herein. Please note that the obligations of this agreement begin on your subscription date and are indefinite.

You read that right they can charge you indefinitely. I closed my account with them last night under the premise that my service would stop until the end of the monthly contract (which they do NOT tell you or publish and frequently change.) and was subsequently charged $42.00. My phone is dead. Thankfully, I purchased an alternative solution. Its no wonder their stock on NASDAQ is about to be delisted.

Caveat emptor... Buyer beware.

I swear, if they start watering plants with Gatorade, I'm leaving this country.