Saturday, March 23, 2013

The Stupidity of Earth Hour

I was talking to my good friend Ron this evening, who has been visiting his hometown in northern Mindanao, Philippines.  Iligan is a small city, not a rich place by any means, but has a good university.  Ron lives and works now in Singapore, not too far by air, but a million miles away in many ways. 

He mentioned how the city had daily black outs of electricity because of decaying infrastructure and an increasing demand on electrical power.  Since Earth Hour is upon us, it really seemed ironic.  Here we are in a country that still has abundant energy resources, that the green weenies and the current Obama regime want to suppress, the Philippines is a poor 3rd world country that would love not to have imposed blackouts because they have no infrastructure that they can maintain.

Ron is now back in Singapore, a place that was a 3rd world backwater as recently as the late 1960's that got kicked out of the Federation of Malaysia, because it was a drain on their economy and is an economic powerhouse now, outshining all its neighbors.  I doubt the people there, especially from the generation of Lee Kwan Yoo's generation want to celebrate Earth Hour.

It's easy for liberals and green weenie activists who have never lived in a 3rd world country to celebrate Earth Hour.  Most have never had to endure in a country with no electricity, heat, air conditioning or food.  Earth Hour is a daily celebration is North Korea, Laos, Burma, and most of Africa.

Go there and ask them how they like Earth Hour

Friday, March 22, 2013

ObamaCare and its consequences

I had an appointment with my neurologist who has been treating my multiple sclerosis problem for the past several years.  He informed me that he is closing down his practice and moving back to India.  I was unpleasantly surprised to hear this news.  His reasoning is all the coming ObamaCare regulations and rules, makes his practice untenable and he'd be much better just closing up shop.  He moved here from Montreal a long time ago, just for the same reasons that he is moving back to India, bureaucrats telling him he can treat his patients, what treatments to give them, and reduced income.  He told me he can open up a practice in Hydrabad, his home town, not make half what he makes here, and still live like a king.

I really can't blame the guy.  He has options, and is taking them.  He is not alone.  Many physicians are planning to retire early and give up their practice rather than submit to a federal government scheme that is guaranteed to raise costs for everyone, and restrict doctors more than anything that private insurance companies are doing now.

Fortunately my current neurologist is making sure all his patients are matched with competent doctors after he shuts down his practice later this year.  Still my story is just one of many.  It's going to get a lot worse once ObamaCare gets fully implemented next year.   We are heading down the road to perdition, and Obama and the Democrats are pushing to hurry that process.  

My exit question: Who will the low information voters blame once their health costs double or triple, their ObamaPhone stops working and the EBT card dries up?

I doubt they even heard of Cyprus, let alone know what is going on there now.  We are going down that same "golden road to socialism".

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Memphis Fast Food

Normally on Wednesdays a few of us retirees from my old place of employment, have breakfast together at a local diner.  Unfortunately it is closed for renovation and expansion, so we picked a local fast food joint.  We got there, ordered our food, and waited, and waited, and waited.  Finally the food came out.  Nobody there seemed to know what the other was doing, and there seemed to just be a bunch of people milling around behind the counter, and hollering loudly to each other above the loud rap "music".  Oh well, we got the food, went to a table, and low and behold they gave us someone else's order.  We waited, and waited and waited again, and finally the food came out.  We checked the order at the counter, and this time they got it almost right.  A few items were missing.  I asked for a manager, who came over and rudely wanted to know why we were hassling his employees, but fixed the order.

Got to the table, and I want to fill up my ice tea.  There are two dispensers, one marked sweet and one marked unsweet.  I don't like sweet tea, southern style because it is just sugar water.  Well, I fill up the cup with the one marked unsweetened and low and behold it was sweet tea, so was the one marked sweet tea!  I went back to the counter to complain, and was told by the clerk, "I aint got no nuttin bout no sweet and unsweet."  I told her one was marked unsweetened.  She repeated her gibberish answer, so I figured she not only couldn't speak, she could not read.  Where was Barbara Billingsley when I needed her.


Apparently because we complained about the bad service, we were told that we were a bunch of redneck racist crackers, or something.

We all decided at that moment that we will not be back to this place.  Unfortunately this is all too typical here for fast food.