Tag: complaint

Response from Delegate Scott

You can see the response I got to my letter about Seven Corners here.  The relevant quote is this:

The main reason we in No.Va. suffer from inadequate transportation solutions is that we have not increased revenues in 20 years. Again this year, many of us in NoVA tried to obtain support for new sources of funding, but we had little support from House members from other parts of the state.

This sounds to me like a plea from Democrat to support a tax hike.  Now, maybe that’s not being fair, but doesn’t that sound to you like a plea for a tax hike?

But I’m not buying it.  If you can’t increase revenue without raising taxes when the population explodes (I don’t know what the population was in 1986, but it sure wasn’t what it is now), then it’s not the fault of House members in the rest of the state (Republican, probably, since NOVA is the only Democratic part of the state commonwealth).  It’s the fault of those who write up the budget.  I understand that increased population means increased costs, but it also means increased revenue. And seriously, how much does it cost to put up a sign?  I honk at someone almost every day at that intersection because they cut me off from the wrong lane.  Do you think they’d put up a sign if I offered to pay for it?  That’s probably illegal.  Maybe I’ll ask Jim Scott.

More Enviga

I know I’m scoring some points with the Coke people because I’m talking about their tea so much, but I have to share the last flavor. We tried the Green Tea flavored Enviga today. The wife liked it. I didn’t think it really had any flavor.

This whole Enviga experiment has so far been a huge disappointment. It didn’t make me shake uncontrollably or hallucinate or give me a twitch. It didn’t taste like used motor oil or dead bugs. Maybe I should ask Craig to send me samples of something that’s earlier in the testing process and hasn’t been approved by the FDA. I’d like something that makes me think I’m some sort of barnyard fowl, preferably a duck. I could live with thinking I’m a chicken, but I would much rather think I was a duck.

Since this hasn’t gone well, I’d like to try an experiment. I complained about Enviga, and three cans showed up in the mail. So, I’d like to tell you all that the new 6-series BMW convertibles are complete junk. They are, without doubt, the worst car I’ve ever seen on the road. The 6-series BMW convertible is absolute proof that there is no god.

However, if BMW would like me to use my super blogging power to spread the word about the 6-series convertible, I’d like a red one with a manual transmission. No skimping on the options, either.

Stop with the negative ads

The Year Of Playing Dirtier – washingtonpost.com

It is harder for Republicans to blame out-of-power Democrats for the current state of Washington, but they are equally eager to depress Democratic turnout and fire up their conservative base.

It may be that, after a conversation about ‘the liberal media’ yesterday with a definitely conservative coworker, I’m just looking for the Post’s liberal bias, but this line jumped out at me.  The article, up to then, had been close enough to balanced (It said that both parties are stooping to new lows in negative political ads, and the Republicans are worse about it.  That’s sort of unbiased) that I could live with it.  But if the Post honestly believes that the Democrats are completely blameless for the state of the country, I don’t even know what to say.

Back to the point of the article, though.  I’m pretty sick of smear ads.  Being near DC, we get both Virginia and Maryland ads.  George Allen and Jim Webb, running for Senate from VA, have been sniping at each other for a while.  Allen doesn’t seem to be trying that hard – he’s still focusing on some comments Webb made in 1979-80.  Allen also responded to my angry letter, which is nice.  I’m still voting for Webb, though.

I wish we’d get to hear why I should vote for one guy rather than why I shouldn’t vote for the other guy.  I’m tired of voting against the unacceptable canidate.  I’d really like to vote for someone because I think he or she is going to do a good job.  Is that too much to ask?

Slim with the tilted brim

‘Snoop Dogg’ faces gun, drug accusation – CNN.com

“An investigation revealed Calvin Broadus to be in possession of marijuana and a firearm,” a police statement said. . . .  “There was no basis for this arrest,” said the rapper’s lawyer, Donald Etra. “We believe that once this is cleared up, all charges will be dismissed.”

Numerous things here.

First, if I were Snoop, I would legally change my name to Snoop Dogg so the media would have to stop putting it in quotes.

Second, taped to the monitor on my old PC at home is a picture of Snoop from the Wall Street Journal about eight or nine years ago when he publicily made a big deal out of quitting marijuana.  It appears he’s started again.  Anyway, I was taking Public Finance in college, and we had to have a subscription to the WSJ for class, so I would usually read it during lunch.  As an aside, that was just after one of my roommates taught me how to make grilled cheese, and to this day I associate reading the WSJ with eating grilled cheese.  As for Snoop, I couldn’t resist the little picture of him – it seems so out of place next to big time politicians and important people.  So it’s been taped to that monitor for all that time.  I don’t know what I’ll do when I replace the monitor.

Third, Snoop needs to remember that a 2:1 arrests-to-albums ratio is safe, but if you get much higher than that, they stop calling you “rap artist ‘Snoop Dogg'” and start calling you “convicted felon Calvin Broadus, who rapped under the name ‘Snoop Dogg’ before his arrest”.

Fourth, as far as I’m concerned, rap doesn’t get much better than “Doggystyle”.

This is what they mean by liberal media

Bush’s New Tack Steers Clear of ‘Stay the Course’ – washingtonpost.com

But the White House is cutting and running from “stay the course.”

Oh, how clever.  Use the phrase that the Republicans use to attack Democrats and then the phrase the Republicans used before the Democrats used it to attack Republicans.  Where does one go for neutral news reporting?  I get Fox News at the gym.  Fair and balanced, they say.  Yes, fair to radical conservative nutjobs, and balanced between Republicans and other Republicans.  I tried Daily Kos, because that’s one of the first names in political blogging news.  If you take Daily Kos, and reverse the adjectives – that is, replace “bad” with “good” and all that, you have Fox News all over again.  I tried the Wall Street Journal, but they hide behind a pay wall, and I don’t want to get a subscription.  The Washington Post can’t possibly claim to be unbiased after allowing a line like the one above to be printed. Where do you get your news?

Yeah, remember what we said before? We were lying

Beltway Toll Plan May Need Va. Funds – washingtonpost.com

“I think it demonstrates the risks involved in seeing privatization as a panacea,” said Gerald E. Connolly (D), chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. “We can’t simply hope that the tooth fairy, in the form of the private sector, will make all of our problems go away.”

No, but you can hope that a plan that you agreed to doesn’t go $100 million over budget. The sequence of events seems to have gone like this:

  • Private industry says, “We can make an HOT lane without using any taxpayer money, thereby easing congestion and making a profit!”
  • Virginia government says, “Sweet, go for it, dude.”
  • Private industry says, “Oops, when we said ‘no taxpayer money’, we really meant ‘$100 million in taxpayer money’. Our bad.”
  • Virginia government says, “Looks like you’re not the tooth fairy! Here’s some cash.”
    Great. It probably won’t even help traffic.

Maybe this will move them to act

GOP terrorism ad sparks Democratic furor – CNN.com

I haven’t seen this ad.  I don’t need to see it.  I’m voting, and whatever the ad is, it won’t affect my vote.  But I hope people are angry about it.  I hope it pisses off hundreds of thousands of people and maybe some of them will actually get up and vote.

I would rather see 90% of the registered voters elect Bill Frist or Hillary Clinton President than 10% of the registered voters elect someone who isn’t a minion of Satan.  If the vast majority of the country disagrees with me on who should run the country, fine.  I’ll accept that.  But if we don’t know who the vast majority of the country prefers because most of them don’t bother to exercise their Constitutional right to tell us, then I’m pissed off.

The age of stingrays is upon us

Stingray leaps into boat, stabs man in chest – CNN.com

This is somewhat worrisome.  The number of stingray attacks that I’m aware of has risen from zero in the first twenty-eight years of my life to two in the last two months.  The percentage increase in stingray attacks is so large we can’t express it in numbers!  It has to be expressed in abject terror.

Did you see the Simpsons episode where Lisa frees the dolphin, who then brings the other dolphins back to enslave the world?  This is what’s happening now with the stingrays.  You’ll see.  All this talk about the 2008 elections will be moot when Stingy the Stingray is our tyrannical leader, and we’re all slaves in his palace.

Enviga sucks. Pass it on.

Shocker: Enviga Doesn’t Actually Burn Calories – Consumerist

Heck, we’re only marketing it as ‘The Calorie Burner.’ It’s not like we’re saying it burns calories or something!

I wrote about this before, and now it seems that the calorie burning soda-tea or whatever it is doesn’t really burn calories. Still no information on calorie content.

Complaining in action

I’m still unhappy with the result of my inquiry to the DMV about Seven Corners. Today, as usual, someone wanted to be in my lane. And it’s dark when I go through the intersection at this time of year, and raining this morning. It just makes it worse.

So I’ve decided to do something about it. I just wrote a letter to Congressman Jim Moran, 8th District of Virginia. I’ve decided that I should write more letters to my representatives. I may write to Tim Kaine and complain about his treatment of my wife when she volunteered for him (He never sent even a mass-email thank you). I’ll write to my Senator about this same issue at Seven Corners.

I invite all of you to write your representatives, as well. If you send me a copy of the letter, I’ll post it here. Then you’ll be famous with ten to twenty people a day just like I am.

Edit: I sent the letter to Senators Warner and Allen as well. You can see that letter, and the future letters I plan to write, once I write them, by clicking the “Angry Letters” link at the top of the page.