The Economy

Well, I've been on vacation and been back for about two weeks. I was shocked to see a State that when you buy food at the grocery store the screen and the receipt will show the item you are buying, i.e., corn, and next to it will show "N" for NO TAX. Now that is normal, anywhere you go that is what you are going to see, food does not get taxed unless of course it is prepared. The shocker came when at the end of the tally there was a TAX!!! Yes, you read correctly the receipt showed "Corn 12 @ 0.20 $4.00 N" and at the end you it showed the total, and a second total which they were collecting that involved a Tax of .11, when asked about and they stated it's the State Tax, knowing they are not suppose to charge tax on food and the receipt shows it, they still do...oh the State in question ILLINOIS. As I read a post that has nothing to do with the economy, but the final quote should be applied here... U.S. should pull out of Washington, the crooks are in the big house now.

I manage to see my acquaintance the day before, but left when they got off work. Of course I did not spend all day at their job, the day before I was running some errands after picking up the Jeep and attended the Neighborhood Watch meeting. The chick that caught my eyes at the first meeting, well, she’s not bad looking but she seems to be out there trying to get the “community” to get together and get to know each other (something of twenty plus years ago) and trying to do too much too soon. Hopefully it would be a good turn out, I know I have to be there since I was elected as one of the “block captain” in the community. I did volunteered to help setup and breakdown the event, but she wants everyone to bring something – pot-luck style – to me that sounds dangerous, not everyone cooks and with the economy now its hard to buy beyond your budget, I still do not know what I’ll be bringing to the event.

SPEAKING ABOUT THE ECONOMY, it is sad to find out that the legislature have joined the idiots of EPA and their affiliates to add more hardship unto the citizens by voting and allowing the stores to charge for the plastic groceries bags above and beyond the cost of food, and to my understanding there is no alternative unless you carry your own bags to be packed. Congress managed to pass a bill with a hidden law from the citizens nicknamed “The Hate Crime”, which if I recall failed on its own the first time. People wake up! Congress is suppose to be OUR VOICE, “…for the people, by the people…” Congress IS NOT supposes to operate on their opinion or “special” interest groups. Speaking to a gentleman and seeing the hurt in his eyes as he spoke about his country that was beautiful and free – yes, I used the word WAS – he explained to me about the things that people had and how the people let the GOVERNMENT TAKE OVER and they LOST their FREEDOM, and became COMMUNISM…. this country is Cuba. You might sit there and say to yourself, “This won’t happen to us.”, how many of the Cubans back in the days said that to themselves, obviously many did as I can see the hurt in the man’s eye as he spoke about it…and when he pulled out a faded letter that is still readable, he was a political refugee because he was part of the government of Cuba and defected to the United States of America for FREEDOM and now he sees this country doing the same thing that Cuba did. Now folks, I don’t know about you, but if a foreigner can see signs of trouble because they have already gone through it – now that is some scary stuff.

Experience comes after you had dealt with the problem, not before.

Unorthodox research

Clothing style: It has made me wonder where the idea of wearing your trousers below the waist line had originated, at first I thought it was a misconception from the late 50's where the boxer was worn just above the waist line and the trouser still was worn at the waist line; however, after asking about it seems that I was wrong. I am surprise that the majority that I see about wearing such fashion ranges from all ages and race. My research have led to a rapper wearing their trouser low and that style was found in a state penal facility in New York, which indicates that the individual that wears the trouser below the waist line is available; the holding of the trouser while walking indicates that the individual is packing. To me that translate: Harassment - I don't blame the law enforcement for stopping and checking individuals for weapons and treating them as though they're ex-felons since that's where the style started (I'm tired of hearing folks complaining they were stopped by "popo" and yet their attire brings it upon themselves).

TSA: It would be great if TSA file bankruptcy and leaves the airport, I don't know how many of you have had the bad luck of dealing with them at "Check Point Charlie" at the airport. While speaking with a friend that have retired from the government, I was shocked to learn that TSA has more power than INS/Custom! TSA is a civilian base company contracted out to do a government job and they have more power? I was surprise to hear that, but by the same token in several locales TSA might have filed bankruptcy in several location (all East of the Rockies) according to my friend, guess we would have to see what takes place.

Customer Service: It's a shame that I had to move farther from one of my favorite restaurant hang-out, but I found one that was NRA friendly - so I thought. The changes that have taken place at the new hang-out have changed to the point you can see some of the workers with long face, things that were common to observe are no longer. For example it is busy and before everyone seemed to jump in and move the people about to get them seated, now they wait and wait for a server to acknowledge them and the new manager only assist if one of the servers says something or there is no "heavy" traffic at the door and the place is almost empty...the manager spends more time checking their cellular phone, giggling and texting. Guess today's society does not know the meaning of customer service and experience and rather have upset, nasty, mean, etc., customers that might not come back and most likely tell their friends not to even go there.

RIP Lt. Mike Stone

Another great actor leaves among us. Karl Malden (Mladen Sekulovich) of Chicago, Illinois has passed away 2009 July 1, in California...I will not forget the time we played cards on board a TWA L-1011 from ORD to LAX (Chicago to Los Angeles) and he was still filming Streets of San Francisco, he would be surely missed.

(image from http://www.imdb.com/ Streets of San Francisco galleria)