Fear – real and imagined

 News, Politics, Rant  No Responses »
Dec 212007
 

Two things cropped up today and I think they tie together nicely. I’ve got plenty of immediate concerns to worry about, but these are two “big picture” items.

First, Sean, linked I Am Not Afraid from Downsize DC this morning. I completely agree that the Bush administration and the GOP in particular have used fear of another terrorist attack as the reasoning for doing all sorts of ill-advised, bone-headed and criminal things over the past 6 years. However, I don’t want to blindly endorse another push to downsize the government. There’s no doubt that bureaucracies are bloated with waste, but we can’t use the method employed by the current administration to kill it off, namely incompetence and privatization. I’m still baffled as to how I’m drawn into left and right, us and them arguments with friends and co-workers whose viewpoints I have a lot more in common with than somebody like George W. Bush. We’re arguing with the wrong people and about the wrong things.

The second, somewhat related, news item is the death of Nataline Sarkisyan. Jason Calacanis is all over this with posts to his own blog and Mahalo. Speaking of bloated bureaucracies, if it turns out that hers was a legitimate case for a transplant, one was available and she died because of wrangling from Cigna, then this case will be a rallying cry for everyone who’s ever had to deal with the crap that health insurance companies can dish out. This is exactly the sort of thing that illustrates how all of the free market whackjobs need to STFU. Some things can’t be evaluated on their profit potential and if that’s the sole criterion, then you end up with a dead 17-year-old who could and should have been saved. How does fear play into this? I fear that one day; I might have to face a similar situation with my own children.

[tags]fear, terrorism, healthcare, natalinesarkisyan, bureaucracy, policy, failed[/tags]

 Posted by ttrentham at 3:53 pm

Minor Post-Frustration Venting

 Rant  2 Responses »
May 012006
 

Crowded H-E-B, Oltorf and Congress, 5pm yesterday.
I choose the only “20 Items or Less” line because there’s only one person in front of me, a woman in her 20′s, fairly cute. Since the other lines were longer, I’m wondering if the 20 items limit is too much work for people or if it’s an odd number to choose as a cut off, maybe most people have less than 10 or more than 20 items. I think this is the first time I’ve noticed a “20 Items or Less” line.

As I start to unload our items from the cart to the conveyor, noting that we’re safely under 20 items, I realize that she’s over the 20 item limit. Way over. It’s really easy to tell since there’s a monitor over the conveyor showing us all how many items have been scanned. It numbers them. As the total reaches into the thirties, the checkout woman pauses and asks if the rest of the items belong to the woman. She replies that they’re hers and the clerk continues to check her out, the total eventually reaching 42 items. I would’ve cut her some slack until 25, but anything over that, there’s one of three things going on: you’re an inconsiderate asshole, you can’t read, or you can’t count. Instead of saying something, which I should’ve done, I kept quiet and vented to The Boy on the way out to the car, pointing out that there’s a reason why he needs to learn how to count, read, and not be a jerk.

What would you have done? Public humiliation? Snide comment? Death penalty?

Update: Apparently, Stepan had a similar experience a few hours before at one of them newfangled self-checkout H-E-Bs.

[tags]heb, checkout, grocery, rant[/tags]

 Posted by ttrentham at 11:20 am
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