Monday, September 16, 2013

Why Facebook SUCKS!!!!

I'd like to say that I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook, but that would be a lie. It's more of a slight crush/seriously hate relationship instead. How do I hate thee? Let me count the ways!

Let us begin with the overly complicated, but seriously limited, settings. In fact, it's the settings that I hate more than anything else. I know privacy Nazis don't like all the privacy issues and I'll agree with that, to a very limited point, but what irks me is control of all the freaking crap I am forced to see.

I don't care how someone is doing on Candy Crush. I hate that game (that man's voice seriously scares me) and I don't EVER want to hear about someone else playing it.

I don't care about all the lol cats that one friend posts 24/7. I'm not even a cat person! Dogs run my life and always will.

I don't care about all the one liner pictures that everyone thinks we all should see. One every now and then is okay, but what about that friend who posts 30 per day?! UGH!

If I like a page, that doesn't mean I LOVE that page and am an obsessed fan. That only means one of two things. The first being that I thought it was cool... today... and only today. The second one being that I support that page (like anti-dog fighting and such). It doesn't mean I want to see every single post they ever make in their lives!

Then take their new notification crap. I only want notifications in response to anything I've said. That's it. I don't want notifications about every post anyone ever makes! Whose bright idea was it to change this. Now I can't keep track of anything and I appear rude for not responding to comments made to me.

I would, however, like to get posts others make as a text message. I accidentally turned a friend of mine off, by accident. Apparently it takes an act of God to get it turned back on. Let's take a look at the help page for that.


Hopefully you can read this well enough. Now take a look at the instructions that I have highlighted. Let's now go to the settings that it's talking of.


To begin with, there is NO mobile section at the top of the page, it's on the left, highlighted in blue. That's a minor issue, but minor or not, it IS incorrect. The second most important problem is that there is absolutely NO "whose status updates should go to my phone section, whatsoever!

Now, I'm no genius or anything, but wouldn't it make sense to you that if you change a freaking feature you'd update the freaking help files?! Facebook employees make a TON of money and for what? For nothing at all? This is simply unacceptable and anyone who neglected this very important thing would have lost their job, were I their employer.

So let's give them some space here. Maybe, just maybe, that little section that says "text me when someone sends me a message on web or mobile" can be customized. Let's give them a chance, okay?


Turned out to be a fat freaking chance, didn't it?

Then there is NO WAY AT ALL TO EASILY FIND A CONTACT US to find out actually HOW to do it! No where! Now if they seriously believe I'll pay for a service such as theirs, they have lost their minds. I'd sue them before I'd pay for it and that's coming from a United States citizen who despises frivolous lawsuits!

All I want to do is fix it to the way it was before. That's it. Is that too much to ask?

Clearly, they need an instructor to teach them how to make settings for anything. They are so out in left field that it's obvious to me that they not only have absolutely ZERO experience in the matter, they don't have a clue as to what they're doing.

Think of it like this. Would you find it acceptable if a doctor treated you in such a way? What if he made the same types of mistakes and told you the special diet you needed to be on but you discovered it wasn't that diet at all, but another one. Would that be something you would just let slide?

Of course it wouldn't! Don't tell me that this is different because it isn't. Negligence is negligence plain and simple. It doesn't matter who it is. If you lie to your customers and give them the wrong instructions, then you are clearly negligent and unintelligent.

Zuckerberg is an idiot who just happened to win a lottery ticket, that's it. His decision making is a joke (Beacon anyone?) and his stupidity flows like Niagara Falls.

This is probably a good time to ask you to post this on Facebook. It's time that they hear the truth about themselves.

God bless you all!

Tuesday, August 06, 2013

There's an app for that... wait... There isn't? :/

I'll admit it. I'm an app junkie. I love apps and I love to tinker with them to see what all they can do. It's really amazing how far technology has come. Except for the whole space travel thing, we have surpassed Star Trek. That said, the new addage is, "There's an app for that!" Right? Well it's odd because there are two things that I want and what amazes me most about that is that Android (I have Ice Cream Sandwich, which makes me want a real one) doesn't offer it. No, I'm not talking apps because this should be included in Android. Even if I was talking apps, there isn't a single simple app that does it.

The two things are:
  1.  A backup button that backs up E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G. Seriously? There isn't one freaking thing that does that. All I want is a button and when I tap that button everything is backed up. All settings, all apps... EVERYTHING. WTF? I can't believe that no one hasn't thought of this, so why is it that we don't have that yet?
  2. A notification manager. In Android, you can set a ringtone for each contact. Why can't I set a notification tone?! Why do I have to even look for an app to do that. The problem is that there is NO app that allows you to customize ALL notifications in one simple place. Don't tell me that developers create their own directories and such. There should be a protocol and any developer that deviates from that protocol should be suspect. So the protocol should be /notifications and ALL programming should use that directory.
I don't understand the difficulty here. What is the problem? Why do I have to go into each and every app, I have, to backup their settings? Why do I have to go into each app to manage their notifications? Why do I have to make a list of my apps so when I get a new phone or I reset this one, I'll know which ones to download?

I thought that computers were here to automate actions. Perhaps I need to tell Android developers that these are automated actions. Apparently they don't know this. :(

Don't get me wrong. I very much appreciate all that Android developers do. I am grateful that we have a cheaper and more customizable option than anything Apple offers. I just wish that the important tasks, were an option. The whole reason we have notifications is so that we can get messages when we need to. Not being able to customize that is ludicrous, and no backup option is just plain foolish. It's been drummed into our heads to backup, backup and backup.

/rant

Friday, August 02, 2013

All About MagnoliaSouth!

I post all over the web. I sure do! Not every website allows me to write a small bio. That's annoying because if you read many of the things I have written, you'll think I'm contradicting myself. For example, you'll hear me say I grew up in Atlanta. Then you'll hear me say I grew up a tiny town in nowhere Georgia. Then later you'll hear me say I grew up in Houston, TX. So which is it?!

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Why I hate Winn Dixie!

I've been meaning to post this for sometime now, and even now I have only a few minutes, but I wanted to rant for a moment. One thing I want to make clear is that I'm not talking about employees, I'm talking about a corporation here. The employees have always tried to be kind and accomadating.

I just want that understood.

So now, I have a question for the world out there: why does Winn Dixie refuse to appreciate their customers? I have evidence proving that they don't. No. Really.

The most recent insult has been the removal of the self-checkout lanes. WTF?! As my son put it, "I guess Winn Dixie said, 'How can we make it more difficult to shop so we can better compete with Walmart? I know! Let's remove the only thing that keeps customers coming back! Let's take out the self-checkouts!'"

How stupid do you have to be to come to a decision like that?

If you've read any of my posts, you'll be aware that I'm a staunch conservative. That also means that I am completely against frivolous lawsuits. Liberals are idiots because they don't seem to understand that this doesn't mean we support corporations railroading people. We believe in fairness.

My mother was once in a Winn Dixie store in Atlanta. An empty chunk of metal was sticking out of their shelf and tore into my mother's eye. All my mother wanted was for her emergency room bill to be paid. Guess who refused to pay up? You guessed it!

My daughter was once in a Winn Dixie store just outside of Mobile, Alabama. There were two idiot teens (one was over 18)  riding around on one of those handicap scooters. The morons were calling great attention to themselves. Apparently one of them was a former Winn Dixie employee. He had actually been fired from Winn Dixie the very day before this incident.

Let me veer off for a moment and ask the first question here. Why was he allowed to enter the store after he'd been fired? Disgruntled employees anyone? That's the first mistake Winn Dixie made.

My daughter paid for her groceries and went out to her car. Those boys pulled up beside her and mugged her.

Clearly, the boys lacked intelligence. You don't pull a mugging just after everyone saw you (on video cameras too) clowning around inside a store that you were fired from! I mean come on! They definitely deserved the stupid criminal of the month award.

In any case, police easily obtained their identities and my daughter picked them out of a line up and that, as they say, was that.

What bothers me about it is the situation. The Winn Dixie manager was very apologetic. He felt terrible and he took my daughter's name and number and promised her that the Winn Dixie corporation would be contacting her with something special like a free gift or free merchandise.

Ask me what she got. Go ahead, ask.

She got nothing. NOTHING! Not even an apology from the corporation. Winn Dixie didn't give a rats ass. We could have sued the pants off of them! Our kindness in NOT suing them was rewarded by them through absolutely no concern for her welfare, in the least?

NOTE TO WINN DIXIE: You suck and are the most miserable store I've ever seen. You're worse than Walmart and since I see that there are few who actually shop there, I hope you go out of business.

I'll be there with champagne (bought at your biggest competitor) to toast your going out of business sale right there in front of everyone.

Unlike Winn Dixie, I'll keep my word.

Monday, July 15, 2013

I need a good RSS reader!

I'm heart broken that Google Reader is no more. I loved that RSS reader. I mean, I wanted to marry it and everything. It was perfect and worked so simply. I have been so upset that I shied away from anything RSS since. Now, after being in mourning and weeping near constantly, I'm finally feeling the desire to begin dating another RSS again. After playing around with a few, I realized that I actually had a few needs that must be met. They're not many, but they are required.
  • It must be available in the cloud so I can access it from my pc, my Galaxy phone and my Kindle Fire. This also means that it requires an Android app for my Galaxy and my Fire.
  • I need to be able to rename Feeds. For example, Fox News has a boat load of individual feeds. However when I add certain feeds, it is automatically named "Fox News". NOT HELPFUL! When I want to only read the "Digging History" feed then I have to click through all the feeds named "Fox News" until I finally figure it out. Screw that! I want to just be able to rename the stupid feeds so I will right away know what the frick it is.
  • I need to be able to organize feeds into folders.
That's not a lot to ask, is it? Then why is so freaking hard to find what I need?! My first attempt was the popular Feedly, the one with glowing reviews. Feedly met all the criteria. It has apps, it lets me rename them and it organizes things into folders. Great. So I give it a spin. The problem is that I cannot keep that account separate. That is, I must link it to another account. I'm now not even sure what account I linked it to originally. There is nothing anywhere that says what account it's attached to, so when I go to log in on my phone or my KF, it says "sorry, there is no record of that account." REALLY?! Why can't I have a simple Feedly account and be done with it?!

The next one I tried is Pulse. Visually Pulse is stunning but that's about where all the love ends. Since I cannot rename feeds, Pulse is automatically disqualified. I cannot for the life of me understand why this is so. It is obvious that they have put a lot of time and effort into it's visual appeal, but to glaringly ignore the most important function speaks volumes to me. Sorry, but Pulse is then trash in my opinion.

Another one I found was gReader. My little three requirements seemed like peanuts compared to its rich list of features. Well, that was until I realized that you can't freaking view it on your pc. Seriously?! You can't freaking view it on your pc?! I couldn't believe it. WTF? That would be my dream app, but too bad it sucks for not being viewable online.

Now RssDemon is another app that initially sounds heavenly, like gReader. The problem though is the same with gReader. There is no pc support. Additionally, it looks as though the app has been abandoned. The last post at its website is way back from February 2012 and it's last app update was also February 2012. No thanks.

NewsRob is also finished, so there is no point in even discussing it.

There really are no further apps worth mentioning. The rest have basically the same features.

It's really too bad that there isn't a perfect one out there. I'm just saddened by the fact that gReader limits itself to an app only utility.

I guess for now I'm stuck with the very basic and archaic Feedly... unless some of you out there have better suggestions.

Monday, July 08, 2013

Murder and television.

I have to admit something. It's hard to admit and there is probably a support group out there for someone like me, but I have a problem that always comes back to haunt me. It's called: crime shows.

My first adult book that I ever read was The Godfather, I kid you not. My favorite movie (because I was too young to actually watch The Godfather and besides, we didn't have DVDs back then) was Death on the Nile, an Agatha Christie film (with a stellar cast, I might add). The first murder trial that I followed, praying she would be put away, was the trial of sociopathic, and truly bent (not to mention, unattractive), Diane Downs.

As far as I can remember, I've been intrigued with murder, whether fiction or non. I loved Unsolved Mysteries and America's Most Wanted, when they first aired. I still remember watching the very first Unsolved Mysteries episode, that was hosted by Raymond Burr.

Later in life, there was Forensic Files and City Confidential. Now there is an entire network (actually there are a couple) that are dedicated to crime, but the shows have gotten a bit sleazy.

Despite the sleaze, I have my current favorites. One is Scorned, Love Kills. Besides the obvious (meaning stories), what I really like about that one is Nicole Blackman, the narrator. I love her voice, her tone and her rhythm when she reads the story, and how she enunciates.

In fact, I liked her voice so much I Googled her. Well that was a let down. I won't say why, but I'll just say it was.

The other one I like, and this is a not to be missed show, is Homicide Hunter. Now I must confess that I avoided that one like the plague. I don't know why, but I thought it was more like Dog: The Bounty Hunter (the older one) or something.

I could just kick myself for that! A couple of weeks ago I turned on the TV and his show was on. He was on the screen talking about a case. I didn't know what the show was, but I was absolutely mesmerized by him. Instantly I was intrigued and there were several episodes of his on that day.

I never moved from the couch, I kid you not. That man is absolutely amazing! How can anyone describe him? There are simply no words! He is a kind and understanding man, but at the same time he is strong, tough and a seriously alpha male. He's the one you want investigating murders but not the one you want to come after you.

Now, I've watched a lot of shows in my time. I've seen all kinds of garbage, people trying to act like a normal Joe when they're arrogant and so forth. You know who I mean, those cheesy and sleazy folks out there. Most just want their names in the papers or on TV, right?

Well Lt. Kenda is NOT one of those people, I don't think. He appears to be completely genuine to me. His empathy is just very touching. I believe him to be a man with real integrity. You don't find many of those and you definitely don't see it in politicians (all together now: Obama anyone?).

Anyway all of this was to say that if you haven't seen his show, stop what you're doing right now and head on over to either Amazon or Netflix and watch it. Let me know what you think! I hope you love him as I do.

Thursday, June 06, 2013

Dogs

I am amazed that in today's world there are still people who totally don't get dogs. I'm not talking about the evil people who hurt them (that's an issue that is so disturbing to me that I can't even talk about it) but people who try to "train" their dog without even understanding how a dog thinks.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm no dog trainer. My dogs know how to sit and lay down and not much else. My goal with them is companionship, period. Still, if I wanted to train them further I definitely wouldn't treat them as a beneath me being, like so many try to do.

Granted, they are canids and there is a pack instinct in dogs but their similarity to wolves ends there. We have domesticated and bred dogs for thousands upon thousands of years. In fact, cavemen domesticated them and think about it like this: if humans have evolved then how can we deny that dogs haven't evolved?

My point is that dogs haven't been wolves for thousands of years so naturally the old wolf instincts are extinct, so to speak. Their behaviors and health issues are the result of human interference. Period.

Dogs are supposed to be our friends and companions. They are not to be treated as wild animals nor as anything less than how you would treat your friends. If you don't feel a friend to them, then please find your dog a better home where they will be appreciated. It is unfair to keep a dog if you cannot treat it the way it should be treated.

When I see dogs chained up outside, or literally living in the backyard, I am incensed and disgusted. There is no reason to keep a dog if that's how you're going to treat it. Obviously working dogs have a job to do and there are some that have to remain outdoors because they were bred for a certain task, such as the sheep dogs that live with the flock (who I might add uses the flock as his pack), but those are few and far between.

I cannot say this loudly enough:

DOGS DO NOT BELONG ON CHAINS NOR IN THE BACKYARD! EVER!

For those of you who are interested in training your dog in any way, shape or form, you should try watching any of the videos by Emily Larlham known on youtube as Kikopup.

Positive training gives positive results and brings you closer to your dog a a relationship.

I'm reminded of something I heard the late Roger Caras say in a TV interview. It was an old Native American legend (I believe Native American, it could have been some other culture). I don't remember the exact legend but basically man and all animals of the world were standing in a field and the earth began to split apart, making a great divide, when all of a sudden, before the divide was too far, dog jumped over to man's side. That is why the dog is our friend.

It is a moving myth and even demonstrates the devotion our dogs have for us. Man didn't jump to animal's side, but dogs came to man.

For this reason, why doesn't all man return that devotion?

Please share this with your friends. It's not so I can get hits or whatever, because you can just copy and paste this in an email, without any acknowledgement of me whatsoever. I just want this to spread this word, so that people will learn.

If you know someone who chains up their dog or leaves them in the yard, send this to them so that they can learn why it's wrong. Please!

Thank you readers for listening. I just had to get this off my chest.

Cheers to you all!

Sunday, June 02, 2013

Swiftkey Vs. Go Keyboard: A Review

The first thing I did when I got a new phone was change the keyboard. I don't like the default Android keyboard. It's very limited.

My needs for a keyboard are simple. I need a keyboard that....
  • Allows swiping for words.
  • Has a good predictive text
  • Is easy to use
  • Works fast
  • Is bug free

Now there are a couple of things that I didn't list as a need, which I really, REALLY want. I didn't list them because there isn't a keyboard on the planet that freaking does these minor things; that I know of anyway. My wishlist items are...
  • A keyboard that let's me customize it with - what I call - a macro button. I want a button that I can place my own text in and that will enter the text I want by selecting it. For that matter, a whole new button row would be ideal, but one button is the absolute minimum needed.
  • My email address in predictive text. I cannot tell you how freaking often I have to enter my email address and there isn't one single predictive text on the planet that has ever popped my email address up there. I don't have several email addresses. I have one. ONE!!! Why can't they figure that out?!
  • A .com/.net/.org/.gov button/prediction. Sure, some have .com but not all sites use .com.
Now there are basically 3 popular keyboards that people use. One is swipe, but swipe is only special in the swipe department, so I am not going to include it in my comparison. The other two are Swiftkey (which has a huge following) and Go Keyboard that is very similar.

I started out with Go Keyboard. I really liked it too because (sometimes) it includes the .com button and it has a keyboard minimize button. There is also an extensive emoji plugin as well. That's helpful at times and I imagine kids love it.

The main problem I have is that its predictive text isn't as accurate as I want it to be. In fact, it consistently selects words that make absolutely no sense at all. In addition to which, its outer keys are too close to the screen edges as well as other keys, so there are a ton of mistakes that require correcting. I spend more time using the back button to delete things than I do typing.

I decided to try out swiftkey and I was wowed by its predictive text. I had heard about it but I hear about a lot of things and then when I try it, it isn't all that. A great example is Instagram. I'm still not understanding the love behind Instagram, but that's another post. The primary thing is that I normally don't agree with everyone else.

Swiftkey however surprised me. In its settings you sign into all the things that you use for text such as Facebook, Twitter, your cell texting and so forth. It looks at what words, acronyms, etc., that you normally use and it inserts them as you write.

My son is a WOW player and texts his friends frequently about the game. As a test he wrote out a text message using the WOW acronyms he often uses and it nailed it each and every time.

Another thing I like is the keyboard layout. There is more space along the edges and Swiftkey even has an option to use a separated keyboard when you're typing in landscape mode. The end result is that their layout is truly amazing. 

That said, Swiftkey is still far from perfect. To begin with Swiftkey developers say that you can use a gesture to minimize the screen, but it doesn't work on my phone. None of their gestures do. Which brings me to my biggest irration...

This probably isn't fair to mention because I didn't have a need to contact Go Keyboard, but as far as I understand you're only allowed to seek Swiftkey support nine times total.

Granted, it would be a rare occasion that you would need to seek support for more than that. However, as a paid user I expect to get free near-instant support, like what Evernote offers its paid users. It's unlikely that I'll actually get any help at all on my problem, but we'll see (if you see no updates, then you'll know that I never heard from them). My support question is about the issue with gestures. I put in a request yesterday and we'll see how long it takes for them to get back with me, if ever.

Both are offered for free but I personally paid for Swiftkey because I liked it so much. Gestures aside, it really is great at knowing what I'm going to write and the keyboard layout is much more intuitive. For me, Swiftkey wins over Go Keyboard, even though both were fails on my wishlist.

Saturday, June 01, 2013

Dipping my toe into the smartphone world.

Recently I decided to finally upgrade to a smartphone. There is a lot you can do with a smartphone that you cannot do otherwise. One small example is coupons. There are a lot of coupons you can use by having it available on your smartphone and them scanning. Even shopper discount card/tags can now be stored on your phone and scanned.

Then just about everywhere you look are scan boxes, which have another name I'm sure. You can just scan one of those boxes and poof, you're at the website page.

Really though, I don't much care about those. I'm sure kids love them, but I'm more old fashioned and have only a few needs. The primary reason I've actually upgraded is that I live in a first strike hurricane zone. I really need to be able to communicate with my family and check weather reports as well as other things.

My move into the phone arena is new and I'm still learning, but I'm very pleased. Still, I have downloaded apps and I like to play around with them so I'll be posting reviews every now and then.

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Shouldn't the White House have an adult give press conferences?

Jay Carney is a childish liar. His press conference yesterday is a perfect example. His accusation that Republicans are politicizing the attack is an atrocity! They are the primary example of politicizing and he is treating this like NOTHING happened. How dare him?!

His use of "extremists" instead of "terrorists" is offensive and an insult to the memory of those who were killed by said terrorists. If by saying this I'm politicizing, then fine. Say it. It changes NOTHING. The facts remain and that's the end of it.

For Jay to gloss over the audacity of various government agencies treatment of malinformation is unforgivable.

I find it interesting that reporters that who have fawned over Obama are now grilling Carney and pointing out his lame attempt to downplay the actions of Obama's administration. He remind me of a court jester. His laughable so-called "information" that he offers is ridiculous.

FINALLY! The press is now waking up to what Republicans have said all along: they are a bunch of dishonest liars. We told you so! Remember that we've warned you and you helped put this administration in office. Shame on you too!

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Google Voice: Contact Individual Settings.

For reasons that I cannot fathom, Google has dropped individual settings. Sure, there are group settings, but there is no way to get to individual settings at all. The odd thing is that we still have the ability to edit them. Why would they do that? It's not like Google doesn't know about the problem nor is it that they don't know that the users hate it this way. They just ignore us.

So anyway, here is how to do it. Just keep in mind that this isn't the ideal way, but it can be done if it's something you wish to do.

First, it may be easier to do this by opening a text file and pasting this on the text file. You're going to have to put together two different URLs to get this to work.

Also, make sure you're logged into Google.

Now, go to your contacts by clicking here. Search for the person you wish to edit. We'll call ours John. Once I select John it should have a link that looks something like (without the colors, of course):
https://www.google.com/contacts/#contacts/abunchofcharactershere

Copy that last part after that last slash of your contact, it's in red above. Paste that into your text file.

Now copy this entire thing below (in red):
https://www.google.com/voice/#viewcontact/

Paste that in your text file BEFORE the abunchofcharactershere, with NO spaces. It should now look like this:

https://www.google.com/voice/#viewcontact/abunchofcharactershere

Then hit enter or whatever to go to that page. It should work, unless Google changes something.

Hopefully this will help you. :) Cheers to all!

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

The Truth About Republicans, Libertarians and Democrats

When Obama won, I cried. I cried real tears because that was a signal that our nation has become selfish and stupid. I was so upset that I didn't even want to hear about, write about nor talk about politics. I felt defeated and ashamed of our nation.

Then the Boston bombing happened and I heard a freaking Democrat accuse us Tea Party members of being responsible. Bastards! I am just as angry as everyone else. It could just as easily be a liberal as well as a conservative and I resent their bigotry against our beliefs and what we stand for. How dare them question our integrity!

So it is with that stupidity that I wish to address the difference between us and when you see the comparisons, you'll see that the most unreasonable and selfish are Democrats. Tea Party members, such as myself, could be either Republican or Libertarian but never a Democrat. They are shameless.

Let's look at a few of the beliefs of each party, for those unfamiliar with what the differences really mean. You might actually be surprised too. Perhaps you voted for the wrong person. Pay attention and if you doubt my claims, Google it. 

I will also freely offer my opinion, just because I still can, despite the Democrats attempts to silence us.

Marriage

Republican: Should be defined between a man and woman.
Libertarian: Should not be defined nor regulated.
Democrat: Should include gay marriage and should also fall under discrimination if not recognized.
Me: Should not be required for anyone, except those in a religious establishment, if they so choose. After all, it started as a sacrament. I don't see why atheists want to even marry at all since they have no Biblical stand. They make no sense, whatsoever.

Immigration

Republican: Should be limited and borders should be secured, so Americans can have employment first.
Libertarian: Change the law to allow open borders.
Democrat: Give amnesty as well as welfare and Affirmative Action, so that they can have jobs before average American citizens.
Me: I do believe that we should limit immigration, but I also believe that we should increase the limits for those outside of North and South America. It is unequal that a Mexican can slip over the border and get citizenship when someone trying to flee Nigeria cannot. I believe in total equality.

Affirmative Action

Republican: Abolish, because it's unequal and unnecessary.
Libertarian: Abolish, because it's unequal and unnecessary.
Democrats: Keep and add more and more restrictions.
Me: Abolish, because it's unequal and unnecessary.

Abortion

Republican: Abolish
Libertarian: Deregulate
Democrats: Keep, and force religious establishments to also pay for them.
Me: Abolish. As the great Terry O'Quinn said in the TV film, Roe vs. Wade (1989), "A woman's peace of mind just isn't excuse enough to kill a child."

Military and Defense Spending

Republican: Important and necessary, government is supposed to protect and defend.
Libertarian: Important and necessary, government is supposed to protect and defend.
Democrats: Make friends with the world and apologize about past decisions.... oh and blame the "previous administration". Then we don't need any defense.
Me: Important and necessary, government is supposed to protect and defend.

Political Correctness

Republican: Finds it childish.
Libertarian: Finds it childish.
Democrat: Is necessary and should be a law. Any individual or business who deviates from it should be banned, fired or jailed. 
Me: Finds it childish.

Taxes

Republican: Should be very limited. Businesses and business owners should have tax breaks to promote job growth, etc. .
Libertarian: Abolish completely.
Democrat: Tax anything and everything, including the rain that falls on homeowners.
Me: Should be very limited. Businesses and business owners should have tax breaks to promote job growth, etc.

Education

Republican: Parents should have control of, and responsibility for, all funds expended for their children's education.
Libertarian: Parents should have control of, and responsibility for, all funds expended for their children's education.
Democrat: Parents should have no choice in how their children are educated, unless they want to pay out of pocket expenses, which only the rich can afford.
Me: Parents should have control of, and responsibility for, all funds expended for their children's education.

Health Care

Republican: Citizens should have the right to choose if they want insurance or not and the level of the insurance they choose to purchase.
Libertarian: Citizens should have the right to choose if they want insurance or not and the level of the insurance they choose to purchase.
Democrat: Make every citizen purchase insurance and a certain amount of insurance whether they want to or not.
Me: Citizens should have the right to choose if they want insurance or not and the level of the insurance they choose to purchase.

Welfare

Republican: Necessary in very limited circumstances.
Libertarian: Abolish.
Democrat: Necessary in unlimited circumstances.
Me: Necessary in very limited circumstances.

That's all I have time for now, but you get the idea. I'm mostly republican, but I do have a few deviations; keyword is few. I just hate it when Democrats try to make us sound like evil beings and they say that we're all rich and we only care about the rich. 

We (my husband and I) are anything but rich. We are a working class family of a very limited income. We have two old cars and a house payment that is never going to go away, ever. We have no money in the bank and likely never will. We are middle aged and are worried about our retirement in the near future. We have health care costs that we cannot afford to pay and a million other problems.

We are just average Americans trying to make it in this unforgiving world, like everyone else. We believe in equality and good values. We believe in the right to free speech, the right to freedom of religion and its practice, the right to keep and bear arms and the right to be equal among all.

We want peace and justice and want to maintain the American way.

May God be with you all! Amen.

Friday, April 05, 2013

Another reason to hate United Airlines.

I hate United. There is a lot of truth in that "Delta loves to fly, and it shows" because United hates flying and it shows.

I've never had a problem on a Delta flight. Ever. I will say that some of you may call me biased because I have a lot of family that have worked for Delta.  That's true, but their jobs have never affected me. That is to say, that I've never personally benefited from it. Trust me though, just because a lot of my family works there, doesn't mean I'll just conform. I'm a conservative. I don't conform. Ever.

So back to United, which sucks. I've never had a good experience with United. Every single time I've ever flown before with them before in my life they have cancelled my flight. I kid you not. This is without warning, and then they have the nerve to tell me to stand in line for 3 hours, trying to get another flight.

When I was coming home from Los Angeles last year, they cancelled the flight I was to be on. They told us to go to the other side of the airport (in another terminal) and stand in line to get a new flight. I am not kidding when I say that there were two employees working the counter they sent us to. I am especially NOT kidding when I say that both of those people helped only one person in one freaking hour. ONE FREAKING HOUR! Everyone was complaining and they didn't care. I heard one threatening to call security if we didn't stop complaining. THAT B***H!!!!

I will never fly United, in my life, ever again. I don't care if they charge only $30 per flight. I want them to go out of business. I want their high and mighty employees to lose their jobs (the nice ones, which are few should of course have jobs) and I want Americans, who would be thankful for a job, to get theirs instead.

Anyway, obviously United trains its employees to be jerks and all of this was to say that United's condescension rears its head once again: it's just another reason to hate United Airlines. What were they thinking? Parents have every right to decide what children watch and don't watch. How dare them treat them like criminals.

B******S!

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

All of them were jerks.

I just watched this video:


I was stunned when I saw it. Granted, her talent is amazing and is stunning in and of itself, but I was even more stunned at the behavior of all the judges, the staff and the audience. If that's what being British is all about, then thank goodness for my Founding Fathers!

To believe for a second that someone who is not beautiful has absolutely no talent screams volumes about society.

Shame on everyone for their childish, small minded, disgusting behavior.



Monday, February 04, 2013

I hate the US post office!

Oh my freaking gawd!!!

I think the worst thing imaginable, other than standing in line at the DMV or shopping at Walmart, is a visit to the post office. It is a nightmare each and every time I ever go in my freaking life.

We'll forget for a moment that there are 4 register windows and I've never seen more than one of them open. The forms that I always need (mostly it's for insurance) are - and it never ever fails me - gone. G-O-N-E, gone! I then am forced to wait in a line that runs all the way out the door. I finally get to the front after 30 minutes and they give me the form, then tell me I have to step aside and fill it out. Now I have to wait until the guy behind me finishes his transaction and he has ten freaking packages that he's sending to ten different countries and then he can't decide whether or not to send them express, priority or regular mail because each of them cost much more than he thought it would and then by the time he gets all that done and he pays he says "Oops, I forgot I need stamps" then he can't decide what freaking stamps he wants and on and on!!!

UGH!

It never fails me, I kid you not. They need an express lane just like any other store or at the very least a machine where indecisive people can calculate their estimated postage so they can make a freaking decision BEFORE they get to the window. Jiminy Cricket it's so frustrating!

A few of them are jerks too (don't even get me started on the Dunwoody post office in Atlanta). They are government, so they don't give a rat's ass whether you're a happy customer or not. I couldn't help but giggle when one guy went off yelling and screaming because of something they either couldn't do or he didn't have. He screamed, "FINE! I'LL JUST GO DOWN TO UPS AND GET IT THEN AND YOU'LL LOSE MY BUSINESS!!!!" Like they freaking care! They get paid whether or not he's happy and there is no 'the customer is always right' policy there at all. That man was wasting his breath.

Why is the post office still living in the Pony Express days anyway? Their Click-N-Ship is ONLY for Flat Rate or Express! Why can't we weigh our things at home and print out regular first class postage and forms? Like I'm going to send a greeting card, that weighs a bit more than usual, Flat Rate or Express! There is no reason at all that they shouldn't allow us to do that. Why on God's beautiful green earth should I have to go all the way the frick down there just to stand in line forever because my postage is just a little bit more than normal? I'm not going to pay extra for 1 cent stamps that I'll seldom use.

Now I don't want to hear how 'what if the postage is wrong' excuses either. That has never mattered. I once got a birthday card (refer to my comment above about greeting cards that weigh more than usual) that said I owed 5 cents, to them, in postage. "Happy Freaking Birthday you owe me money!!!!" That is fixable just as it always has been.

Why oh why does the government want to control every aspect of our miserable lives and make everything so difficult? WHY?!

Why do we have an incompetent president who acts like Barney Fife?

These are the questions that no one has any answers to!