A New Batch Of Solicitors

When my wife and I first discussed buying our first home we agreed that it would be nice to finally have a landline again. For the past several years, with the impermanence of renting, it was simply easier just using our cell phones for everything that we needed. Having that simple luxury was hugely representative of the permanence that we have both been seeking for some time. When we bought our home it was one of the first things that we had set up and while it did give us that feeling that we have been looking for there have also been brief moment of regret for doing so.

Throughout our first month in our new home, the phone would ring at least a couple of times a day. Many times, fortunately, the calls came in when we were both at work but there have also been plenty of other calls, usually right after we put our son to bed, from various companies trying to sell us one thing or another. This also included many companies wanting us to switch our newly connected services or ADT resellers with whom the fact that we already had ADT installed didn’t quite register. One conversation went something like this:

“Hi, my name is Joe with [insert reseller] and we have some great deals on ADT home security systems…”

“You’re wasting your time… we already took care of this.”

“Congratulations on your new home… are you and your family protected by ADT?”

“We had ADT installed last weekend.”

“But ADT provides a superior product and service…”

“It is an ADT system.”

“But ADT is the leader in the security industry…”

“We had an ADT system installed last weekend”

“Are you sure it was ADT because there are knockoffs?”

“Okay, you got me, I just have a stray dog chained outside the front door with a GoPro streaming to my laptop. Please don’t tell PETA.”

“What?”

“Do you think that qualifies as animal cruelty?”

“I… I…”

“I feed him regularly and clean up after him. Heck, I even took him to the vet. I figured I would make it easy on everyone so I decided to name him ADT.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about sir. I’m Joe from ADT.”

“I know. And now that you’re listening I will reiterate. We had ADT installed last weekend. Please add this number to your do not call list.”

However, those were not the most exhausting calls. We also received a few interesting calls from service providers that don’t even offer service to our area… someone at Verizon needs to get a clue as we would have kept our service had it been offered at our new place. Can’t say I was quite as jovial as I was with the ADT guy but the conversation ended the same way… “Please add this number to your do not call list.”

While I understand and appreciate the fact that many of these people are just trying to make a living, the sheer volume of these calls has become ridiculous. Having the same company call four or five times a day for weeks on end is harassment. And, of course, they don’t leave a message nor do they even know what they are talking about when they call. Case in point being an electric provider that was “concerned to see that our electric bill from [insert name of power provider that we don’t use here] had increased so much over the previous month.” First of all, I call BS. Second, put me on your do not call list, goodbye!

Hippies, Earth Day, PETA... This Isn't Good!

 

So, today is Earth Day. Yeah, can’t say that the day is really one to take notice of. While I do enjoy nature and I appreciate many of the beautiful things that it has to offer, I have other priorities in my life at the moment that take precedence over the natural world. While some people will certainly be appalled by that statement, the truth of the matter is that Earth Day is a celebration for those that have the time, money, or skewed priorities. Some even embody the whole trifecta.

When you go on the Earth Day website you can see that this day was created to take advantage of the people already protesting and the work of a bestselling author. By combining the two and telling those people what to think, what they consider ‘what is really going on’, you have a brand new day and the rapid growth of a movement that now judges the world and condemns people and companies if they offer the slightest doubt as to their conclusions.

To be exact, here is what is posted on earthday.org:

Each year, Earth Day -- April 22 -- marks the anniversary of what many consider the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970.

The height of hippie and flower-child culture in the United States, 1970 brought the death of Jimi Hendrix, the last Beatles album, and Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water”. Protest was the order of the day, but saving the planet was not the cause. War raged in Vietnam, and students nationwide increasingly opposed it.

At the time, Americans were slurping leaded gas through massive V8 sedans. Industry belched out smoke and sludge with little fear of legal consequences or bad press. Air pollution was commonly accepted as the smell of prosperity. “Environment” was a word that appeared more often in spelling bees than on the evening news.  Although mainstream America remained oblivious to environmental concerns, the stage had been set for change by the publication of Rachel Carson's New York Times bestseller Silent Spring in 1962.  The book represented a watershed moment for the modern environmental movement, selling more than 500,000 copies in 24 countries and, up until that moment, more than any other person, Ms. Carson raised public awareness and concern for living organisms, the environment and public health.

Earth Day 1970 capitalized on the emerging consciousness, channeling the energy of the anti-war protest movement and putting environmental concerns front and center. 

While the people who originally started this whole movement may have fully embraced the utopian ideals and honestly encouraged those to be conscious of their actions and the repercussions on the environment, that sense of purpose is all but lost. Environmentalism is now nothing more than a business venture with dictatorship ideals. And now, if you don’t fully subscribe to the theory of climate change and support all of the policies, regulations, and legislation that furthers the cause of environmentalism that translates to the simple fact that you are a racist. That is the extreme that now exists and is largely thriving.

While I believe that there is much that we don’t know when it comes to the environment and the exact impact that we are having on the planet, I firmly believe that we should be cognizant of our actions and use that mythical thing called common sense. We cannot completely reverse our way of producing and living in this world overnight but we can make incremental progress. However, overregulation and EPA power grabs are stunting the progress that could be made by forcing people and companies into rushed compliance which not only has the long term negative environmental impact but also the immediate economic impact of overleveraged entities and reductions in the labor force. Additionally, prices for things like gas, electric, and basic industrial commodities spike and cheaper alternatives are shipped in from overseas where production isn’t as highly regulated.

But, I guess these environmental evangelicals could be worse… they could work/volunteer for PETA. Then again, environmentalists probably support PETA because, if anything, they prove that the Dodo isn’t extinct after all. Okay, rant over, time to go hug a tree.

The Castration Of America

I grew up in a house with pets. I always remember having a dog and a couple of cats running around from room to room, up the stairs and down, and off into the corner of the living room not stopping until the fat cat meowed for mercy. I have a lot of great memories of my childhood pets and I still like pets. However there are limits that when exceeded I cease to understand the people that coddle their animals.

Now, this whole post was sparked by a story I read about an Oregon couple that called 911 when their cat chased them into a bedroom. Here is the series of events as recorded by the Associated Press (and the 911 recording which is included in the Good Morning America clip):

Palmer says the animal attacked his 7-month-old child after the baby pulled its tail. The child suffered a few scratches on the forehead.

On the 911 call, Palmer tells the dispatcher he kicked the cat "in the rear" to protect his child. Palmer says the animal then "just went off over the edge" — leading Palmer and his girlfriend to barricade themselves, their baby and the family dog in the bedroom for safety.

The cat can be heard screeching in the background of the call as Palmer says in a panicked voice: "He's charging us. He's at our bedroom door." Palmer also tells the dispatcher the cat has been violent in the past.

But here is the real “I s**t you not” aspect of this whole thing, now they are going to hire a therapist for the cat. It wasn’t bad enough that you don’t have the sack to take care of the problem yourself and had to call 911 but now, instead of getting rid of the animal that attacked your child, you are going to pay a therapist to threat the cat for its aggression. I am certain that a therapist is needed in that house and it is definitely not for the cat.

This might be worse than the people who spends thousands and thousands of dollars to extend an animal’s life a few weeks or those that insist on cooking for their pet when they can’t even cook for themselves. This raises the WTF bar in the pet category to a height that I don’t think will be surpassed for a very long time. While this may be acceptable to the fur loving PETA people living in a bubby floating about ten thousand miles to the left of Obama.

This is not normal people. If you sink that much of your financial security into a pet, you have too much money. When you find yourself spending a half our cooking a balanced meal for your cat while you hammer down a Big Mac please see a therapist. If you think spending thousands upon thousands of dollars on your dog so that it will have an additional miserable month of life is normal please do not get another pet. The only thing worse than seeing a pet die is seeing the look in their eyes like they want to die.

But if you need to call 911 because your cat is charging you and hissing at you, you need to grow a set and stop relying on authorities to take care of all your problems for you. Your problems are much deeper than the threat a 22 pound animal poses. Your problem is that ‘you have no marble’ and have no idea what it is like to be self-reliant. You have a serious issue and should probably consider the fact that your actions (or lack thereof) are occupying the time of people who are employed to help others in need not serve the needs of the nutless.

Remember, Bob Barker told you have your pet spayed or neutered. He didn’t tell you to get neutered. Listen a little closer next time and we might not have these kinds of problems.