I'm trying to come up with things that people --- anyone --- can do to improve the economy and the environment. Things that will actually make a difference.
Buy from small stores. Independent stores. Don't give your business to a national chain.
These are some examples:
Pharmacies
There's probably no longer an independent pharmacy in your town or city, but if there is, support it. Even if it's a chain, like CVS or Duane Reade, get your drugs from one that's near your neighborhood rather than mail order from an online pharmacy. If your insurance company demands that you use mail order, lodge a protest. Mail orders often go wrong and can easily get mixed up. It isn't all done by computer or robots; people make mistakes. And with computers and bots there are other mistakes: like programming ones, which may interfere with your getting your medication on time. If it's important medicine, like for diabetes or HIV or Arthritis or Hepatitis or Asthma, these mix ups can be very damaging or fatal. You shouldn't have to depend on a pharmacy that's in a completely different state or hours away from you. Buying your medicines as close to home as possible helps ensure that your community stays employed.
Books
Unfortunately all the bookstores are gone. This might reflect the state of reading in America. I don't know. Barnes and Noble still has some outlets, but generally if you open Google Maps to an area, type in the word Bookstore, all that will come back are Christian bookstores.
Thursday, November 13, 2014
Sunday, August 17, 2014
Bottom Feeder
I was going to title this simply, "Bottom," but then I realized her husband is probably the bottom.
It shouldn't be a surprise that Sarah Palin opened her own "channel." The term "channel" alone, is a cynical attempt to fool people into thinking they're paying for more than just another website. But this kind of theft is as old as civilization itself. People have always pissed into bottles, stuffed minced Geranium leaves inside, and labeled it a Tonic, or a Cure.
But it's all piss.
Fox News, but also Ted Turner and CNN prior to them, began turning the news into a commodity back in the 80s, when Cable broadcasting began to explode. Some news simply explodes and the entire news-as-commodity aspect is irrelevant. But much of the news we get is traded. It isn't news at all. It looks like news. It has all the taste and flavor of news. But it's not news. It's a recently invented form of entertainment, much like that of "Reality Television." They really do this --- the people behind the scenes: they call each other and make deals to broadcast or air various news stories: I've got this if you'll trade me that, and so on.
Anyway, the Capitalization of the news leads down, as it must, to the most base of our impulses: think how hard it is not to look at a traffic accident. That's what the people who peddle news are trying to aim for. Informing people has nothing to do with it. At best, it's a lip service thing. What they want is to create something that you can't help but stare at, turn into, watch, talk about. It's yellow journalism at a higher level.
And that leads to Sarah Palin. I was not in America when she was chosen and apparently sprang onto the national scene overnight. When I got back, someone sent me a link to something and the first time I saw her speak I thought it was a prank --- like a funny video. When they said it was real I was more or less flabbergasted.
And yet I had written a play during the Bush years where one of the characters actually predicts that a Sarah Palin will emerge, so I shouldn't have been surprise. But I was.
Anyway, or people of that ultra conservative --- rabid --- ilk, there is really nowhere else to go once you've dug your own grave at Fox News. That station is simply a graveyard for conservatives. They may have a loud voice and dictate what the rest of us argue about, but for the people who are actually on that show, it's really the end.
Palin's attempt to cash in on the web by starting a "channel" is really just her understanding that she is a bottom feeder. The high point of her career was the second before she opened her mouth at the convention. That failed and failed big. Then it was books written by other people. Then it was that weird "family" vacation on a hideously decorated bus to share a pizza with Donald Trump. Then a Facebook page (her own real page!). Finally, her own channel ON THE WEB! A web presence. Who would have thunk it.
She sells piss and shit. She is piss and shit. But like other bottom feeders, this is her home.
It shouldn't be a surprise that Sarah Palin opened her own "channel." The term "channel" alone, is a cynical attempt to fool people into thinking they're paying for more than just another website. But this kind of theft is as old as civilization itself. People have always pissed into bottles, stuffed minced Geranium leaves inside, and labeled it a Tonic, or a Cure.
But it's all piss.
Fox News, but also Ted Turner and CNN prior to them, began turning the news into a commodity back in the 80s, when Cable broadcasting began to explode. Some news simply explodes and the entire news-as-commodity aspect is irrelevant. But much of the news we get is traded. It isn't news at all. It looks like news. It has all the taste and flavor of news. But it's not news. It's a recently invented form of entertainment, much like that of "Reality Television." They really do this --- the people behind the scenes: they call each other and make deals to broadcast or air various news stories: I've got this if you'll trade me that, and so on.
Anyway, the Capitalization of the news leads down, as it must, to the most base of our impulses: think how hard it is not to look at a traffic accident. That's what the people who peddle news are trying to aim for. Informing people has nothing to do with it. At best, it's a lip service thing. What they want is to create something that you can't help but stare at, turn into, watch, talk about. It's yellow journalism at a higher level.
And that leads to Sarah Palin. I was not in America when she was chosen and apparently sprang onto the national scene overnight. When I got back, someone sent me a link to something and the first time I saw her speak I thought it was a prank --- like a funny video. When they said it was real I was more or less flabbergasted.
And yet I had written a play during the Bush years where one of the characters actually predicts that a Sarah Palin will emerge, so I shouldn't have been surprise. But I was.
Anyway, or people of that ultra conservative --- rabid --- ilk, there is really nowhere else to go once you've dug your own grave at Fox News. That station is simply a graveyard for conservatives. They may have a loud voice and dictate what the rest of us argue about, but for the people who are actually on that show, it's really the end.
Palin's attempt to cash in on the web by starting a "channel" is really just her understanding that she is a bottom feeder. The high point of her career was the second before she opened her mouth at the convention. That failed and failed big. Then it was books written by other people. Then it was that weird "family" vacation on a hideously decorated bus to share a pizza with Donald Trump. Then a Facebook page (her own real page!). Finally, her own channel ON THE WEB! A web presence. Who would have thunk it.
She sells piss and shit. She is piss and shit. But like other bottom feeders, this is her home.
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
I was recently denied a procedure which is -- technically -- covered under my policy. GHI will not let me have a CT scan of my brain because they deemed it not medically necessary to diagnose my nearly constant dizziness. I haven't finished with this problem because I can appeal and I have to consult my own doctor to see if there is another option. But what really irked me, and this isn't the first time, is that they write,
"You are free to pay for it yourself."
Well of course I am. Do they think I am that much of a sheeple that I need permission from the insurance company to pay for something? I pay for most things for myself as it is, because this insurance doesn't cover doctor's visits, but only hospitalization, diagnostics, labs and pharmaceuticals.
Also, starting off the letter with a long self serving paragraph about how much you care about customer's health is utterly ridiculous when you're denying a procedure the doctor has ordered.
Newsflash to GHI: you care about profits. You always have and always will. It can't be helped. A good customer is one who pays but never takes. A bad customer is one that needs it.
"You are free to pay for it yourself."
Well of course I am. Do they think I am that much of a sheeple that I need permission from the insurance company to pay for something? I pay for most things for myself as it is, because this insurance doesn't cover doctor's visits, but only hospitalization, diagnostics, labs and pharmaceuticals.
Also, starting off the letter with a long self serving paragraph about how much you care about customer's health is utterly ridiculous when you're denying a procedure the doctor has ordered.
Newsflash to GHI: you care about profits. You always have and always will. It can't be helped. A good customer is one who pays but never takes. A bad customer is one that needs it.
Introduction.
This blog is to complain about businesses and the idiotic or just plain horrible things that they do. Presumably many of these things are required by the law, or by "experts." Many of these things are simply the result of the way things have evolved and probably have no basis in actual knowledge.
Jane Jones wrote about this in her last book, "Dark Age Ahead," where she documented the way "traffic studies" or "pedestrian studies" have come to rely on knowledge that has no basis in actual studies. It's something akin to that idiot politician saying that women can "shut all that down" after being raped.
Comments are allowed but not trolling or name calling. What I would prefer in the comments is if someone could come up with a logical explanation. So with that... on to my first complaint, about GHI, the insurance giant.
This blog is to complain about businesses and the idiotic or just plain horrible things that they do. Presumably many of these things are required by the law, or by "experts." Many of these things are simply the result of the way things have evolved and probably have no basis in actual knowledge.
Jane Jones wrote about this in her last book, "Dark Age Ahead," where she documented the way "traffic studies" or "pedestrian studies" have come to rely on knowledge that has no basis in actual studies. It's something akin to that idiot politician saying that women can "shut all that down" after being raped.
Comments are allowed but not trolling or name calling. What I would prefer in the comments is if someone could come up with a logical explanation. So with that... on to my first complaint, about GHI, the insurance giant.
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