08:23 – We’ve had only basic cable TV service for the last decade or so. We watch almost nothing on live TV, other than the local weather forecast when storms are threatening, and Barbara sometimes watches golf on the weekend. As of October 27th, TWC discontinued providing analog cable TV service and switched to 100% digital. They’ve been heavily promoting their digital TV adapter boxes, which are free for the next year or so and then start being charged for at several dollars per month.
Barbara walked into my office yesterday and handed me the TWC bill, which covered Internet service and basic cable TV for 11/7 though 12/6. It was for $83.99. She suggested I call TWC and drop basic cable TV service, since we’re not really using it. So I called TWC and got into their automated attendant service. The option that seemed to be closest to what I wanted to do was “moving”, so I picked that one. I told the guy who answered that we wanted to drop basic cable TV and keep Internet. He said that would drop our bill to about $66/month, but that he had a better deal. Rather than paying $66/month for Internet only, we could get that same Internet service plus telephone service for $9 less per month, a total of $57/month. I figured we’d have to sign up for two years or something, but he said that was the month-to-month price and we could drop it any time without penalty. I asked him what the catch was, and he admitted that we’d have to drive to a TWC store, drop off our current cable modem, and pick up a new modem. I told him I wasn’t interested in doing that and asked what I had to do to get the Internet-only service for $66/month.
He said that he actually dealt only with moves, and to get a service dropped I’d have to talk to another department. He warned me that when I talked to that department not to even mention that we were actually moving, because as soon as they heard that they’d stop listening and transfer the call back to him. So he transferred me. I told the woman in the drop department that we wanted to keep Internet service and drop the basic cable TV service. She had a big list of questions she wanted me to answer, all designed to help her keep me from making any change. I didn’t answer any of them. I simply told her each time she asked a question that we wanted to drop cable TV service because we don’t watch TV. Finally, she admitted that we could have Internet-only service for $65.99/month. I told her that was what we wanted and asked what we had to do to get it done. She said that she did have one more option that would cost us less. The Internet-only was $65.99/month, but we could have Internet plus basic cable TV for $5 less per month, or $60.99. I asked her about the details. It was the same Internet service and the same cable TV service we’re getting now. No new modem needed. No service commitment for 12 or 24 months. Just month to month, but for $60.99/month instead of $83.99/month. So I commented that they apparently rewarded their good long-time customers by charging them $23/month more for the same service. She hemmed and hawed and said that her department had some pretty aggressive offers for customer retention. Bastards.
The lesson here is that you should call your service provider at least every few months and bludgeon them into giving you the best price available without any service-length commitment. And I suppose all of us should file complaints with our state authorities about our service providers using discriminatory pricing.
12:47 – I just got email from our real estate broker up in Sparta. Everything is now signed off on. She’s taking the paperwork to the real estate attorney this afternoon, and calling to get inspections set up. It looks like we’re going to get the house. Of course, with winter approaching and all the stuff we need to do here to get this house ready to go on the market, it may be quite a while before we’re actually living up there.
Yep, cell phone company too.
In my experience, the other trick the cable co’s do is to upgrade the speed of their base service in an area, but not tell any existing customers. Then at some point you discover that you could have had faster service for the last several months for the same price, if you’d just changed out your modem, or had them change a config somewhere.
Like so many things, the only one who cares about you, is you.
nick
Sparta is served by co-ops for electricity, phone, and Internet service. They’re all dependent on upstream providers, of course, but by all accounts they do a superb job locally and at a reasonable price.
you could have had faster service for the last several months for the same price, if you’d just changed out your modem
In some instances, Comcast for one, all that was necessary to was to power cycle the modem.
I pay about $190 a month for service. I have phone, internet and TV through Comcast. I have the X1 service, one X1 DVR, three X1 boxes, and one digital adapter. I really like the DVR service. I would like to drop the phone service but the wife wants to keep the land line. It would only drop my bill about $6.00 a month.
There are no other providers in my area. I can get AT&T for phone and internet but no TV. The town in which I live forbids any other providers to provide service. Apparently they can do that as they can restrict access to the necessary right of way. Comcast pays the town a lot for the “feature”. AT&T gets to provide service because they were in place before Comcast. Comcast has a lock on the TV service with a contract with the town.
I would like to drop Comcast but there are no viable options. AT&T is out as long as I have regular TV. Wife likes regular TV so it stays thus ruling out AT&T. I cannot drop TV from Comcast because my area has usage caps on data. Streaming TV would quickly use the data allocation. Comcast has the caps to protect their TV revenue, not to protect their network.
I have priced other providers out of curiosity. Where there is no competition the price for comparable service is about the same. Where there is competition the price would be lower by 25% or more. To me that is what is unfair. Charging people more where there is no competition for the exact same service where there is no competition.
you should call your service provider at least every few months and bludgeon them into giving you the best price available
Last time I tried that with Comcast they basically said goodbye. A truck could be dispatched tomorrow to pick up the equipment. Basically, take our price or get lost. Comcast knows there are no viable alternatives in my area.
TWC can’t do that. They’re desperate to retain customers because AT&T now has fiber deployed and is aggressively soliciting TWC customers to switch.
ATT is busy pulling fiber thru our neighborhood. It probably helps that home values have doubled in the last year and a half here. I hope to have FTTH available soon. Comcast will be out when that happens.
We watch very little tv anymore, and almost all of it is on various cable networks. We don’t watch anything on a broadcast network. Wife has been pushing for dropping cable, and I might agree. Pricing wise, as long as we have comcast for internet, the cable is only a small additional cost.
@ray, dish and DirectTV are the alternatives to cable lockin for programming. Not for internet access though. The hardware is available cheaply on ebay, which saves rental fees in the long run.
I have all the gear, and might give directtv a try, but I love my Tivo. I also got an HDTV antenna, and will hang that and try OTA for locals. It would be nice to save some money, but the few things I do watch aren’t generally available otherwise.
nick
There’s nothing on broadcast TV or cable networks I care about. I much prefer Netflix and Amazon streaming.
We’ve been binge-watchers since before the term was coined. Barbara just finished watching 12 seasons worth of NCIS. It’s a terrible series, but there are at least cuties in abundance. And I just read or surfed websites while she was watching it. Now she’s watching series three of Rizzolia & Isles, which is even more badly written and scripted than NCIS, and making matters worse there aren’t any cuties. She has series four and five in the on-deck circle. She’s also watched a bunch of stuff that I won’t even be in the room for, including Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, Private Practice, and Reven8e. (I do really like Emily VanCamp, and have since Everwood, but Reven8e is so badly done that I can’t tolerate it, even with Emily.)
If it were up to me, I would drop the cable TV and just keep Internet. Most of what I watch is either Broadcast TV or Netflix streaming. An HDTV antenna and a Tivo DVR would be all I need to replace cable TV.
dish and DirectTV are the alternatives to cable lockin for programming
Not really. Pricing would be more as I would lose my package discount.
AT&T now has fiber deployed
I wish that would happen here. But apparently, in exchange for some funds, the city will not allow any new companies to use city right of way. AT&T can because they had phone before Comcast was here. But Comcast’s contract with the city forbids any wired alternatives to Comcast for TV service. Such contracts should be illegal and any company that wants to use city easements to deliver service should be allowed to at the same cost as incumbents.
I had a fight with Comcast some 20 years back. They had a cable (actually a bundle) running across my property following the power lines as the cable was strung on the power poles. The power company has an easement by deed, Comcast does not.
The line was beginning to hang low. One day I come home and find a crew stringing an additional line attached to the bundle. I told them to get off my property and their line cannot cross my property. They continued to work so I called the police. Police came and said they had to leave my property and failure to do so would result in trespassing charges. The crew boss pitched a fit and said this was a 30 mile cable run and the run could not be changed. Work was stopped as I stated the cable cannot cross my property or it would be cut and removed.
I wrote a letter to Comcast and told them to remove their cable from my property within 30 days or I would cut the cable and remove the cable from my property. Comcast countered with they had a right to use the easement as they leased space on the poles from the power company.
I called the power company and the power company confirmed they leased the poles to Comcast. However, any easement issues were not part of the deal. Any property crossed required Comcast to acquire their own easement as the power company does not, and cannot, share easements.
I informed Comcast that they had no easement across my property and now had 20 days to remove the cable. Comcast said they would stick another pole directly in front of my house in the city right of way to get the cable off my property. I called the city and the city said they controlled the location of the poles and would not allow Comcast to install a pole in front of my house.
I offered Comcast an easement in exchange for all cable services they provide at no charge to me for the rest of my life. Comcast refused. I told Comcast they now had 15 days to remove the cable from my property otherwise I would slice the cable bundle. Comcast said that would be destruction of property and I would be charged for all repairs. I informed Comcast that after a 30 day written notice had been given I had the right to use all means available to remove their property from my property by law. I also had the right to hire the work done and send Comcast a bill. I had delivery confirmation of the letter.
Comcast then threatened to move the cable and declare my property as not being eligible for service. I reminded the Comcast facilities manager that the franchise contract with the city explicitly forbid Comcast from eliminating service from an address that currently had service. Doing so would put Comcast in violation and the penalties were severe. The manager said that was true. He basically lied to me.
With less than three days left Comcast had installed another pole across the road, acquired enough slack in their cable, and moved their cable bundle to the other side of the road. I was informed by the facilities manager that Comcast had to spend $25K to move the cables because I was being an ass. My response was along the lines of TFB.
If there was an alternative to Comcast I would take it in a heartbeat. Competition would drive down the price of the service.
This worked a treat with our Alarm Monitoring company. They sent me a rate increase notice last year, going from $24.95 to $30.00. I called and said I wanted to cancel the service as I was long out of contract. They said I could ONLY cancel service by sending a letter to HQ. So I sent the letter in and quickly got a phone call. “What would it take to keep you as a customer?” Lower prices I said. “How about $20 a month?” Nope ! “OK, we can give you $14 a month” That sounded reasonable so instead of a rate increase I got a huge decrease. Alarm monitoring must be a HUGELY profitable business.
Wow, Ray, you must be one of Comcast’s favorite people. Geez. OTOH it’s pretty crazy that they are stringing cables without legal easements.
We have the “high price for existing customers” here too – I guess it’s all over the place. In our case, it’s health insurance. All of the companies are required to provide the same, basic service (though you can also buy extras). You can only change once a year. All of the companies offer super-special-whoopie deals for customers changing to them, but those are not advertised to existing customers. So there’s a huge churn every year. Stupid waste of time for everyone.
My solution, such as it is, is to get an appointment at our current insurance, and go through the options. If they want us to stay with them, well, they need to offer us an equivalent deal. It’s a pain, but better than switching every year.
I heard Vonage does the aggressive retention pricing as well. If you call to cancel they will offer you service at $10/month for life.
I’ve had several friends over the years tell me that if you want the best pricing you have to call your cable company every 6 months and ask to have service canceled. It’s ridiculous, but retention pricing is way better than loyal customer pricing.
Cell providers are the same way. I can remember getting signed on with Verizon back in 2002 and telling my father, who was also a Verizon customer, what I was paying. He was livid and called Verizon and wanted to know why I, a new customer, had a plan with twice the minutes for less per month than he did and he’d been a customer for a few years at that point. They apologized and put him on a similar plan. So, he got in the habit of calling once a year and hollering about how ridiculously overpriced their service was until they discounted it in some way.
Beware, while the cable companies no longer tie you to keeping your service for 12 or 24 months (yes, you can drop it at any time) to get the “deal” price, that “deal” or promo price is only good for 12 or 24 months and then you pay full fare. That is the way with Comcast and Charter in my area (they serve different cities so each still has their own monopoly).
With Charter, once the promo period is over you have to either downgrade or eat the higher price for 90 days. After 90 days you can get a promo price again.
IMHO, all this folderol is just to keep the “customer no-service” drones employed and the customer aggravated. Just think how inexpensive cable/internet/phone could be without that expense. And yes I really only want to pay for the handful of cable channels I actually watch, I don’t need no stinkin’ ESPN but I have to get it to get my BBC.
Then at some point you discover that you could have had faster service for the last several months for the same price, if you’d just changed out your modem, or had them change a config somewhere.
Comcast sent us a notice with our bill that we needed to power cycle our modem to get higher speeds. I’ve been happy with their service and they have been adding features without price increases. Of course they have competition from AT&T, Dish and the like.
Bob, don’t you have to get the box now to keep basic cable? Granted you may have moved before the rent kicks in. My problem with boxes is the ones Brighthouse uses suck. The response often lags to the point of being more than annoying. If they go all digital I’ll be screwed. I have six televisions but only the living room is on a box.
What was it someone said here a while back about the national debt hitting a certain figure and the S might hit the F???
From Gary North’s site today:
“The on-budget official debt rises at 9% per year, compounded. That means a doubling every 8 years. (A 10% increase would double it every 7.2 years — the “law of 72.”) This is a bipartisan program of government bankruptcy. Nothing will stop it. Prepare for it.”
So today’s $20 trillion will hit $40 trillion in 7-8 years, amirite? What then, sportsfans?
Officially, the cutover was 10/27, but as of today we still get analog basic cable. I suspect that’ll continue until February next year, when the actual cutover occurs. They’re just trying to get people to grab an analog/digital converter box now and avoid a flood of complaints when the actual cutover happens.
Not that it matters to us. Whenever they actual shut down the analog signal, we can simply watch all the basic channels on our Roku box, where I’ve already setup and tested the TWC app.
An innovative way of making tea:
http://www.gocomics.com/overthehedge/2015/11/05
12 TB external drive for $613:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LEF28CI/
Unreal. I like the flip top lid.
We will never run out of oil and gas unless Obola and his ilk mess it up which they are desperately trying to do:
“BP Sees Technology Nearly Doubling World Energy Resources by 2050”
http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/11/02/energy-tech-bp-idINKCN0SR1LK20151102
“LONDON — The world is no longer at risk of running out of oil or gas for decades ahead with existing technology capable of unlocking so much that global reserves would almost double by 2050 despite booming consumption, oil major BP said on Monday.”
“When taking into account all accessible forms of energy including nuclear, wind and solar, there are enough resources to meet 20 times what the world will need over that period, David Eyton, BP Group Head of Technology said.”
““Energy resources are plentiful. Concerns over running out of oil and gas have disappeared,” Eyton said at the launch of BP’s inaugural Technology Outlook.”
“Oil and gas companies have invested heavily in squeezing the maximum from existing reservoirs by using chemicals, super computers and robotics. The halving of oil prices since last June has further dampened their appetite to explore for new resources, with more than $200 billion worth of mega projects scrapped in recent months.”
“By applying these technologies, the global proved fossil fuel resources could increase from 2.9 trillion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) to 4.8 trillion boe by 2050, nearly double the projected 2.5 trillion boe required to meet global demand until 2050, BP said.”
“With new exploration and technology, the resources could leap to a staggering 7.5 trillion boe, Eyton said.”
““We are probably nearing the point where potential from additional recovery from discovered reservoir exceeds the potential for exploration.””
That’s what I’ve been saying for decades. The same is true of metals and other natural resources. If we just get out of the way and let the free market work, we’re not going to run out of anything. In particular, the US and Canada aren’t going to run out, and between us we have enough of everything we need to tell the rest of the world to kiss off.
Wow, congrat’s on the house!
Thanks. I don’t count my chickens until they close, but it’s looking good.
I hope Mssrs. Lynn and RBT are right about energy stuff being good; but coming from BP and Reuters I get a whiff of ‘whistling past the graveyard,’ too. Governments, particularly our own, will find a way to screw this up. And having unlimited energy resources here in North Murka is not much good if the delivery and distribution infrastructures are down for whatever reason/s.
Supposed to hit 67 here today so OFD is making hay outside while the sun shines, more or less.
So what am I missing here:
http://www.theverge.com/2015/11/5/9676076/nasa-mars-atmosphere-loss-maven-spacecraft-solar-winds-water
Edit: Here is the official story:
http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-mission-reveals-speed-of-solar-wind-stripping-martian-atmosphere
If solar winds have stripped away Mars atmosphere, why not ours? We’re closer. Is it because Mars is smaller so it couldn’t hold onto its atmosphere?
Just reinforces my view that the Sun has more to do with our atmosphere and weather than our feeble attempts.
BTW @RBT, congratulations on the house. Now the real work begins 🙂
Have I mentioned that it is 90 plus deg in the shade here today? With the 68% RH the misery index is 98DegF.
Not really interested in doing outside work today, no matter what needs doin’.
nick
The thing I like about the oil glut is not so much the lower prices but the way it’s screwing OPEC and Russia.
DadCooks:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terraforming_of_Mars#Countering_the_effects_of_space_weather
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3305375/Doctors-allowed-carry-euthanasia-mentally-ill-make-decision-says-call-medical-journal.html
And of course other ‘undesirables’ could be involuntarily euthanized too….and why not, they’re just using up money and resources the rest of us could use, right? /sarc
It’s so European of him, we should all strive to be more like Europe….
nick
Doctors should be allowed to carry out euthanasia on the mentally ill – even though they cannot make the decision themselves, says call in medical journal
Yet, the Europeans do not allow the death penalty for criminals.
This reminds me of a Star Trek episode where two planets are at war and the citizens are walking into euthanasia booths based on computer death models:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Taste_of_Armageddon
85 F plus about ten pounds of water per cubic yard of air today here in the Land of Sugar. We have a prediction of one to six inches of rain tonight, I can hardly wait.
“TPP Trade Deal Hits 5,544 Pages, Longer Than Obamacare PLUS Rubio’s ‘Gang Of Eight’ Cheap-Labor Amnesty Bill”
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/11/05/tpp-trade-deal-hits-5544-pages-longer-obamacare-plus-rubios-gang-eight-cheap-labor-amnesty-bill/
Is it just me who is suspicions of any bill that is longer than three pages?
There is no way the Senate is going to pass this, right?
Or is Obola gonna bypass the Constitutional requirement that the Senate pass all treaties by a 2/3rd majority? Again.
The US is having trouble executing crims because the Europeans won’t sell them the required drugs. How hard is it to make something that will kill a person. (And what’s wrong with the Chair, Gallows, Gas Chamber or Firing Squad?)
A lot of people down here are suspicious of the TPP too, not least because of the IP rights conferred.
“(And what’s wrong with the Chair, Gallows, Gas Chamber or Firing Squad?)”
The Chair: problematic in terms of how long it takes, how much juice, and the ‘cruel and unusual’ aspect; some of the eyewitness reports from days of yore are ghastly.
Gallows: Gotta be done just right by a professional; you want the neck to snap and death more or less immediate, not strangle somebody for half an hour with it. (yeah, we all can think of subhuman beasts that deserve whatever pain and suffering they get, but doing this kinda chit lowers us to their level, IMHO.)
Gas chamber: same issues as the chair; very dicey and more horrific reports.
Firing squad: Previously, and maybe currently, I dunno, in the state of Utah they’d use a single rifle marksman. In other places the whole squad. Again, has to be done just right by capable shooters or you have a mess.
I favor the guillotine, at least one good thing came outta France, eh? Very quick, assuming a razor-sharp, heavy blade. And a nice public example for other malefactors and treasonous bastards like we have in our government, thousands of them. Laissez les bon temps rouler, mes amis!
Or the axe. (Or the sword: Henry VIII executed one of his wives that way because she was too good for a common method of execution.)
IIRC, it was customary to tip your executioner so he would strike fast and hard, and accurately. There are tales of the chop taking multiple hits.
I don’t like the sword just because the koranimals use it. Don’t care for the chair, as Edison invented it specifically to show the horror of Tesla’s alternating current.
Lethal injection is fine, but I don’t understand why we care if they feel pain. Surely their victims felt pain. I believe the current shortage is the painkiller. Lots of things will kill you when injected, no reason to limit to only one. It’s like gun control, lefties used all the technical requirements to try to limit it’s use.
firing squad is ok, I’m sure you could automate it. 6 barrels, 6 men load, one has dummy round, 5 live. Spin the barrels, 5 shots, anyone who wants to can believe theirs was the squib. 7.62 center of mass from 15 ft should be a guarantee.
nick
Hey Lynn, is Keystone dead? Does it deserve to die? Can they bring similar oil by tanker from Venezuela?
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-keystone-xl-is-dead/?WT.mc_id=SA_ENGYSUS_20151105
If solar winds have stripped away Mars atmosphere, why not ours?
We have a strong magnetic field around Earth that deflects most of the solar wind. (I knew my class on solar system physics would come in handy.)
“…Henry VIII executed one of his wives that way because she was too good for a common method of execution…”
Elizabeth I’s mom, and the executioner was brought in as a contract worker, dunno what the pay or bennies were, and naturally he didn’t speak much English.
“There are tales of the chop taking multiple hits.”
Often because the executioner was either clumsy, drunk or both. I’ve seen accounts where it took more than a dozen strokes of the axe, and Thomas Cromwell’s death was like that. Again, you want an expert practitioner who is not shit-faced when he gets to work.
“I don’t like the sword just because the koranimals use it.”
At least they’re not drunk and they get plenty of practice; vids I’ve seen show them doing it regularly with one swift stroke. Japanese were pretty good at that once upon a time, too.
“…I don’t understand why we care if they feel pain. Surely their victims felt pain.”
Sure, of course. But the argument can be made as to who are we to designate State operators to administer this pain to someone long after the fact of the crime? Along with the history of innocent people being executed thanks to shoddy and/or criminal practice by police and prosecutors and judges. I’ve got a short list of capital crimes and if we’re gonna whack ’em, we’d best be 100% sure they deserve it and also be willing to do the gig ourselves if need be. Otherwise they get life at hard labor someplace where escape is either impossible or not worth the exercise.
“…I’m sure you could automate it.”
Why use actual firing squad personnel at all? Do it via remote. Send in a robot to ascertain death, remove the corpse and bury it. A talking robot for Last Rites and to maybe light up a ciggie for them.
Hey Lynn, is Keystone dead? Does it deserve to die? Can they bring similar oil by tanker from Venezuela?
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-keystone-xl-is-dead/?WT.mc_id=SA_ENGYSUS_20151105
I guess Keystone, the border crossing portion, is dead. The other three sections have been built and are in operation. The pipeline is built all the way from the Gulf coast to Nebraska. And from Calgary to just north of the border. The oil is then loaded into trains for shipping across the border. And put back into the pipeline.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keystone_Pipeline
You have to configure a refinery for the crude oil that it is processing. The tar sands oil and the Venezuelan heavy crude are radically different. For one thing, many of the Venezuelan oil fields have and are falling in production since the majors were forced out. The people running the oil fields are having severe problems keeping everything going since the oil is so heavy that it requires constant steam injection:
http://shipandbunker.com/news/am/694567-major-disruption-in-venezuelan-oil-production-in-2016-2017-esai-predicts
You have to realize that all of the good parts and knowledge come out of the USA. China is slowly stealing all of our parts but not our knowledge. However, the USA is the only high technology country that supplies EVERYTHING to a process.
@Miles_Teg – thanks for the pointer which discusses Mars magnetosphere, rather lack thereof. At one time I could be conversant about all this stuff, but I am afraid it is becoming foggier memories. Thank goodness for the Internet to pry the memories back.
[snip] How hard is it to make something that will kill a person. (And what’s wrong with the Chair, Gallows, Gas Chamber or Firing Squad?) [snip]
A sealed chamber filled with 100% nitrogen, rather than the customary 80%, will do the job quite nicely. There have been industrial accidents just along that line.
“New York attorney general probing Exxon Mobil as climate change scandal intensifies”
http://fuelfix.com/blog/2015/11/05/new-york-attorney-general-probing-exxon-mobil-as-climate-change-scandal-intensifies/#33445101=0
For several years now, I have been wondering why Exxon Mobil has not moved from Texas to Belize. The parent company of Exxon Mobil is just a small company with only 200 employees in Irving, Texas. It could easily be moved offshore and then all those lovely overseas profits would no longer be taxable in the USA. Nor would bogus “investigations” and lawsuits from criminal state attorney generals be applicable.
There are trial lawyers sniffing around these supposed damages by oil companies to world climate change. The trial lawyers are hoping for a massive payout, magnitudes more than the tobacco settlements. The end result of this will be massive increases in the price of energy, similar to that of the price increases in tobacco based products.
It’s illegal for a US company to move outside the country to avoid taxes. They’d have to have a foreign company buy them and close the US headquarters.
“A sealed chamber filled with 100% nitrogen, rather than the customary 80%, will do the job quite nicely. There have been industrial accidents just along that line.”
As would too high a concentration of CO2.
Trouble is, as OFD pointed out, that there is then a sensation of loss of breath.
I used to be very pro-capital punishment. Now, not so much. If we are to relieve a man of his life (a basic right), we had best be darned sure that he is guilty of the capital crime. Then be done with it quickly. There is little to be gained from his suffering.
Then hang the body in the public square. If the ultimate punishment is used, it should be a public display to discourage others from following in his path.
I used to be very pro-capital punishment. Now, not so much. If we are to relieve a man of his life (a basic right), we had best be darned sure that he is guilty of the capital crime. Then be done with it quickly. There is little to be gained from his suffering.
+1
The Great State of Texas did not have Life in Prison until recently. Apparently 3/4 of the juries are now choosing that option instead of death.
Then hang the body in the public square. If the ultimate punishment is used, it should be a public display to discourage others from following in his path.
I am in favor of heads on fence pikes myself.
“It’s illegal for a US company to move outside the country to avoid taxes.”
Furthermore, our ruling junta of criminal scumbags will tax your ass if you’re a Murkan citizen and have lived overseas your entire life, doesn’t matter to them; they will come after you with hammer and tongs for that money. They have also forced foreign banks to report Murkan citizen transactions and income to them. Truly amazing; the pirates and highwaymen of yesteryear would be stunned and gobsmacked by how far their trade has progressed, a hanging offense back then.
“I used to be very pro-capital punishment. Now, not so much. If we are to relieve a man of his life (a basic right), we had best be darned sure that he is guilty of the capital crime. Then be done with it quickly. There is little to be gained from his suffering.”
There it is, said better than my fumbling earlier.
“ISPs to be forced to store users’ browsing history for a year”
http://betanews.com/2015/11/04/isps-to-be-forced-to-store-users-browsing-history-for-a-year/
Here comes Big Brother! I wonder how long until we have this in the states?
How hard is it to make something that will kill a person.
An industrial deep fryer also works.
“A deep fryer also works.”
Also, staring at the Cankles viz for too long; reportedly turns you to stone. Like Medusa in days of yore.
staring at the Cankles viz for too long
That is torture, cruel and unusual punishment, completely inhumane.
Been watching the Browns/Bengals game on Thursday Night Football and I felt a bit of a pang for our Mr. Ray; guys chasing the ball in the end zone crashed into a huge-ass camera apparatus and it wobbled for a second and then toppled; the gray-haired guy was trying to hang onto it and grimacing. That must suck. The apparatus had to be five or six feet off the ground and it was massive.
Managed to get our kayaks and canoes tucked away from winter’s coming blasts this afternoon, although I left the beater canoe on top in case we wanna hit the wotta in the next couple of weeks. Also cleaned up the raised beds and got a pile of brush ready for the burn pit. And I chopped and cleared brush from our rear perimeter so I can string a five-foot wire fence across it, with trip flares and mines. Also finished up the honey-do planting list.
Mowing and raking and burning tomorrow and then I’ll be on the porch and kitchen windows with a lotta plastic sheeting. Any rain days we get I’ll be working on the cellar and attic workshop configs.
I got almost the last Halloween decor in and put up. Still a couple of things out there.
Listed a bunch of ebay stuff. Sat on my butt doing that. Hot and humid is not the time to be on ladders and climbing into attics for storage.
Cleaned house a little.
not my most productive day ever.
nick
Suicide Bag” from Wikipedia.
“A suicide bag, also known as an exit bag, is a device consisting of a large plastic bag with a drawcord used to commit suicide. It is usually used in conjunction with an inert gas like helium or nitrogen, which prevents the panic, sense of suffocation and struggling during unconsciousness (the hypercapnic alarm response) usually caused by the deprivation of oxygen in the presence of carbon dioxide.”
Apparently if there’s no build-up of carbon dioxide in your blood, there’s no sense of suffocation.
“Hot and humid is not the time to be on ladders and climbing into attics for storage.”
Or for hauling an M60 with ammo plus grenades for a few miles. I think of me doing that now 40+ years later and can’t imagine how the eff I managed it. It would kill my ass dead in about a hundred yards nowadays.
I’m doing some PT each week here but it’s a slow slog; main drag seems to be my knees, and previous bronchial asthma episodes. Whole lotta wheezin’ goin’ on some days. I do better on snow with x-c skis and snowshoes and cold air. Also slug down about a gallon of wotta per day. I may step up the PT winter-style if we get enough damn snow this year down here, and if not, I’ll head for the hills; they always seem to get some. You can see the white mountaintops daily now.
“A suicide bag, also known as an exit bag…”
U gotta B shittin’ me. Gee whiz, I learn sumthin new every day here.
It could easily be moved offshore and then all those lovely overseas profits would no longer be taxable in the USA.
Foreign profits are only taxable if they enter the US. A large part of the cash MSFT and Apple are sitting on are profits from overseas operations sitting there. One of the reasons MSFT bought Skype (an Estonian company) is that they used profits from the EU to buy it. If they had moved that money to the US, it would have been taxed. The US is about the only country in the world to tax foreign profits.
IMHO, corporate taxes in the US should be abolished as they don’t raise that much money and are responsible for a lot of the corruption in the Congress. I’d tax dividends at the ordinary income rates instead. – tax the profits when an individual gets them.
“U gotta B shittin’ me. Gee whiz, I learn sumthin new every day here.”
Well, it’s Wikepedia. You never can tell.
I heard about the bag verbally a while back. I posted the quote without reading the article which was a mistake, the article didn’t mention the point I was trying to make.
A constant flow of the inert gas into the bag and the escape of gas from the loose neck seal carries away exhaled carbon dioxide and prevents the buildup of carbon dioxide in the blood. The breathing reflex is supposed to be triggered by the buildup of carbon dioxide, not a lack of oxygen. So one supposedly dies peacefully instead of suffocating.
The same thing would happen in a large room filled with an inert gas, industrial accident or some such.
“The same thing would happen in a large room filled with an inert gas…”
I can think of several buildings down in Mordor where we could experiment with that caper, and also two more in Babylon-on-the-Hudson….just sayin…
The the latest common sense from our man Fred:
“A country deserves what it tolerates.”
http://fredoneverything.org/a-literate-american-home-brew/
DadCooks:
Ever read the following by Kim Stanley Robinson?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_trilogy
Heads up! Amazon is currently offering me that 12 TB NAS unit for just US$499, down from the US$649 mentioned with the link above.
But it’s a Western Digital. I still remember the Western Digital hard drive in my PC at my previous job, and the grinding sound. Can’t remember whether it was a 10 GB or 40 GB drive, but it was awful.
A suicide bag, also known as an exit bag, is a device consisting of a large plastic bag with a drawcord used to commit suicide
My son’s friend in high school, who I also knew and was friends with his parents, took his own life two years ago using such an apparatus. He put a deferred message on Facebook that he was taking his life and how he would be taking his life. The message appeared 24 hours later on his page. Everyone freaked out and several called 911. But it was too late he was dead.
So yes, there is such a device, and yes it has been used. The person wrote on his FB page that it would be a peaceful death, you basically just pass out. Supposedly no pain but really, how would you tell anyone there was pain as you have died? Dead men tell no tales.
@Miles_Teg – no I have not read the Mars Trilogy, thanks for the pointer. I see Amazon has Kindle editions and the comments do not contain any complaints about the conversion to Kindle, so I’ll pick up the set. I’ll also have my Daughter check out our Used Book Store. Thanks.
I am trying to read more. When I was tooling around >250-feet I read a lot. Boy, it would have been great to have a Kindle back then. Storage space on a submarine is at a premium (who would have guessed).
@OFD – Fred reminds me of my Uncle Fred, so each of his posts brings back pleasant memories of political discussions around my Aunt Helen’s dinner table or sitting in the back yard drinking his home brew beer (he was very popular during Prohibition). Uncle Fred was a PhD Chemist, you name it, he could make it.
Apparently if there’s no build-up of carbon dioxide in your blood, there’s no sense of suffocation.
Yep, that’s how we’re set up. Our bodies have CO2 detectors instead of O2 detectors. There was an accident at NASA back in 1995: people just quietly fell down, the lack of oxygen to the brain leads to brief dizziness, then unconsciousness. It’s about as peaceful a way to go as one could imagine.
For places with the death penalty, I’ve never understood why they make such a bleeping mess out of it. This would be a far better approach: just put someone into a room, swap out the air, and wait a few minutes. No need to fight them into some stupid chair, inject them with the wrong dosages of the wrong drugs, and generally make a muck of things.
@Brad, it’s because by inserting themselves with all the requirements, they slow the process and make it cumbersome.
Many places that have death as a penalty, haven’t used it in so long as to be forgotten.
And maybe as a society we don’t want it to be easy or quick, but if you are going to do it, and you have mechanisms in place to be as certain as humanly possible that the right person is being punished, then I don’t see the need for messing around. Do it. CO or CO2 poisoning would be a lot safer for everyone else that some other gas. My only objection is that some of these guys are such monsters that painless death is too easy and too quick.
nick
Foreign profits are only taxable if they enter the US. A large part of the cash MSFT and Apple are sitting on are profits from overseas operations sitting there.
Some future Congress will go get these dollars. Probably six months before they raid your IRA.
Sad times a’coming, sad times a’coming. The carousel is going round and round, some day that big bearing in the middle gonna need to be replaced and there is no money to do so with.
Probably brings up images of putting Jews in showers.
Aside from that, there were mentions of Hillary Bitch Clinton and then something about an old bag committing suicide, and I allowed myself to get my hopes up … what a let-down.
“…and I allowed myself to get my hopes up … what a let-down.”
Just hang on long enuff, Mr. SteveF; her health is in pretty sorry shape from various accounts and between the stress of the “campaign,” her big lovable lug of a husband messing around with teenage grrls, and the load dumped on her as Figurehead Prez, she ain’t gonna last. I’d be surprised if she survives the first year, actually, so who the VP is gonna be could be interesting to say the least.
I see also from our local commie rag weekly that devotes large sections and advertising every issue to weird sexual goings-on, trannies (like the current cover story), and its radical fembat politics, that Bernie is slipping. He ain’t gonna be on the trail much longer, which leaves Cankles all the way to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
The Stupid Half? No idea; haven’t heard much lately on either Chumpster or Jebster, but have seen a couple of Rubio ads during NFL time-out breaks. I bet they’re champing at the bit to find SOME way of getting Jebster up to any kind of speed at all or bringing Mittens in at the last minute. None of them stand a chance, of course, against Cankles, and this is entirely because mouthy sons of bitches like OFD won’t rush out and vote for them and thus Save the Nation.