The site for ranting and reporting by John Masters
Stories related to the economy and economic conditions.
I’ve posted before about the unusually high number of issues I’ve had with my supposedly New 2016 Nissan Rogue. Since purchasing, they’ve had to make a number of significant repairs including, replacing one of the power lift gate cylinders, the steering column, three replacements of seat trim piece that keep braking, and those are the major items. If you’ve been following, you’ll also know my experience with Courtesy Nissan here in Tampa hasn’t been good.
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Some of you may know I had a bit of DVT scare (deep vein thrombosis) over Labor Day weekend, and spent 5 hours that Monday in the ER waiting on an ultra-sound. While there wasn’t a clot, it scared me enough to think about how much I sit at the desk and the problems that causes.
Read moreI don’t normally have a problem with UPS, but when things go wrong, they really go wrong. The latest is a new desk chair I ordered via Amazon. The chair, due to size and weight I assume, comes only via standard ground, but that was fine. Shipped a day or two sooner than promised, and actually arrived a couple of days sooner.
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School starts in Pinellas County this weekend where the nieces go to school. This was the shortened tax-free weekend, so continuing a long-standing tradition, me and Lay took the girls shopping for their school supplies. We’re not rich, but compared to many others, we’re certainly comfortable. However, on the way home we got into a discussion, when Lay asked, “How do people making at or near the minimum wage take care of kids?” I did some quick math in my head, and realized that a person making around $8.00/hour would have to work nearly four hours (half a work day), when you account for taxes, to pay for the school supplies for just one child.
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We’re starting to see the backlash against LGBTQ people as the likelihood of nationwide marriage equality increases, and LGBTQ people achiever equality under the law. One of the main ways the Christianists are trying to keep us in our place, is to pass these bogus, and clearly unconstitutional, religious liberty bills. We saw how cowardly they are in Oklahoma this week.
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Today’s topic is a recent controversy related a pair of twin brothers from Charlotte, Davis and Jason Benham. The Benham brothers made a small fortune flipping homes, and were recently working on a HGTV show. What HGTV didn’t bother to find out was that the brothers have a particularly nasty streak when it comes to gays, abortion rights, and Muslims. When that came to light, that was the end of the show, and the beginning of their cries of persecution…because you know, the Constitution guarantees one the right to a TV show, and freedom from consequences.
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The latest fabrication from the krazy kristian kooks is that a bakery in Oregon was “forced” to close because of gay marriage. If you read the stories cited by SPLC Designated Hate Group spokesperson, Brian Fischer, the bakery was forced out of business, and equally hateful and dishonest Matt Barber claims they were forced out of business by a “vicious boycott.”
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Brian Brown of the anti-gay designated hate group National Organization for Marriage (NOM), and Bryan Fischer of the designated hate group American Family Association (AFA), both have their knickers in a twist over recent court ruling out of New Mexico. In this ruling, the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled against a Albuquerque wedding photographer, Elane Photography who refused to work with a lesbian couple citing her deeply held religious beliefs.
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Last week I flew to Chicago to attend a professional conference. Due to delays caused by weather, it came out that, despite United being willing to give me $200 to take a flight the next morning if mine were overbooked, they wanted to charge me $75 to give up that same seat, but take an earlier flight that would have actually got me home on time.
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Michael Lind has a great story at Salon.com today about how conservatives say one thing, but do another. I know that will come as a shock. Despite their claims of being the people bent on protecting Americans’ freedoms, they are actually the people who have, over the past 60 years, most sought to curtail those freedoms. Lind is careful to make the distinction between true Libertarians and conservatives, and points out that, since World War II, conservatives have opposed every expansion of personal liberty in the U.S. This really is an article you need to read, especially if you are a conservative.
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I went to get a haircut Wednesday morning at the Gandy Barbershop. It’s owned by Steve, but Tony, a British guy, is the barber I use. When I was paying and getting ready to leave he showed me a framed article by a local Tampa Tribune columnist, Steve Otto, which talked about Tony and the barbershop. I got me thinking about my earliest memories of going to the barbershop. Of course I know I went before we moved to Kings Mountain, but the first memory I have of going was to Central Barbershop right downtown on Mountain Street, beside Griffin’s Drug Store.
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