RANT: Remember the Blue Hippo?

Saturday, November 14, 2009

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/11/14/0035257/BlueHippo-Scam-Collected-15M-Only-Shipped-One-PC?from=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+slashdot%2FeqWf+%28Slashdot%3A+Slashdot%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

BlueHippo Scam Collected $15M, Only Shipped One PC

from Slashdot by Soulskill

An anonymous reader writes “Turns out that those BlueHippo commercials advertising financing for computers and other electronics for anybody, regardless of credit, were way more sleazy than you thought. The FTC is bringing this fraud down, but not too soon. ‘According to the FTC, the company’s brazen business model continued without interruption after the 2008 settlement. “In fact, in the year following entry of this Court’s Stipulated Final Judgment and Order for a Permanent Injunction, BlueHippo financed — at most — a single computer to the over 35,000 consumers who placed orders for computers that could be financed during the period,’ the FTC told a court (PDF) yesterday. In the meantime, the company took in a cool $15 million in payments from consumers, who don’t appear to have received anything in return.'”

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Why am I not surprised? And, how long did it take to get this fraud shutdown by the “regulators”? And who’s going to jail for the 15M$ stolen from poor people? After all, who has “regardless of credit”. And, the hardware they pictured looked obsolete to me.

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RANT: People will be more cynical; too bad!

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/10/18/colorado.balloon.investigation/index.html

Authorities: ‘Balloon boy’ incident was a hoax

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I guess like everyone else, they fooled me.

It was very wrong to fool all the good people.

But fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on you.

Everyone will be just a little more cynical.

Argh!

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INTERESTING: Cheating a little kid

Monday, October 12, 2009

http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/story/1270200.html

Posted on Wednesday, 10.07.09
LAND SHARK STADIUM
Historic baseball safe at home in Miami girl’s hands
12-year-old gets historic baseball back, but only after lawsuit filed
BY ADAM H. BEASLEY AND EMILY MICHOT

*** begin quote ***

After catching the ball, Jennifer was escorted alone to the Phillies clubhouse, where they talked her into exchanging it for an autographed baseball, worth substantially less, said her Fort Lauderdale attorney and memorabilia enthusiast Norm Kent.

*** end quote ***

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Imagine cheating a little kid. It could be her ticket to a college education. Now that might have been a fair trade.

And, what parent lets their child go alone anywhere today?

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Posted by reinkefj

MONEY: Watch your “fees”!

Sunday, October 11, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/spl/29-sneaky-fees.html

29 Sneaky Fees and How to Avoid Them
by Kathy Kristof

*** begin quote ***

If you feel like you’re getting nickel and dimed to death, you probably are.

In an attempt to create “sticker swoon,” – an irresistibly low price – an increasing number of businesses are advertising bargain prices for everything from cell phone service to hotel stays before tacking on hidden fees and charges to boost the final cost and make it tougher to shop around.

“The common denominator is the drive to disguise what the true cost is,” said Joseph Ridout, consumer services manager at Consumer Action, a San Francisco-based advocacy group.

*** end quote ***

Eternal vigilance is not just for the gooferment.

Ask the FTC: “Why don’t they crack down on fees?”

There too busy protecting those they supposedly regulate.

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Posted by reinkefj

SERVICE: KODAKGALLERY makes itself less valuable

Sunday, October 11, 2009

http://beta.kodakgallery.com/gallery/footerLinksContent.jsp?pageID=600010

*** begin quote ***

3. Availability

Kodak Imaging Network uses reasonable endeavors to ensure that the Service is available 24 hours a day 7 days a week. However, there will be occasions when the Service will be interrupted for maintenance, upgrades and emergency repairs or due to failure of telecommunications links and equipment that are beyond the control of Kodak Imaging Network. Every reasonable step will be taken by us to minimize such disruption where it is within the reasonable control of Kodak Imaging Network. You agree that Kodak Imaging Network shall not be liable to you for any modification, suspension or discontinuance of the Service. You are responsible for creating backups of any content you post to the Service.

*** end quote ***

Argh! Why make me responsible for backups. That’s why I subscribe to the service by my purchases!

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RANT: Building stadiums at taxpayer expense!

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

http://spectator.org/archives/2009/09/30/bomberphobia

Sports Arena
Bomberphobia
By Lisa Fabrizio on 9.30.09 @ 6:06AM

*** begin quote ***

Yet, many of you secretly applaud baseball’s version of socialism, euphemistically called the Competitive Balance Tax, which has resulted in the Yanks paying out over $150 million in the last six years to their direct competitors. Meanwhile, Robert Nutting, the dastardly owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates who pocketed $40 million in revenue-sharing alone last year, saw fit to reduce his 2009 payroll to $20 million by selling off the few good players he had. Such doings make those who cooked up the Oil for Food program look like pikers.

*** end quote ***

MP4B = “Millionaires Playing For Billionaires”

Argh!

Before I would hold up ANY sports team as an exemplar of “conservative” values, I’d think about the stadiums they play in.

Taxpayer funded.

We don’t build McD’s. We don’t build WalMarts. We don’t build lots of things for businesses!

Why are we building stadiums for billionaires where they can exercise their millionaire “talent”?

Argh!

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SOCIALISM: Cash for … Sheeple

Sunday, October 4, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/decoster/decoster164.html

Cash for Clunkers, RIP by Karen De Coster

*** begin quote ***

The program was little more than a political redistribution of wealth from the people of America to politicians’ power base that includes unions, environmentalists, and social justice bulldogs. Along the way, a few select people who fell within certain purchase guidelines received a generous discount for turning in their paid-off cars in exchange for a new chunk of steel and a large chunk of debt. As with most government programs, a select group of people became empowered or enriched while the general population paid the bill.

*** end quote ***

To see perfectly good cars being destroyed shocked this old injineer.

Those cars were better than some of the wrecks I drove around when I was a “poor” student. (Poor in both a monetary and academic meaning!)

How many really poor people were denied a car they could afford by this absolute stupidity.

Even if you never studied “economics” and the parable of the broken window created by Frédéric Bastiat, you have common sense. Don’t you?

In what universe does destroying a perfectly good car make any economic sense at all?

If for no other reason than that, if your rep voted for this, then you should vote them out of office. There’s no excuse for having an idiot representing you.

Argh, sheeple!

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Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: Mediasaurus

Friday, October 2, 2009

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1.04/mediasaurus.html

Mediasaurus
Today’s mass media is tomorrow’s fossil fuel. Michael Crichton is mad as hell, and he’s not going to take it anymore.
By Michael Crichton

*** begin quote ***

The extreme positions of the Crossfire Syndrome require extreme simplification – framing the debate in terms that ignore the real issues. For example, when I watch Crossfire, or Nightline, or MacNeil-Lehrer, I often think, wait a minute. The real issue isn’t term limits; it’s campaign finance reform. The real issue isn’t whether a gasoline tax is regressive, it’s national security – whether we’d prefer to go back to war in the Gulf instead of reducing oil consumption by taxing it more heavily, as every other nation does. The real issue isn’t whether the United States should have an industrial policy, it is whether the one we have – no policy is a policy – serves us well. The issue isn’t whether Mickey Kantor is a protectionist, it’s how should the US respond to its foreign competitors.

*** end quote ***

He hits the nail on the head. The media is just SO biased that it distracts from the data, info, knowledge, and wisdom from the “story”.

It’s a long article but it does highlight how bias and technology are making the “media” obsolete.

Interesting?

How do we capitalize on the replacement?

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RANT: Ayers is closer to Obama then previously led to beleive

Thursday, October 1, 2009

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=110789

*** begin quote ***

Because, if it is true – and I believe it is – it confirms Obama lied boldly and blatantly about something so significant during the campaign. It would also confirm Obama as a close associate and trusted friend to one of the most despicable America haters on planet Earth.

You just don’t hire anyone to collaborate with you on your autobiography. You only choose someone you trust, someone who thinks like you, someone who really knows you and your innermost convictions and shares them.

The evidence is mounting that Obama selected Bill Ayers.

*** end quote ***   

The American People, in their rush to justly punish the R’s, has elected a “Manchurian candidate”. As we learn more, as the “legend” he’s created unravels, as he pursues hid true agenda, we are finding that we have really screwed up.

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: The Kennedy seat belongs to the D’s; not the people!

Friday, September 25, 2009

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jzO_Ki9dF9tOlEmbHGiBPp0hgzzAD9AU95JG0

Mass. GOP seeks to block Kennedy interim successor
(AP) – 3 hours ago

*** begin quote ***

BOSTON — The Massachusetts Republican Party is seeking to block the interim appointment of Paul Kirk to the Senate seat that was held by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy.

The GOP has filed an injunction in Suffolk Superior Court that will be heard Friday morning.

*** end quote ***

Now I realize that I have my law degree from the Judge Judy school of law,

BUT, (there is always a big butt),

(1) Shouldn’t this be unconstitutional on its face. The state legislators should just write the law that MA Senators have to be picked by the head of the Democratic Party!

(2) Shouldn’t this trigger one of those “This is so outrageous that it offends the sensibilities of the Court. Rule it unconstitutional Ex Post Facto. Et cum spiritu tuo two two oh. Or what ever Latin mumbo jumbo you want to use.

Huh?

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