Carnival of the Curmudgeons - Mark Ten
All I can do is hope that Blogger holds up while I scribble this post...the service has been up and down all day, and seems to be running on one cylinder right now.
I'm starting a new part of the Carnival today...Peeve Of The Week (POTW), which is a close relative of PITA, of course.
This week's candidates are: Financial houses or merchants who abuse the Federal Fair Credit Collection Practices Act and get away with it; the doofus MSM (fill in the reason here_________); The Government of Mexico, which allows people to drive who don't have a clue about what that entails (then said Mexicans come up here and create FUBAR hell on OUR roads).
First, the banks. 15USC1692 is the set of laws that regulates how, when and why money may be collected from people. We're talking money for business that has already been transacted. By Collections, the Act is referring to late payments. So, naturally, definitions of what is late, later, and too late matter. Late is when you should have paid, but are less than 30 days late paying. "Past Due" is more than 30 days late, out to 60 days, where you may be reported to a credit reporting agency for being late (which then puts a black mark against your credit record). These are the legal definitions. Have you noticed lately that more and more businesses have started fudging the definition, calling you "past due" when you are less than a month late? My boat payment is due on the 1st of the month. I was just getting back from my road trip, and I was sick as a dog. I failed to make the transfer, although I have almost $8,000 in the account, so it wasn't that I was broke or anything, I just forgot. My health was more important to me than sitting down and running though my checklist of bills.
I get a "past due" notice that is sent out by the credit union on the 10th of the month. I sit right down to the computer and transfer the bucks to the loan account. So sorry, won't do it again. Then I got to thinking. These idiots actually sent me a dunning notice for a payment that was only 10 days late. That costs them (and me, since it's investor-owned), money. I fired off a Curmudgeon Gram at them. Haven't heard back yet, but they probably sent it to their lawyer, since I cited the section and sub-section of the Act that they violated.
Candidate: The doofus MSM. I'll make this brief, and YOU may pick the offense you want a reporter strung up from your local lamp-post for.
On to this week's Guest Curmudgeons. Morning Glory (a curmudgeonette from somewhere down South) annoints Sanity's Bluff, a new blog for me. The Web Loafer there is very curmudgeonly.
Dissecting Leftism is a very high-order blog (the kind that goes BOOOOM! when it goes off, not just Bang! like most blogs). The language is very precise, and John Ray is an authentic genius AND curmudgeon. Anything there is worth reading, but you have to have a gift for staying with his incisive comments that MAKE YOU THINK!
Curmudgeons DO have to worry about how they dress. GuyK at Charming, Just Charming, has this best-dressed advice.
GuyK also rips the PaleoBoomers a new one with his pity-party for the sob sisters at the World Bank (remember them? That's where we recycled Robert McNamara before he became an out-and-out traitor). It's a good read, tells it like it is.
Mr. Completely, a sharpshooting curmudgeon from the Islands in WA, sends me to a blog in the Islands in FL, the 10,000 Islands to be exact, where we find the From the Swamp blog, very curmudgeonly. Mr. C seems to be toning down his curmudgeon-posts in favor of more posts on guns, not a bad thing. He must feel the pressure to up his gunblogging contributions, since he was recently crowned King Gunblogger or somesuch in a poll that he taught us how to rig. He was a King Curmudgeon also, and I miss his rants.
My final link of the day goes to Sailor GuyS at Snugg Harbor, which I've read as long as I've blogged. Guy has been up and down with his blog for personal reasons, but he is on an up-cycle now, so go there and enjoy his work while you can. As a bonus, he publishes Muir's Day by Day conservative 'toon-strip there also.
Enough of this curmudgeonly bile. Got to go wash my mouth out with Scotch ;)
I'm starting a new part of the Carnival today...Peeve Of The Week (POTW), which is a close relative of PITA, of course.
This week's candidates are: Financial houses or merchants who abuse the Federal Fair Credit Collection Practices Act and get away with it; the doofus MSM (fill in the reason here_________); The Government of Mexico, which allows people to drive who don't have a clue about what that entails (then said Mexicans come up here and create FUBAR hell on OUR roads).
First, the banks. 15USC1692 is the set of laws that regulates how, when and why money may be collected from people. We're talking money for business that has already been transacted. By Collections, the Act is referring to late payments. So, naturally, definitions of what is late, later, and too late matter. Late is when you should have paid, but are less than 30 days late paying. "Past Due" is more than 30 days late, out to 60 days, where you may be reported to a credit reporting agency for being late (which then puts a black mark against your credit record). These are the legal definitions. Have you noticed lately that more and more businesses have started fudging the definition, calling you "past due" when you are less than a month late? My boat payment is due on the 1st of the month. I was just getting back from my road trip, and I was sick as a dog. I failed to make the transfer, although I have almost $8,000 in the account, so it wasn't that I was broke or anything, I just forgot. My health was more important to me than sitting down and running though my checklist of bills.
I get a "past due" notice that is sent out by the credit union on the 10th of the month. I sit right down to the computer and transfer the bucks to the loan account. So sorry, won't do it again. Then I got to thinking. These idiots actually sent me a dunning notice for a payment that was only 10 days late. That costs them (and me, since it's investor-owned), money. I fired off a Curmudgeon Gram at them. Haven't heard back yet, but they probably sent it to their lawyer, since I cited the section and sub-section of the Act that they violated.
Candidate: The doofus MSM. I'll make this brief, and YOU may pick the offense you want a reporter strung up from your local lamp-post for.
- The "Iraq Civil War": according to the MSM, all our efforts in Iraq are wasted because a few bodies have been found indicating the existence of criminal gangs. Duh!
- The "Saddam Tapes": every time more of these tapes are transcribed, it offers more evidence that Saddam DID have a WMD program, and was actively hiding it from inspectors. You won't hear this important news on the MSM, though.
- FEMA mis-management. "Big Scoop": millions wasted by Federal Contractors. Gasp! Uh, boys, isn't the bill for Katrina $125 BILLION and rising? So we are talking about 3/125,000 as a fraction of mis-managed money? Put into simple decimals, that's .0024 of ONE PERCENT! Standby to ho-hum. Must be a slow news week.
- MSNBC (MicroSoftkNowsBullCrap) trots out General Wesley Clark to comment on the Iraq Civil War. Lessee, Gen. Clark KNOWS civil wars, since, with all of NATO at his command, he failed to end one in Serbia and Kosovo. The same General Clark, who, when running as a candidate for POTUS, couldn't outpoll the Screamer, dispite the heavy backing of the Clintons, who wanted him as a seat-warmer for Hellary.
- The Government of Mexico. Which will let any doofus get a driver's licence, and along with them, the State of Oregon, which will give any Mexican doofus a driver's license (which is why the Feds had to pass the Real ID Act, but don't get me started on THAT). If I go to Mexico, I can drive on my US driver's license if I show proof of a fully-paid Mexican insurance policy (a MX company has to issue it). If I don't get such a policy, and get in a wreck, I will be held in jail until I post a CASH BOND equal to all the potential damages. Many Mexicans can drive adequately, but a significant fraction of them can't. A much higher fraction of them than of any class of US citizen you could name. Mexicans also disdain getting insurance policies. Might have something to do with their illegal status in this country, as well as the fact that WE DON'T DO A BLOODY THING TO THEM WHEN WE CATCH THEM WITH NO LICENSE OR INSURANCE! All the cops can do is tow their car and give them a ticket which they don't show up for, and even that may soon be a thing of the past as a recent court decision seems to limit towing to when the "community safety" is of IMMEDIATE concern. The solution is the immediate issuance to officers of a penetrating round for their shotguns. Upon finding an unlicensed, uninsured driver, the cop would be authorized to fire a penetrating round through the motor block, rendering the motor inoperative WITH GREAT PREJUDICE! A consortium of civic-minded tow operators would then donate their services to tow and scrap these hulks. A benefit to all of us would be the removal of the lower end of junkers from the roads, making them safer to drive, and making all of our rides worth just a little bit more in resale value.
On to this week's Guest Curmudgeons. Morning Glory (a curmudgeonette from somewhere down South) annoints Sanity's Bluff, a new blog for me. The Web Loafer there is very curmudgeonly.
Dissecting Leftism is a very high-order blog (the kind that goes BOOOOM! when it goes off, not just Bang! like most blogs). The language is very precise, and John Ray is an authentic genius AND curmudgeon. Anything there is worth reading, but you have to have a gift for staying with his incisive comments that MAKE YOU THINK!
Curmudgeons DO have to worry about how they dress. GuyK at Charming, Just Charming, has this best-dressed advice.
GuyK also rips the PaleoBoomers a new one with his pity-party for the sob sisters at the World Bank (remember them? That's where we recycled Robert McNamara before he became an out-and-out traitor). It's a good read, tells it like it is.
Mr. Completely, a sharpshooting curmudgeon from the Islands in WA, sends me to a blog in the Islands in FL, the 10,000 Islands to be exact, where we find the From the Swamp blog, very curmudgeonly. Mr. C seems to be toning down his curmudgeon-posts in favor of more posts on guns, not a bad thing. He must feel the pressure to up his gunblogging contributions, since he was recently crowned King Gunblogger or somesuch in a poll that he taught us how to rig. He was a King Curmudgeon also, and I miss his rants.
My final link of the day goes to Sailor GuyS at Snugg Harbor, which I've read as long as I've blogged. Guy has been up and down with his blog for personal reasons, but he is on an up-cycle now, so go there and enjoy his work while you can. As a bonus, he publishes Muir's Day by Day conservative 'toon-strip there also.
Enough of this curmudgeonly bile. Got to go wash my mouth out with Scotch ;)
posted by Rivrdog at 7:16 PM
2 Comments:
I think that GuyS has hit the nail on the head with his articles about so called moderate Muslims. I think that actually they are few and far in between and those that are moderates are too cowed to speak out.
First, thanks for the kind words and linkage. Things are a tad hectic and show no sign of calming down in the next week or so. But I plan on continuing the search for the mythical muslim (though I stand a better chance at finding the golden fleece). And GuyK, guess *us guys* have to stick together! But then we look at the world with a more realistic hue then the average critter out there. Thank you both!
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