Don’s Random Thoughts

What if Al Gore’s election to the presidency in 2000 hadn’t been stolen? What if we hadn’t had to suffer through the worst presidency in history and the worst strain on our democracy?

We wouldn’t have suffered through these past seven years of recession. The economy would still be booming. The president’s people keep telling us that all is going well but the real facts say otherwise. Ask your neighbor how he likes working at McDonald’s now and his other job, and his wife having to work rather than the well paying manufacturing job he had previously.

We would not be as dependent on foreign oil and would be moving away form oil use for energy entirely.

We wouldn’t have started another world war just to save the world for our religion.

We wouldn’t have alienated our friends and inflamed our enemies making the world and ourselves more at risk for terrorist attacks.

The twin World Trade Center Towers would still be standing. This is the Wag The Dog thing. I believe Bush either directly plotted or enabled the execution of the “attack” to allow him to pursue his war of salvation..

Workers would be reaping more of the rewards of their labors instead of seeing it stolen by conglomerates.

We wouldn’t have had the savings and loan fiasco,

We’d have a realistic energy policy and California wouldn’t have had 6 billion dollars stolen from it by Enron. Along with this, California wouldn’t have then lost a good governor and gained a lousy one who still can’t pronounce California.

We’d still have local newspapers and TV stations rather that just a few intentional corporations.

We’d still have some undisturbed parks and forests that, if used for necessary mineral production, would have netted the nation appropriate financial rewards rather the less than administration costs.

We’d have students that could read, write, speak, and calculate better than the rest of the world rather than almost the most ignorant student body.

Imagine. I try to, but it makes me sad to think what could have been and what will take decades to achieve now, If at all possible.

I hate what has happened to our postal system. Rising costs, reduced service and all that junk mail.

More than 98 percent of our mail is junk mail. Why can’t they be customer oriented and allow the customer to specify they don’t want to receive that junk saving the customers the aggravation and the system the cost of delivery and the environment the impact of tree usage and disposal impacts?

The cost of a letter has been rising about $.04 per year recently and probably will continue to do so. I can’t even buy a roll of stamps anymore and use it before the price rises and additional stamps are needed to supplement the rate. I guess they do now offer lifetime stamps but at what cost and impact to the system? The letter carrier now drives house to house in older areas so that they can deliver the handfuls of junk mail every day whereas they used to deliver one or two letters to each customer every few days. The major reason the cost of a first-class stamp has risen is to carry the junk mail, which is delivered at a reduced rate. Don’t tell me you can’t by politicians votes . It’s cheaper to buy votes than to pay the delivery costs.

And then there is the waste of the time of the customers having to sort through all that junk mail.

Supposedly you can “opt out” of receiving junk mail but it doesn’t work or we wouldn’t be receiving it. Why opt out? Why not opt in? Because no one would. So they pay to keep everything opt out. They say it would be unconstitutionally violating their freedom of speech. I say they’re violating my right to not have to listen.

That would be how I would define “the right to the pursuit of happiness?”

I have a pet peeve. I hate people who don’t know how to walk. I shouldn’t be surprised, they probably are the same people who don’t know how to drive but I still hate meeting them. There isn’t a law, but there should be. When approaching someone, you should pass on the right. It seems simple to me but too complex for far too many people. It seems far too many architects have the same problem because they are always placing the in door on the left when it should be on the right. There usually is absolutely no reason just ignorance.

Interestingly, the majority of the world drives on the right side of the road so these people should have no problem. But the folks from England and many of their former colonies drive on the left side so you would think that might influence their erroneous passages but I think not. Most are not from such places so can’t claim that as the cause, just ignorance and/or inconsideration. They are probably the same people that crowd in line, don’t hold the door for others and don’t open doors for ladies, the disabled and the elderly. They are also likely the people who poke along two or more abreast making it impossible to pass them from either direction and probably the same folks that block the pathway to chat.

They really annoy me!