Thoughts on Inflation

In my younger years, car loans were for 1, 2 or 3 years. Then they went up to 4 or 5 years, to hook people into buying something more expensive than they could really afford. People would trade them in every 3 years, but then they'd end up owing more than the trade-in value. 

Enter car leasing. What a joke. You basically pay rent on that car for 3 years, then if you want to keep it, you have a nice balloon payment. But... but... you get more car for your money. Not quite.

About the same time, the real estate speculators appeared. You know, those pirates that call and mail you with offers to buy your house — as is —cash now. No hassles of cleaning, fixing up or showing to prospective buyers. Sure. That's when the housing inflation started. 

Along came the pandemic. Shipping stalled, creating shortages. Fewer truckers were around to transport goods making the shortages worse. Supply and demand = higher prices. Unfortunately, when the shortages disappeared, prices did not go back down. Corporate bigwigs saw bigger profits and stock dividends and showed their greed. 

Why are drugs so much more expensive here than in other countries? Don't give me the development cost BS. Look at the Big Pharma profit margin, friends.

I was taught in my youth to follow the money trail. It still applies, but most people just accept the BS slung by politicians, while the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. 

The Bullied vs The Ultimate Bully

 We all grew up hearing "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me". Well, it seems that the words from the Ultimate Bully must have struck a chord with a kid who was apparently bullied in school and he tried to take out the Ultimate Bully. Words can cause permanent damage. Will the Bully learn anything? I doubt it. Name calling needs to stop. 

Apple Blew It

Don't get me wrong. I have been a total Apple fan since the days of the Apple IIe. My 30+ year old Mac Classic finally gave up the ghost a year or so ago. (I think the drive is just suffering from stiction, but I'm too lazy to give it the freezer treatment to resurrect it.) I won't tell you how many various iPods are floating around the house, but they go all the way back to the original model. They all still work, but a couple of them are permanently in speaker docks due to totally dead batteries.

The last iPod was released 5 years ago and went EOL 2 years ago. Apple reasoned that it was basically an iPhone minus the phone and therefore no longer relevant. Wrong! Like many others, I'm hooked on audiobooks and have been since they were first released on cassette tapes. I won't admit to how many I own, but I tend to add a couple of new ones every week. Hey, a lot of them are from the library and I don't have a booze or Starbucks habit, nor do I play the lottery. 

With the preliminaries out of the way, it's time to admit that the batteries on my aging iPods are not what they used to be. They seem to be on their chargers every day, so I started looking at alternative players. I don't want to chew up my iPhone battery listening to music and books. 

Damn you, Apple! To access my Audible account, I had to go with an Android player. I know that a lot of people swear by Android. Me? I'm still swearing at it. Does it work? Yes. Is it as easy as Apple iOS? No way. It's slow and awkward to use. I hate it. Apple — PLEASE — bring back the iPod. It doesn't have to be fancy and run all of the apps. Just a simple music and audiobook player. Please!

Childhood New Year's Eve Memory

Early 1950s

Gun safety conscious father wanted to let loose with a couple of shotgun rounds, but knew better than to shoot into the air. He let loose into a snowbank behind the house that hid one of mother's flower beds.

Came the spring and most of her tulips didn't come up. She, of course, had to find out why so dug up the bed. Yep. His shotgun blasts blew the bulbs to smithereens.

And people wonder why I'm warped.

Memories of MacGroup Detroit

 This is from Christmas 2011, but I wanted to share it with my MacGroup friends.

St. Patrick's Day Memories

When St. Patrick's Day rolls around, one event always comes to mind. I was driving down I-75 listening to the late Jimmy Launce (when WJR radio was still great and not ultra rightwing). 

It must have been 1984 or 1985. Launce was doing one of his prank phone calls and was talking to a lingerie clerk at the Northland Hudson's store. The story was that he needed a gift for his wife and was trying to find a Freudian slip. The poor clerk swore that was a brand she'd never heard of, and tried talking him into one of the different brands they did carry. He kept her going for almost 5 minutes before saying "Well, if you don't have any Freudian slips, do you have any Erin Go Braughs?"

I was laughing so hard, I almost had to pull off the road. I miss the days when talk radio was fun.

And yet another shooting spree

 In regard to these mass shootings — It's not a gun problem, it's a mental health problem! It's easy to say we need better gun control, but we have more controls now than ever, and those determined to get a firearm for bad purposes are always going to be able to find one. 

What we no longer have is even minimal mental health care. Mental hospitals no longer exist. Drug rehab facilities? Yep, but there are big bucks to be made there. No big bucks to be made from psych problems other than the weekly couch sessions. Let the families, who are untrained and not equipped, handle the problems. How's that working out?