OHave you noticed a change in your Judge over the years. I have. Not only locally but all over the country. With few exceptions. Judges, after serving consecutive terms seem to gain a more god-like feeling. That is to say Judges get an all powerful feel, and I think they sometimes have drawn pretrial conclusions, and nothing will change their mind. Over a course of years they tend to form alliances with political parties, lawyers, prosecutors, and businesses, etc. Some may do this unwittingly, others know they have these relationships. Do these connections influence their decisions. YOU BET! One Judge, a woman, (I don’t know if she had issues against men or this one in particular), I heard of put a man behind bars for contempt of court. “What did he do “, you ask. He had paid his child support 6 months in advance, he worked construction and some winters there was no work. She told him he was in contempt of court because she had ordered him to pay weekly. One Judge, I know of, has been Judge for over 20 years, (how many over I’m not sure). The case I am thinking of the arresting officer testified he observed the suspect in a truck facing west, from his position 1 block east and 1 block north of the infraction, with a building in his range of view. He was able to identify the driver but did not make an arrest, as he was only to observe. When it was pointed out that it would be impossible to see the suspect from his position. The Judge replied, “You have to have the proper binoculars like the officer had”. Do any of you know where I can buy binoculars that can go out and make a couple of 90 degree turns, that is what it would take to see what the officer claimed. Alliances, Relationships, All powerful. That is what you get when Judges stay in office too long. I think 2 terms is more than enough. That Is How I See It. Views: 84
Month: January 2011
Roundabouts
I’m sure you are mostly aware of the ROUNDABOUTS, that many areas are putting in to supposedly relieve traffic on some busy roads. When the Interstate system was instituted the brain child for entering and exiting the interstate was a little thing called the clover leaf. Some states still have these accidents waiting to happen. The way it works, for those of you are unaware. The traffic entering the Interstate just happen to use the same lane as people exiting the Interstate. It is sort of hard to explain without seeing it. But try to imagine being on the Interstate and you come to your exit, and must get in an exit lane. But as you are trying to get in the exit lane you have people coming onto the Interstate using that same lane. Confusing, yes it is a miracle more people haven’t been killed. The Roundabouts are the same thing. The ones I have been on have two lanes an inner lane and an outer lane. Where you once had a 4 way stop you now have a 4 way go. If you come to one of these and are going straight you get in one of the two lanes but if you are making a…lets say a normally left turn you would most likely get in the outside lane. If you aren’t turning left but want to turn right or go straight you normally get in the inner lane. But because you have cars coming in the Roundabout from 4 different directions, you could go round several times before you are able to work yourself to the outer lane. Many times I have seen near accidents, and nearly been involved in them, on these Roundabouts. Thank heaven we don’t have any of them in our area, only when we go to the big City. I don’t see how this can help anyone. It is like a monster waiting to devour your car. I personally avoid any roads with these things in them. That means businesses located on these two roads miss any business I may have for them. Roundabouts and Clover leafs are more dangerous than people driving 10 miles over the speed limit, I’m all for banning Roundabouts in the United States. They are already changing many of the clover leafs to a safer system but look how long that has taken. That’s How I See It Views: 122
NASCAR Sponsors
Before I begin let me say I know about competition in the business world. Advertising is what drives the business. But now with NASCAR losing more and more sponsors, shouldn’t their be limits set. Winston was the Corporate Sponsor, (the main sponsor who buys the naming rights), for 32 years, (1971-2003) Winston Cup rang in all NASCAR fans ears. Although they were not allowed to advertise their own product on racing cars, they continued to just use the name WINSTON CUP, still the name was linked with cigarettes. With R.J Reynolds owning the naming rights, non R.J. Reynolds cigarettes were not allowed to sponsor cars. This was before the ban of CIGARETTE advertising from being on Racing vehicles. From 2004 to 2007, Nextel held the rights and a special exception had to be made to allow Cingular/AT&T to run out their contracts. Beginning in 2008 Sprint has been the naming rights owner. What we end up with is in reality advertising censorship. Verizon’s sponsorship is up and will take their approximately $17 million dollar motorsport budget to the IndyCar series. This because of a clause in the naming rights contract that prohibits any company competes with SPRINT from sponsoring a car. I understand that because we are not talking pennies when we talk about naming rights. But let’s look at other sides. CRAFTSMAN sponsored the truck series for years. Yet I saw other wrenches being used. I think I even saw a SnapOn sticker somewhere. Should not all trucks have used CRAFTSMAN tools. No other names like on tool boxes, etc. The Corporate Sponsor’s name is the most prominent name. Just as SPRINT is the prominent name. To tell you the truth I didn’t even realize VERIZON sponsored a car. If the USPS (United States Postal Service) were to become the Title Sponsor, we would lose UPS (United Parcel Service), and FED-X. I know I’ve been all around the subject. Now to the point. In this economy owners are scampering to find sponsors to keep their cars competitive. We have less cars trying to qualify. Less cars means less competition. Less competition means less interest, etc. I can give you an excellent example of sponsorship. I played Softball and coached softball for many years. Our city has a population of about 15,000 people, counting the children. At one time we had; I want to say about 7-9 men’s leagues. Women had 5-7 leagues. Each men’s league had 7-10 teams. Each women’s league had 5-7 teams. We had no problem finding businesses to sponsor our teams. They paid our league fees and bought us shirts. Sometimes they paid for us to play in tournaments. As time went on our league fees went up. Now we are lucky to have 4 men’s league with maybe 5 team each. The ladies are way down too. Now we buy our own shirts with the sponsor’s name on it, and have to pay our individual memberships, and usually make up the difference for team sponsors. Ours is not that we have a Title sponsor. It is the cost has gone up so much, business is down and can no longer afford this little gesture of community involvement. Big business is in the same boat. Why handicap the racing teams by eliminating sponsors. We have what 5-6 Cell phone companies that even if they could afford to sponsor a car is barred from doing so. Less sponsors, less cars, etc. Many of the cars are using multi main sponsors for different races. Can NASCAR afford the loss of revenue? That Is How I See It. PS. Excuse my rambling this is a hard subject for me to put across. Views: 145
Postage Rates
This is a classic. What do you do if you own a business that is dying. Dying due to competition that is offering the same basic service for a much, much lower cost. Many of us use email to correspond with one another. We pay our bills online. We send our Christmas, Birthday cards, etc. Electronically. To stay in business we would make necessary cutbacks. That means like most business we close our less profitable outlets or manufacturing sites. We lay off people. We cut back on benefits. I don’t like any of these things, but that is what is really happening in the business world. The United States Postal Service is still a needed service, not just so much as it once was. I have not seen any of the aforementioned steps being taken. They are saying they will stop Saturday delivery. But they have not said anything about the employee’s pay being cut for the extra day off. We know that the pay scale for postal employees has always been higher than in the private sector. The Benefits better, the retirement better. Good for the employees. As long as the USPS can afford to pay all this, fine. But looking to the long term. If I own an automobile dealership, and I charge more than other dealers of like vehicles. Where would you go? Pay more at my dealership, or go across the street, and buy the lower priced vehicle. What do I do. The USPS says we’ll charge more and make up the difference. Now they don’t have to have as many customers, to maintain their profit. Meanwhile the guy across the street is selling more units at less cost per unit, but is making a larger bottom line profit, due to his increased volume. They even have unknown cost to customers. How many of you have mailed a birthday card only to find out you had insufficient postage. Why? Because the envelope is 1/16 of inch larger than allowed thus incurring a ‘SPECIAL HANDLING” charge. This means the card didn’t fit through the sorter, and someone had to actually pick it up to put in the bag. So is the answer keep raising prices. Or lower the prices and increase volume. That Is How I See It. Views: 106
Bank Fees
It wasn’t enough the common people had to bail the banks out of their pending demise. Now they want the poorest people to pay them more money, by raising fees that will injure the poor and help the rich. What are you talking about? I just read an article that stated Chase bank wants to charge you for having a checking account unless you deposit $500.00 ( or meet certain other requirements). These other requirements were not mentioned. Now I know most of you who live in high cost of living states probably make enough to cover the $500.00. However most people do not, and being able to have $500.00 to put in a checking account is a luxury. In fact these people probably don’t leave their money in a checking account long enough to justify paying anything. Yes I know the bank doesn’t make money when it goes in and back out. But the bank does make money on SAVINGS accounts, loans, etc. Most people will get their auto or home loan from the bank they have a checking or savings account. If all of these people pull their checking accounts and go somewhere else without all of these fees, where does that leave Chase. I recall a time when people knew their local banker. I remember looking for a new truck. The local banker told me to get 20% off the sticker price write a check, let him know how much and it would be in my checking account. Imagine doing that with banks today. I also recall when that same bank was sold to a larger bank. I noticed I was paying more to them to maintain my savings account than I was earning interest. When I mentioned this to a lawyer friend of mine, he checked and found the same thing. Word spread, soon there was a big rush to move saving accounts to a smaller bank. Was it any wonder the checking accounts soon moved too. Along new loans etc. But alas, the big banks bought all the small banks, and the rest is history. They control the economy. The closest thing we have now to a small local bank is Credit Unions. If worse come to worse I guess we could just put all our money in PayPal, and pay our bills that way. What is the answer. The people will have to make that choice and stand behind their choice. (FOR A CHANGE). People I get tired of being pushed around by the Haves. That Is How I See It. Views: 83
College Football Hall of Fame
The National Football Foundation has decided to move the College Football Hall of Fame from South Bend Indiana to Atlanta Georgia. South Bend Indiana. Home of Notre Dame. Can any school match the football tradition held by Notre Dame. Their heritage dates back to 1887. The actual name of the town where they are located is named NOTRE DAME. Bet most of you didn’t know that. A little history and facts about Notre Dame football. Did you know that Notre Dame has a winning percentage of .723. An all time record of 899 wins, 301 losses, and 42 ties. Their postseason record is 14-15. With 11 National Titles, 7 Heisman winners, 96 All Americans. Notre Dame may actually have 13 National Titles, as the 1938 and 1953 are in question, Notre Dame only claims the 11 that are not in doubt. Their record includes 7 undefeated seasons, and 4 single loss seasons. As for the 122 year history (No team in 1890 and 1891), Notre Dame has 103 winning seasons, and only 13 losing seasons. With 48 players and coaches in the Hall of Fame. The BCS even has a “NOTRE DAME” rule. Speaking of Bowl games Notre Dame is in another one this year looking to make them 15-15 in bowl games. Who can ever forget the Knute Rockne speech “…win one for the gipper….” Why would you want to move the College Hall of Fame from such a tradition laden area. Surprise “MONEY” that’s all it could be. I don’t know as a fact. But I figure Atlanta made it monetarily well worth the move. Oh well why fight it MONEY really does talk and those without it walk. That Is How I See It. Views: 134
