The Stupidest Stuff

Ok, it’s been a long time since my last post. So much stupid stuff has been going on it’s hard to decide what to talk about… but now, the first failure of the current administration’s war on “man made disasters” seems to be a good place to start.

In a NYTimes article it says:

“When a prominent Nigerian banker and former government official phoned the American Embassy in Abuja in October with a warning that his son had developed radical views, had disappeared and might have traveled to Yemen, embassy officials did not revoke the young man’s visa to enter the United States, which was good until June 2010. Instead, officials said Sunday, they marked the file of the son, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, for a full investigation should he ever reapply for a visa. And when they passed the information on to Washington, Mr. Abdulmutallab’s name was added to 550,000 others with some alleged terrorist connections — but not to the no-fly list. That meant no flags were raised when he used cash to buy a ticket to the United States and boarded a plane, checking no bags.”

Ok, a series of errors here; namely the guy’s DAD calls the American embassy to report him, officials not revoking his visa—but flagging it to be denied to be renewed, adding them to the list of people with terrorist connections but NOT the no-fly list… (editorial note: maybe that’s because the list is to full of 3 year old kids.) But the most important one that should have flagged him is this…

Dude boarded a trans atlantic flight from Amsterdam, Netherlands to Detroit, Michigan and checked NO bags. Good Lord, people!

Then Janet Napolitano, the Homeland Security Secretary, (editorial note: a woman going after the hottie look of Cher’s Morticia Adams, Yet blending it with the Rosie O’Donnell Bull Dyke meets Old Beaver … (Subsequent editors note: The beaver reference was a reference to Jerry Mather’s teeth… not Rosie’s taste in fine dining.)… Give it up lady and just dye that grey patch with some Just for Men.) ….. at any rate…during an interview on “This Week” on ABC says “The system has worked really very, very smoothly over the course of the past several days”… are you serious woman?

A Nigerian fingered by his own father as a radical get on a inter-continental Trans-Atlantic flight— with no baggage, after being on a list of people with terrorist connections, and having his Visa flagged as non-renewable manages to get past who knows how much security at the airport in the Netherlands with both a BOMB strapped to him and some way to LIGHT the thing and the only thing that stopped him were passengers… and that’s a success??? If that were GW, the left would be having a field day—congressional hearings and screaming for impeachment… That’s just stupid!.

Now we’ll see if the world ends for the folks living in the areas listed in this article.

Plain and simple, millions of dollars were spent telling people of the switch. They had a chance to get a coupon for a essentially free converter box… and they chose to wait until the very last minute. This article at USAtoday lists the stations that are going ahead and doing the switch… Good for them!

You say you’re going to do something, then do it.

The following TV stations have announced their intention to shut down analog TV broadcasts on Feb. 17, rather than waiting until June 12, the new deadline set by Congress. They’re listed by state and market.

TV stations ending analog service on Feb. 17 - USATODAY.com.

It’s television people! plus the only people effected will be those getting their reception from a over the air antennae… any body out there remember turning the antennae on the outside of the house to get better reception? All the while some one screaming on the inside—– “go back, It was better a second ago!”

Finally, for those of you that remember that… When was the last time you SAW an antennae on a house?

Moving the date is just stupid!

I really hate to keep writing about this. But, stupid stuff happens and despite the nut jobs in Washington this is the stupidest thing going on right now. (Editorial note: This may simply be a media diversion to the $800 Billion dollar spending Economic Stimulus package that has more pork than one of Ms. Piggy’s family reunions.)

If you’re the publicist for Nadya Suleman and your reading this… Shut your client up! Every time she opens her mouth there’s a new revelation that’s both worse and less thought out than the last.

This time at MSNBC.COM there is an article that is titled, Octuplet mom: I’ll raise them on student loans. Here is a quote from that article:

“Do you have any income at all?” TODAY’s Ann Curry asked Nadya Suleman during her exclusive interview with the 33-year-old mother of 14 children.

“At the moment, no,” Suleman replied, adding that she intended to use student loans “temporarily” to pay for her family’s care.

Seriously? That’s not only government aide but I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to use that to pay for school, not living expenses. Doesn’t she know that those will have to be paid back?!?!?!?

Not only that, but the video on the page (here) mentions a tid bit of information that seems to be passed up, thus far in main stream media. She recieved $165,000 in payments over 6 years for a work related injury and disability payments that stopped when she got pregnant. Sounds to me like the she’s a gold digger.

The funny thing is she mentions a “Alternative source of income”, it’s “an alternative way, but it works”… What on earth is this nut job doing to provide income that she can’t say what it is? There’s something else here and my guess is that it will come out in a few interviews.

For now, This is the stupestest stuff out there!

Well, this story just keeps getting better… and stupider by the minute. Msnbc.com reports in their article titled “Octuplet mom: Scrutiny of me is ‘sick’ - Parenting & Family - TODAYshow.com” that the octuplet mom is really kind of sick of people scrutinizing her life after having 8 children after already having 6 children previously, 3 of those 6 being some manner of special needs enough to receive SSI payments.

The Los Angeles Times has reported that Suleman, who had told Curry she has no income, receives $490 a month in food stamps in addition to Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments for her 3-year-old son, Aidan, who is autistic, and for two other children who have milder developmental issues. The payments are $600 monthly for each of the three children.

The 33-year-old single mom repeated her belief that she is not receiving welfare.

“I’m not living off of any taxpayer money. If I am, if it’s food stamps, it’s a temporary resource, and it’s only for food,” Suleman said. “It’s an excellent resource if used appropriately and not for too long … We receive no cash. And I’ve never even applied. I’ve never applied.”

Ummm, Most people would call that welfare…

Yes, I know that technically it isn’t because welfare is yet another hand out from the government. However, the fact remains she is receiving $27,480 a year in some form of government payments. (Editorial note: To put that in perspective, if you make less than $13.21 an hour at your 40 hour a week job… that should tick you off, because your working your tail off at a job and this gal is bringing home that staying at home with out driving to work every day watching ‘As The World Turns’. To really send you over the edge… the typical person looses about 30% of their salary to State, Federal, and FICA taxes. These payments are not subject to those taxes so far as I am aware, so if your making less than $17.17 you should be ticked.)

I do hate to break it to you toots, but that money you’re getting… it is taxpayer money and with it being your only source of income… you’re living off it. Not only that, to the point of you not recieving cash… the government doesn’t mail cash to people… they mail checks.

Nadya says she’s going to go back to school to finish a masters degree. A Program that apparently will take 18 months.Again, this woman is just stupid.

Married couples struggle to do this with just a couple kids and Nadya is unmarried and has 14… 8 are infants! Lets assume though, against all odds she actually does it and gets a really great job. I don’t know about in California, but in my part of the country it costs around $150-$200 a week to put a kid in childcare… and that’s being very cheap! But for the sake of a number, lets assume it’s only $150 a week for a child in childcare out in that area of the country where EVERYTHING costs more than other parts of the country. Essentially she’ll be shelling out $2,100 a week to work. Or, $8400 a month for childcare. That’s $109,200 a year in childcare expenses.

What kind of job does she think she’s going to get that pays so well that she’ll be able to afford to work??

This is just… stupid.

And, can anyone actually tell us WHY this sign needed to be posted in the first place?

Recently, We wrote about the Stupid Octuplet mom with 14 kids, well it appears that according to FoxNews the Octuplets’ Mom is on Welfare, Spokesman Confirms - Pregnancy. Below is an interesting piece of information.

The Southern California mother of octuplets receives $490 a month in food stamps and three of her first six children are disabled and receiving federal assistance, her publicist confirmed Monday evening.

Ok. Six Kids, $490 a month in food stamps, an undisclosed amount of money in payments from the government because three of the kids are disabled, no rent because you live with your mother, you’re mother is quoted as saying she gets no money from you to help her with the children or rent, and your mother takes care of them all.

Nice. You definately need a publicist to manage this crap storm.

(Editorial note: Anyone else out there wonder how on eartha woman with 14 kids who lives with her mother can actually afford a publicist?)

This is just stupid!

Recently we’ve been hearing a lot about an octuplet mom who already had 6 kids… now for a total of 14. (Editorial note: After 6 kids that US taxpayers are no doubt paying for… what’s 8 more.) Apparently, all 14 children are under 8 years old and conceived by in-vitro fertilization. (Editorial note: This is the Peitre Dish Fertilization, not the Turkey Baster version— which is in vivo fertilization.)

This woman is clearly delusional, Apparently the father of all 14 wants to marry her, but she’s refused saying she wants to raise the children herself. Sounds like a stand up guy— but not to bright— because he actually wants to marry her. (Editorial note: Dude, I can’t find your name anywhere… but apparently this gal your dating has infertility problems of some sort and coitus interruptus is not only unnecessary, but that might be where she’s getting all the necessary resources to to have all these kids. Next time “get lost in the moment” or simply “forget”.)

On the same page where you can find a videotaped interview you can find a quote from the grandmother…

“To have them all is unconscionable to me. She really really has no idea what she’s doing to her children and to me.”

Woman, are you stupid? First off, you’ve got the daughter living with you with her 6 kids, she’s not married, and she gets Pregnant again with 8 more… and they are still living with you? I know blood’s thicker than water, but at some point you’ve got to ask yourself if you are enabling this behavior!

Lastly, The context of the what she said leads me to believe that the grandmother thinks she should have had a reduction, which is a fancy relabeled name for abortion. So, which of the 8 new babies would you prefer the mom would have killed. Clearly, she made a huge error in judgment— and even should probably seek phsycological help.  However, Killing off some of them once they’ve been implanted isn’t the answer.

In a article at MSNBC, entitled Airline removes life vests to save weight, fuel the Canadian Airline, Jazz, has decided to remove Life Vests from it’s aircraft. This in itself isn’t stupid– though if a plane ever goes down in the water they might wish they hadn’t done so.

What is stupid is their logic. They claim that the life vests add weight to the aircraft (Editorial Note: We’re not disputing they do… read on.) and By removing the 50 life vests from the airplane they will save 55 pounds… this saving fuel says Manon Stuart, Jazz spokeswoman. Ummm…. sweetheart, that’s not going to save much fuel at all, I’d bet people are carrying 55 pounds of stuff in their pockets when they get on, not counting carry on bags… just stuff in their front and back pockets like keys, change, cellphones, etc! You guys run your company how you want, but don’t go skimping on safety features and billing it off as being Green or saving fuel… that’s a crock of crap.

If you want to save weight, how about mid-flight jettisoning people who are drunk and beligerant. Maybe expand that policy to those that smell bad– heck, give the people that won’t shutup while I sleep the boot out the cargobay hatch at 30,000 feet. Another thing that would save weight is to remove the auxilary landing gear wire harnesses… but, good God woman– what are you thinking when you consider getting rid of a safety device!!!

This is no huge concern for me personally, planes in the states have not had life vests for as long as they remember. They always say “in the event of a water landing your seat cushion can be used as a flotation device”. Well, I always think… any chance we can follow the Mississippi river down from Minnesota to Louisiana? Seriously, most times planes are flying over GROUND… anyone ever thought about that??? How about next time you ask if, “In the event of a crash, can the pilot aim for water?”

Alison Duquette, spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration said “if you are an airline and you fly an airplane over a body of water, you have to have a life preserver or an approved floatation means.” She went on to say a seat cushion would satisfy that requirement but she was not aware of any U.S. airline getting rid of life vests on their airplanes to help with weight issues… I want to know what airline actually HAS them none I’ve flown on do. And if they do… where do they put them?

Jazz, congratulations… you’ve made it onto the stupideststuff!

I have to just share my complete frustration with a technology in use these days entirely to much, in my opinion. CAPTCHA!

That technology is the use of the automated images that are shown on pages that you have to enter the text shown in the image. I can never get them right the first time, but this one takes the cake!

This has simply got to be the WORST one I have ever seen! I mean, I see gsp there– but what are those other letters? tun? tia? tian?tim? lun? I gave up.

Most sites do this so that scripters will not be able to write scripts that automatically post comments to discussion boards, like spam e-mails, with no real person actually doing the posting. It’s supposed to “verify your humanity”– however, you’ll have to take my word for it– I am human! If your reading this and you own a site that does this to us or are considering it– please find a better way to protect us from the spam bots!

Some other ways they do this is with multi colored text. And while I’m not color blind, they generally do it with reds, greens, and blues– three colors that are hard to see if you are color blind.

All this trouble simply because some yahoo thinks he’s going to get rich by posting comments and sending e-mails about prescription drugs, a stock tip, or some other stuff. (We’ve all seen them, so I don’t have to go into detail here. Thankfully.)

OK, the actual headline that got�us thinking was “American Airlines sez sked ready for takeoff” at the New York Daily news site. Of course, the not even close attempt at coherent communication in English got our attention —F7 in Microsoft Word is your friend. (Editorial note: we all make mistakes, but at least try to form words.)

Apparently, American Airlines canceled another 200 flights yesterday. Now, I haven’t been keeping track but that should bring the number of canceled flights this week pretty close to 2500 flights. Once they get them airborne again– anybody want to actually fly on one now? Lets see…

According to Boeing, The MD-80 models were built between 1980 and 1999 so these planes are at least 8 years old (not to bad) and at most 28 years old. So, basically a plane that would qualify for antique plates, if it was a car, is flying you and your loved ones around the country at over 500 Miles an hour almost 7 miles above the ground. (Editorial note: with the doors locked and no parachutes–Plus you paid at least a C note for the privilege and all they can do is say “in the event of a water landing your seat cushion can be used as a floatation device”. Great! I’m flying from Minnesota to Louisiana… Mind following the Mississippi down?!?!?!) Oddly enough, people don’t like to hear these statistics right as your screaming down the runway, generally you end up getting the row to yourself by the time the captain turns off the fasten seat belt lights.

American Airlines operates the largest number of MD-80s, a fleet of 275 planes and the planes have a max capacity of 139 passengers. These are smaller planes that I’ve flown on a few times, when you fly on one it’s generally pretty full. (Editorial note: Dare I say packed to the brim, not counting that lady who’s trying to bring a swing set on board as a carry on– who just happens to want to stow it over your head in the compartment smaller than the gas tank in a Yugo so when you hit turbulence it comes out in your lap. Every Yugo by the way is NEWER than the plane we’re talking about– and they had to tighten the bolts at 50,000 miles.) But, for the sake of argument. lets assume all these planes were an average of 75% full�that would be just over 104 people on each of the canceled flights.

Basically, American Airlines destroyed travel plans for over 260,000 passengers this last week alone. (Editorial note: This doesn’t include the the number of passengers that had tickets on planes that were over booked and made it off the ground BEFORE the fiasco started.) Way to go American Airlines!

Now, American made an attempt at fixing some of it’s planes 2 weeks ago but apparently that attempt either didn’t work or wasn’t enough. “About 300 aircraft were inspected for faulty wiring on the auxiliary hydraulic systems and 149 needed repairs.”, according to the Atlanta Business Chronical.(Editorial note: Auxiliary hydraulic systems is airplane technical lingo for what a layman would call landing gear, this writer my not be in the know about this– but I’m not certain there is anything auxiliary about that!)

My guess (that has no inside information or basis in fact) is they fixed some so they would have to� shut down completely– but why wouldn’t they have used the last two weeks to fix them over a period of time? (Editorial note: If you flew with them 3 weeks ago, how are you feeling right now? My guess is 50% of you need to find new boxers.)

Folks, you can expect to see some form of whining by them at some point in the future for a (yet another) government bail-out or bankruptcy court. Why, When you think of an American Lines plane, you are likely visualizing a MD80! Not to mention 260,000 passengers who got refunds, payroll that was paid to employees that did little more than accept chewings from irate customers.

The airline industry is just stupid! I can’t imagine other industries following suit:

• A bus charging $100 to ride downtown instead of $2.00 because you didn’t make plans 2 weeks ahead.
• A Movie theater selling 300 tickets to the latest hit movie for a single showing when they only have 200-250 tickets.
• For those folks that didn’t show up on time, a surcharge would be charged to change their ticket, if any sort of refund was given at all. Likely, see item one above.
• For the folks that did show up, but before the theater was filled would wait to see if any of the people already in the theater were willing to give up their evening plans.
• The folks that would give up their movie going plans would be offered free movies (at likely another over sold venue), free dinner vouchers, and possibly cash.
• Imagine a cruise ship loading the boat, pushing off the dock 300 yards and then making you wait 9 hours while the boat was repaired. (Editorial note: They would of course offer you all the 8oz sodas and tiny bags of peanuts while you waited. If you caused a stir on the plane because of it, they would have the police come and jail you.)
• Imagine a restaurant Taking the tables and decreasing the size of the tables and chairs, along with the distance between them by around 6 inches each. (Editorial note: to compensate for this potential customer service nightmare they would buy all new�seats and call it an interior�upgrade.)
• Lastly, when a restaurant is about to go out of business because it serves less than standard food or offers terrible table service– the government will pay their debts with low cost loans or even grants.

Amazing isn’t it? Right, it’s downright stupid!