Jim Seaman – web log

OK, I admit it … I’m an illegal citizen. I’ve committed crimes in my past.

For years I had 2 cats – and not once did I register them with the city of Raleigh and pay the city’s pussy tax. Later I had a dog – and I never paid tax on him. I frankly don’t know if my neighbors pay the tax on their pets but I’ve never seen city tags on those animals (only their rabies tags).

What the hell is the point in all of this? Is it just one more tax for the city? To be honest, I don’t think the city can be making any money off of this tax. They don’t collect the money or do the actual registration, they pay others to do it – veterinarians. Of course the city does have to have the tags made and do all of the record keeping. So after all of the costs what is left out of a $7.00 fee? Not much I’m sure! I wonder if there is a city dog/cat tax supervisor that they pay $60K a year?

Now the city claims that registration “helps the City monitor compliance with State of North Carolina rabies vaccination laws” … That is a joke – what percentage of pets are registered – a very low percentage – which makes any data from the registrations useless. The city also claims that registration helps to “identify family pets should they become lost” … haven’t they ever heard of ID chips?

There’s no good reason why gays and lesbians shouldn’t serve openly in the military.

Yesterday, Adm. Mike Mullen chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates went before the Senate Armed Forces Committee to testify that don’t ask, don’t tell should end. A couple of worthwhile quotes from Adm. Mullen:

“No matter how I look at the issue I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens.”

“For me it comes down to integrity — theirs as individuals and ours as an institution.”

Also at the hearing, Sen. Mark Udall cited conservative Barry Goldwater’s famous dictum —that it mattered not whether you were straight, but whether you could shoot straight.

Britain, Canada, Israel and Australia are among countries allowing gays to serve openly without issue. The primary argument against repealing the “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” order is that it will undermine cohesion of the units. But there’s nothing new in that argument. Harry Truman faced the cohesion argument when he integrated the forces in 1948 — the same time Omar Bradley, the five-star general, said the Army was the wrong place for “social experiments.” These same arguments were also used against enhancing women’s roles in the military.

Polls show most Americans favor gays and lesbians serving openly (they are already there anyway). The only real argument against it, in fact, is the outdated workplace argument: that being around gay people makes some straight people uncomfortable.

In 1988 Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence officer, killed 270 people by bombing an airliner. Today, after serving eight years in prison, he was released … free to go home to his friends and family.

He was sentenced to life in prison and now that he is facing the end of his life (due to cancer) the Scottish courts have decided to let him go. They call it “compassion”. Where is the “compassion” for the friends and families of the 270 people that he murdered?

I know I should recycle more. I do feel guilty when I don’t. But sometimes it just seems they try to make it hard to recycle things!

Here in Raleigh there used to be recycling centers located throughout the city. They were nothing more than a collection of specialized dumpsters labeled for different items. Since the city implemented its curbside recycling program they only accept certain items – cans – glass bottles – newspapers – cardboard – certain kinds of plastics. Anything placed in the little green bins not meeting their guidelines gets left behind for you to deal with.

Well at the moment I have a couple of old computers to trash – they are big metal cases with a little bit of electronics inside. I also have a couple of large glass aquariums and a large, heavy floor buffer. The city will not pick up any of these items as part of their recycling program and there are no longer any neighborhood recycling sites to use. What’s left is a drive out to the recycling bins at the recently moved county dump – about 30 miles round trip, but that is just robbing Peter to pay Paul – I use up gas and pollute the air to save a bit of other resources.

Guess I’ll just have to go on feeling guilty.

If you really want to save money on your insurance, ignore all those ads you see on TV. Don’t trust a caveman (as presented by Geico) to sell you insurance. Also you will find (if you buy from Nationwide) that having an app on your ipod for when you get in an accident really isn’t such a big deal.

All of that advertising costs them a fortune and you end up paying for it in your premiums! Any company that advertises that much can’t offer great deals on anything they are selling. Find a lesser known company … you may have to spend a few extra minutes to find them but try using the Yellow pages and look for an independent insurance agent – it could save you real money.

Also be sure to check out other deals you may qualify for – I use USAA (military affiliations only) – there are also AAA and AARP as well as others. SHOP AROUND!!!!

I have to say I’ve thought about this one a bit and then went online to look up some figures – Without trying to put a price on the over 4000 US soldiers killed and 13,000 seriously wounded (or the over 500,000 Iraqis killed) we have spent over 500 Billion dollars in Iraq. That’s a lot of money and let’s face it, that is what the war is really about!

But what if we had invested that half a Trillion dollars in renewable energy sources (wind, solar, tidal, geothermal) and battery research? At the same time, creating jobs here at home. How much closer to true energy independence would we be? And it’s not too late – we can still start investing heavily. And I’m not very opposed to more nuclear plants – at least they don’t contribute to global warming like coal, fuel oil or natural gas plants.

The bane of the Internet – they make the lives of everyone miserable. I have several email accounts and I receive (on average) over 200 spam messages a day. And that isn’t even including the ones on my account at work that are handled by the spam filters there. It’s true, I don’t see most of these spam messages since they are caught by automatic spam filters, but am I am forced to review those that are caught on the off chance that some good mail may have been flagged mistakenly. A real waste of time.

Unfortunately, my spam problems don’t end there. This blog, while not read by that many, is the constant target of spammers. They have been leaving comments on every article I’ve ever written. Their comments are nothing but links to visit this or that website, sometimes dozens of websites. It is of the order of 20-30 a day but even that has finally been too much. I have to review them and let the valid comments post and then delete the junk. None of them ever get through to be viewed by the public but still they continue posting.

Well, NO MORE! I’ve turned off comments on this blog.

Spammers should be forced to pay for the time they cost all of us. Considering the number of messages they send out multiplied by the number of people affected – that would be life in prison.

Former Senator for North Carolina, Jessie Helms died today. For many years, this man was supposedly represented North Carolina in the US Senate. He was actually NC’s longest serving Senator. His stances against anything remotely liberal (or even moderate) earned him his nickname of Senator No.

He was another one of those who believed that AIDS was God’s punishment for gays. His beliefs and actions in the US Congress did immeasurable harm to hundreds of thousands of people. His backwards positions earned him the well deserved hatred of the gay community throughout the entire United States.

He made his home here in Raleigh and I happen to know that, after his retirement, his beliefs regarding AIDS moderated considerably. I don’t know if his beliefs actually changed or if he simply dropped a political front that he may have had surrounding himself. At any rate it was too little, too late.

One would think that the 20th of January 2009 would be declared as Earth Day. After all that’s the day that George W. Bush will be leaving the White House. With his denial of the existence of global warming, our president has never exactly been a friend of the environment. The problem is, I’m not sure that whoever we end up getting will be much better!

I have a feeling that even if they claim to be pro-environment, they are going to have their hands full with other things like the economy and our on-going military conflicts. The environment seems to take a backseat far too often.

Over the weekend I ordered (via the Internet) a new camera lens . I want it for an upcoming trip and specified 3 day delivery for the shipping. Since the company is just a couple of states away, I figured I would likely get the package today (second day after shipping). No such luck!

The camera company provided a link to check on the package’s progress. The shipping company’s website shows when they picked up the package (Monday evening, 7:42pm) – when it left their local facility and and made it to another – it shows when the package arrived here in Raleigh, which was yesterday (Tuesday) at 2:12pm.

Now one would think that the package being here would mean it would go out for delivery the next day (day 2). That appears to not be the case! It looks like UPS is going to hold the package an extra day just so they can deliver it on the 3rd day after shipping (which admittedly, is the method I paid for).

So if I had selected 2 day shipping I would have been paying extra for them to not store my package for a day.

I guess I can understand … kinda … sorta.

Over two years ago I wrote a blog entry on this subject and observed that throughout history the United States has been slow to grant basic rights to its citizenry. Since that blog entry on the subject, still more countries throughout the world have recognized the rights of their citizens to marry whomever they wish. Meanwhile, United States citizens are forbidden this basic human right.

To date, the following countries have recognized the rights of their citizens and now permit various forms of unions between two people of the same sex. The rules vary from country to country and range from total equality with heterosexual couples to various forms of civil unions:
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Some of you readers may be aware that I have several websites on the Internet. Currently all of them are hosted with a single company located in Tampa, Florida. I have been reasonably happy with their service but I always have my eyes open for something better.

And a recent piece of spam email promised just that!
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Some of you may recognize the title of this post from the Paul Harvey radio program. Today’s story is about immigrants and drunk driving – the horrible results.

In August of 2007 there were 2 deaths caused by drunk driving within 10 miles of where I live. Two separate accidents – 2 people killed needlessly. Both involving aliens (of unknown legal status).

The events:

* A police DWI checkpoint … a car approaches and then turns around … police give chase … the fleeing driver hits a moped with two people on it – one killed, one seriously injured.

* Two brothers waiting at a city bus stop … a car comes speeding around the curve, looses control and hits both men – one killed one still in intensive care.

Both of the drivers were drunk – neither of them had driver licenses – one had drugs – the other had several outstanding warrants for failure to appear in court.

In a Paul Harvey broadcast, about now you would be presented with the advice to stick around for the rest of the story after a word from our sponsors.

No commercials here!
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That racist organization, the Ku Klux Klan, has been around here in the South since reconstruction. We are used to the KKK’s constant attacks on Blacks, Jews, Catholics and anything not WASPish. Thanks to their latest rallying cry against illegal aliens they have been expanding in both numbers of members and in geographic areas where they operate. And this time they are joined by Neo-Nazis as well!
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It doesn’t seem to matter which cellular service company you use – you will never be entirely happy. Every single one of them has problems of one sort or another. Between poor signals and unfair contracts they do as they wish. If you leave one they know that someone will come take your place. I think that every one hates whichever cellular provider they use.
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For the last few years Raleigh’s city council has forced water conservation onto the backs of Raleigh citizens. I have nothing against conservation but this issue is caused by the short sightedness of our government.

Raleigh is a growing city … a rapidly growing city. Its water needs are growing at a rapid rate as well so it is not exactly a surprise that the current water supply isn’t up to handling the requirements. So one would think that the city council would have new sources under consideration or in development. NOT SO! They just expect Raleigh citizens to use less and less water every year to make up for the city’s growth! And that growth is one they are constantly trying to accelerate by attracting new businesses and approving new housing developments.

I am sick and tired of people saying that those immigrants that entered the US without benefit of papers are lawbreakers and using this to defend their stances! These people say that they aren’t against the immigrants but rather against the criminals who crossed our borders illegally.

Either they aren’t very old or they are too something to remember that black people (formerly called Negroes in polite society) couldn’t use certain restrooms or sit down in certain places in America – by law. Or perhaps they have forgotten that in more recent times you could be arrested for being gay in America. Just because it’s the law doesn’t mean it is just or right!
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Just a quick comment on pesky squirrels – I don’t hate them – they’re cute – but they chase away the birds when they take over the feeder. They are not welcome on the feeders! It’s time to get rid of them!
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Yeah, I’ve been kind of quiet here on my blog lately. That’s because I’ve felt sort of embarrassed that almost all of what I’ve wanted to talk about had been complaints about one thing or another. But HEY … they need to be complained about!

In June, Gabino and I took a trip to Yellowstone National Park. A wonderful place, beautiful landscapes everywhere – animals galore – great things to see around every curve in the road. The park is very popular, people from all over the world come to visit. There are people camping in tents and others in $700,000 camper buses. But everyone has one thing in common, they have come to enjoy nature at its best.

That brings up what I cannot understand – people on noisy motorcycles. Not all motorcycles, there are lots of huge bikes that are not much louder than a new hybrid car. The ones I’m talking about are mostly Harleys – the ones with the straight pipe exhaust systems.

They should be banned from the National Park system (among other places). They have no right to ruin the mood for just about everyone else in the park simply because they want to be cool and have everyone else notice them!

Silence is golden! Silence the Harleys.

Mike Nifong (former DA that brought rape charges against some Duke Lacrosse players) was today disbarred from practicing law in NC. He had already resigned as DA for Durham county.

This was a very good thing. As a DA he is protected from suits from those harmed by his actions but at least he is being punished in the only way the legal system allows. The rest of the punishment will have to come from his conscience … if he has one.