Category: Rants

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Bank of America Screws Its Small Customers

All your money are belong to us...

You think Bank America really cares about its customers?

In mid-August, B of A notified me that there’d been a breech of data with some retailer I do business with, and because of that, they were issuing me a new debit card.  A couple days later, I got a similar notice for my Visa account with them.

The one thing the notices didn’t contain was the name of the retailer who’d been hacked.

Because the breeches involved both my Visa and debit cards, I was able to narrow it down to only three companies that have both cards: pelicanparts.com, newegg.com and amazon.com.

I contacted B of A to find out the name of the company.  I figured that’s a pretty basic thing to know, so I could protect myself in the future.  Because any company that was stupid enough to let itself be hacked once could easily let it happen again.

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Safeco Insurance Sucks

Safeco Insurance Screws People
What’s the difference between a bookie and an insurance company? The bookie won’t welsh on paying if you try to collect.

We just got done with a long, troubling fight with Safeco Insurance.

Early last April, my oldest kid’s car – a 1986 Porsche 944 Turbo – was sitting in front of his house one night at 2 AM. A drunk lady leaving a nearby bar plowed into it and split without stopping. Luckily, my son heard tires squealing and ran outside in time to get her license number as she sped off.

He gave the information to the police, who told him they thought it was likely a college student going home from a bar just down the street.

When the lady hit, the main point of contact was her car’s right front wheel – it hit on my son’s left rear wheel, smashing his car about a foot into the curb, and then forcing it maybe another foot forward along the curb.

Damaged in the crash were his two passenger side wheels, plus the wheel that took the initial impact, as well as some minor body damage at the point of impact. The crash also stripped the splines on his steering shaft and bent his left rear control arm.

The next day, my son went driving with a friend around the nearby university and in short order, he found the car. We turned that information over to the cops.

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Manke Clean Burn Wood Pellets = Shorter Pellet Stove Firepot Life

Rusty firepot courtesy of Manke Clean Burn pellets
I just replaced the firepot on my pellet stove last week. $300.
I’ve heated my home with wood pellets for the last five years. I have a Quadrafire Santa Fe stove.
In a typical year, we’ll use about two tons of pellets in the heating season. When I got the stove, that’d cost about $300, which is a helluva good deal.
Last year, I spent just over $500 – which is still really inexpensive compared to any other form of heat.
For most of that five-year period, I’ve used Manke Clean Burn Pellets, which are produced here locally in Tacoma. They burn really hot, and produce almost no ash. The ash from two tons easily fit into the ash drawer on my stove.
I was cleaning the stove one morning last week and punched a hole in the side of the firepot – it had rusted through in the area by where the starter element was welded on to the pot (area circled in red on photo).
Also, I noted the white deposits on the air holes (arrows). I wet the tip of my finger and touched the white area, then tasted it – it tastes salty.
When I went to the dealer to get the new firepot, I described the damage to the parts guy – who used to work as a repairman. He asked how old the firepot was – I told him four years (it was replaced under warranty when the stove was one year old).
Then the guy asked, “You use Clean Burn, huh?”

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Mid-week Rants

Scooter Libby is a jailbird

Once Crook Down…Bunches To Go…

Yesterday’s guilty verdict in the trial of Lewis “Scooter” Libby for lying to the FBI and obstruction of justice is an important victory for Americans – after six reckless years of governing with impunity, the Bush administration has finally been held accountable for its criminal actions.

Perhaps the tide of their lies has finally started to turn.
The only unfortunate thing is that Vice President Cheney and Karl Rove were not also indicted.
Although perhaps that too, will also eventually come to pass.

A Cop on Every Corner in Baghdad…

News reports suggest that President Bush’s much vaunted troop “surge’ is having an effect, quelling the violence in Baghdad. Muqtada al-Sadr and many of the other Shi’a and Sunni militants reportedly left in anticipation of the American forces arrival. And now sectarian violence in the city is at an all-time low since the invasion.
Just great!

My only question is, will this have any permanent or lasting effect?
The answer, I think, is obvious: Having all these American soldiers there will certainly have a quelling effect on violence. Their presence would intimidate the hell out of anyone. So, sure: if we place 10 American troops on each and every corner of Sadr City, or wherever, the residents will all be on their very best behavior – as long as the American troops remain.
But as soon as they leave, of course, the militants will quickly filter back and it will return to business as usual.

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