Guilt

Honestly, I’m not interested in hearing the biblical lesson that you want to teach. I understand that you have a need to teach, but please…..Honestly, I don’t need another view of mistreated animals. I already don’t mistreat them, and chances are, you’re not actually reaching the audience that would learn not to leave their dog out in the snow by dint of your meme…..Honestly, I already know your politics and religious affiliation. You probably don’t know mine, but that’s because….. What I want out of this “Social Media” mess is the same sort of relationship we had before social media existed. I’d like to hear about your grandkids and your vacations. You’d never in a million years accuse me, face to face, of being a coward to not scream my politics out loud, would you? Of course not. I never much participated in uncomfortable or unfriendly conversations with anyone (other than criminals) and I don’t want to now. We’re friends in a real sense, and I like that. Hones...

While watching the local morning “news” program today—from Portland, Oregon—there was a story about a guy who was found dead at the Portland Zoo. Very sad. As the story unfolded, the news reporter in the field said that the police did not suspect “foul play”. For the record, I’ve never heard the words “foul play” come from the lips of a law enforcement spokes-being. News-people, however, seem to be in love with it. On a related note, I wonder if all TV news reporters are now women. Or is that just in Portland? In the interest of clarity, I don't live in Portland, and despise the town. But what passes for local programming here in Castle Rock emanates from either Portland or Seattle. It’s a coin toss for content, but I usually go with Portland TV. No, I don't really know why.

Time was, I worked as a police officer for the city of Santa Rosa, California. I’ve been retired for a long time now and no longer live in or anywhere near Santa Rosa (or California, for that matter), but I still pay attention to what the good guys are doing down there. For an extended time I was a swing shift patrolman, and I liked the work, the action, and the equipment. I always thought I was pretty good at it too--It was more than a job to me. I told you that so I could tell you this: I saw a video of a domestic violence/kidnapping in Santa Rosa where the police department deployed, among other fancy gadgets (I’m sure), a drone. A fargin’ drone. With that piece of equipment, they located the bad guy hiding in a tree and took him into custody. That’s what I call a good job by all concerned. A goddamn drone. My God. In 1977 (or maybe 1978) I was working as a patrolman in Santa Rosa on a weekend night—5th street at that time was a one-way affair (and, for...

Metered service is always a bad deal for the end user. It’s always a bad deal for consumers to have a meter and get charged based on use. When I lived in Bakersfield, California, we had the option of a flat rate for water. Which I opted for. It meant that if I needed to flush the crapper, I didn’t have to worry about my water bill while I was straining. Plus, of course, metered service always annoys the end user. AOL learned the hard way that metered service has a limited life span, and customers will flee as soon as a viable alternative is available. AT&T’s long distance service was the same. Cell phone service was recently prohibitively expensive, but is now ubiquitous and cheap.  When customers feel squeezed by a monopoly, it creates hard feelings. And here’s the current incarnation of this repetitive little drama: Television viewers are leaving traditional (cable) service in favor of streaming services. HULU, Sling, Netflix, Amazon Prime--I’m in ...