Under a Gibbous Moon

…we could also look at this one. A couple days ago, a young man robbed an elderly man at gunpoint. It turns out the gun was a fake, but no one will care about that. After the robbery, the young man, leaving the elderly man in his home, attempts to leave in the old man’s Suburban. Old man now comes out of house and starts shooting away at Suburban with very real handgun. Young man crashes Suburban and runs away. While running away, old man continues shooting at young man. One bullet goes through window and kills old lady in her kitchen. Young man is now charged with old lady’s murder and old man is charged with nothing.

This is where I don’t agree with how our law is working. It’s obvious that the young man did not set out that day to kill anyone, since he didn’t take any real weapons. The immediate danger to the old man was over, so it really isn’t self-defense either. It was simply defense of property. More likely he was just really pissed off, but defense of property will sound better. So he is trying to shoot the man dead. No one would probably argue with that. Problem is, he shoots through an old lady’s window and kills her. But our country and legal system is fucked up enough to think that it was the young robbers fault.

For reason’s I don’t understand, my DSL modem stopped working. I unplugged it, along with everything else, in order to organize the snarl of cables and when I plugged it back in, it didn’t work anymore.

I called Verizon’s customer service line and was immediately asked for my phone number. The problem with this is I only use a cell phone and so the DSL is what’s known as a dry loop, just for data only. Because of this, I have no idea what the number for the line is because I don’t use it.

Not knowing this number is a significant road block as not inputting a number or just random numbers will get you disconnected from the system (when asked for number press 0). Once past this barrier it asks what service you are calling about, phone, DSL, FIOS, etc.

I selected DSL and was connected to a local representative. I told her I didn’t have the phone number but, by using my name, was able to look up my account. At this point she informed me that she was in the FIOS division and would have to transfer me to DSL.

Uh, OK, whatever. I get an outsourced representative, this one was unable to, for some reason, to access my account in the same manner as the previous representative was able to. This one insisted that I needed the phone number to continue. She transfered me to the billing department to try to find the number. Upon connection, the system asks me for my phone number again and since I don’t have it, I’m disconnected (that’s an excellent default by the way, if the customer has a problem with the system, just hang up on them).

So, I call back, get another outsource and get the same run around, transfer to billing and another disconnect. After yet another iteration of this, I tried to call the billing department directly. Bizarrely , I get connected to tech support again for yet another run around.

I’ve been on the phone for over an hour at this point but I need another modem. I call again, for the billing department and am once again connected to tech support. This time though, I get a local representative. This person has no problem looking up my account by name, gives me said number (I have it written down now),  and gets a modem ordered for me.

So I’ve got to ask the question, what the hell? Why does it take and hour and a half to get something done with Verizon’s customer service? More importantly, why don’t their outsourced representatives seem to have the same access to customer accounts as those in the United States?

I don’t know if this is an attempt to drive customers away or is just a painful lack of attention to detail on their part. Whatever it is, Verizon has some of the worst customer service (believe it or not, their Cell support is worse) on the planet.

Recently on tv, Miller has been running commercials for MGD 64. Its that low calorie beer that they accomplish by cutting their already watery beer with more water. So now they have a 64 calorie water. Screw you Crystal Light! Lousy 5 calorie delight. However the commercial does come with a significant rebuttal commercial opportunity.

The commercial has the setting of a well-lit bar with three guys standing around. Two with MGD 64 and one with Michelob Ultra. The guy with the Michelob is doing squat-thrusts while holding his beer in an attempt to burn off the excess calories it has. His friends shame him in front of the hot bar maid. Lesson(I guess):Drink low calorie beer and you won’t have to exercise and look stupid in front of the hot bar maid.

Here’s where Michelob uses this. They play the exact same commercial except the guy exercising says, “I would rather do squat-thrusts in the bar than drink MGD 64.” Then fade to logo or slogan or something.

The media always has it’s trends on what kind of news stories it likes to report. At least this is what I assume happens since I don’t think that particular crimes just happen in spurts around our country. “I think this week all the criminals will rob banks. Next week, it will be kidnapping.” They figure out what is popular based on readership, or hits for online sources, and find and report on that topic for a while. Recently we seem to have famous people raping or molesting the regular people. I previously discussed LT’s little predicament, so I’ll leave that out.

Ahh...Just what the media ordered!

We have had now Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger and actor Steven Seagal. I don’t want to discuss a lot of detail about the particular cases, but they both lack credibility. How is that? Well outside of some circumstances that don’t seem to fit, they have both refused to file criminal charges and have jumped into civil lawsuits. Nothing says gold-digging whore like accusing someone of a crime, refusing to file criminal charges, but freely jumping into the “gimme money” phase.

Is this proof of guilt or innocence? Absolutely not. But in an era where our court cases are won or lost in the media, this looks bad. Sadly, from reading internet comments (where the stupid comes out to play) some seem to think that a womans accusations of sexual misconduct against a man automatically makes him guilty. Sadly a premise all too frequently shared by our legal system. That and having a prior unfounded accusation makes the accusations true for then and now.

Well you heard him. You are now all left in my capable hands. And as your newly appointed benevolent despot, let me assure you that this power won’t go to my head. Just remember that I have absolute rule. Final say-so in everything. I am god-like in stature and ability. I AM YOUR GOD! KNEEL BEFORE ME! ME! ME! I HOLD THE KEYS TO THE KINGDOM! BE BEHOLDEN TO MY GRACE OR I WILL SMITE THEE!