Two tract homes, side by side in San Jose, Silicon Valley, Ca.. One pays $400-500/mo. for electricity from PG&E ,,, and the other "never pays more than $200" . How can this be !?

House 'A' is occupied by an old, slightly senile, senior couple in their 90s, and they had to put in an A/C system for health reasons for the retired public school teacher.  One pension and Social Security. They pay $400-500/month for electricity from PG&E.  No swimming pool.

House 'B' is occupied by a middle aged couple and their two adult kids.  They have a very similar house and A/C "which we use a lot".   They also have a pool out back that "runs at least 4 hours per day. We have never paid more than $200/month for electricity from PG&E."


The couple in House 'A' contacted PG&E, as the installer of their new smart meter (beware,this company has proven time and time again that it can not be trusted,whether by suit, settlement and conviction) said he lived just west of Stockton in the very hot summer Central Valley and had the A/C on "all the time, and have never paid more than $99/month for electricity from PG&E."

  PG&E, the company to blame for the "Erin Brockovich"-movie massive pollution, says their is nothing wrong with their pricing of these 3 homes in California.

And yes, there is the state agency, the CPUC, or California Public Utilities Commission, gutted of any real power by the campaign contribution-"sold out" State Legislature. 

And then there is the recently departed, politically, x-Governor, Arnold S. , who had a very polite staff that answered his phones quickly and very professionally and usually effectively, connecting you to the head of any State department immediately, something unheard of in this State's governing probably until then.  But Arnold only promised "not to raise taxes",,, and i think he will be in social hell indefinitely for not keeping another promise, to his wife!, (a Kennedy !!)


New Governor Jerry Brown is trying. But the few, very few, minority Republicans are still trying to blackmail this State with their attitude of "our way, or no way" political suicide.  Times are very very hard in California now,,,

2011 and the Republican Dream, if you are dumb enuf to believe it, is "The small minority Rich get Richer and the vast majority Poor get Poorer"

They say it differently:"lower taxes(only for the already very Rich)".  I mean, you couldn't really say what the Republicans stand for ,,, and not be laughed out of the room, the House, Senate and USA.   


What the Democrats believe in , who knows.  Yeah, you could invite a Democrat or Republican wealthy, elected representative 'slacker' to your 4 LONG YEAR PARTY.   But do you REALLY want to invite SPOILERS ?!


But if you are an Anarchist, a Libertarian, someone who flunked out of high school, yes, you might vote Republican.  All the rest of you will have a very gulty conscience hopefully.

Guys, if you don't like 'housework', here are some simple hints: unscrew the refrigerator light, put a spray bottle of Simple Green in the shower, always use a female condom vs a male condom, and put your aftershave / cologne on a piece of paper instead of your skin

Do you realize how much heat an incandescent, old-fashioned light bulb puts out,,, in the back of your refrigerator every time you open the door, with the light on in the room you are in??  (Un)screw it.  (Yep, the USA refrig. industry is still selling that old light bulb crap, not an l.e.d.)


Don't like to clean the white soap scum and hard mineral build up in your shower, lazy guy?  No problem, use a spray of Simple Green on all your aluminum sliding door rails, chrome soap  recesses, faucets, and especially showerhead after every shower.  Worst case, you may have to use a kitchen nylon-sided sponge one a season on the tough spots while you are showering.  Much much easier than taking up your valuable Saturdays or day off, or live like a bum-slob !!


Your girlfriend may 'trust' you and be so dumber, but for cheap cheap more reliable insurance, you best get use to the comfort of female condoms vs the feeling of a tourniquet,,, or Not!! when one of those slippery 'male' condoms rolls off !!  You are not ready for a shit-load of 'housework', are you ??  The woman that will breast feed, cook well, dress attractively, do ALL the housework,stay fit and in shape, and work a job 40hrs/wk, vacuum, go grocery shopping daily, oh and change the diapers ,,, all by herself,,, are pretty much gone, Guys.

How can the current party in control, the Democrats, and the past party , the Republicans, allow our once great public education system to be destroyed from inside by bankruptcy due to public school administrators allowed to make more than the President, take 'golden parachutes' and 'golden handshakes' and outrageous pay, benefits and pensions for decades !!??

Why are they making a good education, especially a good college education, unaffordable for most people ?  Back in the late 1960s a 4 year education at a second tier state college cost $400 in tuition,,, and , for me, about $4000 in private book store (vs  student union non-profit control) cost for textbooks.  Yes, back then we 'subsidized' the one private book store ,off campus, at SJSC at too high a cost.  But now the entire Nation's public education system is at risk, and both parties, Democrat and Republican, seem to be equally to blame for allowing it to happen.


Why would President Clinton, a Democrat, so something so Un-Democratic Party and yet so Republican Party, as to end the Great Depression's most valued fiscal lesson of the Glass- Stegal Act !!?  And also loosen the regulation of Wall Street, against the greater national public interest ,,,!??  It makes no sense.


It is not just greed and ambition and a foolish electorate that voted ,again, for a movie star governor like Arnold, who promised us 'no tax increases' yet left the state of California in near bankrupt, so much worse financial state ,,, and lack of leadership state with a state legislature clearly opposed to the best interests of the citizens of California , but more interested in campaign contributions from unethical hostile corporations, foreign and domestic.  Our budget was late 100 days at a cost of something like $56M/day,,, and now Arnold has to face the music of cheating on a Kennedy his entire term-Yikes!!


Who are our domestic enemies, to the public interest, removed of convenient labels that don't stand for anything anymore, like Democrat or Republican ?

The 2011 is the same,again,,,no leader speed, no peleton speed, no temp-humidity-wind, no gradient ,,,ALL VALUABLE INFORMATION,,,well hidden by the race organizers, the bicycle ruling committee, the French, as IF we did not care and did not notice !!

How many more years are we going to watch VS/Versus tv channel, with so little information,,,and the same 2 old guys chattering away,,,like someone naming parts during sex??  We have had professional tennis players collapse because of terrible hidden-from-public weather stats,,, 


Just run a line at the bottom of the screen:temperature in C and F, humidity %, wind speed,,,leader bicycle speed, peleton speed, grade % up or down, distance covered and distance to end.


Oh, and the yielded 'wins',,,as IF we do not notice the leader , fit, slow down and yield to a lesser ,maybe national or local champion,,,This tour is such a huge sham, deception, and not just the drug doping!!


i guess we will have to boycott watching it to get a major change.  Not an Obama 'change'!!

BEWARE: Comcast is advertising a "$99 sale" bundle of your LANDLINE, tv, and internet. The hidden secret is a $5/mo. box rental fee,,,and a 2 YEAR CONTRACT, in tiny fine print, not mentioned on the tv ad, and Comcast says "It's implied.",,, for an EXISTING LAND PHONE LINE !?

This has got to be a deceptive and unfair business practice, especially since Comcast has a cable tv monopoly here in Silicon Valley !!


BEWARE !!

Shower head not recommended: Price Pfister bell-shaped chromed with black knob of about 4" total length

93yr old Mother broke lousy-cheap knob off,,,and the ball joint was never swivel usable.Model A112.18.1M,,, 2.5GPM,,,

Shower head i do not recommend: Body Moods "Drenching Downpour" Rain Splash 4" Solid Brass Showerhead

It only gives a trickle,,,and i can not remove the flow restrictor is there is one.

The 'high temperature' forcast by ABC, NBC, CBS and TV2 was "95F" for San Jose, Ca.. Yet before noon, it WAS 100F !! How could they all be so WRONG?!!

San Jose's only official weather station is at San Jose's Airport, tho no one lives there.  It is common knowledge that is would be hotter in the southern concrete asphalt jungle of downtown, and hotter still in the Westside, Eastside, and especially the popular Southside of Willow Glen and Almaden.

Yet every one of the local news services, tv and probably radio too, got the high temperature quite wrong for the over 1 MILLION PEOPLE who live in the South Bay.   And do you think they all will admit their mistakes tomorrow,,,and show how far off they were??  Not likely.  There bad guesses, conservative, sandbagging, low-balling guestimates will go down in tv history and , our memories more importantly, as actuals!!   This is how low and badly done weather forecasting has become in California, if you can remember the days when they actually drove up to Donner Pass on Highway 80 near the official snow gauge station at Soda Springs and actually showed us the snow pack.  Remember the good old days??

Is this more of the "no global warming" data conspiracy?

it takes 7 DAYS to suspend delivery or change delivery address on USATODAY !!??

7 DAYS,,,??
21st Century,,,June of 2011,,,the digital age,,, 


What's up, USAToday ??

The second "dirty Top Secret" in the American Toilet Industry , besides they STILL sell traps/drains that are NOT GLAZED, is that the "industry standard" is a bowl LESS-THAN CHAIR HEIGHT!!, more like a kid potty !!

Most people , and most of us are adults , a lot of us are senior citizens, would probably be more comfortable sitting on a toilet bowl and toilet seat closer to normal chair height.   You might assume that most toilets are 'chair height', but if you go into Lowe's or Home Depot, you would see lots and lots of cheaper-to-build, less material,  dwarf toilets !!


So if you are looking for a new toilet, or wondering why you toilet is so uncomfortable and clog-happy,,, you may want to look into 1, a glazed trap/exit from the glazed bowl,,,2, a higher toilet of chair height so it is easier to get up and down,,,3, a larger than 2" diameter tank drain of maybe 3" or 4" for more forceful flushes with the same amount of water,,,4, a larger trap/drain from the bowl diameter instead of the old , archaic 2" diameter drain to 2 1/2" or 2 5/8s".   And instead of a round toilet bowl , if you share it with a man or boy, you may want to get an oval bowl.  And they have new toilets that sit closer to the wall , if you have an old tiny 5ft x 5ft master bath from the 50s like we do.  There are also toilets that low flush the pee and larger flush the poop,,,And some store multiple flushes in the tank ,so you don't have to wait so long for the tank to refill, if you have a busy bathroom with a large family as we did with 6.

Item #439-570, the cheap $20 hose at Costco, i do not recommend, as it KINKS A LOT

Took all my 'bargains' back for full refund, from both houses.

There will be little progress against STDs UNLESS THE FEMALE CONDOM IS WIDELY AVAILABLE AND USED BY WOMEN. Why? Because men experience tearing and frequent roll-off with MIEN'S CONDOMS,,,AND BASICALLY HISTORY SAYS YOU CAN NOT TRUST MEN !!

As a man,senior citizen with scads of experience,I wish the "Oprah Show" had done something positive, besides make Oprah W. super rich, selling books.  OK, lots of people were reading those books.  But did, socially on a large scale, anything change?


Equal pay for women in the old USA might have been nice, if she could have inspired her mostly female viewers to political action.  But, no.


Greater sexual understanding, woman's comfort in their own skin with their sexuality, and better sexual health thru education and advocacy would have been nice.  I meet a 62 yr old very attractive woman last year, we got in a phone call and email long distance relationship, but it ended because she could not even talk about masturbation.  OK, so no greater women's knowledge, responsibility, and acceptance /comfort with women's own bodies and sexuality.  Sad, a second huge social women's opportunity missed.


And what about making women better drivers, instead of my personal laughing stock and red flags on the road?  Gee, guess Oprah was too busy make $Millions and $Billions, coming from poverty it is very common for women to do ANYTHING to get rich and not be poor.   And i mean anything, run away from a child and marriage when the first silicon millionaire EE flirts, etc.  Guess Oprah was not interested in saving women's lives behind the wheel of a car.  Gee, so MANY missed opportunities !!


i could go on ,,, and on.  Gays may just shallowly admire her POPularity and SUCcess ,,, that is fine, for them.  Like that Microsoft guy with a huge Billion/Trillion personal fortune from a very mediocre product with horrible customer service if any, i say , on the larger social scale,"so what, all that money has made little or no difference for the betterment of mankind."  What a shame.

Stanley Steemer, yes the constant expensive "alpaca poo" tv commercial, will not soap spray and hot water spray and vacuum normally clean your carpets,,,IF THEY ARE EVEN DAMP, say the Pope spills some Holy Water

It does not say that on the front of the website in plain view.  Just call the 800# and when the yellow van driver-employee of Stanley Steemer arrives, THEN you will get the shock of your day !!


"We do not wet-vacuum already wet or even damp carpets." 


period.  Even tho you told the employee you scheduled the appointment with at the 800# that the carpets were wet/damp from say, your girlfriend keeps spilling her nighttime glass of water by the bedstand,,, or your young boy hit the ceiling with his pee when you were changing his diaper ,,, or you spilled a potted plant you just watered at the faucet all over your clean , now damp, carpet.  Wet spills happen all the time at parties with cocktails and beer and wine.  


"The carpet must be complete dry before we will normally wet-vacuum it.  Company policy."  


So , you have to wait for a wet spilled glass of wine stain to dry, "COMPLETELY", before Stanley Steemer will wet-vacuum carpet clean it??!!


Get Back!

June 2011: Crucial tip in buying a toilet,,, You must stick your hand in the 'trap" to see if it is glazed, like the bowl, or ROUGH and will catch and clog TP !!

I have called both Home Depot and Lowe's and they have not put the critical information on all their toilets displayed above reach in their warehouses!!


Evidently, this is considered a "toilet top secret",,,what with Republican de-regulation and the current pro-business attitude of Congress.  So ,,, BUYER BEWARE !!


My folks own 2 very expensive toilets, a KOHLER and a TOTO,,, and BOTH are not glazed traps !!  The toilet salesperson did not tell them, and they did not do the research to know TO ASK!!


You should be aware of the distance from the wall, the tank exit diameter or 2in or 3in or 4 inches for more force, and the GLAZED or UNGLAZED (one toilet in HomeDepot almost tore a gash in my hand in the dry trap!!) TRAP,,, and whether the trap diameter is 2in or 2.5in or 2 5/8inches for less likely obstruction.


Guys , you probably want an oval bowl ,,, for the 'family jewels', right?

In California, where we all have to buy car insurance now, if your car is too near a collision and damaged by flying debris or immediate debris on the highway/roadway, YOUR EXPENSIVE INSURANCE DOES NOT COVER YOUR DAMAGES !!

Don't you just hate those lazy lousy elected politicians in Sacramento and how they take our votes,,, and sell us down the river to campaign corp. contributors interests!!


I talked to a AAA claims adjuster who told me about a guy driving legally in a new Mercedes and he has a tire fly in his windshield from a collision he could not possibly avoid right in front of him.  He had to pay for all his cars damages as the insurance companies involved, INCLUDING HIS EXPENSIVE CAR INSURANCE COMPANY!!, said he, the legal following victim driver in the Mercedes, get this!!, was "causing his own car to be damaged"!!


Holy Shit, do the insurance companies have it made; The sorry bastards in Sacramento have rewritten the law so that someone minding their own business and legally driving on the state highways ,,, has to pay for damage to his car in the $10,000s because the liable driver that CAUSED THE COLLISION has an insurance company that does not want to pay full damages , including flying debris and immediate debris, of that same accident!!


In my case, it was my own Nationwide Insurance company who did not want to investigate how my car was damaged over $1000 by debris.  "Oh, why don't you call the CHP and get the accident case number and who they determined was at fault?"  I had 4 Nationwide reps tell me this. 


So i called my local State Rep.  He tried but we got a rude and insulting letter from the State of California Insurance Commissioner's office, 'who the hell do you think you are to bother your State Representative and have them bother us,,,!"   Gee, guess i did not know Sacramento had SCREWED ALL CALIFORNIA DRIVERS, AGAIN.

United States citizenship needs a PROBATIONARY PERIOD,,,badly.

If we had one, think of all the Italian Mafia we could have sent back!


At least 10 years for minor crimes like violent assault-rape, so we can send them back to France,,,Then maybe 20-40 years for serious crimes like stealing payroll for years from all /most of the immigrant's employees, so we can send them back to Korea or Iran.  And a first generation lifetime probationary period for serious crimes , like murder and terrorism, so we can send them back to Muslim countries,,, instead of paying massive amounts to 'properly' jail them.


Unlike the Founding Fathers, we are no longer desperate for just any warm bodies, or should not be.  Why are we allowing low IQ India's in as full citizens, who work at gas stations and take forever to count a few paper money bills they are still not familiar with after years?  And they are never on time!


If you have a Mexican drug cartel tattoo, you get deported!, with your whole state-side family, back to miserable Mexico!   We don't have enough jobs for all these illegals, let alone those born here legally.  And we don't have the tax base anymore to pay even for their jail time.


The Republicans want to kill Medicare and end most government, but for a very expensive military.  If they win any seats in 2012 you can expect more potholes, less health care , and a more toxic public environment, with continuing sewage spills/dumping in San Francisco Bay and old coal plants that still, still, do not have modern stack scrubbing equipment,,, We are going to Hell in a hurry, and most don't seem to care that the quality of life that was American is quickly passing.


It is all short-sighted, for profit, me first,,,

PG&E's Citi-bank Debit card to credit / reward customers for less gas use,,,IS A PAIN!! Many places will not accept it as partial payment, so unless the amt you owe at the register is less than "$25", THE CARD IS REFUSED !!

Does the Cal-PUC care? Not likely,,,


We are pawns to the N.Cal. power company.


8 people DIED,,,38 homes BURNED,,,and yet not one Executive has gone to jail.  White collar crime, murder, is so tolerated here in the USA.  What a shame.  In France, you may forcefully assault and rape a woman,,,no problem.  Here, a corporation, the Supreme Court 'says' is the same as a person, can kill 8 PEOPLE, yet NO ONE IS HELD RESPONSIBLE, TRIED, CONVICTED, AND SENT TO JAIL FOR A LONG LONG TIME.

"pureclease3000", colon cleane formula, out of Murray, Utah: BEWARE !!

A late night tv mistake,,,ordered with my AX, a free trial order with full refund ability,,,and was charged $79 for 60 pills on a Visa account i do not have.


BEWARE,,,BEWARE,,,oops

Don't buy the 150ft hose, item 224 632, at Home Depot, as it will massively kink and tear holes in itself ON THE FIRST USE

THIS IS A TERRIBLE HOSE, yellow and grey label with black and white writing.
"made in taiwan"...green 150ft hose.

Last year, 2010, you had to tape both ends of alkaline batteries to RECYCLE THEM , that was the FEDERAL RULE!! Talk about stupid;Now you don't have to, and OSH accepts them so don't toss in your trash as TOXIC LANDFILL.

Seems the Feds were afraid they would catch on fire if not taped with masking tape on both the + and - ends,,,


Yeah, like that is a major problem, not that MOST PEOPLE JUST TOSS THEM ON THE STREET OR IN THE TRASH !!


Please properly recycle,,,we all live on the same planet, right?

May and crowded June are the best times to visit Yosemite. SO WHY ARE YOU STILL NOT THERE?

The waterfalls of the valley start to diminish in late June,,,

(warning:this is real news)The 100TH BAY TO BREAKERS is on Sunday at 7AM,,, and CalTrain does not have the Brains to RUN A LOCAL TRAIN TO GET US ALL TO THE CITY FOR THE PRE-RACE PARTY WELL BEFORE 6AM!!

Caltrain is a huge expensive now-quality system that is in budget trouble, so you might thiink they would be interested in making more money and providing a very valuable public transit service, like a special LOCAL TRAIN TO ALL STATIONS THAT WILL GET TO S.F. WELL BEFORE 6AM ,,,SO WE CAN WALK OVER A MILE TO THE START,,, AND ENJOY THE PRE-RACE PARTY,,,LIKE A BIG BIG BIG TRAIN, ONE, WITH ARRIVAL AT LIKE 5AM IN S.F.





But ,,, no ,,, we have to put up with old original bad-caltrain thinking ,,, remember the ORANGE upholstery, dirty tinted windows , and rude unhappy unsmiling conductors in the late 80s and early 90s?





As i said back then, a high school student could run CALTRAIN better than the mgmt we got now !!  Stupid,,,stupid ,,, stup-id . Period.

Will California and the S.F. Bay Area EMBARRASS all of us again with POOR PREP. FOR MAJOR EVENTS, like 2010 Fleet Week hours long traffic jam in the S.F. Fisherman's Wharf area?

California is poised to FLOP!! again!!: CalTrain does not have a local train to arrive from all Silicon Valley and Peninsula stops before 5am or even 6am with the race start of the 100th BAY TO BREAKERS Spring fun run (the pro runners are just a nuisance and can run off a pier for all most care) a mile and half away at 7am.  Does BART(70mph system failed experiment in not buying a Japanese bullet train system) have enough early large trains from the East Bay?  Doubtful with incompetent mgmt that fired the train cleaners 3 years ago, the last time i rode.





Oh, right, the media avoids the obvious potential disaster ,,, until it is OFFICIAL ,,, and they can "report" it , like they did with all the close-ups of the 1989 fires in the Marina District to Scare-shock news-value people ,instead of a more honest perspective from the Golden Gate Bridge or Pacific Heights.





Another poor prep. Bay Area disaster recently? 





No problem: the 50 anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge in the spring of 1987.  I was there, so no johnny-come-lately-Historian pomposity here. The evening tv news in the night before broadcasts said that the S.F. Mayor, Diane Feinstein, had closed the Golden Gate Bridge to cars, a bridge she and the State do not own by the way, and 2 state freeways , 1 and 101, and only "200 to 300 celebrants were expected",,,!!.  I drove up the peninsula and got there early and watched the crowd on a beautiful spring day grow to estimated 800,000 on the bridge from the foot high rail separating the sidewalk then from the road at the south end of the bridge. We were packed as tight as a can of sardines and there were fights when people could not leave, esp. to even go to a bathroom!!  Not near enough cops to keep the people moving across the bridge in opposite directions like cars, in fact damn few cops, which is common in SF. When people far away called 911 with fears of the bridge collapsing from the big sag in the middle, only then did the CHP and other cops show up in force to quickly "party over" for no reason, until we got home and saw the huge sag with our own eyes!!





Next is the 100th running /walking of the BAY TO BREAKERS on Sunday 15 May 2011.  Expect too many to drive and too many to not find parking in SF.  And expect all the State and Bay Area politicians to say they did not 'expect' such a crowd , most say over 100,000 are coming from far states and wide!!





Then , next ,,, we can embarrass ourselves by not being ready for Larry E.'s-Oracle's AMERICA'S CUP sailing race, expected to bring 'a Billion$ to the Bay'.  We Californians voted for high speed rail, but expect huge car-jams, frustrated visitors,,, "the usual".





Where is that thing we use to call ,,, "Political Leadership"?!! 





Embarrassing, isn't it? 

An open letter to President Obama: May2011, San Francisco does not "NEED" a subway from the ballpark to downtown, so WHY are we wasting valuable tax money ?!

Talk about a total waste of money!: a subway from the ballpark to Union Square and the Financial District.  We have a Mediterranean climate and it is only about a mile or less to walk on relatively safe city streets.  So why waste all this money,,,when our roads need repaving more to fill all the potholes in California, and CalTrain is in trouble, and there is so little money for the recent ballot passed "fast train" from LA to Sac. to SF ??


Please, Mr. President, STOP this public money WASTE immediately !!


San Francisco may Want this 'public works project', but no one can prove it is Needed.  What a waste!!

Glasgow, Scotland has public streets closed to cars and free pedestrian access;San Francisco closes public streets and says "REGISTRATION REQUIRED" PAY $75 in violation of their own ISCOTT city rules, for the 100th Bay to Breakers celebration . SF has crossed the line, for a City dependent on Tourism as its #1 income.

In the days immediately before the race on Sunday,15 May 2011, public radio station KQED has a radio show with the B2B race manager, Sam Singer, representing both the sponsor, Zazzle, and the L.A.-based race mgmt company, AEG, who says the SFPD will turn away anyone without a $75 race bib on the day of the race trying to walk on car-closed public streets race course,,, and that the North (Golden Gate Park) Panhandle Association has volunteers also on the start line street 'pens'!! area and race course to ,along with the Police, ask anyone without a $75 bib to leave the highly fenced, public property, street course!!  This is a direct violation of the spirit of the race for decades and San Francisco's own ISCOTT rule/law allowing public access to all car-closed public streets!!


I paid the full fee for years in the 1970s and 1980s and even volunteered ,for free one year, to work the race start when the old locally owned Examiner and accepting of rich and poor,balanced attitude company ran the race, instead of the arch-conservative creeps who own it now.  Where is the new Mayor , Mr. Lee?  Where is the S.F. Board of Supervisors?!  How could all the 70% of SF who rent or lease , the 'have not' non-owners of houses and apt.buildings, let this happen in a City famous for Tolerance of Gays,,, Chinese,,, Italians,,, all nationalities, cultures, and religions??  Look at all the rude scary discrimination on the official Bay2Breakers website !!


The race has been limited, officially, to "55,000 paid entrants", instead of allowing for decades lots of people to walk the course and welcome them, before the race, to do so. Yes, i heard that the SFPD relented, at the last minute!!, this morning in turning away anyone without a $75 bib,which would have been a direct violation of City law. And  something like 110,000 people celebrated Spring and the City of San Francisco together, in peace and respect and commonality.
  
But many of us were warned away and scared away,threatened!!, by the heavy handed mgmt of the ultra-conservative AEG , who has no place running/owning such a public gathering event(listen to the public radio archives on KQED),,, and the neighborhood associations like the Panhandle Assoc. made up probably of home owners, the 'haves' in this terrible American economy, with homes they knowingly bought on the race course and leave on race day,they say, instead of staying to protect their lawn from someone peeing in their yard along the same official 12k race course!!  How discriminatory, irresponsible, and unfriendly.  


I was ready to walk last ,in the rain and lightning even, peacefully and respectfully, to Celebrate San Francisco and Spring,,, but that drive at 4am, PAY to park at 5am, walk to start at 6am for pre-race party, and watch the fun cooperative friendly crowd with usually only a few bad actors run jog and walk across the City.  I even tried to pay the FULL $75 last week and was told the 'race course was full'. How rude and illegal!!


San Francisco has too long a history of pandering to the rich and super-rich , the 'haves' who could afford to pay $75/gallon of gasoline and not bat an eye. Alamo Square has been closed to tour buses stopping for decades,,, because the local owners of expensive houses/ apt.buildings around a famous tourist attraction by the 7 most famous Victorian houses in the City consider it 'their own PRIVATE front yard'.   And Bay st.-Marina blvd.-Doyle drive on the N. edge of the City in front of the Marina neighborhood mansions has been closed for too long to tour buses when the #1 business of SF is tourism.


The City of San Francisco has stumbled. Let us all hope it regains its tolerance, reasonable acceptance, and warm welcoming Spirit of old.

May 2011: Mitt Romney is 'running' for President in 2012, Really? Scary.

Mr. Mitt Romney was officially in charge of the USA 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, and should have been fired!!  As a hired bus driver, i also blame the IOC and the USOC!!  He and they hired a transportation coordination company-sleazoids- who lied to us in recruiting in the SFBayArea with "$18+/hr pay" and "no more than 10-12hrs / day work schedules".  We drove over 2 days to get there and they then say "oh, your pay is half of what we said cuz you are working from 6am-2am, every day, regardless of the federal 8hrs off-continuous to sleep per day safety rule!!


The east SLC apt was a dump and i could only get 2 sheets and one blanket IN THE WINTER with snow on the ground, tho at 7000' Park City there was a news-ban snow drought of only 2ft.  i drove my minibus all over town looking in Salt Lake City for blankets, electric blankets and big warm comforters,,, but the stores were already and then ,DURING THE OLYMPICS, pulling all that off the shelves and putting up ,,, swimsuits for Summer!! (big group laugh at SLC)


I worked for arrogant Sports Illustrated(never again), instead of friendly and generous Nike, for a week until i could not longer stay safe and awake and quit and flew home to the SFBayArea.  Many other professional commercial-license bus drivers did as well; Feel free to call Hotdogger Bus of SoCal to verify that their ENTIRE COMPANY quit!!  


Mitt, did you serve the standard 8 yrs as an officer in ANY branch of the U.S. Military?  No?


Mr. Mitt Romney, you are no leader to me.  Take your pretty wife and go home.

(warning:this is real news)The 100TH BAY TO BREAKERS is on Sunday at 7AM,,, and CalTrain does not have the Brains to RUN A LOCAL TRAIN TO GET US ALL TO THE CITY FOR THE PRE-RACE PARTY WELL BEFORE 6AM!!

Caltrain is a huge expensive now-quality system that is in budget trouble, so you might thiink they would be interested in making more money and providing a very valuable public transit service, like a special LOCAL TRAIN TO ALL STATIONS THAT WILL GET TO S.F. WELL BEFORE 6AM ,,,SO WE CAN WALK OVER A MILE TO THE START,,, AND ENJOY THE PRE-RACE PARTY,,,LIKE A BIG BIG BIG TRAIN, ONE, WITH ARRIVAL AT LIKE 5AM IN S.F.


But ,,, no ,,, we have to put up with old original bad-caltrain thinking ,,, remember the ORANGE upholstery, dirty tinted windows , and rude unhappy unsmiling conductors in the late 80s and early 90s?


As i said back then, a high school student could run CALTRAIN better than the mgmt we got now !!  Stupid,,,stupid ,,, stup-id . Period.


It costs $9 round-trip for a 2 zone trip from San Mateo County to SF. I am willing to pay double, $20, for a special early train!! But 'no', CalTrain is not interested to one wise timed train vs 4 poorly scheduled late trains.  At this rate the SFBayArea will never be Leadership and Organized ready for a major event like the Olympics.


It is like BART;With all this birthplace of the computer smarts and riches you would think we could make a transit system equal to or better than a Japanese off-the- shelf  bullet train,,, but 'no'. Skill at one thing and its wealth do not favor success at most things.

2012 Presidential Elections could learn alot from the current fiscal and financial deep red hole that CALIFORNIA is in! (but then That would be news!!)

California is broke, busted, dead in the water.
We are BILLIONS of dollars in debt. And as you may have heard , we are still doing REally Stupid Stuff like giving a major company for the working class in Brisbane TAX BREAKS to move to massive gang violence Fresno area,,,and destroy the Brisbane economy!!


It isn't just that we voted in fiscally and financially irresponsible Republican and Democrat Legislators to Sacramento. But if you watch "ENRON" the movie/dvd , we had a REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR-a string of loser-republican governors who did not like the public and did very little public speaking to lead the entire state together- Grey DAVIS who promised us IF WE DEREGULATED the price of home gas and electric would go down. The energy market natural capitalist forces would do this by the rule of economic supply and demand.  It sounded too good to be true,,, and it was.


We went from being the wealthy state with the best public K-12 schools, road and highway surface maintenance, and best bond rating in the USA ,,, to now our roads are full of potholes and we are rated one of the WORST in K_12 public schools, road and highways surfaces, and bond ratings. Last year the budget was again late, 25 of the last 30 years--MAYBE WE SHOULD JUST FLUSH SACRAMENTO AND START OVER FRESH?- and i cost us Californians something like 56 MILLION DOLLARS A DAY ,,, FOR 100 DAYS,,,so 100 x $56,000,000.00 ,,, and the really sad thing is , we do not have the tax base to be that financially frivolous anymore.


Yes, California is STILL making MILLIONAIRES and BILLIONAIRES, but with the Bush era tax cuts for the rich extended again and again after President Obama's election and then after his first 2 years, we are in terrible shape, with little hope, other than the new Governor, Jerry Brown, the only candidate who was not going to give away the rest of the state to the sole benefit of corporations. Thank GOD!! those 2 women lost!!


As i said, it would be news worthy if PBS discussed this hard difficult divisive-rich-vs-the rest of us issue,instead of the mind-numbing safe and boring and timid discussions of "is the mood changing in Pakistan after the assassination" ,,, I am very afraid Obama will continue to be too weak and we will make the same mistakes we have made here in California , but on a much bigger scale in the Nation.


The Democrats are good at doing next to nothing and the Republicans don't like the truth with their strong support of trickle down economics-failed!!- and deregulation-failed!!- and too big to fail- yep,FAILED and they say still threatens us with the real poor house nationhood like corrupt and incompetent Mexico.


But as long as the sun is still shining , we have to go to work to pay the bills.  And our collective future does not look bright at all. Can we really postpone, again, the debt ceiling until ,,, August?!  Congress is sooo irresponsible and we the Public are responsible for That.

Dear Mrs. Katie Couric, Sorry you are leaving CBSNews ,maybe,,, but you were not you, unlike on the Today Show, so no wonder you Bombed

I was a big fan of Jane Pauley, as of you on the Today Show , when you acted as a woman, a full person, smart funny well-educated and well read.  Just as interesting a Personality as any of the guys, maybe more so.  It's still a guys world eh?


So why have you been taking all this bad bad bad advice for so long on CBSNews to be male-suited, serious- face all the time, one dimensional, and too much like male news readers?  I don't give a fig for who gave you the advice--you didn't do this to yourself , did you!!?-- whether it was a guy or gal or some overpaid network guru gnu.


First, you don't have much time left, so be a woman, not a male version of a female news reader,,,or is that female version of a male news reader?.  Walter Cronkite was famous, as a GUY; But do you really want to read everything so stiff and stylized ,during the never ending Vietnam war even, only crying once on tv when Kennedy was assassinated?  "And that is the way it was,,," ,geesh, leave that consistent, robot/machine-like reading to the guys imitating the guys role model!  I watched Walter almost every night as a kid and young man, but that was in tv's infancy; He would not succeed now.  Such consistency 'reassurance' was a disservice,,,There were social, political and economic revolutions going on,,,and the s.f. Summer of Love in '67 was not shown on the evening news nightly.


We love our news readers for their humanity, not wooden-ness.  Look at the Today Show Birthday Boy; Everyone, ok almost everyone loves Willard.  Not the always mad and mean men, no thanks i say.  And look at how different you appeared on the recent Today Show with your old bud whats-his-name(mat!) vs how you appear on your regular job; Worlds apart and i want to see the full person Katie ,,, not the wood version.


Father's can be wooden and consistent. Mother's have to be emotionally available and responsive.  Can you imagine giving your daughters the same response for an "A" on a test as for consistent good manners or a careless hurtful remark in public?  Those in Journalism who don't like expression or especially opinion in news must think we all are morons/worse,,, and certainly never watched KQED9's Newsroom!!  


Maybe in the future there will be a) the naked news reading girls of Canada , and b) the wooden males with fancy suits and ties,,, yawn,,,and c) sock puppets and cartoon 2 dimensional cutouts and ,,, real, confident, emotionally available ,smart , well educated,vivacious, life experienced, somewhat wise, smarty pants ,,, talking springer spaniels!


Best wishes, whatever you do. You could be the Phil Donahue second coming(kidding)   

"T-Mobile, Hey!!, What gives !! Trying to sell us to the INFERIOR at&t ?!" ,,, DON'T WE GET A VOTE?

I urge all T-Mobile customers opposed to the sale to AT&T to send a copy of their bills to the President, T-Mobile, AT&T, and your Senators with " NO SALE !! " in red marker across the bill.  Also the FCC.


Not that we customers matter,,, to any of these.

Why the news blackout from the SF tv news on the biggest winter storm in years with zero coverage from Donner Pass, Lake Tahoe has an airport, or Yosemite where guest have been kicked out of the Valley WITH hotel reservations?

How cheap, lazy, incomplete and  incompetent, shallow info-tainment is San Francisco ABC7, CBS5, NBC3, CH2 , etc. television news?  Very, it seems these days. We get the in-studio window dressing,,, not the outside-the-office-box news on the street and in the state.
What fluff!


People have been kicked out of Yosemite National Park, with prepaid and proper hotel reservations, in the last week !!  But there is little or no coverage of this major event in California. It is Sunday 27 March 2011.  No SFBayArea tv new station should get ANY award this year! 


We are being cheated by tv news companies not covering the daily news!!; Do we care?


Sure, mass hysteria reins during the recent Friday (6ft) California tsunami!! It was so unbalanced that it caused much more panic than was reasonably warranted.  And the October 1989 tv new coverage was so scandalous, with all those hysterical close-ups of burning buildings ,but little distanced, all Marina District, encompassing photography.

Go to the Feds NWS/NOAA and ask about current weather and forecast for ,,, say, YOSEMITE. Where is the "snow on the ground" and live web cam current weather details?? This GOVT site is JUNK !!

They are doing a terrible job, "F", in giving you current details and forecast expectations !!  What a sloppy messy disorganized and unusable site,,, such a waste of government resources !! 


Where is the live webcam?  This is 2011, folks !!  Any live webcam for SF ??


Go elsewhere, like weather.com,,,
Anywhere else is better organized and better presented and more useful, complete weather information.


What a sad commentary on the U.S. government.

Do you Really want to buy a Super Expensive fabric and metal coil mattress that you can not clean ,,, or a foam futon top mattress you can clean in your tub?

  It has amazed me since i became an adult and moved out of the family house and the college dorm brick cell-like shared tiny room and had to consider buying my own bed, how very very Very Expensive your average cloth and steel spring mattresses are !!  $300 ,,, $400 ,,, $500 !! ,,, and it is just fabric, stuffing, and wood and or metal framing and springs !!  OUTRAGEOUS !!

So luckily when i was young in the 70s and the hippies were around, FUTONS stores were abundant in SF and Berkeley and the SFBayArea.  So i went in to one, on Haight Street, and talked to the sales guy.  He said it would last me many many years, made of high quality foam, and i could un-zip the 3 sections covers and take the 3 foam blanks out , about 5 or 6 inches thick, and wash them in the tub with soap and water.  It was very cheap back then, less than $100 i think.  And i have washed the cover several times and the foam in the tub with soap and water, letting the tub drain, then half filling with water and rinsing, and draining again, without having to lift the wet foam in the tub. I sometimes rinse twice.  So easy and i have a clean sterile mattress again !!

You can NOT do THAT with a regular cloth, padding, and wood-steel frame $$$$$ mattress !!  

And people are now worried about bedbugs in hotel beds.  What about your own bed ?  How old is it and how much dead skin , oil , sweat , and ick do you think/ don't want to think are in that top mattress !??

Compared to most mattresses i have slept on , i will take a cheap 'hippie' foam futon top mattress ANY NIGHT for COMFORT !!

Wake up, America , after a better and healthier nights sleep ,,, on a cheaper, better, washable, more comfortable, much cheaper! , foam futon 3 section mattress !!  (Yes, your standard fitted bottom sheets will still fit.)

So far ,,, i have never bought a standard 'American' fabric and padding and wood-metal top mattress -- i just LAUGH OUT LOUD AT THE PRICES WHEN I WALK BY A DISPLAY IN COSTCO OR WHERE EVER --  and at this rate and super comfortable sleep, i probably Never will buy a typical fabric and padding and metal spring mattress.

No help from Consumer Reports.  I discovered this cheaper , cleaner, healthier option on my own.  

Oh, and i have a friend in SoCal who sells these new foreign-made super-Expensive foam mattresses ,,, for $Thousands!! ,,, and he is LAUGHING all the way to the Bank at the Fools spending $20,000 to $30,000 for one of these Super-Expensive foreign brand, foam beds !!

Really Bad Design and Still Sold Award: Eyeglasses with carbon fiber frames

These very expensive 'designer' frames are light and very thin and very attractive colors.  But you drop then ONCE ,,, and the frame breaks ,,, and can not be (They don't tell you this when you Buy them!!) glued or repaired !!  Expensive ,,, and disposable ?!!

Forgetaboutit !!

Really Bad Design and Still Sold Award: Eyeglasses with nylon string around the bottom of the frame

ok, it is cheap light and fixable. But every time you touch your glasses, say to wipe a 'sleepie' away, a lens falls out ,,, on the carpet or concrete !!  Scratched or chipped plastic lens then. And these are famous expensive frames.

 So ,,, impractical !!

Here is another Costco frozen,microwavable food item you DON'T want to guinea-pig TRY !!

ITEM #24260,,,stuffed red peppers with turkey.  They were tough,,,even after microwaving twice.

If you don't touch a bank account for 18 months in California, YOUR BANK might send you ONE LETTER, then SEND YOUR MONEY TO THE STATE for safe keeping !!

I have banked with Bank of the West for almost 20 years with from $50k to $120k in the bank, right at the end of the block.  Right at the end of the block i live on.

So i find this old savings account ledger and remember a separate savings account i started, years ago. I go to Bank of the West and they tell me, yeah, we sent you a letter and you did not answer, so even tho you had ANOTHER SAVING AND CHECKING ACCOUNT WITH US,,, we sent all the money in your 3rd account to the State of California,,,because "we did not know what happen to you", (with 2 very active accounts???)

Not one phone call.  Just the legal minimum, one letter.  If i was the President of Bank of the West i would be immediately seeing what changes i could make to repair my banks bad public image.   The ATMs are in faded worn poor repair,,, and now this.  

What image problem,,,

P.G.& E. killed 8 people and destroyed 38 houses with the gas main explosion and fire, yet NO ONE HAS GONE TO JAIL YET !!

It is called "negligent homicide" and if it was you or me, we would be before a jury and or IN JAIL BY NOW !!

Did you see the 2011 Academy Awards? " In 3 years, (inside job) not one financial executive has gone to jail."

Huge massive white-collar crime of FRAUD,,,


Not 1.
"change", President Obama?

March 2011, Why can't President Obama have a "zero tolerance policy on rape in the U.S. military", it seems so simple by Executive Order,,,!?

Any one raping goes to jail and loses their military benefits and pension. 


Easy.

A National Disgrace: Call your Senator and as an Honorable Discharged Veteran ask for a copy from the V.A. of your DD214 sheet; " 3 WEEKS MINIMUM, PROBABLY 4, MAYBE 5 WEEKS" !!

A friend of mine, in another state, called his Senator today, and was told, "It will take at least 3 weeks to process your request for that DD214 in the Senator's office, then another week at least for the V.A. and then,,,"


Our soldiers are bleeding and dying in some God-forsaken, slim tourist interest, Hell-hole of a country on the other side of the planet,,, and for what!?
When they get home, and ask a very very simple favor of their government that put them in harm's way, they will feel like second rate citizens, like my friend who wasted 2 years with the Vietnam conflict and 2 tier, one 5" gun forward that could not hit the side of a barn, terrible team-building, little sleep-sloppy Navy.  Let's not forget the embarrassing enlisted uniform, yikes !! 


Go ahead.  I double dare you.  Call your Senator and ask for a DD214 for an Honorable Discharged Veteran.  This is a National Disgrace !!

Plumbing Industry, Watch Out !! I am wise to your planned obsolete design , shoddy materials, and lack of full disclosure TRICKS !!

Just discovered that some toilets have glazed trapways ,,, and some don't.  Called a major retail seller and he said "Yeah, it makes a big difference in how often you have to plunge / snake a toilet !!"  So why is it most toilets , in most showrooms of modern bath fixtures, do not identify this valuable feature ??  Also the trapway diameter, which seems to vary a little/ less than a inch ?  And the seat height in inches should be plainly visible for comparison shopping.


A very honest (i know, rare, huh?) plumber told me some pre-WWII galvanized pipe is still as corrosion free as it was new.  That's 70 years.  Yet some modern manufacturers make 'paint thin' galvanized that does not even last 10 years !!   How does the Plumbing Industry get away with this substandard material sold as 'quality' ??


Look at the juncture of the rain gutter and the downspout.  Behind that is a much smaller cylindrical pipe that blocks to flow of small leaves and flowers , leading to plugged and over flowing rain gutters and possibly damaged walls and roofs !!


What an Industry !!

Feb. 2011, San Francisco City Parking Primer for Beginners,,,Do you want super-Expensive or walk-a little Cheap ??

 In the 'downtown' area, of the N.E. Quarter of the City, i always try to park a block North of Union Square at the Sutter Street X Stockton Street Garage(called 'sutter stockton').  It seems to have the lowest daytime and overnight prices downtown.  And instead of wasting time looking in the lower floors, i take the FAST double helix up to the top or upper floors and have NEVER NOT  FOUND A SPACE... Be sure to not leave valuables in sight or in your car if you can help it, even tho this is a 'safe' part of SF.  Overnight was recently as low as $9/night.  Many garages downtown charge $20-30/day...


Parking tickets on the street are very expensive, like OVER $50, so i usually try for a cheap garage or big big lot with less chance of a hit and run or door dings.  NEVER ARGUE WITH A SF COP(yikes!!) OR METER MAID.  If you get your car towed from the street, you will be in a world of Hurt, as for instance the last city contractor was found guilty of towing legally parked cars and extorting $100s from unsuspecting tourists !!


Also , Beware, as some / most of the hotels have discovered a new profit stream of charging separately for parking, from $20/night to upwards of over $40/night with valet parking!!  


If you come into the SF/ City from the South / Peninsula, ALWAYS USE HWY 280.  Highway 101 is much more crowded and has more accidents and lots of terrible amateur drivers.  Near the BALL PARK, you can park in big lots if you turn South on the 3rd or 4th Street Bridges, for about $6/day.  There is good streetcar transportation or taxis just North by the BALL PARK or CALTRAINS STATION.


Another good area to find cheap day or night or long term parking is on the WATERFRONT called "the EMBARCADERO".  There are many piers, starting with Pier 30 just South of the Bay Bridge, that let you park for $10-15/day.  Going North, up the EMBARCADERO, with the water/Bay on your right side, you will see lots of parking lots beside the ODD NUMBERED PIERS, like Pier 17-21 area.


FISHERMAN'S WHARF has a validated garage by Walgreen's ,,, also near to SCOMA'S RESTAURANT on pier 47 / Castagnola's restaurant and the very famous skipper "Wacky Jacky's" boat.


On the North edge of the City, THE PRESIDIO use to have scads of free parking at Crissy Field (now mostly lawn and pond , unfortunately) or by the Parade Ground.  But, Beware, the private for profit company that is running this federal land-former Army base is looking for ways to make fast bucks ,,, so don't expect free parking to last much longer in the PRESIDIO.


Stay away as much as you can from the S.E. Quarter of the City(on a map that would be all of the lower left 1/4 of the City), called "THIRD STREET",  as it is very poor and very high crime.


As for the other 2 Quarters of the City, you many find some parking in the highly residential S.W. Quarter, but, Beware, as many home owners there 'thinkk' they own the curb in front of their houses on the public street.  Same goes for the N.W. Quarter.  Be informed that NYC and SF are the 2 most expensive cities in the "lower 48 states" and over 70% of SF residents rent or lease at Outrageous prices, so tempers around  street parking are always short.


There is a RV LOT down in the S.E. Quarter (xxx) next to CANDLESTICK , or 'the stick', where the "49ers" football team sometimes plays.  Be forewarned , that is a very very dangerous quarter of the City ,,, and very very polluted. 


Be safe and Enjoy the Amazing City by the Bay (highly polluted) !!

I am a social liberal-fiscal very responsible / conservative Californian Voter,,, and I am WITH THE WISCONSIN GOVERNOR on cutting the fat pay and pensions previously traded by their unions for votes !!

Here in California, we invented 'social liberal'.  Now we have , for decades, been demanding 'fiscal responsiblity' by using our Constitution and its recall, referendum,  and  initiative to basically run the Sacramento State government when, alas, both the political parties have not been listening to the voters after being elected !!


We fired Gray Davis for publicly lying to us about any benefit to deregulating home gas and electric power (see dvd "Enron"). Maybe we put too much faith ,again, in a movie star with Arnold,,,but we voters are desperate with the slim choices given us by the 'usual' Democrats and Republicans.  No elected official in California is taking their job seriously enough and working hard enough on all our massive state and national problems. Our state election campaigns are full of smears and lies and half-truths, and massive amounts of money avalanching election results,,, even full ballot boxes floating in the Bay. 


Go into any state government employee office of the DMV and see what TERRIBLE PERFORMANCE WE GET FROM 'CIVIL SERVANTS' and their bloated votes-for-benes pay and pensions !!  This has been going on for DECADES !!  And enough is ENOUGH !!


Go into a CalTrans office, more state 'civil service' employees, and try to find out how they could cost California $BILLIONS with their bungling of the Oakland Bay Bridge repair,,,and replacement.   The estimate is over $10B but started at near $1B.  And this is perfectly 'ok' with most politicians !!?
Not California's voters, who would eliminate both departments in favor of outside contractors, if given the chance. We are still paying ,every day, for service from CalTrans, $Billions for years, and notice how too many potholes we have and too much litter along the highways and freeways we have,,, I have seen several orange CalTran vehicles in a row driving with their flashing lights on the shoulder of the highway but not vacuuming up the debris and trash they are just pushing to the side !!  There it sits ,,, and gets scattered all over again,,, causing unnecessary flat tires and wheel alignment damage to not-at-fault cars !!


We, in San Jose, pay among the highest cost for our police, yet if you are threatened by a thief with a gun or knife the police will not come out !!  And why are we paying the SJPD for all this 'protection',we are NOT getting !!?


Every election in the past, the candidates have made the public or secret deals with the public employee unions, and gotten themselves much better deals each time ,,,with no better than poor performance.  This can not fiscally continue.  We can not keep paying people, ESPECIALLY STATE AND FEDERAL WORKERS WHO UNDER-PERFORM/POORLY PERFORM compared to private workers who have to keep improving their performance or lose their jobs !!


I am with you, Governor Walker of Wisconsin.  Enough irresponsible pay and especially pension abuse (disability comp. ,,, and getting 80% of your pay for less than 40 or 30 or 20 years of 'service') !!  Politicians should not get votes by promising bloated pay and benes to public employees, that we the voters can not afford, especially without PROGRESSIVE TAXATION !! 

If termites won't eat California coastal redwood, because of the tannic acid, for maybe 20-40 years,,,why isn't all wood framing in housing treated with tannic acid, also in wine ???

Termites do so much damage, world-wide.

How long does your house's/HOMES galvanized water pipe last ,,,?

I got this information from a respected California plumber.


Some pre-WWII houses have such high quality galvanized water pipes that they show no corrosion or build-up, because the metal and the galvanizing was of the highest quality.


Some new homes have such inferior galvanized pipe with poor quality metal and very thin ,shoddy galvanizing that they do not last even 10 YEARS !!


Can you imagine, spending all those super-inflated $100,000s to buy a house/HOME ,,, and not discover until maybe 10 years later ,,, that the galvanized water pipes were so inferior in manufacture,,,you have to spend $$$$$ to replace all of them !!?

San Jose Police Department,,, are NEAR WORTHLESS,,, since they will not come out to COMMON FREQUENT STORE THEFT !!

I was in the Branham Lane OSH the other day and a guy walked out the door with a smoke detector and set off the alarm. I am sure you have been in a store in SAN JOSE  and heard the same thing, right?,,,My cashier asked to other woman cashier if he had paid for it, and she said 'no'.  


So being curious, i asked why they/she did not try to stop him or at least say "Hey, Sir, you have to PAY FOR THAT first !!"  The woman cashier said the store policy is to NOT CONFRONT THIEVES !!  I said that must mean you have huge 'shrinkage' or theft problems and she said yes, the SJPD will not come out unless the value of the item is OVER $2000 !!


Why oh why are we paying the SJPD officers some of the highest pay and pension packages, sick leave and 'disability' benefits IN THE NATION ,,, and getting such lazy terrible service from the SJPD !!?? 


This same woman cashier said she did run after one guy AND HE PULLED A KNIFE ON HER,,, and the SJPD still,,,,STILL,,, did not come out !!!   


This CAN NOT BE ALLOWED IN SAN JOSE !!   She told me that another girl did the same and was faced with a PISTOL,,,IN SAN JOSE,,,AND THE POLICE STILL WOULD NOT COME OUT !!   Someone threatens you with a gun or a knife, illegally stealing, the local COPS SHOULD SHOW UP LIKE FLIES ON CRAP !!

Windows shows ,,,"7:56PM" in the lower right of my screen. As an OPTION,,,Why can't i get it to show: Friday,18 February 2011, 7:58:06 PM ,,, !?

Microsoft's Windows is still so ,,, mediocre.

Feb. 2011,,,What CHANGE,,,difference is there between the REPUBLICANS and DEMOCRATS !!?

Both the Republicans and Democrats are 'in favor' of:


1-continuing the Bush Jr. tax cuts for the benefit mainly of the already SUPER RICH. The lie that 'it helps all of us' has been proven, resoundingly.


2-neither party is 'in favor' of a massive American jobs program to fix our CRUMBLING NATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE.  Save the risky and illegal banks, making a profit off pushing our Nation to the brink of financial ruin. Screw the new home owners with 'a.r.m.s' !


3-neither party is 'in favor' of doing the least to save Social Security by taking the tax cap off high salaries.  Shameful,,,


4-neither party is 'for' doing a major federal tax overhaul, tho most Americans agree it is long ,decades, overdue. There are way too many loopholes and 'rifle shots' exemptions to one special company,at the time, or person.  It is a National disgrace !!


5-Both parties, ("no work,let's just party") are for continuing the middle east wars we Americans can not afford ,in dollars or blood.  We are making more terrorists than we are killing. Does anyone believe giving corrupt dictator in Egypt over a $Billion/yr for 30 years(70$B!!?), in military weapons, did the USA any good?  Or Israel? How much more money are we counter-productive wasting in 'foreign aid' all over the world?


6-Both parties are not interested in securing the Mexican border and doing much more to prevent the drug gangs from controlling the streets in towns like Fresno, Ca.


7-both parties are dragging their feet and ignoring the needed massive clean-up effort needed in San Francisco Bay, not just the NYC Hudson River and the Chesapeake Bay.


8-both parties are going to allow one mine, the Pebble, to ruin most of the Alaskan salmon fishing industry North of the Aleutians.


9-both parties are going to allow the continuation of Bush Jr.'s serious national education program failure called "no child left behind".  Ask most teachers and they hate it.  Yet both parties are allowing public K-12 school administrators, and public college administrators, to STEAL with bloated salaries and 'golden parachutes' and 'golden handshakes', with no guilt in this blatant stealing from the public.


10-both parties are satisfied with a new National health plan, but no public option. While our Senators and Representatives enjoy better health care than our soldiers and veterans !!


11- both are satisfied with not getting more solar panels on house roofs and many more windmills all over the flat windy boring middle of the country.


12-both parties are satisfied with letting the small cell phone companies determine which cell phones are available, unlike Australia and other educated, civilized, advanced countries.
How we pay and pay to pander special treatment on certain companies!!


13-both parties are o.k. with the current high level of payroll theft by companies, illegally, in the USA.  There is even a book about it, yet the Dept. of Labor is sooo careless !!


14-both parties don't care about the loss of the free time tick on land line phones.  The correct time ,obviously, in not important here in the USA.


15-both parties are comfortable with weakening instead of strengthening the CLEAN AIR WATER LAND REGULATIONS.


16-Even after the biggest enviro disaster, since 3Mile Island and Love Canal and Silicon Valley ground water massive toxic broad area pollution, of THE GULF OIL SPILL,,,We still have the Nixon oil industry limited liability of a measly $75M.  Still?  Congress is being irresponsible, as USUAL !!


17-And the oil industry is STILL getting something like a $15B /year tax break.  Why, oh why !! (congress is owned,lock stock and barrel , by campaign contributors)(the usa desperately needs public funding of all state and national and judicial elections.)


18-All this current 'talk' about 'fixing the budget',,, but neither party will cut the fat-cats FARMER'S SUBSIDIES amounting to yearly Billions,,,


19-neither party is interested ,really, in clean honest food supply chain.  Why is it so hard to find the "use by date" on most processed products? (campaign contributions from corporations trump the nation's interests)


20-neither party is moving fast enough on digitizing medical records and improving airplane traffic safety with a GPS-based system proposed for years,,,(there is 'snail-mail' and,,,'glacial'ly slow congress,,,)


21-There is a majority against continuing the middle eastern wars, yet both parties seem to want to drag this bloodbath and $B wasteful war on indefinitely.  We, the U.S. military, can not even stop the Somali pirates !!  Rotate the admirals monthly until we find one who works !!  Maybe this failure shows how badly we need to get out completely.


22-We are a global disgrace with our 'same old cold war' policy toward Cuba and keeping a unwelcome military base/jail there.  Both parties don't seem to mind,,,


23-It is one thing to allow in a democratic republic the rich to get too rich,,, and pass laws against progressive taxation from both parties. But it is quite another thing to allow 'white collar crime' on Wall Street and across America !!  There is a man who had been found 'guilty' of financial fraud, but is free and out on ,like, $10,000 bail, after STEALING MILLIONS !!  This is what is sooo wrong about the USA currently; the lucky and successful and fortunate and hard working multi-millionaires do not have to pay their fare share of taxes. (See terrible thick sick federal tax code, above)


24-The newspapers have had lots of stories lately how rape in the U.S. Military is in the many thousands per year, usually senior male officers raping junior female enlisteds.  Even at the U.S. Military schools,,, You might have thought / hope that at least That would "change" with the new Democrat President.  I am so ashamed ,,, as an American , and Honorable Discharge veteran.


No wonder they are so comfortable together !!   Where oh where is the proud oratory and DEBATE of a Lincoln ?  Lost in dirty back room deals ,,,

15 Feb. 2011, Glad to hear that female condoms will be more available in the future

After a very active single sex life, i am amazed that women let men make most of the contraceptive choices in bed and do not want to share the responsibility. Why do men have to always have the male condom? How few American women have the confidence to go into a drug store and buy a bunch of condoms? We are not talking 'sex and the city', but real life.


It is well known, at least by men, that male condoms tend to roll off ,,,or tear.  And if that is the primary contraception, the couple could be in BIG TROUBLE.


Why do women dislike the female condom or seem to not prefer it, when it is MORE COMFORTABLE for the male, and MUCH LESS LIKELY TO ROLL OFF or TEAR than the male condom?  Men and women should DEMAND sex education classes in high school or junior high school.  


So why do most American women still not share the responsibility of taking the pill, but instead most American women hide the pill disc in their underwear drawer-also "off limits" to lovers-and try to remember themselves to take the pill daily vs sharing this responsibility with their sexual partner?


I miss the 'sponge' too and wish we consumers had MORE CHOICES to prevent unwanted pregnancies and stds.  What are other well and highly educated, advanced cultures, civilized countries like western Europe doing ??

Another Costco product I do NOT RECOMMEND !! : item # 368875, Men's Hathaway 95%cotton boxers

For years i suckered for the 100% cotton, but they always stretched out too much in the first few hours,,,


So i thought i would try the 95%. But they do not have enough 'memory' weave or polyester to keep their shape as boxers, not 'elephant shorts'!


item #368875
RN # 106632

As a social liberal,progressive, fiscal resp. voter, once Democrat,,,I want to give a big THANK YOU !! to the outgoing Republican Governor of California, Mr. Arnold S., FOR HAVING A LARGE STAFF ANSWER HIS PHONE CALLS SO EFFICIENTLY AND POLITELY THESE 8 LONG DESPERATE DECLINING YEARS

THANK YOU, MR. GOVERNOR , ARNOLD,,,i certainly did not expect it from a Republican, but i was so happy you set such a high standard in this one area of the Governorship.


One time i called to ask "Why is there no sign tell you this is the 'last exit' before the SF Bay Bridge ,approaching from the East?" ,,, and i was immediately connected to the director of CalTrans !! He said he would look into it.  These signs are still not there, but it was the efficiency of the call-in system to THE GOVERNOR'S OFFICE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA that was so incredibly different in California.


You promised not to raise taxes, and that further ruined this State. But, Arnold, i thank you deeply and sincerely for how YOUR LARGE STAFF DID SUCH A WONDERFUL JOB ANSWERING THE PHONE FOR YOU FROM SOME VERY STRESSED OUT cALIFORNIANS !!

Feb.2011,,,The USPS has decided not to sell any more the cheap but functional 2-piece PLASTIC roll of stamps DISPENSER,,,instead a pewter one for $10 !! It's those idiots running the agencies of govt AGAIN !!

Talk about a stupid, dumb unnecessary move by the USPS,,,not selling a basic ,staple commodity like the old plastic stamp roll dispenser anymore !!


Who is this idiot running the USPS ?!!