Crabby Blogging Lady

Now I know why small businesses are skittish.

I’m very concerned about our economy. Oh, we’ve known since the late 1990s that it was going to all come crashing down. You can only import SO MUCH from China and manufacture NOTHING toward exports before you go insolvent. And that’s only a tiny part of the problem.

So I’m needing a new laptop and I see a sweet little deal online. One of the best deals I’ve ever seen, actually. But gosh darn it, I can’t find the courage to hit the “Buy now” button. I’m just so nervous about the economy. I know God will provide for us (give us this day our daily bread), but if I blow so much money on a laptop and then things go south, how can I face Him? I’m just not convinced this is the best time to buy such a thing….

I’ve heard economists lamenting the fact that businesses are loathe to spend any money, because they are nervous about the new year’s taxes kicking in and such. Man, I feel that way exactly. It’s so risky to buy anything BIG. Things are that tenuous.

Or, maybe I’m just listening to the talking heads too much. Maybe things are not as bad as they seem. Maybe the housing industry will bounce back, and maybe the currency and economy will bounce back…. although I don’t see how that will happen. This downfall has taken a few decades to do, with lots of entangling policy tied into it. To extricate our country from this disaster will take a ton of work.

I don’t know HOW Mr. Crabby does it. He can watch those debates and the news and walk away with his blood pressure relatively under control. Me, I’m about to explode.

Durn it, over the weekend I had a veritable SLEW of crabby things to talk about, and — by golly — it’s all gone now. Gone. Must be getting close to Christmas with me feeling so warm and fuzzy like, ya know?

Oh here’s something! Iran is set to slaughter a young father. Why, you ask? What heinous crime did this young, law-abiding man do?

Oh he became a Christian.

What is wrong with that?!

Iran, by the way, supposedly has some “religious freedom.” Their constitution forbids anyone to be reprimanded for their religious faith. That’s not stopping the courts from doing whatever they like. Sheesh, maybe Iran and the US have more in common than we thought….

And the media is blaming… the young man! He should renounce his faith in Christ and become a Muslim, that will fix the problem!

Iranian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, who is facing the death penalty, again refused to convert to Islam to save his life….

Please excuse me while I cry. Humans can be so unjust, so wicked to each other.

I am really, really looking forward to the time when righteousness rules, ya know?

…well, er.. maybe they are a little TOO MUCH in touch, when I think about this topic….

So you’ve heard about the New York State Representative Anthony Weiner. What a disgrace of a representative. Doesn’t ANYBODY stop to think about that that word MEANS?? The guy REPRESENTS the people of New York! Have we no honor, no self-respect? We let a guy like this represent us???

It looks like Mr. Weiner is getting a slap on the wrist for what he’s done. All that’s at stake is his job and career. Oh yeah, and his marriage. That’s KINDA important, too (although, just not to Mr. Weiner).

In light of this scandal, politicians are taking action to fix this heinous behavior– by making it less of a crime. Oh, yes!

It’s called “sexting.” The word makes me shudder because it’s so flippant. Apparently, it’s an “epidemic” amongst teenagers. According to MyWay News, 1 in 5 young people have “electronically transmitted explicit photos of themselves, and one third say they have received such photos.” OK, that is DISGUSTING. That’s not “normal” societal behavior. A kid caught doing it has committed a felony crime, because transmitting indecent photos of a child falls under child pornography laws.

So what do the politicians want to do? Reduce the penalties! Golly gee! Child porn isn’t truly child porn if it’s the child doing it, they say!! Yes, seriously, they actually mean that. Unbelievable.

These politicians are IDIOTS. Instead of watering down these laws because teens are doing it, these teens should be clobbered with the hard hand of the law so that they’ll learn their lesson that doing such stuff is disgustingly sick and a reproach in society.

I don’t know where this philosophy comes from, that “kids will be kids” and the judicial system needs to go easy on them. I am of the exact opposite belief– you don’t “go easy” on a kid that rapes and murders a toddler because “kids will be kids” and “kids make mistakes.” That actually happened in my area: a 13-year old raped a 2-year old and murdered her, then put her in her little crib overnight. When mom came home, she found her daughter dead. The punishment for the boy? A couple of months in a juvenile detention unit. I cried my eyeballs out when I heard that. What does that say to that kid, to society in general? That it’s not really all that bad to abuse little girls and kill them. Good Lord….

No, KIDS will NOT be kids. Sending lewd photos of yourself is not “kid” behavior. This kind of crap should not be tolerated, not even once. The consequences are so devastating to other people. I’m a firm believer in hard laws being an excellent deterrent. Even if it’s not a deterrent to the child, it would be for the parent who’d have to pay $5,000 and see their precious little baby go to jail for a while.

When I was in school, waaaaay back in the 70s (don’t laugh), they taught us to mock religion and traditional family values. I remember thinking how horrid and restrictive were traditional values like sexual purity, obeying your parents, caring for your siblings, honoring people in authority like your pastor or grandparents.

I’ve come a loooong way, baby.

What a bunch of dung that was! Do you realize that the casting off of restraint has totally wrecked our society?!

I have just come back from reading headlines at the news (WITH my groovy new digital video cables, too ). But good Lord, the stories are scary. Besides the usual politicians-performing-criminal-acts stories, average society is breaking down completely! Hold on to your hats, people:

Copper Thief Steals Entire Transformer From Power Pole…
What the heck?! They risk death for copper?! In broad view of everyone?! And the economy sucks so bad in this country that people are stealing scrap metal?!

House will move this week to limit funding for effort in Libya…
The United States has NO business being in Libya. Nor Iraq nor Afghanistan, for that matter.

Military developing spy drones ‘size of insects and birds’…
Unconscionable!! They are using our own tax money to create spying machines to spy on us!!! And how dare they send these monsters into other countries– any joker could start an act of war.

2 Women Arrested After Roadside Begging For Fake Funeral Of Baby…
Sad.

NBC Apologizes for Omitting ‘Under God’ From Pledge During U.S. Open Broadcast
The brazen media can do whatever they want, on our dime. Oh they “apologize” “IF” anyone was offended. How about we take NBC off the air, seeing they aren’t truly “national” but “global”?

Russia to Lower U.S. Debt Holdings…
The politicians have just handed our country over to Russia and China.

States look to Internet taxes to close budget gaps…
HOLY COW! I’m ballistic over this. How about we end MILLION DOLLAR pensions for New York State perverts serving in our government!!!

And my teachers and co-students said that traditional values were “restrictive.” Hoh boy, what a lie! So where’s this Shangri-La of licentious living, huh?

No, things are turning out just like the traditionalists said they’d turn out:

1. Remove the traditional family (Judeo-Christian) values from society, and society will go into chaos.
2. An authoritarian form of government will arise to control the chaos.
3. Eventually, a single group (oligarchy) or single person (tyranny) will arise to control the authoritarian government. He will appear compassionate at first, but later grasp at power.

It’s the same old story since the beginning. It has not changed one bit.

So what’s a person to do? What DO we do? Have things gone too far?

Well, no, things are never gone too far. I believe that as long as God is wiling and people are breathing, people can return to Him for help. And Lord, knows, we need it. I’m very concerned about what the future holds.

I would like to know why Microsoft was dragged through the courts for– what– monopoly?? And this “certain phone company” is not?! How is it that we forced to have telephone and DSL service with this company? How is that this company is allowed to railroad its customers and we have no other recourse but to stay with them??? How is this legal? How is this moral? It’s JUST WRONG.

Yes, you guessed it. I’m having *more* problems with a “certain” phone company. It will be too, too painful to regurgitate all the crap I’ve endured since… well since they began as a company…

In June 2009, I paid money to get a new number. Nearly 100% of the calls were telemarketers. THREE HOURS LATER I got a telemarketing call for that new number. THREE HOURS. Apparently, this “certain phone company” gave me a *new* number that was an *old* number– and the previous owners of that old number were in deep financial doo-doo. They have every debt collector and bank after them.

Thanks. THANKS for nothing, you dunderheads.

I endured it for a time. It would cost me another fortune to change to a new number, and Mr. Crabby was hesitant to tell all his co-workers about ANOTHER number change. He hates change.

Well, in December 2010, after blowing my stack AGAIN over a zillion telemarketing calls and calls from debt collectors, I got rid of the number. I got a cell phone, and ditched the landline. I told the “certain phone company” all I wanted was DSL. They said no problem, it’ll go into effect in 72 hours.

Weeeelll….. they never did it. They continued to charge us for full phone service AND DSL service. And what’s crappy is that we never found this out until March 2011! Mr. Crabby does the online bill pay thingy (paperless billing)…. but they announced they were changing their online bill pay to make things “more convenient.” They were going to merge the Residential service with my personal email account “for my convenience.” The LAST THING I wanted was to have my personal email address and account attached to my bill! Huh?! And then during this time, hackers hacked into the “certain phone company”, stealing email addresses and personal information! What the–?!

So our bills were a disaster until March…. when Mr. Crabby noticed that we were paying an unusually high amount for just DSL service. They’d never processed the landline cancellation. So Mr. Crabby got on the phone, and a rep said they’d cancel the landline and refund us the money.

Nope. Once again, they didn’t do it.

I got a letter in the mail last week, from a collection agency. The “certain phone company” was siccing them on us because we supposedly “owed” them money for all that landline service that THEY were supposed to CANCEL that didn’t show up on our bill all this time!!!! I was apopletic with rage.

Calm down, breathe, breathe….

In case you don’t know, collection agency bills go on your credit report. In a bad way. Not to mention that I didn’t owe them a cent, but they owed me.

I spent TWO HOURS on the phone (cell phone, with AT&T thank you very much) talking to SEVEN different people, explaining my story to each of them. Once again, the rep said he’d cancel the order, refund the money, stop the collection agency bill, turn lead in to gold, yadda yadda.

I paused. “Joe. Please. Have pity on me, OK?” I said very quietly. “So far, this company has failed me 3 times. They never canceled my landline when I first asked. They never canceled it when I asked a second time. Now, they are billing me for services I never had nor showed up on my regular bill– services that they were supposed to cancel a long time ago.

“Joe, I’m going to have a heart attack if you don’t do this for me, OK? Please don’t fail me, Joe. Have mercy on me. I can’t take this anymore.”

Joe was great. At least, he SOUNDED great. He said, “I’ll definitely do it, but it’ll take me 5 minutes—”

“I don’t care if it takes an HOUR. I’ll WAIT RIGHT HERE. Tell me when it’s done.”

So I waited about 20 minutes. I was so happy to wait, I don’t care. When Joe came back, he said the deed was done. I asked for written confirmation, and he said I’ll be getting it.

I tell you, it’s enough to drive a tolerant, sweet, harmless lady like me insane.

WHY are we forced to endure this? Why can’t someone PLEASE create another phone company, huh? Are we doomed to be at the mercy of the man-eating, “certain phone company” behemoth???? Other companies are forced to break up, how come not them?

*sigh*

In other news, at least I’m making more money, advertising for companies that sell baby formula and tactical rifle scopes and stuff. I’m gonna need as much as I can get, to pay for the extortion-like prices for DSL! Anyone know a good high-speed Internet company?? Why doesn’t Charter come to New York, why??

UPDATE: Just read a new story! Unbelieveable, this almost mirrors my own problems!! Except I’m not dead.

Not that I was ever a big fan of the Kennedys, I am filled with sadness for poor Maria Shriver Schwartzaneggar. It’s bad enough having to marry a guy with such a weird last name, but now she has to endure the shame and embarrassment of yet another celebrity/politician who can’t control himself. In case you haven’t heard (but I’ll bet you have), Arnold has a 10-year old son with his housekeeper. Disgusting.

And I cannot believe Arnold confessed his sins a mere TWELVE HOURS before Maria had to appear on stage at that Oprah show! Is this some kind of joke?!

And the media is treating the whole thing with such a non-chalant attitude, calling the whole affair a “love child.” Love?! That’s love?!?! Committing adultery?! Destroying your wife’s heart?! Your legitimate children’s hearts? Irresponsibly fathering a child?!

Well, I give a little credit to Arnold. Rather than blaming his sin on “poor judgment” like so many others do, he stated:

“I understand and deserve the feelings of anger and disappointment among my friends and family. There are no excuses and I take full responsibility for the hurt I have caused. I have apologized to Maria, my children and my family. I am truly sorry.”

It’s just the same old story and it’s so, so, SO sad. It’s just a fact that no matter how gorgeous or not a woman is, no matter what kind of marvelous meals she makes or sexy costumes she buys or how supportive she is of her husband, some jerks are just going to be jerks. So sad, especially for the kids involved.

I wait for the city where righteousness dwells….