Yes, I said cab rider – because some people missed the classes, and they all seem to end up riding with me at one point in time or another:

Rule Number One: NEVER – no, ALWAYS speak in a clear voice. This includes the initial call to the cab company requesting a cab (see rule number three down the page a bit), and when you get in the cab to tell the driver where you are going.

Rule Number Two: ALWAYS acknowledge the existence of the human being who is driving the cab. That is the minimum requirement. The cabbie should be greeting you in a cheerful voice, genuinely happy to see you in the back of the cab – hey, you are the money! Please be gracious enough to return the greeting, even if you have to fake it. We can take a hint, and will not bother you again until it’s time for you to exit the cab.

Rule Number Three: COMMUNICATION is vital. The more information the cab company and the cab driver have, the better your experience with the cab company and the driver will be. Pouring yourself into the back seat and slurring the directions home is a sure way to get a couple extra laps around the town square while you sleep off some of your buzz. We know the area – we have map books for the parts we aren’t sure about – give us an exact address and we will make sure you get home safe, happy, and as inexpensively as possible. When you call the cab company, don’t be irritated at all the question you are being asked. We’re trying to make sure you have an optimally safe ride, and that you will want us to drive you again, in the future.

Rule Number Four: TIP YOUR DRIVER. The minimum tip is 15% or one dollar, whichever is greater. Do not, under any circumstance, hand us just enough to cover the fare (for example, if the meter is $4.70, and you hand us a five) and tell us to “keep the change!” Odds are, you will be given your exact change and told that you need it more than we do. If you cannot tip a minimum of 15% on top of the meter, pay us the meter and whatever else, and say “I’m sorry, I don’t seem to have enough for a proper tip.” We will pretend you mean well, and we won’t sling too much gravel at you as we leave. (by the way, a dollar a bag on top of the 15% is customary. really. ask the skycap next time you are at the airport, or the bell hop next time you are at the hotel.)

Rule Number Two (A): Now that you know how others tip us, do not be too shocked if you should happen to detect a bit of faking on our part – hey, we just got a 30 cent tip on a $4.70 meter! I gotta run to the bank and get that deposited, to take advantage of an extra day’s interest! (in case you are wondering, the minimum tip on a $4.70 meter is about 70 cents. a buck-thirty would go a long way toward cementing your place in my hall of fame. that minimum is if i honk as i pull up and wait until you are fully in the vehicle before dropping the flag and gassing it. if i get out, help you load your luggage or groceries, hold the door for you, make sure you are seated before closing said door, and wait until we are on the street before dropping the flag, i think a thicker tip would be in line – but that’s just me.) (true story – i had one customer who had a $4.45 meter, gave me four singles and two quarters, and waited for the nickel back. i told her while it might say driver only carries $10.00 in change, it doesn’t mean that it’s in change. she was very upset with me. i decided she could unload her own groceries.)

OK – I feel much better now.

Hey – you know what you get when you give a stripper a ride home?

A bunch of singles…

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, listen to The O Word on BlogTalkRadio, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

214

Before heading out this morning, I thought I would take a quick peek at the ol’ blogroll, and my first stop was over at BlackFive. Down the page a bit was a link to a NewYorkSlimes piece whining about the common sense that prevailed over the king’s ransom being handed out to failures. Story here.

This part of the story is what caught my eye, and is triggering a bit of a common sense rant:

Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., appearing at the White House late Monday afternoon, warned that the failure of the rescue plan could dry up credit for businesses big and small, making them unable to make payrolls or buy inventory.

Maybe I’ve been going about this “business owner” thing all wrong – I thought you bought inventory and paid wages out of the money you made from the service and/or product you provided? You know, collect on the invoice, turn around and pay your employees, buy more inventory, pay the utilities, and the leftover goes in the owner’s pocket or, if he’s smart, into a CONTINGENCY FUND for when someone doesn’t pay the invoice right away…

Obviously, I need to rethink my business model. I need to start “leveraging” my “receivables” and “monetizing” my “books” so I, too, can show false profits and qualify for a government handout.

It is obvious that I am involved in the wrong end of the business world. I need to get into the money supplying end of it, instead of the money using end of it.

Then again, what do I know? I’m just a red necked, bog dwelling hick with no formal ed-uh-muh-cay-shun. The fact that my business runs without a debt probably disqualifies me from belonging to the great herd at the public trough, anyway.

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, listen to The O Word on BlogTalkRadio, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

219

I have a few new members of my blogroll, whom you will be meeting more in-depth tomorrow, but I wanted to point out this member’s thoughts.

From Autorotate’s Flying Circus (who I met through Texas Fred) comes this piece, truly extending a hand across the aisle:

At about 9:35 PM EST last night, it became crystal clear that the heads and powers to be in the Democrat party made a huge mistake in turning its back on Hillary Clinton and her followers. It may be a sign that the apocalypse may be upon us when I find myself rooting for Hillary and her supporters, but more than likely, it is a representation of how far left and how for lunatic-fringe the Obama camp that has hijacked the Democrat party has become.

Hillary gave the speech she had to give last night, but it was a speech that endorsed a Democrat in the White House much more so than Obama, and rightfully so. Earlier in the day, her husband, former President Bill Clinton questioned in a speech whether it “Is better to vote for a candidate who you agree with on every issue, but can’t deliver on his promises (Obama) or to vote for a candidate who you disagree with on some, but will get the job done (McCain).”

I never thought I would hear myself saying this, but when it comes down to it, the better of the two candidates in the Democrat party didn’t win. To make matters worse, she wasn’t even paid her due respect in the VP selection process and the real losers out of all of this are the blue-collar Democrats who make up the majority of her base.

Many of us now in the Republican party were born into blue-collar families and still fit into that category. Many are the sons and daughters of steel workers, coal miners, meat packers, foundry workers, truck drivers, laborers and seamstresses. Good, wholesome, hard-working, God fearing Americans, just like many of those who represent the blue-collar sector today. We weren’t all born with silver spoons in our mouths as the fringe elements of the left would like you to believe. We didn’t have it all handed to us. Most of us, like you, are still working hard, day in and day out to reach for the aspirations and dreams that have made this country what it is today.

This is why, today, I am making and emphatic push, and drive of the utmost importance, to welcome those blue-collar Democrats, those disillusioned and disenfranchised, those misled and misrepresented, to our party.

It is a sad commentary that the party of Kennedy that asked us to think not of what our country could do for us, but we could do of our country, has been hijacked by those who believe it is the government’s sole purpose to create a womb to tomb free-ride for those with no desire to work, courtesy of those same hard working men and women who make up the blue-collar component of the Democratic party’s tax dollars.

It is a sad day that the party of Roosevelt, who rose up and fought steadfastly against Nazi fascism and Japanese religiously fueled extremism to defend this great nation and protect democracy and freedom around the world has been taken over by fringe groups who resorted to encouraging cowardice is in the face of the greatest threat to this civilization since Hitler rolled into Poland.

And lastly, we should all weep that a party that once truly stood for the little guy, the working man and woman, has succumb to elitists with hidden agendas and activists of groups whose agendas are far from the moral and spiritual integrity of the common church going and American proud Democrat. This is truly not the same Democrat part, the party that many of us in the Republican parties fathers and mother’s believed in.

Zell Miller recognized this in 2004, a life-long Democrat statesman. Sen Joe Lieberman recognized this during primary election, where the party who he gave a career of lifelong support and service to, who reached across the aisle to accomplish the goals of the American people, turned their back on him, because he wasn’t far enough left, or didn’t cater to the fringe elements of the party. Despite of that, Liebermen went on to win election as an Independant, and will likely announce his affiliation to the Republican party next week during the RNC.

Yes, to this my friends, I welcome you.

Now many of you have heard that the Republican party only cares about giving tax breaks to the rich. This is partially true, but only because the Republican party believes that all tax payers in America deserve to pay less taxes, poor and rich alike. We cannot continue to punish who those in the extreme left considers to be rich, for we will end up killing the goose that laid the golden egg.

On health care, you’ve heard that Obama can provide you with free health care. But, I ask you this, is it any better have a health care program that is substandard in quality and takes months if not years to receive critical treatment, and costs the working man and woman more money in taxes than if they had bought a plan on their own? Is it fair that the family who is struggling to make ends meet on their own pay tax dollars not only for their own health care but for those who have no interest in working and contributing at all?

And on national defense, can we trust that Obama has the experience to deal with crisis of grand scale, not if, but when they occur? There is no better testament to the success of our men in women in uniform that we have not had another attack on American soil since 2001, and for extremists to sabotage and undermine many of the blue-collar Democrats own sons and daughters, serving in the ranks today, is criminal.

No, America, this is not the same Democrat Party. This truly is a party where the will of a few is carried out in the name of the many.

Let us on reach across the aisle again, just as Sen. John McCain has done so many times during his many years in the Senate, to come together, to work for the common good and safety of the great country. A country not for the fringe, the or the extremists, or the anarchists, or the socialists, or the elitists, but a country of the people, a country for the people and a country by the people.

Welcome to the blogroll, Autorotate, and keep up the great writing!

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, listen to The O Word on BlogTalkRadio, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

A little later than normal, but that’s the way Friday goes sometimes.

Good show this morning, on The O Word – go listen to the archive (forgive the voice, it’s still recovering) and rate the show! Subjects touched on were the Olympic Medal Count, Telegraphing Your Punches, Typo Vigilantes, Building 7 (WTC), Cindy’s House, and a word about a possible Tiebreaker at the Elections.

Big thanks to prying1 (his book listings can be found here), mdconservative, Mrs. CP(AnnieB) and of course my favorite squid Gawfer for joining me in the chat room.

prying1 has a scanned copy of a poetry booklet from the “Lost Battalion” circa WW1 and has a post up about it on his regular blog, Digging a Little Deeper. He has also made it available to any who are interested to download it, and you would be free to print it out if you so desire.

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, Time, Inc. is a bunch of weasels, listen to The O Word on BlogTalkRadio, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

As my more surroundings-aware readers may remember, my wife (TMBWitW) works for a newspaper here in the Valley of the Sun. She is not responsible for any of the content, but she is responsible for telling the corporate leadership about the numbers generated by the newspaper – she is, after all, an accountant. She also doesn’t share information with me, so don’t go asking about numbers, because I simply do not know.

Those same readers who remembered the first part might also remember this: at one point in time, I was delivering the paper, in bundles, to businesses who would then re-sell the papers. You know, like convenience stores, supermarkets, and even paper machines (which, to tell the truth, pay the best, but you run the greater risk of having some psycho follow you from machine to machine and break into it, stealing either the papers, or the coin, or both. either way, it’s broken and you have to get a replacement machine.).

At one point during my time delivering the papers, there was a meeting (a lunch meeting) for the contractors (who all worked between midnight and 0700) in order to have a question and answer session. Of course, the first question some smart aleck asked was why they would schedule a lunch meeting for a bunch of people who were essentially vampires. That question was ignored, and the ignoring of the question pretty much answered what would have been my follow-up question of “Why don’t you listen to what is being said, instead of just giving the company line for anything?”

I digress.

The people putting on the lunch meeting, after getting over the disappointment of only having nine people show up from a group of over sixty (see “vampire”), welcomed us all and asked a question of their own, in order to get input.

The question was “How do you think we can increase sales?” and the answers were many and varied. Tossing aside the use of naked models to have strategically placed section of the paper covering them, (no imagination in these sales types. marketing would have gone for it in a flash. so to speak.) they instead focused on the answers we gave them with some serious thought. For example, it was pointed out that constantly telling people they can get more information on the paper’s (free) website would tend to drive people toward the web and away from the paper.

After looking at it from a distance now, I think the answer is more subtle. You see, the print media is leaning more and more to the left. More often than not, the current crop of journalists and editors are coming from the bastions of liberal learning, and starting to have a profound effect on the content of the nation’s media outlets. This is very evident in the larger broadcast media outlets, but let’s concentrate on print media for a moment.

Think back to what Air America tried to do. Seeing the success of conservative talk radio (filled with ‘proud to be an American’ thoughts words and deeds) Air America wanted to copy the business plan and create a liberal talk radio offering that could be syndicated and shared everywhere, uniting the left-thinking in the same way the right-thinking were uniting. The problem is that the liberal talk radio filled up with what the liberal think about – how terrible the United States is, how awful that we are so successful while other countries are stuck in their Third World status, and criticizing the country with all it’s failings. Let’s face it, people don’t want to hear doom and gloom all day, even if they are liberals. The conservative talk radio was supporting the country, giving constructive advice and lifting one another in praising the good things that the country is doing. In the end, Air America failed because it couldn’t keep it’s listener base (along with the money that listener base uses for purchasing and advertising) from being scared off by it’s attacks on the very country that allowed it to exist.

Translate that to the print media. With the liberals writing, editing, and publishing America-bashing articles (even subtly), people don’t want to hear it. Or, in this case, read it. With papers urging their readers to get more information on the web, their readers actually had the audacity to go out and get independent confirmation of the information presented – but not from the paper’s website. They went straight to the sources, and read the straight facts before the facts went through the prism that is present in every newsroom today. Sales start to slide, and then to fall. The paper starts wondering what went wrong, all the time struggling to stay afloat. Reorganizations are tried, services are centralized, and all the while those pesky customers keep taking the paper’s advice of finding more information on the web and, as a result, stop paying for slanted stories.

The papers, meanwhile, are confounded by the fact that they are still telling themselves they are fair and balanced. Refusing to admit you have a problem will prevent you from ever solving that problem. The editorial boards are slowly being taken over by journalists who have slowly advanced to their new positions after graduating from a college system that thinks Noam Chomsky is a patriotic centrist. The new editors are products of a school system that has eliminated as “biased” anything that smacks of conservative or patriotic values – prayer in school, the Pledge of Allegiance, respect for elders – and replaced them with more “inclusive” values – allowance for any religion but Christianity, the display of any flag not associated with the dominionistic policy of the United States, everyone is equal and worth the same – and their world view reflects it. But, the paper is still “fair and balanced” in it’s coverage.

Until the Mainstream Media wakes up to the fact that their business model of reporting with such a slant is what is killing them so softly and quietly, the values of the media outlets will continue to fall. It may take the complete and utter failure of a media giant like Gannett to wake the rest of the industry to facts.

Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. Let’s hope that they have finally quit hitting the snooze button and are in the process of waking up to reality.

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, Time, Inc. is a bunch of weasels, listen to The O Word on BlogTalkRadio, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!