tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10166090.post4945949527585461627..comments2024-02-17T07:59:18.705-08:00Comments on Grad Student Madness: It's a godawful small affair...*Rufushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17762279210783841414noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10166090.post-46197069100625242762008-08-07T06:06:00.000-07:002008-08-07T06:06:00.000-07:00I think the McCain joke also gets by because he's ...I think the McCain joke also gets by because he's a senior. Nobody takes it seriously, or almost nobody. <BR/><BR/>As for immunizations, Claire used to work in a hospital IT department and the nurses all told her that they never got the flu shot. Sure enough, every time she's gotten the shot she's gotten the flu. I've never had either.<BR/><BR/>We have a friend who runs a Toyota dealership in Alberta. He said that they've switched to selling the cars for the blue book price, without any haggling or screwing around, and their sales have doubled as a result. <BR/><BR/>A recent scam: Geico tried to charge me for full insurance during the six months I was in France, claiming that nobody had entered into their system that my car was being stored in a garage, and that this was my fault. This in spite of the fact that we called them five times before I left to make sure they knew. They have since given us a refund, but it basically took Claire giving them hell over the phone. She's good at that.Rufushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17762279210783841414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10166090.post-24958278375093295532008-08-06T23:46:00.000-07:002008-08-06T23:46:00.000-07:00Oh, I agree, Brian, people don't know what goes on...Oh, I agree, <B>Brian</B>, people don't know what goes on in retail, but also, they do get ripped off. And they're probably angry about things like insurance, which is sold to them and frequently cheats them. Cars are a notorious scam business. Real estate can be a problem. And, frankly, the proliferation of cheaply made goods of all kinds can lead to feeling cheated, because price is NOT the clear indicator of value.<BR/><BR/>Cups <I>aren't</I> free, they're shockingly expensive.Hollyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10593117152792976823noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10166090.post-86839701950592181542008-08-06T12:57:00.000-07:002008-08-06T12:57:00.000-07:00. Sorry if it came off that wayIt didn't. I think ...<I>. Sorry if it came off that way</I><BR/><BR/>It didn't.<BR/><BR/><I> I think it's that McCain made a cheesy joke about his wife being in a biker beauty pageant- oh noes!</I><BR/><BR/>That was funny. I don't think it would have _been_ funny if he'd been anyone but a guy running for president.<BR/><BR/><BR/><I>In my estimation, people who are suspicious of merchants tend to feel that they are being cheated, and I believe that is because they DO get cheated</I><BR/><BR/>Depends. Most merchants don't, but most customers don't understand what's going on behind the counter. <BR/><BR/>They imagine you gotta be rolling in the dough, because your store looks nice, you sell quality goods and you smile a lot and you can keep the lights on.<BR/><BR/>Some customers could not understand why my wife charged as much as she did for certain items. The reasons? It sold at that price and it allowed her a very small margin of profit.<BR/><BR/>My aunt - running a bakery / ice cream/sub shop in a tourist trap - charged a modest amount for a cup of water - .25 cents.<BR/><BR/>This outraged some people - you're charging for water! No, my aunt would explain, we're charging for the cup. Cups aren't free, and her profit margin was slim.<BR/><BR/>She'd happily fill up a customer provided cup, and give them ice.<BR/><BR/><BR/><I>But I do think that the state is good at managing mass immunizations. Usually.</I><BR/><BR/>Come the next pandemic, we'll find out. I'm betting the forces of chaos and entropy will have it all over whatever fight public health manages to put up.Brian Dunbarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12952894032434503816noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10166090.post-27287093471475819022008-08-06T11:15:00.000-07:002008-08-06T11:15:00.000-07:00Brian: That wasn't meant as a personal dig. Sorry ...Brian: That wasn't meant as a personal dig. Sorry if it came off that way. Yours is one of about four or five blogs that I still check up on. I sort of think of it as visiting with the neighbors.<BR/><BR/>But I used to try to check 10-15 new blogs whenever I was online, mostly to get people to visit here. The problem is that usually 60% of them are for a very small audience- "here's pictures from our office barbeque!" etc. And of the political blogs, the left wing ones are all complaining about the same nonsense- today I think it's that McCain made a cheesy joke about his wife being in a biker beauty pageant- oh noes! And then the right wing ones all link to the same daily stories from Drudge and make the same boring comments about them. So, it's sort of stultifying, and it makes me wonder what the big deal is about this "alternative media" anyway.<BR/><BR/>Also, I'm sure I'm not alone in being totally sick of this election at this point. I feel obligated to pick on Obama too because I've picked on McCain. But, to be honest, it's starting to feel like commenting on pro-wrestling. <BR/><BR/>Holly: That's a really good point. I didn't even think of it, but I bet people here are targets for scams. I know that we get people knocking at the door trying to sell us home heating oil pretty much every week, and Claire has actually had products hawked to her by "customers" at the grocery store. So, it probably is good to be wary.<BR/><BR/>One way of looking at politicians and their intangibles is to remember that these sort of politics are barely 200 hundred years old. And the modern bureaucratic state only goes back a few centuries from that. So the state and its politicians are constantly trying to justify their existence. Do we need them? Maybe so, but it's not clear for what. A big part of liberal politics is telling us that we need the state to make our interpersonal relations more just. A big part of right wing politics is telling us that we need the state to protect us and our culture from ne'erdowells. You'll notice that both of these often amount to the state acting against society. <BR/><BR/>But I do think that the state is good at managing mass immunizations. Usually.Rufushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17762279210783841414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10166090.post-47121986042338648152008-08-06T10:39:00.000-07:002008-08-06T10:39:00.000-07:00In my estimation, people who are suspicious of mer...In my estimation, people who are suspicious of merchants tend to feel that they are being cheated, and I believe that is because they DO get cheated. Some cultures are better reconciled to this than others; North Americans are NOT well reconciled to it.<BR/><BR/>That probably plays a huge role in politics, of course, because what else IS a politician but a merchant of intangibles? Society is made of that shit.Hollyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10593117152792976823noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10166090.post-38429754575347552672008-08-06T10:17:00.000-07:002008-08-06T10:17:00.000-07:00One of the reasons that I hate most blogs is that ...<I>One of the reasons that I hate most blogs is that the ones that are calling Obama on his crapola are ignoring McCain's crapola, </I><BR/><BR/>It's not intentional - I just haven't gotten around to it. I am an equal opportunity mocker.<BR/><BR/>Plus I'm trying really hard to be non-political. Or at least not overtly partisan.Brian Dunbarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12952894032434503816noreply@blogger.com