I Would LOVE to Work for This Company

I Would LOVE to Work for This Company

As most of my longtime readers know, I like T-shirts. Specifically, offensive T-shirts, but T-shirts in general. I ordered a new one today. This one. I intend to wear it at least one day at the upcoming Gun Blogger’s Rendezvous.

Here’s the acknowledgement email I just received:

Thank you for your recent order from Despair, Inc.

I’d like to personally welcome you to our growing body of Dissatisfied Customers™, but to do so might evidence some actual concern for service and protocol. This might then lead to customer satisfaction, which would defeat the purpose altogether. That is why you have received this generic, form-generated email, written by some nameless lackey in our marketing department.

Having established that any pretense of consideration for *your* needs would be counter-productive to our raison d’etre at Despair Inc, let us now ponder a subject of greater interest to those among us who are worthy of both of our collective attentions – that person being me.

While you sit there wincing in disbelief at these bons mots of authentic insincerity and vexed by the intrinsic contradictions, I find I am beside myself with awe at the specimen of unparalleled angst that is the Despair, Inc. Blog.

http://blog.despair.com

Hardly a man given to superlatives, I must nevertheless assert with David-Lee-Rothian boldness that we are demonstrably without peer in the Relentless Pursuit of Dejection. Do not the weekly whinings of this anonymous Peon is in the Marketing Department inspire YOU to new lows?

“But I’m unstable enough as it is- why would I want to read the grousings of some other malcontent who is unhappy with his job?”, you might ask.

Because that very malcontent is also providing attentive Despair customers with rare, super-steep discounts, exclusive products, and occasionally an amusing slice of behind-the-scenes life at Despair. (Or so I’m told – I can’t be bothered to read that junk…)

At long last, after this lengthy exploitation of your attention for purely selfish marketing purposes, let us move on to yet another advertisement for our company.

In anticipation of your next question- “How can I subject myself to even further marketing attempts by Despair?” Well, you’re in luck! Because Despair offers several additional opportunities to be on the receiving end on a steady stream of angst wrapped inside advertisements and covered in coupons. Those willing to endure the agony of it all will find themselves rewarded often with savings and freebies beyond belief.

The Wailing List – (The Official E-Mail Newsletter of Despair)
http://www.despair.com/subscribe1.html

The Wailing List Twitter Feed (An Unofficial Experiment by a Marketing Peon in the Limits of Your Endurance- with an occasional coupon code thrown in…)
http://twitter.com/wailinglist

Alas- if you find that even daily contact from the forces of Despair Marketing personnel is simply not enough to satisfy your needs, well… Seriously? You might need a hobby… The only people subjected to more frequent abuse at our hands are our employees- and take it from us, there is such a thing as too much of a bad thing…

If any of the information shown below is inaccurate, please notify us immediately using our Troubled Ticketing system.

http://www.despair.com/trti.html

We will rectify your error immediately, and on some occasions, without snickering.

It is the least we can do, which, as a matter of policy, is the most we can do.

Sincerely not really writing you this email,
E.L.

E.L.Kersten, Ph.D.
Founder & COO,
Despair, Inc.

I hope it really is as fun to work there as it appears.

Words of Advice

Words of Advice

My wife and I pulled into our driveway at 7:00PM this evening from our weekend in San Diego. I’m just now catching up on a few things on the intertubes. While I didn’t have a laptop with me in California, I did have my Ipod Touch which has WiFi, so I was able to check my email, comments, and traffic, plus surf for information (like Mitsuwa Marketplace and the Embarcadero / Seaport Village, plus where to buy dry ice for all the stuff that needed to be preserved on the six-hour drive home.

BUT – you can’t BLOG from an Ipod Touch. WRITING email is also a no-go. But it was plenty handy to have, plus it provided the soundtrack for the trip, too! Very handy device!

Oh, and the Japanese are some very odd people. In the Mitsuwa Marketplace I saw for sale an $850 toilet seat (marked down from the MSRP of $1,200). It’s available on the web for a much more reasonable $686.40. However, for very nearly $700 (or $850 retail), I believe I would be expecting something more than:

  • Gentle Aerated, Warm Water, Dual Action Spray with cycling movement and massage feature
  • Adjustable water temperature and volume
  • Warm air drying with three variable temperature settings
  • Automatic air deodorizer
  • Convenient wireless Remote Control with large LCD panel
  • SoftClose anti-bacterial seat
  • Convenient Control Panel
  • Heated Seat with Temperature Control
  • Docking Station Easy to Install and Clean

I’m fairly certain it would involve kinky sexual practices illegal in most countries.

And I might never leave the bathroom again.

Either that, or I’d run screaming from it.

You just don’t expect to encounter something like that in what is, after all, a grocery store . . . .

Math Test Updated

Math Test Updated

I told an older version of this joke in The George Orwell Daycare Center essay, but Nicki Fellenzer has an updated version:

Subject: A History of teaching maths

1. Teaching maths in 1970

A logger sells a truckload of timber for £100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is his profit?

2. Teaching Maths In 1980

A logger sells a truckload of timber for £100. His cost of production is 80% of the price. What is his profit?

3. Teaching Maths In 1990

A logger sells a truckload of timber for £100. His cost of production is £80. How much was his profit?

4. Teaching Maths In 2000

A logger sells a truckload of timber for £100. His cost of production is £80 and his profit is £20. Your assignment: Underline the number 20.

5. Teaching Maths In 2005

A logger cuts down a beautiful forest because he is selfish and inconsiderate and cares nothing for the habit of animals or the preservation of our woodlands. Your assignment: Discuss how the birds and squirrels might fee l as the logger cut down their homes just for a measly profit of £20.

6. Teaching Maths In 2009

A logger is arrested for trying to cut down a tree in case it may be offensive to Muslims or other religious groups not consulted in the felling license. He is also fined a £100 as his chainsaw is in breach of Health and Safety legislation as it deemed too dangerous and could cut something. He has used the chainsaw for over 20 years without incident however he does not have the correct certificate of competence and is therefore considered to be a recidivist and habitual criminal. His DNA is sampled and his details circulated throughout all government agencies. He protests and is taken to court and fined another £100 because he is such an easy target. When he is released he returns to find Gypsies have cut down half his wood to build a camp on his land. He tries to throw them off but is arrested, prosecuted for harassing an ethnic minority, imprisoned and fined a further £100. While he is in jail the Gypsies cut down the rest of his wood and sell it on the black market for £100 cash. They also have a leaving BBQ of squirrel and pheasant and depart leaving behind several tonnes of rubbish and asbestos sheeting. The forester on release is warned that failure to clear the fly tipped rubbish immediately at his own cost is an offence. He complains and is arrested for environmental pollution, breach of the peace and invoiced £12,000 plus VAT for safe disposal costs by a regulated government contractor.

Your assignment: How many times is the logger going to have to be arrested and fined before he realises that he is never going to make £20 profit by hard work, give up, sign onto the dole and live off the state for the rest of his life?

7. Teaching Maths In 2010

A logger doesn’t sell a lorry load of timber because he can’t get a loan to buy a new lorry because his bank has spent all his and their money on a derivative of securitised debt related to sub-prime mortgages in Alabama and lost the lot with only some government money left to pay a few million pound bonuses to their senior directors and the traders who made the biggest losses. The logger struggles to pay the £1,200 road tax on his old lorry however, as it was built in the 1970s it no longer meets the emissions regulations and he is forced to scrap it. Some Bulgarian loggers buy the lorry from the scrap merchant and put it back on the road. They undercut everyone on price for haulage and send their cash back home, while claiming unemployment for themselves and their relatives. If questioned they speak no English and it is easier to deport them at the government’s expense. Following their holiday back home they return to the UK with different names and fresh girls and start again. The logger protests, is accused of being a bigoted racist and as his name is on the side of his old lorry he is forced to pay £1,500 registration fees as a gang master. The Government borrows more money to pay more to the bankers as bonuses are not cheap. The parliamentarians feel they are missing out and claim the difference on expenses and allowances. You do the maths.

8. Teaching Maths 2017

أ المسجل تبيع حموله شاحنة من

الخشب من اجل 100 دولار. صاحب تكلفة

الانت=D

8ج من

الثمن. ما هو الربح له؟

It would be funnier if it was less true.

Security Theater

Security Theater

Found at AR15.com, by a member who worked at an airport driving and operating a fuel truck:

As a fueler, we pretty much lived in our trucks. We just didn’t have the time to stop and grab a drink, and when you are working in a 100 degree + environment, in the sun, jet exhaust, and in the middle of a 20 acre asphalt frying pan, you either hydrate, or you die. One of the modifications we made to the trucks was the installation of a 5 gallon water cooler. And it was a lifesaver. However, when they caught that liquid explosives plot, the edict came down that no liquids were to be on the ramp. So off came the coolers, and all of our water bottles went into the locked TSA fridge of doom behind a security checkpoint.

Needless to say, our schedule went to hell in a handbasket. (Stopping, driving back, and spending 15 minutes to get a drink of water every 20 minutes is not very efficient. . . )

As a result of the huge number of delays and under pressure from the airlines, the TSA head called all the fuel jockeys in to ‘discuss’ the problem. We told her that we either got our coolers back, or the delays were to continue. Round and round we went, still no solution. And the TSA girl was getting mad at us for our attitude towards the whole situation. . . .

TSA: “You guys seem to be treating this as a big joke. Why is such a serious matter so funny to you guys?”

K13: “Honestly?”

TSA: “Yes. Why is it so funny?”

K13: “Ma’am, you are afraid that we are going to replace the water in our 5 gallon water jugs with some sort of liquid explosive, is that correct?”

TSA: “Yes.”

K13: “And that we might use a liquid explosive to conduct a terrorist attack on an aircraft, or the terminal. “

TSA: “Yes.”

K13: “You are aware that as part of my job, I drive a rolling 8000 gallon capacity bomb. And seeing as I haven’t crashed it into the terminal, an airplane, or a baggage cart screaming ‘Allah Ackbar’ yet, what makes you think I’d use a water cooler as an explosives cache. . . . “

TSA: “. . . . . . “

We got our coolers back the next day.

We’re in the very best of hands, and I feel safer already . . .

Can We Actually TRY This

Can We Actually TRY This?

Joe Huffman takes a look at Dennis Henigan’s latest PSH, his book Lethal Logic: Exploding the Myths that Paralyze American Gun Policy. Henigan’s position:

“Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” Henigan counters with Ozzy Osbourne’s take on that: “If that’s the case, why do we give people guns when they go to war? Why not just send the people?”

Joe replies (and I’m doing this post to archive this):

Suppose you were to drop Dennis Henigan and Sarah Brady in the woods with all the guns and ammo they can carry. And a half mile away you drop in an Army Ranger or Navy Seal completely naked, one hand tied behind their back and a patch over one eye. If you tell them only one side can leave the woods alive I’m betting that by the next morning, despite being outnumbered 2:1 and out armed, the warrior will be walking out of the woods fully clothed, armed, and wearing Sarah and Dennis’s ears as a necklace.

Gun are tools used by people. Without the people the guns don’t kill, with or without guns people can kill. Guns just make violence against people easier. Sometimes that violence is for good and sometimes it is for evil. Most of the time guns are used for good. Reducing the access of guns to good people enables evil.

Absolutely.

Men are Pigs

Men are Pigs

But I have to admit, this made me laugh until I cried:


From an AR15.com thread on the subject of a certain actress. (*WHEW*) Had to wipe off the tears.

Damn. I’m such a neanderthal.