Perspective Accounts For Bad Choices...

I am amazed at the political differences in perspective, given that I am an employee of a defense company, and a good friend is a small business employer of a handful of workers.  During a poker game, nuances came out about the upcoming election and I chose not to explain or dwell and just took note of how one's perspective makes such a big difference in THIS election.  My voting directions have not changed, but now I realize why some people would TOTALLY vote differently than I would.  I guess, in a few days, we'll see what difference it makes.

Has anyone paid attention to ANOTHER of our freedoms eroding away?  At least two (and there may be more) auto insurance companies (AAA and Progressive) are flaunting a new way to give you a discount.  They want to have you plug in a GPS recorder device onto the diagnostic jack on your car.  With this unit in place, they will be able to read our mileage, and WHAT TIME of the day or night it occurs, and WHERE it occurs.  They will also have accelerometer readings to tell if you drive fast or shot short.  I wonder what else is in these units that they are NOT telling us about, as if these three bits of data are not bad enough.  Many cars already have so called black boxes built into the car, but the insurance companies do not have access to the information until a court requests it.  This unit will give them all the information that they need to characterize your driving such that they can give you a discount, raise your rates, or choose not to renew your policy....

Pesky Telemarketer
The phone rang as I was sitting down to my anticipated evening meal and, as I answered, I was greeted with, "Is this Wilhiam Wagenhoss?"

This didn't sound anything like my name, so I asked, "Who is calling?"

The telemarketer said he was with The Rubberband-Powered Freezer Company or something like that and then I asked him if he knew Wilhiam personally and why was he was calling this number. I then said, off to the side, "Get really good pictures of the body and all the blood."

I then turned back to the phone and advised the caller that he had entered a murder scene and must stay on the line because we had already traced this call and he would be receiving a summons to appear in the local courthouse to testify in this murder case.

I then questioned the caller at great length as to his name, address, phone number at home, at work, who he worked for, how he knew the dead guy and could he prove where he had been about one hour before he made this call. The telemarketer was getting very concerned and his answers were given in a shaky voice.

Then I proceeded to tell him that we had located his position at his work place and the police were entering the building to take him into custody. At that point, I heard the phone fall and the scurrying of his running away.

My wife asked me, as I returned to the table, why I had tears streaming down my face and so help me, I couldn't tell her for about fifteen minutes.

My meal was cold, but oh-so-very enjoyable.