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IRRITANTS XVI
BY GAREN YEGPARIAN
asbarez
Tuesday, September 4th, 2012
Unbelievable! As I was writing this piece, I received word of Aliyev's,
Azerbaijan's "president', pardon of the Azeri military officer who
had hacked to death his Armenian roommate at a 2004 NATO language
conference in Hungary. And, this pardon came on the heels of the
murderer being sent back to Azerbaijan by Hungary after the latter had
been assured that the minimum 25-year sentence before parole would be
possible would be enforced. So much for justice. So much for honoring
one's word. So much for Azerbaijan's "credibility". It seems I was
wrong a few weeks ago when I titled my piece "Filthy Azerbaijan",
since that is clearly too kind a description of a country that is run
by people so debased as to let such vile criminal off! I'm open to
suggestions for better, more appropriate, and more precise adjectives
for next time! How can you not get angry after reading something like
this so early in the day?
Since last August, I have been going to the court hearings regarding
the AXA life insurance case that has gone somewhat haywire. Not
only does the whole situation make me queasy, but the hearings
are often postponed or cancelled. The mutual recrimination of the
attorneys, who once cooperated with one another to bring suit and
win against the deadbeat insurance company, are enough to make
anyone gag. Then, there are the assertions of potential wrongdoing
by third parties. Couple that with one element I think the court is
disregarding, unjustly, and you have a situation where it's very easy
to jump to conclusions. I feel compelled to bite my tongue constantly
and wait for the proceedings to come to a conclusion. You might want
to come watch the next hearing yourself. It'll be held in LA's federal
court building in Judge Snyder's courtroom on the second floor. This
would show community interest and perhaps create pressure on all
concerned to act more wisely.
Deceptive Republicans may sound like a redundancy these days, but
it must be expressed. It's so bad that even the conservative mass
media has called vice-presidential nominee Paul Ryan out on his
misdirection. But really, the worst of it is this argument presented
by Republicans arguing against President Obama's reelection (remember,
I'm no Obama lover these days). "He had four years to fix the country,
and he failed, his policies were obviously the wrong ones, we know
how to do it better". What they conveniently omit is that four years
ago, their stated objective was (from the mouth on none other than
their Senate Minority Leader McConnell) to make sure Obama was a one
term president. So, any policies proposed by Obama and the Democrats
were fought, watered down, or outright prevented from implementation
SO THAT the economy would not improve so they could accuse Obama of
failure. This level of duplicity is unacceptable, since it clearly
places partisan interests above the country's interests.
Car drivers and bicyclists coexist on the same roads. But, they've got
to do it better. I'm fully aware of the "invisible cyclist" phenomenon,
since I've been guilty of falling into it, too. And that's with me
being a fairly regular bike rider. This is a state of mind wherein
somehow auto drivers just don't "register" that their eyes are seeing
a bicycle with a human on it 20 feet away. So the first thing we must
do is simply train ourselves to be more aware of what's around us
while driving. The next thing is, we must DRIVE NORMALLY. I encounter
cases of what I'll call "excess kindness" by car drivers as I'm on
my bike. It happens when, despite the car having the right of way,
the driver will try to allow the bike to "go first". This is confusing
to me because I don't know if the driver is simply distracted and will
all of a sudden lurch forward or if indeed they're letting me go. So,
I slow down or stop. Then the car may not move, so I think "OK, I'll
go", as soon as I do so, the driver, reacting to my earlier slowing,
starts to move then I stop, then they stop... You get the idea. Just
obey the rules of the road.
"You've won a cruise for two!" Of course the trip was 18 months later,
but they wanted to get $59 from me right away for port fees. That
was the gist of a conversation I had a few months ago after picking
up the phone at home. When I told them their urgent demand for the
relative pittance made me think this was some sort of scam, the caller
was offended. I was told "we'll just give it to someone else". Boy,
that sure tore me up... What nerve!
People in the Los Angeles basin are getting a taste of the
heat/humidity more typical of the Eastern seaboard of the U.S. Farmers
in the U.S. are experiencing withering droughts. Even National
Geographic, hardly a bastion of wild-eyed radicalism, has on its
September issue's cover "What's up with the weather?" Let's not
even discuss the overwhelming preponderance of scientific evidence
and assessments. Yet, there are still people who "question" global
warming and it human-behavior based causes. They then use this to argue
against "burdensome" regulations, in this case higher average fuel
efficiency and mitigating the release of CO2 into the atmosphere. As
a friend once asked regarding a different issue, I have to wonder,
"Have these people gone to school?"
The close of California's legislative session, this year on August 31,
is always rife with shenanigans by lawmakers. We usually discover what
happened after the fact. So this is one causes anticipatory irritation!
From: A. Papazian
BY GAREN YEGPARIAN
asbarez
Tuesday, September 4th, 2012
Unbelievable! As I was writing this piece, I received word of Aliyev's,
Azerbaijan's "president', pardon of the Azeri military officer who
had hacked to death his Armenian roommate at a 2004 NATO language
conference in Hungary. And, this pardon came on the heels of the
murderer being sent back to Azerbaijan by Hungary after the latter had
been assured that the minimum 25-year sentence before parole would be
possible would be enforced. So much for justice. So much for honoring
one's word. So much for Azerbaijan's "credibility". It seems I was
wrong a few weeks ago when I titled my piece "Filthy Azerbaijan",
since that is clearly too kind a description of a country that is run
by people so debased as to let such vile criminal off! I'm open to
suggestions for better, more appropriate, and more precise adjectives
for next time! How can you not get angry after reading something like
this so early in the day?
Since last August, I have been going to the court hearings regarding
the AXA life insurance case that has gone somewhat haywire. Not
only does the whole situation make me queasy, but the hearings
are often postponed or cancelled. The mutual recrimination of the
attorneys, who once cooperated with one another to bring suit and
win against the deadbeat insurance company, are enough to make
anyone gag. Then, there are the assertions of potential wrongdoing
by third parties. Couple that with one element I think the court is
disregarding, unjustly, and you have a situation where it's very easy
to jump to conclusions. I feel compelled to bite my tongue constantly
and wait for the proceedings to come to a conclusion. You might want
to come watch the next hearing yourself. It'll be held in LA's federal
court building in Judge Snyder's courtroom on the second floor. This
would show community interest and perhaps create pressure on all
concerned to act more wisely.
Deceptive Republicans may sound like a redundancy these days, but
it must be expressed. It's so bad that even the conservative mass
media has called vice-presidential nominee Paul Ryan out on his
misdirection. But really, the worst of it is this argument presented
by Republicans arguing against President Obama's reelection (remember,
I'm no Obama lover these days). "He had four years to fix the country,
and he failed, his policies were obviously the wrong ones, we know
how to do it better". What they conveniently omit is that four years
ago, their stated objective was (from the mouth on none other than
their Senate Minority Leader McConnell) to make sure Obama was a one
term president. So, any policies proposed by Obama and the Democrats
were fought, watered down, or outright prevented from implementation
SO THAT the economy would not improve so they could accuse Obama of
failure. This level of duplicity is unacceptable, since it clearly
places partisan interests above the country's interests.
Car drivers and bicyclists coexist on the same roads. But, they've got
to do it better. I'm fully aware of the "invisible cyclist" phenomenon,
since I've been guilty of falling into it, too. And that's with me
being a fairly regular bike rider. This is a state of mind wherein
somehow auto drivers just don't "register" that their eyes are seeing
a bicycle with a human on it 20 feet away. So the first thing we must
do is simply train ourselves to be more aware of what's around us
while driving. The next thing is, we must DRIVE NORMALLY. I encounter
cases of what I'll call "excess kindness" by car drivers as I'm on
my bike. It happens when, despite the car having the right of way,
the driver will try to allow the bike to "go first". This is confusing
to me because I don't know if the driver is simply distracted and will
all of a sudden lurch forward or if indeed they're letting me go. So,
I slow down or stop. Then the car may not move, so I think "OK, I'll
go", as soon as I do so, the driver, reacting to my earlier slowing,
starts to move then I stop, then they stop... You get the idea. Just
obey the rules of the road.
"You've won a cruise for two!" Of course the trip was 18 months later,
but they wanted to get $59 from me right away for port fees. That
was the gist of a conversation I had a few months ago after picking
up the phone at home. When I told them their urgent demand for the
relative pittance made me think this was some sort of scam, the caller
was offended. I was told "we'll just give it to someone else". Boy,
that sure tore me up... What nerve!
People in the Los Angeles basin are getting a taste of the
heat/humidity more typical of the Eastern seaboard of the U.S. Farmers
in the U.S. are experiencing withering droughts. Even National
Geographic, hardly a bastion of wild-eyed radicalism, has on its
September issue's cover "What's up with the weather?" Let's not
even discuss the overwhelming preponderance of scientific evidence
and assessments. Yet, there are still people who "question" global
warming and it human-behavior based causes. They then use this to argue
against "burdensome" regulations, in this case higher average fuel
efficiency and mitigating the release of CO2 into the atmosphere. As
a friend once asked regarding a different issue, I have to wonder,
"Have these people gone to school?"
The close of California's legislative session, this year on August 31,
is always rife with shenanigans by lawmakers. We usually discover what
happened after the fact. So this is one causes anticipatory irritation!
From: A. Papazian