The Countertop Chronicles

I live in McLean, Virginia. Just across the river from Gun Ban, USA (otherwise known as the District of Columbia). Its in largely liberal Northern Virginia, though tends to be more conservative for areas “inside the beltway.” Lots of government officials, internet tycoons, lawyers, lobbyists, etc. Within Mclean, I live in one of the more liberal precincts.

My state Senator is the evil Janet Howell – the reigning Queen of Virginia Gun Bigots. And my State Delegate is Jim Scott. Before there was a Coleman-Frankin recount. Before there was Florida and hanging chads. There was Jim Scott. He lost a narrow race against a long term incumbant some years ago, forced a recount and using all the tools routinly available to Democrats, including one mysterious ballot box that showed up after the ballots closed, eeked out a 1 win vote. He’s been an unstoppable incumbant since.

Oh yeah, he’s also King of the Virginia Gun Bigots.

Which is the primary reason I hate him, though I have to say my opinion was recently tempered.

You see, he always sends out a voter survey. And I always respond. Well, this is the first year I ever actually saw the results. They were shocking.

The survey is sent to every resident in our district – I have no idea how many there are, but our county has over 2 million people so I suspect its a huge number. And we have lots of former military folks, NRA members, etc. And, like I said, it is a fairly conservative place.

Well, there were somewhere between 569 and 580 surveys responded to. Its a pathetic rate. But then, there is only a small pool of people (especially in a transient area like this) who pay attention to local politics. On most issues, its tough to get a sense of where the area is. Views on taxes run the gamut, and include plenty of conservative and liberal positions as well as those incorporate a little of both. Same with transportation. On many of the questions significant numbers of people simply responded “I need more info.” On one, dealing with energy, 27.9% responded they needed more info.

So, as I said, Jim Scott is the King of Gun Bigots. And he always includes a gun/public safety question. This year it was

Localities should be allowed to ban weapons in public buildings

Options included Yes, No, and Don’t know.

Now, 571 people responded to the question. I know the NRA has at least that many members in his district. And VCDL too. Heck, my local gun club has that many, not to mention the local Republican party.

500 people responded yes. Thats 87.6%.
Only 48 people responded No, a paltry 8.4%.

Folks, I can’t hold Jim Scott’s gun banning ways against him anymore. He’d be a fool to be anything but a gun banner. We have no business complaining about his votes when in a District with diverse views on everything else, nearly 90% of his constitutents who care are against our gun rights. Until the large gun rights crowd in McLean makes their voice heard, his votes fall on their inactive hands.

But, this is the challenge, how do I get all those NRA/VCDL members, plus the republican’s to respond to his survey?

True story:

Wife: so, what are you gonna give up for lent this year.

Me: hamburgers. Love ‘em, but I could do to cut down on them. Say goodbye to the big mac.

Wife: that’s a good one. I’m at a loss though. I don’t know what to give up.

Me: how about NOT having sex with me.

And if its evil, does it deserve to fail.

Now, truth be told, I am a big fan of Sirius Satellite Radio. I’ve had it for years, and even supported an extra subscription in my sister in laws car. Got it for all the choice it offerred, Howard Stern (who I grew up with), the Dead Channel, the Elvis Channel, killer classical music selections (Metropolitan Opera) and of course New Wave 80s music in addition to Roadhouse AND Outlaw Country.

But the time has come to cancel a couple of subscriptions. Our new Jeep Commander has a free year subscription and the Cherokee crashed, so I need to drop one of the subscriptions we had. And my sister in law liked the Commander so much she ended up buying one too (yes, thats true. Little ol’ me can take credit for TWO new Chrylser Jeep sales in the last 3 months and we may buy a new Wrangler yet as well, if we can get anyone to negotiate on the price with us). Her Commander, of course, comes with Sirius too. So thats another subscription we don’t need.

So what do I do. Well, I logged on to my account at Sirius.com

But, I can’t. Because they require me to decode some image to access the account and it takes me . . . . hold on . . . making you hold cause thats how long it took me . . . . still trying. . . . . tough to get these right . . . . . oops, Sirius technical error . . . . . there ya go, is that right?? . . . . nope . . . . . ah, there we go.

Yes, it took me 10 tries to get it right.

And so, i go to manage/change account. And guess what. I can’t cancel. I can upgrade and spend more money. Or switch to a lifetime (but only of the radio) plan for $500. Or add new features. But I can’t simply cancel.

And there is nothing anywhere about cancelling, until I do a search and lo and behold it pops up in the contract/terms of service. Oh, whats this?? Cancelling costs $75. You have got to be kidding me, right??? Yep. Thats only if I have a year subscription. But then, I needed to actually read beyond what popped up on the search results, and a review of the terms of service show I can cancel if I contact Customer Care at . . . .

Yep, no phone number listed. Anywhere. Theres an option to sign up, but no number or anything like a “contact” link listed on the Sirius Home Page.

Back to the Search feature. There we go. Customer Care. And I dial the number, and it leads me to . . . . . an automated service which asks for my home phone number and account number and tries to upsell me, while playing really bad Alternative Rock and keeping me on hold for . . . . . 15 FUCKING Minutes.

Now, in Sirius’s defense, once the operator picked up, they were very efficient and had canceled the account within 5 minutes (of course, its cause I told them I was canceling the subscription because we don’t have the car and have Sirius in our new car – ie: no net real loss in subscriber numbers) but then, it took me over 30 minutes to actually get that far and it was only because I was determined to do it.

Which, has me thinking, as steam still spouts out of my ears do I cancel it all???
I would, but terresterial radio just sucks so bad I can’t bring myself to listen to any of it.

I’m very middle of the road. I own guns and I support abortions

Whoopie Goldberg on Bill O’Reilly

Have I been mistaken? Good for Whoopie.

Hope you enjoyed last nights trillion dollar screwing more than I did.

On the same day the world has come out in full force against Michael Phelps for taking a fucking bong hit – possibly costing him hundreds of millions in endorsements and putting his career at risk – we learn the complete story in the Washington Post how via the help of the ever more corrupt war on drugs the mayor of a small Maryland town and his wife were subjected to a brutal and unwarranted assault and the murder/execution of their dogs by the police and then a subsequent offensive to ruin their lives and reputation while shielding the criminals wearing a police uniform.

All, of course, in the name of furthering government interference and micromanagement of our lives.

Nancy Reagan can bite me.

And so can Barack The Messiah if he doesn’t address this travesty.