Cal-energy




This week The Stu Pitt Award goes to ...

The State of California


For stupid spending


From the LA Times, October 13, 2013 ...

"California is spending nearly $15 million to build 10 hydrogen fueling stations, even though just 227 hydrogen-powered vehicles exist in the state today.

It's a hefty bet on the future, given that government officials have been trying for nine years, with little success, to get automakers to build more hydrogen cars.

The project is part of a sprawling but little-known state program that packs a powerful financial punch: It spent $1.6 billion last year on a myriad of energy-efficiency and alternative-energy projects.

Even as California has scaled back education, law enforcement and assistance to the disabled in this era of financial stress, the energy program has continued unrestrained and is expected to grow significantly in coming years.

State agencies have invested in milk trucks that run on cow manure, power plants fueled by ocean tides and artificial photosynthesis for powering vehicles and buildings.

The spending is drawing increasing scrutiny. Some of the energy investments have gone bust, electricity costs have soared, and some economists have disputed the benefits. The legality of some consumer fees that fund the programs also is being challenged in court.

The alternative-energy projects are largely financed by small charges on electricity bills or obscure consumer fees that are seldom noticed. The hydrogen fueling stations, for example, will be financed by a $3 fee on license plates ..."

Stu Pitt says: Really? Milk trucks that run on cow manure? $15 million hydrogen fueling stations ... for 200 vehicles? Financed with taxpayer dollars? Really? Are you kidding me??? Here is what I have to say to the State of California regarding it's spending taxpayer's money on stupid and crazy energy programs ...



STOP WASTING

OUR MONEY!



Congratulations to the State of California. For your stupid and arrogant spending on RIDICULOUS energy programs, this week you deservedly earned the Stu Pitt Award.





"It is the duty of the patriot to protect
his country from its government."

- Thomas Paine, American patriot (1737 - 1809)




washing machines




This week The Stu Pitt Award goes to ...

The U.S. government



for regulating my laundry

The U.S. Department of Energy determines the standards for washing machines in America. In a misguided effort to save energy, the federal government mandated front loading washing machines for the American consumer.

Here is my firsthand experience with the front loading washing machine. My apartment complex provides community laundry rooms, with front loading washers only. To use the washer I have to stoop or kneel down or bend over to load my dirty clothes. What about elderly senior citizens or people with back problems? Many of them can't stoop down or kneel down or bend over to load their clothes. Or, if they do stoop, kneel, squat, bend, to use to load their clothes into a front loading washing machine, they may risk a serious back, neck, hip, or knee injury. Not to mention that loading a large amount of laundry (a full load) is frustrating. When washing a full load you try to put one more pairs of socks or one more pair of underwear in but they keep falling out the open front door. Then, finally, you start the washer. Oops, you forgot to add a dish towel or wash cloth or other item. Too bad, unlike the top loading washing machine, once the front loading washer starts up, you CANNOT add any items to the wash. Finally, your wash is done. Once again, to remove the clothes, you have to kneel down or bend over (ouch). You open the door and ... clothes fall out.

None of these added annoyances happened with the top loading machines. None. The government mandates front loading washing machines primarily because they save energy. OK, by all means, let's save energy. But who is going to save my back!? Will any energy cost savings be offset by a large increase in medical treatment for back pain, caused by front loading washing machines? According the federal government's National Institute of Health, acute back pain in the U.S. already costs $100 billion. Annually.

Hmm. Front loading washing machines. Is this yet another "slippery slope"? Does it mean that the government can once again dictate to the private sector what products are produced and marketed for private consumption? If so, that is yet another dangerous precedent ... one that brings Americans ever closer to the end of individual freedom.

Now the government is in our laundry rooms. Is there ANY area of American life where the government has NOT intruded? They are already in our

living room (light bulbs)

bathroom (low flow toilets and shower heads)

bedroom (mattress tags)

garage (mpg standards)

schools (funding)

bodies (Obama Care)

sex lives (free condoms, morning after pill for 15 year-olds, abortion)

electronics devices (phone taxes et al)

communication (collecting everyone's phone records, email records, et al)

garbage (recycling batteries, banning plastic bags et al)

Taxes on practically everything: gas, cigarettes, liquor, income et al

Is there ANY area where the government can not, or will not, intrude? No.

Welcome to the New America. Where government decides what you can and cannot do and your individual freedom and independence are no longer guaranteed under the founding documents of America, the United States Constitution and the Bill Of Rights.

Welcome to the New America, where the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of laundry, is no longer a right, it's an illusion. Controlled by the government.


Congratulations to the U.S. government, you now control America's laundry. And for that you deservedly, once again, earned this week's Stu Pitt Award!




"It is the duty of the patriot to protect
his country from its government."

- Thomas Paine, American patriot (1737 - 1809)




Los Angeles streets




This week The Stu Pitt Award goes to ...

Los Angeles, California

for having the worst streets in America


From myfoxla.com:

"Pot holes and uneven streets, in LA they're almost as bad as being stuck in traffic.

Motorist Joel Stallone says, "lots of pot holes, the tar seems to be built up there's lots of ditches the lanes are not very well marked so it's tough to get around."

He's right, Los Angeles, Long Beach and Santa Ana rank first in the country among large cities for the worst roads and high costs to motorists according to a new study by the National Transportation Research Group, TRIP.

The study says 64 percent of major roads are in poor condition, and drivers are forking over an average of $832 dollars a year on maintenance since bad roads mean more pot holes and wear and tear on cars.

Streets may only get worse. Federal funding is expected to scale back for highway improvement projects starting next year.

Cal-Trans (a governmental department of transportation) is well aware of the problem.

"We have made significant progress in improving our pavement we have plowed in about 4 billion dollars in repair projects, but we do need to have 3.5 billion in funding every year for the next ten years to keep up with our pavement needs. This year we only have 1.5 billion."

Stu Pitt says, What did they do with all the billions of tax dollars that were earmarked for L.A. road/street repair and maintenance? They probably spent it! On other stupid crap they thought was more important. Meanwhile, millions of Los Angeles drivers (and tourists) have to deal with permanent potholes, deadly ditches, and sagging streets.

Now, in Los Angeles, besides the worst traffic congestion in the nation, we have the worst streets too?!

Does all this make Los Angeles a second-rate city, with third-world roads? You decide.


Congratulations, City of Los Angeles, for your gross negligence and mismanagement of local traffic and local streets, you deservedly earn this week's Stu Pitt Award!



"It is the duty of the patriot to protect
his country from its government."

- Thomas Paine, American patriot (1737 - 1809)




ipad-scandal




This week The Stu Pitt Award goes to ...

The Los Angeles Unified

School District (LAUSD)



for giving away 640,000 ipads
- FREE - using taxpayer money


From allgov.com ...

" ... By next year, all 640,000 Los Angeles Unified School District students, K-12, would have free iPads and software to facilitate their education. The district had indicated that it preferred that students not take the machines home, but left that decision to individual principals.

The district is spending $500 million in bond money for the computers and another $500 million on wi-fi and incidentals. LAUSD belatedly decided to spend another $38 million on keyboards when the iPad’s virtual keyboard was found to be unsuitable for the rigors of school work."

Stu Pitt says, WTF? $1 billion of taxpayer money to give LAUSD students FREE ipads? Why? Students will no doubt hack their free ipads (they already have, according to the article) and will then be able to freely email each other, take videos and post them to YouTube, listen to iTunes, watch online porn, play computer games, and spend time on Facebook.

Free ipads for hundreds of thousands of Los Angeles students? Brilliant. Free ipads, that, in reality, costs $500 million taxpayer dollars and $500 million worth of bonds that residents will have to pay interest on.

Our government in action.


Update to the story

As I was scanning the news stories today I learned that each free ipad will cost taxpayers $700. $700? WTF? Kinda high, isn't it? What, the school district couldn't negotiate a lower price, a volume discount, on a purchase of a whopping 640,000 ipads?

Where are they buying the 640,000 ipads, at BestBuy? I imagine the conversation would go something like this:

sales person: "Welcome to BestBuy."

customer: "Yeah, hello. I'm from LAUSD and I want to buy 640,000 ipads".

sales person: "Really? Huh. 640,000 ipads? We sell them for $700 each. That's the retail price."

customer: "OK. That's fine. I don't care, it's not our money, it's the taxpayer's, so I'll pay the retail price - on all 640,000 of them".

sales person: "OK. That comes to $448 million. Will that be cash or credit card?"


JHC, who the f--k is the purchasing agent for LAUSD? Whoever it is, fire him/her!

Another perfect example of our government in action.


Update to the update

From myfoxla.com ...

"First reports that LAUSD students hacked into iPads and used them to go online for purposes other than school. Now, we're learning there are 71 iPads missing.

We're talking about iPads paid for with tax payer money. Currently, the district is handing out iPads worth $700 each.

The school district doesn't know what happened to the 71 iPads but they are investigating. "At this point they're lost or missing ...

1200 iPads were handed out last year, at the end of the school year 71 did not make it back. Despite that LAUSD handed out another 14,000 iPads last month ..."

Stu Pitt says, 71 missing ipads? That's $50,000 of taxpayer's money. Lost. Missing. Gone. And yet LAUSD went ahead last month and handed out another fourteen THOUSAND (14,000) free ipads!?

Who's running the show at LAUSD, and making all these decisions and spending all this taxpayer money, a 12-year-old?

LAUSD. Educating 640,000 children.

Yeah, that works. NOT.


Congratulations LAUSD, for creating a billion-dollar ipad scandal with taxpayer dollars, you deservedly earned this week's Stu Pitt Award!




cvs




This week The Stu Pitt Award goes to ...

CVS




for selling expired vitamins


So, I was taking all my pills this morning and I decided to see what percentage of my minimum daily requirements my 1000 units of vitamin D was. It's more than enough for maintenance of my doctor prescribed treatment for severe vitamin D deficiency. However, I then noticed the expiration date on the vitamin D bottle. Jan 2009. OMG! 2009? WTF? That was 4+ years ago! The vitamins I bought 2 weeks ago at my local CVS expired nearly 5 years ago??? I was stunned. Then, I realized with horror that I have been taking them for 10 days. If they are useless in potency have I relapsed into vitamin D deficiency?

Selling vitamins that expired 5 years ago? Really? This is inexcusable for a pharmacy, ANY pharmacy, to have vitamins on their shelves that expired nearly 5 years ago! Especially if those vitamins are prescribed by a doctor - to treat a serious and severe deficiency.

I plan on going to CVS today and giving the store manager my full (and loud) wrath! And I plan on also getting a replacement bottle of vitamin D. One that is not years past its expiration date. In addition, I will also email CVS corporate headquarters about this inexcusably poor (and, in my case, potentially harmful) product vending. Luckily, I happened to look at the label on this bottle. BEFORE I took all 30 days of these worthless and expired vitamins.

Congratulations CVS, for selling worthless vitamins that expired almost 5 years ago, you deservedly earned this week's Stu Pitt Award!


P.S. I went to CVS Sunday and confronted the store manager. He denied that the store sells expired vitamins and said they check the expiration date every 2 weeks or so. He then showed me the shelf of vitamins and confirmed that CVS does not even have the bottle that I bought. The brand, yes, the exact type of vitamin D that I bought, no. Though I do not keep my receipts from CVS, I told him I was absolutely positive that I bought them there about 2 weeks ago. I remember it well and even told him that CVS had so many vitamins on their shelves that I spent 15 minutes trying to find the 1,000 units of vitamin D that I did buy. As I checked the shelves yesterday, I saw that the store now only carries vitamin D3. No D, just D3. My vitamin bottle was nowhere to be found on the vitamin shelves. Hmm. The store manager kept denying that the bottle was purchased at the store.

So, who was right, the manager or me? The classic battle of the store versus the stupid consumer who doesn't have a receipt.

The manager then scanned my bottle with his hand-held scanner and, magically, my bottle came up as being in CVS's inventory! Not currently on their shelves but definitely in their inventory. How about that!?



WHAT, NO DEXTER?




This week The Stu Pitt Award goes to ...

CBS and Time Warner Cable



for being dickheads


Thanks to a stupid dispute between CBS and Time Warner Cable, all CBS programming has been suspended by Time Warner Cable. This includes ShowTime programming, which airs the hit show, "Dexter". That means there may be no Dexter episodes each Sunday. No Dexter? You got to be kidding! Dexter is my favorite show! I plan my Sunday evening around Dex. What the hell is TWC thinking???

Just because two giant television corporations are having contract negotiations does NOT mean that popular TV shows, like Dexter, should be suspended from viewing by m-i-l-l-i-o-n-s of paying viewers!!! In the "who has the biggest dick" contract negotiations between 2 dickheads, it is we, the viewers, who are the victims!

Time Warner says, "CBS wants too much money". CBS says, "Time Warner Cable is too cheap and won't pay". How old are you guys,12? What, CBS and Time Warner cable don't make enough money?

In any event, the two of you, CBS and Time Warner Cable, need to fix the problem and/or give us back our TV shows.

Gimme my Dexter! Now.

Congratulations dickheads, for depriving the TV viewers of Dexter, and other shows, you deservedly earned this week's Stu Pitt Award!



BART FART




This week The Stu Pitt Award goes to ...

The unions



for being greedy strikers

From the Los Angeles Times ...

"The Bay Area Rapid Transit system (serving the San Francisco area) is out of service again Tuesday as workers begin their second day of a strike over pay and other issues.

Talks between BART management and two unions broke down Sunday night, causing the 104-mile system to grind to a halt and leaving 400,000 weekday riders scrambling for transportation.

Despite more buses, ferries and casual carpoolers, traffic reports still described the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as "worse than a parking lot" during Monday's morning commute."

"The biggest sticking point is money. The unions initially had asked for a 5% raise per year for three years, with inflation protection. BART's most recent counteroffer, proposed Saturday, was for 2% in raises each year over the four years of the contract."

My comments
It's a Bart Fart. It's inappropriate in public and it stinks.

According to the San Jose Mercury News (a prominent local newspaper), "Including pay and benefits, the average cost for BART for each employee was $116,309."

What, making $116,000 and keeping pace with or keeping ahead of 1.7% inflation (the official annual rate for 2012) is not good enough for the unions? They want MORE? 5% more? 5% per year pay increase my ass! Shame on them! Deliberately causing a rapid transit commuting nightmare for 400,000 S.F area residents, based on invalid excessive greed, is more than shameful, it's an outrage!

Welcome to the New America, where it's no longer government "of the people, for the people, and by the people" it's now government FOR the government, OF the government, and BY the government.

Congratulations BART unions, for going on strike for more money and more benefits, you deservedly earned this week's Stu Pitt Award!




"It is the duty of the patriot to protect
his country from its government."

- Thomas Paine, American patriot (1737 - 1809)



The Curse Of The Plastic bag




This week The Stu Pitt Award goes to ...

The Los Angeles City Council



for being stupid about plastic bags


Los Angeles wants to ban single-use plastic bags and force supermarkets and other large retailers to charge consumers 10 cents per paper shopping bag. Why? To cut down on environmental problems and landfill waste caused by dumping plastic bags like the ones we get in supermarkets to carry our purchases in. A good gesture? Sound environmental policy? Let’s see. Let’s take a look at the reality of government banning plastic bags, and forcing retailers to charge a fee for paper bags.

The plastic bags people get when they shop for food and other items serve two purposes. First, they are useful for carrying the food or other items to their car and then into their residence. Secondly, the plastic bags are useful as garbage bags.

Why don’t people simply use the environmentally friendly reusable cloth bags for shopping? Some people do. They have to take the cloth bag(s) to the supermarket every time they shop for food. Oh great, another thing to remember. Yes, shoppers could keep the cloth bags in the trunk but the cloth bags could get dirty and possibly be contaminated by the other stuff in the trunk. Plus, I have seen a number of health reports stating that sometimes these reusable cloth bags can contain harmful bacteria, from having various foods packed in them. Health officials recommend that consumers wash the cloth bags EVERY time they use them, to avoid contamination. Yeah, right, just what people need, another chore. Why not simply use the environmentally friendly paper bag? Because paper bags make lousy garbage bags: liquid seeps through.

So that's why people use single-use plastic bags for carrying and for garbage.

Now, let’s take a look at what happens if the supermarkets and other large retailers in L.A. ban single-use plastic bags and charge 10 cents per paper bag. If the supermarket charges 10 cents per paper bag, people still need to have garbage bags. So, they would probably buy a 30-pack of 4 gallon Glad plastic garbage bags, costing about 12 cents per bag (that's assuming that ALL plastic bags are not banned). And they would still need to try and remember to take a bag(s) to the supermarket when they go, to carry their purchases out of the store. Let’s continue. If consumers bring a cloth bag to the supermarket, and don't wash them every time they use them, they might end up with an infectious disease. If they get 10 cent paper bags they may just end up throwing them away and not using them as garbage bags, because they leak. So, in the end consumers will probably buy plastic Glad or Hefty bags, for garbage usage, and will still use the same number of plastic bags. Instead of getting plastic bags for free it would now cost consumers about 12 cents per bag. Same number of plastic bags. More cost for the consumer.

In the end, will the ban drastically cut down on the billions of plastic bags supposedly clogging the sewers, clogging the rivers, clogging the ocean, or ending up in the landfills of L.A.? No.

Banning single-use plastic bags. A good idea ... that doesn't work. The only thing this plastic bag ban by the government would do is make it more inconvenient and more expensive to shop for food and other items, for the 3.8 million consumers who live, and shop, in L.A.

The plastic bag ban. Coming soon to a city near you. Is banning plastic bags a good idea? Or a stupid idea that accomplishes nothing except inconvenience and higher prices?

You decide.

I already did.

Congratulations to the Los Angeles City Council. This week, for your stupid plastic bag ban, and for making the banning of plastic bags more important than creating jobs and helping poor people, you deservedly earned the Stu Pitt award.


"It is the duty of the patriot to protect
his country from its government."

- Thomas Paine, American patriot (1737 - 1809)



L.A. unified school district




This week The Stu Pitt Award goes to ...

The Los Angeles Unified

School District (LAUSD)



for giving away a new car to a student,
a $19K reward for perfect attendance


"It's almost like the Academy Awards," quipped Enrique Boull't, chief operating officer for Los Angeles Unified School District, before opening Thursday's ceremony to present iPads and the ultimate grand prize - a Chevrolet Sonic - to winners of a year-long contest to encourage and reward perfect attendance."

Parked curb-side in front of LAUSD headquarters was the neon blue Sonic won by Vanessa Umana, who graduated from Francis Polytechnic High School in Sun Valley. The rules of the district's Attendance Challenge said students had to have perfect attendance only during their senior year to be eligible to win the car.

Complete with power windows, air conditioning, a premium audio system and bluetooth, Vanessa's car had a sticker price of $19,235.

The school district is giving away a car to students? For perfect attendance? In HIGH SCHOOL? A $19,000 new car for showing up to school every day for 1 year? ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? WITH MY FREAKING TAX DOLLARS YOU GAVE A HIGH SCHOOL KID A FREAKING NEW $19,000 CAR??? THAT IS INSANE!

The California State Department of Education reported the district's overall graduation rate in 2012 was 66.2 percent. Two-thirds. Two-thirds graduated? That means that one-third did NOT graduate. Only two-thirds of Los Angeles high school students graduate and they're giving away cars as a reward to those that do?

No, I am not blaming or criticizing the students or the winner. I am blaming and criticizing the reward giver: The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD).

Congratulations LAUSD, for being completely insane, and giving away a new $19,000 car to a high school student ... for 1 year of perfect attendance. And spending taxpayer dollars to do it. For that, you deservedly earn this week's Stu Pitt Award!


"It is the duty of the patriot to protect
his country from its government."

- Thomas Paine, American patriot (1737 - 1809)

Cake Poker/Juicy Stakes




This week The Stu Pitt Award goes to ...

Cake Poker

Juicy Stakes poker



for cheating me out of $2.9 million



This is a first! An all-time, never-before-happened first. The world's first tandem Stu Pitt Award! To be shared by 2 online gaming sites, Cake Poker and Juicy Stakes.

For refusing to give me my $2.9 million in online Texas Holdem winnings.

Here's what happened ...

I was forced to change my poker playing site (Cake Poker), and transfer to a new site (Juicy Stakes). Cake Poker is apparently no longer offering the online Texas Holdem poker game in my country (U.S.) that I play. They are both European sites, I believe they are in the UK. So, I was forced to stop playing on Cake Poker, by them, and automatically transferred to Juicy Stakes, to sign up and and play online. And in doing so I lost my entire $2.9 million in winnings (play money). I appealed to the new site (Juicy Stakes) to reinstate my winnings from Cake Poker. They were unable or unwilling to do so. I then appealed to the original site, Cake Poker, to reinstate/transfer my $2.9 million to the new site. They were also unable or unwilling to do so. I appealed several times to both sites. They both refused to give me my winnings.

Yes, it's only play money but it was hard earned play money and it meant a lot to me! I started with $1,000 and ran it up to $2.9 million. I played for 20-30 minutes every day during lunchtime. For over a year! I spent hundreds of hours earning every penny of the $2.9 million. And now it's gone. The $2.9 million was mine. I earned it fair and square. And they refuse to give it to me. In my book we call people who do that "cheaters".

Congratulations, Cake Poker and Juicy Stakes, for refusing to give an online player his rightful online winnings, you deservedly earned the world's first tandem Stu Pitt Award!






Iceland




This week The Stu Pitt Award goes to ...

Iceland



for trying to ban internet porn

"We're the government, we know best!"

(CNN) -- Iceland is working on banning Internet pornography, calling explicit online images a threat to children.

'"There is a strong consensus building in Iceland," Halla Gunnarsdottir, an adviser to the nation's Interior Minister, told England's Daily Mail. "We have so many experts, from educationalists to the police and those who work with children behind this, that this has become much broader than party politics.

"At the moment, we are looking at the best technical ways to achieve this. But surely if we can send a man to the moon, we must be able to tackle porn on the Internet."

Such a step is somewhat surprising among Western nations that, for the most part, champion free-speech rights. But the move wouldn't be unprecedented in the island nation.

Iceland has had laws banning the printing and distribution of pornography for years, but those laws haven't been updated to include the Web. And two years ago, the nation's parliament banned strip clubs, saying they violate the rights of the women who work in them."

A ban on internet porn? A highly developed Western nation, Iceland, wants to ban porn in all forms; wants to take away its people's freedom of choice, their freedom of speech? Yes they do. And, yes, they are. Yeah, and, acccording to left-wing socialist liberals in the U.S., AMERICA is a bad place? To that I say let all the socialist liberals in the U.S. go live in Iceland ... and live without porn!

Congratulations, Iceland, for your Nanny State tactics, you deservedly earned this week's Stu Pitt Award!






gun control




This week The Stu Pitt Award goes to ...

Barack Obama



for his stupid stance on gun control

DON'T MESS WITH OUR GUNS!

From the Wall St Journal ...

"President Obama began his push Wednesday for the most sweeping changes to gun laws in nearly two decades, including banning the sale of certain semiautomatic rifles and high-capacity ammunition magazines. In addition, he laid out 23 executive actions that he believes will help reduce gun violence. Here they are, as released by the White House:

The President is announcing that he and the Administration will (among other things):"

"Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes."

WTF? My doctor is gonna ask me if I own a gun? I can see it now ...

Me: "Um, doc, I got this real pain in my neck".

Doctor: "Do you own a gun?"

Me: "Excuse me? What does that have to do with the pain in my neck?"

Doctor: "The President says I should ask my patients if they own a gun."

Me: "What the heck does that have to do with practicing medicine???"

Doctor: "Nothing".

So I went to the doctor's office with a pain in the neck and left with a pain in the ass!

President Obama - for your misguided - and stupid - and "kingly" stance on gun control, you deservedly earned this week's Stu Pitt Award!

BTW, Barack Obama holds the record for the most Stu Pitt Awards and has now earned 5. In less than 1 year. Keep up the good work Mr President!