28 YEARS FOR KILLING A DOG

The taxpayers of the great State of California will now get to pay $47,000 a year to imprison a person who killed a dog.

The Santa Clara County dog killer got 28 years under our three strikes law. This is more than some people get for killing a person.

It costs an average of $47,000 to keep ONE PERSON in prison for ONE YEAR. (California Legislative Analyst's Office, lao.ca.gov) This means that the taxpayers will be spending at least $1,319,000 to punish a person for killing a dog. (Assuming the person serves the entire time and costs for keeping someone is prison do not increase.)

Don't we have better things to do with a million dollars?

TWITTER THOUGHTS

I have not yet figured out how to use twitter. But I came up with some thoughts that should work as tweets:

"You can never be too rich or too thin." WORSE ADVICE has never been given.

Did you know that 'twit' is British slang for 'stupid person'?

Apple is unlikely to care as much as ATT about Google Voice app, which lets you use VOIP rather than ATT for iPhone calls.

There are NO perfect people. All of us have flaws. You should not accept a flaw that includes violence and/or anger towards innocents.

Going camping is a lot of work. It is TOTALLY worth it. The outdoors heals the spirit. Camping work should be shared by all the campers.

Fear and anger make you illogical. It is a BAD IDEA to react with emotion rather than with logical thinking.

YOUR Rx INFO IS NOW ONLINE IN CALIFORNIA

Information about your prescription medications is now online in California. Access is given to any doctor or pharmacy who applies to get the information. Your prescription information is also available to LAW ENFORCEMENT.

Do not blame Jerry Brown. Blame California Health and Safety Code section 11165, which was passed in 1995. 38 other states have similar laws.

H & S code section 11165 requires that doctors and pharmacies report your prescriptions, your name, your address, and your date of birth.

IMPORTANT HEALTH INFORMATION IS NO LONGER PRIVATE.

CALIFORNIA WILDFIRE FIGHTERS ARE 50% FELONS

Did you know that around 3,000 prisoner felons are fighting California wildfires? This is not just a desperate move to save the state money this year. The program has been running for years. The felons are paid $1 an hour. (Note that the rest of the line crew gets paid minimum wage.) At least the state does have workers compensation insurance for the entire fire crew.

In case you did not know, fires are actually good for the forests and grasslands. Fire is NOT good for either forests or grasslands if the fire burns out of control because the fire is being fed too much fuel. (Think of a bonfire vs. a fireplace fire. It is the amount of dead wood that makes the difference.)

We have known for years that forest fires get out of control and DESTROY ALL THE TREES unless there are regular controlled burns. BUT one controlled burn went out of control and we stop doing the smart thing.

Wildfire fighters know that they could keep wildfires from burning out of control if the state would spend monies on controlled burns, and if they could force private property owners to clear overgrown brush.

I WISH TO THANK BOTH THE "GOOD GUYS" AND THE "BAD GUYS" WHO KEEP US SAVE FROM WILDFIRES. They risk their lives for less money than they would make at Burger King.

MADOFF INVESTORS SHOULD SUE THE S.E.C.

Honestly, how hard is it to uncover a scam where the scam artist says he is just a brilliant purchaser of stocks, but he never actually made ANY stock purchases? ALL the SEC had to do was to ask for even one fiscal quarter of stock purchases, and then contact the stock exchange to confirm the purchases. HOW HARD IS THAT?

I believe that securities attorneys could win a lawsuit which charges that the Security and Exchange Commission FAILED to do its job of protecting investors. If the persons who did not bother to investigate Madoff were also sued personally, perhaps the SEC would do a better job in the future.

Attorneys, please note that the Ninth Circuit has said that former Attorney General Ashcroft could be sued personally for possible illegal detentions of Muslims.

WHY HEALTH CARE REFORM PLAN IS DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND

Have you ever read the terms of your own health insurance plan? Not the overview, but the actual legal language which delineates your coverage. Even I avoid reading my plan, and I am an attorney.

Health care insurance plans have to be carefully worded so that costs do not spin out of control.

For instance, many lonely people like to go to the doctor. Some people do not talk to another human for days at a time. Some do this by choice, others are just really lonely.

Dad sold life insurance. When asked why he did not also sell health insurance, he would say, "Well, there is no question about whether someone is dead."

Doctors and nurses have years of training and still sometimes cannot tell whether someone is ill, or what illness they have, or how to cure the illness. Doctors and nurses make complex decisions regarding our health that are sometimes questioned unreasonably by people with no medical training. But if no one questions any health care decision, greedy doctors can make money treating someone who is not at all sick, and does not need the care the doctor orders. (There are greedy people in every profession.)

For this, and other reasons, ALL health care plans are confusing.

HOW TO GET THE INFORMATION YOU NEED

When you are dealing with a front line person, such as a court clerk, an IRS agent, a bank employee, or anyone who is the person who deals with the public, you should not yell at them.

I KNOW. Yelling feels SO GOOD when you are mad and frustrated.

However, yelling almost NEVER gets you what you want. If fact, many companies allow their employees to hang up on someone who is yelling.

TO GET THE INFORMATION YOU NEED:

Have all the paperwork at hand so you can quickly answer any questions that they ask.

Be friendly. Admit that you may have made a stupid mistake. DO NOT LIE FOR ANY REASON. Ask questions POLITELY.

Sometimes when they say, "Can I help you?", I reply, "You probably can not help me, but here is the probably stupid thing that I need."

BE CERTAIN to write down the time and date of the phone call and the name of the person you talked to. Take notes during the conversation.

LISTEN. Sometimes people who can not help you give you important information about where to go next. BE CERTAIN to write down this advice exactly as given. Ask them to spell it for you, if you are not completely certain of the spelling. Sometimes, all you have to have is the correct wording to look up the solution on Google.

If you can not understand the person, ask them to slow down. If you can not hear them, tell them that you can not hear them.

REMEMBER, the person to whom you are talking did NOT CAUSE YOUR PROBLEM. But they can usually help you solve your problem if you are nice to them.

WE NEED NASA -- THEY ARE OUR BACKUP PLAN

We need to fund NASA. At the rate that we are destroying our planet, we will NEED to be able to find other planets to live on.

Without NASA, we will not know if we are going to be bombarded by an asteroid, or be able to divert the asteroid if necessary.

NASA more than pays for itself because what it invents for space can be used by us Earthlings.

Don't you want TO BOLDLY GO WHERE NO ONE HAS GONE BEFORE?