Author: Dick

Too bad it’s just a cheap political stunt by congressional Republicans.

When some country far, far away from the U.S. is undergoing some political crisis — a coup, state of emergency, etc. — I don’t often investigate the situation very closely. Sadly, that has not changed with the latest crisis in Pakistan because that country has quite a bit of significance to the U.S. For you see, Pakistan’s dictator, President Pervez Musharraf, is the only — I hesitate to say friend — ally of the U.S. in that part of the world and just how much of an ally is questionable. Also, Pakistan’s got nukes. Wouldn’t that make a cool T-shirt, not: “Got Nukes.”

What I do know is this:

**Musharraf has apparently reneged on a promise to democratize Pakistan which included holding elections and possibly sharing power with Benazir Bhutto. Thus, the president (and general) has proclaimed a state of emergency.

**Bhutto was the first woman to lead the government of Pakistan but fled to exile after corruption charges were leveled against her, her husband and associates. Such charges may or may not be valid.

**Bhutto graduated from Radcliff and is one helluva good-looking woman.

And that’s it. That’s the sum of my knowledge about what’s up with Pakistan. I guess though that I better start boning up on my Pakistani knowledge. And no, I wasn’t trying to make the last sentence as a double-entendre.

Today I spent the entire day at my part-time job taking a course online. Well, the tests were online but the rest of the course was on a CD. Each of the four online tests today took forever to load. Now I get home and my aircard is taking forever to load. I think I it’s a good excuse to shut down my computer and ready a book

From today’s No S**t Sherlock Department — A study has found that daylight savings time disrupts the sleep cycle. I heard this on National Public Radio while driving back to the office this afternoon. Dr. Stanley Spiesel, who writes a medical column for Slate, said during the NPR interview that a study of Central Europeans “showed that the normal correlation between dawn and the sleep cycle becomes disrupted during the transition to daylight-saving time.”

Spiesel goes on to say that getting into the natural brightness of the day is the best way to rebound from the grogs that beset you when transitioning to daylight savings time. How to rebound completely from the other types of grogs, other than with the hair of the grog, continues to baffle medical science.

I found that the best way to make the time transitions after the clocks are set backward or forward is to do so while you are on vacation. Some 12 years ago I was on vacation, staying with my friend Sally in Massachusetts. Even though she had to get up to go to work and I had to drive with her so that I could use her car while she was at work, I found I didn’t suffer from the normal irritation of time transitioning when I returned to my job the following week. The fact that I made the transition from daylight to standard time in the Eastern Time Zone rather than in the Central Time Zone where I live may have somehow contributed to making the time change more bearable. But I think that not working and not really having much in the way of responsibility contributes the most to surviving the change from daylight to standard or from standard to daylight. I think not working helps in many ways. I think that even not thinking about working can be helpful. So I will quit thinking (and writing) about work. I am feeling better already.

Time was when the shadiest among the shady characters in commerce were used car salesmen. Quite often, perhaps only ambulance-chasing lawyers were more despised among the public. But these days the people who are most looked-down-upon are politicians (who most likely deserve it) and journalists (who sometimes deserve it).

Of course, as technology has made this day and age what it is, it would only be natural that some among the tech service sector would also find their niche within the sleaze of American business. My vote for the used car salesmen of today and the future is those young men and women of all colors and lifestyles who sell wireless products such as cell phones and wireless air cards.

I have had a data card for slightly more than a month. And as time has gone by I have found more and more little factoids that should have been told to me by the woman who sold me my air card but who failed to mention those things. Thank goodness that Sprint, at least so it appears, seems to take Better Business Bureau complaints seriously. I filed a complaint a short while after I purchased the data card plan from a local Sprint store. I found out this afternoon yet another little matter the Sprint saleslady did not tell me after I found I had no service. Upon calling the help desk I discovered that I had a spending count and that I had gone over its limit.

The Sprint corporate lady who is working to try to resolve my complaint has been helpful. Not only did she get my service turned back on in an instant, she made sure that I would not have to pay this month’s bill since I have had so many issues with her company. She is giving me until the first of December to decide whether I want to continue service using my Sprint data card. If I decide not to, I will get a refund, or so she says.

I raise a lot of hell when things don’t go well and they should. Sometimes that is the only way to get anything done or a problem solved. A lot of people out there just don’t give a damn whether you are happy, sad, satisfied or are running down the street on fire. I once heard the term “consumer judo” as the practice of using all the pushes and pulls to ensure you get satisfaction from your transaction. ‘Scuse me while I get all Johnny Cochran on you. But there are times, or so I think, that you need a little more than judo. Instead, you may need a little consumer thermonuclear whup ass.

Tomorrow I may get beaten down and left in the ditch as so much consumer carrion. But for now I have won a round against those who would try to plunder my pennies. Ah the sweet smell of victory. For now at least.