Steven Burd,
Chairman, President, and CEO Safeway

You lost me over 12 cents. For 12 cents your store manager couldn't give me a re-usable bag on earth day? (I was 12 cents shy of the required minimum to spend to get this bag.)

You should know that if your company fails, it is because of the way it's customers are treated. Of course, if you are trying for a new business model that cuts customer satisfaction out of the equation, then you are succeeding there.

I will never shop in Safeway again, after being a loyal customer for over 20 years. Yes, I will have to go to the next town to buy groceries, but at least I know the shop keepers will gladly take my money; unlike the sullen response I get from the Safeway clerks, inevitably.

I am rather sick of the way that I am treated. Hell, I don't expect fake cheery, but how about looking at me? And what is the thing where you require all your checkers to thank me by name, by rote? Never once has any of them pronounced it correctly. A simple thank you will suffice, and, as I am by nature outgoing and friendly, how about responding to me when I say something?

Whatever you have done to pollute the checkout aisles at Safeway, I hope it doesn't spread to Trader Joes and Costco. Now their checkers really know how to treat a customer.

Boehner to Vote No on Everything

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH) will vote against the stimulus bill because it contains provisions for $200 million for contraceptives. That is stimulation he and his fellow republicants do not support. (Our sources indicate that Boehner plans to vote no on every bill put to a vote during this congress.)

On this morning's "Meet the Press"
REP. BOEHNER: President Bush wanted to close down Gitmo, too. So did Senator John McCain.

REP. BOEHNER: We don't know where the prisoners are going to go, and, and--nor how they're going to be tried. You know, if, if the liberals* in America believe that Gitmo ought to go, then maybe we ought to just open Alcatraz and move those prisoners there.

MR. GREGORY: Now it's a national park and not really suitable for prisoners, however.

*liberals want to shut Gitmo down, Bush and McCain wanted to shut it down, ergo Bush and McCain are liberals.

If it Were Just That Simple

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Just a Question

Pie Charts and Tax Breaks...

Last night on Real Time with Bill Maher, Bill held up a pie chart showing how the Bush Tax cuts were distributed. Approximately 70% went to the wealthiest 1% of Americans, another 20% went to the next 9%, leaving about 10% of all of Bush's tax cuts to be shared by 90% of Americans.

M&M Distribution...

Lately, I've been thinking about how wealth is distributed in the US. I was never interested in accounting, though I do have great math skills. I like a more graphic analysis. So I imagine that all the money available to Americans is like a bag of M&Ms. Just a regular bag, with, say 50 pieces. Now, if we imagine that 90% of the wealth in America belongs to only, say 5%, (in reality, it is a smaller number,) and there are 20 people that want to share this bag of M&Ms, then ONE person will get 45 pieces, and the other 19 people have to share the FIVE left. Well, more likely, another person will get one, and the four pieces left will have to be shared among the 18 people who are like you and me.

Tinkle Down...

So that has made our lives better how? Paper billionaires aren't building businesses. They aren't putting their money into job building enterprises. For the last decade, or so, they played at being Wall Street TYCONs. And those of us just trying to raise a family, and put something aside for later, well we just got pissed on.

...My Question

Will we be able to really fix our economy with this huge wealth imbalance? Seriously, if we only have four M&Ms between us, and Wally Bigbux has 95, who decides?
I just feel so helpless.

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Favorite Animal: Warthog

Hog Wild
Originally uploaded by Three Dog Knit

This one's for J. You were one weird kid! Your favorite animal, for a time, was the wart hog. And that predated Disney's Lion King! I don't know what little boy J would have thought about this, but hopefully the young man can appreciate it.

This Hog head hangs in the Cal Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (here).
You can only go in to look at it once a year. That, and dead birds, critters in jars, and a really cool T-Rex.

T-Rex and Pteri
Originally uploaded by Three Dog Knit