Federal Government's Lack of Commom Sense.

Hi Everyone: I read about today's blog about 6-8 weeks ago. But before I wrote about it, I had to do some investigation to make sure I had the facts. I was shocked and dismayed when I did learn the truth. How could the Feds do something so stupid without using any common sense. The bottom line is that the Feds actions will have an unknown effect on many businesses, people and advanced technology. The feds could have and should have had the foresight to determine that their actions would have far reaching consequences. What am I talking about? I am talking about helium. What is going on with helium you may be wondering? Well it seems that we are running out of helium and it is all the government's fault. Helium is not a naturally occurring element. Think about it, since helium is lighter than air, if it was found in nature, it would just float off into space and be gone. To verify the info that I had learned, I called a very good friend of mine, Greg. Greg, who just happens to be a highly respected chemical engineer, told me the honest truth about helium. First he informed me that helium is not found in nature, due to the fact that it would indeed float off into space and disappear. Oh, no, helium is made by a chemical reaction that can only be done in a highly specialized lab. Greg told me that it is a dangerous process but safe if done properly. There has never, ever been a helium processing accident. The problem Greg told me is that, President George Bush the first, under the guise of the EPA, banned the use of the second of three elements needed to make helium. The ban was to take effect in March of 2003 because of its cancer causing side affects. There was a long battle against banning the element but President George Bush the second, sided with his father and implemented the ban. Now 8 years later the helium shortage has begun. How will this affect you and me? Well first of all, you can forget about buying helium filled balloons. If you can buy it, it will probably cost you an arm and a leg just to fill up a medium size balloon. Helium is also the "glue" so to speak, needed in the process that makes titanium. Titanium is an extremely strong metal that it is also extremely lightweight. Numerous car manufacturers were getting ready (2015) to introduce new hybrid vehicles made entirely of titanium that could get up to 75mpg. The underlying factor of the superior high miles per gallon is due to using the lightweight material that could shave off 1,000+ lbs from a 2,400 lb car. Crash tests that compared titanium made cars and non titanium cars was a pleasant surprise. Titanium built vehicles fared far better then expected. The energy absorbing material was super strong and protected the passenger compartment better then ever before. That is huge and now it isn't going to happen. Greg also told me that helium was being tested in other applications. Most of the apps are top secret, but he did tell me about tires made with helium and then filling the tires with helium. Again, all of those innovations are dead in the water. By the way, Greg was laid off due to the ban. When push comes to shove, someone, somewhere, has to put their foot down and tell the truth. I am now that person and the truth of the matter that I have to say is, happy early april fools day. Gotcha? All of the above is complete and utter rubbish and totally untrue. FYI, helium is the second element on the periodic table. That means that it is the second most abundant element found in nature and it is naturally made. Next week I will return to more important lack of common sense issues. Til next week. Peter

Common Sense Awards #3 and #4

Hi Everyone:

After a very long absence, since 8/2/09 to be exact, I have some good news to blog about while handing out my third and fourth Common Sense Awards. There are far too few people, businesses and politicians etc., that can or do think outside the box using good old common sense. In today's blog, the heroes so to speak, are not businesses, but a politician and an institution of higher learning who thought outside the box using common sense. Who would have thunk it? Not me. Go figure.

Drum roll please.....

Common Sense Award #3 (albeit a bit late) goes to New Jersey's Republican Governor Chris Christie. This award is late, since it was only this past week that I read an article in my local Gannett paper about what New Jersey's Governor Chris Christie did. He signed legislation this past January, that allows school bus advertising. That makes New Jersey the sixth state that allows advertising on school buses. The others that permit the ads are: Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Tennessee and Texas. FYI, Florida, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Utah and Washington are presently considering the idea.

But wait, are you thinking (like I did), about what kind of ads are on those school buses? In a nut shell, there are no ads about: beer, alcohol, bars, drug companies, tobacco, politics, religious organizations or anything sexual in nature. The school districts actually stay away from any ad that might be controversial. Advertising on 100 buses, on average, generate $500,000 over a four year period. Larger school districts will earn more, as will where the district is located may mean more money.

This is free extra money for the schools and is probably one of the best common sense, thinking outside the box, way to generate extra money, that is sorely needed in probably every school district in this country. A great idea in my book, to generate extra money.

Common Sense Award #4 goes to an institution of higher learning. But this story is about an airport and a college. What? Yes! In lower New York state, there is the Westchester County Airport, located in Harrison, New York, which is of course located in Westchester County. It is a highly used airport with a terrible parking problem. If you really, really want to park in the airport's covered parking lot, you should arrive about 60-90 minutes earlier then you normally would arrive. This is so you can go round and round and up and down, looking for that elusive vacant space.

Located about 5-10 minutes from the airport is Purchase College. The college is now allowing parking for airport customers for $5 per day and that includes help with your luggage and a shuttle ride to the airport. Of course, since this is a new venture for Purchase College, the price increases to $15 per day as of 6/1/11. Still, this is a fantastic way for the college to make extra money and simultaneously help alleviate the parking crunch at the airport. Another great use of common sense while thinking outside the box.

Congratulations and kudos to the recipients of the third and fourth Common Sense Awards.

If you know someone who is deserving of a Common Sense Award, post in the comment section so you can share with everyone.

Til next week.

Peter

Bad Drugs

Hi Everyone:

This is a true story and no names have been changed to protect the guilty. In August 2002, Cheryl Eggert, a Quality Control Manager for Glaxo, Smith, Kline, (a huge pharmaceutical company with 80 plants world wide) wrote a letter to her boss (VP of QualityControl)
regarding the problems with the manufacturing processes at numerous plants around the world. But the Cidra plant was by far the worst with what Ms. Eggert saw as shoddy oversight of the entire manufacturing process. Ms. Eggert said that the Cidra plant had 9 serious problems including contamination of medicine and wrong drugs put in the wrong bottles. She told her boss that the plant should be shut down immediately and recall the drugs ASAP.

Ms. Eggert's alarm went unheard. GSK told her that the plant just had a FDA inspection in July 2002 and had passed. So her concerns were not valid. Ms. Eggert continued with her very real concerns until April 2003. That's when GSK laid her off due to what the company called a reorganizing. Ms. Eggert saw it differently, so she became a whistleblower to alert the FDA. For years, GSK stated that there were no problems with their plants and all was well. Well, well, well, in November 2010, GSK plead guilty for allowing adulterated drugs to be sold. GSK paid $750 million dollars in fines.

What concerned me the most is that since GSK plead guilty, they had to have known about the problems, but still allowed adulterated drugs to be sold. It is obvious to me that GSK had no common sense what so ever and that the bottom line, (money) was more important then the health and safety of the people who took their medicine. Shame on GSK and shame on the FDA for not finding the problems themselves during their inspection!

Common sense still rules and greed still drools!

Til next week.

Peter

Big Bank Sticking It To Customers

Hi Everyone:

My wife received a letter this past week from JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. It was one of those, "You are pre-approved for a Chase Freedom with Exclusive Benefits", a Visa credit card. We get these alot. Having good credit means you are inundated with these offers.

Not that we need another credit card, but we decided to read the entire offer. The following is exactly as it appeared on the Pricing Information and Interest Rates and Interest Charges page under the heading - Penalty APR and When It Applies section:
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29.99%. This APR will vary with the market based on the Prime Rate. (Ed note: It is really 26.99% plus the prime rate, as stated in the very fine print at the bottom of the page. The penalty rate will increase when the prime rate increases).

The Penalty APR will be applicable to your Account if you:

• fail to make any Minimum Payment by the date and time due (late payment);
• exceed your credit line (if applicable);
• make a payment to us that is returned unpaid; or
• do any of the above on another account or loan you have with us or any of our related banks.

How Long Will the Penalty APR Apply: If your APRs are increased for any of these reasons, the Penalty APR will apply indefinitely.
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Did you catch the problem I have with this offer? FYI, I have no problems with the first three, although a 29.99% penalty rate is excessive. But if it is legal to be able to charge that amount, so be it. My problem is with the last condition. To me, it states that if you do any of the first three with any other JPMorgan Chase account or loan or with a related bank, they will apply the 29.99% penalty APR to your Chase Visa Credit card. So if you are late with a payment to a Chase loan etc., etc., your credit card rate will increase?!!!

We couldn't believe it, so I took it a step further. I called Chase and spoke with a customer rep. The rep's response to my questioning that condition was very evasive. The rep kept saying that they "might" raise the credit card rate. I responded that the word "might" is not there and as I read it, they "would" raise your rate. Getting nowhere with the rep, I then asked to speak to a supervisor. The supervisor's responses were even more evasive. He also used the word "might" but kept dwelling on the first three conditions dealing with the credit card solely. After 5 minutes of playing word games, I finally got the supervisor to agree that Chase would indeed raise your credit card rate if you met any of the first three conditions on any other Chase account or loan. I then asked the supervisor if that made any common sense? He again became very evasive and wouldn't directly answer. I told him that it didn't make any sense. I said that anyone who reads all the conditions and fine print would not sign up and be subjected to that 4th condition and that it seemed to be based purely on greed. Believe it or not, the last thing the supervisor said to me was if I wanted to sign up for the card? I told him that it was obvious that he hadn't listened to what I had been saying so I hung up.

So there you have it. Please be very careful signing up for a new credit card in these times and make sure you read every single word in the offer, including all of the small print. Big banks lost their common sense years ago with the sub-prime mortgage mess and continues to this day. Big banks have replaced common sense with greed. They even train their customer service reps and supervisors on how to be evasive and deceitful. WATCH OUT.

Common sense rules and greed still and always will drool.

Til next week.

Peter

Are High-Capacity Mags Really Necessary?

Hi Everyone:

I blogged last month about the incident in Tuscon, where a deranged man legally bought a gun and a high-capacity magazine to make his carnage as deadly as possible. Did you know that sale of those high-capacity magazines were unlawful until 2004?

FYI, the sale and manufacture of high-capacity magazines holding more than 10 rounds has been outlawed in New York since 1994. They were also unlawful under federal law from 1994 until 2004. In 2004, Congress and President George W. Bush failed to renew the assault weapons ban and the sale and manufacture of high-capacity magazines became lawful once again.

Since 2004, high-capacity magazines have been used in every mass shooting. According to Gannett, the following mass killings happened:

2007, the Virginia Tech shootings: 33 dead, 15 round magazines used, hundreds of shots fired.

2008, the Binghamton shootings: 13 dead, 30 round magazines used, 99 shots fired.

2008, the Northern Illinois University shootings: 6 dead, 21 wounded, 30 & 15 round magazines used.

2009, the Fort Hood shootings: 13 dead, 30 and 20 round magazines used.

2010, the Connecticut Beer Distributor shootings: 8 dead, 2 wounded, high-capacity magazines used.

The unfortunate statistics speak for themselves and they speak volumes. Failing to renew the assault ban weapon in 2004 was a grievous and fatal mistake that to date has cost at least 73 people their lives. High-capacity magazines were designed as a weapon of war to kill as many people as possible. The blaring common sense approach would have been to renew the ban. But since it wasn't, HR 308/S32 legislation sponsored by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-NY and Sen. Frank Lautenburg, D-NJ needs to pass. It will again ban the sale and manufacture of high-capacity magazines with more than 10 bullets. Again that is a common sense approach that needs to be implemented asap.

The NRA shouldn't have a problem with it since it doesn't take guns away from people, just high-capacity magazines. But you know what? The NRA will have a problem with it and will again try to use their clout to kill the bill. The hell with the NRA, pass the bill! There shouldn't be any debate about the right to bear arms or turn it into a Republican or Democrat stand. This should be a peoples stand to try to save peoples lives.

Enough said.

Til next week.

Peter

Updates

Hi Everyone:

Today's blog is about following up on a few of my past blogs and let you know what updates I have learned.

On 1/23/10, I blogged about New York State and its out of control spending. Unfortunately, even in a bad economy, states also have to have layoffs and I suggested just that. Governor Cuomo's new budget calls for massive layoffs. Unfortunate but necessary. When times are good, state governments add employees, but in bad times they rarely lay them off. It is long overdue to reduce the size of government.

On 3/14/10, I blogged about Toyota's acceleration problems. I suggested that the vast marjority of sudden acceleration was due to driver error and a few people who just wanted to jump on the sue Toyota bandwagon. Well in the past week or so, an independent commitee including NASA checked almost 900 Toyota's that were supposedly involved in sudden acceleration incidents. Only 3, yes 3 were found to have a problem and the problem wasn't even computer related. The commitee's findings stated that there wasn't anything wrong with the vehicles electronics. The overwhelming cause was human error.

On 9/12/10, I blogged about Carl Paladino's run for governor of New York State. I said that Paladino was a loose cannon who would say inappropriate and incorrect statements, was not
to be trusted and shouldn't be elected. He was even caught on video, threatening a reporters life. Paladino lost the election by a wide margin.

On 10/10/10, I blogged about unions and their strangle hold on businesses and state and federal governments. Even though contracts were negotiated in good faith, times have changed and the endless bottomless wallets of taxpayers dried up like a river in a desert due to the economy falling off a cliff. Right now in numerous states, governors have demanded union employees contribute to their health and pension plans (which they have never done) that are on par with private sector employees. That would save billions and billions and billions of dollars to all states. In New York City, Mayor Bloomberg even wants to do away with the last hired, first laid off clause and instead lay off the weaker, non-performing teachers first.

And last, but certainly not least, on 12/12/10, I blogged about career politicians, getting convicted or pleading guilty to felonies, while in office and still be legally eligible and able to collect their state pension. Well low and behold, New York state government now has a bill on the agenda that would make a politician ineligible to collect their pension if they are found guilty of a felony, while in office. Now if only the bill gets approved.

Til next week.

Peter

The Truth About Roofs

Hi Everyone:

I have read a lot of stories this winter about people who have leaking roofs. I have also seen first hand just by driving around, a lot of homes with the roofs shoveled/raked off with snow. People don't normally clear their roofs off unless there is a reason, like a leak. Some of the stories that I read dealt with homeowners who had their roofs fixed several times, but to no avail.

When a roof leaks into a wall, I'm not talking about a leak from the middle or top of a roof section, the reason is almost always the same. First you have a lot of ice daming in your gutters. As the ice continues to build up, it can, depending on how the roof was built, touch the plywood sheathing of the roof. The ice can and will push up under the tar or felt paper. The end result is the same, water leaking down the inside of the roof and then onto and down the walls. If this is a problem you or someone you know has, there is only one common sense solution to permanently stop the problem.

First you must find a reliable, experienced roofing contractor with checkable references. Even if your roof is not past it's lifespan, all the shingles and tar or feltpaper must be removed. You see its not your shingles that are leaking, but the way the layer under the shingles was installed that is wrong. The common sense solution goes like this:

1) Have all gutters separated from the facias to approximately 3-4".

2) Use ice and water shield that begins approximately 3" on the facia, which is why the gutters were pulled a little bit away from the facias, then continue up, around and onto the wood sheathing. There should be approximately 2' 6" of the ice and water shield on the roof proper.

3) Use ice and water shield on all valleys.

Now you can install any type of roof you want. It is the all important first row of protection that is THE most important. The object is to cover any and all wood from being exposed or should I say touched by ice. If the ice can't touch any wood what-so-ever, there is no way to have leaks due to ice daming. Leak problem solved. This will not stop ice daming, but since it can't
touch wood, there are no leaks.

Obviously this is not an inexpensive solution, but it is the only solution. There is no patching of a roof, no matter what a contractor may tell you, that will work. How do I know about this? I had my roofing contractor do this to my roof 10 years ago and there have been no problems. I must tell you though that my roofing contractor never installed ice and water shield in this matter before mine and now he swears by it.

Til next week.

Peter

Common sense can help solve any problem.