White House
Gray Davis: Latest Victim of BushCo?
Robert Arctor - 11:28 p.m. Pacific Time - Nov. 11, 2005 - #8761 of 8770
California's celebrity governor may have been elected by people deluded with the idea that he was a "centrist" Republican, but anyone who was paying attention knew that Schwarzenegger was and is a Fuehrer-wannabe who was foisted into office for one specific purpose: to make sure Enron and the other Texas energy vampire corporations didn't have to pay back the billions of dollars they looted from California ratepayers during a bogus "energy crisis."
Once Action Hero got to Sacramento and took care of his bosom-buddy Ken Lay, then Karl Rove started working the little orange marionette's strings, and he became a frontman for the gang who couldn't shoot straight the California Republican Party, a pathetic gaggle of snake-handling Jeezus freaks, real-estate scammers, billionaire flat-tax enthusiasts and talk-radio chickenhawks, whose rabid extremism had turned the GOP from the dominant party of Reagan into a bunch of bozos who couldn't win a statewide election if their lives depended on it in only a few short years.
Of course, Action Hero's winsome personality, with all the charm of the bully who kicks sand in your face at the beach, ensured that any chances of Arnold-inspired "reform" would soon become a punch line on late-night comedy shows.
Speaking of "reform," you gotta love the word when Republicans like Bush and Schwarzenegger use it. In their usage, "reform" means the usurping of democracy by anti-democratic neo-feudalist principles, typically rigging the game and tilting the playing field so that all of the goodies flow to the top 1 percent of wealthy folks. And there's Arnold, smoking his big fat Cuban stogie and driving around in his gas-hogging Hummer, sucking up the boodle with the rest of his plutocrat pals. What a complete and utter assclown.
Work Life
LisaFC - 05:52 a.m. Pacific Time - Nov. 16, 2005 - #295 of 298
Aaaaaah, retail. I spent about three months working in the classical department of a record store, and two years in a bookshop (one of those doing corporate sales). I like to think I was a pretty good sales assistant, and I liked dealing with most of our customers. There were, however, some notable exceptions.
Example A: While I was working in the record store, a very well-dressed woman came in, with the air of one who had had a few glasses of wine with her lunch. She wanted to buy one of the expensive boxed opera sets as a Christmas present for herself, but wasn't sure which of two recordings of the work she wanted. Fine. I tell her which one I like, and offer to play her a little of each. I do so. She can't decide. I play them both again. She does this REALLY ANNOYING "ooh, I still can't decide, isn't that FUNNY, tee hee, oooh, play them again for me, there's a darling, *giggle*" thing. At this stage, there are several people waiting to be served (it was just before Christmas). I manage to persuade Squiffy Lady that I am not permanently abandoning her, and ring up their purchases. She continues to giggle at me. I play them both for her again. And again. And again. She finally decides on one recording and then demands to use my phone so she can call her husband to ask him if it's OK to spend the money. I'm not supposed to do that, but at this stage I am desperate to get rid of her -- I have been dealing with her for about half an hour at this stage. She phones her husband (telling him she's being "terribly NAUGHTY and spending SO MUCH MONEY DARLING, tee hee") and apparently gets the go-ahead. Because I am such a nice person, I ring her transaction up in two halves so she can use our special discount offer (spend more than X, get so much off your next purchase) -- WHEREUPON SHE COMPLAINS THAT THE DISCOUNT IS NOT BIG ENOUGH. "It's really, really terribly expensive and I'm spending SOOO much money, amn't I, could you not be a darling and give me another discount? *giggle*" AAAAAAAAARRRRRGHHHHHH KILL KILL MAIM KILL.
Example B: While I am serving a gigantic queue of customers in the bookshop, also just before Christmas, I become aware of a bellowing noise in my left ear. It is a woman who has marched up past the queue in order to complain to me about the price of an Asterix book. I ask can she wait until I have dealt with the rest of the customers and then I will be happy to deal with her query. She continues to bellow at me. Using my mad multitasking skillz, I attempt to explain to her (while ringing up other people's purchases and smiling politely at them) that the price on UK books is converted from the sterling price at the time that we buy them in. She informs me that this is outrageous, she is being ROBBED, and continues to shout in my ear for the next 10 minutes, demanding to see managers, etc., and further complaining that everybody in the shop is busy and will not abandon their existing customers in order to give her their undivided attention. I think she left eventually (having not been mollified by a manager), still shouting about how we were a bunch of swindlers and that she was never coming back.
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