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Why do little things become so big?

I finally got the default judgment from the judge and went to the county records department to record it. The clerk took one look at it and handed it back saying, “this needs a judicial seal”.

“Judicial seal? Don’t they know that at the courthouse? Does this happen very often?”

“Sometimes.”

I returned to the courthouse, waited another half hour for a clerk and learned that I needed to apply for the form with the judicial seal. That’s when I noticed that the Defendant’s name had been inverted. So the clerk said, “Oh, it doesn’t matter really.”

“But, this won’t be properly recorded at county for searching.”

“Yeah, probably so,” she nodded.

“Well, then how do I correct it?”

“You have to file a motion,” and she handed me a document that was the result of many generations of photocopying. And then I noticed that my name on the Plaintiffs line had also been misspelled. Who’s in charge here, I wondered. All the prior documents in the file were correct.

With the motion filled out, I asked her how I would be getting the document with the judicial seal.

“You’ll need to come pick it up.”

“Do you have any idea how many times I’ve been here to get this judgment? Is there any way you could mail it to me.”

She recognized the inconvenience and told me she’d mail it when she got the corrected document back from the judge’s administrator, probably the next day.

That was on May 2, exactly two weeks ago, and I have yet to receive my judgment with a judicial seal. Our government at work.

Posted 17 May 2011 † Fritz § Govt at Work ‡ Comments (0) °

Still Sniping

You’d think the president would grow up.  He gets a bill that extends the debt ceiling debate past the next election, and he can’t help sniping at Republicans for creating dysfunction. Bloomberg today has the real issue.

Now that’s frightening. Are the seniors really going to takes us down? Don’t they recognize that they’re demanding more, significantly more, than they paid in?

Posted 03 April 2011 † Fritz § Financial Crisis § Govt at Work § Obama § Uncategorized § conceding § culture § regulatory burdens ‡ Comments (0) °

Time for 100%

If you work for Bailout Bank, Joe the Plumber may be saving you from your bad management, but you will need to contribute too. Now 100% of your income that exceeds Joe’s salary will be taxed. It’s only fair. No wait, if you contributed to Senator Maphia’s campaign, you can get twice Joe’s salary!

Of course, if you just get a job at First Bank instead, you can get your salary back in full. For God’s sake, that’s the market rate! Plus you can keep your stock options and retirement benefits from Bailout. That way, your wife can maintain her standard of living, and you won’t have to sell your yacht! Ain’t America great? After all, who gives a rat about Bailout Bank?

But seriously, if government can now renegotiate your employment contract, even if you don’t want to, and even if someone else negotiated a deal with the government, what’s the point of having a contract? Why not just collect your money by breaking people’s kneecaps?

I only wish I had a large company, and I could say, “Forget it. Come get me! We’re going to honor our contracts despite what you demand.”

What would happen? What rickety leg would they have to stand on? What government official would say “these contracts have been voided just because.”

And who is going to stand behind this confiscation? Would this be found constitutional? I simply don’t believe it. I really don’t want to believe it.

Posted 24 October 2009 † Fritz § Financial Crisis ‡ Comments (0) °

Change We Can Believe In

Posted 04 October 2009 † Fritz § Obama ‡ Comments (0) °

Let’s Not Cheer So Fast

Failure is good. Most people learn from their mistakes. But there are still risks.

For instance, Obama’s public option has failed, at least for today. So what does he learn?

Does he realize this isn’t what people want, and move on to what they do want, working in the “post-partisan fashion on which he campaigned? Or does he think that he just hasn’t been able to effectively explain his vision, because if he had, we’d have all come to our senses and agreed? Could he go so far as to propose ways to silence his critics so his vision could emanate forth without distortion and misrepresentation?

Learning can lead to very different responses depending on one’s view of themselves and their place in the world.

Posted 30 September 2009 † Fritz § Obama ‡ Comments (0) °

Working with Roman Polanski

I never paid much attention to what Mr. Polanski did, but when I discovered the details last weekend, I was horrified. Althouse has written the best piece I have yet read.

However, I have not seen mentioned the one thought I keep having on the matter:

How has anyone been able to work with this guy? If you’re an actor, and he’s directing you, how do you not imagine and recoil at the image of his heinous act? If you’re an investor, and having a meeting about putting money behind his next project, how do you not imagine and recoil at the image of his horrendous act? If you’re a woman who is a mother, and you meet him in a room, any room, how do you not recoil at the image of what he has done? How do you not wonder how he is actually in that room, a pedophile roaming free so your children remain unprotected?

I love the movie Chinatown. It is one of my favorite films. I don’t know if I can watch it again without getting angry.

I have a sixteen year old daughter. This girl was thirteen.  I just can’t imagine it without recoiling in horror. If there is any justice, this guy Polanski won’t be let out of prison, ever again.

Posted 30 September 2009 † Fritz § culture ‡ Comments (0) °

First They Came for the Banks

and I did nothing. Then they came for the car companies, and I did nothing. Then they came for the insurance companies, and when I objected, I was abandoned by all the other insurance companies.

That’s what I’d think if I were a Humana executive, but I’m not. And I worry about how the rest of the industry has gotten in bed with Baucus and can’t see the trap.

Come on you guys, don’t you see your fate? Can’t you see it’s time to rally together and stand up to these incursions? As long as you allow it, they will keep taking, and taking and taking. It’s only inevitable if you enable it.

Posted 22 September 2009 † Fritz § Financial Crisis ‡ Comments (0) °

It IS a Tax After All

When I first read the transcript of Obama’s interview with Stephanopoulos,  the criticisms from the blogosphere looked hyperbolic. I only saw Obama getting mired in details that wouldn’t make much sense to most people. This quibbling has been his MO for obscuring parts of the debate he doesn’t want to have illuminated.

But then I read in the WSJ that the CBO estimates that “the Senate’s individual mandate will result in new revenues of some $20 billion over 10 years.” What? The editorial then asks “If that $20 billion doesn’t count as tax revenue, then what is it?”

So, Joe Wilson continues to be correct. Obama’s quibbling has more to it than obfuscation.

It’s to hide the lies.

Posted 22 September 2009 † Fritz § Govt at Work § Obama ‡ Comments (0) °

Bowing Obama

The White House claims:

The White House is denying that the president bowed to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia at a G-20 meeting in London, a scene that drew criticism on the right and praise from some Arab outlets.

“It wasn’t a bow. He grasped his hand with two hands, and he’s taller than King Abdullah,” said an Obama aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.”

He did not. Why would the white house say this when the video is there for all to see. Obama’s second hand was down until after the bow, Obama’s head was well below the potentate’s.

This arguably puts them beyond lying into a realm of unreality. Plain goofy.

Posted 09 April 2009 † Fritz § Obama ‡ Comments (0) °

Let’s Abolish Contracts!

The most frightening thing I’ve seen in the Washington Post, today:

The populist anger at the executives who ran their firms into the ground is increasingly blowing back on Obama, whom aides yesterday described as having little recourse in the face of legal contracts that guaranteed those bonuses.

Horror of horrors! Little recourse? What don’t people get about contracts? Why are they mad at Obama? The people should be overjoyed! Does anyone recognize that when a government can arbitrarily void private contracts, our system of law and justice will fall apart? Why would anyone bother to create a contract if it were in jeopardy of not being a contract, if it could be arbitrarily voided by a politician?

Posted 17 March 2009 † Fritz § Financial Crisis ‡ Comments (0) °