Doesn’t anyone appreciate consistency any more? I don’t watch or follow sports much and I’m sure I will be able to actually hear some eye-rolling, but I don’t see how UT firing its football coach after three years makes sense. One; if I were a donor and they were spending my money on the buyout for Charlie Strong to sit around for the next few years, I’d have to ask how much medical research could have been done with that money instead.
Two; at most, a college coach has four years to work with any given kid. Hard to build a dynasty with freshmen and sophomores. I’m sure I have a naive approach to it, but I’ll feel sorry for UT in another life when there are no hungry people in Texas who could have eaten rather well on $10 million.
Turning to world news; Castro. So he brutalized his whole country for five decades. If consistency teaches us nothing, it’s that hey, you had 50 years and, still, no one is loving Communism. So at least we have our answer. Weren’t you paying attention when it didn’t work in the Soviet Union?
I am anticipating a great bit of consistency from the American Democratic party over the next four years. I’m sure over the holiday, tabletops across the nation were awash with dessert and discord, cranberries and crowing. I imagine most Republicans felt the same as me: The only thing worse than having to listen to all the whining about Hillary losing would have been listening to the gloating if she won.
While I did go on a relaxing 24-hour news diet over Thanksgiving, I did not fail to imagine how the Trump Presidency will look from time to time. But I also realize that people will be people. So if, in four years, we have global peace, the keys to China’s checkbook, $10 college tuition and a world-wide glut of polar bears and glaciers, Democrats will still counter with, “Well, Donald Trump touched a boob in 1984.”
And to top off the list, let’s all celebrate the consistency, nay inevitability, of corporate greed. I know, complaining about that goes against my Republican grain, but go with me. Over the Thanksgiving weekend, I discovered my debit card had been hacked, money stolen, and I couldn’t get a big Black Friday deal. (Apparently I’m greedy too).
I have had a debit card since 1987 and I have never had my ID hacked on that card. UNTIL… they sent me the RFID chip card just two months ago. For some reason, 70 percent of all cards in America have this ridiculous little chip. It’s a coin toss at every check out whether you have to swipe or chip depending on what store you’re in. And not only can you not demand to use the old stripe version, now you have to support the entirely new bustling RFID protection sleeve/wallet/foil hat industry to protect from all the hackers who need only breeze by in your vicinity to steal your money.
So why, you ask, is anyone using these stupid things? Oh, because due to the reader usability, if your ID is hacked and a store sells the thief something with your stolen information, the STORE is liable for the loss and not the credit card company. So those stupid little chips protect VISA and no one else. I am not surprised.
What may surprise VISA is that all those cards retained the magnetic stripe and still have numbers on them, so I can take an Exacto knife and excise that little silicone mongrel and continue to spend. I’d at least like to think I’m consistent in outsmarting criminals even if I still have to owe my soul to the company store when the bill comes due.
