Euthanasia

March 8, 2009 on 1:37 pm | In Health, Politics, Rants | No Comments
euthanasia

My brother-in-law recently had a pancreatic cancer scare in his family. Fortunately, it was not pancreatic cancer, which is currently incurable. But it got me thinking about euthanasia and assisted suicide.

We put down animals, like dogs, cats and horses, regularly because they are too ill, can’t walk, and such. We do this so they don’t have to live their final days in pain and misery. A couple of my friends recently had to put down their dogs. Euthanizing animals is legal and not considered cruelty toward animals. In fact, animal activists would probably consider it cruel if we didn’t put down animals that are terminal or otherwise would have a poor quality of life during their final days. Veterinarians likely recommend euthanasia daily.

What I don’t get, though, is why people are forced to live under similar conditions. We pump them full of drugs to relieve as much pain as possible, but sometimes all the drugs in the world aren’t enough. Sometimes all they can do is lie there and stare at the ceiling unaware of what’s going on around them or that their family is keeping watch. Why must people live through unbearable pain, misery and suffering with a poor quality of life when we know that all of the efforts to keep them alive will ultimately be for naught? Why is it that it’s okay to end an animal’s life for terminal conditions or poor quality of life, but it’s not okay to do the same for a human being under the same or similar circumstances?

What about the person’s family? They have to stand by and watch the person suffer the pain and waste away until there’s nothing left, putting an enormous emotional, and often financial, burden on them. It’s painful to stand by your loved one and watch him or her suffer knowing there is nothing you can do to help. You can’t even really tell them it’ll be okay, everything’s going to be fine. Because it’s not. At least not until they die and escape the pain and suffering.

What if you were the one who was living in pain, misery and suffering with no way out except waiting for your body to give out? What if you had to live that way for years? Would you want to live that way? Would you want to live your final days in extreme pain, misery and suffering? What if it was your loved one lying in that bed?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that everyone with a terminal illness should be allowed to take this course of action. I mean there are plenty of people who have defied odds and lived long lives despite incurable diseases. What I’m talking about is those times when a person has little time to live, absolutely no chance for recovery or a cure, and the remaining time they have will be spent in insurmountable pain, suffering and misery.

Perhaps Dr. Kevorkian had the right idea all along. Perhaps it’s time to rethink our values, morals and laws.

Snopes.com: 809 Area Code Scam

February 28, 2009 on 12:34 am | In Around the Web, Rants | No Comments

I recently received an email warning me of the 809 scam. The email states that Snopes confirms it as a scam. Actually, Snopes.com states that this is a “mixture of true and false information.” It’s true in the sense that it’s going on [and has been since 2000 or so] but false regarding the amount of money involved. Additionally, Snopes reports that the scam is not very common.

If you don’t know anyone in the 809 area code, why would you return the call? In this day and age with ubiquitous email and phone scams in the news, such as those asking you to be an agent for someone to transfer money or claiming you’ve won some prize that seems too good to be true, why are there still so many gullible people out there falling for them? Have we become so lazy and greedy that we’ll do anything to make a few bucks or get rich?

IMO, if you’re stupid enough to fall for these scams, you deserve the consequences. If you’re stupid enough to believe you need to call back to an unfamiliar area code when you have no reason to or don’t know the caller, then you deserve to get ripped off.

For the full story, check out snopes.com: 809 Area Code Scam.

I occasionally get calls on my cell phone from numbers I don’t recognize. Unless the caller leaves a voice mail, I ignore the call completely. I don’t call them back. Many times, I don’t even call back if the caller does leave a voice mail if I don’t know the caller. I really don’t understand why this is so difficult.

If you aren’t familiar with an area code, it’s quite easy to look it up on the internet. Simply Google “area codes” or check out Area Decoder.

This is just plain ass common sense, and it pains me to think that so many people don’t take a moment to think things through. It seems as though we’ve let technology take over our brains and we don’t use them anymore. Come on people, FUCKING THINK for a change!

Guitar Amplifier Troubles

February 15, 2009 on 12:49 pm | In Music, Rants | No Comments
guitar-amplifier-troubles

If you’ve been following me on Facebook, then you know some of this.

On December 27, 2008, I ordered a Bugera 333XL-212 guitar amplifier from Abe’s of Maine. I did research on the amp and priced it out. Abe’s of Maine had the best price. Although I hadn’t heard of Abe’s of Maine before this, they have a brick and mortar store in New Jersey, so I knew I wasn’t dealing with some fly by night or some dude on ebay who could be trying to rip people off. Anyway, I got free 7-10 day shipping with my order. Upon submitting my order, I received the obligatory order confirmation email and all seemed right with the world.

On January 8, 2009, I still hadn’t received my amp, which was 10 business days accounting for the holidays. Checking the Abe’s of Maine website, my order said it was *PROCESSING*. That didn’t tell me jack squat. So I replied to my confirmation email, requesting an update on my order status. And I waited for a reply. And waited…

After waiting for a week and receiving no reply, I jumped on the Abe’s of Maine website and checked my order status again. Still said *PROCESSING*. WTF! I’m starting to get a little peeved. I find their customer service number and give them a call. After several minutes, which seemed longer than that because of the crappy music, of waiting in the queue, the call is suddenly disconnected. Aaargh! I call back. Now I get a message telling me to call back during customer service business hours, which are 10 AM – 6 PM EST. It was only 4:45 PM EST. It took me three or four call backs to finally connect again. Again waiting in the queue and listening to crappy music for what seemed to be an eternity. Finally, a customer service representative took my call. I explained that I wanted an update on my order status and gave him the order number. He put me on *IGNORE* to talk with the buyer. After a couple of minutes, he came back and told me that the buyer had gone home for the day, but he’d call me back tomorrow. Tomorrow never came.

A week later, I called them back. At least this time I didn’t get the “call back during business hours” problem. After, again waiting in queue and listening to crappy music, I got a customer service representative and explained that I wanted an update to my status order. After giving him my order number, he put me on *IGNORE* to contact the buyer. When he came back I was informed again that they buyer wasn’t in, but he did know that they hadn’t received my amp from the manufacturer and that he’d call or email me tomorrow with an update. At this point I’m getting pretty steamed and I gave the guy an earful. Mind you, I’m not upset because I hadn’t received my merchandise…I’m upset that Abe’s of Maine is not proactive with their customer service, like so many other places, like Amazon and Musician’s Friend. Much to my unsurprise, tomorrow never came.

A week or two later, I called back a third time, earlier in the day than the last two times. At least this time I didn’t spend so much time in queue listening to crappy music. Once again I request an update to my order status and give the guy my order number. He puts me on *IGNORE* and talks to the buyer…FINALLY! When he comes back on the phone with me, he informs me that my merchandise is on backorder and they don’t know when it’ll come in. I gave this guy an earful and then canceled my order…not because it was on backorder, but because their customer service completes sucks and I was tired of f*#$ing with them and their incompetence. It’s really too bad because originally they were $50 cheaper than the competition and now they are $100 cheaper…but I will not reorder from Abe’s of Maine nor will I ever order anything from them again. F*#% me once, shame on you, f*$# twice, shame on me.

It seems that these Bugera 333XL-212 combo tube amps are in high demand and Behringer (the manufacturer) can’t keep up with that demand. They are a new line of amps so that could explain the demand. Yesterday I called about 10 music shops in Richmond, Charlottesville, Warrenton and Fredericksburg looking for a store that had them in stock with no luck. Not even Sam Ash had one in stock. So I resorted to ordering online again. I checked American Musical Supply and zZounds…both reported out of stock until mid-March. Musician’s Friend/Guitar Center don’t carry them, at least not yet. Sam Ash’s web site said they have them in stock so I went with them. Stay tuned…

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