The Voice of Doom and Gloom

My Haircut – Lessons in Life

Kevin — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 02:10:50 +0000

I got my hair cut today. I asked the manager (in jest) why mostly bald guys, like me, don’t get a discount for haircuts. My head took a fraction of the time the guy before me did (though he did seem awfully picky, for a guy). I was told that everyone gets the same price so the guys with lots of hair don’t get penalized. I didn’t know what to say to the manager, who was obviously clueless.

It seems to work this way in life:

When getting a haircut, the bald guys subsidize the full-head-of-hair-guys.
When paying for health insurance, the healthy subsidize the sick.
When paying for auto insurance, the good drivers subsidize the bad.
When paying taxes, those that get paid well subsidize those that don’t.
Existing, loyal customers of a lot of businesses subsidize brand new customers, who seem to get all the good deals.
I think those that play by the rules subsidize those that cheat, though I don’t have proof that is really the case.

Good thing I only get my hair cut a few times a year – one of the advantages of being mostly bald – who knew it would be such a downer?

Wouldn’t it be Easier to Make Stupidity Illegal? Part 1

Kevin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 20:21:53 +0000

I saw this headline in the Tribune on January 26th:

“State urged to lower risks of online dating – Legislation would require sites to disclose whether they do background checks on clients”

Background checks? Do bars have to do background checks for ladies night? What happened to common sense? What happened to people moving slowly into relationships, getting to know someone in order to figure out if there are some red flags? Hasn’t the chance you could hook up with a loser always been a problem? Now we need laws?

I think it would be far easier to just outlaw stupidity. One law would cover a multitude of situations.

Our elected officials really have time for this? Illinois has about $9 billion (yes, with a “b”) in unpaid bills and that amount is growing daily. If spending isn’t stopped, the Civic Federation, a tax watchdog group, estimates that the unpaid bills could add up to $28 billion in 5 years – even if the latest tax increase stays in place. I think our elected officials need to focus on our budget problem before moving on to regulating online dating.

Curious about the article? Here it is: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-online-dating-regulation-20120126,0,7998978.story

I’m Back

Kevin — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 20:08:52 +0000

I thought I could do it. I thought the Voice of Doom and Gloom could turn into a positive thinker. No more whining I said. No more cynicism. Worthy goals perhaps, but it isn’t going to happen. It’s an election year. There’s way too much fun stuff to write about. What was I thinking?

Newt Gingrich proposes to make our moon colony the 51st state! And, he also proposes to make government smaller and balance the budget while he’s at it.
Romney tells us that $360K in speaking fees is not really much money. Put aside the fact that it’s 7 times the average household salary, do we want someone with such poor judgement, such lousy political advisers, to be leader of the free world?