Finally, the truth comes out.

For years, decades, the Utah State Legislature has been denying the “starve the beast” attitude towards public education in this state.  “Top Priority”, but can’t find the money, gotta keep the rainy-day fund for rainy days and don’t want to foist a tax increase upon the unwilling taxpayers have been their mantras.

In yesterday’s Tribune, House Speaker Becky Lockhart let the cat out of the bag.

In an article about putting iPads (or something technologically similar) in the hands of every student in the state and it’s $300M-$750M price tag, she was quoted as saying:

“Let’s not try to be so focused on the money.  If this is the vision we want to have for education, if this is where we know we are headed … then we’ll find the money.”

So, since we can in fact find the money for our vision for public education, then that means that our vision for over 20 years has been “lowest funding in the nation, largest class sizes and lowest pay.”  Nice vision.

For someone’s who never been to the South…

I’m sure making my mark.

First, it’s legal stuff in Georgia, and now it’s…

I’m just hoping that these are lawsuits that will net me some really big settlements, and not legal problems from a drunken rampage through the South that I can’t even remember.

***UPDATE***

This just in:

Seems my trail of blackout debauchery led me back to the state I spent my pre-teen years in.  Hmmm, musta been fun, wish I remembered it.

As if puke on my doorstep isn’t enough…

Today I woke up to this:

Someone had hacked my Barnes & Noble online account.  Dangerous, because they have my Discover card information on file.  ***Lesson learned: Do not leave credit card information on file online.***  The very next email was this:

Whoever had hacked my Barnes & Noble account had used that credit card on file to make an order.

I immediately got online to check the order, and it seems that I sent some guy named Davis a $300 e-certificate B&N gift card.  The message read “Happy Valentines Day, Love you.”  And since they had changed my password, I couldn’t log on to cancel the order.  And since they had changed the contact e-mail, I couldn’t even have them send me the new password.

This is why I will never leave credit card information on file anywhere any more.

I called the Barnes & Noble toll free number.  They were there to sell me something, but their fraud department didn’t open until 9am EST. 

Great.  So I called Discover and they were very helpful, said they would file a report, but I had to talk to Barnes & Noble first.  Since I had left my card number online at the B&N site, it couldn’t be considered a fraudulent charge, that it was a fraudulent order and B&N would have to deal with it first.  they did say that if B&N refused to help, they could file a dispute on the charge and we could go from there.

Next reason not to leave credit card information online:  if the card had not been online, it would have been a fraudulent charge and Discover would have reimbursed me immediately.

I cursed and bitched and moaned about h”how could Barnes & Noble acknowledge that my information may have been changed without my consent, and yet minutes later allow a $300 gift card charge?”  I called them all kinds of things and swore I’d never do business with that rinky-dink company again.

And now I have to eat my words.

Dear Barnes & Noble,  I’m sorry for all the crap I said about your business practices.  I should have waited until I had all the information before jumping to conclusions.  Please forgive me and I will still be doing business with you.

I called them as soon as I could, at lunch, and was told that they had already flagged and denied that order and charge.  What showed up on my Discover card was the preliminary charge, the one they do to make sure I have the credit if the order does go through.

They cancelled the order, I wasn’t charged and even better, the scumbag didn’t even get his $300 gift certificate.  Yeah!

And when I got home, this was in my email box:

Well, I learned two lessons today:  Don’t leave credit card info online and don’t jump to conclusions about Barnes & Noble.  And it didn’t cost me $300.

And I ain’t even been to Georgia lately.

Yet, I seem to be taking someone to court for some reason.

People really fall for this crap?  Even if I had been in Georgia lately, I probably wouldn’t forget filing some papers with the court a scant 11 days ago.

But then again, there may be big bucks in this, I should click on the link just to be sure, no?

I’m Rich!

I recently got this email, and I have to admit I’m flabbergasted.

(Click on it to read.)

I can’t believe it, I just inherited 10 million British Pounds.  That’s over 20 million US Dollars.  Wheeeeee!

I know, I know.  You’re thinking “But your grandparents immigrated from Italy, Russia and Poland.  Any distant relatives you might have in Great Britain would be so distant they wouldn’t even know you exist.”

But still, it does say I’m the lawful Heir/Beneficiary, and it wouldn’t lie, would it?

That’s ok.  I’ve already sent them my SS# and bank account # so they can process it and direct deposit it to my account.

And since you’re being so negative about the whole thing, you’re not invited on the two week cruise I’m chartering in January.

#@%& *(&^%$ @#%&^%

According to my Discover Card, I was at the Bayside Hotel somewhere in South Carolina sometime around 8:00 this morning.  Yup, and I charged almost $700.

Fortunately their fraud division was on the ball and declined the $650 charge, although they approved the $10 purchase at the gift shop.  They called me and emailed me to call them back to verify whether the charges were valid or not.

So, I won’t be held responsible for the fraudulent charges, but I had to cancel my card so they could issue a new one to me.  Now, normally that wouldn’t be a problem, even with the 7 days I would have to wait for the new one to show up.

Except that I had just authorized about $500 in repairs on my Jeep and I didn’t know how I was going to get it out of hock.  I told the guy at Discover my situation, and he said he could “emergency” send me a new card that would show up in about 2 days.  Phew!

Round 2 of #@%& *(&^%$ @#%&^%

Except, the repair shop called and told me that they think the computer to my Jeep was fried, and that I would have to bring it down to the dealership.  Oh, and I owed them $150 for the stuff they did do.  They were willing to hold on to my Jeep until the card showed up, except that would mean it wouldn’t make it to the dealership until Wednesday and probably wouldn’t be done until Friday.

Oh, did I mention I plan to go down to Moab, in the Jeep to 4-wheel,  for the long UEA weekend?

Yeah. #@%& *(&^%$ @#%&^%!

Well, I had $60 to spare in the checking account, and a student loan that doesn’t get pulled out until the 20th, so I just borrowed from myself and got the Jeep out of hock and brought it down to the dealership.  I just have to remember to get a $100 cash advance when the Discover card comes in and get it into my checking so I don’t default on the student loan.

What a Monday.