I Just Flew In From Miami, and Boy Are My Arms Tired ...

I’m at the Miami International Airport and the Wi-Fi connection here is next to useless, so I’ll jot these notes down as I wait for my plane.

· Bank of America is run by a bunch of greedy cretins. I used a Bank of America ATM here at the airport. Not only did they charge me $2.50 for a withdrawal (usury!) the ATM fulfilled my request for $100 by giving me a $100 bill. Seriously, who needs a $100 bill in the airport? When I’m flying to the Dominican Republic! What cretins!

· Miami Airport Starbucks personnel are very helpful. So after getting a $100 bill from the ATM, I walk to the nearest food stand, which is a Starbucks. I explain my tale of woe. The ladies there changed Ben Franklin into smaller bills for me and don’t even make me buy a coffee. They explain it happens all the time – that particular Bank of America ATM always gives $100 bills.

· I like my new Dell laptop. It’s an Inspiron E1705. I bought it because I needed a full-sized keyboard – the Sony Vaio was nice and light and small, but I kept accidentally erasing what I typed on its munchkin-sized keyboard. The only problem with the Inspiron E1705 is the weight, but it’s a 17-inch screen – you could eat your dinner off this thing.

I hate Microsoft. The operating system that came with the new computer is Windows Vista. They should have named it “Windows Edsel.” What a FREAKING lemon of an operating system. The list of complaints is too long, but I’ll name three – its security protocols stops me from running programs I need, it takes way too long to start up, and buttons I need seem to be purposely made small or are completely hidden. What a crock. My recommendation: Buy Apple stock. This is probably the last Microsoft Windows system I’m ever going to invest in.

Well, this list of likes and dislikes is probably not what you were looking for on my blog. But without internet access, I’m cut off from my regular news sources. The Airport TV is shows CNN which is showing a video of a cop slapping a skateboarder. In 20 minutes, I’ve seen that video 3 times. Sure, it’s funny, but I wonder what’s up with the mortgage market – is Washington going to do anything about the millions of people who are likely to be disposed from their homes? For that matter, is the Fed going to do anything with interest rates today? Did the price of uranium go up this week? I wonder how the Congressional investigation into the Valerie Plame leak is going. I wonder how the investigation into the firing of Federal prosecutors is going. What’s going on with the price of oil today? Is inflation heating up or cooling down? Just give me five minutes on each of these topics, CNN, and the American populace would be much better equipped to take charge of its own destiny.

Have you noticed how our major sources of news and information have become instruments of mass distraction? They don’t report news anymore. They distract you from the real news. I have to think that’s intentional.

Wait, I spoke too soon – they have a clip of President Bush now, talking about Congress potentially subpoenaing Karl Rove. He’s trying to explain, in a round-about way, that of course Karl Rove can’t testify under oath – then he might have to tell the truth! We can’t have that!

Boy, does President Bush look and talk like a desperate, cornered man. Maybe he is.

Well, that was 40 seconds (I timed it) with four different clips of Bush speaking, now they’re on to the CNN talking heads. They add nothing to the knowledge base. Bring back the cop slapping the skateboarder.

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