Land of the Brave, Home of the Fee

I just read that last year the airlines raked in $6B in baggage, reservation change, and other assorted fees.  And just coincidentally, last year the airlines made a profit of $6B. 

Wouldn't it have been cheaper to just board with NO bags, buy new clothes when you get there, then give 'em to Goodwill when you leave, flying back empty handed?

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"WE JUST CAN'T HAVE NICE THANGS"

The BBC reports that more than $1M worth of Chopard jewels to be worn by celebrities at the Cannes Film Festival was stolen from a hotel room there.

"Earl....I told you puttin' my diamond stuff under the mattress was dumb.  That's the first place them crooks look!"

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SMART MR. MAYOR.  REAL SMART.

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings is proposing the city build an $80M maritime museum on the banks of the Trinity river. 

No joke....this is it!

Has he ever seen the Trinity river?  Most days you can wade across it.  He wants to make the soon-to-be-decommissioned nuclear submarine USS Dallas the centerpiece. *good luck getting it there*

Riiiight....Dallas has such a strong maritime tradition.  I think a bigger money-maker would be to charge a few bucks a head for people to see where the knucklehead that proposed an $80M maritime museum in Dallas lives. 

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And finally, I read that Speaker of the House John Boner is incensed that the IRS singled out conservative groups for harassment.  I don't blame him.  But he says just apologizing and firing a few IRS officials isn't enough.  He wants to know "Who's going to jail?"

Ummm....John....where was your outrage when all your banker buddies / campaign contributors defrauded investors and taxpayers back in '08 and nearly crashed the world?  I'm still waiting to see who's going to jail for that. 

*Still waiting*

S 

Flush twice....Houston needs the water

That was the news headline today regarding the drought all across Texas.  Technically the Dallas area is no longer in a drought.  In fact, so far this year we're 5" above normal in our rainfall.   Our area lakes have been largely replenished and it's not even spring yet, traditionally our "wet" season.

Houston, however, isn't so lucky.  Their population is growing, but their water supply due to the drought is shrinking.  Eventually the two lines on the graph will cross and they'll be in deep doo-doo.  Which....umm....brings me to the title of this post.


The Trinity River, the nasty 'ol Trinity River that runs through Dallas, the river that has signs posted along it's banks telling us to not eat any fish we catch there, is Houston's drinking water.  Dallas processes 135-145 million gallons of raw sewage every day, separates....well....you know, and sends it on downstream via the Trinity, ultimately to Lake Livingston.  From there Houston puts their Good Housekeeping Seal on it and pumps it right to their residents.  While this is probably pretty normal in the water biz, it just sounds so....Ewwwwww!


But then Houston is used to it.  You know how the beer brewers always brag in their commercials about their "perfect water", the ingredient that makes their beer the best in the world, blah blah blah?  Last time I looked there was a Budweiser brewery in Houston.  Right on the Houston ship channel.  So am I to infer the water for Budweiser's Houston brewery comes from....Ewwwwww!


All this reminds me of the time years ago listening to the radio as they reported a massive recall of Payday candy bars.  It seems the department that oversees health at food processing plants (FDA?) found an unacceptably high level of "rodent droppings" in the finished product.  A certain amount of rat poop is within tolerance it explained, but this batch was waaaaay off the chart.  At the moment I heard that report I was eating a Payday candy bar....Ewwwwww!


Some things you just don't want to know.  Who's with me?  I wonder if this is where the old saying "Ignorance is bliss" came from?  


Now forget about everything I just wrote and go have a nice weekend.  :)


S