Window Shopper

It always happens. When there is tragedy, someone comes up with the idea that those people who have already had problems, they should have more. I am going to state here that most of the people who are around tragedy step up and help those who need it most. For instance, our television station that covers the whole Kait8 viewing area, had a drive going to “Pack A Pickup” to take to the damaged areas to give people some hope and goods who need it most.

That is all about caring about your neighbor. They are at least 75 miles from the closest major damage and at least 150 miles from some other places with damage. The path of the storm is very big with three counties being called disaster areas, thus allowing them the chance to get federal help.

In the Mountain View area, it was an EF4 tornado. In Highland, Sage, Clinton and other hit areas, it was a EF3. The damage ranged from Atkins, Arkansas to Highland, Arkansas, many miles apart. Now, they are saying that ONE tornado did all that damage, destruction and death.

Through all this, you would think that there would be kind hearted people, all willing and able to help in any way possible. Not necessarily. Police and Sheriff troops were called in from other places to help with controlling the looting that always seems to come in the wake of a storm. Then there are the leaches, acting like helping individuals, who are really taking advantage of the situation and getting big bucks in the process. I will not state the type of actions they were taking but the greed is obvious. A service or item which normally would cost around $45 now costs well over $100. Is it because of the huge need of that service or item, do you think?

YES, most assuredly that is the reason. Now, I imagine that some are thinking that they should have been here to get in on the action. NO!! That is so cold hearted just as those who, in the past, were seen as being kind, considerate and helpful, are now extremely greedy in the face of tragedy. If the item or service was not needed they would just waste away like they ought to do. Some day, they will regret their actions because (and I really hate to use this phrase) what goes around, comes around. Some day, they will have needs too and watch the greedy jerks come out to claim theirs back.

Yesterday, we were out and about voting and getting provisions for the possible bad weather coming through our county. Stopped at a couple of stores and got some nice produce and a boneless ham. I love the ham salad we can make with that ham. It’s truly great. After that, we went home to watch the weather and news. Our niece headed over to my Mom’s house because it was karate night.

The tornado came through knocking out the electricity so that we could not watch the weather reports. That reminds me that we are going to get a battery operated scanner sometime soon so that will not be a problem anymore. My sister called in hysterics because my bro-in-law was IN the tornado coming through close by. He got picked up and rolled around and set back down right side up in the minivan he was driving. Neither he nor the van sustained more than minor damage.

But now, the devastation is horrible. Many businesses and homes are now gone or damaged beyond repair. Too many folks are dealing with this. But there is a bright side. There were no deaths or major injuries in our area. There were several deaths and injuries in other parts of our states and the state east of us. We were truly blessed.

In the days after the storm, I am certain that people will pick up the pieces and begin again because that is what happens. Many of the businesses that are gone will rise again because that’s what we do, endure and keep going. It is expected that there will be power back on for most of the region this week.

This particular post has nothing to do with buying anything, at least right here. But it has everything to do with the big bully google and what it is about to do to bloggers who, for whatever reason, have not complied with a terms of service that none of us agreed to with google. See, google wants to run the net. Google wants to get bloggers and website owners to comply with their orders. The funny thing is that those of us who did not sign up to be bullied by them are getting spanked and then delisted by them. Do you know why they are doing this?

Glad you asked. This goes back to the paid to post companies that hire people who have blogs to write posts and reviews for them. When the blogger contracts to do that and writes the post, they get paid a certain amount of money. Now, in the meanwhile, google is getting people to put icons and widgets on their blogs in order to make money. The blogger keeps the widget there and when someone clicks on it, they can get paid…very small amounts and not paid until a certain amount is reached. Those programs are called adsense and adwords. They belong to google.

So, what’s the problem, right? Well, seems that google is not happy to have only some of the money pie. They want it all. The companies that hire the bloggers sometimes use the google page rank to qualify bloggers to work for them. Most of the companies did this for quite a while. Since google feels it’s power now, they decided to change things by dropping the page rank to an unacceptable level for the companies so that they would fire the bloggers who are no longer qualified.

In the meanwhile, google expects the blogger to come, hat in hand, admit that they did wrong and beg to get back in the good graces of the big bully google. If that does not happen by the time they want it, google will delist the blogs involved. When that happens, they will get what they want, to destroy the blogger’s income.

Here’s the punchline. The bloggers who do this paid to post blogging are, for the most part, in need of the cash that they get from these posts. Usually, they are women at home taking care of kids, grandpas and grandmas trying to make a buck to supplement their incredibly puny social security checks, disabled folks, young people who have no other income, people who do not want to end up homeless. Does google care that they are doing this to people? NO! They do not. All they care about is that someone is cutting into their money pie.

If google must strike anyone, it’s about time they decided to hit the major companies instead of the little guys. Why don’t they? Because the big guys will slam them so hard, they won’t know which way is up. But the little guys are not strong enough to fight the big bad bully google…alone. Now it’s time for bloggers to rise up and resist the google bully. Tell google how you feel. Do not be afraid of their tactics. That’s what it’s all about…fear. If they can get you afraid of them enough, they win…you lose. Of course, the blogger pretty much loses anyway because this fight is really between the big bully and the big companies.

Take the time to put in your two cents here in the comments field or in your own blog and link back to this one. It’s time to let google know that we will not take these bullying tactics without a fight.

Once again, it’s bad news at the pumps probably because the all powerful “theys” are at it again. There was an announcement that it was possible that a barrel of crude could conceivably go to over $100 and watch the pump prices rise.

According to the lastest statistics, the national price at the pump rose 5 cents a gallon. The average price all over the country was $2.80 a gallon as of Friday. The highest gas price was a hot $3.17 in San Francisco and the lowest was $2.56 in Newark, N.J.

Merv Griffin, the guy who invented Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy, died at the age of 82 of prostate cancer. He was an icon on television for years and has been behind the scenes since then. The Merv Griffin Show aired for 20 years. Wheel and Jeopardy became hot shows and he sold the rights to Coca Cola’s Columbia Pictures Television Unit for $250 million in 1986. With the profits from the shows, he bought hotels, several of them. More recently, he was working on a new game show called “Merv Griffin’s Crosswords”. He will be sorely missed.