RickMcCharles.com

I went online to Escalade Sports to email them my concerns about one of their products. … But Escalade has no contact by email.

Red flag. You can only telephone customer service … and only during Office Hours.

Have you tried to phone a customer service number lately? Forget it.

Instead I’ll post my rant here. On twitter. And on Facebook.

Model no T8098F sold by Escalade Sports of Illinois is garbage. I volunteered to try to assemble one. It was to be a Christmas present.

Problems:

• parts missing #30 and #31.

• too complicated

• difficult to assemble

• cheap parts

• table top made of particle board … are you surprised the warranty is only 90 days?

THIS IS A GAME TABLE. DO NOT SIT, STAND, LEAN, WALK OR JUMP ON TABLE! FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH THIS CAUTION COULD RESULT IN PERSONAL INJURY AND/OR PROPERTY DAMAGE!

If you climb up on this table, it will collapse. … There’s no chance kids will climb up on a table, is there?

Worst of all, this table is shipped in 4 sections so you have a “join” in the centre of the table

No matter how carefully you screw the two sides of the top together, a ball will not bounce “true” off that join.

The T8098F pingpong table is CRAP. Don’t buy one. We’ll be returning ours to Escalade Sports via their distributor Sports Authority Canadian Tire. I’ll report back on how that goes.

Canadian Tire refunded the money without a peep. Thanks.

User Manual (pdf)

Outside Adventure Blog named Greg Mortenson the Adventure Story of the Decade.

Kudos to Outside. That’s a gutsy and correct call. What Greg has done was the most inspirational story I’ve heard in recent years.

… Who is Greg Mortenson?

Greg Mortenson is the co-founder of nonprofit Central Asia Institute www.ikat.org , founder of Pennies For Peace www.penniesforpeace.org , and co-author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Three Cups of Tea www.threecupsoftea.com , and author of the bestsellerStones into Schools www.stonesintoschools.com.

In 2009, Mortenson received Pakistan’s highest civil award, Sitara-e-Pakistan (“Star of Pakistan”) for his dedicated and humanitarian effort to promote education and literacy in rural areas for fifteen years. …

About Greg Mortenson

This guy has done more by himself to help Pakistan than all the hundreds of millions spent by the U.S. government. I love the title of this article: He Fights Terror With Books

I highly recommend his first book. Greg Mortenson is my hero.

click for details on the book

Never has the failure to climb a mountain led to such success. After Greg Mortenson failed to climb K2 in 1993 to honor his dead sister, he picked a new mountain. He raised enough money so a small village in Pakistan could build their own school.

In 2006 he published Three Cups of Tea, a book chronicling his journey. By 2009 he had supported more than 131 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. At a time when U.S. foreign policy is governed by military might that includes Shock and Awe and a flock of high-altitude drones, Greg Mortenson took a simpler, gentler approach. He traveled on rugged roads to small villages—in the same remote regions where the United States dropped bombs from unseen and unheard planes high in the sky—to deliver cash so locals could build schools from stones and have basic learning supplies for their children. He took the war against violence out of the sky and put it in the hands of young girls on the ground.

The Top 10 Adventure Stories of the Decade

A lone traveler on the American Terrorist “Watch List” flies from a Muslim country without luggage … and he was not flagged at any airport.

What does the Czar of Homeland Security have to say?

With commentary by (with great photoshop work) Michelle Malkin.

Clown alert: Janet Napolitano says the “system worked

… one thing I’d like to point out is that the system worked. …

So the whole process of making sure that we respond properly, correctly and effectively went very smoothly.

Janet Napolitano is the United States Secretary of Homeland Security.

She later went on NBC’s Today Show with host Matt Lauer and appeared to change her view to reflect that the security system had indeed failed.

OK, she misspoke. Anyone can do that once …

I’d forgive her if she hadn’t previously blundered about my country:

… “Yes, Canada is not Mexico. It doesn’t have a drug war going on,” Napolitano said. “Nonetheless, to the extent that terrorists have come into our country …it’s been across the Canadian border.” …

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is not fit for position, recent events prove

Loose lips sink ships, Janet.

One terrorist, once, tried to cross from Canada to the U.S.A. … One of your astute border guards caught him. Your system worked, that time.

Michael Williams of Fannie Mae, top, and Charles Haldeman of Freddie Mac will each receive up to $6 million for two years.

I was a big supporter of Obama very early on in his bid to become President.

He’s still likely the very best man that’s ever held the job.

But let me go on record very early on to say he won’t win a second term.

On Dec. 24th the Democrats delivered a Christmas present:

… significant new financial support to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the beleaguered mortgage giants, no matter how badly they perform in the next few years.

The announcement came as the government approved cash compensation for the companies’ top executives of up to $42 million for their work this past year. The largest payouts will go to the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac chief executives, who each will receive up to $6 million over two years, according to financial filings made Thursday. …

NY Times

I know $6 million, even $42 million is chump change. That corporate fat cat salaries is a specious issue.

But a number of talking points like this one makes Obama a sitting duck for any Republican who runs on a platform of fiscal responsibility.

The American voter has no stomach for increased taxes. That means the next President of the U.S.A. will be the Republican who runs on decreasing the Federal budget.

And how do you decrease budget spending? It’s obvious …

Whatever Republican candidate with the guts to bring American troops home soon can beat Obama. The U.S.A. can no longer afford to be policeman to the world.

That graph’s old and an oversimplification. There’s a more detailed breakdown of the 2009 budget here.

My 17-day trip report from November with photos are UP now on the besthike blog.

It’s surprisingly easy to walk to Everest Base Camp. You could do it.

Everest trek – day 1

I still avoid all things Microsoft, but I’m softening.

They were far from boring over the past 12 months.

In fact, Microsoft was the most-mentioned brand online in 2009, Google ranks second.

Mashable posted an excellent year in review for MS, if you are interested.

In the meantime, Apple stock is at all-time high.

In the 40 years since U.S. President Richard Nixon declared a “war on drugs,” the supply and use of drugs has not changed in any fundamental way. The only difference: a taxpayer bill of more than $1 trillion.

A senior Mexican official who has spent more than two decades helping fight the government’s war on drugs summed up recently what he’s learned from his long career: “This war is not winnable.” …

… Growing numbers of Mexican and U.S. officials say—at least privately—that the biggest step in hurting the business operations of Mexican cartels would be simply to legalize their main product: marijuana. Long the world’s most popular illegal drug, marijuana accounts for more than half the revenues of Mexican cartels.

“Economically, there is no argument or solution other than legalization, at least of marijuana,” said the top Mexican official matter-of-factly. The official said such a move would likely shift marijuana production entirely to places like California, where the drug can be grown more efficiently and closer to consumers. …

Wall Street Journal – Saving Mexico

California is one of 14 states that have legalized medical marijuana, anyway. It’s easy to be prescribed legal dope there.

Assembly Bill 390: The Marijuana Control, Regulation and Education Act … is the first bill ever introduced to regulate the sale and use of marijuana in the U.S. state of California. If passed and signed into law, marijuana would be sold and taxed openly to adults age 21 and older in California. …

Proponents are trying to take that to a statewide vote sometime in 2010.

I’m sure Arnold is thinking about it. An estimated $1.3 billion in revenue to the empty California tax coffers.

But the U.S.A. is one of the most conservative (backward) nations in the world. The romantic comedy “It’s Complicated” got an R rating, … “which experts say could limit the box-office potential of the Universal Pictures film — … largely from a sequence in which Steve Martin and Meryl Streep smoke marijuana.”

Producers have appealed.

This is a polarizing issue in a nation already split between Democrats and Republicans. It would be a gutsy move for Arnold to allow legislation to go ahead … if Californians vote to legalize. I think he should.

Via #jeffjarvis Grrrrr. RT @JPBarlow:

NY Times – Additional Layer of Restrictions Is Imposed on Airline Passengers

One idiot gets through screening in Amsterdam. Now hundreds of thousands of flyers every day will be even more inconvenienced. Unnecessarily.

Does taking off your shoes before boarding make you feel any safer?

Recall that Newark airport in 2006 flunked 20 of 22 security tests operated by undercover federal agents. They failed to spot items including concealed bombs and guns.

Even if all passengers are forced to fly naked, it still won’t be possible to 100% deter idiots who aspire to be martyrs.

This is “security theatre“, plain and simple.

Security theater consists of security countermeasures intended to provide the feeling of improved security while doing little or nothing to actually improve security. …

There seems to be no way we can protest over zealous security measures in airports. Aside from avoiding flying. Avoid flying via the U.S.A. if you can.

Sure U.S. airlines will over-react. But Air Canada was one of the quickest to jump on the bandwagon:

… Air Canada’s Web site read, “during the final hour of flight customers must remain seated, will not be allowed to access carry-on baggage, or have personal belongings or other items on their laps.” …

Another reason to fly WestJet, if you can.

Dave sent me a year in review philosophical Novella today. (Everyone forgets his birthday, Dec. 26th.)

I’ve posted the entire missive – Voluntary Simplicity – Dave Adlard style – in the comments of this post. But here’s a summary of his Maui rules:

9) Speak softly and wear a loud shirt

8) Age is relative – when you’re over the hill, you pick up speed

7) Beauty is internal – looks mean nothing.

6) Never judge a day by the weather.

5) Tell the truth. There’s less to remember.

4) No rain, no rainbows.

3) He who dies with the most toys still dies.

2) There are two ways to be rich: make more or desire less.

1) The best things in life aren’t things!

I love it !!

Thanks Dave. Looking forward to seeing you and Lisa soon.

related post – Voluntary Simplicity