I Have three gripes to file under STUPID this morning:

1. I am in Key West on business for a few days. Yesterday, on the drive down, I stopped at a Shell station in Florida City before hitting the keys, since gas prices rise 30 cents a gallon the minute you leave the mainland. slid my credit card through the reader (I think that “pay at the pump” is one of the marvels of the modern world) and filled my tank. At the end the display asked me if I wanted a receipt. Since this is a business trip, I pressed “yes” and was rewarded with the following message on the display: “Your receipt is at the inside counter.” This happens to me about one every ten fill-ups and it infuriates me. I sighed, locked up the car, went inside, and waited in line for the cashier.”I’m on pump 4 and it says to come inside for a receipt. Why does it do that? Is it just out of paper?” I asked.”No, for some reason it does it every time someone wants a receipt,” the cashier replied.
   
   “Kind of counter-productive to pay at the pump and have to come inside for a receipt, don’t you think?” I said, a wee bit sarcastically.

   “That’s what I keep telling them, but they don’t listen to me,” he said.

   At least he was honest. I have a theory that gas station mini-mart sales are suffering as a result of pay at the pump so they do this purposely to force you to go inside, figuring that you’ll buy something while you’re there. Customer service be damned.

2. I heard on the news last night that WalMart is going after a more upscale custmer, so they’re going to start selling $500 dollar bottles of wine. I used to work in retail and there was a well worn adage that went something like this:”NEVER FORGET WHAT MADE YOU FAMOUS.”I say, sell your WalMart stock, NOW.
3. I also saw on the news that Senator Joe Biden (Democrat, Delaware) was criticized by the media for remarks he made about presidential candidate Barack Obama (Democrat, Illinois). Biden’s comment, as reported by CNN, was as follows: “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.” This elicited a flurry of media criticism, suggesting that the word “clean” was indicative of a perception that African-Americans, as a race, are NOT “clean.”I don’t take issue with Biden’s comments, I take issue with the media that made such a hubbub about his comment. If Biden had made this statement about a white candidate it would not have even raised an eyebrow. In fact, I thought Biden was referring to the fact that Obama is a fresh new politician with a clean slate – no political baggage, no scandals, no skeletons in the closet. Fresh and clean, pure and simple. Nothing wrong with that. But the media is always trying to stir up a scandal. It’s about selling newsprint and getting ratings. Like when they went after Clinton. So, I might ask, where have they been over the last four years, when Bush lied about WMD, Niger yellowcake, and steel tubes for “nuclear” centrifuges. Why did they let him get away with the lies and incompetence with barely a peep in the press. NOW they are making a scandal out of something that could have been a perfectly innocuous statement.

   Shame on the media. And kudos to Obama, who rose to the occasion by holding the high ground and refusing to take the bait.

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