Here’s a stupid question: I have a book of stamps I purchased a few years back when I had to mail a thing. Now I have to mail another thing, and I know the price of stamps has gone up at least once in the interim.
The stamps in my book don’t have a value printed on them. Will one stamp still work, or do I need to purchase a book of smaller-value stamps to augment the old stamp? I hope not, because that would necessitate a trip to the PO, and our Postmistress is a fearsome creature straight out of a Eudora Welty novel.
Another random thing: I’ve been reading comments around the web regarding the horrific botched execution in Oklahoma last night. Death penalty supporters seem to be laboring under the delusion that we death penalty opponents are weeping over the poor killers.
In their patronizing account, we’re supposed to think the killers could be rehabilitated and released into elementary school playgrounds with enough love, understanding and self esteem-building exercises.
Just for the record, that is a steaming crock of horseshit, and furthermore, you bastards who are making that argument know it is, which is why you start screeching “Kermit!-baybeees!-abortion!” when called on your gibberish.
I’m all for protecting society from mad-dog killers. I’d just rather my government not carry out barbaric torture in my name. It’s really not a difficult argument to grasp.
Final random thing: I had to replace, at great expense, my A/C unit last fall. Over the winter, the associated plumbing shit the bed.
Now I’ve got men crawling all over my attic and yard trying to fix it, and of course, it’s 90 degrees. Fuckity fuck.
Campionrules
I would hazard a guess that they are Forever Stamps – thus having no value on them. If that’s the case, all you need is one. Because, they are, like, forever.
Campionrules
Of course, they would probably have the word Forever on them somewhere.
The Dangerman
No number = Forever.
MattF
Wikipedia, the conveyor of all knowledge, calls it ‘Non-denominated postage’:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-denominated_postage
Also, when you have a need for a list of fictional ducks:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_ducks
dmsilev
@MattF:
As opposed to all of the forgettable duck characters from fiction? Ah, Wikipedia.
JGabriel
John Cole @ Top:
John, one stamp will work. Stamps without prices printed on them are intended to still be good even if prices go up.
That’s why the latest interations of them are called “Forever” stamps. From Stamps.com:
raven
My condensate pipe was plugged up and, after trying myself, my HVAC guy came. I hope your problem is just pvc and not copper.
Origuy
The older “Forever” stamps just had “First-Class Postage” or similar on them. They should still work.
ETA: JGabriel, when did John start spelling his name “Betty Cracker”?
JGabriel
@Campionrules:
Nope. Here’s a page full of Forever Stamps, none of which have Forever printed on them.
Belafon
@JGabriel: That’s Betty at the top, not John.
Trollhattan
Forever stamps were a pretty slick idea from the Republicans’ hated Post Office. They did away with the whole pesky buy-a-bunch-of-one-cent-stamps-to-use-this-clump-of-old-stamps thing.
And in climate news, not good is going to very bad, indeed.
apps.seattletimes.com/reports/sea-change/2014/apr/30/pteropod-shells-dissolving/
theepochtimes.com/n3/648485-el-nino-2014-study-links-california-drought-to-global-warming/
JCJ
@MattF:
That list of fictional ducks is awesome. Whatever would we do without the intertoobz? I mean, besides be more productive because we are not piddling away time reading about fictional ducks.
Betty Cracker
@raven: Unfortunately, its copper. I’ll be writing a large check shortly.
Schlemizel
You have forever stamps & you should be good to go – you are mooching off the USPS now because you paid less than current market value!
One of the biggest hurdles sane people have when discussing the death penalty is that the inmate is never a good guy. Even when they didn’t do the crime they are set to be killed for they are often people with a history of offenses. This makes the blood-lusters feel justified in thinking that the death is an improvement even if it is not the right person. This is wrong on every level but it is a battle I do not think sane people can win. We have to focus on all the mistakes. What was the results from Illinois examination, 9 out of 11 wrongful convictions on death row?
raven
@Betty Cracker: rut ro, refrigerant too then!
Schlemizel
@dmsilev: I know of a certain Hollywood big shot director that would love for people to forget one fictional duck!
JGabriel
@JGabriel:
Oops. Sorry, Betty. Don’t know why I thought you were Cole. You don’t look anything alike (I assume).
Edited to Add: Thanks, Belafon, I just caught that too.
Betty Cracker
@raven: Yep. Sorry, Al Gore!
Trollhattan
@raven:
Put an addition on our casa and the first summer I kept finding evidence of a water leak in a wall where there was no plumbing. Turned out one of the worker bees had zapped a screw through the HVAC condensation drain line (PVC), which explained both the magical water source and its intermittancy. They had to tear open the wall to fix his little mistake, then replace insulation and re-drywall.
Schlemizel
@raven: Being Florida and summer has arrived no price is too dear when it comes to AC. I would go to historical museums there & see these old pictures of people dressed from head-to-toe with multiple layers & wonder how they did not all die of heat stroke or die out because they stunk so bad that breeding was impossible!
? Martin
@Belafon:
Betty always struck me as a top.
Nate Dawg
Wait, Betty is John’s psuedonym? Mind blown.
Hungry Joe
“Why I live at the P.O.” GOD, I love that story:
… So the first thing Stella-Rondo did at the table was turn Papa-Daddy against me.
“Papa-Daddy,” she says. He was trying to cut up his meat. “Papa-Daddy!” I was taken completely by surprise. Papa-Daddy is about a million years old and’s got this long-long beard. “Papa-Daddy, Sister says she fails to understand why you don’t cut off your beard.”
So Papa-Daddy l-a-y-s down his knife and fork! He’s real rich. Mama says he is, he says he isn’t. So he says, “Have I heard correctly? You don’t understand why I don’t cut off my beard?”
“Why,” I says, “Papa-Daddy, of course I understand, I did not say any such of a thing, the idea!”
He says, “Hussy!”
I says, “Papa-Daddy, you know I wouldn’t any more want you to cut off your beard than the man in the moon. It was the farthest thing from my mind! Stella-Rondo sat there and made that up while she was eating breast of chicken.”
scav
Remember, OK is not without recent precedent in its mad scramble for executions, whatever the procedures or consequences. Nor is this OK’s first star in its heavenly crown. From Feb this year
States are lying and scrambling to get drugs by whatever means possible to get their fix. Nov 2013. They’re engineering procedures and cover for exactly the results of yesterday.
Amir Khalid
@Nate Dawg:
How do you know it’s not the other way around?
Nate Dawg
In other news, did y’all read about the Vet that kept a dog alive to use for blood transfusions after telling its family it had been euthanized?
gawker.com/vet-accused-of-ilegally-keeping-dogs-alive-for-secret-b-1569892453/all
Some sick shit.
Schlemizel
@JGabriel:
Eh, its understandable – questioning postage & mechanical failures it COULD have been JC! 8-{D
jl
@MattF: Thanks. I did not know Wikipedia had such useful stuff.
I see they also have a List of Lists of Fictional Animals, List of Fictional Species and List of Legendary Creatures.
I’m going to check out the List of Fictional Mustelids.
Fictional weasels seem to be rare.
Can’t find a list for fictional protozoa. Seems like there should be some of those.
Trollhattan
@Schlemizel:
OTOH I have no reason to question whether Ms. Cracker remains clothed for general housekeeping–persistent sultry weather though it may be.
fidelio
I was in the same boat, and checked–all postage stamps sold after 2010 for sure are Forevers; the first one came out in 12207, but it wasn’t a general thing until later.
the USPS, keen to carry out customer service, sells stamps online and you can see pictures in case you want to see if you can pick your stamp out of the line-up.
Also, this is not my grandfather’s USPS, nor even my father’s–there are now commemorative stamps for both Harvey Milk AND Jimmi Hendrix.
Trollhattan
@Nate Dawg:
Wait, what?!?
MattF
@jl: Note episode 19, “The Germ Turns”:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Duckman_episodes
Nate Dawg
@Trollhattan: Yup. It’s enough to make you rethink your opposition to the death penalty. Just for a second.
srv
Speaking of rockets
Dependency on Russian rockets is going to shake up the entire space industry.
Schlemizel
@Nate Dawg: There were rumors going around here years ago that the animals euthanized at the University clinic were not really euthanized, just sedated until the owners left & then revived for experimentation. Many were up in arms but nobody could turn up a single case of it happening & the vets all said “even if we ever experimented on animals, why would we want to experiment on animals near death?
If this turns out to be true those fears will be reborn.
JGabriel
@Schlemizel:
I didn’t want to say it, but, yeah, that’s exactly what I did: assumed it was Cole from the question.
StringOnAStick
@srv: Dependency on Russian rockets for the space station was never a good idea, but it made the rethug budget cutters happy, so advantage Putin. How they keep the “strong on foreign policy” label is a mystery/travesty.
? Martin
@srv: We’re only dependent on Russia for the manned capsule. SpaceX is doing exemplary work getting payload to orbit. Their manned capsule could visit the ISS in as little as 18 months. They might be able to do that faster with additional funding.
But yeah, in the short term, this is a problem for ISS.
Howard Beale IV
@srv: That’s why we need to work on an orbital elevator.
Go big or go home.
Trollhattan
@Nate Dawg:
Am truly gobsmacked–that poor, poor pup. Will be interesting to see what the DA can actually charge him with–civil courts will be another matter entirely. Voir dire will be pretty odd: “Do you have any pets? Do you like them at all?”
JGabriel
BTW, I just went to the post office this afternoon to mail my sister a birthday present. Anyway, due to it being pretty slow – probably ’cause of the rain – I discovered something new:
Postal employees are actually pretty nice and give good service when they’re not being slammed and overstressed by more customers than they’re staffed to handle. Since that kind of peace rarely occurs in midtown Manhattan, I’d never seen it before. Who knew?
Gin & Tonic
90 degrees? It is literally half that here, and raining. You’re welcome to visit until your A/C is fixed. Bring a coat.
Paul in KY
@Betty Cracker: I just spent $2,100 on a new unit/thermostat/installation.
I feel your pain.
JPL
In a perfect society, folks would understand that there are more amendments than two in the Constitution. What happened last night was a violation under the 8th Amendment of the United States.
Paul in KY
@JGabriel: I would bet my life Betty doesn’t look anything like Mr. Cole!
Mnemosyne
I think that as long as it’s an envelope that would normally get a first-class stamp (standard business-size envelope), you’re all set. If it’s oversized and would normally require more than one stamp, that’s where it gets weird.
Paul in KY
@Schlemizel: It did keep them all thin, though. Like walking around in your own personal sauna.
fidelio
@Nate Dawg: I know someone whose dog is a regular blood donor–the clinic where he takes her to donate make a big fuss over their donor dogs, and give them discounted care.
But you, know, that’s a choice he’s made, and he and his dog get something for doing that.
This mess, though–ugh.
kindness
So Betty did the contractor that did the work last year have any kind of warranty?
Helen
@Origuy: Also when did John start posting at 2:30 in the afternoon? He’s much more a 2:30 in the morning guy.
kbuttle
This is a wonderfully diverse set of thoughts for one post. Thanks Betty C!
Iowa Old Lady
My objection to the death penalty stems as much what it does to us as a people as from what it does to the condemned.
Paul in KY
@Nate Dawg: Man. My family would want to come get my guns if that happened to a beloved pet of mine.
Ed
@JGabriel: Don’t mean to be picky – but those stamps ALL say “forever” on them.
jayjaybear
@jl: Osmosis Jones?
raven
@Schlemizel: I’m deep into reading about the Civil War in Georgia and the Battle of Atlanta specifically. Hardee’s Confederate’s marched in a big loop all night on July 22, 1864. They got back to “Bald Hill” and fought all day. They all wore wool uniforms and carried lots of weight. Hard to imagine.
mdblanche
They say when a candidate is so far behind so early it’s a name recognition problem. In Jeb’s case that’s probably true, except it’s a different sort of name recognition problem.
kathleen
If you only mail things every couple of years, you can afford to put two stamps on whatever it is. Unless you last bought stamps in the 1950s, or the item you’re mailing is extraordinarily heavy, it will be overkill…but so what?
Paul in KY
@Ed: My ‘forever’ stamps do say ‘forever’ on them.
Waynski
I stayed with our cat Trotsky when they put him down until he wasn’t breathing. He was so sick he couldn’t walk anymore and was shitting and pissing on the couch. We had him cremated and they gave us his ashes. I suggest, as painful as it is, staying in the room until you know that they’re gone.
scav
Mary Fallin (R) you cross-wearing, disingenuous twit with your wide eyed request for what could possibly have gone wrong review
States subjecting death row inmates to longer deaths amid scramble for drugs January 2014.
And there’s a paper-trail of you and yours scrambling to alter exactly the “most up-to-date protocol” to keep the pipelines running. Pushing so hard that one blows a vein and bad things happen, sound familiar?
ok damn it, I need those fictional ducks.
Certified Mutant Enemy
@StringOnAStick:
The whole space station program is essentially a jobs program for Russian rocket scientists to keep them from offering their services to unsavory clients…
srv
@StringOnAStick: As I used to argue with anti-Russian crowd at JSC, “Roscosmos is way more reliable than the shuttle.”
Took Columbia for them to come around to that way of thinking.
@? Martin: Lockheed’s Atlas and Orbital’s whatchamacallit use Russian engines, and Sea Launch and that other private launcher use Russian rockets.
Also, to, Progress re-supply missions.
Schlemizel
@JGabriel: I knew it was not JC because he posts at 2AM not PM! :)
EDIT: DAMN, @Helen: beat me to it.
Anoniminous
@Howard Beale IV:
There are some serious problems. One such
Meaning, we don’t know how to build it but we know we can’t do it with what we’ve got.
Except for the fact Congress is infested with science hating cost-cutting Fundie/Con technophobe dipshits it’s the sort of problem the US Federal government is uniquely capable of addressing. But Congress is infested with science hating cost-cutting Fundie/Con technophobe dipshits so … no funding, no way.
JGabriel
@Ed:
D’oh! You’re right. I didn’t see it on the front page, but it shows up when the stamp image is enlarged after you click through.
And with that, I’m gonna take a break commenting for a few hours, since I seem to be particularly error-prone in this thread.
Betty Cracker
@kindness: There’s a warranty on the A/C unit, but the problem is with the pipes that run from the unit to the air handler, which are old and crappy. So, I’m on the hook for it. Le sigh.
Nazgul35
equal time for cats!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_cats
Nate Dawg
@Waynski: What Waynski said.
burnspbesq
@scav:
One of the interesting subsidiary questions here is how the concept of “humane execution” ever became a thing that people think is possible.
rikyrah
if you have a forever stamp, you can always use them.
Anoniminous
@burnspbesq:
Given there’s a large pool, approximately 1% of the US population, of Test Subjects “humane execution” is another problem that is solvable, although needing public support and funding.
Schlemizel
@raven: I am nuts for the ACW and those stories are awesome – in the old fashioned ‘awe’. Combat was so different then, they took winter off pretty much, food was crap & conditions worse. Dark blue wool uniforms in the high sun on July 2nd in Gettysburg or Vicksburg would have been hell. People who wonder why Mead did not pursue Lee can not imagine the logistical nightmare of taking troops who had had the crap kicked out of them for 3 days and chasing down a very substantial force with a good half days start on them in that heat & humidity and then engaging them in a way that the Union side had the advantage would have been murder. Yeah, it probably would have ended the war had it worked but I would not want any part of it and it very well might not have worked.
Belafon
@? Martin: That’s ok. I’m pretty sure mistermix will argue that we should only be sending robots to the ISS.
scav
@burnspbesq: You do rather leap to the extremes. I’m not expecting a platonic ideal of perfectly humane, I would rather hope for not randomly barbaric, incompetently implemented by political actors playing fast and loose with the rules in their rush to score points. It’s a serious god-damned step to take and should be less of a cheap circus. And that’s my baseline. The discussion of the myriad other flaws in how people get onto the list of those to be executed in this nation is separate.
Amir Khalid
@Anoniminous: On the other hand, a thing not worth doing is surely not worth doing right.
Anoniminous
@Schlemizel:
Plus the Army of the Potomac had been forced marching since June 13th, the various Corps had been more than decimated or fed into the line catch-as-catch-can, the surviving and unwounded Corp Commanders were (to put it bluntly) crap, the AotP had already eaten most of the food to be found on the line of march, and the AotP was out of artillery and low on other ammunition.
Anoniminous
@Amir Khalid:
My comment was tongue in cheek.
Amir Khalid
@Anoniminous:
Yes, I know.
Schlemizel
@Anoniminous:
I was unaware of their food situation but had read they had supply problems with ammunition. Thanks.
As for feeding pieces into the fray I take every opportunity to remind people that on day 2 there were only 262 members of the 1st MN. left & it was all the reserve available when 1500 Alabamans broke the center. They fixed bayonets and charged. Brought the advance to a halt until darkness fell & the fighting stopped. Highest casualty rate from a single engagement of any unit in US history – 82%.
BrianM
@Schlemizel:
My wife works at a vet school. Fake euthanasia in the service of fiendish experiments would lead to the students burning down the building. People who take on $100,000 of debt to become vets aren’t doing it for the money; they love animals. And they are not shy about promoting animal welfare.
No way you could hide it from students, either, since each case has a student assigned.
Mike E
@scav: I hope Fallin chokes on on a bag of salted (fictional) ducks.
Paul in KY
@burnspbesq: Quick & not drawn out. Does not have to be painless, but it should be quick & final.
schrodinger's cat
I finally bought my ticket to go to India, going after almost a decade. I has an anxious and an excited.
Penus
One of the two major political parties in the United States is made up of talk radio hosts.
Eric Cantor @GOPLeader · 2h
Today is #NationalHonestyDay. #Benghazi
pseudonymous in nc
Er, no. The reason to object to the death penalty is because it lessens us, because the way a society chooses to kill people — or chooses not to kill people — reflects upon every single person within it.
JR in WV
@Mnemosyne: I got a package of tools, wrenches mostly, shipped from the garage that towed the rolled F-350, there were 105 forever stamps, overlapped so they would all fit. And 6 4-cent stamps, too.
The accident was March 7, the tow operator is as honest a man as you will ever meet!!
catclub
@Hungry Joe: What is the song? “I’m Pop-Eye the Sai-lor Man?”
Great story.
JR in WV
More on (one of) the point(s), my Dad made a good point about executions. He was against the death penalty with a couple of exceptions. The second conviction, because you need to protect the other prisoners. Conviction of attacking a corrections officer for another example.
I could see welding them into a box and sliding food through a slot, but these botched attempts to execute people are disgusting, despicable, Republican and unAmerican!
JustRuss
@JGabriel:
This is Balloon Juice, why the hell would that stop you?
satby
@schrodinger’s cat: Have fun! I hope you have a wonderful trip, I love India! Will you be able to visit family?
schrodinger's cat
@satby: Yes, the three top items on the agenda are family, food and shopping.
Schlemizel
@BrianM:
I had it pegged as fake from the start because it was always one of those 4th-hand stories: “My cousin’s neighbor has a kid at the U who’s girlfriend told him -yada, yada, yada. Those stories are always BS.
But its the sort of anti-science BS that gains traction with wingnuts & PETA nuts.
Hal
OMG you guys! Smoking gun in Benghazi and Maureen Dowd tells the President to stop whining! Also, black man Kareem Abdul-Jabar criticizes the reaction to Sterling!
danielx
@Paul in KY:
Just spent $2900 (gulp) on new AC this very day to replace a 25 year old unit. Naturally some of my unnamed in-laws were snarking at the spousal unit about “it’s still working, why spend the money”…etc. Because we for once have the money and if we wait until it goes out, it will go out at the worst possible time like in August when it’s 92 degrees outside and we can’t get somebody here for three days, plus we won’t have the money because we had to spend it on something else. And I have to admit the idea of saving about fifty percent on AC bills is attractive – central air units are a lot more efficient than they used to be.
I had to browbeat my one sister-in-law about replacing her 18 year old water heater with the bottom rusting out on the same grounds – “Why replace it when it’s still working? Because it will go out at night, you won’t have hot water in the morning to get ready for work and you’ll start screaming for everyone (meaning me and some poor contractor) to start jumping through our asses to get your water heater replaced right the fuck now, that’s why! Try being proactive for a change, will you?”
My sympathy for someone who pisses and moans about spending money when a failing appliance hasn’t yet failed is a trifle limited, when that very same person will go out and drop four fucking grand on a Vespa toy without thinking twice about it. This is one of many differences between people who have lots of disposable income and those who do not, and we fall in the latter category. I love and respect my in-laws, but sometimes they remind me (on a small scale) of the Marquis du Mittens – “just borrow fifty thousand from your parents!” Yeah, right, Mittens, pull the other one now. It’s things like this that bring home the difference in world views between those who can afford to drop money in four or five figure increments whenever they want or need to and those who…can’t.
WaterGirl
@mdblanche: You made me laugh!
So understated. Nicely done!
FridayNext
Everyone has already answered this, but here is what I do when I get one of those “Needs Extra Postage” cards I need to send, but they don’t tell you HOW much more. Just put two stamps on it and call it a day. It sounds like Betty mails things about as often as I do. The last book I bought was three years ago. I doubt either of us will miss the few dimes extra we are putting on the stamp and the PO could use it.
RE: The death penalty. The National Academy of Science just issued a study that estimates that 1 in 25 death row inmates are innocent. Even if you don’t mind the torture and killing in your name, how can you hear a stat like that, support the death penalty, and sleep at night?
ETA: Link to the study: pnas.org/content/early/2014/04/23/1306417111
Southern Beale
DID YOU BUY FOREVER STAMPS?? THEY ARE FOREVER.
Ahem.
Shortstop
@Schlemizel: without looking it up, I think it was 12 executions and 12 exonerations after Illinois reinstated the death penalty in 1977. Not overturnings on technicalities. Full exonerations.
Even today, there are more than a few people in “liberal” Chicago convinced that 50% accuracy is just fine as long as we kill SOME guilty people, and that Ryan and Quinn were subverting the people’s will. SMH.
Shortstop
DEAR BETTY, I CAN’T BE ARSED EVER TO READ A THREAD BEFORE COMMENTING, SO I’M JUST GOING TO YELL AT A FPer CLUELESSLY. AGAIN.
Jebediah, RBG
@Shortstop:
A common refrain from death penalty fans is ” how would you feel if it were YOUR father/mother/brother/sister/child who was murdered, huh?” Pierce’s comment section today is full of them.
I wonder if they would feel 50% accuracy is acceptable if it were their innocent family member being executed.
50% is fucking appalling. I have long opposed the death penalty because we end up executing the innocent, one of which is too many. 50% is fucking appalling.
Shortstop
@Jebediah, RBG: People who make that argument seem to be completely incapable of envisioning themselves or a loved one being wrongly accused, much less wrongfully convicted. There is a strong public sense that white people with a modicum of education, money and resources can beat a bad rap. That is in large part true. What it displays about the speaker is his or her belief that the lives of poor black people, especially those who may have committed other crimes, are worthless.
Jebediah, RBG
@Shortstop:
Good point. I think a lot of our cultural pathologies stem from empathy fail.
Roger Moore
@danielx:
That’s a big point. I don’t know what your electrical bill is like now, but look at how much it drops with the new unit and do the math. If you use it a lot, don’t be surprised if it pays for itself in a couple of years. And that’s without considering that you’d have to replace or pay for expensive repairs on the old unit before too long anyway.
pseudonymous in nc
@Jebediah, RBG:
I take a step back from that and oppose it because I don’t think the state should be in the business of killing people, even if there were some magic means of guaranteeing 100% accuracy — which there isn’t, of course.
This taps into the fallacy here. “Lethal injection” is a travesty, a clinical veneer on a non-medical act, and the fact that states now have to smuggle in drugs from back-alley suppliers reveals its squalidness.
But judging from the kind of talk on display across the internets today, what a lot of Americans want isn’t firing squads or electric chairs, but the good ol’ days of lynch mobs and the thrill and catharsis of a killing.
Jebediah, RBG
@pseudonymous in nc:
Well, it would have been more accurate to say that my argument to death penalty proponents is that we execute the innocent, and also that evidence shows that there is little if any deterrent effect – and I also agree with you that we just oughtn’t be doing it at all.
Lethal injection is a bad joke – trying to make the act of killing clinical and “dignified.” A firing squad, I think, is much more likely to kill quickly and painlessly.
As for what Americans want, I stopped reading the comments on Pierce’s post pretty quickly. I just don’t have the stomach today for the gleeful sadism that was on display.
pseudonymous in nc
@Jebediah, RBG: Oh, I certainly wasn’t trying to assert some kind of greater righteousness: the pragmatic argument is no less valid than the absolutist one. The one flows into the other: a big reason to say that the state should be out of the killing business is that experience proves it’s very fucking bad at it.
Jebediah, RBG
@pseudonymous in nc:
No worries; I wasn’t taking it that way. But your comment reminded me that I almost always use only the pragmatic argument, but maybe I should lay out all the reasons I’m opposed. Leaving out the moral argument kind of feels like being apologetic for being a liberal, and that’s something I don’t feel I should do.
seaboogie
@Paul in KY: Guns too good and fast….lock that mofo in a cage, and let every dog lover in the county and from far and wide come to piss and shit on him…and nobody wants that bad blood running through his veins….just let him live the life of the dogs that he treated thusly….
Ruckus
@Jebediah, RBG:
Empathy? How can something fail when it never existed in the first place.
Empathy isn’t an emotion, it has to be taught and learned. Some people aren’t capable of either.
Paul in KY
@schrodinger’s cat: Think you will have a great time!
Paul in KY
@danielx: You have to do what you have to do. If the house is supposed to have AC, then you have to get another unit when the existing one craps out. Hopefully this one will last for 25 years.
Paul in KY
@seaboogie: That’s about how I would feel when I found out about it. I hope I would come to my senses & just let legal system take over. Would probably also file a suit of some kind to get all their money, as he/she wouldn’t get the sentence they deserved.
mack
Higher SEER ratings (efficiency) variable speed blower motors, compressors…yes, today’s HVAC equipment is way more efficient than in the past. What most people don’t consider (and far too many contractors) is that most of your warm/cool air loss happens in the duct work. If the contractor who installed your new unit last year did not check the entire system, he did not provide the service he should have provided. Geothermal systems are even more efficient, quieter, and there’s a nice dollar for dollar tax credit available until 2016.
But no amount of efficiency will overcome leaky ducts.