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Now, for my whole purpose in posting this.  Hardcore Pawn is about, as I am sure you can gather from the name, a pawn shop.  In this case it’s a rather large pawn shop in Detroit called American Jewelry and Loan.  I just saw something that amazed me, and it’s not the first time I have seen it either, but it’s the first time I decided to post something about it.  The way the pawn shop works is, you take whatever it is that you want to pawn (get a loan on) or just outright sell, to the shop.  Once you take it inside the shop, one of the people who work there will take a look at it, basically appraise it (figuring out what it might be worth and if they thing they can make any money on it) and then will tell you what your options are.  By options I mean what they will give you for it.

Usually, they will give you two numbers, the amount of money they will loan you if you are looking to get it back, and the amount of money they will pay you outright if you are wanting to sell it.  From what I have seen, and this only applies to American Jewelry and Loan since they are the ones in the TV show, those numbers are pretty much solid and there is little room for negotiation.  Sometimes people come in and tell them what they want out of something, and if it’s too high the staff will then negotiate, but they don’t hesitate to say no if someone wants too much.

Such was the case that got me typing this article.  A young woman wanted to pawn a pair of earrings and the clerk informed her that the “diamonds” on the earrings were false and that they were not interested in paying anything for them.  This is where it gets a bit crazy.  The customer tells the clerk that she “don’t wanna hear that” and that the clerk is in fact gonna pay for her earrings.  The clerk says again that they are not interested while the customer repeats her mantra “just pawn my earrings”.  What I find funny and crazy about this is that the store has said no, and the customer tells the clerk that they are going to do it anyway.  Like the clerk should then say something like “Oh, you are right, what was I thinking”.

Do these customers (remember, this isn’t the first time I have seen this happen) really think that their tantrums are going to change someones mind?  I mean, come on, you don’t go to a restaurant and eat your meal and then when the check comes tell them that they are going to charge you $2.00 for that stake instead of $8.00 like it says on the menu.  It boggles my mind, I cannot comprehend what these people are thinking.  “No, we don’t want to buy your item.” – “Yes you do, you are going to buy it and right now.”  Maybe they don’t realize that Jedi mind tricks aren’t real?  These aren’t the droids you are looking for!

Anyway, I had to express something about this because I have seen it over and over and it blows my mind. Just like you can’t push a rope, you can’t use mind control to get better deals at a pawn shop!  Hey, anyone out there, drop a comment or pop into the forums (I am setting them up now, should be operational soon!) and tell me what you think.

So, let me make a little sense here from what I just said above.  Rather than admitting that Michael Jackson was a man, and a human being with god and bad and trials and tribulations just like the rest of it, the are trying to point to the doctor and say that he did it, so that Michael’s “image” can seem untarnished by this, it was the doctor that caused his death not his addiction to drugs.

I say come one people, look at the facts, the real facts, not what the news pundits are trying to spoon feed you.  My bet is that Michael was in a lot of pain, between all the surgeries he had, and the extremely physical performances he put on, all that stuff takes a toll on your body and I bet he used the pain killers to help with that.  The problem thought, is that like with a lot of people, famous or not, they get to depending on them too much and whammo, they are addicted.

Michael Jackson was a man of huge and extreme talent, the likes of which we probably never see again, at least not any time soon, but he was still a man nonetheless, and a great loss when he died.

I still don’t know what the hell I did that made him so mad, I was trucking on Interstate 81, three lanes, left lane for fast runners, middle lane for normal I guess because the right lane was for slow moving vehicles.  I wasn’t going fast or slow, so I was in the middle.  This jerk decides to come up behind me fast, right on my ass, and then hit the left lane.  Keep in mind that the left and right lanes are clear, I’m in the middle.  He hits the left lane, comes up about halfway past me and then comes on over into my lane.  At first I thought it was just a mistake, it happens, nobody’s perfect, right?  Wrong, he proceeds to move all the way over to the right lane to hit the exit ramp.  Now, he could have just hit the right lane in the first place, but no, he had to get beside me on the left and run my ass off the road.  I got out of his way so he didn’t succeed, but  it wasn’t any damn fun.

And that’s one thing I have noticed about the big rig truck drivers, a profession that used to be honorable that is now rife with wage cutting mexican job stealing wheel monkeys that have to care for the craft.  I have noticed that since they are driving the big vehicles on the road, they pretty much don’t give a shit about the rest of us.  They have some kind of king of the road ooh boy look how much I can compensate with this big thing complex and all the little four wheelers be damned.  There are some good drivers out there sure, but unfortunately they are in the vast minority anymore.  All this just gets me circled right back around to my point that people are self centered jerks.  Here’s a tip, try not to be one, maybe life will be better for all of us.

“First of all, Criss, can I call you Chris? If you’re going to take a pseudonym, why don’t you not spell it like a jackass? I mean, I understand if you’re one of those people whose parents thought they were being original and decided to spell your name with all kinds of crazy extra vowels, misplaced consonants and the letter Y. But you, you CHOSE this name and that’s the route you went? Interesting.

Anyway, I don’t know if any of you have ever seen the show “Mindfreak” on A&E – but it’s terrible. It’s got “acting” and a production quality on par with porn and is generally pretty uninspiring. In addition to dressing like a model from the Hot Topic catalog CA’s deep self love and constant chest pounding/finger kissing/pointing at the sky routine wears thin pretty quickly.”

Check out the rest of it here …

I know, I know, you are reading this and thinking that I had a double helping of my fanatic-o’s this morning, but that isn’t true.  This is a real situation and problem that we are all facing (or soon will be facing) right here and right now.  I am talking about the war that is waging between the banks and the Federal Reserve, a war over something as simple sounding as “swipe fees”.

You see, swipe fees are what retailers pay the banks when you and I swipe our debit card as we buy something.  To the tune of about $0.44 cents per swipe or purchase on average.  This is where it gets interesting, the Federal Reserve has gotten all puffed up and self righteous saying that they need to cut those swipe fees by more than 70%, to about $0.12 cents per swipe.  Take that few cents difference and multiply it over a few bazillion times a day that people make purchases and you can see why the banks are pretty peeved over it.

Naturally, the banks reaction is to cut out those rewards programs they have been enticing people with.  Not to mention jacking ATM fees up high and faster than gas prices at the pump.  In some places, people are seeing $4 and $5 ATM fees for non-customers!  Yowza!  Another tactic that the banks are proposing, is capping the limit of what you can purchase with your debit card, like making it so that you can’t purchase more than say $50 worth of stuff at a time.  This means you’ll have to get more swipes in to ultimately make that purchase, even if you run it as a credit card.  On top of all that, if you make a late payment, even a customer in good standing that previously never missed one, they have it worked out so they can hike your APR to as much as 30%!  Nice customer loyalty program there, isn’t it?

Sneaky, huh?

Right now, most of this stuff is not in effect yet, but it’s being tested in certain locations and plans are being made while bank lobbyists and Federal Reserve Weenies argue over it.  Either way this falls, stay informed and keep an eye out for tricks so you don’t get hammered by one side or the other.  Take a look at this article and get some more details too, it’s an eye opener.

That’s really funny to me since I have yet to hear anything out of his pie hole of a mouth that isn’t a lie.  From his fake documentaries funded by George Soros that spread misconceptions and half-truths just to stir the political pot and provide fodder for the biased as hell media outlets, to his phony speeches and rigged awards.  The guy is a useless factory of misinformation and now it seems, a hypocrite as well.  I guess we see why he and our so called President are on the same side, they both lie, cheat and steal better than most of the crooks in prison.  They haven’t been caught after all.

I know, I know, you are all thinking that I shouldn’t hide my feelings and I should tell you how I really feel about him!  LOL

I am not saying that Hussein Obama was right or wrong in vetoing extensions for more negotiation time, only time will tell on that one, but in all the rush, fuss, mess and turmoil, what got missed or shoved through without enough forethought?  The figure has come in at something like $38 billion dollars[1] they cut from the budget, to expand to $500 billion over the next few years.  Does anyone outside of those few politicians, who were no doubt serving their own self interest, actually know what all those cuts mean?  There is absolutely no way that our so called president could have gotten a handle on what all was in there that fast, no way in hell.

Top that off with Nancy Pelosi, Grand Witch of the Democrats claiming that despite legislation that cuts FCC rules and powers, they will continue to operate in the same way regardless[2].  Tell me, how does that work?  Can some people just ignore the law and just do what they want despite it being illegal, just because they are a politician?  I know, dumb question.  This is ridiculous, and is just another example of how broken and corrupt our government is.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my country and it’s still the best that I have seen compared to most anything else out there, but it is blatantly obvious that it’s not about we the people anymore.  Today’s government is about the pockets of the politicians, and how they can get them lined even more than before.