15 Minutes Saved Me...

OK, it was more than 15 minutes, but it was worth it. I've had insurance thru State Farm for years. Same local agent. Her father inlaw was my Jr High basketball coach. I open pickle jars with the neat little rubber grippy thingy she sends out at Christmas. Small town warm-n-fuzzy stuff. The last year or so I have been inundated with junk mail from AARP. I finally joined up just to get the hotel discount and hopefully cut down the junkmail.

Yes on 1. No on 2.

In fact it only changed from offers to join AARP to offers to join AARP partners like The Hartford insurance. But I was happy with my current insurance. Hometown gal, know her family, knows me by sight... she would certainly be giving me the best deal out there.

Today the policy renewal shows up and so does more of that AARP junkmail. Oh WTF, let's compare policies just for shits and giggles. But I used Progressive's website instead of The Hartford because Progressive checks multiple companies. Turns out I can save almost $200 by switching to Flo.

Wow! That's not chump change. I call my friendly, down home, you're on our Christmas card list agent to get that famous "Discount Double Check". The girl that answered the phone reminded me of April on "Parks & Recreation". It was obvious I was really annoying her by calling asking for a lower bill. She even told me how it would be actually cheaper to stay with State Farm even though they were more expensive, because it's a big company and she's worked for them for over 10 years. For some reason that wasn't a big selling point for me. She did finally break down and admit she could save me $18 after I pointed out an anti-theft discount I had on one car, but not the other.

WOOHOO, $18! Let's take those savings and buy a 12 pack and some pork rinds! Might be enough left over for a slice of jerky, too.

Bitch pissed me off.

The Progressive page didn't list The Hartford, so I had to quote them separately thru the AARP site. Almost. half. price. State Farm was $949 for 6 months, The Hartford was $1120 for 12 months. $778 difference! I double checked everything to make sure the coverages were the same and they were identical. I even added some extra coverage on my F350 for custom equipment that wasn't listed on my SF policy.

Needless to say I won't be getting a new rubber grippy thing to open my pickle jars next Christmas and I could care less about being in AARP or getting their junkmail now. I hate those Aaron Rodgers commercials, anyway.

tl/dr: I saved a metric assload of money by switching to geezer car insurance

Fool's Roll

If I had only known about this sooner. I'd have been all in, Baby! Now I'll have to wait until next year. This has me written all over it. Fool's Roll  is a real life "Cannonball Run" style automotive event. (Call it a race you get your ass sued off)

Buy a car off Craigslist for <$2000. Drive it from Austin to Las Vegas. Sell the car and bet it all on 1 hand.

It's only Rock'n'Roll, but I like it!

Justified

Illegal camping? El Chupacabra, you better take note. Stay the hell outa Nuevo Mexico.

On a side note, the officer (thru who's helmet cam we watch him kill the man) was hired less than a year ago on the promise he would not carry a gun due to his questionable background.

Folks, we have entered a whole new era in these United States. The terrorists have won. Now every citizen is a suspect. Immediate non-compliance is a justified death sentence.

The train is seriously off the track folks. The militarization of the police has fallen down the slippery slope. They have managed to outflank the Posse Comitatus Act with the Patriot Act.  The question is, can we ever pull them back?

Here's a link to the full shooting video: STRONG GRAPHIC VIOLENCE WARNING .

Take 2 escargot and call me in the morning.

Australian researchers have found that a drug made using venom from ocean-dwelling cone snails may be 100 times as powerful as top painkillers morphine and gabapentin, which are currently used to ease chronic nerve pain born from injury, cancer, diabetes, and other diseases.

The drug, based on peptides called conotoxins that reside in the snails' venom, is thought not to have the addictive properties of other painkillers.

So far, though, the drug has been tested only on rats. "We don't know about side effects yet, as it hasn't been tested in humans. But we think it would be safe," says lead researcher David Craik. A test on people is at least two years off, he notes; still, the finding could lead to a "whole new class of drugs capable of relieving one of the most severe forms of chronic pain that is currently very difficult to treat"—and one taken orally. Another drug made from conotoxin is already approved for use on humans, but it requires spinal cord injection.

Fake Movie of The Week

I actually know one of the main characters, "Tony Nunes".
You may recognise him from Walmart Mexico commercials if you've been vacationing there this winter.

Plane thief caught on camera!

His moose accomplice escaped undetected.

Watch Fever, I Haz It

I've been patiently looking for the right one, but I'm itching to make my next watch purchase. My first "Big Boy" watch, an Omega Speedmaster Professional "Moon". While there is some disparity to the "and only" part of their claim, there's no denying it was the first watch space flight qualified and the first watch worn on the moon.

But, it was not worn by Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon. He left his Speedmaster in the LEM as a backup after the onboard mission timer failed. Buzz Aldrin, the 2nd man on the moon, wore the first watch. That Omega Speedmaster would later disappear while being shipped to the Smithsonian.

As for the disputed "only" claim you can thank Apollo XV astronaut David Scott. The crystal of his Speedmaster popped off and he wore a backup Waltham branded swiss made chronograph that was unauthorized. Omega considers this a "stowaway" situation and disputes the Waltham claim, personally I would be more concerned about losing the crystal.

The Speedmaster Professional was given the Snoopy Award by NASA following Apollo 13 for it's critical role during the manual burn that brought the stricken spacecraft home. Not surprisingly there's a bit of controversy with this as well. There are pictures of Jack Swigert wearing both a Speedy and a Rolex GMT. Who's to say which watch he used when. Jack passed away in December 1982 so we will never know.

No matter how you look at it, the Omega Speedmaster Professional is one of the Top 10 watches of all time. It's also the first watch worn on the moon and flight-qualified by NASA for all manned space missions from the Moon to Mars.

Damn it, Jim. I'm not a writer!

Wow... First Bag of Nothing gives up blogging for lent. Ok, I can respect that. NOW Liberally Lean is going dark for at least a week.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Dubya Tea Eff people? How am I to make it thru each day without reading my internets? Where will I get my daily dosage of snark? I guess I could step up my game and take the field like Shane Falco did for the Washington Sentinels.

But, I know it would turn out the same way. Just when I've got my confidence built up that I can actually do this thing, the regular players will return to the game and I'll be out faster than Prince Fielder going for an inside the park home run. (He's not very fast, you see...)

Wait, I'm mixing my movie metaphors with my sports metaphors. See? Told you so. I'm not that great at this writing stuff. But until the 'Pros from Dover' return, this is what you get.

God damn Army!

Next month, Last Week Tonight

Really looking forward to this. John Oliver definitely has the chops and HBO will give him free rein.

#burn

Jason Garrett is tied with Wade Phillips for 56 games as the @dallascowboys head coach. Phillips: 34 - 22; Garrett: 29 -27. #suprisesMe
— Wade Phillips (@sonofbum) March 6, 2014

Give 'em Hell, Wade!