What's bugging you? (2017-2018)

[MrTPlush]

I can't tell you how many times I've been walking down the street and smell it from a car that drove by, or gotten on a bus and smelled it, or smelled it from someone walking by. It is much more intrusive to people who aren't using it than alcohol, and there are lots of people who don't want to smell it, much less ingest it, because they are around someone else who is using it.

 

Yah, but cigarretes are legal.

[tmwiese55]

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 35,092 people died in traffic crashes in 2015 in the United States (latest figures available), including an estimated 10,265 people who were killed in drunk driving crashes involving a driver with an illegal BAC (.08 or greater). It's only logical to think that weed-impaired drivers cause accidents too, and that would likely go up if more people smoked, but with basically everyone who wants to smoke already doing it, it's tough to know how much more it will go up beyond what it is now. Though I'd think at least somewhat because the legality of it will make people a little more brazen about it.

 

Alcohol is also pretty intrusive to other peoples lives in the sense that it's a root cause of thousands and thousands of domestic violence incidents per year.

 

Again, I'm not a smoker and don't plan on becoming one and only fool would act like it's good for you. Just seems to me the battle is lost at this point, we might as well save our money.

 

For things that bug me, yea i'd agree the propaganda about it being good and completely harmless is false yet it's pretty much presented that way in the mainstream media. Also, weed guys in general bug me. You know the types, always have to talk about it, where pot shirts, etc. I mean, if it's no big deal then act like it's no big deal.

[LouisEly]

I can't tell you how many times I've been walking down the street and smell it from a car that drove by, or gotten on a bus and smelled it, or smelled it from someone walking by. It is much more intrusive to people who aren't using it than alcohol, and there are lots of people who don't want to smell it, much less ingest it, because they are around someone else who is using it.

 

Yah, but cigarretes are legal.

Didn't say I liked those either, but I'll choose the smell of (most) cigarettes over the smell of weed.

 

Alcohol is also pretty intrusive to other peoples lives in the sense that it's a root cause of thousands and thousands of domestic violence incidents per year.

Sort of but not exactly correct. Alcohol is a depressant, not a stimulant, and w/r/t violence it suppresses the judgment and emotional control that suppresses violent tendencies. Those people, generally speaking, are violent to begin with; the "root cause" is whatever made their violent tendencies. Many people like myself have drank quite a bit of alcohol in their life without ever having a violent incident; we don't have violent tendencies to begin with. When I was a child my father yelled at me a lot less when he had a beer or two in his system (and as such I frequently asked him if I could get him a beer).

 

In Northeast WI, domestic violence incidents surge on Sundays when the Packers lose. And that bugs me. It's just a damn game.

[tmwiese55]

I'd love to see the percent on how many domestic violence incidents involve alcohol. I bet it's a shockingly high %. Also, what goes along with watching Packer games, drinking. I don't see how one can deny alcohol is a factor in domestic violence. Maybe root cause was the wrong term though, I'd grant that.

 

I also can't really see an argument to spend 100s of millions per year because we don't like the smell of it. The negatives of booze drastically outweigh the negatives of weed, but since it doesn't smell it's no biggie? Makes me think of the Seinfeld Kramer bit about Hennigans and walking around drunk all day with the odorless vodka.

 

ETA: turns out they do track this and it was easy to google, I actually thought it would be slightly higher, but close to what I thought. Among victims of domestic violence, alcohol played a role in 55% of the cases, while drugs played a role in only 9% of the cases; for spousal violence, alcohol was a factor in 65% of the cases, versus only 5% for drugs. Alcohol is a factor in 40% of all violent crimes today, and according to the Department of Justice, 37% of almost 2 million convicted offenders currently in jail, report that they were drinking at the time of their arrest.

 

https://www.ncadd.org/about-addiction/alcohol-drugs-and-crime

[Patrick425]

Car dealer's and the whole car buying experience. I apologize to those of you who may work in this industry.

 

My wife and I purchased a used Camry last week. We were trading in my son's car that was basically worthless ($450 trade-in value per KBB and was due for an emissions test that it would not pass without $300+ of work). Looked at internet prices of dealers including one that was having a "push, pull, drag sale" - $3,100 guaranteed on the trade in plus match $1,000 of a down payment. Ok, I knew there had to be a catch and that the internet price was probably not going to be valid and that they would probably jack up the prices by $2K or $3K. Even at $3K, it seemed like decent deal. We went to the dealership and sure enough, internet prices were not valid for the push, pull, drag sale. The car that we were eyeing was marked up $6,000 from the internet price! So, even with the $3,100 trade in and the $1,000 match, the price was $2,000 more....not to mention that the trade-in was not completely worthless (ended up selling it to our mechanic for $750). When I mentioned this to the sale man, he said he could knock $1000 off the price. Ok...soooo...it's still $1,000 more than it was before the "sale". Why would I do this?

 

The sale tags hanging on the cars were laughable as well...Example: "Car price $14,000, less $3,100 trade in, less down payment $1,000, less down payment match $1,000 = Final price of $8,900." What? Umm...$1,000 of those "deductions" are coming out of the buyer's pocket (also, again, not to mention that most trade-ins are not completely worthless). So, needless to say, we walked away.

 

We purchased somewhere else, but all those dealers are the same. There is very little honesty. Also, the whole pressure sales pitch at the end of the process to try to get you to add the extended warranty or gap insurance protection, etc...is a horrible way to treat a paying customer that has already agreed to buy a car from you. Offering it is one thing but the whole high pressure pitch is maddening. About 5 years ago when we were going through this process I interrupted the person and told them that we have zero interest so can we please skip it. They continued with the pitch and I asked again if we could just skip the part where we sign that we have declined it...at that point she had a fit and yelled "just let me do my job!" It was quite a scene.

 

I know, I could buy a used car through a private party and probably get a better deal, but there are a lot of downsides to that as well.

[owbc]

A few years ago my 86-year-old grandfather (who was notoriously tight with his money but showing signs of dementia) went to a Russ Darrow dealership to do one of those free test drive for a gift card type things. He ended up coming home with a used Prius that he purchased with no price negotiation, plus he had agreed to every single up-sell that the dealer offers, resulting in a final price that was something like >$5,000 over the sticker price.

 

Although he signed off on everything, my family was not happy with the dealer for taking advantage of someone who clearly was not completely aware of what he was getting himself into. After some lengthy negotiations my father was able to get all of the bonus stuff canceled, but those places seem to have no shame when it comes to getting every last dollar from people.

 

My grandfather did enjoy the car though.

[nate82]

Car dealer's and the whole car buying experience. I apologize to those of you who may work in this industry.

 

My wife and I purchased a used Camry last week. We were trading in my son's car that was basically worthless ($450 trade-in value per KBB and was due for an emissions test that it would not pass without $300+ of work). Looked at internet prices of dealers including one that was having a "push, pull, drag sale" - $3,100 guaranteed on the trade in plus match $1,000 of a down payment. Ok, I knew there had to be a catch and that the internet price was probably not going to be valid and that they would probably jack up the prices by $2K or $3K. Even at $3K, it seemed like decent deal. We went to the dealership and sure enough, internet prices were not valid for the push, pull, drag sale. The car that we were eyeing was marked up $6,000 from the internet price! So, even with the $3,100 trade in and the $1,000 match, the price was $2,000 more....not to mention that the trade-in was not completely worthless (ended up selling it to our mechanic for $750). When I mentioned this to the sale man, he said he could knock $1000 off the price. Ok...soooo...it's still $1,000 more than it was before the "sale". Why would I do this?

 

The sale tags hanging on the cars were laughable as well...Example: "Car price $14,000, less $3,100 trade in, less down payment $1,000, less down payment match $1,000 = Final price of $8,900." What? Umm...$1,000 of those "deductions" are coming out of the buyer's pocket (also, again, not to mention that most trade-ins are not completely worthless). So, needless to say, we walked away.

 

We purchased somewhere else, but all those dealers are the same. There is very little honesty. Also, the whole pressure sales pitch at the end of the process to try to get you to add the extended warranty or gap insurance protection, etc...is a horrible way to treat a paying customer that has already agreed to buy a car from you. Offering it is one thing but the whole high pressure pitch is maddening. About 5 years ago when we were going through this process I interrupted the person and told them that we have zero interest so can we please skip it. They continued with the pitch and I asked again if we could just skip the part where we sign that we have declined it...at that point she had a fit and yelled "just let me do my job!" It was quite a scene.

 

I know, I could buy a used car through a private party and probably get a better deal, but there are a lot of downsides to that as well.

 

Well at least you don't live in Arizona where you have to fill out about the same amount of information as if you were buying a house. I can deal with the dealerships and their bad practices but OMG the stuff you have to fill out just to buy a car in Arizona is crazy. Hopefully the finance person doesn't screw up the contract because then you are starting all over again. The car that I purchased out here in Arizona took me about 8 hours to purchase well technically it took 5 days and 8 hours as I wasn't going to pay the price they quoted at the dealership. After the 4th day they finally gave in and I paid what they advertised the car for online. With the finance person it took about 7 hours to go through that and by the time that was finished I had to wait about another hour until they finished detailing the car.

 

Arizona sucks when you have to purchase a vehicle at a dealership and you need to finance it. I think I am going to drive to Vegas or Texas the next time I need to purchase a vehicle.

[logan82]

I recently purchased a car and they guy seemed almost angry when I wouldn't buy any of the extended warranty stuff. This would have been an extra $2000 over the course of the loan and that was the lowest level. The higher ones were close to doubling the loan amount.

[nate82]

I recently purchased a car and they guy seemed almost angry when I wouldn't buy any of the extended warranty stuff. This would have been an extra $2000 over the course of the loan and that was the lowest level. The higher ones were close to doubling the loan amount.

 

For the finance guy that is their commission for the most part. The car salesman gets the commission on the money down that is put down and the finance guy gets their commission on how many warranties they sell.

[LouisEly]

I bought my vehicle through CarMax - granted, it was five years ago, and it was still under manufacturer warranty (Lincoln - 50K miles bumper to bumper) but I didn't feel any of that. That being said I think they sold my info to a warranty company as at one point it felt like I was getting those solicitations by mail on a monthly basis. (Now I get those telemarketing calls on just about a daily basis.)

 

Their no-haggle price is really that - there is no haggling. Tip - check a wide radius (500 miles) of the local dealership because if they don't have the exact vehicle you are looking for they will ship it to your dealership from another one for a fee. I think I paid somewhere around $400 for them to ship my vehicle from a CarMax dealership in Ohio to the dealership in Waukesha.

 

Overall it was a good experience. They took their label off the back of the vehicle no questions asked too. Some other tips for buying cars:

 

- If you can, go during the last week of the calendar quarter. They are under pressure to make numbers and won't risk losing a sale to give you what you want. I was with my brother-in-law when he went into a Lexus dealership, lied his arse off about what a dealer in another city would give him, and they gave him a lease with the terms he asked for without any pushback. It was June 28th.

 

- Find a similar car at another dealership, bring the web price with you as a bargaining chip, and don't be afraid to walk away.

 

- If you're going to finance, tell them you're paying cash until you are at the bargaining table ready to sign papers. Then ask about financing. Do the opposite if you plan on paying cash. Get a price before you agree to terms.

[logan82]

Have you heard about 4 square? They tried to talk to me about what kind of monthly payment I was looking for. I figure the monthly payment will take care of itself if you pay enough down and bargain well on the overall price.

 

I ended up going through the dealer for my financing which is bad but they gave me the best rate. I think the dealer looked around for what I could get elsewhere and and beat that by 0.1%.

[DHonks]

 

Well at least you don't live in Arizona where you have to fill out about the same amount of information as if you were buying a house. I can deal with the dealerships and their bad practices but OMG the stuff you have to fill out just to buy a car in Arizona is crazy. Hopefully the finance person doesn't screw up the contract because then you are starting all over again. The car that I purchased out here in Arizona took me about 8 hours to purchase well technically it took 5 days and 8 hours as I wasn't going to pay the price they quoted at the dealership. After the 4th day they finally gave in and I paid what they advertised the car for online. With the finance person it took about 7 hours to go through that and by the time that was finished I had to wait about another hour until they finished detailing the car.

 

Arizona sucks when you have to purchase a vehicle at a dealership and you need to finance it. I think I am going to drive to Vegas or Texas the next time I need to purchase a vehicle.

 

Mine was nowhere near that bad. It took 10 minutes with my bank to get pre-approved. Then I went to the dealer, found what I wanted, and negotiated. Yes, it took maybe 2 hours total. Beware if you buy it in another state and transport it to AZ, they can make you pay AZ and local taxes if you don't leave it in the state of purchase for 3+ months. We've looked into buying in Montana (no sales tax) and leaving it at a family address for 3+ months, then driving it to AZ and registering here.

 

Also, at least Wisconsin has cheap registration. When I was in high school it was something like $45. In AZ and Montana, it's based on the value of the vehicle, so a new car can be near $1000/year

[reillymcshane]

 

Also, at least Wisconsin has cheap registration. When I was in high school it was something like $45. In AZ and Montana, it's based on the value of the vehicle, so a new car can be near $1000/year

Colorado is like that as well. New car can cost you $800-1000 (and that's just the first year) to register. I had a Ford Escape that cost me around $850 the first year. The next year it was $600+.

[Jimbo]

the whole pressure sales pitch at the end of the process to try to get you to add the extended warranty or gap insurance protection, etc...is a horrible way to treat a paying customer that has already agreed to buy a car from you. Offering it is one thing but the whole high pressure pitch is maddening. About 5 years ago when we were going through this process I interrupted the person and told them that we have zero interest so can we please skip it. They continued with the pitch and I asked again if we could just skip the part where we sign that we have declined it...at that point she had a fit and yelled "just let me do my job!" It was quite a scene.

 

This past Saturday I bought out my wife's car whose lease was up.

 

Financier: "I can offer extended warranty and yadda, yadda, yadda for three years. Here's the price."

 

Jimbo : "Nope."

 

Financier: "Here's the price spread over five years."

 

Jimbo: "Nope. Please keep in mind I'm an engineer with a strong statistics background. I know how insurance works."

 

Financier: "Oh."

 

End of that part of the conversation.

[Patrick425]

Oh...I almost forgot the [sarcasm]best[/sarcasm] part of our experience in our recent car purchase.

 

I'm a CPA and work in the financial industry so I'm the type of person that does number crunching ahead of time when it comes to financing and what monthly payments should end up being based on amount, length, and interest on a loan.

 

The car we purchased was a certified used car and so we got the new car financing rate of 1.9%. After we agreed on a price the salesman wanted to know how much I wanted to put down and I asked him to run a few scenarios for me with different amounts and lengths of loans. So, he disappears for about 10 minutes and comes back with a grid with different scenarios and monthly payments based on amount down and length of loan. I start studying it and it immediately looks a bit off. The five year payment for the amount I was considering seemed to be off (higher) by about $40 or $50 a month. I tell him this doesn't look right and I pull out my phone and google a loan calculator. I plug in the numbers, and sure enough I'm correct. He repeats the numbers...$X amount for 5 years at 1.9%. I say "Yes, those are the right numbers, but that's the wrong calculation, I think you are using the wrong percentage." He goes back to talk to the finance person.

 

He comes back.."Oh, for whatever reason the computer defaulted to 9.9% and the finance guy didn't catch it"...hmm..I really hope it was a mistake, but I have serious doubts. Keep in mind this was a slip of paper where he was going to check the option I wanted and then have me sign it. Now, I probably would have caught it when going through the final financial paperwork, but maybe not and I'm sure a lot of people would not catch it.

[nate82]

So I was watching MLB Network last night and Bill Ripken is ripping on the defensive shifts. They then show Rizzo bunting and taking first base and that was one of his proof hey he got on base and took what the defense gave him. Well that is the point of the defensive shifts would you rather have Rizzo bunt and take the single or swing away and get an extra base hit? I'll take the bunt single every time as I would rather face whoever is batting behind Rizzo than pitching to Rizzo.

 

This was really bugging me today after watching that last night. I don't even want to get into his BABIP argument that the shifts are not working because it has increased for the past 4 years.

[jerichoholicninja]

So I was watching MLB Network last night and Bill Ripken is ripping on the defensive shifts. They then show Rizzo bunting and taking first base and that was one of his proof hey he got on base and took what the defense gave him. Well that is the point of the defensive shifts would you rather have Rizzo bunt and take the single or swing away and get an extra base hit? I'll take the bunt single every time as I would rather face whoever is batting behind Rizzo than pitching to Rizzo.

 

This was really bugging me today after watching that last night. I don't even want to get into his BABIP argument that the shifts are not working because it has increased for the past 4 years.

 

I always thought Billy was little more forward thinking then that but he sounds like he's BFF's with Harold Reynolds.

[OglivieHomePerm]

What's bugging me? Stupid commercials during the Brewers radio broadcasts.

 

I'm not a violent person by nature, but such anger wells up in my very soul when I hear "B-Rad" talking about his free cell phone that I fear for those near me.

 

Serenity Now...Serenity Now.

[JimH5]

Rumors are that ESPN is scaling way back on baseball. They have already let Jayson Stark go. Word is that Karl Ravech's role will be significantly reduced. Others in their baseball coverage who were shown the door are Mark Saxon, Doug Glanville, Dallas Braden and Raul Ibanez. Internet talk is that they may use MLB Network's Intentional Talk as feed programming.

 

I want more baseball on my tv, not less.

[tmwiese55]

Rumors are that ESPN is scaling way back on baseball. They have already let Jayson Stark go. Word is that Karl Ravech's role will be significantly reduced. Others in their baseball coverage who were shown the door are Mark Saxon, Doug Glanville, Dallas Braden and Raul Ibanez. Internet talk is that they may use MLB Network's Intentional Talk as feed programming.

 

I want more baseball on my tv, not less.

 

I actually just said they might as well let everyone go that doesn't cover NFL, that's all they cover anyway.

[nate82]

Rumors are that ESPN is scaling way back on baseball. They have already let Jayson Stark go. Word is that Karl Ravech's role will be significantly reduced. Others in their baseball coverage who were shown the door are Mark Saxon, Doug Glanville, Dallas Braden and Raul Ibanez. Internet talk is that they may use MLB Network's Intentional Talk as feed programming.

 

I want more baseball on my tv, not less.

 

I actually just said they might as well let everyone go that doesn't cover NFL, that's all they cover anyway.

 

That and politics. One of the many reasons I have stopped watching ESPN is because of the politics. If I want to watch something about politics I'll watch one of the MSM channels not a sports channel.

[wallus]

Rumors are that ESPN is scaling way back on baseball. They have already let Jayson Stark go. Word is that Karl Ravech's role will be significantly reduced. Others in their baseball coverage who were shown the door are Mark Saxon, Doug Glanville, Dallas Braden and Raul Ibanez. Internet talk is that they may use MLB Network's Intentional Talk as feed programming.

 

I want more baseball on my tv, not less.

 

I actually just said they might as well let everyone go that doesn't cover NFL, that's all they cover anyway.

 

That and politics. One of the many reasons I have stopped watching ESPN is because of the politics. If I want to watch something about politics I'll watch one of the MSM channels not a sports channel.

 

I don't watch nearly as much anymore but can you provide some examples? All I can think of is Colin K.

[stoutdude04]

 

I don't watch nearly as much anymore but can you provide some examples? All I can think of is Colin K.

 

A lot of the main programming has become more like 'TMZ' as opposed to sports. Perhaps that's not what he's referring to, but maybe? Kap, Aaron Hernandez, Jenner, etc.

 

I really don't care to see how many times Kap kneels, or who he kneels with(and I'm a Niner fan). If I want to read about the Hernandez case I will go to a reputable news source.

[stoutdude04]

Rumors are that ESPN is scaling way back on baseball. They have already let Jayson Stark go. Word is that Karl Ravech's role will be significantly reduced. Others in their baseball coverage who were shown the door are Mark Saxon, Doug Glanville, Dallas Braden and Raul Ibanez. Internet talk is that they may use MLB Network's Intentional Talk as feed programming.

 

I want more baseball on my tv, not less.

 

I read that they were letting go of 'On air talent' that could not do multiple jobs. I imagine that would be talking baseball, but also talking other sports, or interviews.

[Patrick425]

Before the internet, I use to rely on ESPN a lot for information on how my fantasy baseball players did. I watched "Baseball tonight" religiously. I also enjoyed watching the Tuesday night (and/or Thursday night?) baseball double headers when my first job out of college had me on the road a lot. Disappointing that they are moving farther away from baseball.

 

Speaking of fantasy baseball and what's bugging me. I have Bumgarner on my team, he goes down. I then trade for Syndergaard, now he is having arm issues. I told the other guys in the league if they want to help the Brewers chances this year, offer me some Cubs and Cards pitchers in trades.