Signing Petitions

Yesterday while at the grocery store a young woman asked me if I was a Scottsdale resident.   Yes, I replied, to which her response was to ask me to sign a petition.   Normally I resist such offers unless it’s for an issue I know something about.   In this case it was in response to the stupidity of our city council when they decided to accept money from the Fed’s in exchange for enacting ridiculous environmental rules.  

We live in the desert and that means it’s very dry and there’s lots of dust.   These new environmental rules will require that private citizens and businesses pour goop all over dirt roads and other costly measures to keep the dust from becoming airborne.   People who have horse ranches don’t want that stuff getting on their horses.   Hello?   And, one good monsoon storm and the dust blows in from every farm and open desert around us!   Right next to where we live is the Salt River Pima Indian Reservation which is nothing but farms and vacant land.   Every time the wind blows we get covered with dust, but they are not under those stupid environmental rules.   How is it that people in Washington, DC — a very wet environment — know what’s best for people who live in the Desert Southwest? I gladly signed a petition to repeal the stupid laws that only cost us tons of money and trouble!

Today I signed another petition online to urge Microsoft Corp. to keep Windows XP.   I don’t use Windows Vista, but most people I know using it are not happy with it.   They’ll buy a new laptop or desktop computer running Windows Vista only to find out that it doesn’t work with their printers or other peripheral hardware.   That’s only the beginning of the nightmares I’ve heard about.   Some businesses and individuals are so sick of the trouble they’re having with Vista that they are buying new computers and then installing Windows XP on them to avoid software and hardware conflicts.   Microsoft wants to eliminate support for Windows XP as of June 2008.   Go here to sign the petition.