Countries & their stupid ways

Ok so in Ireland you have to pay a tv license if you have one. Until recently people were put in jail or were fined a big penalty if they were found to have a TV without the license. They even have people calling into your home to 'check'. All this goes to one TV station here in Ireland. I could see if the station didn't have any ads, but they are also making revenue from the ads. Now they want to increase this stupid hike. I don't have a TV myself as I find them very obtrusive, noisy & just plain annoying in my home. This is just another reason I don't. I don't mind them in other people's, and I do watch it then but I just have sensitive ears.

Oh & Dubai (or UAE), you can't even travel through their airport (it's a major hub between Asia and Europe for many flights) if you have a stamp on your passport from Israel.

Don't get me wrong, there are many good things about Ireland & the UAE but still!!!

So anyone else want to vent about any other countries or cities?

Not so much the country of the United States of America, but rather an individual city in the country: MINE.

We pay taxes for trash pick-up.  We don't have dumpsters available to dispose of our trash whenever we want and driving it to the land fill once every few weeks would leave our tiny Honda stinkin' to high, high heaven.  To make life so much easier on us, we pay taxes so the city will collect our trash once a week provided we lug it out to the curb (once upon a time it was in the alley but the alleys got to be too dirty for the city's liking, so instead the remnants of trash that fly out of the cans and bags loiter our busy streets for the convicts to pick up in their free time).

Recently the city decided it would cost too much money to occasionally work overtime to pick up the trash when holidays prevent your area from having it picked up on time on a different day.  If you regularly get your trash picked up on a Monday and Memorial Day rolls around, you would instead get it picked up on a Tuesday with everyone else's trash that gets picked up on Tuesdays.  The following week, you're back to Monday.

So instead they've decided to rotate out collection dates.  After Memorial Day your new day to have your trash collected is Tuesday, until another holiday that rolls around bumps someone else's day, therefore bumping your day, and you're now getting it picked up on a Wednesday.

You'll get fined for leaving your trash out every night so instead you either have to call friends and family who know what day your trash is supposed to be picked up on, since the stupid scheduling is too difficult to understand with all of these damned holidays popping up throughout the year, or wake up around 8 AM and listen for the noisy truck strollin' along, then race your trash to the curb.  Chances are if you don't hear it by 10 AM you can go back to bed 'cause it ain't coming.

Oh, and if you have a freak incident where a third of the staff calls in sick on the day your trash is set to be collected, you don't get it collected.  Instead you find someone else's trash can the following week that's not nearly as full as yours to put some of your trash in since right now we have a two trash can limit. 

The beauty of this all?  They want to displace 125 city workers to buy these giant trucks that detect these trash bins the city will provide you so you only need one guy to drive the truck.  The truck senses the cans, scoops 'em up, empties 'em, and puts 'em back.  This, of course, means you can only fill up one trash can and better learn to be less wasteful or buy stock in Febreeze since you're going to go broke buying it anyway to keep your poor little Honda from stinkin' to high, high heaven as you drive your extra trash every week to the land fill.

If trash tax was optional, at this point I'd stop paying it.  City collection has become more of a pain in the ass than it's worth.  I miss living in an apartment only because there was a dumpster near every unit and you could freely dispose of trash all week for a small fee.  If it wasn't collected that week, guess what!  There's another dumpster behind your unit at the next unit that's likely not as full as yours.

trash bin detecting trucks??? uh ok. i wonder how that's going to work. why don't they just schedule the pick ups on tuesdays to avoid all that holiday scheduling that happens on mondays???

Oh, oh, oh!  I thought of one specific to the country. 

In this stupid country I have heard all of the child labor laws from watching E!'s True Hollywood Story about babies working in the film industry.  They can only perform on camera for a short period of time before needing a break, UNLESS...

And here's the fabulous loophole: It's a reality show.

In this country we condone people to have more children than they can afford to decently take care of by plastering their faces and their kids' all over a television station.  The more you have, the better.  Take Jon and Kate, parading their kids around all day and night on whatever that damned channel is I'm boycotting because they're on it.  Granted, my Wikipedia research suggests they could actually afford all of those kids before they landed a television show, but one in particular I'm thinking of is that insane chick with a clown car of a uterus that popped out eight of the little suckers, and doesn't even know which is which.

She was about damned near bankrupt.  She couldn't afford her house, she couldn't afford the kids she had, she didn't think to get a job or lay off the Starbucks.  Instead she hit up every newspaper, magazine, and television station to try to get a reality show so she can whore off her kids and get paid for it.

Table for Twelve, Some-Odd-Number-of-Kids and Counting, Jon and Kate Plus 8, and now the Octo-Nut.  Let's have billions of children, let someone pay us to watch them grow up and see how they kind-of sort-of really live their lives (with or without director influence, who cares as long as they're cute!) during what must be a difficult situation that they voluntarily put themselves in yet can't help but cry and cry and whine and whine about how hard, but rewarding, it really is.

I hate this country for condoning such nonsense, and I hate that my tax dollars are paying for Jumbo ****'s little "miniature mansion" for her eight newborns and however many kids she had before them.

Because some holidays also fall on Tuesdays.

Original Post by cellulitedelight:

Oh, oh, oh!  I thought of one specific to the country. 

In this stupid country I have heard all of the child labor laws from watching E!'s True Hollywood Story about babies working in the film industry.  They can only perform on camera for a short period of time before needing a break, UNLESS...

And here's the fabulous loophole: It's a reality show.

In this country we condone people to have more children than they can afford to decently take care of by plastering their faces and their kids' all over a television station.  The more you have, the better.  Take Jon and Kate, parading their kids around all day and night on whatever that damned channel is I'm boycotting because they're on it.  Granted, my Wikipedia research suggests they could actually afford all of those kids before they landed a television show, but one in particular I'm thinking of is that insane chick with a clown car of a uterus that popped out eight of the little suckers, and doesn't even know which is which.

She was about damned near bankrupt.  She couldn't afford her house, she couldn't afford the kids she had, she didn't think to get a job or lay off the Starbucks.  Instead she hit up every newspaper, magazine, and television station to try to get a reality show so she can whore off her kids and get paid for it.

Table for Twelve, Some-Odd-Number-of-Kids and Counting, Jon and Kate Plus 8, and now the Octo-Nut.  Let's have billions of children, let someone pay us to watch them grow up and see how they kind-of sort-of really live their lives (with or without director influence, who cares as long as they're cute!) during what must be a difficult situation that they voluntarily put themselves in yet can't help but cry and cry and whine and whine about how hard, but rewarding, it really is.

I hate this country for condoning such nonsense, and I hate that my tax dollars are paying for Jumbo ****'s little "miniature mansion" for her eight newborns and however many kids she had before them.

 Ha ha, I guess you feel quite strongly about this. Well another reason for me not to watch television.

True about Tuedays but there are not as many on Mondays. I wish every Monday was a holiday.

CD, that trash pick up schedule must be an Ohio thing. When I lived in Columbus it was the same way, only back then we didn't have a 2 can limit. It was impossible to keep track of what day your trash pick up was supposed to be. They posted it in the paper, but that wasn't much help because they gave each part of the city a color code and you had to know which color was yours to know which day your pick up was.

Then they put in these gigantic trash cans that were supposed to be for 4 families. The truck could pick them up automatically. It was for all of the areas of the city that had alley access. That was much better because they almost never got too full and you never had to remember to take them to the curb.

I'm still in Ohio, but live in a smaller town where you have to pay for individual trash pick up. They just went to individual large cans, 80 gallons I think, that you roll out to the curb on your day. The truck does have a sensor that automatically dumps them. It's kind of cool to watch. Our days don't rotate which is nice. After a holiday, pick up is a day delayed, but then you go back to your regular day.

Original Post by moonikins:

I'm still in Ohio, but live in a smaller town where you have to pay for individual trash pick up.

 oh yeah i forgot about that. here too you have to pay for individual trash pick ups unless you are in an apartment block or so (then the owner of each apartment pays that management company for doing stuff like that). but when we rented a split house we had to buy stickers to put on the trash in order for them to be picked up.

Original Post by moonikins:

It was impossible to keep track of what day your trash pick up was supposed to be.

Is it really that hard? Walk out your front door it the morning, look up and down the street, if there are trashcans sitting out on the curb, chances are it's trash day. 

In Ontario, perhaps throughout Canada I'm not sure, you cannot drink alcohol outside of designated areas such as bars, restaurants or beer tents. That means you can't even have a bottle of wine while on a picnic unless you hide it and risk the fine!

Original Post by steffsheff:

In Ontario, perhaps throughout Canada I'm not sure, you cannot drink alcohol outside of designated areas such as bars, restaurants or beer tents. That means you can't even have a bottle of wine while on a picnic unless you hide it and risk the fine!

that's true here (BC) as well, but unless you're underage or rowdy, nobody's going to bother you.  like nobody bothers the people smoking weed on the beach anymore.

My trash gets picked up before 7AM. 

Belgium.....  Most of Belgium, really.  Specifically that it's one of the few remaining countries in Europe where it's still permissable to smoke in public places. 

And on TV licences... I'm rather partial to the many BBC services (similar system to Ireland), especially BBC Radio 4 (go Archers!!) and would rather hand over £142.50 a year for some quality programming rather than swell the Murdoch coffers any more than they are already. 

Original Post by pgeorgian:

Original Post by steffsheff:

In Ontario, perhaps throughout Canada I'm not sure, you cannot drink alcohol outside of designated areas such as bars, restaurants or beer tents. That means you can't even have a bottle of wine while on a picnic unless you hide it and risk the fine!

that's true here (BC) as well, but unless you're underage or rowdy, nobody's going to bother you.  like nobody bothers the people smoking weed on the beach anymore.

 mmmm, wine at a pinic.  well the wayward's here in ireland are allowed to drink unhindered. not sure if its legal but they don't get bothered.

i miss the pic of kenya pg, your new avi scares me. 

Original Post by octo-luv:

i miss the pic of kenya pg, your new avi scares me. 

she's supposed to scare you.

well, not you, specifically.

i'm keeping her for today.

Original Post by pgeorgian:

Original Post by octo-luv:

i miss the pic of kenya pg, your new avi scares me. 

she's supposed to scare you.

well, not you, specifically.

i'm keeping her for today.

 well you got the affect you wanted ha ha. i just really wish i had a doggie.

speaking of stupid things countries, (im not sure about the states) but this one if you are a vet you have to put a certain number of them down every year.

Original Post by octo-luv:

speaking of stupid things countries, (im not sure about the states) but this one if you are a vet you have to put a certain number of them down every year.

oh, blech.

Original Post by steffsheff:

In Ontario, perhaps throughout Canada I'm not sure, you cannot drink alcohol outside of designated areas such as bars, restaurants or beer tents. That means you can't even have a bottle of wine while on a picnic unless you hide it and risk the fine!

I don't think this is that unusual.  My experience is that drinking in public places in the U. S. is mostly prohibited; the only exception I can think of is Las Vegas.  There is certainly no drinking allowed in parks and on beaches- I've been busted many times in these places!

Original Post by flonklar:

Original Post by steffsheff:

In Ontario, perhaps throughout Canada I'm not sure, you cannot drink alcohol outside of designated areas such as bars, restaurants or beer tents. That means you can't even have a bottle of wine while on a picnic unless you hide it and risk the fine!

I don't think this is that unusual.  My experience is that drinking in public places in the U. S. is mostly prohibited; the only exception I can think of is Las Vegas.  There is certainly no drinking allowed in parks and on beaches- I've been busted many times in these places!

 Yeah, that's pretty common. Almost all public parks in many many states have a sign posted about no alcohol. So everyone just hides it.

Original Post by floggingsully:

Original Post by moonikins:

It was impossible to keep track of what day your trash pick up was supposed to be.

Is it really that hard? Walk out your front door it the morning, look up and down the street, if there are trashcans sitting out on the curb, chances are it's trash day. 

 It is amazingly hard to keep track of it. The trash people would get holidays off that the rest of us wouldn't, so we'd forget if the day rotated or not. In a lot of places you're not allowed to take the trash out very much ahead of time. My trash pick up time was always god awful early in the morning, so if I was busy the night before, I'd be screwed cuz by the time I heard the truck it'd be passing my house.

Come to MO.  Intoxication in state parks is a regular event.