Taxi's, the Uber debate...

October 24th, 2014, saw the start of Uber ridesharing in the Las Vegas valley, Reno, and Carson City. Of course, the local cab/limo companies are against it... citizens will no longer be at their mercy.
The arguments against Uber are pretty ridiculous: you can't tip, the drivers are reckless criminals, the cars are falling apart, and surge pricing. These are very much untrue. Drivers are not only required to have a clean 3 year driving record, but they much pass a background check, the same check that pretty much every employer in town does. Drivers must have their own auto insurance, their cars must 2005 or newer, their vehicles must be professionally inspected, and the cars must look great, too.

All of that aside, Las Vegas NEEDS Uber! Why? If you have ever been off of the Strip or a hotel/casino and been in need of a taxi, you will wait at least 30 minutes for a cab... sometimes, as long as 3 hours. Try being a block or two away from a known cab staging area, like a hotel, and you STILL have to wait 30 minutes. The dispatcher will tell you to walk to the cab. Frankly, that kind of defeats the whole concept of getting a ride... if I wanted to walk, I wouldn't be calling a cab, ffs. Uber will fill the HUGE gap left by the lazy cabbies. Uber will service the 90% of the valley that the cab companies choose to ignore.

The cab companies tell people that Uber drivers are unregulated and, therefor, dangerous for riders. They will bring up the same two tragic incidents of an Uber driver hitting a bicyclist and/or the Uber driver that wouldn't let a rider out of the car unless they gave him the top rating of five stars. So, out of millions of rides in hundreds of cities across the world, these are the only two incidents that we hear about. Have cabs or limos ever been in an accident or threatened riders? You bet, and it happens much more frequently. I've been hit cab a limo making a right turn from the left lane of a four lane street... I've witnessed a cabbie add time (read: money) to the meter so that my cab ride from McCarran Airport to UNLV cost $35... what the cabbie didn't know is that I've made that trip many times and the fare, with tip, was never more than $20.

With Uber, the rider enters the destination and the driver follows the turn-by-turn directions on the app... no long hauling, no scenic routes, no way to add time or stops. There is no $3 charge for using a credit card, no excuse for not having change... just a ride from A to B.

Perhaps if the cab companies thought about providing superior customer service rather than robbing the citizens and tourists of time/money, we wouldn't need Uber or Lyft... but, like most other business models in Las Vegas, they don't give a shit about us, they only care about keeping competition out so they don't have to actually work for their money.

Uber on!

PS: When you sign up to use Uber, enter in my code 9r6ke to get $20 off your first ride. If you want to drive for Uber, follow this link to sign up (t.uber.com/9r6ke) and we both earn $$ when you take your first rider.

Marijuana: gateway drug?

With North Las Vegas and Henderson getting applications for medical marijuana dispensaries, the same comments and questions have re-surfaced. One of those questions is whether marijuana is a 'gateway' drug.
Well, let us take a logical perspective, shall we. Currently in the Las Vegas Valley (and pretty much everywhere else in the country), marijuana is bought from a drug dealer. Drug dealers rarely sell ONLY pot, they sell pretty much anything you want... After all, they aren't regulated. So, the dealers (which are often more aptly called 'pushers') generally suggest other more profitable (read: addictive) drugs. Sometimes, the dealers offer pot laced with drugs, like cocaine, to intensify the high... Off to the races!
Now, if this same pot smoker purchases weed from a regulated dispensary, where only pot and pot-related items are sold, there is no chance of the pot being laced, no chance of the salesmen 'suggesting' another drug, no chance of being given an imitation substance, and no chance of being robbed by the seller.
I've also heard the argument that pot parties always have others drugs being passed around. Well, how you ever seen those 'other' drugs at alcohol parties, night clubs, or company parties? The answer is "Hell, yeah."
So, the fact remains: legalization of marijuana will most likely REDUCE use of stronger drugs, while generating MILLIONS of revenue. Win/win!

Gay Sex...

  I laugh when I hear how the ignorant describe sex between gay people and how "unnatural" it is.  Granted, I have never participated in sex with someone of the same sex but I know enough about humans to understand how it all works.
   I'll start off with anal sex: many religious, and other less-than religious, people believe that anal sex is "unnatural" and is against how God created us, but I have to wonder: is it "natural" if a man's penis is so large that it does not fully enter inside a woman's vagina?  That seems unnatural. However, rectal cavities can accommodate a penis of any size... that, to me, seems more natural. Just sayin'.

The Death Penatly...

I will forever be confused by the "botched" execution of a convicted killer... the guy died, hence the execution was a success.
   The fact that his vein collapsed or that his death took 45 minutes is irrelevant and certainly not "botched." If he survived, only then could it be considered botched.
   What is lost in this story is his victim. Mr. Lockett was convicted of shooting a 19-year-old woman and then burying her alive. Did she take 45 minutes to die? No, probably took much longer. Can you imagine ONLY being shot? Now imagine being buried alive... think about it: The dirt hitting your body as you lay in a shallow grave, unable to get out... the dirt falling on your face, in your eyes, in your mouth, and down your throat... the dirt entering your lungs causing you to cough, but before each cough, you inhale MORE dirt... the weight on the dirt on your chest, making it hard to breathe... the burning of your lungs from lack of oxygen.
   Yeah, I think Mr. Lockett got off easy compared to his victim.

 When will we stop caring about the criminal and start caring about the victim?  We see this time and time again... there are bad people in this world, and some of them should not exist.