When I cancelled the account I, according to the rep on the phone,”now had a zero balance”. Low and behold January rolls around and I get an email saying I owe them $1.48. Yup you read that right $1.48.

I followed the emails instruction of going online to pay my bill but I find my account is now dead and I can’t log into it anymore. I figure, ridiculous but I am not pissed off yet…notice the yet.

So I call them and the young lady tells me I need to go to verizon.com/finalbill and tries to get off the phone, I say “wait let me get to the page before you go”. Does it load ……NO the url she gave me was dead. She then says “oh yeah it is now /paymybill”. I try it real fast and it works so I let her go.

I try 2 times with 2 different cards to pay through this system but it doesn’t work and doesn’t give an error it just does nothing!

I then call back and am a bit more pissed at this time. The rep start to take my info and we get disconnected. I call back AGAIN and the lady says “oh you need to call our financial services department at 1-800-528-7594″. I am mad but say fine I’ll spend even more time on the phone to pay you a $1.48.

Now at this time I have spent 45 minutes on the phone and 15 minutes online trying to pay them a friggin dollar 48. I call financial services and finally got it paid…total elapsed time online = 53 minutes.

So a total of 68 minutes out of my life to pay these idiots $1.48! How pathetic can you be verizon? So pathetic that that $1.48 you made me waste over an hour of my time to pay will be the last money you ever get from me…so well done!

Stay safe

Charles

The dog was owned by a relative according to the report. They tried to get the animal off the child but they had a lot of issues in doing so and the poor child had severe cuts and tears on its face and scalp, head area. Witnesses said they were kicking the dog and still wouldn’t let the child go.

The dog owner states they too have an infant and the dog has never touched their baby.

People say it’s not the breed it is the owner and the is partially true. Much of the blame falls to the owner of the dog but the breed it also an issue.

Pit bulls are unpredictable, deny it all you want but they have shown this time and time again. How many pit bulls owners say “he never did that before” after their dog attacks someone? Lots of them do.

If you get a pit bull when you have kids in the house you risk their lives, it is just that simple. The dog may never bite anyone and could be the greatest dog but statistics show the odds aren’t in your favor.

If you want to read about way to protect yourself from dog attacks your can read an entry I wrote a little while ago on How to protect yourself from an aggressive dog.

It wouldn’t have helped in this case other than when trying to get the dog to release the child but a little preparation goes a long way.

Stay safe and pray for the little child to recover both physically and emotionally!

Charles Dougherty

You can read the news story here http://www.wesh.com/r/29722323/detail.html#comment

The Dow family was home in the morning when the attack started and I am betting out of pure instinct Mr. Dow dove into the middle of the dog attack saving his dog Izzy from certain death at the hands of two vicious pack behaving animals.

As usual this is yet another case of piss poor pet owners. 43-year-old Scott Lewis is the owner of these two dogs and police say they have had trouble from them before. Looks like the need to stiffen the laws there in N.H. to put a stop to idiots like Scott Lewis from poorly raising and supervising his vicious dogs without any real repercussions.

Quite frankly an eye for an eye or in this case hand for a hand should be in order. Those dogs bit his hand all up so he should be able to take a hammer to Scott Lewis’ hand and maybe then people will start to get the picture. for those that think I am insane, well you may be right ;P

But with all of the people killed, maimed and flat out tore up in dog attacks something drastic has got to be done with lousy dog owners and to be clear this is all Scott Lewis’ fault not his dogs. They are just being dogs. He is the dumb ass that had them to start with and didn’t properly control them.

To read about ways you can protect yourself from an aggressive dog check out a blog posting I did about this a while back.

You can read the news story about this attack here http://www.wmur.com/r/29609991/detail.html.

Stay safe!

Charles Dougherty

You can read the whole story here http://www.abc27.com/story/15901989/jogger-pepper-sprayed-man-who-grabbed-her-police-say.

It just goes to show although you may believe it will never happen to you for less than $20 you can help to ensure that if it does happen you can defend yourself instead of being a helpless victim. Seems like a no-brainer to me! See you jogging Pepper Spray choices here.

Stay Safe!

Charles Dougherty

Thankfully we have various diverse ways for you to protect yourself from dogs and you simply need to make a decision which one is the best choice for you.

o Dog Pepper Spray – It was expressly designed to work on all canine animal breeds. Even though the effects are not unending it will cause horrible pain to the dog as their sense of smell is more keen than ours so the effects on the nose of the dog will be even worse than it is on a human nose. To counteract the effects the dog will need to have the sprayed areas rinsed with water or the effects will fade in about 30 minutes if left untreated. Although not designed for use on humans it is quite effective and can be used to help defend you from a human assailant as well.

o Bear Spray – If you are someone who likes to camp or hike in outdoor areas that may contain bears or other animals you may want to get a bear repellent pepper spray. This product is intended to work on a Grizzly Bear and it is also extremely effective on dogs and humans. This once again gives you protection from many types of possible attackers and all in one handy device.

With just a little effort on your part you can easily protect yourself from attacking dogs and if you pick the right weapon it can also protect yourself from human attackers.

Stay Safe!

With all of that said, thankfully we have many options of self-protective weapons from which to select in an attempt to stay safe.

o Mace Dog Pepper Spray – This is basically . It was specifically intended to work on all canine animal breeds. Though the effects are not permanent it will cause horrible pain to the dog as their sense of smell is more acute than ours so the effects on the nose of the dog will be even worse than it is on a human nose. To counter the effects the dog will need to have the sprayed areas flushed with water or the effects will fade in about 30 minutes if left untreated. Even though not designed for use on humans it is quite effective and can be used to help protect you from a human attacker as well.

o Ultrasonic Repeller – This will be the most humane, yet effective device on this list. It uses a extremely loud 130db ultrasonic sound as well as intense flashing lights to scare off a dog from up to forty feet away. Being ultrasonic, humans cannot hear the high pitched sound but dogs sure can! There is no permanent damage done to the dog but it will want to get as far away as possible. Because the sound leaves the device out of the front in a cone shaped pattern your dog will hear it but not be as effected as the aggressive dog will be getting the full cone of sound.

o Retractable Steel Baton – This item can serve a dual purpose as it will work to help protect you from both dogs and humans alike. The retractable steel baton is very effective and easy to carry on you as it comes with a holster so you can position it on your side. With a simple flip of the wrist you now have increased your reach by 16, 21 or even 26 inches depending on which length baton you make your mind up to carry.

While you may not want to injure an animal or person for that matter, if it comes down to letting them to maim or kill you or you hurting them then the choice is easy.

Stay safe!

A couple of days ago a 33 year old Australian man was in his home in Busselton, Australia sleeping in bed with his wife when a man burst into the room and shot the homeowner in the face with a shotgun!

Now this is further proof about the toughness statement. This guys wife jumps out of bed and tries to tackle the shooter that just pumped one into her husband. The intruder still managed to get off 2 more shots that hit the homeowner in his chest and in the face for the second time!

Now this guy has been hit in the face TWICE and body including his leg once with shotgun blasts. Even with all of that when police arrive this guy is up and talking!

He was taking to the hospital where the doctor called his a sissy for coming to him with these scratches and gave him a pint of lager and sent him on the way! Okay not really but they did his injuries were not life threatening. Goes to show if you want to kill an Aussie you better bring a bigger gun! LOL

Be Safe!

Charles

Here is a list of some of the Stun Guns that are perfect for Women:

• Lipstick Stun Gun – Just like it sounds this item looks exactly like a lipstick making it perfect for the purse or pocket. Although it is only about 3 inches tall it packs a massive 950,000 Volts of scumbag deterring pain waiting to be unleashed with a simple press of a button!

• Pen Stun Gun – This is another item easily carried and used when needed. It is only 6 ½ inches long and only one inch wide making easily held even with small hands. It can deliver an over-whelming 1.2 million volts of electricity to your attacker.

• Pretender Cell Phone Stun Gun - This looks just like a cell phone but you wouldn’t want to try to make a call on it. It doesn’t function as a phone and you just may zap yourself in the head with the unbelievable 4.5 million volts of agony that this baby can deliver. It is only 3.8 inches tall and comes with a holster if you prefer to wear in on your side or clip it to a purse strap rather than keep it inside of the purse or a pocket.

• Multi-Function Stun Gun - The reason I added this item is its’ multi-function capabilities of being able to deliver 2.7 million volts of pain, provide you with an extremely loud personal alarm and emergency flashing light as well as a flashlight for times you need to see in the dark. Best of all is that this little wonder is only 4 ¾ inches tall making is very easy to carry and use.

You will probably notice that all of these items on this list are very small and easy to carry because unlike clothing for men, the clothing designed for women generally comes with very little pockets.

This makes all of these items perfect for carrying when you have little space to spare but still want to be sure you have some extra help should you need it.

Stay safe,

Charles Dougherty

Unlike pepper spray which is meant for distances of usually 3 to 20 feet, a Stun Gun is used for an up close attack which means that the attacker needs to be within reaching distance in order to use it on them. The downside to all of this is that you will also be within reaching distance of your attacker.

Because the Stun Gun is meant for up close action it is very useful should you be attacked without seeing them coming and once the attacker has grabbed a hold of your body you can then send however many thousands of volts through his body.

One of the best features of a Stun Gun is that the voltage does not pass through your attacker and back into you unlike what is shown on television. No matter how long you hold it on them delivering voltage you can touch them without getting shocked. This is another great reason to carry one.

The last reason to carry a Stun Gun in case of attack is how good it is as a deterrent because criminals want the easiest victims they can find. If you see a threat coming and display your weapon to show you are not afraid and that you are ready to use it then you can deter most criminals who will just go look for someone who isn’t as prepared to defend themselves.

Criminals are cowards and with very little money or effort on your part you can make yourself a bad choice of victim and help to lower your odds of falling victim to attack.

Here in Texas we can’t seem to manage to pay for our schools yet we pay plenty of taxes and we are 44th in money spent on our schools to begin with and now they are cutting even more.

We are producing a generation of partially illiterate children and in fact we have at least one high school were 30% of the seniors did not graduate this year. That is disgusting!

Perry has done nothing for this state except cause a massive divide down party lines, run the school systems into the ground, take rights away from women with his sonogram law and cause our state’s economy to have BILLIONS in the way of a deficit.

Perry is also as two faced as they get. He tries to pretend he is for smaller government but acts the opposite. In fact it was his idea to force all little girls to get a HPV immunization shot. This may sound good on face value but it was to be forced on your kids whether you wanted it or not and that is not my America.

BTW. The reason he was pushing this vaccination was not for the good of the kids but for the good of one of his big money campaign contributors who happened to be the manufacturer or the drug. Perry does nothing that is not good for Perry.

If you want to know how he has been in office so long it is easy. Many of my fellow Texans are easily mislead sheep that believe what their preachers say over what common sense states.

So if that all sounds good for the rest of the country as well then yes, Perry for President other than that, hell no! It is bad enough we are stuck with him!