Saturday, July 08, 2006
THIS IS THE MOST BORING POST I'VE EVER WRITTEN
Recent unpleasant news that "they" were hiking our home insurance premiums significantly finally raised me from my inertial torpor and to the Internet for a lucrative round of comparison shopping. Shazaam! Cut my home/auto rates by nearly 40% (told you this post was boring). Turns out we're completely typical here: an industry report says "the average consumer can reduce their auto premiums by forty-percent through comparative price shopping on the Internet." So hold your nose and just do it.
The ultimate savings we enjoyed livened up an undeniably dull process: how far is our house from the nearest fire hydrant? Have we had any moving violations in the last five years? If the inquiring mind wanted to know my mind was not instinctively inquiring. But I slogged through and was rewarded in the end.
So perhaps now you can forgive me when I say my first thought regarding the latest political dust-up between candidates for recently-retired Congressman Martin Sabo's open seat, was wow! they must pay a lot for insurance:
The ultimate savings we enjoyed livened up an undeniably dull process: how far is our house from the nearest fire hydrant? Have we had any moving violations in the last five years? If the inquiring mind wanted to know my mind was not instinctively inquiring. But I slogged through and was rewarded in the end.
So perhaps now you can forgive me when I say my first thought regarding the latest political dust-up between candidates for recently-retired Congressman Martin Sabo's open seat, was wow! they must pay a lot for insurance:
State Rep. Keith Ellison, a leading DFL candidate in the Minneapolis-based district, acknowledged Thursday that he recently had a suspended driver's license for nonpayment of parking tickets, an infraction that is drawing attention on political blog sites.Holy moly that's a lot. Weirdly enough, it seems to be an occupational hazard: a 2003 report shows that politicians are the fourth most likely occupation to rack up speeding violations, after students, enlisted military and manual laborers. Least likely? Homemakers.
One of his DFL rivals, Mike Erlandson, also has kept traffic cops busy, with seven moving violations -- including five speeding tickets -- since 2000, and the Republican candidate, Alan Fine, has had four moving violations, three of them for speeding.
State records also show that Ellison has received nine traffic tickets for moving violations since January of 2000.
