I grew up in small college town called Blacksburg, VA. My grandpa often took my brother and me to a store called “Blacksburg Feed and Seed” My grandpa was a delightful, overweight man, and everyone loved chatting with him. You could say he had the gift of the gab. My cousin Scott often visited the store with us.
Grandpa was a simple man who loved big band music. He would often take us kids fishing on the new river and at Big Stony Creek and spent hours of his day sipping sweet tea while listening to music under the shade tree. I miss him very much.
During one of our visits to Blacksburg Feed and Seed, the clerk addressed my grandpa by his first name “Well, Filmore,” he said, “we have some new fishing gear in, did you notice it?”
My Grandpa said he hadn’t. “Well, we have a variety pack of fishing lures the boys might like. I think this visit it was my brother, myself, and grandpa. I remember the little package of fishing lures and outside of the package the printed name read “20 assorted fishing lures for $1.50.”
Since I wasn’t very chatty at that age, I gave Grandpa my allowance to buy the lures. I suppose I’ve always been analytical and asked grandpa and the clerk " what happens if the bag doesn’t have 20 lures? "
My Grandpa just laughed and said he supposed it was important to count them and the clerk agreed.
Soon we all realized it was impossible to count them through the bag because the edges weren’t clear. The clerk suggested opening the bag to count them. It may sound silly to some reading this article, but I was excited to see the new fishing lures and we counted 18 not 20. The clerk was apologetic and yet kind enough to open another bag and let me pick two more to fill the bag.
The moral of the story is don’t trust a number just because it’s printed on the bag; the total count could be wrong.
For the record, the above missing lures represent 2 stolen lures which the manufacturer failed to include as part of the 20-lure package. The error rate in this case is 20%.
Enter Antrim County, Michigan
Federal Election demands that election software and systems error rate must not exceed 0.00008 percent
Source: From the 2002 FEC Voting System standards
An audit conducted in Antrim County concluded that the Dominion voting system had an error rate of SIXTY EIGHT percent!
Source: Ramsland Jr., Russell. “Antrim Michigan Forensics Report.”
As a young boy I noticed an error for my fishing lures with an error rate of 20%. I certainly don’t fault the Blacksburg Feed and Seed, but it was a timely lesson to count our good faith before leaving a store. If we, as Americans, lived in Antrim County, Michigan, our vote would have been corrupted by 68%, which allows thieves to break through and steal from us.
Never be lured by a promise on the outside of the package without checking what lies within the promise: it could just be a ruse to get you hook, line and sinker and without a hope of getting your money back.
Fortunately, as a young boy, my grandad and the store owner had the decency to check the contents of the package. No one likes being short-changed, least of all when they are not allowed to check the promise is real.
It was my hard-earned pocket money on the line: it was a lesson well learned.
I feel the same way with my tax dollar today. We can drink all the sweet tea in the world but that doesn't stop us from knowing the bitter taste of deceit.
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