Buh-bye!

To the undoubted great frustration of annoying people and those taking advantage of the elderly, the FCC and President Bush (in one of his first worthwhile acts) have finally found a way to stop the madness:

“Unwanted telemarketing calls are intrusive, they are annoying, and they’re all too common,” said President Bush, who formally launched the list at a White House ceremony. “We’re taking practical action to address this problem.”

Of course, for those of us with cell-phones, this isn’t a problem, thankfully; and one of the main reasons I didn’t establish a land-line when moving down here was for this very reason. Back in the Bay Area I would get a few calls a day from a few persistent telemarketers that, if the phone was even answered, would learn that “He’s not here right now… I don’t think he’ll be back for a few weeks, actually.” (wink).

This, of course, didn’t at all limit the calls I got, but at least it got me off the phone.

This new legislation will definitely help out people like my parents, who routinely get 15-25 calls per day and now screen all of their calls automatically. Not because there’s someone specific they’re trying to avoid, but because only 4% of the rings are from people they actually know… and that’s just ridiculous.