Turn Signal Inventor Keith Taylor's Sad Tale: MyFoxAUSTIN.com

Turn Signal Inventor Keith Taylor's Sad Tale

Published : Tuesday, 18 Jan 2011, 9:01 PM CST
By CHARLIE LEDUFF
WJBK myFOXDetroit.com

The old saying goes that genius is one-percent inspiration and 99-percent perspiration. However, one Detroit inventor now realizes he should have spent at least five-percent on a good lawyer.

This is the story of a sweet, simple man on a dead end street caught between an airport and a cemetery. Here you either fly far away or you're buried, and Keith Taylor thought he had his ticket stamped.

FOX 2's Charlie LeDuff asked Taylor if he thought it would end up this way.
"Not in my wildest dreams did I think this would happen to me. If you told me this five years ago, I wouldn't believe it," he replied.

Back in the late eighties, a light bulb went off in Taylor's exquisite, unknown mind.
"I'm just a regular guy. The difference in me and inventions is I act on them instead of saying somebody should do that," Taylor said.

In his basement, the pastor's son invented the illuminated turn signal mirror.
A long and sad story made short, he patented his invention and crawled into bed with a supplier. He got paid, and he got out.

LeDuff asked Taylor how much he got paid.
"Around a hundred grand," he answered. "I bought a house for my mother in Troy."

The supplier went defunct, Taylor lost the house and had to move back to the neighborhood. Then a few years later, he saw his turn signal on a Mercedes, so he sued. He lost, the judge saying the Mercedes signal was different enough, but even the judge had to admit his lawyers were lousy.

"They took this patent and ran with it and never paid me," said Taylor.

LeDuff asked him if he felt cheated.
"Yeah, because I came to them in full confidence that they were going to work with me and help me, and they kind of just left me out of the equation," Taylor responded.

Now the patent has expired on his turn signal and Taylor has no more options unless Mercedes finds it in its heart to cut him a check. If they don't, they'll bury Taylor in the neighborhood next to his dear, old mother.
"You look at what his patent was, you look at what he contributed, and you see it's out there. The patent was held valid. The system just failed," said Dr. Ken Kohn, a patent lawyer.

LeDuff called Mercedes in Germany on Tuesday. Maybe they could help out. It is his 52nd birthday after all. However, nobody could be reached.
He was once a somebody. Now he's a nobody and nobody seems to care. There are a lot of people like that out there.
"This neighborhood has gone from middle class to under class," said Taylor. "I should get a quarter of a billion dollars from the ten major companies. $250-million."

Once his basement was full of ideas. The future was full of promise. Now all that's left are straws of hope. He even thought Obama might help him out.
"I don't think my name came up specifically, but I thought that was the general plan, that we (were) going to do right about this stuff. We (were) going to run this business right," Taylor said.

"It hurts too much to cry. Really, I can't cry," he added.

WTF - ?

So- Lets talk about the explosion that broke up that South Korean ship, sinking the Cheonan, within minutes, near the disputed Yellow Sea border off the west coast of the peninsula which was the scene of two deadly naval fights between the rival Koreas in the past decade.


The blast ripped the 1,200-ton ship apart last Friday night during a routine patrol near Baengnyeong Island near the tense maritime border west of the divided Korean peninsula. Fifty-eight crew members, including the captain, were plucked to safety; 46 are missing, presumed dead with many entombed in the stern of the ship at the bottom of the sea.

The South Koreans initially floated thoughts of attack by the North – by torpedo or floating mine—but has since stated that, although they “…have no idea” what caused the sinking, they have ruled out North Korean involvement….

uh-huh…

How fortunate for them, that I have an intrepid reporter on the case---

Who has located several witnesses

-- that  were able to snap some photo's soon after the sinking the destruction was unmistakably caused by …….

MGM Vdara ARIA bait and switch  free Cirque du Soleil  ticket scam

Well, DUH!

No wonder Vegas is gaining back its sleeze-ball reputation! They're working at it!


Classic Bait and Switch-- but this is a program operated by MGM hotels- and advertised and sold through Travelocity, Expedia, Delta Vacations, Continental Vacations and many others...

BAIT-

SWITCH

It's named the MGM Mirage March Entertainment Promotion- Two free tickets to Cirque du Soleil shows- your choice of Elvis, Love, Ka, Zumanity, Believe (oh pleeze...), or other lesser shows- Terry Fator-- etc....

These are sold through 3 day hotel/air packages that include an MGM property- and sold through Delta/Continental Vacations, Travelocity, Expedia, and other "reputable" travel outlets.....

I bought mine through Travelocity- the teaser there was the same as on the other sites-

but- ONLY upon purchase of the package, are you allowed to contact an "offsite" number and make your reservations for NON-EXISTENT Tickets....

I called the MGM Entertainment number listed on my confirmation with the Tickets code-
the girl on the line there blithly announced to me that the show advertised had no tickets available on the Promotion, but she would be happy to "help me" and sell me the tickets to the show at full retail...


So Travelocity sold me the package, based on the free tickets to Cirque offer-

and the helpful Travelocity rep I called said that Vdara would handle it for me!

she- er.. ah- the reservation/salessleeze was nice enough- just didn't have ANY of what was advertised...

The "agent" at Vdara Hotel and Spa informed me that none of the Cirque du Soleil shows we selected had seats available on their promotion (NO INDICATION THAT THE PROMOTION WAS LIMITED ...to what were probably obstructed view seats in the first place...)

BUT!... She too would be happy to sell me tickets for any of those shows at full price!!


This is a classic travel scam- promising great shows- not providing any information about limits- and then unexpectedly having NO Seats-- then turning around and selling those same Free - non existent tickets to you for full price!

I mean- now that I know what they're selling- its obvious -  its just not what I bought..... if I was shopping for full price tickets- why would buy their package?

What galls me is that MGM City Center- ARIA Hotel and Vdara Hotel and Bellagio are scamming its 5* clients through this bush-league ruse...

this is what i might expect from a $20 notell motel package saleseman- but Travleocity/Vdara ?

Now I'm not a mean-spirited nor violent kinda guy--  but I don't like getting pissed off either- and I've got a wicked bad habit of not getting mad... just getting even...

I guess its just buyer beware- even with businesses that should be putting forth a luxury value image--
But NOW YOU KNOW-- EVEN ARIA, VDARA HOTEL AND SPAS,  MGM, TRAVELOCITY, EXPEDIA, DELTA VACIATIONS, CONTINENTAL VACATATIONS, and loathe as i am to say it - CIRQUE DU SOLEIL says and contracts one thing - and gives another --

things just ain't always what they seemy.....

lesson learned

revenge to follow

As I could not verify details until the package was fully pre-paid- I\'ll include what I received after paying:

Thank you for purchasing an Entertainment Package from MGM MIRAGE. Included with your Package are up to two tickets to one of the following amazing Las Vegas shows: Viva ELVIS™ by Cirque du Soleil®, KÀ™ by Cirque du Soleil®, Disney’s THE LION KING, The Beatles™ LOVE™ by Cirque du Soleil®, Terry Fator & His Cast of Thousands, Lance Burton - Master Magician, The New Faces of Las Vegas Comedy - Frank Caliendo, ZUMANITY™The Sensual side of Cirque du Soleil®, CRISS ANGEL® Believe™ from Cirque du Soleil® and Tournament of Kings.

I must note that the language AFTER I PAID has changed from :

MGM MIRAGE Entertainment Show Ticket Promotion includes up to 2 tickets to choice of one select show.
to:
Included with your Package are up to two tickets to one of the following amazing Las Vegas shows

Gee-- I guess once they have your money-- your choice goes out the window..

Avoid MGM ARIA and VDARA- and any promotions the offer directly or through airlines, travel sites etc--

MGM MIRAGE Entertainment Show Ticket Promotion includes up to 2 tickets to choice of one select show.
TICKETS WILL NEED TO BE RESERVED IN ADVANCE, AND MUST BE RESERVED NO LATER THAN MARCH 22, 2010. Cirque du Soliel® show choices include: Viva ELVIS(TM) by Cirque du Soliel® at ARIA, KA(TM) by Cirque du Soleil® at MGM Grand, The Beatles(TM) LOVE (TM) by Cirque du Soliel® at Mirage, Zumanity (TM), The Sensual Side of Cirque du Soleil(TM) at New York New York, and CRISS ANGEL® Believe(TM) from Cirque du Soliel® at Luxor. Other show options include: Disney\'s THE LION KING at Mandalay Bay, Lance Burton - Master Magician at Monte Carlo, Frank Caliendo: The New Faces of Las Vegas Comedy at Monte Carlo, Las Vegas dinner show Tournament of Kings at Excalibur, and Terry Fator & His Cast of Thousands at Mirage. Valid per room, per stay for air & hotel package bookings of 3 or more nights. Valid per room, per stay. Maximum of 2 tickets (only 1 ticket maximum if only 1 person booked in the room). Show blackout dates are Mar 22, and Apr 11-12, plus normal show dark days of week. Not Valid for Group Bookings. Offer not valid on existing reservations and may not be combined with any other offer. Other Terms and Conditions apply. For more details on shows, please see www.mgmmirage.com/wsstp/showinfo.aspx. Redemption information will be on documents. TICKETS WILL NEED TO BE RESERVED IN ADVANCE, AND MUST BE RESERVED NO LATER THAN MARCH 22, 2010 or they will be forfeited.

Limited Time Offer. Save up to 20% Off.
Save up to 20%! Valid for air and hotel bookings. Not valid on Group bookings.

blah blah blah...



bait and switch scam perpetuated by MGM, fraudulently abetted by Travelocity!

ObamaCare—

ObamaCare—

Is there really anyone out there that honestly believes that the new Healthcare bill will lower the average Americans yearly tithing for healthcare?

There will be winners and losers, of course—but who is who?

If I was to look into my crystal ball- I can imagine looking back at this moment in time aghast with incredulity that we, as a nation, didn’t see this coming….

Winners:

Government- Humongous new entitlement- a hole chasm created to suck up ever enlarging constituent bases, funds

Government workers-  oodles of new, high paying, low performing, non-terminable jobs created

Democratic Party- in the long run- any creation of a behemoth public entitlement will eventually create a symbiotic relationship with a whole class of underprivileged….

Medical Billing entrepreneurs- Creative billing 101 just got a an ultra adrenalin shot- after a short learning curve- inventive billing will become a parasitcal portion of everyones yearly heathcare bills.

Insurance companies- can you imagine a world where your profit % is for all practical purposes—guaranteed?

Medical Services/Hospitals and other healthcare providers--  Forget Manny the local leg-breaker—you’re getting Elliot Ness and the IRS to collect your delinquent accounts!!

Elliot Ness and the IRS--  Wow—a bunch of new career paths to enforce and collect within those agencies!!

The Regular Suspects -  the Best and Brightest and the Dimmest and Dullest

1. Top-Notch Talent from the Ivy Leaguers to the bush-leaguers who leave their morals at the door and find their niche to exploit (the former within the law/ the latter beyond the law)
2. Thugs and thieves amongst us—The you and me’s who find the loopholes to either keep the cash cow coming to us, or use up endless and expensive medical procedutes clogging the system and blocking legitimate needier patients out—just cuz we can….

I’m sure I’ve skipped over numerous, nameless nifty groups, but like oasis’s in the desert, although they be far and few between- nobody stuck in the middle really knows where they are, and how deep their little pools of graft and corruption my drop……

Now—let me be pessimistic (remember—those are the winners above ! )—Because there is always two sides to ever story!

Losers

Gee—I checked with Obama, Pelosi and Harry Reid—and therefore have it on the best authority—there are no losers!! 

That’s right—everybody wins this one—guess I can close down and go home! 

 

 Well, then again, there are the rest of us.....

CLOWNS IN SPACE - The END must be coming!!

CLOWNS IN SPACE- can the end be far away?? Canadian Billionaire Clowns—what to do with them?

Never since the spectacle of Caligula’s orgy of immorality and the subsequent breakdown of all that was the Roman Empire- has there ever been a clearer sign of civilization’s impending demise--- we’ve finally witnessed the breaching of the wall that kept the invaders of our social legitimacy from engulfing us in economic and social moral idiocy.

We have come to the point where, as billion dollar construction projects in Las Vegas go dark- unemployment lines swell, and hundreds of thousands of families are being torn apart and cast out of their homes- we, as a global society have rewarded clowns enough to drop $35 Million to vacation in space….

Not that Canadians have ever been the torchbearers for… well, anything--- in fact, the opposite is true- we’ve always considered our somewhat frost-bit neighbors to the North to be somewhat reserved (mind-numbing cold will do that…?) but as a people, still able to maintain a conscionable quantity of level headed unpretentiousness.

And that’s the point—if the world has evolved to where a moderately sane people (Canucks) have as their most newsworthy personality (well, at least this week), a genius that has built a fortune making people laugh—and rewarded him with enough leisure pocket change to afford this stunt—it is simply the tip of the iceberg (be it melting or not) --- merely an anecdote or harbinger of 2012ishness…. who wil ever know for sure- except for 22nd century history teachers that is….

As much as I enjoy the fruitiness of his labors, I do have a warning for Guy, and perhaps the world--.

Now that the world’s #1 Clown has broken the boundary and entered the Universe-at-large- I see ominous warnings of what may get his scent and follow him back—TO US!!

Never did a more ominous threat to man, give us such a clear warning!

(except of course, the threat to our souls, and morals of our young from the Zombie Strippers from Outer Space!)

okay, okay-- so I made up the Outer Space part-- but it can't be much of leap if you'll swallow the Guy=Caligula theory....

America's Proudest Vehicle THE HUMVEE ..made in china!!!!

Oh the indignity—Oh the SHAME!!.....

The Symbol of American Power--- the profile of the truly wasteful, over-indulgent “ugly American” of a now so quickly bygone era—

HMMWV (Highly Mobile Multi Wheeled Vehicle) Humvee

Look at the cars that identify, with a single glance the countries of their origin…

VW bug--- the peoples car- Germany

…. Oh, all right! For you WWII apologists- I’ll give you BMW for true German Engineering (and my girlfriends ’76 bmw2002 that I milked along for 12 years, before selling it to a true culinary genius chef who had a buddy who convinced him to buy it and restore it as a hobby!- but that’s another story for a slow week…)

The Bentley Rolls Royce- proud symbol of British dominance in all things refined!

Hyundai- the little car like its little Korean producers

Toyota/Honda -- one look and you see Japanese industriousness and sound business practices invading and conquering America in an ironic historical twist of fate—

Yugo-- Wow, even small, unimportant historically deprived countries have a national automobile identity!

And now—the Chinese Hummer—

Oh my Lord— first the Nobel Prize, and now he’s given away the HUMVEE…..


nytimes:
General Motors has reached a preliminary agreement for the sale of its Hummer brand of large sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks to a machinery company in western China with ambitions to become a carmaker, a person familiar with the Chinese government approval process said Tuesday.


The Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Company Ltd., based in Chengdu, concluded the agreement with G.M., said the person, who insisted on anonymity.


Sichuan Tengzhong is a privately owned company, but Tuesday’s deal required preliminary vetting by Beijing officials, who retain the right to veto any effort at an overseas acquisition by a Chinese company and who give special attention to deals over $100 million.

G.M. announced the deal early Tuesday morning in Detroit but said that the memorandum of understanding would not allow it to reveal the buyer or the price. Industry analysts have estimated that the Hummer division would sell for less than $500 million.

Nobel Peace Prize

AND THE PRIZE GOES TO:

President Obama....?

"for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples"

On SNL last weekend, Armisen as Obama announces- “Because when you look at my record, it is very clear what I have done so far — and that is nothing. Nada! Almost one year and nothing to show for it!”

Agot Valle, a Norwegian politician and member of the five-person Nobel committee that chose this year’s winner, said the choice of President Barack Obama was primarily related his stance on nuclear disarmament.

Committee chairman Thorbjørn Jagland defended the choice of Obama. “If you look at the history of the Nobel Peace prize, we have, on many occasions, tried to enhance what many personalities are trying to do,”

So, we should feel all warm and fuzzy ‘cuz some Nordics want to influence US policy>?

Let me put forward my own laundry list of lost legacies "The One" is now working on… in no particular intelligible order (kinda like Obama's foreign policy so far...!)

-2016 Summer Olympic Games- well- ‘nuff said

Guantanamo Bay – is it an amusement park yet—no? well soon then right? No>??

Iraq- My God!- If he gets out of there without personally touching off Middle Eastern Holy War that unites all of the Arab countries- well I’ll be just pleased as punch…

Health Care reform- having troubles kid>? Even with majority in the Senate, the House and the Third Estate (supposedly), but at least the Fourth Estate to keep the Third in line….

Israel and Palestine—and the funny thing is—I used to think (until Obama), that Netenyahooooo was the MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN THE WORLD—because- there is a guy who one day soon, isn’t gonna pussyfoot around- and go for the jugular to defend his people.

Afghanistan- well he's succeeded in alienating his own military, emboldening the Taliban/Al Quedaites- and still can’t decide whether to turn tail and run yet or not…. He’s actually contemplating leaving it high and dry- a cesspool teaming with primordal anti-Americanist terorrist stew… wow.

Iran, he's followed through on his commitment for diplomatic engagement and guaranteed the world a nuclear Iran/ or Mideast War in his first term…

Russia, - well he’s stabbed our allies in the back- and given Russia the green light to grab back its old territories….

North Korea – oh boy… Our dear leader II has figured out how to handle “goody two-shoes” Obama- look forward to peace and Nuclear North Korea for Obama’s second term…

China—the worldwide message is--- the store is OPEN—come take what you’d like- if you promise (and then ineffectively) to help us with North Korea/Iran….

Should I even mention Latin America?? Honduras- supporting a future dictator who illegally changes the laws to enable his future rule… (isn’t that the old definition of the term “banana republic” —before cool clothes hijacked it…)

America is looking forward to the most dangerous future since a clueless, misguided JFK nearly threw us into a nuclear conflagration that would have singed the geneaology table of every American alive today.... 


If my kids survive long enough to tell their grandkids about how President Obama actually won the Nobel Peace Prize-- I think I'll have to chalk that one up to proof of a Superior Intelligence in the Universe-- cuz Katy bar the door-- the injuns are circlin' the homestead!

 Yup-- but I said it....

Is it just me, or did New York’s attorney general, Elliot Spitzer start the recession!

The board of AIG was threatened with a criminal charge of fraud against the company itself, they caved and Greenberg, who headed AIG for 37 years, was forced to step down in March 2005 after he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during a Spitzer-led investigation into accounting and other improprieties at AIG..

Spizter’s public deception was further perpetrated on the Sunday "This Week with George Stephanopoulos” in April 2005…

Spitzer, attacked the Greenberg, saying “the evidence is overwhelming” that a series of transactions completed by the company under Greenberg’s watch constituted “fraud,” and that Greenberg could face criminal charges. and said that Mr. Greenberg had committed criminal fraud against shareholders for misstating earnings. But he subsequently failed to file any actual charges.

When Mr. Sptizer instead filed a civil case, the two main pillars of that accusation—that Mr. Greenberg deceived regulators about AIG's offshore reinsurance and that AIG falsely reported income—were eventually withdrawn.

Greenberg has been forced to watch from the sidelines as the company whose name was almost inseparable from his own buckled in the wake of the subprime mortgage crisis. To keep it afloat, the U.S. government fronted AIG, the world’s largest insurer, $182.5 billion.

At the time of Greenberg’s ouster, AIG boasted a market cap of $165 billion and was a Fortune 10 company with sales of $113 billion and more than 115,000 employees operating in 130 countries. In May 2008, the stock traded for a respectable $50/share. For most of 2009, however, AIG stock hovered in the $1.50/share range.

Now, Greenberg is coming back to right the ship—

This kicked off the “grand malaise”, but could it have been avoided had Greenberg remained at the helm>??????

And Spitzer? As much a fraud today as ever, he appears to be in the process of having his reputation ………. Repolished…. While it may have been his hand on the handle, his greed and lust for political office, that actually flushed millions of us down the drain…