Theft and loathing in Sacramento

The plates and tags for the Benz that I bought used not long after Christmas arrived yesterday.  I noticed, when I went to apply the tags, that the registration period start date was off bo more than six months.  I bought the car at the very end of December or beginning of January; the registration period began June 8, 2004.

Today, I talked to the DMV clerk at the wholesaler I bought it from.  It turns out that if you buy a used car in California (which I have not done before), DMV does not begin your registration period from when you bought the car.  They begin your registration period from the last anniversary of the date the car was originally registered in California, even if it was renewed on that start date and the renewal had not run out when you bought the car.

So, on every used car registration, California DMV steals an average of six months' registration fees EACH from the buyer and the seller.

This does not happen if you buy a used car in another state, and then bring it into California.  Then, the car gets a new "birthday" on the date you brought it into the state.  Of course, if you bring it in within some certain minimum time period after you bought it, they'll charge you California sales tax on it instead.

Crooked bastards.  Welcome to California, now open your wallet and repeat after me:  "Help Yourself."

Pondering the ten things ... let's see if I can come up with ten. (Updated)

Not that most of these things are that unique, in the right circles.  But I suspect they're rare among my circle of friends and readers.

( Sanitized for your protection )

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Update:  As noted, it took me three days to come up with the first ten items.  cymrullewes came up with the remaining ten in, uh, ten minutes or so.

vorlon lives

Firefox profile cloned, intact, including password database and extensions, from ronin to vorlon.  Bonus x 5000.  Frist prost!  (Er ..... from vorlon, that is.)