Category: Rants

How To Piss Off Women Not Really Paying Attention!

Posted on by Jason

No this episode is NOT designed to piss off women but it will still happen. It will happen because people will listen to this episode without paying attention to what I am truly saying. Want a hint? It’s about women’s equality and how they are not truly equal and what it will take to make it that way.

You can’t demand equality while still requesting special privileges. Thats now how equality works. Equality is EQUAL. Either you want to be equal or you don’t. I’m not talking just about women in that aforementioned statement but for the sake of this post, I will be.

 

Men’s pro tennis players play five sets. Women play three (a holdover from 1902, when the US Lawn Tennis Association cut women’s play, fearing over-exertion).

A 12-year-old girl who enters a local tournament sanctioned by US Kids Golf plays just nine holes; a boy her age in the same tournament plays 18 – regardless of their relative skill or experience.

Rule differences in sports?

Lacrosse:

Men have to wear heavy gloves, women can choose to wear thinner gloves for a better grip.

Men allow 10 players on the field at a time, Women allow 12. (wtf?)

Basketball:

Women: Smaller basketball, No time limit for crossing half court, 3 point line is closer

Football: HAHA I would love to see women play football. Thats not sarcastic, I believe they could do it however, I would have no interest if they couldn’t physically engage the other player which kind of ruins women’s LAX. Let them hit, be hit, and enjoy it just as much as a man. I’m not sure a lot of sports I’d allow cross gender playing because of size differences of male athletes vs. female athlete’s but I think there are a few that could allow it easily due to them being a lot more equal. I think men and women could play basketball and/or soccer together. Women are not at a true disadvantage by size in these sports. Pro American football however, would be a very unfair and dangerous game. There are exceptions to every rule but I think these are pretty obvious.

Enough about sports, lets venture elsewhere.

The military:

Now I’m not the know all / end all regarding military training so if I am off on a few things, please let me know.

Hair: Bootcamp’s biggest kick in the teeth for a lot of people is the shaved head. It sets uniformity and helps put everyone on the same low level psychologically. Women want to be more and more equal in their military positions right? Why are women not required to fully shave their heads like men? Is the military saying women deserve any more special treatment than the men?

Well the Marines first messed up but then during their backtrack did what should have been done all along. Kudo’s Ladies and Gentlemen.

The article is here: http://www.thedailybeast.com/the-hero-project/articles/2014/01/07/lowering-standards-for-female-marines-is-not-gender-equality.html

Your MOS / job is based on your physical capabilities as opposed to your gender. No man or woman deserve to be in a position strictly because you lowered the standards for them to be there. If men can’t pass the test, they can’t be allowed to do the job, same as women.

The workplace:

Personally as with the rest of these topics I do not have any issues with women wanting and getting to be equal. Go for it. However, earn it. If you get a lower standard in order to be ‘equal’ with a man, you do not deserve it. I feel that way about anything and everything. It’s not about male vs. female. It’s about the word ‘equal’.

Now in the workplace generally there’s no need for standards to be lowered. Men and women have the same capacity for mental skill and education. No one man is smarter than a woman because he is a man, or vice versa. Now some jobs may be easier for a man to do… even mentally. We generally are less emotional when making decisions in comparison to women but thats not a weakness on a woman’s behalf and sometimes is a benefit.

There is one time a year or every couple years that I definitely discriminate by gender. Its when I vote. Now hold on, don’t get your panties in a twist ladies. I discriminate in  your favor. Whenever I vote for judges and I unfortunately do not know a lot about the candidates, I tend to vote for the woman. Historically women are harder on criminals that deserve it than a man. I don’t know why, and maybe its the motherly nature of women protecting what could potentially be the next victim but generally women judges cut less slack.

  • Jason

 

The Militarization of Our Local Police

Posted on by Jason

I’m a supporter of our military AND our police however, I still will call a turd a turd. We have a big problem right now where military surplus is handing down loads and loads of gear, equipment and vehicles to our local police departments and it’s starting to become a problem.

A map of bother paramilitary raids: http://www.cato.org/raidmap

http://store.cato.org/reports/overkill-rise-paramilitary-police-raids-america

Tactics and Toys: The Dangerous Militarization of Local Police: http://www.takepart.com/article/2014/08/14/9-ways-police-military

I don’t want to spend the entire time beating up police officers, and be sure, if you listen that I am doing far from that. Officers are humans too, and they as persons are not the problem, they are working with what they are given. Bad situations, super gear, and situations that they could assume could become hairy at any time.

 

**UPDATE**

It appears there are problems that even the police departments and sheriff offices are finding out for themselves.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/aug/28/police-saddled-with-unwanted-equipment-amid-milita/?page=1

 

 

Stupid Government Spending is Costing YOU. Taxes Pt. 1

Posted on by Jason

We all have our own beliefs regarding taxes. Some hate all of them, some ignore all of them, and some consider some relevant and others an over reach in order to cover irresponsibility regarding spending.

The things we hear about all of the time is ‘Our soldiers need supplies’ or ‘Our senior citizens need food because Social Security isn’t covering them.’ ‘… and we need to increase the taxes.’

What we don’t hear about is the abuse of spending that goes on that render’s the government its inability to cover its important expenses. And thats what today’s post is about. Government Spending and the things you don’t know about.

In 2013: (CNSNews.com) – The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded $1.5 million to study biological and social factors for why “three-quarters” of lesbians are obese and why gay males are not, calling it an issue of “high public-health significance.”

Now why is that relevant and why is my money being used for this? Are lesbians any more or less biologically human as the next man or woman? I mean if there’s a gay gene then are we saying it’s what makes you fat? Ok, let someone with shit loads of money and a high level of curiosity figure it out. Do NOT use public tax funds to research segregated topics.

I mean, are not random straight men and women fat or obese? why are they classifying them? I’ve known obese gay men just as I’ve known skinny lesbian women. This is preposterous and NOT the US governments responsibilities.. yet this type of shit happens behind the scenes all of the time. Lobbying and back room deals throwing our money away faster than we can give it to them.

Taxes should be collected to provide the constitutional duties delegated to the appropriate level of government. Our military and our Civilian government officials. Then Fire and Police were added. Most people agree to these. Then highways and roads along with educational funding. Why is my money being used for irrelevant scientific studies that are only for people being either nosy or looking for something to do. Where do YOU draw the line? We spend insane amounts of money on ridiculous shit daily.

Our current national debt is above 17.5 TRILLION dollars and is doing nothing but climbing. Yet we have idiots in DC that believe we should spend over a million on why lesbians are obese? We need politicians to be held accountable. We need PEOPLE to be educated about who they are voting for and what these politicians have voted during their records. We need to get the politics and back room deals out of Washington because they don’t see a problem.

“Oh, we spent too much money? Our only solution is to raise taxes in some way, oh darn” These guys don’t even think about the possibility of CUTTING SPENDING! Oh yeah, they talk about it and end up stripping from social security or military funds. While stupid shit gets pushed through.

What does 17 trillion dollars look like? –  “Back in 1981, the national debt was only about $1 trillion, yet Reagan still tried to put it all in perspective. He said, “I’ve been trying ever since to think of a way to illustrate how big a trillion really is. And the best I could come up with is that if you had a stack of thousand-dollar bills in your hand only 4 inches high, you’d be a millionaire. A trillion dollars would be a stack of thousand-dollar bills 67 miles high.” Multiply that by 17 and you get 1,139 miles high,”

Examples: (Gathered from http://commercialobserver.com) (2013)

  • The government spends about $100 million every four years to subsidize parties at the political conventions.
  • The Department of Agriculture spent $2 million to fund an internship program. The program hired one full-time intern.
  • Last year (2012), $120 million was paid to dead federal employees.
  • A total of $146 million was paid for federal employees to upgrade their flights to business class.
  • The government spent $2.6 million to encourage Chinese prostitutes to drink more responsibly.
  • The Department of Health and Human Services provided an $800,000 subsidy to build and IHop in Washington, D.C.
  • The National Institutes of Health has given $1.5 million to Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston to study why “three-quarters” of lesbians in the United States are overweight and why most gay males are not.
  • During 2012, $25,000 of federal money was spent on a promotional tour for the Alabama Watermelon Queen.
  • The U.S. government spent $505,000 “to promote specialty hair and beauty products for cats and dogs” last year.
  • NASA spends close to $1 million per year developing a menu of food for a manned mission to Mars even though it is being projected that a manned mission to Mars is still decades away.
  • Over the past 15 years, a total of approximately $5.25 million has been spent on hair care services for the U.S. Senate.
  • The U.S. government spent $27 million to teach Moroccans how to design and make pottery in 2012.
  • During fiscal 2012, the National Science Foundation gave researchers at Purdue University $350,000. They used part of that money to help fund a study that discovered that if golfers imagine that a hole is bigger it will help them with their putting.
  • A total of $10,000 of U.S. taxpayer money was actually used to purchase talking urinal cakes in Michigan.
  • The U.S. Department of Agriculture has spent $300,000 to encourage Americans to eat caviar produced in Idaho.
  • The National Institute of Health recently gave $666,905 to a group of researchers that is conducting a study on the benefits of watching reruns on television.
  • The National Institute of Health also spent $592,527 on a study that sought to figure out once and for all why chimpanzees throw poop.
  • The IRS spent $60,000 on a film parody of Star Trek and a film parody of Gilligan’s Island.
  • Last year, the federal government spent $96,000 to buy iPads for kindergarten students in Maine.
  • The U.S. government spent $200,000 on “a tattoo removal program” in Mission Hills, Calif.
  • Last year, the government spent just under $1 million posting snippets of poetry in zoos around the country.
  • The U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research spent $300,000 on a study that concluded the first bird on Earth probably had black feathers.
  • The federal government spent $75,000 to promote awareness about the role Michigan plays in producing Christmas trees and poinsettias.

From: http://endoftheamericandream.com

#5 The federal government has shelled out $3 million to researchers at the University of California at Irvine to fund their research on video games such as World of Warcraft.  Wouldn’t we all love to have a “research job” like that?

#11 A total of $615,000 was given to the University of California at Santa Cruz to digitize photos, T-shirts and concert tickets belonging to the Grateful Dead.

#14 One professor at Stanford University was given $239,100 to study how Americans use the Internet to find love.

#18 The federal government spends 25 billion dollars a year maintaining federal buildings that are either unused or totally vacant.

#19 U.S. farmers are given a total of $2 billion each year for not farming their land.

#23 According to the Heritage Foundation, the U.S. military spent “$998,798 shipping two 19-cent washers from South Carolina to Texas and $293,451 sending an 89-cent washer from South Carolina to Florida”.

 

2009 – http://origin.heritage.org/research/reports/2009/10/50-examples-of-government-waste#_edn3

  1. Government auditors spent the past five years examining all federal programs and found that 22 percent of them — costing taxpayers a total of $123 billion annually — fail to show any positive impact on the populations they serve.[4]
  2. Federal agencies are delinquent on nearly 20 percent of employee travel charge cards, costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
  3. Washington spends $60,000 per hour shooting Air Force One photo-ops in front of national landmarks.[30]
  4. Washington recently spent $1.8 million to help build a private golf course in Atlanta, Georgia.[46]

 

So how do YOU feel about all of this? What are YOU going to do about it?

  • Jason

State Smoking Ban and Legalizing Weed Tidbits

Posted on by Jason

For the first ‘real’ podcast with yours truly I think I’ll start out with something like this…

Although it’s kind of a ‘too’ late situation here in NC as it is in other parts of the country, the conversation recently arose about the restaurant/bar smoking ban that was enacted here several years ago. I was quite vocal and involved with the process at the time including contacting the appropriate politicians voting on the topic. It is a RIDICULOUS notion that a private business owner be forced to not allow a ‘legal’ substance in his own establishment. It is NOT big brother’s choice so long as the substance isn’t illegal. I’ll also say this, I was already non smoker at the time.

I fully believe in the Capitalistic approach. You as a proprietor should be able to choose to allow smoking and alienate non smokers or ban smoking and alienate smokers. You sunk the money into it and you should be able to choose your own fate. In most industries… all industries… money talks. You choose. The government has NO legal right to do this yet, they have. Argue with me? Bring it.

Lets touch on a few of the arguments?

1) “What about the employees who ‘HAVE’ to go there?” – Well guess what? They don’t! Last I checked this wasn’t a communistic society where your jobs were chosen for you and you were forced to work one place without option.

2) “The short divider walls that separate the smoking and non smoking sections don’t work” – Well, I completely agree. Having a knee wall dividing the smoking and non smoking sections of a restaurant is like having a peeing and no peeing sections of the local pool. However, back to the opening statements. You don’t HAVE to go there. Freedom of choice.

3) “Second hand smoke is bad!” – Yep, probably so. However, 1) YET AGAIN, your choice to be there just like it’s your choice to over eat or eat fatty foods till you swell and rot. And 2) Although you may see a small factoid here, it’s an argument forcing someone else to change something so you can have your way and go there.

You know what… I give up on this part:

I’m even looking up arguments on the internet now because I can’t even think of any arguments that aren’t ridiculous. Even google is struggling to find any that aren’t opinion based and/or smug serving a ‘me me me’ society that can’t comprehend that it’s not your job to tell a business owner what they can and cannot do if they aren’t forcing pain and suffering on you, AND THEY’RE NOT.

Most if not all of the general arguments for banning smoking are pretty much opinions based on a person or groups personal preferences. The only facts that are truly being stated are that liberties are being violated by a strong armed government forcing owners/proprietors to do stuff in/on their own private properties based on personal preferences. What’s truly the biggest ‘wrong’ here? No it’s not a personal preference that smoking is bad for you and that second hand smoking is too. However, personal preference comes into play when you choose to go into these places and then say they shouldn’t do that so YOU can have a better time. It’s like going into a gay bar and feeling uncomfortable because your a homophobe so you’re going to mandate that gay be taken out of the bar because you think ‘family establishment’ means man/woman/child and not ‘good safe fun’. Unless people are getting raped in the back, shut the fuck up!

I am a non smoker. I don’t care for the smell or agitation of it in my face. But it is MY choice to visit any private establishment I find myself in. I respected McDonalds and Burger King 20 years ago when they (as a company) decided themselves to ban it. Because it was THIER choice. I still visit these places today. The local and federal governments DO have the right to ban smoking in their own establishments such as court houses, post offices, etc. These are places you MUST visit generally and if you’re there it’s not usually 100% by choice.

I would rather the government step back and stop fucking with us and deal with a few less enjoyable restaurants than to give the power hungry fuckers more of a reach. Because they are coming for cigarettes today, tomorrow it may be something you enjoy.

Because it was the government’s actions that forced this on these establishments, I can’t hold it against them. But let’s switch it up for a sec. Currently I am a Vaper. I’ve been vaping for over two years (i think haha) and haven’t had much trouble with going anywhere with them up until recently. Since I firmly believe in boycotts I’ve decided that these recent events have given me a legit reason to avoid certain establishments. Because I’ve yet to hear a legitimate argument as to why one shouldn’t be allowed to Vape in an establishment. I will be making a page for these places and showing my fellow Vape heads where they can avoid confrontations and or agree to not give money to assholes. For the sake of this show I’ll list two off for now:

Denny’s as a complete chain.
Woody’s in Downtown Raleigh.

Buyer be warned (chuckle)

Marijuana – A good legalization option? How do you guys fare?

 

 

I Know Someone Will Chew Me Out For This But….

Posted on by Jason

I started a post about a subject that I figured would be touchy. I gave an example of something to lead into it and turned this entire post into the beast you find below. So I’ve now rewritten the intro to this series of sentences and will just let you fall directly into the mess below. I will address the original topic later to anyone that feels they still can return. 🙂

Healthcare: Although I like the concept of public healthcare for everyone just because they are born and live here in the United States, I cannot agree that there is a way to do it that doesn’t make things worse on the support side of that spectrum. I am a firm believer in you should earn what you get and other than gifts out of love, charity, or kindness along the way… no one should get a free ride. This isn’t a system that I decided to believe DUE to the debate of public healthcare but one that I had for all aspects of life that I apply to the debate. I don’t believe one group of persons should pay the way for everyone else. I think that when you punish success by slipping the bill to those that have busted their humps to get what they earn that eventually the Socialism cycle starts generating less and less productive people for two main reasons. “1) Why work so hard to have a larger than fair chunk taken away and given to others.” and “2) Why work so hard when there are other people that will take care of me.”. This isn’t something that happens immediately but over long periods of time and generations.

A good example of #2 is for a lot of the persons that REMAIN on Welfare. Now before you close this window and cuss my name in vain, let me finish this thought. Welfare was designed as a good program and in a lot of ways still IS a good program. There are A LOT of people that I know that either currently use the assistance or have had to at some point. I will say however that the majority of the people I have in my life, whether family or friend, are also people that use/d Welfare for EXACTLY what it was designed for: TEMPORARY ASSISTANCE not a PERMANENT supplement to their income because they don’t want to work harder, make sacrifices, or do anything in addition to improve their situation.

With that said about the people that abuse the system and drain the pocketbook that could easily help others let me go further into ticking these people off. I think there are a lot of drugs that should be legalized. I said that to say this, I don’t have a problem with most drugs and I’m not a die hard anti drug zealot that preaches to people that may smoke weed or whatever. I personally don’t do them but don’t really care if others do. I’ve been around a lot of it most of my life and in my opinion most of them are no worse than alcohol. Now, again, I said all of that to say this…. I think that in order to qualify for welfare, ALL persons above the age of 18 in the household should be drug tested. Any positive results…. results in suspension of the PRIVILEGE. It is a privilege NOT a right.

Mad at me yet? No? Well then let me continue….

There is one level of Socialized medicine that I do agree with. I think any persons under the age of 25 that is enrolled into school should still retain an assisted healthcare option. After growing up and the time comes for people to put on their big boy/girl pants, I think it is a person’s responsibility to provide for theirself.

I didn’t have anything handed to me nor did I have a free ride when it came to education or a golden job with kick ass benefits. I worked retail jobs, customer service jobs, construction jobs, etc and along the way there were times I didn’t have insurance and other times that I had some kind of insurance that at least helped. I got a job where I am now and ended up with some pretty good benefits and have busted my ass to get where I am with this company. I didn’t expect anyone to help me along the way nor did I ask for help. Not having things like insurance or money for finer things only pushed me to work harder… not whine and complain about what I didnt have. I’m afraid our society as a whole spends more time whining about what they dont get for free and how unfair it is that someone has something they dont as opposed to working harder to get where the other person is. The American Dream never was about getting all kinds of awesome things… it was about having the opportunity to work harder and to get your dreams to come true…. I don’t understand where this ideal of ‘being owed something’ came from but its growing out of control. No one in this country or world rather is owed anything… except opportunity to work for what they want in life.

Grow up America!

Death and Taxes

Posted on by Jason

I’d say that the title was a joke initially but in all reality it pretty much boils down to that. Insurance ([to avoid] Death) and the Obama sodomy squad looking to take as much from people as they can (Taxes). I’ve tried time and time again to give this guy the benefit of the doubt but he’s not really leaving me many options at this point. The current healthcare legislation is getting to a point to which I cannot hold my tongue any longer. Obama and his cronies, wanting to help, are trying to give everyone in America healthcare. While I can respect the notion I cannot however respect his approach. For those of you who are not paying close enough attention, here is what they are trying to push through and why it should tick you off:

I.

A Public Option: – Government run healthcare.

For those of you unfamiliar with this concept look at our current government run programs for seniors or veterans. In fact, try talking to anyone that is using either of these options more than for checkups. Some would say that the Federal government has yet to successfully run a program like this on a smaller scale much less what they are proposing now. I personally would like to add that whether they CAN do it or not… they shouldn’t. It’s not their job nor duty as a Government. It puts their paws too far into the business infrastructure of the country. This is how and why the government keeps growing to its ungodly and unnecessary size and stealing more and more power to control individuals. The federal government should do very few things. Examples of these few things are: 1) Protect our outlying borders from foreign enemies. 2) Regulate State to State interests and relationships. 3) Hrm, still trying to figure out a number 3.

II.

Taxes:

Staying with the Democrat status quo, the Obama administration is looking to take the normal approach of having the rich pay for the poor. I am all for charities but I am a firm believer in working for what you have. I understand that there are people out there that work harder than I do for next to nothing and those are the people I actually DO want to find a way to help however, there has got to be a better way. There are WAY TOO MANY people out there currently ‘mooching’ off of the system and making the current system worse than it really should be. There are people who NEED government assistance to get by yet cannot get it. These people work 40+ hours a week and only need a tiny bit of help to get over the hump while some people sit at home collecting welfare checks refusing to even LOOK for a job. There are people that keep popping out children even though they couldn’t/can’t afford the first one, two, or three that they had. I won’t even get started on DRUG TESTS for WELFARE CHECKS because GOD knows we could save A LOT of money if that were enacted.

Basically if the current bill passes, the more money you make, the more money they take and I don’t mean on a 1 to 1 ratio. Different income brackets will pay outrageously more in taxes and for health insurance than lower income brackets… FOR THE SAME COVERAGE! No doubt those of us that choose to keep our own private insurance will still pay taxes to cover others. For example: Its currently being said that someone with the income base of 60,000 or so will pay somewhere between 20-30% of their income towards insurance. OMFG! Really? Lets see now, If I make 60k a year then I will pay 15-18k a year for insurance? And I guarantee it will be coverage only moderate in quality for what I currently pay 5k a year for now. If you make more, you will be held MORE responsible for paying for other’s insurance.

III.

Forced:

Once this is in, everyone will be FORCED by law to have health insurance. No joke. Unconstitutional anyone? I do see the reasoning behind it though as a patriot I could never justify it. If everyone is paying through the nose for insurance yet ‘Paco’ (for example) decides that he still doesn’t want to buy it because he can still get taken care of and skip out on the bill, then why not just do that? I think this part of the bill means well to protect the rest of us but is way too unconstitutional to actually do. Apparently the OSS (Obama Sodomy Squad) still thinks they can do this and is trying to with this bill. You will be forced to either have private insurance (which I believe will disappear eventually) or the government plan. Sounds to me like the ONLY reason the private insurance realm is starting to back this bill.

The OSS swears up and down that you will be able to keep your current insurance if you wish and they will not force you to take the NEW plan but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out their end game on this one either. All companies still offering privatized insurance to their employees will get taxed and penalized insanely to recover costs for their employees not taking the ObamaCare plan. As a small company or even a business savvy one which would you choose? 1) Continue to get screwed out of thousands or millions of dollars to ‘do the right thing’ by your employees and offer good insurance plans… or 2) Save money to avoid going broke and give in to the pressure. Offering the ObamaCare packages to their employees may be the only thing to do. Seems to me that slowly but surely the back alley politics behind this will eventually force everyone to the ObamaCare package whether they want it or not.

IV.

If its so good…

If the new plan is so great with so many coverage options and benefits…. If it’s going to save money yet still give you the ‘best quality treatment’…. If this is what will save so many American’s lives…. then WHY ARE SENATORS, CONGRESSMENT, THE PRESIDENT, HIS FAMILY, AND ANYONE ACTUALLY VOTING THIS THROUGH… EXEMPT FROM HAVING TO TAKE THIS OPTION? Oh think about how much these ass-hats would have to pay based on THEIR salaries.. (See Taxes:) This is for real yet no one is answering this question. I’d say let them pass the damned bill but only IF everyone in the aforementioned groups HAS to take the plan as government employees. Nah, it would never even make it through one voting session if that were the case.

I will try to shred through the 2000+ page bill to cite specifics like I usually do but as of now… chew on the ugly fat that I’ve given you. At this point I’m all for advising everyone of you to write/call your representatives and telling them that if they vote ‘yes’ then you’ll vote against them next election no matter who is running against them. These people work for us but they seem to forget that. I will go out on a limb and say that there hasn’t been an uprising against the government this large since the Vietnam war and they don’t seem to take notice. All we can do is speak out and that’s what a lot of people are doing. Maybe we just need more people to do it.

What do you think?

 

– Jason

Pirates? Really?

Posted on by Jason

Yes, the world still has Pirates. And by Pirates I am not referring to the persons sitting at their computer desks ripping down CD’s to trade off with their friends, nor the people downloading ‘utilitized’ software from the ‘interwebs’. I mean Pirates in the same way that Christopher Columbus may have referred to them. Pirates with such notoriety as Black Beard, Blue Beard, Petey, and Jack Sparrow (smirk) are still out there robbing and kidnapping. See: WRAL.com

Where, you ask? Near Somalia. Why, you ask? Not sure but I think its more because that area needs stronger government to manage their people. How, you ask? Because there isn’t any leader left in the world that will send a freakin’ missile into each boat that hijacks another one. But those are my personal answers.

It seems very strange to me that having literal ship pirates in these modern times is about hilarious. Really? Why can’t we find the boats responsible and aim a huge cannon at them from 4 angles and force them to abandon ship…. Then blow the boat to smithereens! Duh! Its not like they can outrun jets, subs, helicopters, and our own military aircraft.

Well hopefully we’ll see what President Obama’s made of in his nether regions because these pirates just hijacked an American flagged cargo ship and kidnapped around 20 American personnel. This will hopefully get the reactions I mentioned above but will test Obama’s meddle in the aspect of media relations while dealing with a conflict. Until then, I’ll wish the best for the persons that were aboard the ship and their families.

This has been going on for too long. They’ve been screwing with and attacking ships as large as even cruise ships for years. It’s about time someone put these ‘Sammies’ in their place.

– Jason

 (update) Apparently the crew has retaken control of the ship but the captain is still being held captive. (WRAL.com)

For a President that smokes…. Not So Smoker Friendly

Posted on by Jason

It appears that both smokers and non smokers are feeling a little upset and put off by the latest government tax increase on cigarettes. Obama voted into play a tax hike on cigarettes that is geared to fund the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Now no one has a problem with equal healthcare for children of all economical statuses but there is a feeling of unfairness that it must be paid by 1 group of persons. Plus any 5th grader can see the obvious flaw… but we’ll get to that later.

I’ve said for years that taxes on cigarettes suck but it’s part of the pain of luxury. I’ve mumbled like any other smoker and went along with it saying that I’d quit when it got too expensive. Well that time is at hand and the reasoning behind it is quite unjust. Not because “Waaaah, its not fair, blah blah I enjoy smoking…” but more because of WHY the taxes are being set and for what purposes.

They are funding SCHIP with this insane increase and they are saying that hopefully over a million smokers or more will quit due to the cost increase. 10 – 50 cents are high taxes. $1.00+ tax increase in one fell swoop is insane! Especially when it will be followed by another one nearly as large. But here are my personal issues with it:

* Everyone by now should know that I am anti-Socialism. I don’t feel I should HAVE to pay anyone else’s way, including their parents, siblings, kids, friends, etc. I may VOLOUNTEER to do so but being strong armed by Uncle SAM into it really presses my buttons. Well that’s what this tax is. I do not have children (yet) but I am forced through this tax to pay 10-20$ a carton for someone else’s child’s healthcare? WHAT?!!?! Ok, I’ll even say that a small tax increase would be ok but why are smokers the ones funding everyone else’s problem?!?!?! How about a 10 cent tax on cigarettes, 10 on gas, 10 on alcohol, 10 on designer purses, 10 on fast food items, etc etc.

The government could actually collect more revenue by nickel and diming across the board without picking one group to pay for it. Here’s the other plus: EVERYONE gets to pay for it in one way or the other. Wouldn’t it be nice to pop babies out at random and let someone else pay for their costs? “Hey, I don’t smoke so I don’t have to worry about it, GET IN HERE MARGERET, lets make s’more babies!” What’s next, Will buying Kerosene for heating eventually fund feeding some other person’s 9 kids through lunch ticket meal plans at school? Cmon!

* People say that smokers are a huge problem when it comes to the rise in healthcare costs. Taken from FoxNews.com, “smoking kills about 440,000 Americans a year and costs the nation 193$ billion in medical expenses and lost productivity. ” Well, there is no denying that smoking is bad for you. There is also no denying that it costs in the long run but there isn’t anyone that can honestly say it alone is the largest or main cause in surge in healthcare costs. What about the obesity rate of Americans? That is also driving up the cost in medical aid.

Taken from MSNBC

“Six in ten people in the United States are overweight, with a third crossing the boundary into obesity. The extra weight leads to at least 100,000 deaths annually. Obese people are at a much higher risk for heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, arthritis and some cancers.”

“Even kids are getting fatter. Nineteen percent of children between the ages of 6 and 11 are overweight, up from 4% in the 1970s.”

“The economic cost of all this extra fat is immense. Direct medical costs are easiest to calculate, coming in at $93 billion, or 9 percent, of our national medical bill. But there are other costs as well that are harder to pin down.”

“Obese people miss more work, costing employers something on the order of $4 billion. Because people are fatter, airlines spend more on jet fuel, and the obese themselves spend more on gas.”

Now these figures aren’t recent, they’ve gone up but the information will get you a start. So why don’t obese people who are addicted to food have to pay an extra dollar per McBurger? Why don’t person’s who drink alcohol have to pay and extra dollar a beer? Why don’t, why don’t, why don’t. Folks, we could do this all day.

I’m not here to pick on anyone, I’m just bringing up the fact that one group is being directly discriminated against because America is TOO politically correct to call out these other groups. But the evil smokers….

O.K. ladies and gentleman now for the 5th grade logic you’ve all been waiting for… and I’m sure you’ve already thought this to yourself.

All of these non smokers are pushing for this bill because it suits their own interests. 1) It fully funds an expensive program that they themselves are not having to pay out for. 2) It helps decline the amount of smokers.

Here’s the question for all of those aforementioned persons: When smokers can no longer afford to smoke and you already have this 50-100 Billion a year program rolling… where is the government going to turn for money when the cigarette revenues are down? OMG! YOU! Yes, you will be there to pick up the tab and join the rest of us in funding everyone else’s healthcare.

If smokers are bringing down the healthcare industry with our large costs…. then lets tax cigarettes like we are about to and put it into a fund to pay for OUR OWN hospital bills. Well there’s an idea! No, I didn’t think of that one. But apparently no one on Capital Hill did either.

Other Notes: (Taken from heritage.org)

While a tobacco tax is a politically popular funding source, it has several significant shortcomings:

· A tobacco tax disproportionately burdens low-income Americans, lacks long-term stability, and ultimately results in significant shifting of health care costs onto others.

· With the number of smokers already declining, a tobacco tax would further reduce the number of smokers, thereby eroding the funding source.

· To produce the revenues that Congress needs to fund SCHIP expansion through such a tax would require 22.4 million new smokers by 2017.

Around half of smokers are in families earning less than 200 percent of the federal poverty line (FPL), so increasing the tobacco tax would burden the families in the income class that SCHIP and Medicaid are trying to help.

How do YOU feel about it?

– Jason

Boycott after Boycott brought to you in part by IAmRoberson

Posted on by Jason

As I’ve gotten older I’ve come to be very fond of personal politics and more of a patriot and ‘for the people’ in practice. I tend to stand firm in what I believe in even to the point of using a good ole’ fashioned boycott. You know a boycott…. the stuff you read about back in school history books. What our forefathers used as personal economic weapons to those they felt were doing the wrong thing. Since I’m so stubborn and refuse to budge on my core patriotic beliefs I decided I would hard code them into my site.

I would obviously like any of you to read my list as I add to them but feel free to choose your own opinions about it. I will tell you up front that boycotting can be very difficult, especially if it is a company you personally buy/use something from but if I can (as a person who hates change) can do it and find alternatives then anyone can.

Now there are several companies in particular that I boycott currently. If you know me you may know how I feel about illegal immigration. Illegal immigration is one of my ‘hot spots’ and I feel very passionately about it. Without going into a long political layout of things (which I may do later) I’ll say that they, if ILLEGAL, due a lot of harm to the country’s economy, security, and the citizens themselves. Some of my reasons are:

* They qualify for government assistance (eventually even Social Security) yet they pay $0 in taxes towards it. (ie. that means you and I are paying for their benefits.)

(This also includes going to the hospital to have multiple children and leaving the bills to be wiped due to non payment. Wiping debt causes rates and the cost of medical care to go up for the rest of us to pay back the hospital’s losses.)

* They are the #1 cause of Alcohol related auto accidents in this state. People may contest that but 9/10 times you see or read about the deaths on the highways these days it is followed by (is here illegally and does not have a license to operate a vehicle).

(This is a larger liability because if they do not flee the scene they are still driving without any insurance in most cases and leave the injured persons or victim’s family with high hospital bills.)

This points to another issue which is liability in general. They have no SSN, or identification so they are not traceable once they are released from custody. (which by the way most places are catch / warn / and release.

* They earn money only to send most of it back to their home country. This means they are taking money from our (now hurting) economy and not spending it back into our economy.

* They are getting reduced or free educations in a lot of cases because most states do not ban undocumented immigrants. They can often times qualify for education assistance which means hardworking Americans and their children no longer have that assistance available to themselves. We pay for education because the assistance programs that are created to help us are being given out to people who don’t put back into our system. (Vicious Cycle again.)

I say all of that to say this: I am not prejudice or racist. I don’t care who comes here or from where but I DO want them do be documented, legal, and responsible. Bring them over from whatever homeland they decide to come from however, make them do it correctly and legally. Legal immigrants cause little to none of the aforementioned problems and usually are themselves upset with ones that cheat the system that they worked so hard to get into.

Ok, back to the boycott issue. Here is my list of companies that I boycott due to their relationships with the illegal immigration issues. (and Why!)

Bank of America Bank of America Supports illegal immigration and open borders.
Bank of America has been identified as part of the OBL Open Borders Lobby.
You should Boycott them for the following reasons.

  1. Bank of America accepts the worthless Mexican ID called a Matricula Consular card. Only illegal aliens in America need this card to function.
  2. Bank of America knowingly gives illegal aliens bank accounts and home mortgages at a time when foreclosures are at historically high levels for legal American citizens.
  3. Bank of America is now targeting illegal aliens to receive credit cards with no social security or credit history. In effect, illegal aliens will be given preferential treatment over American credit consumers.
  4. Bank of America gives tens of thousands of dollars to racist groups that support illegal immigration such as La Raza (The Race), MALDEF, and LULAC. They also give money to try and defeat immigration enforcement measures supported by the American public such as Arizona’s proposition 200!

Companies like Bank of America want to make a buck off of illegal immigration while Americans pay the many costs associated with this crisis.
Existing federal law says they should not do it.
(* Information taken from www.bankofamericaboycott.com a wonderful informational website, check it out!)
Miller Beer Miller Brewing Company of Milwaukee, WI, producers of the popular beer Miller Genuine Draft, has given at least $30,000 to groups that support illegal aliens and illegal immigration so they can march down our city streets making demands of Americans.
(* Information taken from www.millerboycott.com )
Home Depot Known to subsidize day labor lounges for illegal aliens throughout California, and will even lobby local city counsels for tax payer subsidization of these lounges.
(* Information taken from www.noinvaders.org )
Citi Bank A fanatic lobbyist for promoting and accepting the Matricula Consular card, they boast a bank account campaign accepting the card and giving away mugs with the Mexican flag.
(* Information taken from www.noinvaders.org )

There are many more offenders but I will stop this post at this point and let you mull over and collect your own opinion about this subject.

– Jason

Socialist or Capitalist? (If you had to choose no gray area or middle ground)

Posted on by Jason

so·cial·ism   (sō’shə-lĭz’əm) -noun

  1. Any of various theories or systems of social organization in which the means of producing and distributing goods is owned collectively or by a centralized government that often plans and controls the economy.
  2. The stage in Marxist-Leninist theory intermediate between capitalism and communism, in which collective ownership of the economy under the dictatorship of the proletariat has not yet been successfully achieved.

 

cap⋅i⋅tal⋅ism /ˈkæpɪtlˌɪzəm/ -noun

an economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations, esp. as contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth.

 

If you had to choose one side or the other, which side would you fall on? I’ve listed the true definitions per (Dictionary.com) to give you the true meaning but some people prefer examples. These examples are some of the things that are currently being proposed or discussed in the news.

Social Security – We pay for someone else’s benefits and expect someone else to pay for ours at some point. (Socialism)

– A Capitalist would say, let me save up and earn my own interest. Let me reap the benefits of my money sitting in a bank and use it to live a lifestyle that matches what I’ve invested my entire life for. The problem is Americans in general have NO discipline. We dig ourselves into a rut of debt and don’t save enough for an emergency much less enough to live 10/20/+ years on when we cannot be gainfully employed any longer. A Capitalist would say, “You snooze, you lose.” A Socialist would expect the government or the community to bail them out of their own irresponsibility. Personally I think that if a person cannot pay for themselves down the road, then it should be their family’s duty, or their church’s duty or even a voluntary community fundraising effort not a government issued program forced on persons that don’t feel it is fair or warranted. Once again we reward irresponsibility.

Federal Regulations of Banks – The government is in charge of financial institutions and eliminate massive profiteering from private Banks. (Sounds like a good thing right?)  (Socialism)

– This eliminates competition and competitive pricing driving the costs up to whatever the government sees fit. Look at any current program that the government started to ‘help us’ and eventually turned into a money making function to help recuperate their massive financial losses due to their inability to manage their own finances. Our government can’t even balance it’s budget and hasn’t  been able to for decades. What makes you think that they can do it with YOUR money. (Not the money that WAS yours that you owe in taxes, which is technically theirs, but YOUR current monies.)

Nationalized Healthcare – The government regulates healthcare for all persons. All persons get the same basic healthcare no matter their statuses and/or income. (Socialism)

– We are one of the last great industrialized countries without Nationalized Healthcare. It gets shot down by anyone that brings it up. This is one of the few Socialistic practices that I can say I’d probably get behind. So long as they offered a optional healthcare position for persons that wanted extra coverage and are willing to pay out of their own pockets for the upgrade. Government regulation would take the pharmaceutical companies and force them to lower their extreme prices. This would put more medication in the hands of those who normally would not have the option for it. I say that as a Capitalist agreeing that these companies are abusing the system and have no consciences.

– The downside to all of this is we are all paying into a system that gives equal healthcare to persons that choose not to take care of themselves in a manner you may believe should be necessary. People who choose to smoke or drink or even kill themselves with hard drugs still get the same healthcare as someone that tries their best to take care of themselves. We pay once again for someone else’s extra costs due to their irresponsibility.

Based on these few major items, where do you fall? There is no wrong answer. Each side has it’s good and bad points. Personally I’m a Capitalist and although I may not agree with a 100% Capitalistic message, if I had to choose I would choose that side of the line. I am a firm believer in helping each other out as a society but I believe it perpetuates laziness and welfare cases. I am a firm believer in the old “You should work for what you get.” doctrine. I also believe that Capitalism drives ingenuity and creativity. “Why should I invent something new or try to derive new ideas if I won’t profit from it. Why should I work hard at contributing something new if everyone else benefits if I succeed but no one loses but me if I fall?”

– Jason