The Global Marketplace

Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for - in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it.

Ellen Goodman (1941 - )

Why are businesses outsourcing? Of course, the answer to such a question is the bottom dollar, but what is wrong with the American bottom dollar?

Your Local Shopping Mall in 50 Years

So here we go-“Three reasons that the U.S. cannot compete on a global scale.”

This is a complex subject in which there may be infinite amounts of points that lead to a conclusive reality on the subject…..but I don’t have an infinite mind nor time so we will limit it to three points that I am comfortable with.

#1- The American wage and salary

After building my own home and employing the likes of many “not-so legal citizens” in the construction process, I came to a very clear understanding regarding my salary. It became very clear that I truly do not earn what I receive. In fact, I am clearly overpaid for the amount of services I provide. As I watched these construction workers break their backs over relatively difficult problems, I realized that although I don’t break my back like they do I certainly don’t break my brain to that degree either.

Everyone is a victim of observing conditions on the other side of the employment fence. Such as, “That guy gets paid more than me for the same job”, or “she has way better benefits for less education” or “at least I don’t have to commute 3 hours every day” or “the cost of living is much lower here, so it is worth it.” Even though I feel I don’t earn what I already am receiving, I can’t help but tell myself, after these comparisons, that I deserve more than what I am currently getting. I bet you are the same too! Ask yourself these two questions. 1) When you think about the whole world and the world’s pay scale, do you think you deserve what you are getting paid? Y/N 2) When you compare yourself to others working in America, do you think you deserve more compensation, benefits, something? Y/N

If you are really honest with yourself, I think you will answer that you don’t deserve what you are currently paid but when you compare yourself to others you deserve more. Quite a conundrum.

Blessed is he who is content with his station in life, while the rest of us vie for that competitive edge that inevitably makes us bitter.

We believe that a secretary should get paid about X much and a teacher should get about Y much and a chemist should get paid about Z much. Yet everyone is pushing it all in an upward direction. The economics of supply and demand for workers has for some reason allowed everything to go in an upward cycle. More and more compensation for what?

I am going to let a dirty secret out of the bag. With regard to the American worker, we screwed ourselves. We acknowledged the fact that everywhere else in the world is paying less for the same job and we said, “screw ‘em, I am not changing anything, in fact I need a pay raise for even talking about this.” Some might say, that “the rest of the world is screwed up and we are the only ones on the right path.” News Flash: We have to play by the same rules as the rest of the world, there are NO special U.S. citizen loopholes or rules. When we chose to be integrated into a global economy we accepted the global economics rulebook. We have defied that rulebook for a long time. We actually doomed ourselves when we let people from all around the world learn our trade secrets and sciences in the name of “education” and go back home to implement exactly what we had figured out. But I digress.

You get paid more than you are worth. Ouch.

#2 – Plaintiffs Attorney’s (Geez, I hope my relatives never read this)

Here is a pretty interesting story for you. Moral of the story-Legal issues are only important when money is on the line. I have a pretty unique job in that I perform engineering tasks for the legal world. We once had a case in which it was blatantly clear that Jim Jimson burnt a business down on accident. In fact, all he did was replace a gas control valve on a water heater and within 6 hours the business burnt to the ground. Jim Jimson was not an employee of the business, he was simply paid a couple hundred bucks to fix the water heater, which he had probably done a hundred times. Jim Jimson had no license, no insurance, no business, and more importantly no money. We were put to the task of analyzing everything to find a deeper pocket than Jim Jimson’s. Maybe the valve malfunctioned, maybe an external heating source malfunctioned, maybe the propane refilling company did something wrong, maybe, what if, possibly, could have were all the scenarios that we were assigned to investigate. None of the scenarios had anything to do with the blatant fact that Jim Jimson was the sole responsible party for the fire. Nobody involved in the entire case even wanted to mention Jim Jimson or the potential that he was responsible because no money could ever be made from him. Simply put, Jim Jimson had nothing of value so nobody wanted to involve him in a lawsuit. To date no lawsuit ever happened. Jim Jimson got off scott-free. What I learned that day is that laws are implemented for the wellbeing of mankind(criminal), however, law is primarily practiced for the accrual and preservation of wealth(civil). If you want to avoid lawsuits, just ensure you have nothing of value. It takes money to make money. Meaning, every existing business has some money hidden somewhere. Every plaintiff’s attorney knows that, and they are working their hardest to ensure their cut of that pie. Under our current system of law, it is impossible to simply invent and produce a product. You now have to invent, test, re-test, test again, break it, beat it, manipulate it, abuse it, over-use it, pervert it, and then you can finally produce it for real world use. Let it be said that plaintiff’s attorneys are making the world safer than anyone else….but at what cost?

Here is another story to help you understand how the global world deals with the frivolous lawsuits of the U.S. Some guy buys a lamp from Walmart which starts a fire and burns down a house. The guy was improperly using the lamp, but that is not as important as the fact that the safety feature of the lamp, which prevents fires, happened to malfunction. The company that makes the lamp is based out of China. The plaintiff’s attorneys sue the crap out of anyone that ever had anything to do with this Chinese company. On the books, the Chinese company lost so much money because of this single lawsuit that they are forced to close the business. Ling Lang Lamp Manufacturers in Ching Chong, China is done forever. Future lawsuits against the company go nowhere, because the business no longer exists. A sad day for all other plaintiff’s attorneys that wanted to jump on the bandwagon to make money from this company. However, a new company called Shing Shang Lamp Manufacturing in Ching Chong, China is formed at the same mailing address, with the same employees, same managers, and same investors. Legally it is a completely different company with no connection to the previous company. The new company drops production of the faulty lamp. The original company may have been screwed on the initial lawsuit for the faulty lamp, but they can’t lose any more money than that. I would like to see General Electric or Craftsman try to pull that kind of maneuver. They can’t, so they get sued over and over again. At some point they just have increase prices to cover all their lawsuits to make profits.

Point is, you can sue anybody for anything if you think you can make a buck off it. The end result is that American companies are required to do an exhaustible amount of defense preparation for that inevitable lawsuit before product #1 is ever sold; on the other hand, China just makes a product, end of story. Economically we can’t compete with that. So which is better, lawsuit-proof products or cheap products? You tell me which is the worst scenario? 1) Your child is eating lead enriched paint chips which were very cheap, or 2) you can’t feed your child because your American company laid you off because they couldn’t compete on the global scale.

#3-Silly Government Regulations

Ok the following story is straight off the “Save the Whales” webpage. Of course I have their permission to quote their website! Pardon the length……

“The biggest effort of Save The Whales was without a doubt our battle to stop the Navy from performing “ship shock” tests in the Channel Islands Marine Sanctuary, a biologically sensitive area off the coast of Southern California. These waters are home to blue, sperm, fin and humpback whales, as well as dolphins, seals and sea lions. If the U.S. Navy had been allowed to go ahead with its plans – which were to test the hull integrity of its new cruisers by detonating 270 underwater explosives over a five-year period – it was estimated that hundreds of thousands of these beautiful animals, as well as other marine life, would have been killed outright. Others would have faced a slow lingering death from damage to their internal organs and hearing.The government held public hearings in Long Beach, and we got various animal and marine mammal groups to make statements or provide us with written statements that could be read at the hearing. Unfortunately, the government had made up its mind prior to the hearing, so it was no surprise that the Navy was given the go-ahead to perform their tests. One of the reasons they gave at the hearings was that it (a sanctuary) was a convenient location for them. We contacted Natural Resources Defense Council and they agreed to take on the case. They obtained a high-powered Los Angeles legal firm to assist. But before our case could be outlined, we had to obtain a PhD expert for every animal mentioned in the written statements. We also had to have a scientist who was an expert in the field of bioacoustics. We called every expert we knew. Many of them sympathized with our position, but the government funded them or their marine mammal research and they could not take a public position. After a week, we had run out of options in the United States. With less than two weeks until testing began, Hal Whitehead, PhD, a Canadian and the world’s foremost authority on sperm whales, agreed to testify. After he joined us, other experts came on board and miraculously we had what we needed.A five-day hearing was held in the U.S. District Court, Central District, in downtown Los Angeles. Richard B. Kendall and several of his associates from Shearman & Sterling, Los Angeles, headed our legal team. Joel Reynolds, an attorney with Natural Resources Defense Council, and several members of his team provided an amazing array of legal talent. We – and the animals – were so fortunate that this powerful team came together at this particular time. Judge Stephen V. Wilson presided and at the end of the five-day hearing, he found that:The Navy had failed in its obligation to protect marine mammals, that it hadn’t prepared a full environmental impact statement, and that it hadn’t investigated all reasonable alternative sites and properly mitigated the impact of detonations on marine life.One detonation would be allowed farther offshore with observers of our choice, including airplanes, and instruments would be used to detect any deep-diving marine mammals.”

Ok, here is an organization which, like all other non-profit organizations, probably gets their operational money from government grants to perform research on marine life or some other BS. Instead that money is used entirely on a “Save The Whales” beach house in New Guinea that only the Save the Whales President and head accountant know about and for preparing a lawsuit against the government. In this particular case, the Navy was the guilty party. How dare they potentially kill a precious whale, with feelings, emotions, and sexual desires! That makes them practically human, and you can’t kill humans! Who pays for the organization….we do, with tax dollars…..who paid for the lawsuit…..we do……….who pays for the ridiculous safety procedures that cost millions to ensure no whale is around during testing……..we do. In essence, we took some tax money, used that tax money to sue ourselves, then told ourselves to be safer, and then made ourselves pay for the additional safety measures. Now all explosions of this kind are required to spend millions of extra dollars to ensure the testing is done according to new regulations.

This is generally how all asinine government regulation enters the world. OSHA, NHTSA, EPA, CFR’s, NEC, IBC, UBC, these are all fancy acronyms for making our working world a *safer* :)….. yet more difficult place to accomplish anything. We are going to literally regulate ourselves out of work.

The regulations imposed upon everything we do are simply getting out of hand. I had the opportunity to peruse some IBC (International Building Code) books made for general contractors of construction projects. Every couple of years since like 1940 the IBC comes out with a new edition that everyone is supposed to build their house according to. The amount of words in the book has pretty much quadrupled in the last 15 years. The book is about 900% larger than it was when initially implemented. In 1940 we assumed someone knew how to drive a nail, now there is a standardized procedure for driving a nail which must be followed or OSHA will shut you down along with a $50,000 fine.

Pretty soon we will have global warming safety methane monitoring apparatus’ connected to our butts which will tell the government when we fart. It will be in an effort to curb our carbon fartprint. Ah regulation….

Summary

In spite of all my negativity, there is hope. See the whole world really likes our roads. They really like our houses. They really like the fact that every time you flip a light switch or flush a toilet the correct response occurs. Most places can’t make that claim. People want to be here because life is good, relatively fair, with good opportunities, and with freaking drinkable water and soft toilet paper. It is because of these three points I just discussed that we are in this comfortable state. Sure these points will screw us in the end, but that’s not the point. Even though these points brought us to this destination, we still need to ride this gravy train as long as possible and give as much money to the CIA as humanly possible to demean the quality of life elsewhere so that we can still cash in on people wanting to come here. Go get ‘em CIA!

Britinezation

Now I know what a statesman is; he's a dead politician. We need more statesmen.
Bob Edwards

435 house representatives
100 senators
1 vice president
1 president
8 Supreme Court justices
Total = 545 officials

This is the effective total of positions within our 3 branch system which governs over us. I bet you would have a hard time of naming more than ten people from the 545 available positions. Give it a shot. Prove me wrong. I will buy you a cookie if you can name more than ten. Serious. Most people can’t even name their state representatives, much less the representative of their congressional district. This frustrates politicians very much. They spend hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars of their lobbyist’s money to ensure that you at least know their name…….. and it has gotten them nowhere.

“The Parable of the Pop-Star” can help you understand the lifecycle of the average politician. This is quite comparable to the life of Britney Spears, otherwise known as the Anti-Christ. She initiated her career as an impressionable Mickey Mouse Club Mousketeerina, and around the age of 16 completed the transition of selling her soul to Satan for some record sales. She initially convinced us of her spry innocence, youthful ambition, and vocal talent, but I was on to her Beelzebub-induced pop beats, short skirt, and goat-like facial features. After hooking millions of impressionable, young girls on her tantric cultic séances, Britney contained sufficient power to begin the mind altering process of “Britnezation.” Britnezation, like all other Lucifer induced transformations, is a three step process:
1. first you like someone
2. then you want to be like someone
3. then idolization causes you to mimic this person’s every move.

Most girls just started liking her music, then they liked her style and dressed like her, then they wanted to be an “innocent” slut just like her, then…do I really need to finish. The end result of Britinezation is to shave your head, get knocked up, become an alcoholic, hooked on drugs, become an emotional train wreck, and make a few truly bad CD’s.

It all starts because something seems fun, then they like the fame, then they need the fame, and then they will do anything in their power to keep the fame. In Britney’s mind, there is nothing wrong with shaving your head if it gets you back on the headlines for a couple more weeks. Do you know the difference between Britney spears and the average politician on a headline? I don’t either.

One day, a politician feels like a cast member on Cheers (where everyone knows your name) and then they enter their favorite bar and no one knows their name. It is a terrifying experience for a politician. A politician can’t imagine going somewhere and not receiving any special treatment. Once a politician finally has a life-altering experience in which nobody knows who they are, they realize they need to take it up a notch. Most politicians start promoting some radical legislation that gets them back on the headlines. Unfortunately, some politicians come from such radical states that nothing can help them but a real life scandal. Their only chance to become re-elected has nothing to do with what they have accomplished but how recognizable their name is on a ballet.

The news is filled with politicians exposed in the throes of scandals, affairs, rumors, gossip, and any other headline title. The GOP party is so scared of not being re-elected anywhere that they are confessing to an affair per week. Every politician now has a gay child, sex scandal, tax evasion, lobbyist connection, war criminal story lined up just waiting for that opportune time to open the can of worms.

The possibility that we, as a society, can end the political scandals being spewed before us can be compared to the treatment of a bug bite. What happens when you have a bug bite and you constantly itch it and give it attention? It never heals, in fact, it just itches worse. The more attention you give bug bites and politicians the more attention they will need for the future. You see, politicians are mildly more uncomfortable and annoying than wasp stings. The best thing we can do is simply turn the newspaper page, change the channel or act completely uninformed on political drama.

“Governor Richardson, I must say I was unaware that you have married a donkey and that you are addicted to heroin. I hope that works out for you. Take care.” Politicians can go through such an unfulfilling conversation only so many times until they will start committing suicide in mass waves. Wasn’t this what we wanted in the end anyway?

Ah politics....

For every action there is an equal and opposite government program.
Bob Wells

My wife hates political discussions. Her opinion of political discussions is absolutely accurate; which could be described as, “Political discussions typically have two or more ignorant people supporting opinions which are loosely based on exaggerated or misinterpreted facts.” Political discussions get even better when people throw their “moral/ethical” two cents into the equation as well, which needs no facts or evidence to be supported, just their gut feeling. I can’t ever recall observing or participating in a political discussion in which both sides were edified and enlightened at the end of the discussion. The typical conclusion of political discussions are that everyone walks away cursing the stupidity and illogical standpoint of the opposite perspective. I love it! A good book once said, “Contention is of the devil.” If that is true, then all politically active people, especially politicians, are the devil’s minions. Ha!

For most of my life I have been rather complacent with the knowledge that better minds are determining what the future will bring. Parents, teachers, advisors, friends, family, church leaders, even politicians could all be considered people that I have always trusted to provide great counsel on how to proceed in life and form my opinions of right and wrong. Wisdom which has been accrued by life experience teaches that most of their suggestions and directions were accurate, however, a small portion of that has been proven to be bologna, which is somehow pronounced baloney proving that truly some things in life are not as they seem. Here are some instances of times in my life that I was absolutely fooled and had to learn by sad life experience the resounding truth.

Tobacco- I was fifteen the first and last time I smoked a cigarette. Kurt Cobain was a chain smoker, so it had to be a cool and totally gnarly experience to smoke. There were three of us first time smokers gathered together to “enjoy” our first cigarettes. We repeatedly tried to hack and cough down the whole pack of Marlboro Reds that day. At the end of the day, I realized that people smoke because they are absolute idiots and cannot be counted on for the truth in any regard. At the age of sixteen, I had my first go-around with chewing tobacco. This time it was five guys giving it their best shot. There was so much projectile vomit found around the house that it looked like the film set of the Exorcist. Society taught me that it was “cool” and “thrilling” to use tobacco products, that myth was debunked in a matter of hours. I really have no clue why people smoke or chew; they must be so bored with life that they have relegated themselves to forms of torture to pass the time.

She wasn’t possessed by Satan; she had simply attempted to use Copenhagen chewing tobacco for the first time. The power of Pepto-Bismol compels you!

Real horsepower - My parents used to own a 1996 Toyota Avalon family sedan which looks just like a Camry with a different grill. This is a grocery-getter car. During my sophomore year in college my parents were kind enough to donate the family sedan to me, which I was/am very grateful for. I had a couple buddies at the time that had some Ford Mustangs and a Chevy Camaro. One day we thought it would be cool to do a quarter mile drag of a 1996 Ford Mustang GT versus a 1992(?) Chevy Camaro. We all loaded up in a bunch of cars to go watch the scene. The Mustang whipped the Camaro like a red-headed stepchild. Some guys said, “hey, let’s race the family sedan avalon versus the camaro to make the camaro owner feel better.” The family sedan absolutely raped the camaro by hundreds of feet. Then it raced the mustang and dusted it too. Which goes to show that horsepower and speed don’t need bad gas mileage, uncomfortable seats, no rear seats, no head room, a loud exhaust and everything else that sports cars represent as being fast. The really sad thing was that the GT owner’s brother owned a newer Mustang Cobra which was actually slower than the older GT. Figure that one out??!!

Fastest commercially available car on the streets today

Diplomas- Having graduated from high school and an accredited four year university, I now have two special pieces of paper. I always thought that having those pieces of paper would prove that I was now smarter than before. Life experience has taught that those pieces of paper represent nothing more than lots of hours and money dedicated to the pursuit of a better lifestyle, that’s it.

Obesity- I was always taught that everyone has a different inherent metabolism and energy storage (fat) ratio. You can’t fight it, so just put up with it, accept it. I have since learned that if anyone performs thirty minutes of continuous by-the-book cardio exercise (70% max heart rate/30 continuous, nonstop, uninterrupted, no break minutes) and regulates a balanced diet every day, that obesity will not exist except for medical anomalies which comprise 0.00007% of American society. I knew a guy who lost 120 pounds in one year because he just had to walk everywhere he went and didn’t have tons of junk food available to him. I know this is a very easy thing to say when you are the skinny guy.

Cardio Queen

Technological capabilities have nothing to do with age – I grew up with a commodore 64. For those younger than me, this was a monochrome computer which had the processing abilities of today’s handheld calculator. My Uncles copied a bunch of games that were like 4-bit computer games with fancy names like Burger Time and Advanced Pinball Simulator so us kids could play. You had to type in loading functions to get the 5 ¼“ floppy disk game to play. Sometimes the command prompt written on the disk wasn’t correct, so we would spend hours and hours typing in various commands until something would work. Everything, in the end, worked for us because 30,000 attempted failures were not in vain if the game finally played. See, when you get old, failure completely frustrates you. Old people can’t deal with the fact that something didn’t work the first time, so they throw their hands up in frustration and ask a younger person for help. Little do they know that younger person spent 376 hours last year figuring out how to solve this problem and makes the solution look very easy in about 30 seconds. Old people aren’t dumb at all; they are just easily frustrated, stubborn, and impatient. If anyone has the time and money to figure out technology it is retirees.

As the child softly states, “See Grandpa, you have to press Ctrl+C not just right click. Will you ever learn?!”

The Female "O" - Figure that out yourself.

Ok, enough about life’s truths that I had to learn the hard way, what does this have to do with eliminating political corruption? Please read the quote below and then reread it three more times to actually understand it, as it has been translated about 13 times.

“If liberty and equality, as is thought by some are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost.”
Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)

It is very easy to sit back and say everything is going to crap, it is a different story to fix the problems before you. The only way people will determine the truth about 1) society’s problems, and 2) how to fix said problems -is to get your hands dirty. You have to get involved at some level. My whole life I have never gotten involved in politics much less watched mainstream news but it has become blatantly clear to me that those in recent power are not steering our great nation in the right direction. It is finally getting to the point that this course deviation is starting to affect my life. Here are some areas that government intervention is currently (or about to) affecting your life:
1) Devaluation of our currency
2) Devaluation of our economy
3) We can’t manufacture, process, or produce anything without severe regulations
4) It is easier to receive handouts than work for it yourself
5) Healthcare
6) Moral issues
7) Taxes

I heard somewhere that Aristotle was a smart guy, he said the only way for real liberty and equality to exist is if everyone gets involved. Until everyone gets involved in the topic, whatever it is, it is not diverse enough to accurately understand. A real democracy is led by the people. It is time for the “people’s” decisions to govern society, not the “people’s” politicians. Only the “people” can get to the real truth, not a committee or special interest group.

Join a Tea Party, speak up for your chosen party, write your congressman, discuss things with friends, family and co-workers, actually vote, get involved somehow on some level or else you have no reason to complain about what is coming. Cheers!

Conspiracy Theory #56- Why are we at war all the time?

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.
Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)

Being a Child of the eighties I have only witnessed 4 “wars” in my lifetime. I only remember 3. I can still remember coming home from school on January 12, 1991. I was nine years old at the time. I remember sitting in the living room and my mom very intently watching President George Bush on TV as he declared a military engagement authorized by congress on the nation of Iraq. She started to cry and I knew something very serious was happening. I had a paper route at the time and can remember rolling newspapers on the ground as I watched tons of missiles lighting up Iraq at night. It was quite a scene, like out of the movies. Very surreal. This was the beginning of the Persian Gulf War.

At the age of nine, I would simply describe the Persian Gulf War as “war”. What a silly little boy. No, No, this was a military engagement authorized by congress, which is different from a formal declaration of war, which is different from military engagement of presidential authorization. There have only been 5 formal declarations of war (War of 1812, Mexican-American War, Spanish-American War, WWI, and WWII), 12 military engagements authorized by congress, and well over 125 (it is really a much higher number, but most of it was unofficial) Presidential military actions in the history of the U.S. Interestingly enough, the Civil War doesn’t fall under any of those categories.

So in the 233 years of the United States of America, how many years have we not been involved in some kind of military action? Zero. The “Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave” has never had so much as one day of zero military actions. It is estimated that the U.S. has killed 8 million people in the course of 233 years. That is nothing compared to written history of the world. Since 2925 B.C. there has been an unbroken period of hostility between one group of people and another group. That means, so far as recorded history goes, there has been 4934 years of continuous war…..and counting. Nice!

I am extremely grateful for the men and women who have sacrificed their lives so I may enjoy the freedoms, fortunate lifestyle, opportunities, and relative peace of today. I wish that statement applied to every military action the U.S. has ever been involved with; however, I think everyone can agree that some military actions have not been quite as “noble” as other military actions. I am not about to begin to evaluate every military action ever undertaken, so much as ask the question, “why are we at war all the time?” Do we really need to be involved in some military action all the time? Must people be killed at our military hands’ all the time? On one hand you would think that we should be able to sustain true peace and on the other hand you might think that it requires constant military action to maintain the level of peace we have right now. I think the truth is somewhere in between.

Each hand represents an opinion regarding war. That is the meaning of this statue.

So here is the dirty conspiracy: Have you ever thought that our economy might be dependent upon wars occurring? Have you ever thought we need wars as a reason to redistribute money? I graduated college with a degree in mechanical engineering. From my graduating group, I am the only person I know that took a job in a private industry outside of the government. Now, I include all those department of defense (DOD)contractors like Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, etc. as being government jobs because that is really who their paycheck comes from. I take that back, I know of one other guy who got a job in the private world and then lost it. So how much of a chance do I have at getting a job outside of government funding? Not very likely at all. Tons of engineers and scientists of all fields are getting their paycheck from the Gov. That is a lot of money. Our normal budget for “Defense” is not enough to cover all of that…..so we need some extra cash. What is a great way to request a lot of money and keep it somewhat off the books? War. If we were no longer at war, the government would be required to eliminate most department of defense contracts. The streets would be filled with unemployed scientists and DOD support staff. The last thing you want to do is give the smart people who were designing those bombs and missiles a pink slip and send them on their way with no hope for future employment. A smart person with a grudge and idle time is a lethal combination. Then there is the military dependent people themselves (Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines, etc.). Do you really want to hand out pink slips to people that have been trained to kill you?

Since the forties, the U.S. has needed a body of scientific intelligence for defense oriented tasks in addition to typical military groups. Like all government programs, this body of scientific intelligence just got more inflated and expanded to the point that you can’t start minimizing it without serious repercussions. Our great nation’s simple fix for this epidemic is that we must be involved in some sort of military action all the time. Congressional appropriations have to come up with this extra cash to fund all this stuff. Where is that money coming from? Heck if I know?!!!

War costs in Iraq have increased sharply every year—from $50 billion in 2003 to $135 billion in 2007. Costs are projected to keep rising. Interesting phenomena…. The war in Iraq has already cost over $900 billion as of today.

In October 2007, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that additional war costs over the next 10 years would range between $570 billion and $1.1 trillion, depending on troop levels, with overall costs for the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and the “global war on terror” reaching $1.2 trillion to $1.7 trillion by 2017. If all that money translated to paying soldiers $50,000 we would be able to fund 34 MILLION soldiers for one year. For some reason I never heard a number even close to that? If all that money isn't going to pay soldiers, then where is it going?

Funny thing is, I am willing to bet most of that money will never even leave our soil. That money is staying right here no matter where the war is. Redistribution of money. Those tanks and guns being used in these wars were not made in china. In fact, DOD stuff is the only thing America really does make significant amounts of. Whatever we don’t use we sell at bargain prices to the next regime we will fight 25 years from now. Who gave Saddam Hussein those guns and missiles? oh that’s right….the U.S.!!! Given the past history of U.S. military actions and the current dependency upon redistributed DOD money you might as well get comfortable with the idea of war. It is not going away anytime soon. Just wait for the moment that we get our hands dirty with Africa’s problems. That place can keep you busy forever.

However, I still want to know where congress is coming up with this extra money to fund these wars! There must be some U.S. currency printing presses that are overheating with usage.
Vietnam, Iraq I and II, Afghanistan, etc. Sure Muslim extremists are scary, but we have a higher purpose for these military engagements – your way of life and your job.

I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it.
Jack Handey (1949 - )

Free Voter Registration Money!! (Fiscally Responsible Government)

Government is too big and too important to be left to the politicians.
Chester Bowles (1901 - 1986)

You are in luck this will be a quick post because it is a very simple topic. During this economic downturn I have learned something very important. Everyone needs to learn to live within their means. Period. The government needs live up to that even more than individual citizens should. If political lines and issues are very ambiguous to you like they are to me, then you may find it difficult to get a great feeling with regards to one politician over another. I look at it like “which bum is the better bum.” Thus, I have never voted. Here is my recommendation that should clear up this problem very well.

Do not support any politician unless they will force the government to be fiscally responsible.

If any politician sees a need to have a budget deficit then he/she is a moron and obviously does not understand the implications that come with a budget deficit. We can still fix things, but I will promise you that if you find the government is running a budget deficit ten years from now we are absolutely screwed. This year (2009) we are lined out for a $482 billion budget deficit. We need about $300 billion to just pay the interest on our national debt for this year. That means we are at least $782 billion dollars in the wrong direction. The total budget was only $2.9 trillion which means we are about 27% over budget for this year. In the private sector a company would have to figure out how to cut costs to make ends meet, therefore they fire people, enforce pay cuts, invest less, etc. Does this mean that politicians will take a 27% pay cut this year? Where do I vote to make sure that happens?

Ex Prez Bush and congress under his tenure have been the most fiscally irresponsible U.S. political leaders of all time. I see nothing changing with the current administration. The government doesn’t know how to cut back, that train only goes in one direction. Trust me, this issue will affect your life a whole heck of a lot more than abortion, gay marriage or drug legalization. (Unless you are a knocked up gay person on drugs)

Do not support any politician unless they will force the government to be fiscally responsible. If a current politician signed on to the 2009 budget, then they need to be ousted. As far as I can tell, that means about 70% of congress, the senate, and presidency needs to go. Happy voting.

I am serious this really needs to be your number 1 priority as a voter.

Change (Dictatorship)

Whenever you have an efficient government you have a dictatorship.
Harry S Truman (1884 - 1972)

You know I had somebody ask me the question over the weekend whether or not I thought that the current president was doing a good job.

As far as society’s expectation of a president goes, I suppose he is doing a fine job. He is a good spokesman. He appears to be very compassionate towards even our worst of “enemies”. The international opinion of him is very high. He is very proactive with regards to his contingencies’ opinions. He makes concerted effort to fix every societal problem that arises, whether that is good or not is a matter of opinion. So what grade do I give him? I give him and just about every other president in the past 20 years a “D+”. Here is why- No president in the last 20 years has been a true leader.

A true leader can be compared to the captain of a ship. What happens if a true captain of a ship sees something wrong with the ship or maybe notices the ship going in the wrong direction? A true captain of a ship will see his ship going in the wrong direction and command those under him to actively steer the rudder, move the sails, cut the engines…….do something! As far as I can tell, every contemporary president clearly sees that the ship is going in the wrong direction. Every new president and potential president gives lots of speeches about how the ship is going in the wrong direction. This is what the last 20 years worth of presidents have done about our navigation problems……. he yells a lot, waves his arms, tells the sailors to adjust the load of the ship or focus on the engine as the problem……but nothing ever changes. As much waving of the arms or yelling that he does, by the end of his term the problem is hushed, neglected or considered insignificant. The ship just keeps going in the same direction. Nothing really changed. The country is not really in a better position than before, we just look at the problem from a different angle and blame the predecessors for the problem. It is going to take someone with real ambition to do what needs to be done. Real drive. Real goals. Real change.
The question you have to ask yourself is why they are not truly changing these problems or really attempting to fix them? Answer: “Don’t rock the boat” or “It ain’t sunk yet.”
Do you know how difficult it is to correct a ship that is sinking or going in the wrong direction?

America's Savior

Which leads me to a great story….
So a buddy and I went to do some lake fishing and took out an old boat with an even older trolling motor. The motor ran on 12V batteries which I charged the entire night before. The sea was angry that day my friends, like an old man trying to return soup at a deli! I tell ya the waves were ten feet high if they were a foot. A great wind came up and this weak little trolling motor couldn’t overcome the wind pushing us further and further away. It didn’t help that each battery could operate the trolling motor for about 5 minutes until dying. So here we were, on the far side of the lake, with two dead batteries and a couple leaks. My buddy saw the oars laying next to him and decided to show me a thing or two about brute strength. After five minutes of aggressive rowing he snapped the starboard oar in two. His determination only grew stronger having seen that. He jumped to the front of the boat and started paddling the row boat like it was a canoe. I felt like Pocahontas being saved from Jaws by this great Indian Chief Paddler. After another five minutes, only toothpicks of the broken oars remained in his hands. No fish, no oars, a leaky boat, a hurricane of a wind storm, two dead batteries and a 100 pound paperweight of an engine. Don’t tell me I don’t know what real American problems feel like. We needed real change on those angry seas. We needed a real savior. Then we saw it, as if it were a mirage ten miles away. A boat came towards us, the driver wore a white robe which shone brighter than the noon-day sun. He spoke little but said, “Be ye believers?” We answered, “ yes.” No sooner could we finish our statement then the boat was accelerated to an incredible speed which coasted to a perfect stop at the necessary dock. I looked behind us toward the path we had travelled and saw only one set of wakes. I asked the driver of the other boat where the other wake was and he answered, “That is where I towed you.” It was about that time that I awoke from my dreamy state to realize my head was throbbing. My friend, in his aggressive paddling, whacked me in the head and knocked me out. Ok, Ok I admit it, some if not ALL of that story is true.


Truth is, that is the kind of president we need. We need a leader that can see the leaky boat, broken oars, dead batteries, worthless motor and say, “we need to be over there and I am going to take you.” That’s right………… we need a perfect dictator. Scratch that, terrible idea. But seriously though. No one man in democracy can make the necessary changes happen. All one man can do under the current system is what the contemporary presidents have been doing……patching holes, offering broken oars, trying to teach dumb people how to swim, hiding the lifeboat so nobody jumps ship, using a ½ HP trolling motor to push the titanic and other silly things that never fix the primary problems.

Here are the things on my checklist that must be reformed, revamped, re-anythinged to earn a higher grade than a “D” as a current president. If you want to know why all presidents of the last 20 years get D’s, then as you read the following points, ask yourself how in the heck has any president in the last 20 years changed any of the following for the better? I don’t mean attempted to change but actually changed any of the following items. None of these problems happened overnight, they have all been going on for thirty to forty years.

1. Social aid. Everyone is milking this. You can’t turn around our national economy without addressing the biggest, ugliest, most expensive portion of our deficit. This includes welfare, Medicaid, unemployment, Medicare, the prison system, immigration support, and every social program that is solely reliant on grants and government funding. The government refers to this in their budget pie chart as “necessary spending.” What I love about the budget pie chart is that the government got smart and starting dividing up the all those social aid programs to make social security and the defense look bigger. Don’t be confused, pull out your calculator and work the numbers yourself.

2. Social security. We are dumping huge amounts of money into this program and it is sinking way too fast to fix.

3. Defense. Do we have to be at war all the time? Do we really need to dump 16.6% of our budget towards defense? This pie chart is so awesome it has a special section called “global war on terror” AKA Middle Eastern donations of $145 Billion. Fear not, I will talk about this individual topic in a future post.

4. Waste. 7.2% of our budget is “other off-budget discretionary spending.” I wish my personal budget could afford a preplanned $50 billion mark off target. That is just one line item mentioned on the pie chart but all the pieces of the pie are replete with prolific monetary waste.

5. Bailouts. It is not our collective responsibility to bailout everyone’s mistakes. Whether it is an individual or company bankruptcy we need to re-write how we whitewash the system. I once heard that Trump actually plans on declaring bankruptcy every 7 years to remove his debts. What a disgusting, fake-hair, sleeze-bag! But tons of people and businesses do it every year.

6. National debt. We are no longer the international trade standard and our national debt is the reason why. This is actually the primary reason that our economy will progressively get worse and worse as time goes on. We are devaluing the dollar because we are losing our reputation as the international trade standard.

7. We can’t produce anything in this country. You can point fingers at unions, retirement programs, international labor costs, manufacturing costs, resource production and resource limitations, hippies, lawyers, environmental concerns and on and on and on. Fact is we can’t afford to make a dang thing. You can’t outsource all your labor forever, eventually other countries will get smart and cut you out of the picture.

You may notice that NOT ONE of the social predicaments such as abortion, gay marriage, drug legalization, illegal immigration, death penalty, equal rights, baseball and other worthless media highlights are even mentioned on this list. The simple fact is the government should have very little to do with or little say on any of those problems. People should have the right to sort out such trivial social problems because all of those issues are a matter of opinion. The government can never regulate such things without making some or lots of people upset. Most of these are moral issues. Why the heck is the government really making calls on moral issues? Since it is so difficult to sort out right and wrong on moral issues, let us take advantage of our democratic rights and vote on them. All of those things should just be put to a public vote and the majority rules. End of story. Maybe we can re-vote every ten years or something like that. If you don’t like it, try to be proactive and persuade people to your opinion. It is called democracy and that is supposed to be how it works.

So when am I going to get a president that will fix or attempt to fix all of those problems. Um…… well……he/she will have to be a dictator for that to happen. We will either get a Hitler or King Solomon. History seems to teach that we are in line for another Hitler as opposed to King Solomon. Sieg Heil B!

Raw Data (Budget Deficit)

I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.
Will Rogers (1879 - 1935)

I love looking at raw data which comprises unique information. How many people have climbed Mt. Everest every year, what vehicles survive the longest and which survive the shortest, how much wood would a…you get the point. My mind is filled with utterly worthless trivia.

The Germans tried to copy Coca-Cola and came up with the drink Fanta. Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise. If an Amish man has a beard, he is married. Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning. SCUBA divers cannot pass gas at depths of 33 feet or below. In ancient Greece, children of wealthy families were dipped in olive oil at birth to keep them hairless throughout their lives. Barbie's full name is Barbie Millicent Roberts. The Himalayas cover one-tenth of the Earth's surface.

Did you know that 1945 was the worst year to be a rich man in the U.S.? If you made over $200,000 in 1945 then the government was going to tax 94% of that. Can you believe that?! That same year, the poorest person alive was still taxed 23%. War is awesome! See….. some things are getting better! Something that is surely getting worse is the great and abominable “national debt” of about 11.4 trillion dollars. That number increases by about 3.8 billion every day.

Have you ever had those teachers that one day thought up this great analogy of everyday life which could easily illustrate every principle they are ever supposed to teach in the classroom? A college chemistry professor I had used diet coke as the ultimate example of chemistry. One of my college economics professors would use the same example of how he used to be able to fly from El Paso to Phoenix and L.A. for like $35 roundtrip for every economics point he ever made. Deep down, I loved that man. We never had homework, only exams, and during the class before the exam he would read every single question for the multiple choice test and provide the correct answer. The test was also open book and open notes. In spite of these efforts, about 30% of the class failed every semester. Never underestimate the stupidity of a freshman. I learned nothing from that man. One thing he always would say is that, “we don’t need to worry about the national debt because that is like taking money from one pocket and putting it into the other.” That comment didn’t sit well with me then nor does it today.

Suppose you want to spend more money this month than your income. This situation is called a "budget deficit". So you borrow (use your credit card). The amount you borrowed (and now owe) is called your debt. You have to pay interest on your debt. If next month you don't have enough money to cover your spending (another deficit), you must borrow some more, and you'll still have to pay the interest on the loan. If you have a deficit every month, you keep borrowing and your debt grows. Soon the interest payment on your loan is bigger than any other item in your budget. Eventually, all you can do is pay the interest payment, and you don't have any money left over for anything else. This situation is known as bankruptcy.Each year since 1969, Congress has spent more money than its income. The Treasury Department has to borrow money to meet Congress's appropriations.We pay interest on that huge debt. And now the Treasury is having trouble finding lenders. The U. S. Dollar is being replaced as the international trade standard. Our large national debt is the main reason; and now (2009) Congress has just passed the "Economic Stimulus" bill that will shift us from an "economic crisis" to a debt crisis! If businesses could print their own money and give it away to customers so they could buy the products, many folks would be happy for a while; but the businesses would go bankrupt. Well, that's what our government is currently doing, printing and giving away money. We used to say that in order for the government to give us something they would have to take something away from us; in all actuality, they can just print more.

The New American Dollar

Here is some really really crazy trivia that I can’t even come close to understanding. Since 1984, consumer prices have been less than producer prices. If that is true, how have businesses even been alive since 1984? I don’t know. I don’t know anything. The only fix I can come up with for this economic nightmare is George Clooney. He is the only man that can pull humans out of “The Perfect Storm.” If I were the president or congress, I would be knocking him down with questions right now. You know, I didn’t know George Clooney was even a doctor but I saw this real hospital story where George Clooney saved a guy that had cancer, 14 bullet holes, and AIDS. If George Clooney could save that guy he could surely save our economy.

Well if you are wondering where all of this trivia is going, I would like to refer you to the picture below to help you understand what is about to happen to us.

Monster Trucks Get Chicks......White Trash Ones (Government Inc.)

The government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
Ronald Reagan (1911 - 2004)

I am a man. Every man, which hopes to one day become a “burly man”, needs a truck. This is a fact. Without a truck, a man is denied multiple opportunities to lean against the truck to scratch his balls, spit and talk about manly things. Without a truck he can’t go into the wilderness to add “desert pin striping”, change the oil by ripping off the oil pan, unnecessarily tow and haul things, and be able to destroy small hybrid vehicles in collisions without acquiring the smallest scratch on his truck. Men are very passionate about trucks. I have seen guys that have trucks which are easily worth 3-4 times the value of his house. This shows that he has completely dedicated himself to becoming a “burly man”.

My truck

One day at work, we seized a truck’s engine for some thermal studies we were doing. The testing was concluded and my company wanted to unload the truck. I managed to get it running again and said I would give them a couple hundred bucks for it. At the time, I didn’t have a truck and was feeling rather effeminate. After explaining, to my wife, the benefits of having a bent up, rusted, dented, ugly ole farm truck on our property in order to increase the value of our house, I was allowed to make the purchase.

Oh she is glorious. Her name is “Beater”. She is even white like a wife-beater.

Being a responsible U.S. citizen, I thought I would take the truck, proof of cheapo liability insurance, title, and bill of sale down to the DMV express to pay my sales tax, registration and get a license plate. A real nice girl at the DMV took all my info and papers and began the process. As it turns out the last two owners on the title of the vehicle had not paid to register the vehicle within my state. Oh well, at least I am responsible enough to register the vehicle, right? That is where the trouble began.

I actually dislike only one politician in the world. I think Jimmy Carter was a huge moron, but I don’t dislike him. The only politician I dislike is my current state governor, Mr. Bill Richardson. He is the only politician that has managed to screw me, personally, on a couple of occasions. Here is how he screwed me this time…..

Part 1
So Mr. Richardson passed some legislation, this last year, saying that if you buy a vehicle and the previous owner/s did not pay registration on the vehicle, then the current owner gets to pay all those past fines and registration bills. I was supposed to cover the two previous owners for all the money they never paid up for all those years. Add $XX.XX plus the cost of registration for myself.

Part 2
So Mr. Richardson passed some more legislation, this last year, saying that you are no longer taxed 3% of the bill of sale price on the vehicle, but you are now taxed 3% on the blue book value of the vehicle. If you feel that your actual vehicle value does not meet the blue book value, then you have to appeal to the state regarding the value of the vehicle which may or may not be changed. The girl at the DMV then actually handed me a document which showed the value of a private sale was around $2,000 and the blue book value of the vehicle was a little over $8,000. There is no way in #$*@ the truck is even worth $2,000 much less $8,000. Add $XX.XX to the previous total.

The amount of dinero I was supposed to pay for tax, registration, and license was more than I even paid for the truck. I thought I was doing the right thing by even coming in to register and title the vehicle. I was never going to drive it except to landscape my yard, after that it could have died and I could care less. For knowing I would never drive the vehicle, the ONLY reason I came to the DMV was to do the right thing. Little did I know, my state government was planning on making a profit off me. The girl behind the counter, a DMV employee, laughed at how much money I was supposed to pay and said, “I wouldn’t even pay that.” We had a nice laugh about how ridiculous it was and I collected my documents and headed out the door without donating a penny to my state.

Now I could make many points about bad government intervention from this example but my real point is this: Since when did the Government stop trying to be a non-profit organization and turn into another business?

As far as I can tell, the only reason we title and register vehicles is because the government wants to track the ownership of a valuable possession to collect some taxes on it. As we all know, if large sums of money are moved in any fashion, the government wants in on it. Each state wants their 2-7% of the value of the vehicle to make some money and cover the cost of making a paper trail to track ownership. The only thing they are really doing is making a paper trail. It takes about 5 minutes to enter some information into a computer and it costs you hundreds, if not thousands of dollars, to accomplish that. This is the most efficient business model ever created. All businesses need to figure out how to accomplish this. Even after all that, they want $50 each year to re-register the vehicle. We can use this knowledge to create a mathematical formula to understand a simple government expense and billing process.

Government Money Making Scheme Part 1
+ 3% of Inflated Blue Book Value of the car
+ Registration
+ Past registration and fees
+ Title processing
+ License Plate
Total One time Registration Bill: 148.7% of the value of the vehicle

Government Money Making Scheme Part 2
+1 piece of paper with printed ink characters
+1 pre-addressed envelope
+1 stamp to mail paper and envelope
+35 seconds for MVD worker to open envelope and check a box somewhere indicating payment
Total Yearly Registration Bill: $50 billed to car owner +cost of stamp

Does anyone know if I can buy stock in the Government? With a business model like that they have to do very well and I want in.

Let’s reiterate the main point of this story. The only reason the government does all of this is just to track ownership, yet they have turned it into a money making scheme and they get away with it because we are required by law to comply with this process.

So now I have added one more unregistered, uninsured vehicle to the road. Now that I think about it, that actually puts me right into the demographic of people that voted for Mr. Bill Richardson anyway. If we know one thing about politicians, they would never ever negatively affect their contingency. I am no longer a tax paying, vehicle registering, insurance complying person…….I am a New Mexican.

Government, Inc.
As I ponder upon why the government applies taxes to us, I realize something is occurring right under our noses. (For a funny little poem on taxes see the following link) The tax system is entirely too complex to evaluate, but at least I can evaluate what taxes are needed for:
Infrastructure –Roads, parks, water, sewage, courthouses, dams, libraries, etc.
Safety systems – Fire department, FBI, police, soil and water conservation, maybe even FEMA?
Social support – mentally and physically infirm, elderly, children
Defense - Army, Navy, coastguard, CIA, Border Patrol, etc.
Laws – Somebody has to spend some time to figure out the rules we will live by

Now you can imagine lots of little ants running around trying to support these five points. Those ants take time, talents, effort, money and materials to do what they do; it is a very big system to support 306 million people. So big in fact that one might conclude we should also add an item #6, then #7, then #8. See, we vote in the kind of people that will change things to be the way we want it and they can control all these issues. Power to the people! Maybe we could get everything run by the government. Anything that seems unfair, irrational, unjust, or complex can be transferred to our huge government to begin controlling that system. They may have to tax us a little more, but it has to be a good change, right?

Currently the government is just about intervening on everything we ever do, and they tax us for that. We don’t even attempt to fix our own problems because there is either already a government program for this problem or one is in the pipeline shortly to be added. The government is becoming a big business because we don’t produce our own business anymore.

Every year the government will tax us more and more and more because of more and more government intervention. It is a simple formula: the reason they tax us more is because they are intervening more. I would like to introduce the word “socialism.” Any historian or economist will tell you that today our government is tending towards socialism rather than towards a pure capitalistic based democracy. Am I the only one that doesn’t like that idea?!

So what do we do to fix it? The problem is the government has become so big and so integrated that I don’t know how to reverse its direction. Other than pulling the plug, AKA anarchy, how do you stop it or put it in reverse? My brother told me something awhile back that made me think. He said,
“I was talking some of these ideas up with a good friend here in Monterey, he’s very smart and politically active, and his response really broke my heart. Essentially, he said, “I used to be Libertarian, but I stopped because I realized what would happen to America if we cut a lot of the government fat. The families of our society are too dependent on redistribution of money – society would go through a time of dysfunction.” What’s worse is that, to an extent, he is right. American society is nigh hopelessly dependent on the way the government spreads money.”

I am not proposing anarchy, by any means, but I am all ears for how to reverse the government’s direction? At this point all I can say is, “Be thankful we’re not getting all the government we’re paying for.” Will Rogers (1879-1935)

The Great American Reality (Discrimination)

If government could create jobs and raise children, socialism would have worked.
George Gilder

I hate the news. I hate the news more than soap-operas, and let me tell you that is a strong hatred. But nothing compares to my hatred of Mexican soap operas. Aye yay yay! In order to have a politically based blog, one might think that I watch CNBC, Fox News, CSPAN and all those other terrible shows. You couldn’t be further from the truth.

Every morning I read the Yahoo news headlines and may read an article if the headline peaks my curiosity. I average about 3 articles a day, but that is only because I am a sucker for headlines like “66 year old woman delivers a healthy baby” and any sort of drama in the NBA. Whether Yahoo is considered conservative or liberal or whatever is not as important as it is where I check my 10 year old email account. 10 years….crazy! Looking back, I never really cared about the news until I lived with my grandparents for a summer when I was 22 years old doing a firefighting gig. I found the news to be rather similar to my own blog-depressing, pessimistic and all-around had a negative aroma (Ah, but without the sarcasm). Republicans dissing democrats for this and hippies hating on the mainstream for that. In the news, everyone is considered as being wrong, unless they are the one speaking; which in that case, everything they say is nothing more than gospel truth. Every mainstream citizen has a favorite news channel because that is where they can get the “real truth.” Please note the picture below to comprehend my sentiments regarding that notion.


I have found that people in the news are no longer as concerned about finding the truth as figuring out how everyone with a different opinion is more wrong. I mean who cares about the truth if you can make everyone with a different opinion look like an idiot on public television? The act of publicly humiliating someone else has to be one of the greatest sensations ever felt. If Rush Limbaugh was addicted to painkillers and had his choice to decide between his love for painkillers or humiliating people on his show, I can promise you he would choose the show all day long. Whoops, maybe that was a bad example. Again my digression is superb; I am a veritable trigonometric tangent.

So I was checking out the yahoo news and saw that Mr. Prez has nominated three potential candidates for a seat on the Supreme Court. Keep in mind that, in my opinion, positions on the Supreme Court rival any presidential term and possibly could have greater long term affects than any single president. Kind of an important thing, if you were unaware. Here were his nominations:

Sonia Sotomayor: Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit
BIO: Age: 54. Graduate of Yale Law School. Worked as an assistant district attorney in New York and in private practice (1984-92). Appointed by George H.W. Bush in 1991 to federal district court in Southern District of New York. Nominated by President Bill Clinton for the Second Circuit.


Elena Kagan: Solicitor General, U.S. Justice Department
BIO: Age: 49. Graduate of Harvard Law School. Law clerk for former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Former dean of Harvard Law School. Nominated by President Clinton for the D.C. Circuit, but her nomination was stalled in the Senate.




Diane Wood, Judge, U. S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
BIO: Age: 58. Grew up in New Jersey and moved to Texas in high school when her father, an accountant, was transferred. Graduate of University of Texas and University of Texas Law School. Clerked for Justice Harry Blackmun. Appointed to the 7th Circuit by President Clinton in 1995. Has also worked in private practice and was a long-time professor at the University of Chicago Law School. Also held government positions at the State Department and the Justice Department.

Hhmmmm something is curious….very curious….what is it…….hhmmm…..they all have something in common…….hhhhhmmm…..oh wow, I can’t believe I didn’t notice at first-they all have brown hair.

Oh by the way, they are all women too. For such an important position as being one of eight of the highest judging positions in the land, I would hope that Mr. Prez did not simply conclude that the Supreme Court merely needed to fill a specific demographic. Surely he would never do such a thing. Surely he would not say, “we need more Hispanic women on the supreme court”, as opposed to, “I am going to recommend the most qualified person in the U.S. for this position.” Which leads me to my next topic…….


Discrimination


Sometimes you just have to take an ugly topic and speak the truth. In today’s society it is not kosher to speak the truth when it regards race, sex, or age. But what do I care??!! Being politically correct has nothing to do with the truth but everything to do with being sensitive to people who just want to make a continent out of a mole hill. Maybe it is just the white, middle class, Irishman within me that has never had to feel hated, prejudiced against, or otherwise made to feel uncomfortable. Wait a second….I live in New Mexico….I am a minority….. I have been the only one that speaks English in a Wal-Mart in the U.S. Therefore, I can say whatever I want so long as I consider myself a minority I can never possibly be politically incorrect. My parents have been very fond of sharing the following quote, so I thought I would make them proud.

"Political Correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical, liberal minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end."

Every race, sex and age has something which most people would rather do away with. Here are some examples

White people’s lament- Trailer living, white trash, can’t jump crackers otherwise known as the whites within the “south.”


Latino people’s moan – Chollo, homie dawg lowrider thugs otherwise known as latino’s within Hurley, NM.


Black people’s wail – Gangsta, grill wearin, mr. T gold chain, prison sentenced, big booty lovin loke dawgs otherwise known as blacks within any big city.


Native American people’s gripe – fire water drinking, complaining, change begging, res living injuns otherwise known as Indians within every small town near the four corners.


Asian people’s sob – Um, well, maybe lower than 140 I.Q. scoring individuals otherwise known as 3% of the Asian population. Really though, can anyone tell me what is wrong with Asians other than those weird metro Japanese ppl and cartoon porn, er I mean, anime?


Old people’s whimper – Social security enjoying, RV driving, bad tipping, bad breath, bad driving, 40 miles butt neked both ways, senior citizens otherwise known as 95% of people over the age of 70.


Middle age people’s bleat – 3rd marriage attempting, Harley Davidson owning, 401K complaining, diet fad, 2nd mortgage, mid life crises folks otherwise known as everyone between ages 39 and 67.3.


Young people’s groan – loud music listening, car racing, bad grades, misbehaving, potential Columbine, “weed and alcohol are so cool”, cussing kiddos otherwise known as anyone attending public school.


Female people’s grouse –athletically inferior, menstruation cycling, “have to be pretty, skinny, wear uncomfortable clothes and shoes”, menopause angry, “born to have kids and serve no other purpose”, girlies otherwise known as how all men think that all women are.


Male people’s jammer – hunting, fishing, grunting, horny, “work all day with no rest” complaining, beer drinkin, ball scratching, sport loving, porn watching pigs otherwise known as how all women think that all men are.





Every demographic has a stereotype which people are disposed to have preconceived notions regarding. If everyone has some sort of preconceived notion, does it make it ok? No, but it happens so get over it. That doesn’t mean you can throw any random stereotype in someone’s face as being their opinion just because they belong to a certain demographic.

I believe in the fair grading system. If you put forth an “A” effort, then you get an “A” grade. If you put forth a “C” effort, then you get a “C” grade. At some point, society began saying, “we don’t have enough ______________ (insert demographic) _____________ (insert present tense verb) ______________ (insert noun).” For example, “we don’t have enough _Chinese people_ playing _basketball_.” Suddenly, a special interest group within the U.S. screams “FOUL”, and society has to find and pay for as many Chinese people to play basketball as possible. Suddenly their “D” abilities are overlooked and they are rewarded “A”s until people have calmed down about the issue. It doesn’t matter if they are the worst basketball players ever, as long as they don’t feel “discriminated” against. At that point society has done their “ethical” part. What a disservice to the American People. Simple forgotten fact is - the only level playing field is one in which people deserve nothing and earn everything. The further we move from that theory the more we discriminate.



Everyone is unique! That is wonderful! Society should be grateful that individuals are better at certain things than other individuals. Somewhere along the way we adopted a socialistic mentality that it is forbidden to be unique. It is forbidden to be better or worse than the next person. If you don’t conveniently fit into one of the categories on a form then you are a nuisance. We must classify you. We must push you into that stereotype. We must mold you to be what you really are. Resistance is futile. Assimilate or be destroyed.


Level the playing field, no child left behind, reparations and spreading the wealth are terms that are casually mentioned within political circles these days. These terms are nothing more that phrases to discriminate against a group or individual. No longer do individuals get what they earn but are given what they “deserve”. Deserve is a word that should be entirely excluded from the English language because there is no perfect judge among us to determine what anyone deserves. How can I say what you personally deserve in life? I don’t know you, where you came from, what you have experienced, what you know, what you don’t know, what you feel, what you have seen, and on and on. If I can’t judge you, then who can? Answer: nobody. The only way to truly deserve something is to earn it.




I look at the bios of the three nominees for supreme court justice and obviously they have the qualifications necessary to be faintly considered, at the least. I have no intention of downplaying what these three women have accomplished in life, but yet I must ask the question – Are these the three most qualified people in the entire U.S. for this position or do they fulfill society’s need to fill yet another demographic?



Being part of a specific demographic provides nothing more than a unique perspective. A unique perspective does not wholly represent someone; it is just one feature, among many, that makes up the entire person. You wouldn’t buy a car for just one feature would you? Just because a Ford Pinto may have power windows does not make it an all around better car than a Ferrari Enzo. Sometimes I get the feeling that those dancing on the politically-correct-thin-ice try to force a Pinto on us when we should always expect a Ferrari.

"The Great American Expectation"

"The American, Politically-Correct, Non-Discriminating Power Windows Reality"

Stop leveling the playing field and let us celebrate the uniqueness that we collectively are. The “A” student deserves the “A” by earning it and for no other reason. If you play by any other rules then the “A” student will eventually say, “what’s the point, I just wish I were _____________ (insert demographic).”

But hey what do I know, I am just the guy who puts “European American” on my forms to let them try to figure out what the heck that means.

Food for thought

"His Rotundity", John Adams




We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other.
John Adams (1735 - 1826)


I can’t say it any better than that.