News

Bill Cosby, a man who I have been a fan of since I was a single digit year old kid, and who is a hero of mine, has it wrong.  Because of the Trayvon Martin case, the ‘Cos comes out saying that Neighborhood Watchmen should not carry guns.  That’s just a plain stupid thing to say Bill, sorry but I have to call you on it.  Saying that is like saying that fisherman shouldn’t have knives because someone got stabbed once.  As long as the person carrying the weapon is doing so legally, I don’t see a problem.  Look at the root of the issue, and that is the man carrying the gun.  Call it like it is, Zimmerman should not have been a neighborhood watchman in the first place.  And if I have my info straight, he put himself in that position all by himself, while everyone else stood by and did nothing, including the real neighborhood watch people.  How is it that someone can come out and say they represent an organization, even calling themselves a leader in it, and no one cries foul?  Even so, it’s not the gun that’s the problem, it’s the person carrying the gun that’s the problem.  That is of course assuming that his version of the incident is not the correct one.  I don’t know if he acted right or wrong, I have my suspicion, but I don’t know and that’s the key.  We don’t know!  We, the people, and the media especially, have tried and convicted someone before the facts have been heard.  Frankly, I don’t think that the facts can be heard now, nowhere will this man even get a fair shake, despite innocent until proven guilty.  I am getting off topic here, the point is that the horrible situation that went down between Zimmerman and Martin had nothing to do with whether Zimmerman carried a gun, and all to do with Zimmerman acting carelessly.  I think we all can agree that whichever story is correct, Zimmerman over reacted, and that’s the point … ZIMMERMAN over reacted, the person.

FrdmFrankly, after reading an article recently, I don’t know which part is worse.  The fact that the Government feels like they need to be meddling in the business affairs of banks across the country and the retailers that sell goods and services to the country’s people, or the unfettered power that the banks can wield to make us all feel their wrath.

I know, I know, you are reading this and thinking that I had a double helping of my fanatic-o’s this morning, but that isn’t true.  This is a real situation and problem that we are all facing (or soon will be facing) right here and right now.  I am talking about the war that is waging between the banks and the Federal Reserve, a war over something as simple sounding as “swipe fees”.

You see, swipe fees are what retailers pay the banks when you and I swipe our debit card as we buy something.  To the tune of about $0.44 cents per swipe or purchase on average.  This is where it gets interesting, the Federal Reserve has gotten all puffed up and self righteous saying that they need to cut those swipe fees by more than 70%, to about $0.12 cents per swipe.  Take that few cents difference and multiply it over a few bazillion times a day that people make purchases and you can see why the banks are pretty peeved over it.

Naturally, the banks reaction is to cut out those rewards programs they have been enticing people with.  Not to mention jacking ATM fees up high and faster than gas prices at the pump.  In some places, people are seeing $4 and $5 ATM fees for non-customers!  Yowza!  Another tactic that the banks are proposing, is capping the limit of what you can purchase with your debit card, like making it so that you can’t purchase more than say $50 worth of stuff at a time.  This means you’ll have to get more swipes in to ultimately make that purchase, even if you run it as a credit card.  On top of all that, if you make a late payment, even a customer in good standing that previously never missed one, they have it worked out so they can hike your APR to as much as 30%!  Nice customer loyalty program there, isn’t it?

Sneaky, huh?

Right now, most of this stuff is not in effect yet, but it’s being tested in certain locations and plans are being made while bank lobbyists and Federal Reserve Weenies argue over it.  Either way this falls, stay informed and keep an eye out for tricks so you don’t get hammered by one side or the other.  Take a look at this article and get some more details too, it’s an eye opener.

It appears that politicians from all sides came to enough of a collective bargain as to pass a budget finally.  I mean, it’s only seven months late after all.  With the president refusing to allow any more extensions, not even a one week extension proposed by one side and then the other, folks were forced to come to common ground or let the whole Federal system grind to a halt.

I am not saying that Hussein Obama was right or wrong in vetoing extensions for more negotiation time, only time will tell on that one, but in all the rush, fuss, mess and turmoil, what got missed or shoved through without enough forethought?  The figure has come in at something like $38 billion dollars[1] they cut from the budget, to expand to $500 billion over the next few years.  Does anyone outside of those few politicians, who were no doubt serving their own self interest, actually know what all those cuts mean?  There is absolutely no way that our so called president could have gotten a handle on what all was in there that fast, no way in hell.

Top that off with Nancy Pelosi, Grand Witch of the Democrats claiming that despite legislation that cuts FCC rules and powers, they will continue to operate in the same way regardless[2].  Tell me, how does that work?  Can some people just ignore the law and just do what they want despite it being illegal, just because they are a politician?  I know, dumb question.  This is ridiculous, and is just another example of how broken and corrupt our government is.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my country and it’s still the best that I have seen compared to most anything else out there, but it is blatantly obvious that it’s not about we the people anymore.  Today’s government is about the pockets of the politicians, and how they can get them lined even more than before.

Just a couple new stories that I found and thus found interesting about the War in Libya … I mean the “KINETIC MILITARY ACTION” which is what we have been told to call it instead of a war.  *Sheesh*  Is Charlie Sheen writing for the Whitehouse Staff now??

Anyway, that’s for a different post maybe, the articles I specifically wanted to share with you are more edicts or decisions that have come forth from the Almighty Obama, and then what looks like reality stepping in to do its thang.

First we have President Obama stating firmly that as far as the KINETIC MILITARY ACTION in Libya is concerned, the United States would send “No ground troops, no matter what happens “.  Seems like a pretty final statement to me except that second, we have another news report shows us that there are “about 2,200 Marines off the shore of Libya right now.”  Let me see now, if my math isn’t too rusty that about 4,400 boots on the ground.  How’s all that working out for ya Mr. Pres?

This is kind of funny, whether you like Glenn Beck or not this should be a wake up call for where our country is headed.  It seems that Radio and TV talk show host Glenn Beck made a comment comparing Reform Judaism to Radical Islam, and the comparison made a bunch of Jewish leaders mad.  Now, I read over what he said and I don’t get the big deal.  He basically compared the two and made an observation that Radical Islam and Reform Judaism were more about politics that religion.  That’s the man’s opinion, he wasn’t saying that one was bad or better than the other, just offering an observation.

So, naturally Glenn Beck apologized, and appeared to be every bit sincere and remorseful that he made a comparison that upset folk.  I mean, the guy expresses his opinion (which, last time I check, we were free to do in this country), people complain about it because basically they are going to complain about anything that isn’t glowing praise about their agenda they are pushing, and Beck basically comes back to say he was sorry, he didn’t mean to offend anyone.  Seems like a pretty normal exchange, I think we have all had something similar happen.  You say something and someone gets pissed, and you put your hands up like “Hey, didn’t mean anything man, sorry about what I said about your sister, my bad”.  After that you have another couple beers and all is good.

Not so with these guys, they came back from Beck’s apology and have said that “Anything short” of ending “Mr. Beck’s tenure at Fox News” by Rupert Murdoch “reflects an unwillingness to take seriously the harm Mr. Beck causes to many in our community and beyond”.

Wow.

No, really.  Wow.

These guys need some Prozac in a bad way.  Nice turning of the other cheek there.  Way to get along with your fellow man and all that.  The guy apologizes for not really doing anything wrong from what I can tell, and you want to pull an Imus on him.  Get a life and get a grip on reality you moonbat.  The folks ultimately behind all of this the “Jewish Funds for Justice” league need to re-evaluate the word justice.  You can read the whole article here if you like, it’s just as ludicrous.

Teachers’ hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work 9 or 10 months a year! It’s time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do – baby sit! We can get that for less than minimum wage.

That’s right. Let’s give them $3.00 an hour and only the hours they worked; not any of that silly planning time, or any time they spend before or after school. That would be $19.50 a day (7:45 to 3:00 PM with 45 min. off for lunch and plan — that equals 6 1/2 hours).

Each parent should pay $19.50 a day for these teachers to baby-sit their children.

Now how many do they teach in day…maybe 30? So that’s $19.50 x 30 = $585.00 a day. However, remember they only work 180 days a year!!! I am not going to pay them for any vacations.

LET’S SEE…. That’s $585 X 180= $105,300 peryear. (Hold on! My calculator needs new batteries).

What about those special education teachers and the ones with Master’s degrees? Well, we could pay them minimum wage ($7.75), and just to be fair, round it off to $8.00 an hour. That would be $8 X 6 1/2 hours X 30 children X 180 days = $280,800 per year.

Wait a minute — there’s something wrong here! There sure is!

The average teacher’s salary (nation wide) is $50,000. $50,000/180 days = $277.77/per day/30 students=$9.25/6.5 hours = $1.42 per hour per student–a very inexpensive baby-sitter and they even EDUCATE your kids!)

The US will spend $200 million a day on President Barack Obama’s visit to the city of Mumbai.  The huge amount of money will be spent on security, the stay and other aspects of the Presidential visit.  Talk about livin’ large!

You know, I have a saying that I have used for a long time that seems to get more and more appropriate as time goes by.  This saying is “If everyone did their job, there would be a lot less jobs to do.”  As if you couldn’t infer from that, I get frustrated by people that don’t do their jobs and thus make more work for or life harder on the rest of us.  However, there is another aspect to this, and that is people that don’t do their jobs because of sheer apathy, or some stupid reason like a morbid sense of satisfaction at watching someone elses suffering, or a(n) (im)moral high ground, or that ever popular “following orders” excuse, etc.

I am speaking of people who have lost touch with humility, compassion and really anything that tethers them to the human race, to still actually being able to be called a human being.  So far removed from humanity they have become, they are able to stand idly by, not doing something (like their jobs, their duty, whatever) while someone else gets the shaft, dies, or something similar.

In this example of course, I am speaking of South Fulton in Northwest Tennessee in Obion County where firefighters responded to a house on fire call, a house owned by Gene and Paulette Cranick, only to stand idly by and watch, letting it burn to the ground, killing three dogs and a cat.  Not one firefighter lifted a finger to save the Cranick home.  Why, you ask?  Because Gene Cranick is human, and forgot to mail in the $75 fee that pays for Fire Department services.  Videos of firefighters sitting in their fully equipped fire trucks indolently watching the house go up in flames as Gene Cranick pleaded that he would pay “anything they want” if they would just put out the fire can be found on the net (like here, and here to name a couple). The fire chief has the power to make on-the-spot exemptions, but he refused.  When asked by reporters, Mayor David Crocker reportedly said “If homeowners don’t pay, they’re out of luck.”  Well, no shit, way to win voter support ding-dong.  So, all that stood between Gene Cranick’s home standing tall or being reduced to a pile of charred ashes and debris? Seventy-five dollars ($75).  That’s it.

I still find it hard to believe that a firefighter could stand by and watch the home of another fellow human being burn to the ground.  Even when attempting to use the weak and over parlayed “just following orders” justification.  It didn’t work for the Nazis, it ain’t gonna work for firefighters, not in my book anyway.  I can say with certainty that I would not have been able to stand idly by and watch this family’s home, possessions and pets get destroyed like that.  I might get fired afterwards, but I am the one that has to live with myself in the end.  Besides, how often have one of us forgotten something?  How great does it feel when someone helps us out and gives us the benefit of the doubt, letting us slide that payment in a little late, or get that damage covered anyway even though they shouldn’t?  As long as we pay the bill then of course.  I am not saying the Cranick’s should get a free ride, but he admitted that he forgot to send the payment and offered to pay it right there, and more even.  He even went so far as to offer to pay “whatever they wanted”, just to get some help.  But still, the fire department, firefighters, fire chief, the town and all involved let the house burn to the ground.  Now, aside from Gene and Paulette’s pets dying, they have nothing left.  All of their possessions, memories, and belongings were destroyed in the fire, just like their home.  It’s going to cost them a lot more than $75 to recover from the selfish incompetence of the fire fighters, the fire chief and the mayor (lack of capitals on purpose).

Gee, I sure am glad all of you are perfect and I sure hope you never need help yourself some day.

Here are some facts that you can throw at your liberal friends every time you seek to talk about government spending, and all they can come up with is “Well the Iraq war cost us …….”. Randall Hoven of the American Thinker has a few facts to chew on:

  • Obama’s stimulus, passed in his first month in office, will cost more than the entire Iraq War — more than $100 billion (15%) more.
  • Just the first two years of Obama’s stimulus cost more than the entire cost of the Iraq War under President Bush, or six years of that war.
  • Iraq War spending accounted for just 3.2% of all federal spending while it lasted.
  • Iraq War spending was not even one quarter of what we spent on Medicare in the same time frame.
  • Iraq War spending was not even 15% of the total deficit spending in that time frame. The cumulative deficit, 2003-2010, would have been four-point-something trillion dollars with or without the Iraq War.
  • The Iraq War accounts for less than 8% of the federal debt held by the public at the end of 2010 ($9.031 trillion).
  • During Bush’s Iraq years, 2003-2008, the federal government spent more on education that it did on the Iraq War. (State and local governments spent about ten times more.)

While you are at it, why don’t you take a look at this report from the Wall Street Journal on how much our spending baseline has increased in 31 months … $4.4 trillion.

You can find the original news post here.

I was watching a TV show earlier this evening, that was discussing various things about handicapped people, the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act), and many various things that affect and effect the folk that need the help, like handicap parking.  OK, to get to the point, there was this one town (and I am sure there’s lots more like it) where people without the blue placard or handicap plates were parking in handicap spaces and no one was doing anything about it.  Not the police, or business owners, concerned citizens, etc.  With the exception of one brave lady, everyone pretty much ignored it and didn’t give a damn.  So it went, and this lady would confront people or take a picture of the car and license plate, etc.  But what got me was how the people who were parking illegally acted.  I mean they shouted obscenities, shoved this poor woman, grabbed her at times, verbally assaulted her and on and on.  I couldn’t help but think about what HUGE assholes these people were.  All this over a f***ing parking space, and one they shouldn’t be in anyways.  It is really sad that so many people were so lazy that they can’t be bothered to park a few extra feet away to ensure that someone who really needed to park close actually could.  Then, on top of that, when this lady politely called them out about it,  they act like such jerks.  I am still having trouble wrapping my head around the way they were acting.  This has always been a pet peeve of mine anyway, but on top of that, the lady doing this had a legitimate need for those parking places which is what drove her to try and police them herself since no one else would.  Her daughter is 21 years old, is autistic, blind and non-verbal.  I would think she deserves to NOT have to cross the damn street, you know?  Step up and be a real human being for once, leave the blue spaces for the handicapped people.  I know, I know, no one reading this would do such a thing, but maybe you can stop someone else from being a jerk.