Reality Percentages

All throughout history, some folks have said over and over things like "The youth are going to hell in a hand basket".

I was reading the newspaper years ago and there was a great big long tirade about this very subject. The author was talking about how the young people of that day and time had lost all respect for their elders. How they were beyond redemption and hope and needed to be handled with an iron hand to relearn these things. It was quite a long piece and as I was reading it, I thought to myself that the author must be some politician or the other mouthing off to get people to vote for him, so he could be the one to force these wonderful changes on our wayward and misled youth, to make them good, contributing citizens again. Well, when I finally got to the end of the piece, guess who the author was? It was Adolph Hitler! Turns out that was one of the main themes of his political platform back then. He was saying that a lot of people and especially the youth were falling apart and losing their humanity. He was saying if the people elected him, he would whip all those discontents back in shape and save their way of life. Well we now know how well that worked out, don't we?

Years later, I found out that Socrates pretty much said the same thing about people in general and especially the youth way back in his time also. I pretty much discovered that some people, mainly politicians, ultra religious groups and others have been saying these things throughout the history of mankind. Of course they want you to join their agenda or affiliation and mainly give them money to solve this pressing issue.

One of the cool things about my business is I get to talk in depth with lots of very intelligent folks in all walks of life. I've learned that in general the theory that "most" people, young or older being bad or slowly going to hell in a hand basket has always been and is today bullshit. As proof, ask any teacher anywhere if most students are screwing off, not paying attention and generally causing nothing but problems and he/she will gladly tell you that it's just not true. He/She will tell you that it's true for a very small percentage of them only. They'll tell you that the vast majority of students are serious, caring, studious young people who are trying most of the time to do their best.

Look around you at everyone you personally know in your life. Look around at those you see in your normal workday and weekend. It's pretty easy to see that the percentage of bad/good people is probably on the line of something like 95% good and 5% bad. That means that 95% of people are hard working, caring, honest, compassionate folks who are generally happy with life and would be willing to help a neighbor, friend or even a stranger if the opportunity or need came about and they could. I'm going to step out on a limb here and say this is most likely true everywhere in the entire world, not just in America.

Now that leaves the reality of that other 5% percent who are truly bad. In the student world, those are the ones who are our future denizens of the juvenile justice system and eventually our prison system. The only other alternative for those types without some serious medical, psychiatric or social help would be death, one way or the other.

So, is this the reality you see in your life? Are most people you know pretty good folks?



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Bravery?

This is something I've thought about often through the years as I watched or read another story on the news about some gang or the other raising hell out in our country. Usually it's a story about a bunch of punks running around shooting guns, killing each other or killing innocent bystanders, who had nothing to do with it.

To make my thoughts clear on this subject, I would have to go back to when I was a teenager in high school. Back then, when someone had a problem with or just didn't like someone else, they would "call out" the other person to a fight, usually after school at some agreed upon location. After all the details of the fight were worked out, the rumor mill started and before the end of the day, half the school knew there was going to be fight and everyone that could, tried their best to show up to watch.

Here's how it would come out for everyone. The two combatants would come together and all the people who came to watch would form a huge circle completely surrounding them. The two fighters would approach each other face to face, take a good stance, put up their fists, dance around for a while and the whole thing would start as soon as one or the other thru the first punch. At that point, the whole crowd of onlookers would be yelling and screaming for one or the other.

Now lets get some very important things straight here. There were some plain as day, completely understood, unwritten rules involved in this whole planned affair. Fairness was everything. Only straight ahead fists were allowed. No kicking (this was before Karate), no hair pulling, no use of sticks, rocks, knives or ANY thing other than fists. The ONLY brave and honorable thing was to stand there face to face using only your fists to pound the opponent into submission. I have to proudly add here that if anyone did pick up a stick or anything, the whole crowd would not only start yelling, they would grab the stick and you and put a stop to the whole thing right then. Now the second the other guy fell to the ground, honorable people would stop and let the other person back up before continuing. The second one or the other gives up or says "I give" or lets it be known by one and all that they want to quit. IT'S A DONE DEAL! Game over, everyone walks away and the whole thing is finished.

The whole point of my little story here is back then these things were handled in a civilized and honorable way with both sides showing respect and bravery to each other. The purpose was not to kill or maim your opponent, it was just to prove you were brave and perhaps worthy of being a "man", in those times.

Now back to those punks in the news shooting each other and anyone else who get in there way. I'm announcing right now, right out loud and clear that all those punks are god damn chicken shits. They are like little baby pigs, pretending to be adults. They are too chicken shit to stand face to face with anyone. They sneak around shooting from moving cars or hide behind something to make their kill. They have no real guts at all. In fact, they are the scum of the earth and should be shot on sight by our law enforcement, who we have given the right to wipe out human infections.

Somehow we lost sight of what bravery, honor, respect and personal responsibility means in this new society we find ourselves in. I wonder if it's possible to somehow get that back in our children's realities before it's too late.

What do you think about all this? How do you define bravery, honor and respect? Is there a way you can think of to reach the youth with these truths and create change?



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The News

After catching the morning Television News and National Public Radio on the way to work the other day, I made a decision I'm hoping to be able to follow up on. By the time I got to work, I was damn near depressed. Now normally, I'm a pretty glass half full, upbeat, positive type of person but as I'm sure is true for most normal people right now, it's pretty hard to remain true to my natural attitude, what with all the crap going on in the world right now presented on the news.

Speaking of that, I know that the news did not and does not directly cause the economic problems the world has going right now. The truth is though, the news by feeding the doomsday ideas so expertly and incessantly, is making and keeping everyone nervous about spending any money until things get better. The problem with that is our entire economic system is built on consumerism. Money being spent by everyone around the whole world is the grease that makes the economic machine go around. So even though it's not the cause, it is like a giant anchor dragging everything down. If we stop buying products, the companies have to lay off or fire employees. Then those employee's don't have the money to spend and the whole thing just starts to feed upon itself.

So, here's my grand plan. I'm going to give it my best shot to not watch or listen to ANY news for quite a while. I've wondered for years if everyone might just be a whole lot better off not watching the daily barrage of negative garbage they call "the news". I've heard their lame attempt at an explanation for the negativity time and time again. They say good news doesn't sell. They say the public grows bored with anything positive but bad news catches and holds their attention. So that's what we deserve and that's what they are going to give us. It's kind of a sad commentary on our real needs and desires huh?

You know, back in the past, before television and mass media, people got by just fine day by day without knowing anything at all about most of the rest of the world and it's many problems. I really wonder if someone living in a small town in America has any need at all to hear all the crime statistics and details in some large city such as New York. Does it do their lives any good at all to know those things? I doubt it.

So, I'll let you know how successful I am with my new resolution. I'm as bad as the next guy with turning on the box as soon as I walk in the door and usually it's the news that's on, so it really has became a habit for me as I'm sure it has for most folks.

Christ, maybe I'll actually use that time to pet the cats, talk to my wonderful wife, take the time and energy to make a great meal, relax with the new found peace and quiet without the blaring box. I know the few times we have lost our power, it was amazing to realise that life went on just fine and the piece and quiet was pretty cool.



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Government Giveaways

I'm been wanting to bring this up for years now but something I read in yesterday's paper finally knocked me off the fence. Again, I saw a little tiny mention, not more than a half an inch in size telling about the Unites States Government giving Mexico something like $135,000,000 dollars for something or the other. HOLY SHIT!!! What the hell are our idiots in the suits in Washington think they are doing? Didn't I see on the news that we are in the grips of the worst economic crisis since the great depression here in America and we're giving god damn MEXICO millions of dollars?

I've been knocked off my feet probably once or twice a month for years and years by these little tiny notices in the papers or television news talking about our stupid ass government giving away millions of dollars to every little crap country in the world. Not just the little ones either. Seems we are so rich that we can even give to Japan, Russia, China and all the big boys out there also.

Part of the insanity of it all is how unimportant and trivial they obviously consider these "gifts" that they don't even bother to try and make us understand why their doing it. I've heard the term "financial diplomacy" used often from our inapt leaders to give it some kind of legitimacy. Ok, lets see now.........If we can't have everyone in the whole world love us to death, then we'll just bribe them into being our friends huh? So, the next time our children won't do what their told, just give them $50.00 to do the right thing. There ya go. That'll teach them the ways of the world. Actually the other day on the news I saw that is exactly what some schools are doing. If you stay in school and get decent grades, they have a pay scale depending on how often you do and how high your grades are. My oh my, has life changed and left me in the dust?

Even in good economic times how about the United States taking care of it's own citizens first and foremost and THEN, IF we have extra money, maybe we could think about helping the truly needy in the rest of the world. In those good times, I mean taking care of the huge important issues we have right here in america, like health care for instance. Things that we sometimes think are too costly for the government to handle. Well, if we weren't giving away most of the pie, maybe we could afford to help our own people with their medical needs among other things.

So maybe it's time we get back to a little of the "us first" isolationism of the past. Like the whole health issue, you need to first be healthy yourself before you can do anyone else any good huh?

So, whatchathink folks? What do you think about our government giving huge money to other countries on a regular basis?

Tell us what you think.

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Regular Folks

People sometimes ask me where I get all the bull#$% I write in here. Good question. In my business I am forever amazed at the intelligence of the average Joe or Jane who comes in. Naturally the talk of the shop is whatever is happening in the world at that time.

Everyone usually has some kind of opinion on most any subject. The wild part is no matter how complex, convoluted and deep the problem of the day is, the average regular person usually has some kind of super simple, logical, easy to understand and implement solution. It blows my mind how often this is true. I ask myself how come our politicians, powers that be, educated, learned and certified people out there with huge important diplomas on their walls don't seem to know shit. These are the very people who should be bringing up these super important issues and presenting concrete ideas and solutions on these things for us peons.

It really makes one wonder who might be better able to run our country. Our present system relies on anyone with a suit and tie, who has gone to universities and lays claim to great knowledge. Well as Dr. Phil would say "How's that workin out for ya?"

I've thought after listening to regular folks for years and years that quite possibly the best person to run our country might just be someone as simple as " Joe the Farmer (and his wife of course). Now good old Joe knows how to handle the realities of a working farm. He has to make super important decisions everyday that effect whether the farm makes a living this month or year in order to stay in business for the long run.

Lets take a few examples to help make my point.

How about the subject of "crime and punishment"?.
Old Joe has a favorite dog he just loves and is quite possibly his best friend up to this point. Now all of the sudden Joe's special buddy starts chasing and maiming or even killing Joe's prize money making sheep. Well, Joe has a huge quandary now, doesn't he? Using the "farmer" logical thinking, he has only one choice if the farm is to continue making a profit, so he can feed his family and keep the farm going.
The last thing in the world Joe wants to do is put the dog down but he has no choice. It's the dog or everything else he loves. So with a tear in his eye and a heavy heart, he makes a special place up on the hill for the dog and he does his duty.

How about "helping the poor"?
Some new people come to the area of Joe's farm and they are about as poor and run down as can be. Does he offer to take supplies, food and equipment from his farm, give it to them and continue to give to the poor family, so they can have a life there? No, he contacts them and offers to teach them how to live off the land and helps them make whatever they need to get by for themselves. In the end, he is one hell of a good neighbor, a good man and has helped the new people make their own new life with a great pride of accomplishment.

How about "credit"?
Unfortunately, Joe's tractor breaks down. Does he run into town to the local bank and beg the banker for a loan to get the parts to fix his tractor as soon as possible? No, he has other choices, which take longer but don't require him to borrow at all. The first logical choice is to start saving the money and with time be able to pay for the parts himself. Another way would be to sell some of the products he produces on the farm to get the money or trades labor with other farmers or any number of other ways he can and will think of. The last thing in the world old Joe would want would be to "owe" anyone anything.

I think you get the point by now. Old Joe and his wife are just normal folks, just like you and I by the way, who think with logic (remember that odd concept) and use good common sense (another one of those odd concepts) in their decisions and try at all times to make due with what they have or can produce. As long as they can keep the overeducated suits away from their children, their children have a more than fair chance at happiness also.

By the way, old Joe and his wife are quite happy with their life, which is pretty darn hard at times. You know what though? They have no problem getting a good nights sleep without all the tension, worry and strain most people have to live with in our self caused complicated, complex lives.

What other ways could old Joe handle everyday problems? Do you have common sense ideas?

Lets hear them.

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Government Waste

With all our economic woes right now, there’s a lot of people with answers they think might work to put us back on track. All the big boys in the financial industry are pumping billions into the system to try and jump-start it, as we speak. All the Government heads in all the States are talking about either cutting back on Government spending programs and/or raising taxes to try and solve the quagmire we find ourselves in right now.

I’m wondering if simply cutting out Government waste could solve the entire thing.

Everyone I talk to who works for any branch of the Government, be it the Military, State, County or Local has incredible tales of huge wasteful expenditures they see everyday at work.

Maybe we should invest in a new Government Program heaven forbid, whose entire purpose is to root out waste on every level and get rid of it. I have a strong feeling just getting rid of all the waste would more than pay for an entire new program, by a hell of a long shot.

I would like to take this to the limit however. This is not going to make me any new friends but I think at the least, we as a nation should at least start discussing this theory and see where it might take us in trying to keep our economy solvent on into the future. Obviously, it doesn’t have to be an “all or nothing” plan. Maybe something in between would work. If anyone has any other realistic ideas, I sure would love to hear them. As you know, our “Leaders” have no intention of ever bringing this up.

Ok, how about knocking off ALL benefits to everybody who works for the Government in any way. No more medical, health, retirement, transportation costs, special clothing needs, safety equipment or any extra expenses at all to employees who work for the Government, State, county or local. I can see some exceptions on the special equipment part for the Military but no one else.

Now lets get something straight here. I don't mean we should just jerk all the benefits with no alternative. What I'm guessing is, if the government were to stop automatically paying for them, the price would be forced down to a reasonable level. The reason everything like that costs so much is the companies have always expected the government to have "unlimited funds". That enabled the companies to maintain rip off prices in place, forcing everyone in and out of the government to over pay for all benefits. If everyone were to be forced to pay their own way, the prices would have to come down to a level regular people could afford.

My reasoning behind this idea is simple. I as a private business owner receive absolutely nothing from anyone for any of these special gifts. I am required, as all business owners are, to buy all these things out of the profit I make with my business. On top of that, I and all the other business owners have to pay extra taxes to support all those gifts that the Government workers receive.

Is there some way we could pay our government workers a living wage and then expect them to go out and pay for their own special needs, just as we businesses have to? I’m sure you’ve heard that lots of big businesses are already talking about dropping the benefit programs or at least modifying them because they are reaching a point where the benefits are driving them out of business. The best example of that right now is the Auto industry.


I hear from people who work for the Government that they see people all the time setting around doing nothing or just have a hard time signing their name, much less having the intelligence to actually do the work they are assigned. They sometimes see the hiring practices as this foolish: “Are you breathing? Ok, you’re hired”. The other issues I hear all the time is even if someone is plainly not qualified to do the job or just a nutcase, the act of firing is so convoluted and hard that most managers just don’t bother with it.

What these facts tell me is there are probably far too many government, state and local employees. I’m going to make a wild guess that about a quarter to a third of all of them should be let go. Can you imagine how much that would save the rest of us who pay taxes to support these do nothing people?

Again, let me make myself perfectly clear on this. If I say a quarter to half are not needed at all, that means that three quarters to two thirds are doing a fine job and their work is important to us all.

Another crazy program I hear of is the funding process at work with our government. If at the end of the year, they don’t spend every penny they were funded, they would get less next year, and so they make damn sure they spend it, even on plain nonsense crap. What the hell kind of idiotic shit is that? I would think a far better plan would be to give rewards and awards to any department who actually saves us money and spend far less that they were allocated. Christ, give them an all expenses paid weekend in Tahoe for saving us, the taxpayers money.




Ok now, another idea that will get me in some trouble. How about us dropping the whole tax exemption for all religious organizations? How and why should they run their hugely profitable businesses without paying one cent in taxes to help support our economy and way of life? Especially when for the last several years, they have chosen to participate in the whole political arena, by influencing their parishioners to vote one way or the other on whatever issues they bring from their faith and set of ideas. I really do think it’s time religion pays its fair share, since they are enjoying the same benefits and freedoms as everyone else here in America.


Ok, there’s my take on some of our financial problems.

Lets hear yours.

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Overpopulation

I saw a news piece on TV the other night talking about a worldwide emergency with a growing problem of not enough rice, which is the main staple for people around the world. They then cut to a women in the Philippines…………..who was talking about the price getting too high and becoming harder and harder to find. How her kids were suffering from hunger. They only got one rice meal a day. Then she went on to tell how hard it was on her 9 kids.

WHAT?????? Did I really hear her say she had 9 KIDS? By the way, we always say “She had kids” but you know what? There’s a man hiding somewhere in this analogy who gets equal, if not a little more blame. Holy shit, I take it people in the Philippines don’t know where babies come from! I have a sneaking suspicion that EVERYWHERE there are starving people, there are far, far, far too many babies mysteriously appearing out of nowhere. Are the people of the world who take total responsibility for those they sire now somehow financially responsible for all those idiots who make it a habit of breeding like damn rabbits?

Isn’t the real problem, too damn many people in the world? Isn’t that the truth everywhere? Even here in the United States, there are now people indiscriminately pushing out babies right and left, without having any intention of taking full physical or financial responsibility for them.

The truth that everyone knows but are afraid to admit because of the “PC” bullcrap is that the very people who should not be having children, much less a dozen or so, are the poor, illiterate and in a lot of cases Immigrant folks.

So, people who bother to learn English properly, pay their own way, live in society as full partners, responsible for themselves in every way are replacing themselves less and less. At the same time, those who basically just want to live off of the government (which of course is US) can have all the chillins they want, with no limits at all.

So how does a sane responsible society handle this mounting problem? This problem, that no one wants to talk about? Have you heard ANY politician even have the nerve to mention it? If it just might be the main problem of the human race on earth, how could that be?

I’m guessing western religions are a huge part of the reasons it’s such an untouchable subject. Even though we left England so long ago to escape the religious rule over there, we somehow brought a ton of puritanical ideas along for the ride. One of the main ones is no birth control. I’m told the Indians knew and used natural herbs and methods of controlling when and where to have a child. Maybe instead of our forefathers killing the Indians, he should have taken classes from them in the realities of life.

My learned answer to what we, as a sane society should do to fix or at least better this leaning tree that’s going to fall someday soon?

I have no idea………….Do you?

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Real Life Economics

I really do think about 5 years from now, we are going to look back on these economic times as the best thing that could ever have happened to us and the rest of the world, for that matter. The reason is it's going to force everyone to come back to the simple realities that our forefathers lived with.

Several important factors are involved here. The first and foremost would be this new thing that was invented called "Credit". Instead of only buying things that one could afford and paying for them BEFORE you took them home, these new fancy pants shysters came up with this insane plan where you could borrow the money from them and take it home right now. Of course there was quite the price to pay. They called it "interest" and the longer you took to pay them back, the more "interest" they received.

If you're old enough, you heard your parents or grandparents say "That's nice but we can't afford it". I'll bet you haven't heard that statement in years. With the credit thing, we all got to the point where we thought we could afford anything, anytime. Huge mistake huh?

The other insane factor we all got caught up in was buying crap we didn't even need. No regular person needs a pair of $350.00 sneakers, $200.00 pair of Cotton pants, a $40,000 car every three years, a 4,000 square foot McMansion or any number of other high priced garbage we see in the slick magazines about the rich and famous and their "lifestyles". We then started extending these insane practices onto our children, making them think they "deserved" the very best at all times.

Because of our willingness to go into great debt, the business world jumped at the chance to rip all of us a new one and greed then became not only fashionable but standard practice. So eventually, they invented a new form of credit, called "easy credit". At first, they actually expected you to be able to afford the payment on your "loan" with them. The next logical step was to drop that requirement and just go ahead and give us whatever we thought we needed without thought of the future consequences of our choices at all. Let the future take care of itself.

Well folks, we are now seeing the outcome of all that greed and wastefulness, to say the least. Now when I see all the terrible news about car dealerships and fancy pants stores going bankrupt all over the country and world I say "GOOD, we didn't need any of those things anyway". I'm going to guess about 1/4 of ALL businesses were just trying to sell us crap we didn't come close to actually needing and they can and should just go away.

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Wonderful, Natural Nature

So......last night, when we arrived home from our work, we opened the slider to the back deck to put the cat's food dish out and there as often is, was a skunk. I Psssssst! real loud and off the deck he went. Then, as I was setting the dish down again, low and behold, there was another one hiding behind the chair just inches away from my hand. It kinda surprised me and sorta pissed me off, so I reached down, picked up the large water bowl we have there and threw the whole thing straight at the skunk, hitting it broadside with all that water.

Well.............in that split second, without me even seeing it or knowing it, the son of a bitch let loose with his gun full force at me. Holy shit, all of the sudden, my wife and I could not even breath, it hit us so hard. We slammed the slider shut and stood there in shock, barely able to take a full breath of air, right in our own living room.

So......all the doors and windows wide open. Ceiling fan on full blast. Air Freshener sprayed throughout the whole house, as we try and return to some kind of normalcy with our evening routine feeding the cats and starting dinner as the whole house smells like the end of the world.

As time went on, it started calming down a bit but my wife kept saying every-time I got near her, it got worse. So I went into the bedroom and started stripping off clothes and smelling them. Took a bath in damn ketchup, then a shower. Everything I had on was screwed, including my slippers, so off they went outside, where they are still. We think we are probably going to have to just throw away everything I had on.

So, on my way to pick up my wife again from work, I stopped off at Rite aid and bought new slippers.

So, there ya go. The wonderful realities of living in the damn mountains, with all it's wonderful, natural wildlife. Damn Nature!!!

I sent this story to my daughter in Las Vegas and told her "DO NOT LAUGH!" Well, as you can imagine, she laughed and wrote this back:



AHHHH! HAHA! that is hilarious... Dad oh dad oh dad, you just simply CAN NOT have bad thoughts about skunks when they
are within a 20 ft proximity. NO BAD THOUGHTS. you must continue to think 'oh how adorable and cuddly and fluffy' until you are out of firing range, then you can think 'listen up you $%#@ &*%$#@%' and pull the trigger (be it a water bucket or a shotgun)... ;)

Remember, those are like really, really smart cats with a BIG STINKY GUN, and they have an attitude problem bigger than the devil himself.
Cute, fluffy, adorable and extremely dangerous.

She's still laughing.


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America's "Us against them" mentality

Today I got another long winded e-mail from a friend trying to tell me all about Obama's "anti-American" views and attitudes. It actually surprises me to no end how people can believe every little thing they are told by the right wing nutcases or the left wing weirdo's screaming out there on the radio, TV or the internet. I can see them now. Spit flying out of their mouths, red faces, their veins sticking out in their neck and with blood shot eyes from no sleep. Trying to tell the world that the sky really is going to fall at any moment.

This was my reply to him and to everyone who thinks I would possibly be interested in this kind of slop journalism.

"You know, I have to interject something here. Probably 99.9% of everything you and a lot of other folks are hearing and repeating about Obama is made up garbage from the extreme right wing nutcases they get from the fat drug fiend idiot to the right wing TV weirdo's.

I try and not pay a bit of attention to that kind of hearsay garbage as it does nothing at all to help us see reality with our election coming up. I really believe the extreme of both sides is the REAL AND POSSIBLY ONLY problem we have in America at this time and both sides need to grow up, shut the hell up and try to actually get things done "for the majority", not the right wing rich businesses or the left wing liberal elitists. This "us against them" mentality, no matter which side you are on, is hurting America big time. I really believe that until we stop this, nothing will get done at all, that needs doing. If you need more proof, just look at the politics in California right now. The entire budget is at a standstill because both sides are convinced only they have the correct answers.

Every time I get these long winded misinformation pieces, I automatically hit the most important button on the keyboard, without reading one word of it."

Maybe that's what we need.............A universial delete button. One that would make these kinds of people just.........go away..........never to be heard from again.


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Come on.......DO IT!

Outlandish Disability Rules

There's something happening right now that is unbelievable, to say the least. Some rip-off, lowlife idiot in a wheel chair, actually more than one, is going around the country, looking for businesses that are not disability compliant. When he finds one, he threatens them with a law suit unless they pay him some money. His motive has nothing whatsoever to do with making buildings accessible to people in wheelchairs, it's just the money baby.

Now let me make myself perfectly clear here. I am not talking about all people with disabilities. I'm ONLY talking about the low life types who are using this excuse to make a living and potentially destroy small businesses in the process.

Now, I have almost nothing against' making newly built buildings accessible to people with disabilities, although it's perhaps unreasonable to expect building owners to cater to the .000003% of people involved to the tune of thousands of extra dollars for the cost of elevators, giant bathrooms ect. The huge rip off problem in this new money making scheme is these money grubbing idiots are now including ALL buildings already built. This is of course impossible for old buildings in many cases, with the original small doors inside and out, small hallways and tiny bathrooms well inside the buildings. Somehow the "Grandfather Claus" got thrown out with the garbage because somehow these idiots changed the logical rules in our stupid court systems to now include old established buildings.

I can not believe that there are judges out there who let this happen. Come on judges. Get some balls and do the right thing here. Quit bowing down to whoever yells the loudest and do what you know is right. If the laws do not accommodate logic, then change the damn laws.

Politics in America

Everyone I know agrees that American politics and life in general in America was at it's very best around 1950. Politicians actually went to work and accomplished real work. They did work "for the good of the people" then and everything was pretty straight foreword, honest and relatively simple. Most men could go to work and make enough money to afford everything they needed within reason. The wife of the family could stay home and take care of the children. Can you imagine, children were raised exclusively by their own parents?

Ok, jump ahead approximately 50 years and what do we have now? Politicians who work full time making far, far too much money with every benefit in the world. What do they do now? Absolutely nothing, that's what. When was the last time ANY politician talked about or did anything that actually means something important to you personally? Something that helps your family and personal financial resources?

What they do nowadays is whatever is blowing in the wind, from whoever yells the loudest. They talk about abortion, gay issues, helmet laws, cell phone laws, food product problems. These things are social and or private issues that have no place at all in the realm of government. I really don't think the founding fathers were thinking of these issues when they made the constitution and bill of rights. I really think they had far more important things in mind.

The things that are vital like our totally failing heath care system, prison system, immigration system and a whole bunch of other REAL problems are mentioned once in a while but generally are just ignored by ALL the politicians. Our present system, with only two parties is extremely good at doing absolutely nothing. The price of doing nothing is a fortune, by the way.

My solution to all this is pretty simple, as most real answers are. We need to fire everyone of those do nothing, good for nothing idiots and start over with a new batch. Also, take the whole thing back to a part time job. That way all the politicians can get a real job and pay their own bills, like all of us have to. Another great idea would be to take every new law created since around 1950 and dump them in the garbage. Obviously all those new laws haven't done us any good at all, except to complicate the hell out of life for no good reason at all.

OIL = GREED

I know there are several complicated reasons oil has overnight became liquid gold but the main reason is the same principle our entire economy is based on. In a word "Greed".

Our whole big business model is and has always been based on coming up with some product or service the public will buy or rent and then charge the most money the idiots will pay for it. Having nothing whatsoever to do with trying to be fair,honest or decent to the buying public at all. None of that matters to the business world at all. Only profit and as much as possible.

This underlining big business principle is driving America in the same direction as all the other third world countries. Before we know it, there will be a very few extremely rich people and the rest of us will be starving and freezing in the dark. I think this is the biggest mistake of all. The healthiest societies have always been the ones with the largest middle class. The middle class is the fuel that keeps everything healthy and productive. All societies with only a few rich and the majority poor always break down in civil wars and strife. You can see this happening all over the world right now. When you watch your children die of starvation, what would you do when you see the rich on the hill eating nothing but the very best as your family and friends slowly die? You would load up your guns and go try and get your share.

In my line of work, I hear all kinds of answers to our problems. The only one I see right now that makes any sense at all would be to get rid of EVERYONE in our government and start with a clean slate. We need to get rid of the professional politicians forever. Somehow we need to go back to the beginning of the American political system where common men got together ONCE IN A WHILE to make decisions and laws that were to the benefit of the common men and women. Our political system is the best in the world, bar none but somehow it just became a welfare system for professional politicians to have a lifelong job. A job by the way that pays far, far too much, with far, far too many benefits. Take it back to a part time job and take away ALL the benefits and retirement packages and let their real full time jobs handle those things for them. Just like you and I have to do.

One last thing and I'll be done with my tirade for now. I'm just a normal guy who runs a small business but this economy thing seems pretty damn simple to me. Here's the one sentence answer to all our fiscal problems.

"NEVER SPEND MORE THAN YOU BRING IN".

Whew? Real complicated huh?

What the market will bare = GREED

This is a subject that is one of my pet peeves with our society. The "What the market will bare" theory. Holy shit, what a rip off stupid idea that is. Lets put this in perspective here. If all of the sudden in my business, there is a line of people wanting my service (doesn't matter what business) going clear around the block, I can now announce to all of them the new price is now $1000.00, instead of the normal $14.00 I usually charge for my services. Everyone would yell "Why" and I would say "Because I can". Lets see now. Another word for that practice would be "GREED", plain and simple. I would at that point just be another greedy bastard, as are most if not all big businesses. Most do not charge a "fair, reasonable" price, they charge "what ever the market will bare". Another words, whatever they can get the shills to fork out and screw them and their own personal needs. Real nice humanity there folks, real nice......

As far as what the working stiff should make, take a real close look at the company owners financial situation to determine that. Does he/she drive a lexus and live in a mansion on a hill overlooking all the pions? Well then, they are not paying the workers what their worth. They are just like most other big business owners. Greedy bastards who could give a shit about the normal, common working stiff. I have no problem with a "reasonable" profit on investments but our society is set up with greed as its driving force.

Be very careful there American society. All countries without a strong "Middle Class" are doomed for failure in the end.

Religion...

I'm really not going to comment on religion in general for I am far from a judge of what others choose to believe or not believe in.

What I would like to do instead is relate a true experience I've had with the subject of spirituality and the human race in general.

Back in the early seventies, I like a lot of other people my age were searching for some kind of meaning in life other than what we were told by society in general, which seemed at the time to be rather boring and tame, to say the least. We all felt that there was more to life than just working for the man, barely making it until you got old and tired, then retiring to the rocking chair until you died. There had to be more to this miracle we call life.

My roommate at the time and I started examining various Eastern Religions, such as Zen, Buddhism and anything else we could get our hands on to read. We naturally got into meditation also, which we used to try and clear our minds of all the clutter running around in there. Anyone who has practiced Meditation soon finds out how crazy, out of control, blabber mouth and goofy our brains are every minute of every day. If you sit down in a quiet place and listen to your mind blab on and on, you will be amazed at how out of control it is. It's amazing we can get anything at all done with this maniac going on in the background. The purpose of meditation is simple really. It's to try and stop the monster, even for just a few seconds of peace.

So, we would turn off the lights and meditate for a while then quietly talk about some of the things we were studying in the books we were reading about life from the Eastern way of looking at things. Then one day others heard about our little meetings and would ask to join in. It was a great time for all but soon more and more would show up.

Well, one day it hit me that we could probably start charging admission to our sessions and for some reason it started scaring me to death. The idea that all these people were starting to see my roommate and I as some kind of spiritual teachers and would gladly give us money to "advance the word", was completely spooky to us. It became apparent to us that we could easily start a "church" and rake in the dough like all those "preachers" on TV do. Yelling, screaming, laying on of healing hands like some kind of heaven sent saviors. We then decided to close the doors on our "Church" and we told all those folks to go get a life and start thinking for themselves.

Well to this day, I remember those times with trepidation and disappointment in the human race for being so easily led by anyone with a gleam in their eye and displaying extreme confidence as if they know the hidden truths of life that the common man does not. Give them enough money and they will lead the heathens to heaven. Scary to say the least......

To this day, the only thing of value I've brought with me is the knowledge and practice of spending some time in silence and piece once in a while and how much good that does one. The rest of the blather, philosophies and nonsense made up by man, I can certainly do without.

My flying skills...........

At 0600 on the dot, the boss came by to remind me to treat these passengers with the greatest of respect, for going up with me as their pilot tonight was none other than Joe Robinson. He was doing a check ride on our newest and best Helicopter to date. The Micro Mosquito, Blade Runner Series.

On this run, Joe was asking me to "Push it to the limit", so I was truly excited about the chance to show off my piloting skills. I have to admit I was a little nervous also because he was telling me to take the "Fast and Low" approach across the kitchen desert with the tile updrafts and the heating stove so close by causing tremendous turbulence vortexes.

Lift off was a breeze from the bottom of the Dining room cavern. As I got close to the stove things got a little dicey but with my excellent piloting skills, we made it through with no more than a small nosebleed from Joes nephew. As we entered the landing pattern toward the kitchen sink counter, a sudden updraft from the hot water sitting in the sink created an unforeseen downdraft, pulling the Mosquito straight into the bubbly abyss.

As soon as we hit the water, all the lights and instruments went dead. I thought it was all over and this would be the last flight of my life, when a giant hand grabbed the Mosquito and set it back on the counter. The giant then took the machine into the bathroom and used the blow dryer to dry the electical circuits. After all the emergency maintenance, the Mosquito was not responding at all and we assumed it would need a complete overhall or a replacement with a new one should that fail.

My co-pilot (wife) told me to give it a rest and maybe it would be ok. So with a lump in my throat and a slight tear in my eye and almost no hope, I let it rest in the hanger and went to eat dinner. After dinner, I ran back out to the hanger and "It's a miracle!!!". She started right up and has been running fine ever since.

So the moral of this story is always stay away from wetlands in an indoor remote control helicopter and never assume the worst always happens. Sometimes life hands you something that you handle because of all your hard core practice and egomaniacally driven wierdness.