Merry Christmas!

Wow, what an amazing week.  Those lame ducks weren't so lame after all.  The repeal of DADT, and ratifying the SALT treaty, just to name two.  I was really beginning to wonder about President Obama, but maybe he just might know what he's doing after all.  Of course I'm still ticked about the tax cuts for the rich, but we are getting some good things out of that.  I am just really worried about what will happen when we find out just how much of our debt the Middle East countries and China really own.  I can't help but think we are still screwed.

On a lighter note, I pray that you all have a blessed holiday season and a Merry Christmas if you celebrate.  Which most people I know do, even if they aren't Christian.  After all is was a Paegan holiday first. ;-)
I just really hope this coming New Year will bring us all lots of love and happiness.  And more tolerance for those different than ourselves, because, really, we are all the same when you get down to the basic humanitiy of it all.

So little time....

I wanted to post on here today about how sick I am of the Republicans and their greed, but I had to reply to anonymous again & now lunch is over.  Hopefully this weekend I can tell you how much I really want to kick my TV in right now.

People or Profit

Seems like that would be an easy choice.  Well, it probably is easy for everyone I guess, it's just that a lot of business people choose profit over people. 
I just finished watching the last half of the movie "Battle in Seattle", a fictional account of the WTO riots in December 1999.  Wow!  Was I out of the loop back then.  If I knew then what I know now, I may have been down there protesting.  Or, would I?  Would I really leave my warm comfy house to yell & scream at people who don't even hear us?  I don't really know.  I am so angry right now about what corporate America is doing to us.  And now the retail stores are so into it too that they are making their employees work on Thanksgiving just to get more of that almighty dollar.  As we poor suckers fall for it every time.  What's the point?  The sales aren't going to stop on Saturday.  And how about the week before Christmas?  You think all the prices are going to go up when none of us are buying anyway?  Do you really have the money to buy that ginormous TV or that fancy camera?  Do you really need it?  What about donating that money then, to an organization who can help someone who can't even afford food for their family, much less a TV? 
Why don't you all take a good look around at all your material possessions.  Do you really need more?  Do you really need new?  Do we really need something made by some poor soul in another country that can't even afford the stuff they are making? 
OK, so, fair disclosure, I do work for a furniture manufacturer that builds the furniture in China & other countries.  But, when I began working there, we used to buy from some American companies.  The almighty consumer has put most of those companies out of business.  We all want higher salaries, & our bosses want higher profits, but we don't want to have to pay for anything.  You can't expect to have a high paying manufacturing job & have the company sell the product at a loss or small profit. 
So, why do we have to always want more?  Why can't what we have be good enough.  Soon we middle class won't have anything.  We will all be living hand to mouth while the big banks & corporations get richer & richer.  We are no longer evolving, we are repeating a very bad time in our history.  Great Recession?  You ain't seen nothing yet...

Who's Buying your Vote?

Are you getting sick of the adds yet?  Don't you just want to throw your TV out the window?  I watch most of my TV on DVR and even I'm sick of the adds.  Lies about him, Lies about her, lies about this initiative and that referendum.  You don't know who or what to believe.  Regardless of how you vote however, or how confused you are, you still have many days to do the research and get out there and vote.  The research isn't easy, but you have to do your best to find the truth.
We can't let the big corporate money win this election.  One of the ways you can research is to look into who's backing whom or what.  If big money and corporations are backing something, you can pretty much be sure that you need to vote against it. 
I am disgusted with the amount of money that is being put into this election season all around the country.  In California, Meg Whitman & Carly Fiorina are putting their personal fortunes into their campains.  Karl Rove is backing many a Teabagger.  It's revolting the amount of money being poured down the drain.  This has got to stop!  9.6% unemployment.  Huge amounts of people on food stamps.  Many, many families struggling with day to day expenses and these rich fat cats are pouring all this money into winning power over all of us to take us down even more.  And on top of it, it looks like it's not just American rich fat cats. 
We can't let them win!  We have to stand up for ourselves and fight back.  There's got to be a way to fight back.  There's got to be some regulations put on these elections.  The Supreme Court has totally and completly screwed the middle class. 
People worry about us all speaking Spanish some day...  I'd worry more that we all may be speaking Chinese in the next 30 or 40 years.

Why Can't we all be a little more like Oprah?

Ok, I have been watching Oprah off & on over the past 25 years, just like most everyone else.  This season I decided to DVR the show every day to see all the special shows she's going out with.  I have always enjoyed her celebrity shows and admired her for her generosity towards her audience and others. 
This week is blowing me away.  Or maybe it's last week, I don't know, I'm a few shows behind.  Last night I was watching the show where she made people's ultimate dreams come true.  I was crying through most of it, with happiness for all the people she gave to.  There were brides who got a Vera Wang dress & wardrobe for the honeymoon, and $3k gift certificate for any Marriott, and domestic airline tickets from United.  There was a single mom who gets a whole years salary and $78k in loans that she had for her kids' college paid off.  It was really amazing.  Tonight I watched her talk about "Waiting for Superman" a documentary coming out about our country's education system.  She gave one million dollars each to the top six charter schools from the Angel Network.  The Angel Network had collected over 80 million dollars over the years from Oprah viewers.  Did you know how bad our education system has gotten in this country?  You should watch the documentary.  I'm going to.  And, yes, I know there are a lot of great schools & teachers out there.  Puyallup schools have been wonderful for my daughter and my best friend is a teacher.  But over all, if we don't do something soon...
Anyway, I just think it is so amazing what Oprah and Bill Gates and others are doing with their money.  Now, I could be cynical and say they are doing it for tax deductions, but I'm sure most of it is out of the goodness of their hearts.  Then we have the Boehner's & McConnell's et al that whine and cry that they can't be taxed anymore.  They can't put money into the Social Security System, I bet if they go to church they don't even put close to 10% in the offering plate.  Not that I'm judging. 
I've gotten into discussions about health care and people say they aren't paying for any one else's health care, why can't everyone get their own heath care?  Or the people with out kids or who's kids have grown, "I don't want to pay taxes for schools".  Well, what are we supposed to do when everyone dies from lack of care, or there are no more educated people to take over when we all get old & die?  Or what are we going to do when the Earth is destroyed because we have used up all the resources, or someone has finally pushed "the button" and we are all nuked? 
The selfishness and hypocrisy I am seeing daily is really making me sick.  I can't understand how people can be so uncaring and thoughtless towards other people.  Yes, there are people out there who take advantage of the system and who have brought their troubles on themselves, but where is the compassion?  These people out there that call themselves Christian don't have the first clue as to "what Jesus would do" in these situations. 
A good education should be a right not a privilege.  Good quality, affordable, health care should be a right, not something to lose your house for.  You shouldn't have to worry if the fish you are eating is full of crude oil.  You should be able to rebuild the house you own outright if a hurricane or earthquake flatten it.
I have relatives in Norway that pay high taxes, but they don't have to worry about getting sick or injured and they can go to college without taking out a loan that with take you till your retirement to pay off.  Maybe I'll go live with them if the Teabaggers get a hold of the government...  I'm not saying our government is perfect now, but I sure as hell don't want to see it when they get a hold of it.  If you don't do anything else this year, make sure you vote.  I don't care how you vote, just get out there & vote!

Life, Liberty, and Hypocrisy

Do you ever wonder if some people listen to themselves?  It seems that so many on the so called "right" do not listen to themselves. 
People say you can't have an abortion, or you can't marry someone of the same sex, or you can't terminate your life on your own terms.  But in the very next breath, they say the government has to stay out of their bedroom, the government needs to stop taxing them, the government can't tell them what to do.  Does that make any sense?  It's ok for the government to tell you you can't have an abortion or you can't marry the person you love, but the government can't tell them they can't own certain guns or make restrictions on them in any way or ask them to pay taxes to pay for the services they use. 
Why do people believe they can impose their beliefs on everyone else?  Take abortion, for example.  Pro-Lifers believe abortion is wrong and most of them believe that under no circumstances should a woman have one.  So, do they have other options for these women & children?  Do they have a place for these unwanted children to go where they are wanted &  loved?  Oh hell no, that's not their responsibility to care for some one else's children.  And if that baby's life is so precious, what about the death penalty, or war?  Why is that ok?
And what about same sex couples?  Is it really any one's business who you love?  And why can't these couples adopt children?  Now there's a place for the unwanted children... 
Now, personally, I am thankful I never had to make the decision to have an abortion, but I've known women who have and they did not make that decision lightly.  And I supported them through that decision because I loved them and I wanted to make a horrible situation as bearable as possible.  And I was thankful they had a safe place to have the procedure.
I have been struggling with the "gay thing" for more than 10 years now.  I am related to someone planning a marriage with someone of the same sex.  I don't think about the intimate details.  You don't with heterosexuals so why should you with gay couples?  I have come to the realization that we are meant to love and be loved.  And some of us don't ever find that love.  How can we deny someone that joy just because it's with someone of the same sex? 
Christians use the Bible in ways of their choosing and presume to know what Jesus would do.  As a Christian, I have learned that you cannot take the Bible literally, otherwise we would be following all the laws of Leviticus to this day.  The Bible, I believe, is a living word of God and it's true meaning comes to you through the Holy Spirit.  And God is the final judge.  It's not for me to tell you how to live your life. 
This country was founded by men who believed in freedom from tyranny.  And I believe that if these Tea Baggers and Republicans really looked at what they were complaining about, they would find that they are just 5 or 6 years late in their whining.  They are saying things about Obama that the Dixie Chicks got ostracized for in the Bush years.  Why is it ok now??  I think we all know why.
Makes me sick every day to listen to the crap.  I wish there was another way to voice this.  To expose the lies and hypocrisy of Faux News, and Rush Limbaugh and the others.  I listen to people who try every day, but I know these other morons have bigger audiences and people actually believe every word.  So sad, so disgusting.

Christian Nation??

One of my more conservative friends posted an article from Faux News "Are we still one Nation, under God?"  By Todd Starnes.  This is what my answer to him is:
The Pilgrims who came first to this country came looking for a place to worship God as they chose not as some government told them to worship. The author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, was a Diest. He believed in God but with reason and a belief that man has control of his life. He believed God created the universe, but didn't keep his hand in the running of it. I am a Christian and believe with all my heart that Jesus Christ died to save me from hell, but I also believe with all my heart that this country was founded to be a free country. Free of people telling others how to live their lives or worship their God. Their God, whom by the way is all our God. Generally, people who believe in God believe in the same God, just in different ways and not necessarily through Jesus Christ. I love my country, America, I proudly fly a flag outside my house, I believe God has given me many blessings. I also believe that God has created all of us and we are all His children regardless if we believe in Him or not. He proved His never ending love for us by sacrificing His Son. I also shoud mention that I believe God is male and female or niether is that helps you wrap your head around it better. I use the male terminology just because that is what we are all most familiar with.


Christian nation. If we were truly a Christian nation thinking in the way of Christ, we would not be having this discussion.
 
Feel free to add your thoughts.

Oil Disaster

I cannot believe the mess BP has made in the Gulf!  And how incompetent can you possibly be when you have a project you are doing and no safety backups for failures?  Who's fault is this?  The first hearing they had, had all three CEO's from the companies involved acting like a bunch of 9 year olds standing around their mother's favorite vase broken on the floor.  Pointing fingers and shifting blame.  Now the Right is trying to put this all on President Obama, like this is somehow his fault!  Right, because he was the one in the Reagan administration that suggested we stop regulating private corporations and he was the one in the Bush/Cheney administration who was in bed with Haliburton and the oil companies.  Give - me - a - break!  Oh! And he's not doing enough to fix the problem.  Firstly, it's not his problem to fix, it's BP's. And second he has been in there trying to get BP to fix it. 
Does anyone even care that 11 people were killed in this mess?  Does anyone care what this is doing to the Gulf and how that will affect the rest of the country?  Rachel Maddow had a great piece on that last night June 2nd.   Talking about how the Gulf and Mississippi river delta are the toilet, sushi bar and gas station for the country.  Not a very appealing combination.  She also pointed out how the wetlands and marshes between the gulf and New Orleans are a buffer for the hurricane storm surges, and how development, and oil drilling and climate change are eating away at the buffer.  Pretty soon New Orleans will be IN the Gulf. 
I can't understand how Sarah Palin and her buddies can say we need to keep on drilling.  Doesn't this prove more than ever that we need some clean energy solutions?  Where are the Thomas Edison's, Henry Ford's and Alexander Graham Bell's??  Probably all on Riddelin (sp?) Where are the inventors, the visionaries?  We should be doing all kinds of stuff with electric cars and solar energy.  We, the USA, should be leading all this.  Think of all those empty factories out there and all the unemployed that could be put to work.  It's so frustrating to hear all this talk about oil when we should be moving away from it and finding better ways to light up our world.

$$$Health Care$$$

Well, here it is.  Open enrollment time for health insurance at my job.  Fortunately this year we didn't have to change insurance companies again due to premiums being raised so high.  However, they really seemed to be pushing the HSA (Heath Savings Account) plan this year.  Last year I had looked it over & went for the regular plan even though it cost more.  This year I decided to revisit it since they were pushing for the HSA so hard.  Wow!  What an eye opener.  I cannot believe how much my family's health insurance costs per year compared to what we get out of it.  No wonder these health insurance companies are making such profits.  I would have to say now that the only time in my life I've ever gotten my money's worth was the year I had the plumbing removed.  That year was a costly year for me medically, but the insurance picked up most of the cost.  Of course there were three of us in the office that year with similar surgeries so we had to change companies the next enrollment time because they were going to jack up our rates something like 60%.  I don't think I faired as well the year I had breast cancer.  We had higher out of pocket maximums and ended up paying quite a bit.  Thankfully, I had resources to borrow from to pay these bills, but I can see how one could easily go bankrupt.
Anyway, the HSA plan would save my employer some money, but it sure wouldn't help me any.  It's a great program for a single healthy person, or perhaps even a healthy family.  But for what the deductables are and how it covers prescriptions, it would cost me way too much in the long run.  Sure my employer is very generously putting over half the deductable into the HSA but only by splitting it up monthly over the year.  That doesn't help me pay for my high price prescription now.  I understand why they do it this way and I am in no way criticizing my employer.  My frustration lays with the fact that we have to go through this at all.
Why can't we have single payer universal heath insurance like the rest of the world?  Why do we have to bow down to these greedy insurance companies? 
It's already been proven that the reason it's cheaper to have work done in other countries is because the companies don't have the big health insurance costs.  It could still be administered by the health insurance companies, they just wouldn't be able to buy big yachts and private jets. 
The Republicans and Corporate interests say we don't need regulation...  Hmmm, let's compare heavily regulated China's mining accident to the mining accident we had here in West Virginia.  Which one had a better out come?  China!  That's not to say we have to go clear over to Communism, but something has got to be done about the way corporations are running this country. 
Too bad the non health care corporations don't realize how much they would save not having to pay for insurance.  Of course the bigger corporations probably don't pay as much as my employer per employee because they are part of a bigger pool.  Oh yeah, wasn't that what Obama was working toward?  A pool for smaller companies?  If these Tea Partiers would just listen to him instead of hating for the sake of hating, they just might agree too.
Why can't we all just get along???

The Mining Disaster

I was coming back from lunch today and I hear on the Ed Shultz Show on the radio that the CEO of Massey made $19.7 million in 2008.  I was so disgusted I had to wait about 30 min. before I could eat the sandwich I had just bought.  I have family in West Virginia.  I have family that have died from Black Lung.  The only reason I don't live in West Virginia is because my dad left there as a teen to get away from the coal mines.  I feel for these people as if they are all my family.  Of course, as a child of God, they are all my family.  It just makes me sick to hear the stories about all the safety violations and the greed this company has. 
And people would rather put their lives in the hands of the private sector instead of the government?  This is what happens when you let corporations do what they want. 
A friend said to me today that mining is a dangerous thing.  Well, yes it is.  My grandfather lost his sight in a mining accident.  It doesn't have to kill 25 people in one big explosion though.  I heard yesterday that 3 people a day die from black lung.  I saw a documentary where the miners don't wear the masks they are given.  I forget why, but I remember thinking it was a fixable problem. 
Sure it would be easy to say "Let's quit mining coal."  Of course we can't just quit, too much of our country is run by coal.  But, why can't we start finding other cleaner, safer forms of energy?  What happened to the good ol' American inovation?  All the progress and advances made in the early 20th century?  Why can't we do the same now?  Why do we have to keep things the same?  I'll tell you why.  It's because of greed.  All these people living high on the hog on the backs of the rest of us.  These CEO's and others high up in corporations making millions & millions of dollars at the expense of everyone else.  OK, don't get me wrong.  I'm all for going out for the almighty dollar and making a profit, but holy cow!  How many millions do you need?  At least Bill & Melinda Gates and some others are helping people with their millions.  How much of that is to save on paying taxes, I shudder to think.  And yes, I believe in tax deductions, but when I'm paying 25% and some of these rich people aren't paying anything...  that's just wrong.  We should all be paying our fair share.  The country wouldn't have such a deficit if everyone paid their taxes.  And if the government wouldn't be so wasteful with what they do have.
I have gone on quite a rampage here.  I am so fed up with greed & hypocracy and the stupid people that think this is all ok.  Selfish greedy hypocrites.  They all make me sick.

If only Rush Limbaugh would just go away...

Please Rush, just go home.  Now you have twisted the good news about jobs into Marxism??  Picking apart the words President Obama used?  What is with you people?  We are not even close to being a Socialist country!  Go look it up.  The bold face lies and propaganda the Right is putting out is getting more ridiiculous every day. 
First it's "Drill Baby Drill", then when Mr. Obama wants to approve some off shore drilling ( which I think sucks by the way) now Boehner says it's not enough.  We should ruin all our coastlines.
The economy starts to make a comeback but the GOP is still complaining about the job losses.  Never mind that the losses were miniscule compared to the losses under the previous administration.  Now we have job growth and it's Marxist?  WTF?
And now the "Family Values" party has been caught spending money at an adult sex club.  Finally, some of the "Christian" conservatives are backing away.  What about backing away when Sanford, Ensign, and the others were cheating on their wives?  Or maybe that's ok since they were doing it in a "church".  By that I mean the C Street House. 
I could just go on and on, but I won't.  What I will say is that some day people will wake up and think for them selves and do a little research and see what lies they have been fed.  And it will be all over for these lunatics.  I say, let's vote them all out & vote for more Alan Grayson's & Anthony Weiner's & Bernie Sanders.  Boy, if only we had a Congress full of people with that kind of character.  Now that would be a wonderful world.
I happened to catch the tail end of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington the other night.  I really think that should be required watching right now in the schools and maybe have every station show it at least once a week.  Of course Fox wouldn't show it, it might give their viewers something to think about.  On the other hand a lot of their viewers would probably root for the sleazy guys.  I just hope we will be able to have a happy ending like they did.  I shudder to think what will happen if the bad guys win this one.

Maybe a light at the end of the tunnel?

Well, now that the USA & Russia are coming to some terms on the nuclear crap, and Congress has passed Health Care, maybe we can start looking at more peaceful ways to live with each other. 
I cannot believe the violence that has occurred since health care passed.  You'd think we were all just forced to give up our lives or something.  What is wrong with people?  I am really frightened by the amount of sheep out there that just believe everything Faux News and the GOP leadership tell them without doing any research what so ever.  Or the ones that do research, but only look at one side and don't see the whole picture.
Yes, this health care reform bill has flaws.  Heck, I wanted universal single payor insurance.  I want the heath insurance industry to go non-profit.  But we can't have everything we want in this world.  And you don't see me throwing bricks through their offices windows or waving ridiculously contritictory signs around.
These people don't even know what Socialism or Facism is, or that they are the opposite of each other when you get right down to it.  Do we really want to be run by corporations?  Ask your grandparents what it was like to work in a Company town.  Three or four huge corporations does not make Capitalism.  There is no competition there.  They just put their heads together & raise all the prices so they can all make huge profits.  Hmmm, sound familiar...  Oil companies anyone??
So, I'm beginning to ramble.  I hope I did ok for my first blog.  I intend to get better at it.  I just really needed a place to share my thoughts on all that's going on in the world.  And, I welcome ANY comments you would want to make.