Thursday, October 27, 2011

Occupy Wall Street -- OWS


     Sometimes you just know you're getting screwed.   You don't necessarily understand who did it or why, but one thing you are sure of, you got the short straw.  Is that why this OWS thing has gotten so popular?  A lot of people have been getting screwed for a long time.   Are they talking back and forth, "Oh really?  You got screwed too?  D@mn, I thought it was just me.  Well, we got to do something about this BS."  


     Normally, I would not agree with the OWS way of thinking.  Normally, I would say that rich people got that way because they worked hard and they deserve the fruit of their labor.  Their wealth is "honest" wealth.  The only reason that I'm siding with the OWS folks is because too many people get rich today by taking advantage of others.  Worse, they use monetary influence in the political process as one of their tools for always making sure that they get the long straw.  I hope the OWS crowd will make the distinction between "corrupt" wealth and "honest" wealth.


     Honest wealth is what we should all be striving for.  It is a natural result of the efficient production of goods and services that others want and need.  This type of productive behavior should always be freely encouraged and supported.  Unfortunately, many of the most successful people have an unfettered lust for even more wealth and power.   They see competition as a threat to their status, and so they create laws (via lobbyists and a compliant congress) to stifle competition.  They always have a more "noble" reason for the laws, but the true purpose is to secure wealth and power for the 1%.   Of course, there is a lot of outright fraud these days as well.  If it's sophisticated enough, no one can figure out "how" it was fraud, and so you just get away with it.  There certainly is plenty of "corrupt" wealth going around these days.


     I hope the the OWS folks figure out that freedom does the best job at equalizing opportunity. It's counter-intuitive, but it works.  I fear that they want to have more rules to "make" the rich people play fair.   Unfortunately, this will never work because the 1% will always buy off a congressman to slip in some clever loophole.  We have been trying to use the law to make people play fair for ages.   Complex laws don't work.  Complex laws only serve to restrict competition, and consequently the opportunity of the 99%.


     There are some even more obvious solutions to making the world more fair:  for one, stop giving money away to people who are already in the 1% club.  Corporate welfare should be the first target of the OWS crowd.  Corporate welfare permeates American society now from local cities trying to get a Walmart or Home Depot to the FED bailing out Bank of America, to the CIA and US military subsidizing British Petroleum by controlling the rulers of oil producing countries. All of this must stop! 


     Large corporations already have huge advantages, yet small businesses still thrive.  If we cut the unfair flow of money, we will create more space for small businesses, green energy, and individual opportunity to grow like flowers after a spring rain. Mega corporations' profits will fall, and their CEO pay will follow.  There will still be ultra rich folks, but that's OK, if they've earned it.


     Lastly, sound money is key to individual prosperity. Average citizens need to be able to save a little money and have it hold its value. That's how people can save and start their own businesses.  That's how people can save to buy a house in cash, rather than pay a bank interest for all their life.  Sound money won't happen with the FED freely printing money and giving it away to the "already" rich and powerful 1%. 


     Please OWS, if you want a real change to empower the 99% to succeed, become a Blue Republican.  Hold your nose and register to vote in the GOP primary.  Ron Paul is the only candidate truly dedicated to help the 99% rise up.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

"...and I had the best answer..."

That was the last audible phrase from the Vegas GOP debate.  I'll have to give credit to Michele Bachmann and Newt Gingrich; they both tried to stand up for Dr. Paul when he wasn't given time to answer the last question of the debate.  Of course, both of them had to fight for a chance to answer as well.   The debate was definitely dominated by Cain, Romney, and Perry.


Unfortunately, the way the debate was structured, candidates who have lied or flip-flopped in the past got the most time to talk.  When one candidate tried to call another candidate out on a lie or hypocrisy, the candidate of questionable honesty got 30 seconds to refute and explain how they didn't actually mean that fallacy.  Consequently, Cain, Perry, and Romney got to talk the most.


It was disheartening to watch how refined Romney was ... given that I think he is a 'Yes-Man-Corporatist' and the last thing this country needs for a President.  The crowd was eating him up though.  He was perfect at saying what people want to hear, laughing off criticism of his past decisions, and in general coming off like the good guy who wants to follow the rules.  It was too much to bear for the other candidates; they couldn't help interrupting him as he convincingly recreated the truth.  It's so annoying that the mark of a good politician is that they actually believe their lies as the lies leave their mouth.  More annoying still, that such masterful lying passes the built in lie-detectors that most humans have.  One would have to have done research to know the difference between fact and fiction in such instances.


Now, here is another odd fact about human behavior; we hate it when someone is "right" all the time.  Maybe it's the way people who are right rub it in; but for some reason, we will often go with the best sounding person who says what we want to hear.  Unfortunately, this sets us up to be taken advantage of.  My only hope is that people have been lied to so much lately that they are willing to do a little extra effort to figure out what is in their best interest.


OK, I have to break here ... too funny ... Mark McGuire, hitting coach for St. Louis Cardinals, World Series ... he looks like a parrot the way he eats sun flower seeds.


Now, back to politics ... try to keep up!  What does the federal government do for you?  Seriously, what is the value of "federal" government activity to you personally?  Was it worth $11,500 to you last year?  That's what they have cost every man, woman, and child in 2010.  What do they really do for you?  I guess they spend a little on the roads, but most of that goes towards pulling us over to let us know that our front license plate is not correctly attached.  Besides that, the feds have cost anyone who has a job more than that in taxes.


Who is getting all the money that they are spending? Not me, that's for sure.  Is it you?  Well, if so, you should probably vote for either Obama or Romney.  Either of them will do for you.  But, if you are taking the time to account for the depreciation of your savings account due to inflation, perhaps you would want to give Ron Paul a second thought.   He's the only one offering to shake things up.  He's the only only one calling the shots like he sees them, and needless to say, he didn't have to spend much time explaining why he changed his mind.  Ron Paul is a grumpy old man, but like grandpa when there's big trouble, he's on your side.  Please, take the time to figure it out.



Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Happy Halloween

I wrote a little Halloween song, and the lyrics came out a little dark.   So, I set the story to cute pictures of kittens and that made it a little less creepy I think.


Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Really?

My friend tells me that she got arrested last week.   My first thought was that she must have gotten a DUI coming home from some wild night of partying in Austin; she is here in the USA in part to party after all.   But no, she wasn't having any fun at all before she got arrested.  She was "set up" as they say.

My friend is this adorable 24 year old girl from Mexico.  She's here in the USA, working at a restaurant here in my town.  Before you go there, no, she's not an illegal.  She actually comes from a wealthy family in Mexico, and she's here in part to help this new restaurant get started, and in part for the adventure of working abroad.  She is the sweetest person I've met in a long time, the kind of person that puts others first.  At 24, I'd have to say she is still a little naive and innocent, certainly about how malicious other people can be.  I couldn't believe the jackassery that led to her night in jail.

The day started simply enough with her and her roommate moving from a duplex to an apartment.  The duplex had been sold, so her neighbor was also moving.  Their duplex opens to a common front porch, and they were both using it to stage boxes as they were loading up.   Have you figured out what happened yet?   Yep, she ended up with not one, but two of her neighbor's boxes.  Ya know, those damn illegals, ya can't trust 'em, right.  So, the neighbor figures out she has his boxes and he takes his stoned ass up to her work and demands them back.  Of course, he takes the opportunity to accuse her of being a dirty illegal in the process.   I can totally understand how violated this stoner dude must have felt when she refused to leave her job that very moment to go home and find his boxes and get them back to him.  Heaven forbid he should have to wait 'til she got off work or the next day even.

So, you might have figured out by now that stoner dude calls the police on her.  Two of Jarrell's finest show up to sort out this mess.   I don't even feel like taking the time to explain the back story of Jarrell city politics, but if you've ever seen the Dukes of Hazard, you don't need me to.   Anyway, the police side with the white stoner dude and haul my friend off to jail.  She said she cried for 5 hours straight there.  "People are mean to me...(there)", as she said.  Her friend didn't get arrested but got so scared that she left.  Her boss did bail her out, but now she is pretty much alone, scared, and stuck in the USA until she can get a court date.

We sometimes like to get on our high horse and rant about this or that, like illegals for example.   Certainly we hear on the news all the time about how bad illegals are and how we need to build a fence ... excuse me, I believe "secure our borders" is the proper phrase now.  Well, when you're listening to a scared shitless kid tell you about her 1st night in jail, you start to see how those attitudes affect real people.  That's just wrong.  I hate to think what would have happened to her if she were poor and/or illegal.  People are people, and were all in this life together.  Come on now, let's stop hatin' on each other.   Can't we all just get along?