Two of my Weight Loss Secrets

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Depending on what my "frame size" is - that is, whether I'm big-boned, small-boned, or in the middle - the supposed ideal weight for a man of my height is 155, 165, or 175 pounds. When I was at my peak weight of 260 pounds - not really all that fat compared to a lot of people, especially most truckers - I said to myself that I needed to lose 100 pounds, mostly because it was a nice round number which was close enough to the truth. I dropped 56 pounds the first year without any serious effort, but then the weight held steady, and what's worse, I decided to stop driving, mostly because I was tired of getting ripped off by my company, but also because I wanted to put the finishing touches on my novel and then get it sold. I'd need a lot of time to study up on how to do all that, and driving (especially without getting paid for it) was wasting that time.

So consequently, I started regaining some of the weight I'd lost. I knew what the problem was: I was starting to over eat and my activity level had gone down. Finally, I managed to get it under control by making some minor changes to my diet and my behavior and the weight started falling off again. Then we took a trip out west and I stopped the diet, thinking we'd be extra active to make up for it.

Tip: Don't take trips with people who can't walk more than 2 miles in a day and who want to start the day at 9:00 and give up on the day at 4:00. You won't see much and you won't lose much weight from activity. I expected the guy twice my age and weight to cause a problem, but not the guy half my age and weight.

But anyway, I regained about 15 pounds in just those 3 weeks, so I had to drop them again.


The morning of Christmas Eve was a Saturday, and was the day I allow myself to eat anything. And I do. I really need to employ a little more self-restraint, especially since I'm so good at it the rest of the week, but so far I haven't been able to do it very much. But anyway, Saturday mornings, before I pig out, are the time of the week I weigh the least. I've had all week to eat right and get in my exercise and such, and hopefully take care of my bathroom business before the weigh-in and before the eating contest.

My weight was down to 190, which means I was down a total of 70 pounds from my peak at 260. Sure, I'd lost about half of those pounds several times, but at least it was easy to do once I got back into my routine. A few weeks ago I bought some new pants at size 34, a size I haven't worn since high school - about 20 years. Everyone who hasn't seen me in a while says I'm skinny and don't need to lose more weight. I look at myself in the mirror and I look a lot better, but I still need to knock several more pounds off. I still haven't fully committed to a real body-building workout yet, but at least my walking levels have held steady or increased.At least I know that if I can find a way to make a habit of working out the way I've made a habit of eating right and walking, then I'll be able to do it just as easily.

Ok, so you're caught up on that particular soap opera of my life, and it's high time I tell you about those secrets I promised.

On Saturday, I typically eat a lot of chocolate and cookies and other stuff. I can put on anywhere from 5 to 10 pounds over the course of the day, but it's almost all water because I'm drinking a lot of extra water to keep myself hydrated. During the week I drink about half a gallon a day, maybe a little more, but on Saturday I typically drink about a full gallon. A gallon of water is 8 pounds. During the week, I - pardon any crudity - pee a lot. I seem to get rid of as much water as I bring in. But on Saturday, although I'm drinking more water, I'm in the bathroom less, and when I am in there, my pee isn't as mildly yellow as it is during the week. Mild yellow means it's mostly water, which means I'm drinking the right amount of water. Faint yellow or nearly clear means too much water, and deeper yellow means not enough water. If it's REALLY yellow, you REALLY need to drink some water!

I also noticed, while I was scarfing down some of those Reese's Christmas trees that I was not just drinking a lot of extra water as I lost nearly all self-control, but I was actually feeling VERY thirsty as I did so. It was then I realized, this was NOT the first time that had happened. I'm almost always thirsty on Saturday, particularly after eating a lot of sugar.

Well, the ingredients list has a lot of sugar, of course, but there's also a lot of sodium, which is essentially salt. Salt in your body retains water, which means the rest of your body isn't getting enough water, even if you drink a lot of it. It also means you're gaining weight. Every glass of water is a pound, and if you're not peeing it out, you're getting heavy and bloated. For a guy my size, it's not noticeable, but if you're a hot chick, or even a mostly in shape gal, you don't want to be holding on to all that water because it will make your slinky dresses a lot tighter and your face pudgier. And if you're in the military or you work at Hooters and have to do regular weigh-ins, all that water you're retaining will count against you.

The simple solution is to LAY OFF THE SODIUM! And the sugar, too, as I'm convinced it's a large part of the problem.

I've also noticed that on Sunday I don't lose the weight; it's not until my long walk Monday that I start to lose it, and that's because I'm sweating it out. Salt apparently doesn't leave your body through your bladder, it leaves through your sweat glands, so if you never work up a good sweat, you'll be holding on to that water for a few days.

So Secret #1 is: sugar and salt make you gain weight by making you retain water. And if you think you can be clever and drink something else, like pop or Gatorade, it's WATER your body needs, and those things don't contain enough of it, so you have to drink MORE, which means you're also adding a LOT of CALORIES. Water has no calories. Water helps you burn calories, if you have enough of it in you. Therefore avoid sugar and salt.

And Secret #2 is: once you eat salt, you can't get rid of it except by sweating it out, and this takes a bit of time and a lot of people don't enjoy the process of sweating unless the opposite sex is involved. But sweating IS a good way to get rid of the other salt your other food contains and which you can't avoid. Walking for a couple hours twice a week should do it, and I don't mean casually strolling. Sweat! Obviously you'll sweat more in warm weather than cold, but you don't want to sweat too much in the cold and then get sick, so practice and find what's best for you.

I guess I'm lucky in that my weekly diet is very low salt and low calorie. Even though I'm walking only 15-20 miles a week every other day, I'm still losing a pound or two every week... well, 6-12 pounds a week, but measured on Saturday mornings it's a pound or two. If you're not doing that, you'll have to be a lot more careful about the junk you're eating. Don't be especially surprised if dropping the pounds from that cake is hard; you're probably not drinking enough water and active enough to sweat it out, and you're probably eating a lot of other crap that's clogging things up too.

But hey, that's what you wanted to do. I've given you solid advice in the past, including the book which helped me finally get myself mostly under control, and I've also shown you that it works, so don't blame me. It's not too late. You can still do what I'm doing. Heck, you'll probably be better at it than me!

But you have to try it first.

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Merry Christmas!

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Depending on what my "frame size" is - that is, whether I'm big-boned, small-boned, or in the middle - the supposed ideal weight for a man of my height is 155, 165, or 175 pounds. When I was at my peak weight of 260 pounds - not really all that fat compared to a lot of people, especially most truckers - I said to myself that I needed to lose 100 pounds, mostly because it was a nice round number which was close enough to the truth. I dropped 56 pounds the first year without any serious effort, but then the weight held steady, and what's worse, I decided to stop driving, mostly because I was tired of getting ripped off by my company, but also because I wanted to put the finishing touches on my novel and then get it sold. I'd need a lot of time to study up on how to do all that, and driving (especially without getting paid for it) was wasting that time.

So consequently, I started regaining some of the weight I'd lost. I knew what the problem was: I was starting to over eat and my activity level had gone down. Finally, I managed to get it under control by making some minor changes to my diet and my behavior and the weight started falling off again. Then we took a trip out west and I stopped the diet, thinking we'd be extra active to make up for it.

Tip: Don't take trips with people who can't walk more than 2 miles in a day and who want to start the day at 9:00 and give up on the day at 4:00. You won't see much and you won't lose much weight from activity. I expected the guy twice my age and weight to cause a problem, but not the guy half my age and weight.

But anyway, I regained about 15 pounds in just those 3 weeks, so I had to drop them again.


The morning of Christmas Eve was a Saturday, and was the day I allow myself to eat anything. And I do. I really need to employ a little more self-restraint, especially since I'm so good at it the rest of the week, but so far I haven't been able to do it very much. But anyway, Saturday mornings, before I pig out, are the time of the week I weigh the least. I've had all week to eat right and get in my exercise and such, and hopefully take care of my bathroom business before the weigh-in and before the eating contest.

My weight was down to 190, which means I was down a total of 70 pounds from my peak at 260. Sure, I'd lost about half of those pounds several times, but at least it was easy to do once I got back into my routine. A few weeks ago I bought some new pants at size 34, a size I haven't worn since high school - about 20 years. Everyone who hasn't seen me in a while says I'm skinny and don't need to lose more weight. I look at myself in the mirror and I look a lot better, but I still need to knock several more pounds off. I still haven't fully committed to a real body-building workout yet, but at least my walking levels have held steady or increased.At least I know that if I can find a way to make a habit of working out the way I've made a habit of eating right and walking, then I'll be able to do it just as easily.

Ok, so you're caught up on that particular soap opera of my life, and it's high time I tell you about those secrets I promised.

On Saturday, I typically eat a lot of chocolate and cookies and other stuff. I can put on anywhere from 5 to 10 pounds over the course of the day, but it's almost all water because I'm drinking a lot of extra water to keep myself hydrated. During the week I drink about half a gallon a day, maybe a little more, but on Saturday I typically drink about a full gallon. A gallon of water is 8 pounds. During the week, I - pardon any crudity - pee a lot. I seem to get rid of as much water as I bring in. But on Saturday, although I'm drinking more water, I'm in the bathroom less, and when I am in there, my pee isn't as mildly yellow as it is during the week. Mild yellow means it's mostly water, which means I'm drinking the right amount of water. Faint yellow or nearly clear means too much water, and deeper yellow means not enough water. If it's REALLY yellow, you REALLY need to drink some water!

I also noticed, while I was scarfing down some of those Reese's Christmas trees that I was not just drinking a lot of extra water as I lost nearly all self-control, but I was actually feeling VERY thirsty as I did so. It was then I realized, this was NOT the first time that had happened. I'm almost always thirsty on Saturday, particularly after eating a lot of sugar.

Well, the ingredients list has a lot of sugar, of course, but there's also a lot of sodium, which is essentially salt. Salt in your body retains water, which means the rest of your body isn't getting enough water, even if you drink a lot of it. It also means you're gaining weight. Every glass of water is a pound, and if you're not peeing it out, you're getting heavy and bloated. For a guy my size, it's not noticeable, but if you're a hot chick, or even a mostly in shape gal, you don't want to be holding on to all that water because it will make your slinky dresses a lot tighter and your face pudgier. And if you're in the military or you work at Hooters and have to do regular weigh-ins, all that water you're retaining will count against you.

The simple solution is to LAY OFF THE SODIUM! And the sugar, too, as I'm convinced it's a large part of the problem.

I've also noticed that on Sunday I don't lose the weight; it's not until my long walk Monday that I start to lose it, and that's because I'm sweating it out. Salt apparently doesn't leave your body through your bladder, it leaves through your sweat glands, so if you never work up a good sweat, you'll be holding on to that water for a few days.

So Secret #1 is: sugar and salt make you gain weight by making you retain water. And if you think you can be clever and drink something else, like pop or Gatorade, it's WATER your body needs, and those things don't contain enough of it, so you have to drink MORE, which means you're also adding a LOT of CALORIES. Water has no calories. Water helps you burn calories, if you have enough of it in you. Therefore avoid sugar and salt.

And Secret #2 is: once you eat salt, you can't get rid of it except by sweating it out, and this takes a bit of time and a lot of people don't enjoy the process of sweating unless the opposite sex is involved. But sweating IS a good way to get rid of the other salt your other food contains and which you can't avoid. Walking for a couple hours twice a week should do it, and I don't mean casually strolling. Sweat! Obviously you'll sweat more in warm weather than cold, but you don't want to sweat too much in the cold and then get sick, so practice and find what's best for you.

I guess I'm lucky in that my weekly diet is very low salt and low calorie. Even though I'm walking only 15-20 miles a week every other day, I'm still losing a pound or two every week... well, 6-12 pounds a week, but measured on Saturday mornings it's a pound or two. If you're not doing that, you'll have to be a lot more careful about the junk you're eating. Don't be especially surprised if dropping the pounds from that cake is hard; you're probably not drinking enough water and active enough to sweat it out, and you're probably eating a lot of other crap that's clogging things up too.

But hey, that's what you wanted to do. I've given you solid advice in the past, including the book which helped me finally get myself mostly under control, and I've also shown you that it works, so don't blame me. It's not too late. You can still do what I'm doing. Heck, you'll probably be better at it than me!

But you have to try it first.

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We're Better than Bacon

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You guys remember the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon thing that was going around a few years ago? As the theory goes, we're all separated from each other by no more than six people. That's kind of like saying that one of my friends and one of your friends has a third friend in common who can complete the link between us and introduce us to each other, no matter who you and I are.

This was based on some research done nearly a century ago by asking people to hand-deliver parcels.

The BBC recently publicized a report that Facebook had analyzed their users' friendships and found that there were LESS than six degrees separating us all. There are a little less than FOUR. That's a lot like saying you and I probably have a friend in common, or at least we each have a friend who knows one of the other's friends.

How did they figure this all out?

If you read the article I linked above, they'll tell you what they did, but I think they made a serious error.

They factored out the celebrity pages, which was smart, but did they factor out all the "FB-friends" people have?

There are a LOT of people who have a LOT of "friends" they don't actually know because nearly all FB games encourage their players to get additional friends to play. Most FB-gamers don't have many ACTUAL friends, and the ones they do have don't want to play the same games, or are tired of being assaulted by game requests. (I know I am.) So they go looking for strangers who are already playing the game and "friend" them. Both people will now be rewarded within the game they play.

On top of that, some people with a lot of ACTUAL friends don't want all those game-related posts and stuff cluttering up their profiles and pissing off their actual friends, so they create a second, game-only account with which they friend anyone and everyone. Many of these accounts bump into the 5000 friend limit.

5000 friends? There may be a handful of people who actually know that many people personally, but most of us can only handle about 50-300 actual friends. There's a hard-wired limit in most humans of about 150 friendships. You may know more people than that, but you're physically unable to maintain a meaningful relationship with them. Think about the people in your life; with how many do you maintain regular, meaningful contact? And how many are merely "acquaintances", or some lower level of familiarity? (Hint: if you don't know where they live and you don't have a standing invitation to come to their house any time you want, and you don't see them more often than once a week, they're not a friend, they're at best an acquaintance.)

If you're at the normal human max of 150 friends, probably no more than 1/4 to 1/3 of them use Facebook, meaning you've got 35-50 legitimate friends on Facebook. You've probably got double or triple that in acquaintances from work or your childhood you hardly spend any time with. These numbers jibe well with my experience, so we'll assume they're somewhat reasonable.

The BBC article states that in the test, the average number of friends each user had was 100. Above, though, we used the human max of 150. The average would be about half that, or 75, which means our other numbers are also cut in half. That means by OUR figuring, a person has 20-25 actual friends and 25-50 acquaintances, for a total average of about 60 people. This is about half what FB says is the average, so either there is rampant FB-friending for games going on (definitely true) or our numbers are off (easily possible), or, most likely, some combination of the two.

But let's say our numbers ARE right. What happens when OUR numbers are LESS THAN Facebook's numbers? The number of degrees goes UP. Fewer people means fewer links, means it takes more steps for one person to reach another.

The article also kindly stated some numbers from three years ago when there were fewer Facebook users. There were still plenty of Facebook games, which means there were still plenty of fake friends and fake accounts for playing those games, but not as many. I've only been on Facebook for a short time, but to my knowledge, the FB gaming boom happened just before I got there.

What that means is their old number is likely to be MUCH closer to the truth than their new number. That is, 4.28 is much more likely to be the actual number than 3.74 is, and I'd feel comfortable wagering that the actual number is higher still. Maybe 4.5. Maybe even as high as 5. That wouldn't surprise me.

What do you think? Share your opinion now.

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Dead in a Year

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What would you do if you knew you had only one year left to live? Would you muster up the guts to tell the girl (or guy) of your dreams how you felt? Would you tell your boss to shove it? Would you tell your false friends to find someone else to leech off of? Would you travel the world, do things you always wanted to do, but couldn't because you were afraid to or couldn't afford to?

Well now's your chance to find out what you'd do because in one year it will be December 21st, 2012, the day the world ends. Watch out, because there will probably be a lot of other people with less moral restraint than you or I doing all kinds of crazy things. Just in case one of them keeps you from seeing the end of the world, allow me to share with you how it might end.


As far as I know, I was the first to start talking about the "zombie apocalypse" which will strike when the Mayan calendar ends in one year, but the term has become pretty popular lately. You probably thought it was a joke, or that there's no such thing as zombies, but it was NOT a joke and there ARE zombies, and these zombies ARE going to destroy the world in a year's time.

At least, they're going to try.

How could this possibly happen? Well first we need to know a tiny bit of history and the factors which created the current zombie breeding environment.

1. In recent years, the people of America have become incredibly complacent. The end of the Cold War gave us a feeling of invulnerability; we were the sole remaining superpower and the greatest force in Human history, so who would dare piss us off? Add to that the wild success of the first Iraq war, and we started to believe we were infallible. You can see the effects of this in the second Iraq war when the whole world labeled us a rogue nation and we still went into Iraq. We just didn't care what the world said, because we KNEW Iraq was giving WMDs to terrorists.

2. TV programming has gotten steadily dumber. More and more, we celebrate those who are stupid and superficial and of horrid moral character and those who have NO character. Since when does a Kardashian matter? Never. Since when do a bunch of fakes on Jersey Shore matter? Never. Whose life is so lame that Brad Pitt's wishy-washiness matters? No one's. But these are the things being put on our TVs, and even our so-called learning channels are infested with dreck "reality" shows.

3. Mainstream news sources have denounced all journalistic ethics. The result is that when they're not fabricating the news, they're "reporting" on things which don't matter and ignoring things which do matter. A lot of hot air is blown about the "liberal media" and the "conservative media", but that's not what's really going on. The only time a rich person gets in trouble on the news is when another rich person wants them to be in trouble, and the only time a worthy cause gets coverage is when a rich person will profit from it. The OWS "coverage" is merely the latest and greatest example of misreporting and non-reporting. The only way to get actual news is through the internet.

4. The internet is being shackled and soon we will not have access to the only remaining source of truth and unedited information. That's not to say the internet isn't still a wild land full of disinformation, but at least it's POSSIBLE to get ACTUAL news from the internet if you're willing to look for it. You CAN'T do it on the TV, nor in the newspaper, because those are ALL owned by 3 men who have the same agenda: enslaving you. Once they've regained control of the internet, they will again have 100% control over the information you have access to. Good luck making informed decisions!

5. One political party is unabashedly abusing God's word to push its agenda. They make all the noises that a Christian does, and do all the things a Christian does... at least in public. Privately, they commit every crime imaginable, from adultery to drunken driving to stealing from the poor to advocating violence against Americans to bald-faced lying when they get caught red handed. And because they profess so strongly to be believers in Christ, too many believe their lies and they get away with murder. (Literally, in many cases.)

6. Education has become criminal. It used to be illegal to educate a woman. It used to be illegal to educate a negro. We can already see the beginnings of making it illegal to educate the poor. High-quality public education is what made this country great and helped it stay great for so long, but that's going away. First there was a backlash against certain subjects, like Evolution, and trying to replace it with nonscience nonsense. Then there was a complete lack of quality public education, and our children are becoming dumber by the minute. Now there's a movement to eliminate public education altogether and completely privatize the education industry, which will completely deny education to the poor and middle class. Education is the cornerstone of freedom. Without it, you are either a slave or a dead slave.

7. Surge of non-issues and cultivating of irrational hatreds. We spend so much time and energy on insignificant "issues" that we can't see the real problems which are CAUSING all those problems. Is it REALLY the end of the world if we give equal pay for equal work? Is it REALLY the end of the world if we collectively pay for a highway and then some of us use it more than others? Is it REALLY the end of the world if we keep government OUT of the bedroom? Is it REALLY the end of the world if someone uses the word "tar-baby" as a synonym for "quagmire"? Do we REALLY have to threaten violence to all who disagree with us? And because we make no headway in any of these issues, when faced with REAL issues, like the pandemic levels of corruption and treason our elected officials and corporate leaders display, we feel completely powerless to do anything about it, and so we let them continue to get away with it. We barely even notice the rape any more.

8. False Christians confuse and incite Christians to commit acts of violence and hate against each other. We complain a lot about how corrupt and violent Islam and Judeaism are, but they don't hold a candle to what an entire political party has done to foster its unholy agenda. It boggles my mind the evil being committed against our fellow Americans under the guise of Christianity when the Bible very clearly states we should love one another. The New Testament - Jesus' teachings - are the most important part of the Bible. Jesus taught forgiveness and peace and doing what is right. He did NOT teach that we should be slaves, or lie, or shoot Congresswomen for the convenience of whores from Alaska. Really, folks, if you believed in the Bible, I'm pretty sure you'd be noticing that the Anti-Christ is here.

9. There is very little will to protest unfairness. America was FOUNDED upon protesting unfairness. It's in our blood to fight against oppression. And yet, we've been subjugated from within. No one wants to rock the boat. No one wants to risk the ire of the Republican party because they'll take away your job and your home and your health care and your social security. Guess what? They're doing that anyway. You literally have NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE. And yet you still let them rape you.

10. There are entirely too many secret laws and laws which invalidate the Constitution's protection of civil rights. And if you think a lawyer can still protect you, think again. "Justice" is available only to the rich now.

Combine together these factors and many more I didn't have space to mention and you have a breeding ground for mindless zombies who can't think for themselves and who will simply do what their masters tell them to do through the TV news and "reality" shows.

You don't believe me? Then you've been turned into a zombie.

With the unprecedented levels of greed exhibited by the 1%, not only are the poor being robbed, but that's not enough and they're robbing the middle class too. Regular, hard-working Americans, who were doing everything they were told that a good American should do to be successful, are having their livelihoods stolen from them. They worked harder and got less at the end of the day. When you've had your house repossessed and you're living on the street, you don't have the TV or the lamestream media clouding your judgment. You snap out of the zombification process and you start protesting what was done to you.

As the numbers of de-zombified people grows, so too do the protests around the country and around the world. Those in power are getting more and more nervous that the free ride is over and all their illusions will come crashing down. But they're not going to give up without a fight. Evil NEVER lays down and quits.

Instead of realizing they've overstepped their bounds and apologizing like a proper, honorable person would do, they're telling their hoards of zombies to attack the people who have escaped their programming. You see it on the "news" all the time. The talking heads first ignored the OWS movement, then when that didn't work they told obvious lies about it, and when that didn't work they've ordered the police to start physically assaulting them without provocation or justification.

As the election cycle begins, it promises to shatter all previous records of corruption - BILLIONS of dollars have already been spent to buy the elections this year, and BILLIONS MORE will be spent next year. Why exactly are we allowing our "free" elections to be bought? Remember that, it's important.

Over the course of next year, tensions between the still-powerful zombies and the growing de-zombified will increase, and the only thing which will hold them back will be the completely irrational belief that come election time in November, something useful will happen and the treasonous ones will be voted out and honest people will be voted in. In the next six weeks, as America realizes not only that they have AGAIN had their elections stolen and AGAIN put more traitors in office, and that these new people will REFUSE to correct the real problems facing this country because they are afraid to go against the people who bought their office for them, the dam will burst and the oppressed people will do what oppressed people have always done when they have nothing left to lose.

The puppet masters won't stand for that, and will cause blood to flow.

It might even reach John Titor proportions, which is to say a civil war will break out and we will ask Russia to nuke some of our cities to end the war. It'll be like Wierd Al Yankovick's song, Christmas at Ground Zero, except it won't be funny, it won't be accidental, and it won't happen on Christmas, it will happen four days before: December 21st.

And all this because the super-rich thought they needed 100% of the money instead of only their fair share.

It doesn't have to be that way, of course. There are many ways to stop it, though counting on the greedy to do what's ultimately in their best interests - treat people with respect - doesn't seem to be one of them. And relying on Congress to stop sucking at the teats of the rich for five seconds to represent their ACTUAL constituents doesn't seem to be in the cards either. The best option other than a Tea Party-esque armed assault on Washington DC to head off a far worse apocalypse would be to create a Constitutional Convention in each of the 50 states (not 57, Mr. Prez) in which we create an Amendment stating some rather important things that must be changed.

1. Corporations are tools, no different than hammers and cars, and as such their owners and the people entrusted to running them are responsible for their crimes. Like cars and hammers, corporations are not people and are not allowed to be used to influence politics in any way.

2. Money is not speech. No individual may donate more than $100 to a political campaign. No organization may donate value to one campaign without also donating equal value to all campaigns. (Frex, a TV station cannot pick and choose whose ads it runs, it must run everyone's or no one's.)

3. Any candidate who can gather signatures from at least 1% of the voters in a voting district is hereby an official candidate. In multiple-district elections (such as for President), a candidate who gets his 1% in at least 50% of the districts (states) is automatically to be added to all others upon his request of that district (state). All official candidates are to be allotted equal time/money/value in televised debates and campaigning. This is to be part of the charter of a TV station or network.

4. At no time will a candidate be allowed to receive a contribution anonymously. All contributions must be documented. The entire process must be above board and transparent to public scrutiny. No contributions can come from foreign sources.

5. If Congress plays chicken with the budget or the economy, all members who had any part in it will immediately be tried for treason.

6. All special benefits Congress voted for themselves, such as their retirement fund, their health care, and their exemption from the law, are null and void. All Congress members past and present who voted for such things without the express consent of a majority of their constituents shall be tried for treason.

7. Congress shall be forbidden from owning stock in any company or corporation because they are in a position to conduct insider trading and don't seem to have the self-restraint required not to do it. Any Congress member who has profited from the laws they have made any more than the average American is to be tried for treason.

8. No elected official shall be exempt from laws pertaining to drunken driving, drug use, murder, or any other serious crime. Any official trying to coerce law enforcement from arresting or prosecuting them shall be tried for treason. (This seems to be a big problem with governors too.)

9. The President shall have a line-item veto power so that the absurd riders which get tacked on to most bills shall be kept from becoming law.

10. Judges shall not be appointed for life. Lifespans are much too long. No judicial appointment shall last longer than 20 years and no judge shall serve longer than 20 years.

11. Elected officials shall be subject to recall if more than 75% of their voters want it. (Passons do flare from time to time, and recalls shouldn't be subject to whims.)

12. Above all, elected officials are expected to act in a responsible manner toward the country and their office. Those who put anything besides their country first - including political party, corporation, or themselves - shall be tried for treason. We expect our military to be willing to die in service, the least an elected official can do is make a comparable sacrifice. Additionally, all large corporations are required to have as part of their charter the same basic requirements for responsibility toward the country which made you. We don't mind you being rich and influential, we mind you abusing that power. With great power comes great responsibility, and great punishments for not living up to it.


These are the kinds of changes America needs to avoid the coming zombie apocalypse. Will we have the guts to implement them before disaster strikes, or will be have to destroy everything we have first? One thing is for sure: if we don't overcome the slavery the super-rich are trying to impose on us now, we will never have the chance again.

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One with Nature

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Is it just me, or are there a whole lot of 1's going on right now?

I've been waiting for this moment all my life. 11/11/11 11:11:11, just like I waited for 10/10/10 10:10:10 and the ever fun 12:34:56 7/8/90 and 1987/6/5 4:32:10 from my youth. I'm tempted to ridicule numerology-based end-of-the-world prophecies, but there are just so many to choose from.

I will note, though, that every single end-of-the-world prophecy has been proved false and they keep having to make new ones. Some of them, like the narrowly averted Cuban Missile Crisis and the Y2K thingy, weren't exactly ridiculous at the time, they were very nearly disasters which were avoided by people taking action rather than simply waiting them out. That's the major difference between the comical end-of-the-world predictions and the serious ones. I don't ignore or ridicule things like Iranian-supplied nuclear terrorists or North Korean ballistic missile tests, because those are REAL concerns. Things like that are real and require action to keep them from happening. I'm really not sure why the free world allows Iran to even have a nuclear program. Sounds like a bud that should've been nipped.

Okay, that's all the rambling I've got for you. You may resume your regularly scheduled Friday, now that I have distracted the end of the world from smacking you upside the head while you read this. Hug a veteran too!

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Road Trip 4 - 14,000 Shoeless Feet

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A few years ago, I was heading south down I-25 from Denver, and I saw one mountain which seemed somehow different from the others. It occurred to me that Pike's Peak was in Colorado, and I wondered if maybe this was it. About a mile later, I came upon a pull-over, so I stopped and discovered that yes, it was. It was pretty amazing to see it, and to have guessed at what it was, since I had no idea where in Colorado it was. It's a nice-looking mountain.

On our trip, we came up from the south, which gave a much better view. Sam was still experiencing the thrill of seeing mountains for the first time, and to see this one in particular standing out from the rest.


When my dad came up with the idea for this trip, he had two destinations in mind. One was Oklahoma City, and the other was Yellowstone. And maybe the Grand Canyon if we still felt like being on the road. From Jackson to OKC is a day's travel, and from there to Yellowstone is about two days, so he needed something in the middle to stop at. He chose Denver, Colorado, and then he made reservations and bought rooms in OKC, Denver, and West Yellowstone, Montana. We had to make it to those places in time or we'd lose the money paid for the rooms, so that meant we didn't get to stop and see much in between.

Wow, that's low octane! It wasn't any cheaper either.

Fortunately, before we started on the trip, he told me his plans, and I took a look at it all on the map and figured out the best route and some interesting things to see on the way. As a truck driver, I pass lots of interesting signs for things to do, and sometimes I even take a note of them so I can come back later. One such thing which wasn't too far out of our way was Pike's Peak. An hour south of Denver, we'd practically have to pass through Colorado Springs, so we may as well stop. He liked the idea so much, he changed our stopping place from Denver to Colorado Springs.

Also, when he was making his plans, he messed up a little and allotted TWO days to get from Denver to Yellowstone, which fortunately meant that we could afford to spend the whole day in Colorado Springs if we wanted. Which we mostly did.

First thing in the morning, after I managed to kick everyone out of bed and get some food shoved down their throats, we headed on up to Pike's Peak.

Just getting to the entrance to the park is a bit of a climb. Fortunately, things are marked well enough that you can figure it out. Just follow all but the last of the signs to the Santa's Village park, which is just outside the Pike's Peak entrance and you can't miss it.

The gate opens at 9:00. By fortuitous happenstance, that's when we arrived, with about 50 cars ahead of us. The line moved as well as could be expected, and half an hour later, we were within the park.

(Side note: It's no longer a National Park, so if you have a National Park Pass of some sort, it will do you no good.)

The total trip up the mountain is 19 miles, and takes you to a little over 14,000 feet. We found out at the gate that, due to weather concerns, we wouldn't be able to drive all the way up to the peak. We could get to the 12,500 foot mark, which was about 4 miles short of the peak, and that was it.

For the most part, we simply climbed. There's a pull-over early on with a fantastic view of the valley you had to pass through to get there, and we stopped for it, but other than that, we didn't stop again until we reached the lodge at 11,000 feet. We passed by a handful of turns to go to camping areas.

Ute Pass

Not too long before we reached the lodge, we started seeing snow on the ground. Sam wanted to stop immediately, but we assured him he'd get his fill of snow in a few minutes. Which he did when we got to the lodge and stopped.

It's been a while since I played in the snow. I've pretty much had all of it I need for one lifetime, so it didn't really occur to me to start doing it again until I found a snowball headed my way. Thankfully the boy's throwing skills weren't as good as mine, and mine came back to me pretty quick.

We did a little climbing up the side of the mountain so we could get some nice pictures, and then made our way back down when Dad wanted to get going again.

Getting to the 12,500 foot limit didn't take much time. A dozen other cars were pulled over, and we found a spot to do the same and got out.

Holy carp!

Not only was it comfortably below freezing, but the wind was blowing pretty good too. I estimate the windchill was in the 30 below range, but never found out for sure.

I didn't want to get too close to any edges, especially with high, variable winds blowing in random directions, but Sam had no problem climbing on all sorts of things to get his daredevil pictures. As much as I hated the cold, I had at least been in it within the past two years. He, having grown up in Mississippi, had rarely even been in temperatures low enough for snow to form. But he's a tough little bugger, so he didn't seem to notice.

The view from there was pretty darn good, as you can see in the pics. I could've stayed there for a while, if not for the cold and the wind conspiring to rob me of my body heat and the feeling in my fingers and ears. But we couldn't stay there forever.

On the way back down, we stopped at another pull-over, which happened to be next to their Bigfoot crossing sign. We spotted him and got a picture. Then SOMEONE, and I won't mention his name, decided to go running up the side of one of the foothills because it didn't look like that much of a climb. I followed after to try and keep him out of trouble. It was a heck of a climb, and I actually managed to keep pace with him, once the lower oxygen started kicking him in the lungs. We were at about 8 or 9000 feet where we started climbing.

Check out that background!

We never did quite make it to the top; it just kept rolling back and back. We probably got about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way, but we were pretty bushed, and I was concerned about getting dehydrated up there, or maybe getting the bends, so I convinced him to head back down.

We didn't stop again until we got to the local HuHot Mongolian BBQ and had lunch. Patti, my cousin whom I mentioned a little while ago, had told us that Cheyenne Mountain was in this area too, so I wanted to see that if we could, but Dad was so concerned about making time, and he wanted to see the Air Force Academy, so we went there, spent a couple hours looking around, and then headed on up the road to get a few more miles under our belts before the day ended.

In the general vicinity of Denver, there are some very scenic mountain roads, potentially even more scenic than the road going up Pike's Peak. I wanted to drive on them, because I like doing that sort of thing, but someone wanted to get as close to Yellowstone as possible, and no one but me was interested in seeing more mountain roads that day, so I got outvoted. (Truth be told, by the time we got into that area, I'd succumbed to the same lethargy.)

We made it all the way to Rawlins, Wyoming, a place I highly recommend you NOT spend the night. Apparently they believe they're Washington DC, because that's the kind of rates they charged for motels. They roll up the streets at 6 o'clock promptly, so if you want to do anything, do it before then. Maybe they figure there's nothing else for 50 miles, and if you're headed to Yellowstone, there's nothing else for 250 miles, so why not bilk the travelers? There was no evidence that either the circus or the Olympics was in town, so that must be it.

That's all I've got for you right now. Tune in again next week!

(Click here to see how this road trip started.)

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Insecure Banking

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I wrote a letter to one of my banks regarding the deplorable security of their online banking system. Then I scrapped it because I thought it was too mean and wrote another one. Here it is:


One of the concerns of the website I run is about security, be it personal or electronic, and I was wondering, is there was someone I could conduct a short email interview with for an article I'm writing about online bank security in the modern age?

As you're no doubt aware, electronic crime is on the rise, and banks everywhere are scrambling to keep ahead of the crooks, who are finding all kinds of new ways to break in and steal money, often without leaving much of a trace.


One of the earliest ways they broke in was by doing "brute force" attacks to find user accounts and passwords. It takes a single computer about a day to hack a password of only 8 characters, and only a few minutes if limited to letters and numbers. Some criminals have access to parallel networks of thousands of computers, which can crack otherwise strong 8 character passwords in about 5 minutes or less, which means a network of crackers can extract the passwords for 3000 banking customers in under 2 weeks. Despite this obvious gaping hole in security, many banks refuse to upgrade their passwords to defeat this, making them a class-action suit waiting to happen.

I've heard that the weak security is so the bank can still crack the passwords of its users if they "have to", but what valid reason there could be, I'd like to ask.

Lately, banks have started implementing "secret questions", which are about as secret as asking what color the sky is. Perhaps you remember the Paris Hilton scandal. Though it may cut down slightly on the random, massive thefts, it doesn't stop criminals from focusing on a big payday customer, finding out all the publicly available information about their target, and then answering the "secret questions", which only ever seem to ask for publicly available information. People with an ax to grind also find this very easy security to bypass and ruin the life of their enemy.

Things like "sister's middle name" or "grandmother's maiden name" or "street you grew up on" and so forth, are all easily available to anyone willing to invest $20 in any ad that shows up on the WhitePages.com site. (Which is to say, those online stalking websites which allow you to get information about anyone.)

My questions entail wanting to know what proactive steps your institution is taking to safeguard their customers' money and personal information against theft, and whether you plan on taking such steps before or after a preventable theft results in a massive class-action suit which holds your board of directors personally responsible and has them jailed and bankrupted for gross incompetence.

For instance, your institution only allows passwords of up to 8 characters, and I cannot use symbols. It would take a cracker just a few minutes to break into my account. In contrast, Microsoft's minimum password security standard recommends 14 character passwords made of upper and lower case, numbers, and symbols; doing so yields passwords which require many years of effort to crack.

Why doesn't your institution allow users to have secure passwords if they want them? Security questions are often used to bypass forgotten passwords, and so they need to be approximately as secure as passwords; when will your institution no longer require that users use publicly available information like names of family members and residence addresses for these questions? Is it true that banks regularly hack the accounts of their own users? Is it true that the personal information gained for security questions is used to target advertising? Is the database of security questions itself protected by more than a simple 8 character password? Is there some law which prevents banking customers from suing the CEO and Board of Directors personally for gross negligence regarding the security of their accounts?

Thank you very much for your assistance in directing me to the person I need to talk to about this article. I'm very interested in getting all my facts straight before publishing articles, and your institution's assistance is much appreciated.


I never sent this, since it's still a little too mean. I did, however, close that account so I wouldn't get hacked.

The worries behind it, though, are still valid. Why would a bank prevent you from having a properly secure password? I realize not all customers WANT secure passwords, since they're a hassle, but for those who DO want them, why deny them?

As mentioned above, if you have a password like "hello", that can be cracked in SECONDS. Even one like "7&tND0=q" will take a few minutes. The more characters you use, and the more characters you have to choose from, the harder it is to crack. This goes up very quickly, such that a proper 16 character password can take millenia for a cracking farm to break. Check out this tool to help you make secure passwords. And here's additional information about passwords; If you don't get something, just skip to the next section.

Check your online banking passwords and make sure they are larger than 8 characters, and that they have numbers and symbols in them. If your bank doesn't allow this minimum level of security, you might want to consider keeping your money elsewhere before someone else decides to keep your money elsewhere.

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Sunday Funnies 11-10-30

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It's funny: I started out this month thinking I had enough stuff to do two posts per week, and I could probably keep up that pace for a while, maybe throw a third article in there once in a while. Then I decided to add the Facebook page (LIKE it, or I'll give you a cat!) and kept bumping into some really good stories to share and things to talk about, so I've been posting FOUR articles a week and even feeling like that's not enough. Before too long, I may hit that magical seven per week, just you wait! If I can drop 60-some pounds with almost no effort, I can find a way to get a new article written every day. Of course, that pushed the book back, but that's okay, it can wait a few more days.

The site's numbers keep climbing faster and faster. Exciting! October was our biggest month yet, with the record being broken just a few days ago, leaving this last week as gravy to get the bar up there even higher for next time. If this keeps up, by the end of the year, we'll be hitting 35,000 visitors in the past 18 months!

And tomorrow is Halloween! Everyone got your candy and your costumes ready?

Here's some more stuff that happened last week; pay close attention:

Stimulus Money Used to Employ Foreign Guest Workers Instead of Americans

All sides should agree: down with the Big Banks - Most of our Founding Fathers warned us about them. Shoulda listened!

A new way to buy real influence - Like politicians need even MORE ways to embezzle without us knowing.

New York cops defy order to arrest hundreds of ‘Occupy Albany’ protesters

Not all GOP candidates opposed to Occupy Movement - There is one with his country's best interests at heart.

OWS's Beef: Wall Street Isn't Winning, It's Cheating

Iraq veteran hit with police projectile during Occupy Oakland demonstration - In the days since, a lot has happened, but here's the original report.

Ten Reasons Not to Bank On (or With) Bank of America - See if their list matches up with your list.

Denver PD hospitalize protester: Occupy Together - The scary thing is most of these police brutality events are inflicted on people who aren't even protesting, they're just there observing!

That's all for this week. Still cranking out plenty of articles, so keep checking the site daily, and if you haven't done it yet, you've still got a chance to be among the first 100 people to click the LIKE button or become a follower. Hurry, this offer won't last much longer!

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You are a Peter

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A system which robs Peter to pay Paul will always have Paul's support. What the majority of people don't realize is who Peter and Paul are in this story, or why Paul thinks he needs money.

The richest 1% own the media. They also own the governing bodies. Why? Because they have more money than the other 99% put together. Is that really equality under the law? (Hint: No, it's not.) For hundreds of years, the common man has fought for his right to be heard. God-emperors were toppled, Kings eliminated, Tsars banished, and so forth, because the public at large wants to be treated fairly by the law. Equal justice should be available to all who work for it, not just to those rich enough to corrupt the system.



All this control they have gives them the power to do anything they want. And they DO anything they want. The only time a rich person gets in trouble with the law is when another rich person wants him to take a fall.

I don't know about your country, but in mine, a little over 200 years ago, we fought to be free of such tyranny. We fought again four score and seven years later to be free of the tyranny of chattel slavery. And again, another four score of years later, we put down a tyranny which threatened the globe. But tyranny is an insidious thing. Every time you give one man power over others without also keeping power over him - by holding him accountable for his actions and punishing his crimes - you create a tyrant who will not rest until he has taken control of everything.

A new tyrant is lording his power over us, and it's high time we topple him before a war is required to do it.

A lot of noise is being made about bullies in schools, and I've seen people who say that they stand up to bullies. And yet, few people actually stand up to the real bullies, the ones who are doing their level best to enrich themselves at the cost of our lives.

It's time we stop being Peters and stand up for what's right.

I'm not really interested in becoming a serf. How about you?

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Road Trip 3 - Meeting Wyatt Earp

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The legend of Wyatt Earp begins in Dodge City, which is in south-central Kansas. The "Queen of the Cow Towns," Dodge City was a nexus for enormous cattle drives heading to markets like Chicago. Earp's history before then was rather speckled and inglorious, but in Dodge he started to make a name for himself, and the city celebrates that.

The first time I drove through Dodge City was in a truck. I happened upon a pull-over next to a huge cattleyard, so I stopped and took some pictures. Seemed to me, both while I was there and after I drove past the bypass, that there was nothing much to see in Dodge except a fancy town sign, that cattleyard, and a bunch of cattle-carriers filling the lot of a local truckstop which, at the time, served large, locally grown steaks. But later, I had another chance to go through town and discovered I'd been deceived. There's a whole, thriving, modern town to be found, not to mention a tourist trap around the original Boot Hill! I couldn't stop then, but some day, I could come back. That day was today. (You know what I mean.)


We departed Oklahoma City bright and early and made our way northwest into Kansas. That part of the country is largely cornfields and rolling hills, with the occasional gully thrown in for good measure. I grew up in the flattest part of Indiana, and here in Florida it's at least as flat, so when people tell me states like Kansas and Iowa are flat, I just laugh and think they have no idea what flat is.

Miles and miles of miles and miles is pretty if you haven't seen them in a while; there's a lot of forest and swamp in Florida, not a whole lot of cornfields and such, and the grass is a different color than I'm used to, so it's pretty for the first couple hours. But eventually, one patch of ground looks like another, and road-hypnosis gets you where you're going.

We came in from the south, from where you can tell there's at least some kind of town. We stopped at the truckstop, which has since been bought up by Flying J (which itself has since been taken over by Pilot) hoping to get one of those big steaks I had the first time I came to town. But such was not to be, so we lunched over at the cattleyard and watched that for a while. It's not as boring as you'd think, unless you've never sat down in your life. Fortunately the wind was to our backs too.

Then we went back into town, and lo and behold, it was still a thriving town. When I'd driven through in a truck, I hadn't had the chance to get a good look. I just knew there was some kind of information center and some kind of special building to look at, and the town's style is very quaint on the main street. But now that we had a chance to stop, we discovered it was a full-blown tourist trap! I wanted t take a ride on the tour bus, which would've given us a one hour tour of the most important things to see in the town, but someone was afraid we wouldn't be able to drive 300 miles in under 8 hours on a high speed road, so the most we did was tromp around the area and take some pictures.

We couldn't stay long, so we headed out after almost an hour of looking around. I'll definitely come back one day and ride that tour bus and take my time seeing the town. Who's with me?

There were enough roadside historical markers between Dodge and Pueblo that we would've been stopping every 5-15 minutes most of the time, so since we were in a hurry, we had to pick and choose which ones were worth the stop. For instance, the Santa Fe Trail crossing was very informative.

Every time I come up on the mountains from the east (like what we were doing), I try to challenge myself to figure out from how far away I can spot them. And every time, I don't see them until I'm a lot closer than I think I should be, like about 30 miles away. Before that point, they are just dark shapes on the horizon easily dismissed as being part of the sky. Any snow on the mountains is dismissed as being clouds. For whatever reason, my mind simply can't see them until they're high enough to cause the sun to set an hour early. It's possible that the time of day has something to do with this. It's always the afternoon when I first come upon them, and that means the sun is on the other side, so it's not illuminating the near face any more. That keeps them darker, more sky-like. At least, that's the story I tell everyone who asks, which so far is just you guys.

Finally we made it to Pueblo, Colorado, where we could jump on I-25 and skip on up to Colorado Springs. Unsurprisingly, Sam and Dad had no difficulty figuring out which mountain was Pike's Peak. It was the big one, with the snow on it.

I'll tell you more about it next week.

And if you missed it, here's the start of our journey.

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Selling Ice to Eskimos

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Eskimos live in cold places. They have plenty of ice sitting around, and they can make more any time they want it. Wouldn't it be great, though, if we could sell them our ice? We can carve it out of the same places they get theirs, and then convince them that our ice is better than their ice so they'll buy it from us. The only problem I foresee is that they'll only be able to pay us in fish, and I don't think Walmart takes fish as a payment option for giant-screen TVs, though I could be wrong. Even if they do, I'm not sure what the exchange rate is.

But maybe we can do something equally preposterous. Maybe we can sell water to people who are already paying for a residential water system. We'll bottle it up and sell it for ridiculous prices.

Maybe you're wondering why people would buy our water when it would be so much cheaper and easier for them to simply drink water out of their faucet like they used to do even 10 years ago, or, if they don't like the impurities, why they don't buy a water filter and a reusable container, like a glass or a water bottle.

Simple.



We'll claim it's healthier or tastes better or something. We'll pretend there are advantages to drinking our water. We'll con some celebrity into liking us, and then get them to endorse us to their celebrity friends and all their fans. It's not hard at all, if we simply do it the way the inventors of Scientology did.

We'll use all the same marketing techniques that the soft drink makers use. Essentially we'll equate it in the minds of people to BE soft drinks, except healthier AND cheaper. We'll avoid all comparisons to tap water, because we can't possibly compete with free. The RIAA and MPAA have sued thousands of their own customers for billions of dollars to prove it, so I'm pretty sure it's true. It explains why Windows can dominate the market when they charge hundreds of dollars when Linux is free and no one's ever heard of it. Nope, we're not going to compete with free tap water, so get that unproductive idea out of your head.

By putting ourselves against soft drinks, and being a healthier and cheaper alternative, we can't lose. Before you know it, all those landfills will be full of OUR bottles instead of Coke and Pepsi's bottles.

Where to get this magical water? Why from the same place everyone already gets their water! It's the ultimate irony, selling someone something they're already paying someone else for! We'll filter out the smells and colors, of course, since we say we've got pure water in our bottles, but nothing special; just enough to get the job done so we don't have any complainers saying we're not what we say we are.

With the proper marketing slant, we'll usurp the soft drink empires. It will take some time for this con to take hold, but once it does, the profits will be astronomical!

So, anyone want to invest in a sure thing?

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Sunday Funnies 11-10-23

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Welcome back for our weekly summary of everything important that you can't just scroll down and read! Just eight days to Halloween; do you have your house decorated and your costume designed and your party scheduled? If not, you'd better get it done quick.

We've had a cold snap here in Florida this weekend. Last Friday for my morning walk, it was so cold I felt like my brain was freezing. Still made about 5 miles, but I was miserable doing it. Fortunately it's warming up a little, and yesterday's and today's mornings were slightly less cold, so I'm not worried about Monday.

There were an awful lot of stories I thought were important enough to share over on our associated Facebook page, which you should check out and hit that big LIKE button at the top. So many, in fact, that I felt there was getting to be a bit of information overload, so I didn't share everything I really wanted to. Here are the most important things which happened last week:

86% of Bailout Money Used for Executive Bonuses -  How many times do we have to fall for this before we figure out we're getting ripped off by the corps AND the congressmen voting in favor of these?

5 Conservative Economic Myths Occupy Wall St. Is Helping Bust - Amazing. Simply amazing.

Awake The State November 1st! - All 50 state capitals are going to experience demonstrations.

The Artful Dodgers - How those who most need to pay their taxes get away with paying none.

Wall Street’s Second Occupation: The Rise of the NYPD's Homeland Security State - I believe they had something like this in Germany in the early 1930's.

Janet Reid's Most Terrifying Contest Ever! - I managed to get my entry in third out of almost 200. No idea when we'll hear who won, but if you pester Jet enough, maybe you can convince her I should win.

How to Regain Our Democracy - Very simple solution.

Presidential Candidate Buddy Roemer Calls for Withdrawal From NAFTA, WTO - These are basically illegal treaties in which we give away what we have and get nothing in return. They gotta go. Roemer is the only candidate who wants to get money out of DC to end taxation without representation.

Judge Judy - Here's Who You Support With Taxes - She's far more patient with him than I would be.

Stimulus Money Used to Employ Foreign Guest Workers Instead of Americans - Are you sure this isn't treason?

That will definitely keep you busy today. Have a great Sunday!

The Church of the Almighty Dollar

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Lately you've heard a lot about the Occupy Wall Street Movement. The first thing you may have heard was that it was being suppressed by the major media outlets, who have zero obligation to report facts no matter how important they are. Then you started to hear that the protesters were a bunch of hippies who didn't know what they wanted, except to tax the rich into oblivion. But when the Movement reached your city, you found that you couldn't dismiss them so easily because not only were there a LOT of regular people among them, but they were coherent and made a whole lot more sense than the major media wanted you to believe.

What Americans want is simple: True separation of Church from State. We want the Church of the Almighty Dollar to be expelled from the process of law-making and law-enforcement.


The way things are now, our politicians and police only listen to whoever pays them the most. And because the top 1% of "Americans" are making more money than the rest of America combined, that means only the super-rich get their way and the other 99% are forced into slavery. And because all the major media outlets are owned by the super-rich, that means the 99% get brainwashed and fed lies to keep them from figuring out that they've been robbed. They are now enacting programs to destroy the public education system to make this state of affairs permanent.

We called bullshit on the royalty about 230 years ago for treating us exactly the same way, and now that it's happening again, the royalty is all aflutter, trying desperately to wield their armies of reality-TV drones against the few clear-thinking Americans who see what's happening and want the wholesale rape of their country to stop.

As things currently stand, a politician's loyalties, in order from most important to least, are:

1. Money
2. Party
3. Constituents
4. Nation

This is completely the opposite of what it should be, and hence is no surprise why we're going to hell in a handbasket. In fact, to put something above the good of your country is the very definition of treason, isn't it?

I'm no big fan of Obama, but when Congress intentionally sits on its hands all day to make the President look bad so he won't get reelected, is that putting your country first, or your party? It sure isn't putting the best interests of the people first, I can tell you that much.

The top corporations like GE, which make HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS in profit, pay ZERO taxes, receive BILLIONS in subsidies and stimulus money for the purpose of creating jobs for Americans, and then ship jobs overseas and complain that it's too expensive to hire an American, spend MILLIONS of dollars wining and dining politicians, popularize the obscure ones who accept bribes, and suppress anyone who tells the truth about how we got into this mess. It's those corporations who should not be allowed to run the government. They should not be allowed to buy the justice that the other 99% of Americans can't.

America is a government OF the people, BY the people, FOR THE PEOPLE. Corporations are NOT people, and should NOT be heard any more than should the voice of a car. A corporation is a tool, in the same way a car is a tool. It has a function and a purpose, and can be used for good or ill. Right now, they are being used so that only the top 1% - the royalty - have their voices heard. It's time the voice of the PEOPLE is heard.

There is one thing which ties together all the major problems in this country and the "free" world at large, and one natural solution:

Take the corporations out of the government. When our elected officials stop getting the free rides and have to actually answer to the public who voted for them, the other problems will clear up pretty darn quick, because Americans will rightly believe that they actually are being represented again, and they will work to make this country great again.

The love of money is the root of all evil, and it's the root of all the problems which are overwhelming us right now. Hold our officials accountable.

Who's with me on this?

Anyone?

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