I Deserve a Break Today

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Dear McDonald's,

I have loved eating your food for as long as I can remember. My dad worked for you when he was a kid and I did as well. We both have good memories from those times and are glad for the experience. Plus, I find it very flattering that the Double Quarter Pounder was created in homage to the Bigger Mac I invented during my tenure, but it would be nice to get a royalty check or at least a credit on the website which I can use to impress my friends.



Several years ago, you began to show signs that you no longer wanted my business by raising prices to the point where I could no longer have a meal for under $5. But then you introduced the Extra Value Meal and made it possible for me to continue our love affair. And then a few years later, you again raised prices to discourage my patronage. But then you introduced the Dollar Menu, and put the Double Cheeseburger, Small Fries, and Small Drink on it, and induced me to continue spending money. But you continued to raise prices, to the point where you even stole a slice of cheese from my sandwich and rebranded the result as a McDouble, but you also raised the prices of drinks and fries too ridiculously high for such a small serving.

The most recent blow has been that you've started charging for water. No, not the bottled water, which any idiot or desperately thirsty person will pay $1-$2 for, but regular tap water. I also have been finding it harder to find the McDouble for $1, and it's nearly impossible to find a Small Fries for $1. The Any Size Drink for $1 was a nice idea, but I no longer drink pop, thanks in part to you.

Personally, I think it's a crime to charge for something which costs you nothing, but I do realize that everything is worth what someone will pay for it. That works both ways, though. It means that after nearly 40 years of patronage, if I cannot find a reasonable price for any of your products, I must say a tearful goodbye.

But, you clever bastards, you went and made internet free. Even in California (or at least in the one store I went to out there a few weeks ago). Considering that providing internet service costs almost nothing, but creates a desire for internet addicts to sit in your store, get hungry as they surf, and buy something out of a false sense of obligation, I don't understand why more places don't offer it. I am shocked and amazed that the major truckstop companies continue to charge for a service which most people can get for free (often IN the truckstop itself!), but then I'm also amazed they can keep a straight face when they offer a "sale" on something by charging 50% - 100% more than what you'd pay if you just went to Walmart (which often has room for trucks to park). And since I like internet so much, because it lets me swap out emails in about 30 seconds, I find myself coming back into the store and occasionally buying something, despite your expressed wishes against doing business with people who prefer to get value for their hard-earned money.

I gave up my favorite Quarter Pounders because you priced me out of them. I gave up Fries because you priced me out of them. I have no problem giving up the bastardized McDoubles if you price me out of them too. Your free internet ploy may have gotten me to hesitate in severing all contact with you, but it will not obligate me to overpay for things which ruin my diet anyway.

PLEASE reconsider your position.

PS: Is anyone falling for that Daily Double monstrosity? Paying an extra dollar for lettuce on their Double Cheeseburger (or is it a McDouble)? I know there are a lot of suckers out there, but that's got to be pressing your luck big time.

Can You Spot the Flaw?

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I'm sure we all remember the 50's, even if we weren't alive for them. Every man had a wife and 5 kids, and every man had a job which could pay for his family's food, shelter, clothes, college, and annual vacation, plus a car in every garage and a chicken in every pot. Nowadays, though, Wifey has to work, and the kids do too, just as soon as they're old enough, and even then the family is still scraping by. And let's not forget that the family size has dropped to 1-2 kids now.

What happened?

When did life shift from being so easy that only 1 mouth in 7 had to work to being so hard that even when every mouth works the family still can't get by? If you take a look at some of the other countries out there, they've got larger family sizes and fewer mouths having to work to feed the family. How did things go so horribly wrong in America?

We can spend all day pointing the finger at things and not be wrong. Poor examples being set by our leaders and our heroes. High divorce rate. No dads in the home. Hypocritical religious and political leaders. Schools failing and being set up to fail. Drugs. Gangs. Prostitution being outlawed. Medical malpractice. Frivolous lawsuits. Obscene copyright lengths. Software patents. Gene patents. The RIAA and MPAA. Blamestorming.

The list goes on.

And on.

And on.

We're looking for someone to blame. One person or group to pin all this on. The one source of all the trouble, after which everything else is merely a symptom and will go away if we correct the one flaw and throw the rascals out. But who? Blacks? Whites? Gays? Christians? Jews? Muslims? Unions? The rich? Doctors? Liberals? Conservatives? Gangs? The Illuminati? Scientology? God? Satan? Teachers?

Who's leg do we gotta hump to get our lives back?

And can we ever get it back? How hard will it be to do so?

One of the big obstacles seems to be citizen apathy and hopelessness. Sure, once in a while, millions of people get upset about some useless celebrity getting in trouble or talkng out their butt, or if one person in a billion dies of some obscure thing, there's a massive campaign to make everyone else's life harder, but when it comes to something important which would actually benefit everyone, like important amendments to the Constitution which would make political corruption much more difficult, or asking the super-rich to pay their fair share for all the benefits we provide them, suddenly, even though a near-unanymous majority agrees, nothing gets done and almost no one makes an effort. The movement then either dies or becomes the province only of "crazy" people.

Did people just suddenly become stupid, or was this done to us maliciously by someone who wants to control us so we can't kick them out of power when they abuse it, as we peasants have historically done when our kings step far enough out of line? I'm sure you can guess which of these two possibilities I suspect.

So what are you going to do? Which is more important to you? Making sure those who are out to take everything you have don't get away with it, or watching yet another Kardashian self-destruct?

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Can I buy your vote for $100?

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You heard right: I want to give you $100 to buy your vote, with no strings attached. You vote for the candidate I tell you to, and I give you a crisp, new $100 bill so you can marvel at Benjamin Franklin's portrait.

Why would I do such a thing?

You've heard, perhaps even uttered the phrase, "I wouldn't do that even if I was paid to." Or perhaps it was, "There's no amount of money you could pay me to do that."

Voting is something which millions of our countrymen have sacrificed everything to allow us to do. There's no voting tax, there's not really much of a qualification to be able to do it, you just have to have the desire to do it. A lot of people, myself included, have been so incensed at what are laughingly referred to as our "choices", and that we are not allowed to vote "None of the Above", that we often simply don't vote as protest. Unfortunately, that doesn't work any better because it only strengthens the voice of those who aren't really smart enough to vote.

In any form of motivation, there is the stick and the carrot; that is, the punishment for not doing right, and the reward for doing right. One without the other often doesn't work, but when both are used, you usually get results. For instance, we personally don't have to make much of a sacrifice to vote; the only stick is that we get no voice at all. What's needed is a carrot, and that's where the $100 comes in. If I give you some money to go vote, you'll go do it, right?

But then there are people whom I have described as, "He/She wouldn't do his/her job even if he/she was paid to do it." Funny, because of the irony that the person IS being paid to do it and still won't. If I give you $100 to vote, will you go out and do it? If not, then what is the price at which you WILL go vote?

Maybe you think your vote isn't for sale, but what's even more ironic is that people sell their votes all the time for far less than $100. A simple pat on the back from a particular candidate is often enough to do it. Even a PERCEIVED pat on the back - which is to say that the candidate did NOT single you out, he simply mentioned some group you're a part of and praised them and got you to think he cares about you that way.

But there are people who sell their vote even cheaper; in fact, who PAY to cast their vote. I'm talking about the people who blindly vote the party line. "It's the Republican/Democrat candidate, and I'm one of them, so I will vote for them and not consider the other person for any reason." A person like that has paid dearly, whether it's by suffering from party values which rob him of his retirement or his paycheck, or whether it's supporting ideas which are against his core values and therefore forfeits his soul, that person has paid to vote for someone he wouldn't believe in if they were a member of the "other" party.

So you see my real question: what would it take to get you to vote for what you actually want, and not for what someone else tells you that you have to settle for? If there was a candidate who supported everything you personally believed in, who was NOT part of the political party which has conned you into thinking you're one of them and they will take care of you, what would it take for you to vote for him/her?

I hear a lot of people say they want change and fairness and equality, and then they go and vote for a Republican or a Democrat, neither of which has their interests in mind, and both of which have a long track record of lying to get elected. What would it take to get you to snap out of your trance and vote for someone else? Someone who actually would do what you wanted him to do? Someone who would cater to YOUR needs? Someone who was honest and open and worthy of the position you're electing him to?

Is there any price anyone could pay to get you to vote for that person?

Because there are a LOT of people who have paid with their lives so that you WOULD DO JUST THAT.

There IS a person like that, who IS running for President. He can't do it alone. He can't do it without you. He needs you to stand up for yourself and support him so that he can support you, so that he can safeguard your lifetime of work and your retirement and your well-being and restore the rights which the two ajor political parties have trampled in favor of the over-wealthy special interests. Unless you stand up for your rights, you won't have them.

That's important to me. So important that I want to give you $100 if you help get him elected. For $100, you can't possibly feel like your vote was wasted (even though voting for anyone else is a sure way to waste it), and just think what it will be like, knowing that you made history and got a decent man into the White House for the first time in a long time, one who will do everything he can to set the country right again.

Can I pay you to love your country?

Simply go here and sign up because I want to give you $100 if you help me get Buddy Roemer elected. (The nature of this payment will take the form of a stronger economy and a better income for you when Buddy gets elected and puts into action his plan to kick the corruption out of Congress.)

I thank you, and your country thanks you.

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Why don't they just Occupy Washington?

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By now you're aware that I'm the mastermind behind the Occupy Movement. I've agitated for years about unfairness and hypocrisy, especially when it comes from the people who are supposed to be running the country, until finally someone even braver than myself decided to go Occupy Wall Street and brought all his newly homeless friends with him. The movement spread all over the country, to every major city, until today we have people who are tired of the protests whining, "Why don't they just go Occupy Washington DC? Why does it have to be all over the country?"

This, of course, shows a frightening unwillingness to think without the TV news providing their opinion for them (followed up by denial of such).

Why don't the millions of Americans who are fed up with money polluting politics and the growing boldness with which the country is raped just go march on Washington DC? Simple, really.



First, we're talking about the newly homeless here. People who have had their jobs shipped overseas through no fault of their own, who've had their houses stolen from them, who can't afford to feed themselves or their kids. Just how exactly are these people supposed to GET TO Washington? Walk? Have you ever tried to walk 500 miles, or 500 more? It's not fun, even when you have a really good reason. (It's all I can do to walk about 15-20 miles a week and I'm healthier than 90% of you reading this.) I can't afford to go march on Washington, and neither can the majority of protesters. They're doing all they can to get food to eat.

Second, not counting armed revolts, no "movement" which focused on one city ever amounted to anything. This is a NATIONAL CRISIS, folks. It's a problem which can only be solved by one of three things: armed revolt, Constitutional Convention, or for those who deem themselves our lords to willingly abdicate their thrones. I think we can safely say that willing abdication will NEVER take place without the threat of armed revolt targeting those who need to step down (because historically speaking, fear of mob justice is the ONLY reason it's ever happened), so unless you want to become an ill-named Tea Party enthusiast advocating such things, that leaves the Constitutional Convention.

How on Earth do you get one of those things going?

It's a national event, something each state has to agitate for, and we need something like 38 out of the 50 states to agree to it. You don't get that kind of mass appeal by marching on one lousy city which really needs a second reason to glow in the dark to get rid of the rot. You have to get in people's faces, you have to show them that there IS a problem which CANNOT BE SOLVED by simply rolling over and letting the Koch brothers and the Freddie/Fannie monopolies keep raping you, hoping they'll get bored and stop. They won't. It's what they live for.

If you don't want to do anything to help yourself, that's okay with me, but don't complain about the economy or Congress or the excessive police-state we're getting into or the high prices or skyrocketing inflation or anything else, and don't tell me I can't take charge of my life and try to set my country right. As Carl Schurz said, "My country, right or wrong. When right to be kept right and when wrong to be put right."

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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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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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Sunday Funnies 11-10-16

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A lot's happened this past week. First off, I found a nice intermediate step between the previous rendition of the site and the super-modern, user-reconfigurable version (which I really want you to have, just as soon as they enable the important stuff), and that is what you see now: nice lines and boxes and a very clean, professional look. I'm extremely happy with this, although it forgot to import all my keywords and meta tags; thank God I saved the code from the previous rendition! I've probably got 1000 keywords to help the search engines find the stuff you're looking for! The site should stay about the same for a while.

Second is that Biketoberfest is winding down today. There are a few things still going on, but come sunset, bikes will return to their normal level of ubiquity. Had wonderful weather for this extended weekend, and from the looks of my riding around, there were about as many people here as there usually are for my birthday party, aka Bike Week in March. (Bike Week always falls on my birthday, except, apparently, for next year.)

Third is that I checked out the new Occupy Daytona Beach group last week. Fifty people showed up last Monday for its first meeting, and over 100 showed up for yesterday's informational/rally/demonstration, which itself was part of a WORLDWIDE event taking place in almost 1000 cities.

As I said at the meeting, it takes a lot of courage to show up at these things. When you see the attrocities being committed in New York City against these people, such as a cop running over an observer with his motorcycle and then beating and arresting him, it makes you wonder for your own safety. When you have hypocritical retards like Ann Coulter - a woman who lauded Timothy McVeigh's terrorist attack on Oklahoma City (which you'll read about later this week) - are slinging hateful insults and telling regular people to commit irrational acts of violence, you have to wonder for your own safety. And when you even have various elected officials calling for violence and even murder against the protesters, it's almost enough to go back to being a sheep, awaiting your turn to be fleeced and slaughtered.


So yes, it takes a hell of a lot of balls (or a hell of a lot of nothing left to lose) to show up and demand your rights, and I applaud and admire this kind of bravery. I applaud even more those people who have taken it upon themselves to organize and support them. Organizing the gatherings and leading them is a big job which makes them even more of a target of ridicule and hate by hypocritical pundits who have never contributed anything meaningful to society.

I've had a handful of people thank me for my time in the Navy, and I'm grateful to know they're grateful for what I did, but I was fortunate enough to have never faced the kinds of dangers the protesters in New York City are facing from the people who are supposed to be protecting them. I have a lot of respect for these people, and thank them for making the sacrifices which will see this Movement through to the end.

Fourth, on a more personal note, the site's traffic has increased significantly in the past few months, with this week possibly setting a record. I have no doubt that October will set yet another traffic record for the site. We had about 20,000 visitors the first year Google started counting them for me, a number I never thought I'd see when I started doing this 12 years ago, and another nearly 8000 visitors in the past three and a half months, so we're well on the way to see a large increase next year. Amazing! And it's all thanks to you guys, finding the place, liking what you see, and spreading the word to your friends.

Thank you!

Now on to the important news links which were posted on the new More in Sanity Facebook page you may have missed.

Bank On It: They're Scared - The 1% is starting to realize they're about to lose their iron grip on the public's minds.

Roemer joining Occupy Wall Street protest - The only Presidential candidate who "gets it", Republican Buddy Roemer supports OWS.

Alan Grayson: The Best 2 Minutes On Why We Should All #OccupyWallStreet - Democrat Alan Grayson explains OWS in terms any genuinely fair-minded individual can understand.

Microsoft finds 64 billion fewer spam messages one month after botnet takedowns - It's getting harder and harder to call them evil.

Americans believe Tea Party is Counterproductive - They betrayed what they claimed to stand for: us.

Grayson on Occupy Wall Street: The last human thing left to do.... show up. - More wisdom from Alan Grayson.

86% of Bailout Money Used for Executive Bonuses - How corporations rape America.

30 Citibank customers arrested for closing their account - Bonus fascism!

And lastly, near as I can tell, this is the Congressional Oath of Office.

The Congressional Oath of Office:
I pledge allegiance, to my political party, to ruin the United States of America, and to the scandal, for which it lies, one nation, under our thumb, with liberty, and justice, for those who help me do it.

Coming up this week: more good stuff! Keep on keepin' on, and work up the courage to click the LIKE button on the More in Sanity page! I know you can do it.

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Last Week's Installment: Sunday Funnies - 11-10-9

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Is Change Good?

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Change for the sake of change is rarely good. It may be how Evolution works, but we as a society can't afford such luxuries. However, times change, and if we don't keep up with those changes, we stagnate and crumble. Even a brick wall needs to be remortared every once in a while to maintain its integrity.

When it comes to politics, there are two broad philosophies: keeping things as they are - Conservatism - and changing things - which goes by many names, such as Liberalism and Progressivism.

Historically speaking, the Conservatives are a more cohesive force than those wishing for change. So long as enough people are willing to put up with whatever the current circumstance is, change isn't needed. But circumstances change of their own accord, no matter how we might want to keep them the same, if for no other reason than because as we age, our needs change, and when they do, the number of people satisfied with the current situation decreases until change happens.


You'll notice when this happens, though, that there have to be a LOT of dissatisfied people. The Conservatives are much more cohesive, and can retain power even when 1/3, even 1/4 of the people want to keep things the same. Why is this so? Why is it that those who want change can't seem to stick together long enough to take control and make those changes?

Today, an overwhelming majority of people believe change must come. Between the corruption of politicians, corporations, and news agencies, a country which produces more than any other country in history is going broke and in danger of a civil war.

The United States created nearly 15 TRILLION dollars of wealth in 2010. That's $15 million million! ($15,000,000,000,000) Can you imagine how much money that is? That's enough to give every man, woman, and child on Earth $2000, and still have a trillion left over to give to me as a birthday present so I can buy a couple of Switzerlands. How is it conceivable that we could possibly be broke? It's not, of course, unless you've got a bunch of leeches stealing whatever they can. And so, change is coming.

But even though this has been building for several years - I recall when I was in grade school studying the Civil War, I saw a quote from someone who said the next civil war wouldn't be between the states and the federal government - no useful changes have happened before now. In fact, the Conservatives have only cemented their power further with impressive con jobs on the American people, which I won't go into right now.

Why has this gone on so long?

Because, although the vast majority of Americans want change, they can't decide which change to make. Even when a question has only two possible choices, there are still a lot of questions and choices to make. Which issue is most important to you? There are so many to choose from, and tons of distracting questions asked of us.

Change is coming, that's for sure.Those in power may have created a lot of anti-protester weapons, and that may put down some of the complaining, but as they continue to take more and more from us, we have less and less to lose. I think we all know what happens to someone when they have nothing left to lose.

The road we took to get here was a crafty one, well-disguised and full of distractions to keep us from noticing we're not in the shallow end of the pool any more and being expected to keep an anvil above water, but people are starting to wake up, and the media disinformation campaign against the brave souls lining Wall Street is faltering under the continuing barrage of real journalists who do NOT bow to the dollar.

I pray justice will be done for those brave enough to stand up for what's right, and that it will be done to those who have tried so vigorously to rob us of our future. To do that, we have to have something to agree on. Something to unite behind. Simply "Take back our country" isn't good enough. We need the problem defined and a specific goal. THAT is something we can unite behind. THAT is what we can use to take the country back from those who have stolen it from We The People.

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Sunday funnies - 11-10-9

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Since starting up the Facebook attachment (which I just spoke about in the previous post), I've found it's very easy to just throw up interesting links. However, Facebook doesn't have a very good history function, nor a good search function, so when those very important posts fall too far down, they're pretty much lost to all who aren't internet archaeologists.

So I just now sez to myself, "Self," I sez, "why not preserve the best of them thar linkies up in here in this website?" That might be funnier if you can imagine me doing it in my Mr. Turner voice. If you've had the privilege to hear it.

But anyway, here are the best links of the week, not counting the links back to here.

Bombshell: DOJ Considering Elimination of ATF

What’s behind the scorn for the Wall Street protests? - Jesse Ventura (yes, that one) pointed this out.

TrainStation - A very rare find: a Facebook game worth playing.

Daily Show: Parks and Demonstration - John Stewart's take on the Wall Street demonstrations.

Ohio Pork Industry Hurt by Prison System Decision - Political Retardation strikes again.

Bank On It: They're Scared - More on the Occupy Wall Street movement, just released today.


Quite a collection there. Once you're done checking them all out, how about heading over to our new Facebook page and hitting the LIKE button for us? Click here to see it. Do it. Do it nooooooow.

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Never Forgetting

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It was a Tuesday like any other. I had just gone on Terminal Leave from 6 years in the Navy - I was technically still in the military, but about 3 weeks before, I'd taken my first and only helicopter flight off the Bataan (LHD-5) to get on my way back home to Northwest Indiana. I had a total of 6 weeks of Leave stocked up, and I was ready for some major decompression before getting into a new job. I'd spent the past 3 weeks having some fun, and that morning was in my room, doing some writing when, at 9:00, I received a phone call from my Aunt Kitty.

2000

"Are you watching TV?" she asked.

Both buildings struck

"Naw, I pretty much lost interest in it while I was in the Navy," I answered, thinking maybe she was going to ask me to spend the day with her.

"Turn it on. Any channel."

I came out to the living room and hunted for the remote. It occurred to me she wouldn't ask me to do something like that unless something was happening, but I was expecting maybe a Presidential address or something. I had no way to prepare myself for what I saw.

What I saw when I turned on the TV

The first image was a medium-shot of the twin towers, with smoke billowing out of one of them. The other was obscured by smoke or the angle. It took a moment before I realized what the news was saying, that someone had crashed a jet liner into the building. Both, in fact. And as the coverage continued, something else finally made its way into my shocked brain: the other tower wasn't obscured. It was gone.

I watched, unable to tear my eyes away. Unable to stop hoping that some of those people would be all right. I saw something fall off the building, and the newsman said it was a jumper. He said it was ANOTHER jumper. Several people had already jumped.

Immediately after second collapse

Then the unthinkable happened. The second tower started collapsing. I couldn't believe it. The other building had been hit much lower; that it fell was less of a surprise, but this one had been hit toward the top. Only a few floors should have been lost. But no, the whole thing collapsed like a house of cards. I couldn't believe it.

Two days to see the result

I don't remember how or when my phone call ended. Did we talk? Did she just hang up right away to call someone else? I don't remember. All I know is that horrible feeling of dread as they kept showing over and over the impact of the second plane, and the collapse of each tower. I remember being too overwhelmed to feel anything about the Pentagon, or the flight in Pennsylvania destined for the White House. I do remember those brave souls who decided to take back their airplane, who refused to let the terrorists accomplish their mission.

Recovering the flag

I also remember the attitude we had following that day. Before that point, in any TV show or movie, when someone gets taken hostage, they're almost always paralyzed with fear. They'd rather hang on to the microscopic hope that they would be all right, that someone would save them or that the bad guys would have enough honor to let them go. But after that point, it was like Americans realized for themselves that letting ANYONE take them hostage WAS a death sentence. How can you trust that someone who is willing to kill you WON'T kill you when he no longer needs you alive? How can you trust that your death at his hands isn't what he's planning all along, and that he'd just using you as a shield so he can kill more than just you?

Symbolic return

Before 9/11, there were a scant handful of movies which depicted hostage takers giving the police a horrible choice: kill a bus/plane load of hostages, or wait until the terrorists drove/flew their vehicle someplace to kill even more people.

2006

For a few years after 9/11, it looked like America was going to get serious on terror. Like we were going to kick the ass of ANYONE who tried to hold a gun on us. There is NO guarantee that someone demonstrating his willingness to shoot you WON'T shoot you. Better to deny him whatever he wants; you're going to die anyway. Even if he doesn't kill you, you're going to die anyway, so why help him kill others? It seemed like Americans felt that way, and they'd do what it took to rid the world of the scourge of terrorism.

2011

It seemed like they weren't afraid, that they'd accepted that someone could intrude on their lives at any moment with a gun or a bomb or an envelop of anthrax. They could die at any moment, and so they need not worry about it. They would just live their lives, and if death should come knocking, they would defiantly go down swinging and try to take their killer with them.

2011

Today, 10 years later, America has a Holy Site, no less important to us than the Great Mosque in Mecca, the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, Lord Ram's birthplace in Ayodhya, or Vatican City in Rome. And today, right about now, it's being commemorated and the museum is opening. The Twin Towers site is receiving an overhaul, complete with new skyscrapers, and today the Freedom Tower has reached a height of 1000 feet out of the total, planned to be 1776 feet. The Freedom Tower is expected to be complete in 2013, and the other structures in the following years, while the museum and park are open now.

2020

I wish I could be in New York City today.


Timeline of 9/11 attacks.
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Better to Have with no Need

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We've all heard it. I'm sure Huey Lewis wasn't the first to say it. Every time you need something you don't have, someone's sure to say, "It's better to have but don't need, than to need but don't have."

Really?

Is that why you've got all that junk in your garage? All those little toys and baubles and sundry, you got that because it was better to have it so you wouldn't need it?

Okay, I can see where sometimes that's good advice. It might rain today, so take an umbrella. Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. The power might go out so you can't get in through the garage door, so you'd better bring your house key on your walk. The Russians might develop nuclear weapons, so we'd better develop some too.

But it doesn't work for everything. For example:


I don't need a private jet, but maybe I should get one, just in case, right? Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. I might have to run from The Langoliers some day.

I don't need an elephant, but I'd probably better get one just in case I decide to go to Thailand for the summer. You can't go to Thailand without an elephant!

I don't need a bazooka, but I'd probably better get one.

Okay, I probably do need a bazooka, just in case I get into a traffic jam caused solely by rubber-neckers, but I think you get the point. The phrase is what's known as a false dichotomy. It means we're being misled into thinking we have only two choices, usually two BAD choices. It's a favorite tool of politicians and lawyers to make people think they have only one sane choice. It may be better to have something and not need it than to need it and not have it, but think: if you REALLY don't need it, then why have it? That's right, you have a third option! It's even better to not need it AND not have it!

I just saved you about a trillion dollars of buying stuff you don't need. You don't need a fancy car if a regular car will do. You don't need a TV if you've got a good imagination and a good book. There is no conceivable use for a tattoo other than to proclaim to the world you have no sense. You don't need your own country. You don't need 99% of the crap that advertisers try to sell you, so don't buy it! (Obviously, if I try to sell you something, it's because you DO need it!)

There's an awful lot of stuff out there you've been conned into buying that you simply have no need for, and I'm not talking strictly about possessions. There are a lot of ideas you don't really need either. Any time a politician tries to pull your heart-strings to get you to jump through a hoop, stop and think: is what they're pushing on you REALLY the dividing line between good and evil? Were they REALLY thinking of the children when they proposed this? Are there OTHER options which should be considered?

When someone says, "We need this sidewalk so people don't get run over," is there really no other choice? "I have to do at least 90 on the highway or I'll get run over." I'll bet that's not true. "Video games are rotting kids' brains." Is it possible that maybe a lack of parenting is the real culprit? "If you want to be a 7 foot tall basketball player, you have to train like one." Are you sure?

Exercise a modicum of your vast intellect once in a while, okay?

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Give Peace a Chance

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“It is no longer good enough to CRY peace, we must ACT peace, LIVE peace and LIVE IN peace.” - Unk, probably Dalai Lama

All throughout the Cold War, there were people saying things like, "Give peace a chance" and "make love, not war". These sayings continued and mutated until it became popular for people in movies making a wish to "wish for world peace".

Oddly enough, many of the people who say they want world peace make very little effort to attain it. Maybe they go to a demonstration or something, but often peace demonstrations turn violent. People protesting abortions have been known to threaten and kill those who perform them. Is this really living up to the ideal?

I'm not talking about complete and utter pacifism here. Even the Dalai Lama has no compunction about defending himself from harm if some beligerent fool should make it necessary, I'm talking about living up to the ideals you espouse.


I've watched a couple episodes of the new show, Alphas, and one of the characters is a psychologist. Often, he is put in a position where most of us would feel boxed in and forced to fight. In such situations, it seems perfectly natural to sling insults back, or to see that a fight is going to happen and you may as well get in the first shot, but this psychologist doesn't do that.

In a demonstration of non-judgmentalism FAR BEYOND any I've seen from even the most adept at the skill, he defuses the situation by first, not taking personally anything, and second, asking neutral questions which get at the heart of the matter.

He's not one of the super-powered "Alphas", and to look at his normal body language and listen to the meekness in his voice, you'd think he lived his life in fear of everything, but when the chips are down and you listen to what he says and how he says it, and the way people around him react to him, you see he's really sort of alpha himself. This being the "normal" type of alpha, as in the guy who's in charge and has our backs. Not many of those around.

It makes me wonder if the Dalai Lama isn't a lot like this. Someone who is SO AT PEACE within himself that we regular folk simply can't comprehend it. We're so wrapped up in what our co-workers are saying about us behind our backs and whether someone on the street thinks we're too fat or bald, or whether our friends are going to think we're asking too much of them, and so on that we take EVERYTHING personally.

99% of the anger that gets directed at you isn't about you at all, it's about something else in that angry person's life. If you stop taking it personally (even on the rare occasion it was meant to be taken personally) and let it slide, or better yet, take it as a compliment that that person felt the need to point out the one little thing keeping you from perfection in his/her eyes, you'd have a lot less stress. You'd make the world a better place. You'd actually be giving peace a chance.

Try it some time, and see what it feels like to LIVE a catch-phrase.

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Only in Ohio can you not Fly the Flag

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Being from northwest Indiana, I have a natural distrust for all things Buckeye. As a truck driver, I found justification for this when Ohio's laws required trucks to drive dangerously slow on the interstates. I felt like I should be using my flashers and orange triangle to warn cars that I was in a slow-moving vehicle because of how much slower I had to drive. And it didn't seem to be for any purpose other than as a money grab - either you spend an extra hour crossing the state, and are that much more likely to have to buy food and gas there, or you get a thousand dollar speeding ticket for trying to be less dangerous to the people around you. I'd heard the governor was even declining federal highway funds because the state made so much money off the truckers! And as a writer, I'm finding a disproportionate amount of wacky fans coming from Ohio.

And now, Ohio residents are attempting to forbid a man his right to fly a flag in front of his house.

Normally, something like this might spring up out of some hypocrite insisting he be allowed to blow up American citizens doing whatever he can to make everyone around him as miserable as he is, but this time, it's for a much more mundane reason: it's against the rules.

Who made a rule IN AMERICA that you can't fly the AMERICAN flag in front of your own house?


A home owner's association made such a rule.

In this story, we learn that a 77 year old veteran - a COMBAT veteran, no less - is going to be sued by his home owner's association if he doesn't take down the flagpole. He's not flying anything out of the ordinary or excessively showy; it's a standard pole and a standard flag.

As scary as it is that an HOA would have a rule forbidding flags, what's even scarier is that, instead of reconsidering how that rule breaks the law and that it should be changed, they think the solution is to waste money suing a veteran. A COMBAT veteran. Someone who literally risked his life to defend our liberties! Do the members of that HOA know? Do they approve of travesty?

I can't rag too much on Ohio, not just because I have some very good friends who live there who have no part in something so obscene, but because last year, there was something even worse going on in California, the state which is the root of most evil.

Last year, at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, on the fifth of May, a group of American kids wore American flag tee-shirts and then were suspended for it. Why should this matter? Because it just so happens that Cinco de Mayo is the Mexican equivalent to the Fourth of July, and it's celebrated on the 5th of May. A racist Mexican organization, stoically against the idea of harmony and unity with any other group, was putting on a celebration, wearing Mexican flag tee-shirts, and otherwise campaigning to have the American Southwest annexed to Mexico. As you can imagine, it was not a celebration of inclusiveness like Martin Luther King Day and Chinese New Year and Cinco de Mayo in the rest of the country. It was celebrate Mexico or GTFO.

The principal of the school asked those five American students to turn their shirts inside out, so as not to offend anyone. I'm sure it never occurred to him to do the same for anyone wearing non-American clothing on the Fourth of July, or non-Santa clothing on Christmas, or non-Orthidox clothing on an Orthidox holiday. When the students bravely refused, they were suspended.

Bravely? You may think I'm exaggerating, but refusing really was brave. Not because the principal was going to suspend them, but because the racist Mexican organization backing the day's celebrations, MEChA, is dangerous, and those students were literally taking their lives into their own hands by daring to wear the American flag within the school yard on that day. MEChA's own website declares its dangerous intentions toward our country! It's a domestic terrorist group!

Of course, you never heard about any of this, because we wouldn't want to offend hypocrites whose goal is the murder of our nation or its national pride.

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Genetics Relegated to Poor Excuse

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"I'm genetically predisposed to be fat," you say. Or whatever your malady is, be it boring, annoying, stupid, tired, bald, poor, irresponsible, et cetera. People have used their learned helplessness - that gut reaction that says, "I have no control over my life and therefore should be pitied and given free stuff" - for quite some time as an excuse for why their life isn't the way they want it to be. "I was bullied in school," "The Man is oppressing me," "I was raped," "They put addictive chemicals in it," and so on are brandished like weapons to justify collective laziness and refusal to take responsibility for one's own life. The most powerful of these excuses has been, "I'm genetically predisposed..." It's the ultimate in having no control over one's destiny.

Attitude determines altitude. It's not just true for airplanes, it's also true for people. Whatever problems you've had in your life, they can be overcome and you can find your happiness. And just today, I've learned of definitive evidence that the tired old excuse for mediocrity - genetic factors - is just that: an excuse.

In this study, 30 men with prostate cancer changed their lifestyles instead of undergoing the "normal" treatments, and in ONLY THREE MONTHS, genes which fought disease had flipped on and genes that caused cancer had flipped off.

They had changed their genes!

I've known for some time that diet and exercise can make a huge difference in the way people feel and what they can do; I've experienced it myself. Tony Robbins was the first to let me in on the secret, followed by several others. More and more people are finding out that they can heal themselves simply by making a few minor changes to the way they live and what they eat, and the investment is paying off. Their friends are noticing.

So what are you going to do with this information? Are you going to continue to let your life slip by you? Or are you going to realize that you can reach for your dreams and achieve them? Are you going to realize you CAN take control of your life?

Believing is believing.

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Allah be Praised

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Praise Allah for finally deciding to clean up his house! With Obama bin Laden dead at the hands of American soldiers - Navy SEALs no less - this is pretty clear proof that Allah wants nothing to do with the bastard. Together with all the upheavals going on in the Middle East and North Africa, it seems to me that blaming wholesale murder and personal greed on an all-powerful entity was a bad idea.

Let's look at this. When someone tells you to kill other people and live in abject poverty because he claims some all-powerful being told him to tell you to do it, shouldn't you stop and wonder at his proof? How do you know Allah told that guy to tell you to kill people in the most horrible ways imaginable? Why should you live in misery while he lives in a palace? Isn't Allah capable of obliterating anyone he wants obliterated?

And so he has.


Usama Bin Laden was killed in Islamabad, Pakistan, this past Friday. Praise be to Allah for delivering us from the pretender who abused Allah's name for his own personal gain.

The Christians figured out how to stop doing that a couple hundred years ago when the Inquisition was put to rest and the Crusades became passe. Let's hope the Muslims and the Jews figure it out really soon too so we can all play nice and let everyone believe what they want to believe about their Creator.

Now what should we do about Pakistan?

One thing is for sure: let's not do the bastard the honor of defining ourselves and our history with words like pre-bin Laden and post-bin Laden, okay?

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Politically Retarded

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I saw a news item the other day in which some idiot claimed it was "politically correct" to refer to Easter Eggs as "Spring spheres". Naturally, I was abhored at how assinine someone had to be to demonize chicken eggs delivered by a bunny rabbit, but also a bit pleasantly surprised and shocked that such a thing had made news. Had someone finally had enough of this ridiculousness? Was a major news organization going to take off its Radical blinders and report on the mass-murder of common sense?

The newspeople did have a protest, much to my delight, but when I found out what it was, I was appalled. To my intense disappointment, the newspeople were NOT protesting the fact that "political correctness" has gone too far, nor that its purpose is to deceive the masses. No, they were protesting something much more mundane.

The factual error of calling an egg a sphere.

A sphere is a perfectly round object, like a ball. Basketball, baseball, tennis ball, ping pong ball, even the Earth itself is more or less a sphere. An egg, however, is a spheroid. Those three letters make a big difference.

And that's all they cared about: mislabeling a spheroid as a sphere. Not that someone was mislabeling Easter as a mere "Spring Celebration", and certainly not that there are so many people with nothing better to do than invent ridiculous, even obscene language conventions so as to deny all Humans their basic right to free speech and free thought. Goodbye Easter, goodbye Christmas, goodbye Ramadan, goodbye Hannakuh...

Wait a minute!

No one's advocating the destruction of Muslim culture; anyone can celebrate Ramadan or pray five times a day or wear a face mask in their official picture ID. Likewise, you'll get labeled an anti-Semite if you were to even suggest suppressing Hannakuh or Passover or any other Jewish celebration. So I guess it's only Christians who are being attacked in this way. Pretty hypocritical, huh? Discrimination at its ugliest.

Likewise, no one would dare publish any of the crimes committed by an Imam or a Rabbi, nor would they dare burn a Koran or a Torah in protest - look at the global ire raised when someone threatened to burn a Koran - but if the press is to be believed, every single Catholic Priest commits pedophilia on a daily basis and Bibles were printed expressly for the purpose of being burned.

And have you ever noticed how it's "politically correct" to believe that all men are evil and all women are victims? Or that all whites and ONLY whites are racists? How insane does the world have to get before the people who are having their personal power robbed wake up and realize it?

"Political correctness" is as much a misnomer as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. It has nothing whatsoever to do with avoiding hurting peoples' feelings or being polite, and there's certainly not much correct about it.

"Political correctness" has only two functions.

First, it's designed to rob you of your First Amendment Right to say whatever you feel like. Not being able to say something robs you of your ability to think. Anyone who has read George Orwell's 1984 is familiar with the trick of removing words from the language to prevent you from having certain thoughts. If you have no word for SPADE, then you can't very well call a spade a spade.

Second, it's an attack on America's culture, specifically Christians, males, and whites. When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood up and spoke out against injustice, it was not an attack for or against any specific group of people. He wanted EQUALITY for ALL. Not just for the hypocrites who want freedom to do anything they want to the rest of us while they deny us the same freedoms (like nearly any politician or religious fundamentalist does), but for ALL people.

We need a new word, while we still have some semblance of the First Amendment to allow us to do such a thing. We need a proper label for this process that describes it correctly.

"Politically Retarded" works well. Far better than "Politically Incorrect," which implies that PC has value.

We use the word "political" because politics doesn't make a whole lot of sense, nor does this process of cultural destruction. It's very confusing. Okay, actually, it's about power; having power over someone else, and that's what politics really is; it's enslaving someone else to your will.

We use the word "retarded" because if you look it up in the dictionary, you find out it means something is less advanced, or held back in some way. Like a retarded aerial bomb has special fins to slow it down rapidly. The education systems in many countries are retarded in comparison to some others. A human who is developmentally retarded may have physical or mental (or even social) limitations that prevent them from having what the rest of us call a normal life. So it's perfectly apt to say that if you believe in being destructive that you are retarded. You can take that any way you like, but no one intelligent will tell you it's incorrect in any way, so keep your developmentally challenged parents out of this.

So now that we have an appropriate and correct term to describe the willful, pedantic destruction of American culture, let's be sure to use it whenever it rears its ugly head.

Call an Easter Egg an Easter Egg. Wish people a Merry Christmas. Enjoy being whoever you are, whether you're black, white, purple, male, female, or something in between. When someone tries to hassle you or attack you with something obviously Politically Retarded, feel free to put the proper label on it and then go on doing right.

Don't let Politically Retarded people destroy your country or your culture. Allow TRUE equality to reign. Insist on having your rights to free speech and free thought, or they WILL be taken away from you.

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More articles of a similar vein:
I'm Totally in Love with this Lady
In my Quest to Offend You
Profiling: Is It Good or Bad?

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