Thoughts on Gay Marriage

I personally believe that who you love, want to live with, sleep with, and spend your life with is none of the government's business. Why must the government be involved at all in marriage ?? Why must you go to a judge to get married and and then to a judge to get divorced ?? Why must married people have benefits that unmarried do not ?? I'm serious, this "legal marriage" is a major reason why the heterosexual marriage rates are plummeting. With no fault divorce your spouse can leave you at any time and take half of your assets. You want to experience injustice--go to divorce court. With our current system, I believe that gay people should have the right to marry but I'd warn them that just like heterosexuals, they have a 50% chance of getting divorced and it will cost them a fortune. Just look at some gay celebrities who married AND divorced their partners: Rosie O'Donnell, Ricky Martin, Melissa Etheridge, David Tutera, Jodie Foster, Jane Lynch, Ellen DeGeneres, David Geffen, and Cheyenne Jackson. I wonder how much those divorces cost them ?? I think that the main people pushing this are divorce attorneys who will double their business.

Troubled Schools

While it is important for the school to have both the resources and teachers that a student needs, that is only part of the battle. The largest factor as to whether a student fails or succeeds is parental involvement and their environment. A child can't learn if they are hungry, a child can't learn if they aren't in school, a child can't learn if they don't feel safe at home, a child can't learn if their parent is drunk or high,etc. It has been proven time and time again that children from poor families can do well in school if their parents are supportive. That's why the other piece of the pie is a strong PTA, and the churches and community encouraging parents to get involved with their children's education and if they have "issues" to deal with them so they don't negatively affect their children.

My Thoughts on the Energy Crisis

The Energy issue frustrates me like no other because there is no reason or honest debate on the issue. On one hand some people say that climate change doesn't exist and the more oil and coal we use the better. They totally ignore that almost ALL of U.S. foreign policy is dictated by oil. For example our country cares little about most of Africa and South America but care way too much about the Middle East---why ?? OIL--Africa and South America have little but the Middle East has a lot. Why do we care so much about the Ukraine ?? It wouldn't have anything to do with natural gas pipelines flowing from the Caucuses oil fields to Europe---nah.
On the other side of the fence, people take climate change as a religion and anyone who questions various "facts and figures" is either a loon or a Koch brothers stooge. People believe that carbon credits are great and not a massive scam that does nothing for the environment except will make guys who OWN the carbon credit companies billions (like Al Gore). People believe that spending a fortune on BURNING WOOD (called Biomass) is somehow "Green". Meanwhile when solar or wind projects that might actually work (like off the NE coast) are proposed, suddenly it's Not In My Back Yard syndrome.
People need to understand that there is a finite amount of oil in the ground and we are quickly using it up. We ARE affecting the environment by putting so many green house gases into the atmosphere although to what effect is up to debate. People also need to except that limiting energy will not only ruin economies but will negatively affect all of our lives. We are all totally dependent on electricity and gas powered vehicles for everything. We need to stop pointless bickering and put money and research into alternative energies that WORK. Things like flexible solar panels that are thin and could be put on everyone's roofs, advanced lithium ion batteries to store energy for nights and rainy days, fusion power that could solve all of our energy problems, etc.

Wise Advice from a Great Man

One thing that has always frustrated me is that the United States as a country and its citizens are always concerned about the affairs of other countries and never our own. Our country spends all of its time, money, treasure and blood involved in the problems of the rest of the World and never on our own issues. Our infrastructure is crumbling, our schools are failing, millions of Americans are out of work yet our leaders and many of our citizens are worried about the Middle East ?? We can't bail out Detroit but can send BILLIONS to the Ukraine ??

I know all about the petro dollar and that's the main reason since WW2 that we've been the "cop of the World". However, Britain did this before us and bankrupted themselves in the process and The British Empire is in the dustbin of history just like the American Empire will be as well. I believe as President George Washington said in his farewell address: "Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence, (I conjure you to believe me fellow citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake; since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of Republican Government. " (George Washington, Farewell Address, September 19, 1796)

Good Old Gerrymandering

                                         (Florida Congressional Districts)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/07/11/a-judge-says-rules-floridas-gerrymandering-went-too-far-heres-what-he-means/

Good old gerrymandering. Of course the districts are gerrymandered, look at the map--it's crazy. In my opinion, congressional districts should be based on county and be roughly equal size although due to population density urban districts would be smaller and rural larger.  Truthfully one of the major reason for the partisan gridlock in Congress is due to gerrymandering. When you have a district with many people from the right, left , and middle of the political spectrum in it, you can't be on the extreme left or right and get elected. Thus more moderates are elected who will work with the other party to get things done. Just look at the Senate, there are mostly political moderates there who can and will work with the other party. This is very unlike the House where people are one extreme or another AND the election is always decided in the primary thus people stay in the House for decades which is totally against what the framers of the Constitution had in mind.

How to Fix "Kid" Immigration Crisis

Here's a crazy, wild idea to solve this mess. Take them home. Hire a bunch of buses, payoff err "work with" Mexico, Guatamala, and El Salvador and drive them home. They all have families in their countries of origin and if they don't it'd be far cheaper to pay their countries to care for them.
Then for the long term, fund the 2006 Fence Act and BUILD the fence across the ENTIRE Southern and Northern borders. They say that will cost $5 billion, that's chicken feed to the government and we just sent almost that much to Ukraine.
If you did both of these things, the problem would END because work would quickly spread that if you come to the U.S. illegally you will get a one way bus ticket back home. People then wouldn't be sending their kids to the U.S. to be anchors to bring their whole families up here later. (like they are now)

Why the U.S. Economy is Going Down the Toilet

The fact that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer is pretty much indisputable. In the U.S., wages have been flat for almost 40 years (when adjusted for inflation). Meanwhile every year more and more of the good paying jobs are being off-shored which continues to erode the Middle Class.
The reason for all of this is multifaceted.
*  First the signing of trade treaties like Nafta, Gatt, etc made it a no brainer for companies to manufacture in very low wage countries and ship it to the U.S. with no tariffs or penalties.
* U.S. tax law makes money that U.S. companies make in foreign countries untaxable as long as it doesn't come back to the U.S. encouraging investment in foreign countries instead of U.S.
*  Government corruption has never been worse. There is a revolving door between industry and government leading to government regulations that are designed to either stifle competition or enrich the one making the regulations. Example Michael Chertoff was head of Homeland Security and passed regulations requiring the use of the full body scanners and then signed a multibillion dollar contract for them.  He leaves office and forms the Chertoff Group that receives millions of dollars a year----representing the body scanner manufacturers.
*  Too close relationship between the Federal Reserve and Wall Street/Hedge Funds. Hedge Funds can literally pick up the phone and "borrow" billions from the Federal Reserve at practically no interest to buy a company. They then have that company pay back THEIR loan and after a few years sell the company or chop up its pieces and make record profits NEVER paying out a dime themselves !!
*  The End of the Glass–Steagall Act in the 1990s was a disaster. Basically it said that Commercial Banks (that only make money by loaning money to businesses and individuals) could NOT merge with Investment Banks (who make money by playing the market with derivatives, shorts, etc). This means that if that law was still in effect, all of the big commercial banks (JP Morgan, Citibank, Wells Fargo, etc) could never have gotten into derivatives and the Panic of 2008 and the Bank Bailout would never have happened.
*  The population is being kept "content" by massive welfare spending (food stamps, welfare, housing, negative taxation {earned income tax credit}), etc. This however is not sustainable in the long term.
*  Federal Reserve is keeping economy afloat by pumping BILLIONS a month into the economy via "Quantative Easing". This money is flowing into the hands of the Big Banks and Hedge Funds hence why they are getting richer and richer and the stock market keeps going up while the economy is in the toilet). Very little trickles down to Main Street.
*  The dollar is lowly collapsing. Right now, the Federal Reserve is buying almost all of our government debt because other countries and investors refuse to buy them. One economist says this is like a snake eating it's own tail and its not sustainable.
*  The government is preparing for unrest hence the militarization of police, buying billions of rounds of ammo, etc for non-military government agencies, etc.

Fed Up with our Government in Washington

                                          (Picture from great movie The Hunger Games)
 
Fed up anger rising across America

The author is dead on with this article. The sad thing is that the people in D.C. are totally clueless about this. Remember their shock at people's anger about Obamacare at town halls a few years ago ??
Most people (especially me) are disgusted with our government and the lack of justice in this country. Spit on the sidewalk and you get beat up and arrested by militarized cops, yet if you steal billions and grease politicians nothing happens to you. They worry more about Ukraine and Iraq and spend BILLIONS of OUR money on these countries but could care less about our cities going bankrupt and falling down (Detroit).
These corrupt companies will keep off-shoring all of the good jobs and the Middle Class will keep slowly disappearing.  Meanwhile the Washington Elite will keep growing ever more out of touch with the people.

Folks that is EXACTLY the conditions before the American and French Revolutions. If things don't change,  soon all it will take is a spark to start the inferno.
Of course our wonderful government doesn't think that this may happen because if they did they would be militarizing the police, buying billions of rounds of ammunition, giving the police armored vehicles......oh wait............

My Thoughts on H1B Visas

After 25 years spent in IT at various companies, I can't STAND the H1B visa program. It is criminal what these companies are doing when American graduates with tech degrees can't get jobs in their fields. The saying that "they can't find American workers" is a filthy LIE. They want cheap foreign workers who in my experience aren't 1/2 as qualified as the American worker yet they will work cheaply and won't complain because they'll get deported thus the company has a cheap virtual slave. Never once have I EVER seen an H1B hired because they couldn't find an American worker with the skill set needed--- it's always that they are cheap AND they keep tech wages much lower than they should be. One former employer (a Fortune 500 company) 10 years ago had almost all American workers. They now have all of their lower level work done in India (which is very low quality and always messed up) and here in the U.S., their IT workforce is 75% H1Bs and 25% Americans (who are worked to death fixing everyone else's mistakes). Most of the American workers were let go and this company makes Billions in profits a year yet pays almost no taxes. One other thing is that 90% of the H1Bs (most from India) have absolutely NO desire to ever stay in the U.S. All of them come here, save money, get experience, and after 5 years go home with $100,000 and live great and then get jobs with U.S. companies that have opened offices in India to support U.S. operations. Understand that I have no issue with the workers from India doing this because if I were in their shoes, I'd be doing the same thing. It's just a sick system where the American worker is being harmed and I'm tired of company's and the government's lies on this issue.

Happy Independence Day !!

Happy Independence Day !!

I know that I (and many of us) are very critical about our government and the way things are going in our country right now, The reason is that we love it so much and it is painful to see it slowly being destroyed. To see all of the great things that made this country great weakened and destroyed day after day. Things like the family, patriotism, honor, and even the founding fathers themselves are constantly villified by a bunch of left wing communists who hate this country and all it stood for.

Reagan is right--this country could be great again and even better if the PEOPLE straightened up and started acting morally and stopped tolerating immoral behavior from business, the government and each other.

I have so much respect for the signers to the Declaration of Independance. The reason being was that by signing they were guilty of TREASON against the British crown and the penalty was DEATH !!! They all knew this but their consciences demanded that they sign it. Many of them paid dearly for signing it as well:

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors and tortured before they died.

Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.

Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army, another had two sons captured.

Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War.

Happy Independence Day everyone !!