Someone to Take Care of Me

Posted on July 9, 2011 by James

I used to think I was the “KING of Rationalization”.  No matter the scenario, I could build a strong case for my position. But it looks like I lost my title. The author of the Adult Children Living at Home – 5 Reasons to Live with your Parents Longer takes my crown without half trying. I’ve never read a more justified self-centered argument for “ME”, “ME FIRST” and “MINE”.

First, let me say that I’m not addressing religious or culture customs. I have a long standing Muslim friend, Sam, (Hi Sam) who lives at home, has her degree and is working on her Masters – without any student loan debt. In her culture, she will stay at home until she weds. No problem from me on that.

What I read in the blog is a selfish attitude of entitlement. “My life (could substitute money) is more important than yours, so YOU do without, while I live my dream. I just need someone to take care of me, until my spouse does”. Trying to justify this attitude, takes more rationalization that the 5 Reasons stated.

Reason Number 6: “I plan to bring my spouse home for a few years, while we build our fortune, go on fantastic vacations, drive expensive sport cars, and live our life to the fullest. How could we possibly live “our dream” if we were tied down with all that mundane stuff? Can you imagine the cost of having to furnish a house – especially when Pop already has a 54”  TV.  All you have to do is grab the remote control. And he usually leaves the room, shaking his head, when the News goes off and our shows come on”.

Reason Number 7: “We need to be here when the babies come along. Worrying about a furnace going out (let Mom fix it) at 2 A.M. is nothing like a baby cutting teeth, or crying with an earache and not being able to tell you why. Or even changing diapers – Uggh! Good thing Mom is nearby. And a little later when they are in school, they need to do their homework every night at the dining room table – Who’s got time for that? MaMa has nothing but time and we know she’s good at raising kids”.

Reason Number 8: We need to stay home because there’s no money saved for our inheritance. These jerks have spent every dime they ever had and what do they have to show for it? Nothing!

May be a little extreme, but that’s what I read in your logic.

Happy Motoring.

 

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A Strong Dose of Antivenin

Posted on March 10, 2011 by James

Dave Ramsey warns “If you play with snakes, you are going to get bit”. The “snakes” of course are the use of credit cards – no matter how careful you plan to be with them.

In the article “Even Snake Charmers Get Bit” the author discusses the “But Dave,”s of the world. These are the people who totally agree in principle with what Dave teaches:

“But Dave, that doesn’t apply to me – I pay off my entire balance every month – never pay interest – build up rewards points for some wonderful free prizes – I only use the card for convenience – etc, etc, etc”.

I used to be one of those “But Dave,”s. I was smarter than the system – playing with their money – without ever paying a dime in interest (To be truthful, once back in maybe 1995, I was busy and just forgot to pay the bill on time and they charged me interest – p***ed me off so, I never did that again).

So did I make a fortune investing all of that “deferred payment” money? Of course not!

I do remember a sales call at a large university where the CFO had to interrupt the meeting to move the tuition money to a higher paying investment – had to do this several times a week as the market changed – large sum, limited time before the money would be needed, urgent need for additional revenue.  But let’s be serious, none of us have this kind of opportunity to invest this monthly loan with any worthwhile return.

So bottom line – it gains us nothing and runs a risk of problems ranging from inconvenience to disaster.

What have I gained by cutting up my credit cards – How about starting a month fresh – that what I bring in is not already spent. I can choose what I want to do with that $35 to $1200 that used to be spent before I received it. To me, this feeling of freedom is greater than anything I ever received from the games I used to play with the snake handlers.

Try it.

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The Way We Were!

Posted on February 21, 2011 by James

“I’m proud that my name is the byword for a man who keeps his word and remembers his promises. I’ve never played political games” .  .  .  . “For me it was a matter of ethics; I was responsible for the livelihoods of thousands of people, and I cared about my employees”. 

                                                                Stieg Larsson – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

What strange words to be hearing in 2011 America! Do you know of a single owner, manager, or boss that you would expect to hear anything but “ME, ME, MINE”.

“GREED” is the Word – It has replaced all respect for our fellow man – especially if that dumb bastard works for us. I’ve actually heard owners complain, “We would be doing all right, if we didn’t have all those (disgust) people (their employees) down the hall spending our money”.

I can’t remember the last time I’ve heard positive attitudes from owners and top management. It’s all about squeezing out that last ounce of profit – MY GOD! Will they EVER have Enough? Company after company that I hear from, has not given an incentive raise to their employees for several years. “Job market is so tight – these slobs aren’t going anywhere”.

So if you are somewhere down the food chain and are trying to make it to the top, I wish you well – and when you make it there, I hope you remember your journey – respecting your co-workers, giving them a little boost when needed, a little appreciation for a job well done. I think that you will find a wonderful talent base around you that will bust their butts to make you all successful if you allow them to be on the team – instead the enemy.

In the meantime, does anyone have an idea on how we can rid ourselves of our current bloodsuckers?

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Finish What You Start

Posted on February 20, 2011 by James

The Environmental Protection Agency set the value of a life at $9.1 million last year in proposing tighter restrictions on air pollution. The agency used numbers as low as $6.8 million during the George W. Bush administration.

The Food and Drug Administration declared that life was worth $7.9 million last year, up from $5 million in 2008, in proposing warning labels on cigarette packages featuring images of cancer victims.

Man, I guess I need a whole new set of friends – the ones I have just can’t keep up.

I caught a lot of heat last time out – requesting that murder-suicide planners complete the job once they start with task one – they have a moral obligation to finish task two. No, I didn’t mean that it was OK to just go through the motion in your gated community by taking just enough sleeping pills to take a nap after you shot and killed both of your teenage children. Don’t Take Me Half the Way – Crystal Gayle

Things like I was playing God; or- that a single soul – no matter what the offense, could repent and go to “Heaven”.  So this lady is going to be worth the millions of bucks (mentioned above) just because she didn’t finish the job.

How? Watch this. Her family lived (before) in a $484,000 house in the gated community. Husband – a Colonel in the Army making over six figures. A Mercedes-Benz for each of them. She will have tax payers foot the bill for her Public Defender. Husband has asked for a divorce – her half of the assets will be tied up for a long time, and you really don’t expect him to have to pay for the defense of his children’s murderer, do you? Then we’ll have our medical experts try to determine if this fruitcake knew what she was doing – and of course the “State” and the “Defense” will have their own “paid” experts to examine and testify – Since this is Public Defender, we taxpayers get to pay both sides – Man we can’t lose.

Life in prison/criminal insane costs from $50,000 up, or a state execution costs over $1 million. (John Grisham wrote of a state that voted out the death penalty purely based on the rise in taxes.)

None of this is fun or funny. I feel sorry for the husband, the kids, all of their friends, anyone who knew this woman had a problem and failed to act on it (She wrote in her notepad when she found that a waiting period is required before you can have the gun you just bought – “This will just delay the massacre”).

And I feel sorry for people who come up with great plans to improve our civilization, and only finish half the job.

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Don’t Take Me Half the Way – Crystal Gayle

Posted on February 7, 2011 by James

One man in Arizona was indicted for trying to smuggle guns into Mexico for re-sale to the drug cartels. Seems he had 239 legally purchased assault rifles.

A mother in Tampa legally purchased a pistol because her two children were “mouthy”. A couple of weeks later she left a note that she was going to kill both of them and then herself. Picked up her son at soccer practice and shot him twice on the way home. Got home, covered the body in the car with a blanket and went upstairs and shot the daughter to death. Covered up the body with a blanket and updated her note. She slept in the house, in blood-stained clothes and was found by the pool the next morning by the local police – who were asked to check on her by her Mother in Texas.

(Without beating an old drum, you would think the NRA would be leading the pack in tighter gun controls. Oh, they think we should keep the guns out of the hands of criminals and crazies, but pass no law to control the right of a citizen to buy or own guns. How convenient – to have 20-20 hindsight on who should be able to buy!  Background checks, questioneers about gun ownership, waiting periods from application to purchase, ban on assault rifles or magazine bullet capacity limits – “Where does the Constitution allow for any of this”?)

But the NRA is not even my target today.

I’m really tired of the murder-suicide cases that only go half the way – like the Mother above. If you determine that the world would be better off without you and your loved ones - just STOP! Admit that you are crazy, need help and should be locked up. If you Continue and you take it into your own hands to eliminate your kids, spouse, friend or neighbor and then yourself – please don’t stop until you finish the whole bloody deed. After the murder, you can’t rationalize, “I don’t want to die” or “Damn, that looks like it hurt – change of plans is in order.”  

No way, Poncho – You don’t deserve to live after you played God with the lives of loved ones. So just do us all a favor – at least half of your premise was correct: “The world would be better off without you”.

If you are worried about getting “cold feet”, maybe you could start with yourself.

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Politically Correct

Posted on February 6, 2011 by James

In earlier articles I suggested it may be time to revise the “HOLY BIBLE” and perhaps the “QUR’AN“ -  suggesting that much of the old stuff just doesn’t fit into today’s world. It seems the masses have little use for their guiding principles, and the followers are becoming a larger minority. Even many people who “follow” these teachings seem to pick and choose the landscape of their religion.

I guess I’m just ahead of my time!

Recently, the “new version” of Huckleberry Finn, that deletes the “N-word”, was announced.

Gene Weingarten, columnist for the Washington Post, picked up on this theme and (tongue-in-cheek) proposed other re-writes:

Change the title to remove distasteful words – “To Annoy a Mockingbird”

Change the age of Lolita from 12 to 27 years old. End of problem.

Cinderella’s stepmom becomes really mean to her own daughters too, so as not to demonize relationships in blended families.  

(Some may require an extreme re-write.) Tropic of Cancer By Henry Miller. The End.

Etc, etc, etc.

After more consideration – forget my earlier proposal.

Posted in Get Along | Tagged | 1 Comment

Don’t Just Do Something. Stand There!

Posted on February 2, 2011 by James

In the United States 80 people are killed by guns every day.

What do you call this – Collateral Damage? Is this the price we pay to satisfy the NRA, the Tea Party and the 2nd Amenders? Our “leaders” are quoted saying, “There’s no need to review the gun control laws at this time.” Really?

First, I’m not some pinko left-wing liberal who is telling everyone else how to live their lives. And let me be the first to admit that guns in the hands of private law-abiding citizens probably have saved me (and you) from being robbed (or worse) more than once. Although I do not own a gun, the “bad guys” do not know this, and just the chance of busting into my house and never coming out – moves them along to look for easier pickings.

I benefit – so thank you, gun lovers. It’s a little like getting a raise when the union negotiates a new contract, even though you don’t belong to the union.

For the record, I have had my garage robbed twice (more than likely while we were sleeping in the house), cars in the driveway stripped of valuables, and even our Suburban stolen at a hotel in New Orleans. If the police were the only deterrent, who knows what else may have happened?

OK, I’ve made a concession. I concede there’s a real need for “legal” guns in our crazed, violent, “have’s” and “have’s not” society. There are too many crazies, too much violence, too many drugs and the need thereof, to expect all people to live like you and me. And without legal guns, you could triple the police force and not feel safe. Call out the National Guard and set a never-ending curfew. It’s the end of life as we know it.

Now, I want you to make a concession. Let’s make a “real” effort to review the gun control laws; see what is necessary and identify what is just damn stupid (magazines that hold 33 bullets, no background checks – the seller making the decision that the buyer is OK, federal gun registration, etc. – there’s enough there to keep a panel busy for years.

The part I can’t figure out is why the NRA and other legal gun advocates aren’t the ones pushing for saner gun control. Every time an illegal gun does harm, they come closer to losing some of their rights. I would think they would be hiring lobbyist to “help” Congress pass stricter laws and to protect this freedom.

But that’s just me.

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“What can I do? You win again” – NRA

Posted on January 27, 2011 by James

Florida Governor Rick Scott said he won’t back any legislative attempts to restrict access to guns. “I believe in the right to bear arms, and I don’t see that there’s anything we should be doing right now to tighten that.”

Governor Scott owns 11 guns. (At least he knew how many – that’s a lot better than John McCain when asked, “How many houses do you own?” “Duh, I’m not sure.”

For those who don’t know – before he was elected governor Mr. Scott was the CEO of Columbia/HCA, the largest for-profit health care company in the U. S.  A Medicare billing scandal ensued, where Columbia/HCA admitted to fourteen felonies and agreed to pay the federal government $840 million in fines in 2000. The company agreed to settle for an additional $881 in 2002. As CEO, Scott basically said he didn’t know what was going on; although in a 2000 deposition he invoked the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution 75 times.  

The amendment reads in part that no one “shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.”  

Looks like Rick favors several of these amendments.

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The NRA wants YOU!

Posted on January 26, 2011 by James

Here we go!

I’ve been looking for this.

Today’s St. Petersburg Times:

“We need more guns, state senator says”

“The explosion of gun violence hasn’t gone unnoticed in the state Capitol, where lawmakers in the pro-gun Florida Legislature say the tragedies underscore the need to loosen the regulation of guns – rather than restrict them.”

“What these cases show is that gun regulation doesn’t keep guns away from criminals,” Senator Greg Evers said. “It’s time we get more guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens so they can protect themselves. You don’t bring a knife to a gunfight.”

I kept looking for the old standby, “Guns don’t kill people; people kill people.”

This same Senator is introducing NRA bills this session that will restrict physicians from asking patients about firearms in the home and to allow holders of concealed weapon permits to wear their guns in the open –including college campuses. They are 780,000 such permits in this frontier state.

(I never really understood the deal about the “concealed weapon.” Personally, I would rather this nutcase have his guns in full view, so people know to stay clear. Maybe, if the gun were locked in the trunk of his car – there may be a “cooling off” period before he opens fire on someone that didn’t show him enough respect. But that’s not what they are saying).

This state is beginning to remind me of the “toughest saloon in Texas” – where the wimpy bars made you check your weapons at the door – if you came to the “toughest saloon in Texas” unarmed, they issued you two pistols and a shotgun at the door. Not funny – no; but what’s happening in our country isn’t either.

We need to make gun ownership illegal. It may take five to ten years to rid our nation of all of the guns already out there. And the old argument of “If guns are illegal, only criminals would have them” doesn’t work either, as many “legal” guns are stolen or sold to the underworld. The gun used to kill the two policemen in Miami was stolen from a bar – don’t know, but probably “legal”.

Civilized countries do not allow their citizens to go around shooting people – they do it by restricting the gun ownership. You may be interested in the United Kingdom’s approach:

“British gun laws are among the toughest in the world, with handguns and many other firearms having been banned outright (even the Olympic pistol team must leave the country to practice their sport). Citizens who wish to lawfully own a shotgun, which is one of the few guns that can still be owned, are required to have a certificate issued by their local chief of police.  Applicants must prove to the police that they have “good reason” for wanting the gun, are fit to own a gun, and that public safety will not be endangered. Police must personally interview every applicant and later visit their home to check that the gun is stored in a secure locker. Those individuals who violate the gun control laws – even by using a gun in self defense against violent home invaders – face severe penalties”.

England has fewer gun homicides per year than the US has in a day.

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“Shoot First – Ask Questions Later”

Posted on January 25, 2011 by James

Man, I’m just sick of it.

Two police officers shot and killed; one U. S. Marshall wounded in St. Petersburg – 01/24/11

Two police officers shot and killed in Miami – 01/20/11

Two police officers shot and killed in Tampa – 06/29/10

Two police officers shot and wounded in Lakeland – 06/25/10

Police officer shot and killed in Tampa – 08/19/09

So you think Florida is a violent place? How about this last Sunday 01/23/11?

Four police officers shot and wounded in a Detroit Police Station

Two police officers shot and wounded in Port Orchard, Washington

Police officer shot and wounded in Indianapolis – (in a coma)

Police officer shot and wounded in Lincoln City, Oregon – (critical condition)

So what are we going to do? Just give up? Give in to the NRA, who seems so powerful that no thinking politician would dare stand up against them?

The killings were so bad in our nation’s capitol that they passed a law prohibiting the private sale and ownership of guns in 1976. It took a while, June 2008, but the NRA got that one reversed by the Supreme Court; citing Second Amendment rights to bear arms and for people to own weapons that kill family members, neighbors, strangers, and policemen who may be trying to do their jobs at a traffic stop or serving an arrest warrant.

I visited one of the many NRA websites (NRA-ILA –Institute for Legislative Action) and absorbed their love for sporting, hunting, freedom and their worship of killing machines. As I mentioned in an earlier article, “Marketing 101 – Lock and Load, Baby” they are sponsoring bills in Florida (also Arizona) that support the “Right-to-Carry on Campus” – if that’s not all we need. The NRA is strong, extremely well organized, and loved by the Tea-Party with their smaller government and less regulation; but if this is the definition of a democracy in action – I want out.

I did see one tiny ray of hope. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg joined Martin Luther King III, to advocate changes to the nation’s background check system. They want to close the loopholes in gun control laws. Stay tuned for the NRA’s response.

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