FOOTBALL, HUT, HUT, HUT!

(USA TODAY SPORTS, Huff Post, Paul Manzey, Frazer Chronicle)

 

I’ve written a blog for a little more than two years on all sorts of subject matter, from the silly, to the humorous, to the bizarre, but I really can’t recall an issue that many people must have known was coming, there was just way too much money to be made for it to be any different.

 

The post season collegian bowl schedule has been expanding for the past several years, and why not, it’s not really about playing football, it’s about bowling for bucks, and I’m not talking about space bucks either, unless you call more than a quarter billion dollars fun money.

 

Presently the amounts of money that are paid to participating universities and their conferences is pretty astounding, all totaled, the amount approaches an almost embarrassing $291,752,500 in 2012, that’s more than some developing countries in the world have in their entire operating budget.

 

From the east coast to the west, college football bowl games are popping up like the flowers in the spring, when the man said “let’s go bowling,” he wasn’t kidding, in the United Sates, in the 2012 football post season…..in college football there were 44 bowl games to determine…..well, really, I’m not sure what they determined, for me the bowl season kind of got all blurry…..too many games for me.

 

Now there’s talk of the super conferences, with the elite teams breaking off from the N.C.A.A. as quickly as the 2014 season. I’m not so sure that’s such a good idea….I might just be a bit naive, but I was under the impression that college athletes, both young men, and women went to college to gain an education, I don’t know, maybe my thinking is to colonial for today’s world.

 

Yes, yes, I know all about study tables, tutors, and co-ed help programs for student-athletes…..but those help programs were instituted because the man, or women athlete is using a large portion of their time to develop an athlete skill to help a sports team win, place, or show.

 

But today, I’m thinking some of these help programs are being taken advantage of, while others are probably being down-right abused. The oversight, and the regulating of these programs is supposed to be administered by a student affairs director especially for athletes, it’s their only job, and they are usually answerable to one of the Athletic Directors assistants, who coordinates with a specific coach in a particular sport.

 

In many cases, there are abuses, some cheating, and down-right criminal activity, usually with one of your friendly booster club, or alumni member lurking around, spreading his seedy stealth activity around many an American campus of higher learning!

 

Now I must warn you, what comes next is…..well, ludicrous, laughable, and…..”come on, are you kidding me.” Yes today there is a move afoot for our institutions of higher learning to forge an agreement one with the other…..if you happen to be the right institution, and play in the proper conference, to form a, as I mentioned, a Super Conference with elite teams which would presumably be administered by many of the same people who cheat at the worst, and at the best are admitted rules breakers…..COME ON!

 

It’s true, I read it in an article today in the U.S.A. it’s gotta be true, they actually pay their reporting journalists. I think guys like me, the unpaid hoard dig deeper to grab a story-line, and to understand what they are writing about…..at least I do.

 

CINDERFELLA

College football isn’t about the money…..right, wrongo-bongo, college football is, and has been about money and ratings for at least the last four decades…..maybe longer. The marquee conferences, the elite schools depend on conference wins, television revenue and sponsor dollars for their very survival. It begins with spring practice and carries on throughout the regular season, all efforts trained towards rankings, and post season bowl appearances.

 

The elite college football conferences in no particular order:

Southeastern, (SEC)

Big 12

Big 10

Atlantic Coast

Pac 12

Of these five listed super conferences, over the past 20 years, these conferences and one of their representatives have had a lock on the national championship of college football, unless you call a perfect record of national champions not dominating.

 

There is almost no way that a lesser conference, called mid-conferences can compete at the level of the top conferences in the country. Some really good mid-conference football teams compete during their portion of non-conference with the big boys from bigger conferences, and rule their conference games, but down at the end of the line, when it comes to picking the elite teams for bowl games, all of these mid-conference football squads wait and wait and finally get picked for some of the lesser bowls.

 

In bowl games, major bowls with big paydays, these smaller schools, in conferences that lack the lime light of the SEC, or the Big 12 are relegated to MAACO Las Vegas Bowl, or the Motor Head Bowl in Detroit, Michigan.

 

After the dust clears, the cleats are washed and put away, and the last suture is tied off on some poor offensive linemen’s knees, after all the money is counted, and the final top 25 ratings have been established by the Football Writers Association of America, there aren’t any Cinderella’s in college football, things are way slanted towards the elites.

 

INFRANCTIONS GALORE

Everybody has heard about rules infractions in college sports, even grandma Jane who only watches soap dramas all day long on television, there’s so many every year, you’d have to live on the far side of the moon to escape notice.

 

These bright, articulate athletic directors, school presidents, and the not so bright and articulate football coaches have hit on an idea to relieve the N.C.A.A. of much of its football programming, these people insist that they can do a better job of organizing an elite number of football conferences to compete on a higher level then now is being played.

 

These bright men, these guardians of higher education, these sheriffs of inter-collegian football activity know that they have the good of the game and the student athletes uppermost in their collective minds. Are you serious, exactly what tidbit of history is going to make the average football fan trusting of these leaders of higher learning and athletic competition?

 

 

I’ve watched football for a long time, I remember a football coach tackling a player that was running down the sidelines for a game winning touchdown. I’ve read about all sorts of medical infractions, judgment infractions, and most importantly, an infraction in character. There is no excuse for any of these acts, whether a weak moment, a case of judgment, or a mistake.

 

No matter the reason, or because of the reason, these jokers either leave their institution or get fired, not to worry for these people…..they get rehired in much less time than it takes the N.C.A.A. to launch an investigation. So even though they have broken N.C.A.A. rules and regulations, they stand to be rehired, usually with a boost in pay…..now, how sweet is that?

 

What do Southern Methodist University, Arizona State, Auburn, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Texas A&M have in common…..if you guessed that they were all colleges it doesn’t count, although you’d be right. What they all have in common is that they all share in scandalous activity wrought by their athletic departments.

 

These schools athletic departments and coaching staffs have all acted in a detrimental and embarrassing manner while leading their schools athletic departments. Although it’s never admitted, in each case of a sports coaching staff pulling shenanigans, and playing fast and loose with the rules…..the athletic department, and the AD should be pointed out and fired along with the entire coaching staff.

 

In 2010 the Big 12 committed 39 football infractions, the SEC, 32, the Pac 10, 26, Big 10, 19, the ACC 17, the Big East, 9. It seems obvious to me that there has been a dearth of policing from anybody, let alone an athletic director, or his coaches.

 

Between 1987 and 2010 there have been 72 major infractions by 56 of the current FBS, (Football Bowl Subdivision), programs that number 120 schools. Included in this number is a staggering 44 of the current 67 automatic-qualifying BCS, (Bowl Championship Series), a staggering 65.7% from six of the power conferences.

 

I used to play sports to win, I don’t recall a time, or a game that I wanted so bad that I considered cheating, or playing outside the rules of the game. A favorable outcome simply wouldn’t have meant the same as even a hard fought loss…..and I had many. But at the end of the day, I walked off the field knowing that I had given the best accounting of myself that was possible.

 

THE PRESSURE TO WIN IS GREAT, AND GETTING GREATER

I’m not sure that an honest coach can make it today in college football at almost any level without some sort of an edge that was gained through a dishonest act. Now hold on right there, I am not setting myself up as an (honest as the day is long) kind of guy. I have done my share of dirty deeds, trying to create an edge, my lack of talent dictated this, but that was as a player.

 

With regards to coaching or managing sports teams, I never tried to have the score altered through infringement of the rules, or by using illegal players, or tactics to eek out a win! Wins were important, I have over 450 of those babies, but I’m proud of each and every one, and I feel sure that my former players feel the same way. We played, when winning was absolutely the only gratification that we got, well, maybe the occasional roadie.

 

 

 

Now the pressure to win, to fill the bleachers, to be rated in the top 10, and to pave the way for more recruits through appearances on national T.V. has tremendous pressure laid at the head coaches feel, and of course the pressure trickles down the line to the coaching staff, the physical trainer, the team trainer as well as the doctors that administer medical attention to the squad.

 

Used to be, if you cheated, the N.C.A.A. would throw down the gauntlet, and rip your butt off the air, that’s right, denying schools the ability to play games on television, before 1987 was like the death knell. Of course now, with the enormous money that A.B.C., N.B.C. E.S.P.N. and Fox is willing to lie on the table, keeping teams off the television airways is not even considered.

 

So the hammer of authority seems destined to be held by some mythical, ordained position that, as yet hasn’t even been discussed. I’ve even read where some college people have talked about the NFL supplementing college budgets, kind of like a feeder program, or a minor league for the National Football League. Intriguing but not very realistic, it’s the way the NFL stocks their teams with new players already…..and it doesn’t cost them any money.

 

What’s going to happen with the gang of the 150 and the collection of the super duper conferences where these teams will be toiling…..I have no idea…..and worst, I could care less. These fools that play out their life’s dreams by cajoling either athletes, coaches, or an athletic department to cheat…..mores’ the pity, by the time these bozos get done restructuring the game…..maybe the game will have lost some of its quaintness. Hut, Hut, Hut!

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!

LET’S PLAY MONOPOLY!

(Kimberly Amadeo, Andrew Beattie, P Areeda & L. Kaplow)

(Douglas A. McIntyre, Frazer Chronicle)

 

A tube of Colgate toothpaste costs $3.29; the same size of Gleem runs about the same, and believe it or not, Aquafresh, across town at CVC is also about the same, so much for shopping around town for the best buy.

 

Remember the old days, when gasoline stations would have gas wars, one station would drop its price by a nickel, and the guy across the street would drop his a dime, I often wonder whatever happened to those heady days real supply and demand. Seems as if business wised up, and found out that they had a corner on the market, and could charge whatever they wanted to.

 

I’ll bet there were meetings behind closed doors, late at night, where a bunch of gasoline station owners got together with their suppliers and, over the grease rack, and a bunch of cigarette and cigar smoking, and a few beers, gasoline prices per gallon were agreed upon for several months at a time, I just know it’s true.

 

Used to be that your grocer didn’t necessarily want a pound of flesh, just maybe 4 or 5 ounces, cause he knew that Floyd, the Sunoco guy across the street was gonna need at least 6 ounces of your flesh for the 4 tires that you’re going to need. And of course the new roof that Joe, of Roofs R Us was gonna install would take at least 6 ounces from you. Pretty quick a guy’s wallet looked like a grizzled piece of kicked in the corner, stepped on, and forgotten hamburger.

 

People used to work with one another, everybody was kind of in the same boat, and nobody wanted to make waves…..cause they were all in exactly the same boat. It was a gentler time, a slower time, a time when people actually stopped to smell the roses, and I don’t mean Four Roses.

 

TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGING

I go to Wal-Mart all the time, I love to shop at the Box-Store, prices are usually good, and the array of products seems to be wide and varied. Sure I’ve heard about slave labor overseas, how Wal-Mart is the biggest and baddest of all the super store, and I have no doubt that it is true.

 

I used to drive for a living, and I delivered to all kinds of places like Wal-Mart, but first I of course picked up the freight I was supposed to deliver. Wal-Mart has distribution centers all over the place, either in state, or regions, depending on the population of the area, the state, or the region.

 

To me, it seems like good business for a Box Store, like Wal-Mart to buy in huge quantities, like by the ship-full, or the train-car. Everybody knows when you buy by bulk, you get a better price. I simply took advantage of the philosophy…..like millions of others do, especially in this time of financial belt tightening.

 

Competition against Wal-Mart at least in my region comes from Target; I can’t really include Kmart because they lately seem to be a business in flux. Target is kind-of-competition with Wal-Mart, but almost not really. To me, if anything, Target seems to be a Johnny come lately to the industry of the Big-Box atmosphere.

 

However I have noticed that Wal-Mart does not quite carry the amount of merchandise that they used to, aisles are strongly devoid of back-up products, kind of like Wal-Mart arbitrarily set the amount of a product that they will offer, like first come, first serve.

During my travels as a big rig driving, I took notes about some of the most ruthless of the business concerns that I hauled freight for. Of course I didn’t pick and chose the customer, the company that I drove for did, and actually it was the dispatcher’s job to arrange what is called haul back fright, if nothing then to pay the fuel bill.

 

Wal-Mart was by far the worst company to deal with for its venders, Wal-Mart set the prices, no dickering around, they sit the price and that was it. Almost without exception, by the 1990’s every vender who dealt with Wal-Mart caved in to their suggested wholesale prices.

 

In the old days, venders set the wholesale prices, and that was pretty much it, but today, in the Box business world, the roles and position of power has changed, it’s almost like the inmates are running the prisons, kind of a really scary time in history.

 

OKAY SO LET’S PLAY MONOPOLY

A monopoly is either what the government says it is, or what a dominant company’s competitors call it, however the only opinion counts is, of course the government. Believe it or not, the seminal legislation that determines monopolistic behavior is the 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act. Theodore Roosevelt’s administration used it to effectively break up Standard Oil. In the 20^th century, the Justice Department’s battle with AT&T lasted from 1974 until 1982 and ended when the company agreed to spin off all of its local operating companies.

 

Identifying monopolies in today’s business world isn’t really very hard to do, the morphing that companies do almost on a continuing basis does cloudy up the water a bit, but if you concentrate, and follow the money, a person can usually came up at the right destination.

 

In today’s business world, whether locally, regionally, at the state or national level, the secret isn’t how much money you have, it’s how much you can borrow…..never, ever use your own money. This isn’t my rule; it comes from economists, business planners, a fellow who have already made their pot full of money off from somebody else’s money.

 

There are companies out there in the business world that I’ve never heard of; there are giants of industry that I wouldn’t know if they stepped up to the urinal next to me to relieve themselves. I think, basically it’s the way they want it, to travel across the ocean, and meet another ship, and pass it in the quite and darkness of the night.

 

The American Revolutionary War was fought so that each man could have the freedom to make his own choice. We exercise that right every day of our lives when we make a stop at the local grocery store for pork chops, or stop at Wal-Mart or some other Big Box outlet to buy a shirt. We enjoy the ultimate choice whenever we hit the verity stores of today.

 

My wife and I shop at a regional Super Market, Woodmen’s, who has 3 stores in Illinois, and 11 in Wisconsin. They have literally dozens of brand names…..and a bunch of off brand names for your choice, however, I read some of the labels, and guess what, some have a big connection to brand name products, they are in fact made by brand name companies.

 

Luxottica makes dozens of different brand named sunglasses, but they still are all Luxottica products, maybe seconds, with some sort of flaw. No matter the brand name, be it Oakley, Ray-Ban, Revo, Vogue, DKNY, or BVLGARI, Luxottica is, or was the maker.

 

If you good to Lens Crafters, and get lousy service, or can’t get the satisfaction you figure you deserve, your free to go across the street to Pearle Vision, or Sears or Target optical departments for a better price, or service, or quality of product…..however poor baby, you’re not getting away from Luxottica…..cause they own them too!

 

Why else did you figure that these rip-off artists could charge you $200 for a piece of plastic and two miniature hinges that take special diamond cutter screw-drivers to tighten. And…..what if somebody came up with some sort of mind control mini chip, hell they could slip it into that $200 piece of plastic, and our freedom would really be over.

 

Remember a few years ago, when a bunch of cats and dogs got either sick or died, everybody was up in arms, there seemed to be so many companies out there that were distributing tainted animal foods, what to do?  There were at least 150 brands of animal food that seemed to be tainted, how in hell could that be, were they all using the same water, or the same grains?

 

If you buy Eukanuba, Iams, Nutro, Hy-Vee, Triumph, or Priority, they did, and do use the same water, and grains to make their cat and dog food, there owned by a Canadian company, Menu Foods processes the animal food in big vats, cans it up and then puts different brand names on the stuff.

 

Not to worry about Menu Foods, they were bought out by Simmons Pet Food, and they, Simmons has an even bigger gallery of brand names that they make pet foot for. One can say that it’s only cats and dogs that are being affected by these conglomerates…..but not quite.

 

Did you ever eat corn on the cob, or canned corn, or derivatives of corn, you are eating Monsanto (TM), a huge biotech company. It’s not that they grow the lion’s share of corn in the field, no; they make their fortune from producing weed killer and seeds.

 

80% of all corn that goes into the ground in the United States is stamped with the Monsanto (TM) on it. Much of the corn seed used today is immune to Roundup, the world’s biggest selling herbicide in the world, and weeds hurt corn, so into the ground with the corn seed goes…..you guessed it, Roundup.

 

And computers, with all those innovative devises that I really don’t know much about, well don’t argue over which is better, whether you’re a Mac or a PC, you’re probably a Quanta. Both the Mac and the PC are put together in Taiwan on the same assembly line by those little folks who work 80 hours a week, live in company homes, and make $60 bucks a week.

 

Sadly monopoly has taken over the beer world as well, I recall last year that Budweiser was bought out by some Japanese, and I thought at the time that it was a bad move…..I was right, even though regular or Bud lite remains tasty, the new brewer seems to be flooding the market with all sorts of specialty beers, I wonder how long regular Bud, or Bud lite will hang on.

 

InBev owns Stella Artois, Alexander Keith’s Bass, Grupo Modelo, which makes most of the beers in Mexico, Corona, Modelo, and Pacifico. This doesn’t affect me, as I mentioned, I’m a Bud man, or in the illustrious words of the Miller Brewing Company…..”Body built by Miller.”

 

 

 

 

 

ANTITRUST LAWS TODAY

Government set about to establish laws that would protect consumers from the gouging practices of big business back before the turn of the 20^th century…..they must have done so for a reason, unlike what conservative keep preaching…..government is too big.

 

Antitrust laws, or competition laws, are legal rules to promote fair competition in the marketplace. The laws are designed to prevent actions that might hurt consumers or unfairly harm other businesses. Mostly monopolies hurt the consumer, it blights the general public from price comparing…..remember the toothpaste, or gasoline.

 

Today companies simply merge, or are bought out by the competition, resulting a pretty much a set pricing system that we, as consumers have to deal with for most of our purchases. Without competition, that exists today in America, in my opinion, we are headed to a new place that has never been visited by the United States.

 

Today the Federal Government is relatively docile with regards to enforcement of mergers and Antitrust law. The Sherman Act of 1890, the Clayton Act of 1914, the United States Federal Trades Commission, (FTC) was formed in 1914, and the 1936 Robinson-Patman Act all were established to govern business, but today, mergers and the establishment of monopoly practices has the United States reeling.

 

Each of our Antitrust acts were set into motion for a reason…..and today, our elected officials have decided to not enforce the rules, regulations, and the laws that govern our business community…..how long can we survive with the current activity?

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!

JOURNEY INTO THE BIZAARE, NO PLACE FOR A SANE PERSON!

(H.B.O.’s Vice, Wise Uranium Project, H. Patricia Hynes, B.B.C.’s Today)

(Rense.com, International Coalition to Ban Nuclear Weapons, Frazer Chronicle)

 

The war in Iraq isn’t over, oh sure United States troops by and large have left the country…..left it to the devices of other bad guys, but Iraq is pretty much hopeless as well as helpless. Deaths occur each and every day, it isn’t safe to be out in some areas during the day, and at night, well you can pretty much forget a night out on the town…..it could result in your death in so many different ways, bombs, gun-fire, stabbing, beheadings, or just a good old fashioned beating…..to death.

 

No my friends, the streets of most any city in Iraq qualifies as a mean street, to be avoided at all costs, almost no matter the reason to be in the streets. Taking a loved one to a clinic or hospital during the night can result in two bodies going to the morgue, or body parts being strewn all over the streets.

 

I never really thought about the aftermath of the war in Iraq, I have always been the one to say, “lets pack up and leave right now,” but I guess it’s not quite that easy, of course I was never privy to information about what types of weapons were being used in the sand dunes and the cities of hundreds of thousands of people without skyscrapers. I just wanted our troops out; I wanted the bleeding of money from our treasure to stop…..completely.

 

Now I am hearing about the horrors of the weapons that were used by American soldiers in their daily war maneuvers to kill the bad guys. Oh the U.S. wasn’t the only ones to use some of these hideous weapons of mass distinction, the United Kingdom, and Australia also apparently used these depleted uranium thingies.

 

During my time in the military, I was taught that atomic, or uranium weapons, (in my time there was only the bomb), were the death knell for the people who the weapon was used against. In my time, which of course has long since passed, there was the blast, the heat, and the push, pull shock wave. If you survived a nuclear bomb, protection was pretty simple, don’t drink the water, don’t eat the food, and stay under you poncho, believe it or not, as I recall, that was the long and short of surviving an atomic bomb.

 

But today, the crazies seem to have effectively created ammunition the like of I can’t imagine, I saw military photos of the bombed out Japanese cities, the carnage was unbelievable. Bodies burned on one side, the other looked as if nothing had happened. I saw videos of Japanese people dying of nuclear disease, images of where people had been standing during the blast, no bodies, just their silhouette burned into the pavement…..it was awful.

 

A WAR WAS NEEDED TO TEST THESE NEW AND IMPROVED DEATH WEAPONS

You don’t really think that Iraq, or for that matter were all about retaliation, or threats from Iraq did you, there had to be a second my sinister reason to go into basically third world countries, and play at kicking ass, while in effect, we were testing for the world, a show, to see how the military might of the United States actually worked.

 

Of course the United States never expected the resistance to be so strong, like Defense Secretary said, “they’ll welcome us with flowers,” and Paul Wolfowitz talking about the cost being a few million dollars. Now we are all suffering for the shortsightness of our fearless leaders back at the beginning of what has turned into a decade long military struggle.

 

 

However if you stop and think about it for a minute, an elongated military struggle is kind of just what the doctor ordered, I mean for the military, and endless amount of enemies that keep marching right up to whatever front lines there are, and the United States military, and her allies continue their research into more efficient killer weapons.

 

Many, many learned people are horrified about the use of Depleted Uranium, it’s a real killer, no matter how it is delivered, in a bomb, or in ammo that can be fired from a rifle, or some sort of rocket launcher, the end result is the same…..initial death and destruction, long term…..death without the destruction.

 

ITS CARCINOGENS AND MUTAGENS, STUPID

Wow, no wonder there aren’t many experts that are walking around on the streets that have an opinion on this subject…..carcinogens and mutagens, they are really deadly little puppies my friends. Avoid these little devils at all costs, cause they can really mess up your life, and little kids, babies, or the unborn…..forget it, these mutant creating things effect the babies and unborn fetus’s at an almost 100% rate.

 

Everybody knows what a carcinogen is…..right…..well if not, here goes what I’ve gleaned from my trusty Wikipedia;

A Carcinogen is any substance, radionuclide, or radiation that as an agent directly involved in causing cancer.

 

A Mutagen, in genetics, (Latin, literally origin of change) is a physical or chemical agent that changes the genetic material, usually DNA, of an organism and thus increases the frequency of mutations above the normal background level.

 

Now I don’t pretend to understand what I just typed, but I do know that if the basic building blocks in nature are altered…..it definitely isn’t a good thing, and if this crap can be spread around the countryside by a strong wind…..which Iraq has, it would kind of be fool-hardy to use against an enemy….unless you want a bunch of big headed Zombie like children staggering around the countryside.

 

The use and resulting distribution of these nasty altering weapons should never be used in any kind of confrontation, they should be verboten!  Sane people simply do not go around letting off weapons or bombs that alter little kids, babies, or unborn children; it’s a crime against humanity pure and simple.

 

In the VICE episode on H.B.O. this past Friday, 4-19, there was a segment showing a bazooka type weapon that fired one of these depleted uranium devises into some Iraqi’s house, the ensuing blast was kind of like a miniature nuclear blast. Out of one of the windows came a blast that depicted the push-pull action of a full blown nuclear bomb.

 

No matter where you go in Iraq, there are trace amounts of depleted uranium present if these types of weapons were used, and the evidence is overwhelming that they were. So the civilian population gets particled, moms, dads, brothers, sisters, babies, and the yet to be born in your dream babies.

 

For soldiers, whose job it is was to seek out the bad guys, and as one soldier said, “to shoot, and ask questions later,” the same particles are launched into the air every time that they shoot or launch one of these depleted uranium missiles, and these same particles infect the military personnel of the United States, and they bring back possibly tainted reproductive materials in their systems.

 

 

GENERATIONS WILL PAY

It’s bad enough when an army, any army, either wittingly, or unwittingly spreads the kind of crap that can enter the body of a person, can cause cancer…..but worse, can cause birth defects in yet to be conceived offspring. How in hell can any military person…..in his/her right mind condone such activity?

 

It’s kind of like whenever I see a kid with his pants hanging down below his Mendoza line, (belly button), and has the appearance of an unkempt dink, I kind of “weep for the future” of our country, I however take solace in the fact that the generation after mine did so many wonderful things in the 1980’s and 90’s.

 

But what exactly will the following generations of Iraq, Afghanistan, and to a lesser extent, the rest of the world be able to contribute? Military officials mostly are common sense, real people that chose a military career, and have little or no desire to launch whatever stupid, insanity that is administered on the world next, in fact some speak out.

 

I write almost daily about different issues that affect us all too varying, degrees, but it seems some in the Pentagon, in the Whitehouse, and on Capitol Hill have relegated themselves to pass the torch on, to keep the work of fools going.

 

I for one will not allow that to happen without some sort of protest, no matter the consequence, we are not the boss of the whole wide world, we are a strong contingent of the voice of common sense…..or at least we used to be…..it’s time to return to those days, let’s not let the actions and desires of a few bizarre thinkers ruin the state that we call America.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!

A REPUBLICAN MIXER AND A DEMOCRATIC HOOTENANNY.

(Republican Party of Pennsylvania, Daily Loaf, Mike Spindell, Reuters, ABC OTUS News)

(Associated Press, The Economy, Frazer Chronicle)

 

God, will these people ever get it right, I mean don’t they know who they represent, don’t they know that they are beholden to their constituents, the same as every elected official. It’s not about cocktail parties, and closed door meetings late at night, and it sure as hell isn’t about protecting your own ass for some sort of political expedient reason. It seems as if the whole country has gone completely over the edge.

 

Pollsters keep taking their polls, and sometimes ask evasive questions, made up with a pressure word that completely misconstrues your answer, they can do that you know…..its called spinning! It has to be that way, just look at the recent Senate vote on enhanced gun control legislation that failed. Polls said that there was overwhelming support by the nation, even the NRA and the GOA, so why did senators vote down the proposal…..maybe Rush Limbaugh was right, maybe President Obama wanted the measure to pass the senate, and be rejected by the Congress for some conspiratorial reason, it’s what Limbaugh said on the radio yesterday, 4-19-12.

 

All I remember during my formative years, when I thought I was the smartest guy on the face of the planet, smarter than my teachers, the professors, the instructors, and my parents who were molding my thought processes, was the fact that different political parties differed in their thought processes, but after the fire, the smoke and the rhetoric had stopped, and a winner was declared, politicians took some time off, had a few drinks, made a few speeches about the winners, went back to Washington, or the state capital…..and worked together on what was best for the country.

 

Boy was I stupid, without doubt, over the past four decades, a polarizing breeze has come over the country, a breeze that at first was sort of gentle, but by 2013 has grown into a gale force small craft warning situation.

 

Now it’s all about core support, about jerk-offs like Grover Norquist and his document with Republican signatures, pledging to never raise taxes. Ludicrous, how could anybody sign such a stupid document, and what legal hold would there be…..and anyways, how can anybody foresee future calamities and the possibility of needing a tax rise…..now I ask you, does not serve the electorate?

 

CORE SUPPORT

By far the worst statement that can be said anywhere on Capitol Hill, in state-houses across the nation, on television, radio, or in the printed media. Very few people want to hear about the core response to an issue, the core of a political party in American today is too small.

 

It is estimated…..from polling date that there is approximately an almost even split between registered Republicans and Democrats, something like a 31% Republican to a 29% Democrat. That leaves about a 40% independent group out there who need to be represented.

 

Core support needs to come from the 40% independents that either are smart enough to steer clear of core groups, way too much baggage is involved with core groups. The key word with some of these core people is their rigid belief in subjects…..ya that’s right, firm, stiff and inflexible. How in hell can you govern a country such as the United States…..where the majority is supposed to rule, if its citizens are firm, stiff and inflexible?

 

 

The short answer is, you can’t, and the long answer is the same…..you can’t, its an impossibility, everybody in the core group has an agenda…..and it usually is miles away from the other core group. Somehow we, as a people need to de-core ourselves.

 

An example of core agenda, some Republicans think that Democrats are using the Newtown disaster for political purposes! How can that even be thought…..let along said, it simply doesn’t make any sense, but the allegation is none the less being intimated.

 

Every time a situation of either regional or national concern happens, somebody from one party or the other spins the issue in a light that will help further their agenda. And the spinning of issues or events is not associated with one core group over the other; each group uses the media like a whipped stepchild.

 

WE NOW HAVE TWO ISSUES

Of course the United States has more than two issues that our elected officials are going to have to tackle over the next several years, both are contentious, and both affect most all of us. Forget about the health care plan that the president got through the proper channels of government to become an active issue that states are going to have to address. Forget about the war on terror, the billions it costs a year, and how the hell we are going to get out of the quagmire that the entire situation has become.

 

No-sir-e, the top two issues that should be of major concern on our elected officials minds is gun safety and the immigration question, why, because these two issues affect each and every one of us. I take my wife for her daily work-out, sometimes I do a work-out and sometimes I don’t, but that’s not the point. Across the street from the health club is a meat packing business that has become possible the biggest employer in the Green Bay area.

 

There are probably 2 or 3 thousand employees that work in the facility, they have a couple of places, there are two shifts, and in excess of 80% are Hispanic. How many are legal…..well let’s put it this way, about 2 in 10 speak English, the rest rely on friends, or their kids to translate.

 

In addition, during the summer months, like any other city across the lower United States, landscape business pops off like fireworks. Everybody seems to need lawn work done in Green Bay, not me, I do my own, anyways, a majority of these law care experts seem to be of the Mexican persuasion.

 

Again these people either nod when confronted with a question, or need a translator to clue them into the conversation. Now I’m not saying that these people are bad people, and it’s for damn sure that they aren’t lazy….but are they legally here in Green Bay, in Brown County Wisconsin, the Midwest, and the United States?

 

The other thing that touches us all is the violence that visits a city every swinging day of the week; nobody is safe from possible carnage in a moment’s notice.  People get killed every day by a firearm, or worse, they are incapacitated for life.

 

Newtown, the Colorado attack, Chicago and its legion of dead teenagers, the gun violence across the United States continues to be a huge problem for us all. The solution, very simple, laws need to be enforced with regards to illegal immigration…..first. A solution for those who are entrenched here in the United States, those folks who are here for 10, 15, or 20 years, a special dispensation policy needs to be created…..non-monetary in my opinion, and these people need to be identified and dealt with.

 

 

Gun violence…..it’s easy…..the solution, make all guns illegal, collect each and every firearm, and melt the suckers down into scrap metal. Now that that previous line has had a chance to sink in, let me tell you what I really think.

 

Nobody with a felony well be able to own even a pea shooter, no pedophiles, nobody who is accused of domestic violence, nobody who has been accused of D.W.I. (driving under the influence), nobody who has been in a war zone as a front liner, nobody who has been in a mental hospital, has seen a school councilor, (high school and college,) and nobody who has been restrained by a legal restraining order by the law.

 

Too confusing…..and how could you get the information…..and it’s a blatant invasion of privacy, all three questions are valid, and I’ll deal with each one in the following manner, computers, national data bases, and I could care less about invasion of privacy.

 

Get a fricken grip…..are privacy is invaded every stinking day of the week, or don’t you think that television security cameras aren’t taking pictures. What about all the crap information you have to fill out at the DMV or whenever you sign up for a new credit card, or you turn on your computer, or your cell phone, or check out a library book, or when you pay a toll, or apply for a job.

 

I could go on…..but I think I’ve already held your concentration about as long as I can, thanks for reading me, however let’s get the MIXERS AND HOOTENANNIES together.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!