THIS IS ABSOLUTELY NOT FUNNY!

THIS IS ABSOLUTELY NOT FUNNY!

(The Foundry, Investors.com, The Heritage Foundation)

(Business News, Coto Report, Americans for Tax Reform)

(Meghan Foley, Frazer Chronicle)

 

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, what’s the deal with something that should have been addressed a long, long time ago? Here are a few easy questions that popped into my mind this morning regarding this seemingly thorny issue. Before you answer any of these questions, the reader must be totally honest…..not to me, but to yourself!

If you allow partisanship, or follow the blind conviction of your peer group to taint your honest answers to my questions, you will fail not only me…..but yourself. If you are pressured to answer my questions while not relying totally on your own experiences and opinions…..you will lose!

These questions are from my own experiences, from a time when I didn’t act and conduct my life in a responsible way. I was swayed by the ignorance of youth, and the attitude of invincibility, it’s an attitude that clearly 90% have during their young adult life!

The questions are as follows, remember, to be honest and to answer each query in your own word:

 

A. Do you think that a hospital emergency should not serve as a doctor’s office for the uninsured?

B. Do you think that one of the benefits that employers offer to its employees should be health insurance?

C. Do you think that any person who has enough money to seek private health coverage should be exempt for paying a tax to cover those people without health insurance?

D. Do you think that people who do not abide by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act rules and regulations should be fined as prescribed by the act?

E. Do you think that states who do not abide by the act should be fined, or a portion of federal funding withheld?

F. Do you agree with the effective schedule of enacting dates?

G. Do you feel that you are knowledgeable about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act?

H. Do you fully understand how the plan will be funded?

There you have it, eight questions that will either answer the depths of your knowledge about this most serious of issues, or will show how much you still need to learn. The days of letting the government that we elect do our bidding is at an end…..and probably has been for quite a while.

We need to be aware, and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is a perfect example of what I am talking about. There are three basic health insurance plans that are used today, a single payer, where the federal government picks up the cost, a two tier, where the federal government provides basic, medical care necessities while a secondary tier of care exists for those who can purchase additional health care services.

And thirdly, Health Insurance Mandate, the practice that currently the United States uses, and which the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act…..Obamacare will replace. However mostly at the present time, in the United States, health insurance is either offered by employers, or paid for by private individuals.

 

YOU’D BE SURPRISED

At least I was the number of countries that have single payer or government payer plans that are in place, sixteen at the present time, with Cuba and Costa Rica coming on board to swell the number to eighteen, with government provided care.

 

There also are nine countries with a two tier system in place, the basic necessities practice of health care and the additional health insurance paid for by the citizen. The thing that really blew my mind was the fact that some of these programs had been in place for decades, and in Norway’s case, coming up on one hundred and one years!

 

Outside of the United States, I guess IN THE REAL WORLD; equal health care has been practiced for a long, long time. All the while the U.S. has been sitting on its collective hands and allowing the health care industry to dictate the speed at which the industry will change.

 

When the United States Supreme Court allowed President Obama’s health care plan to be uncontested, over time, over time it will become the law of the land. The individual mandate was the most contentious provision of the health care act. In 2014 most Americans will be required have health coverage. Those who do not comply will be forced to pay a financial penalty to be phased in through 2016.

 

I totally understand that the health care industry, overall needs to make a profit, but band-aids that cost $50 bucks, or two aspirins that cost a whooping $75 each I’d say were just a tad-bit overpriced. I know the aspirin price to be accurate because it’s what my wife’s insurance company was billed a couple years ago.

 

I ALSO UNDERSTAND BUSINESS AND THEIR FEAR

I worked for a news delivery company in the late 1990’s, and during my two years with the company, I never once received a raise, nor was I offered any benefits…..like health insurance. The company was small, 30 or 40 employees, and having to pick up health insurance coverage probably would have broken the back of the company.

 

However I do not understand how this guy wouldn’t give raises, (it wasn’t just me, it was everybody) he bought a 70’ motor home that was rumored to have cost the man $200,000. In other words, by not granting raises, and by not offering benefits of any kind, this jerk went out and bought himself a gaudy whistles and bells motor home that half of his working staff could have traveled in very comfortable.

 

Like a whole bunch of politicians keep saying, “business reinvests” it’s why government should offer incentives and tax-breaks, these people will create jobs to help make the economy strong. FLASH, I don’t call washing an R.V. creating jobs.

 

A mandate that forces employers to obtain health insurance for their employees is not the right way to go either…..yes, I agree with those folks who cry poverty and doom and glum regarding the idea of this mandate. Health insurance should be a right of every citizen in the United States, if a person can afford to pay for his own care, that is great…..but does not relieve any kind tax that everybody will eventually pay for the service.

 

Obamacare will not drive less skilled workers out of full-time jobs, business has always found a way to circumvent whatever new standard is forced on them by government, it’s the nature of the beast. This health care act ultimately will be no different.

 

Will taxes go up…..absolutely, could it be any other way, with a new service for the American citizens, tax money will be necessary to pay for the service. When will we ever get over this idea that our federal government is us? Our Federal Government is nothing more than a group of officials that we elected into office to devise ways to spend the taxes that we pay!

 

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, (Obamacare) for a country that boasts itself a world leader, and the most affluent country in history should afford nothing less to its citizens than the best possible health care.

 

Okay Obama and his medical directors do sound a bit condescending, but I’ve talked to some people who have absolutely no clue about what Obama’s health care act really is all about. Will the act break the bank…..of course not; remember we paid for health insurance for millions of Iraqi’s…..”oh yes we did,” should we not accord the same for…..us?

 

It’s time to quite bickering, quite the damn political posturing, sit our collective butts down, roll up our sleeves, and work together to make the question of health care the best in the world.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!

THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT.

(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

(Frazer Chronicle)

 

I’ve heard of anal retentive, but golly gee, I never knew the term could be a part of law enforcement procedure. Live and learn I always say, seems as if the Milwaukee, Wisconsin police department routinely used a practice of touch and sniff in their search for illicit drugs. You could knock me over with a feather or a piece of toilet paper in this instance.

 

I’m talking about a former 34 year old Milwaukee police officer who preformed illegal strip and body cavity searches on dozens of suspected drug dealers or users. Michael Vagnini pleaded no contest to four felonies and four misdemeanor counts stemming from his practice of fingering men’s anuses in his complete searching procedure…..on the streets of Milwaukee!

 

Guess you could call the streets of Milwaukee really mean streets, and not be abusing the term. Attorney Michael Steinle told the court that his client, Vagnini was left holding the bag, and I don’t mean the colostomy bag either. Steinle was probably referring to three other officers who are charged along with his client for the same shenanigans, or…..the fickle finger of fate!

 

Jeffrey Dollhopf, Brian Kozelek, and Jacob Knight have had their cases separated from Vagnini because they face fewer charges. Charges include misconduct in office and being parties to the crime of illegal searches, based on their on-duty presence when Vagnini committed some of the searches.

 

The three are suspended with pay pending their trials later this year…..kind of like a paid summer vacation, paid for by the taxpayers of Wisconsin. I remember a time when I was suspended for a week…..without pay for insubordination, and was told by my punk boss to find alternative employment. I really suffered over understand not my firing, but the term, (alternative), it just didn’t seem to fit coming from a guy who’s first name was Norb.

 

It’s always kind of strange and humorous at the same time to me, when judges, prosecutors, police officials or news sources covering what could only be called bizarre behavior, shocks people. No city, no matter the size, has access to cable television, and the USA TODAY, or those nasty Tabloids, what’s the surprise.

 

A GIFT

Benevolence is usually ready to be considered whenever a cop is brought up on charges, and the Vagnini case is no different. Assistant District Attorney Miriam Falk agreed to dismiss sexual assault charges as part of a plea deal. Falk made it clear yesterday that she believes that the offense occurred…..repeatedly, but that Vagnini did not seek, or obtain sexual gratification from reaching into a suspect’s rectal area.

 

I know I wrote the above paragraph, and I’ve read it several times, and it’s based on the story by the Journal-Sentinel, and I know that the Assistant District Attorney believes what she said, but in my unbridled opinion; where in the hell is she coming from, how and where can she base that opinion on?

 

It appeared to me as if everybody was kind of painting Vagnini as an unassuming innocent police officer who was trying his damndest to curb drug use and drug dealers. The D.A. also stated that she felt that Vagnini did not target suspects by race…..well, what color is Vagnini, or those three other officers, and what color are the defiled suspected druggies, they’re easy to spot in a police line-up, they’re black, and…..that they are the ones that have trouble sitting down!

 

The verdict and related admonishment by the judge, Jeffrey Wagner to Vagnini sounds almost like a grade school Principle addressing a 5^th grade kid who can’t stay out of trouble on the playground. If it wasn’t so tragic, it would actually be funnier then hell. I mean…..come on, according to Vagnini; he thought he was within the law when he had a suspect drop his pants and bend over.

 

Wow this guy, a dash cam and an air mail stamp could make him famous, have you ever heard of Tru-T.V. and Worlds Dumbest episodes, its tailor made for a highlight segment. I sure hope somewhere, someway, somebody can get ahold of the tapes, they would be instant classics.

 

Another defense was that the police department wanted their street cops to use these unorthodox searches to embarrass the suspects, some of which were street smart, and toughened by that atmosphere, hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, I’m not sure, but I would take a wild guess here and say that these suspects don’t know the meaning of embarrassed.

 

DEPARTMENT PROCEDURES AND THE STATE LAW

If nothing else, I’ve learned two things from this incident, never get pulled over by a Milwaukee cop, you just might be pulling over, and pulling down. Can’t trust anybody anymore, nothing seems to be secret; did these cops use plastic gloves during their digging search?

 

The second thing that I learned was the fact that in order for somebody to do a cavity search, a search warrant is necessary. Gee if I wanted to hide something, (in my butt) it better be small, because I’d have to stand around until a warrant was issued…..and at my age, that could truly be a job to complete.

 

Nobody should be surprised by this procedure of search and destroy, hemorrhoids need to be handled with loving care. I don’t have the strength and you don’t have the patience to read through all the illegal crap that police departments routinely break every day.

 

Just keep in mind the fact that a good set of depends should quiet the question of a cavity search, especially if the depends in question are nicely soiled.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!

LET THE SPIGOTS OPEN AND THE MONEY RUN!

(Washington Post, Stikeman-Elliott)

(Neela Banerjee, McClatchy Tribune, Thomas Bachand)

(Friends of the Earth, New York Times)

(Beth Bucznski, Frazer Chronicle)

 

You gotta give those former politicians and their staffers credit; they sure as hell know how to milk the system. Whenever I hear about some of the slick moves that these people make, I’m a little envious…..well, okay, actually I’m alot envious.

 

During my working career, although spotty (I did things my own way), it’s probably the reason that I was never privy to any of these post employment sweetheart positions. I’d already pissed off my former employer, and of course his job review of me suffered. I did understand that possibility, and at the time was willing to live with it…..however, hindsight being 20-20, I’d have changed a few things…..quite a few things. Oh well, that’s for a different time and blog.

 

Five former Obama White House aides saw the Keystone Pipeline XL controversy a whole hell of a lot different than the president, or Congress, or the House, to them it was a business opportunity, and a lucrative one at that.

 

Four…..Bill Burton, Stephanie Cutter, Jim Papa, and Paul Tewes work as consultants for opponents of the project, which would carry heavy crude oil from Canada to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries. Another, former White House communications director, Anita Dunn is taking on at least one new client in her law firm, TransCanada.

 

Do you think that these people have inside information about impending employment opportunities before the news hits the normal avenues of help wanted agencies, it makes at least me wonder…..and I’m not even looking for work…..at the present time.

 

It’s not that these five people favor one side or the other in this controversial project to lay a huge pipeline down from above the U.S. and Canadian border down to Port Arthur, Texas. The amount of haggling that has transpired from this project has rang through the halls of government from the Dakotas to Cushing, Oklahoma, Houston, Texas and to the White House.

 

And through all of the questions, the obvious danger of pollution, and possible degradation to natural water aquifers, formations were we get our potable water…..only a PROPOSED map of the pipeline route is available to me, or you…..and the UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT!

 

How can that be…..you ask, well let me count the ways, are you ready…..here we go, $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. Money, for the potential work force that will be necessary to construct the approximately 1,200, to 2,000 miles of the 3’ pipe that will carry the highly corrosive sludge. Ya that’s right, TransCanada, the contractor on the project can’t even get the number of miles of pipeline straight, oh they know they just haven’t shared the info…..at this time!

 

Money for the spin-off business that will be created by the effort of the project to all the whistle stop towns and villages that would be on the final route of the pipeline. Gas stations, motels, restaurants, medical clinics and the occasional Wal-Mart would surely boost local economies, but would these jobs be top of the line paying jobs, hardly.

 

AND YOU CAN FORGET ABOUT THE TREE HUGGING WACKO’S

To me the environmentalists don’t even need to waste their collective halitosis breaths, I’m personally not interested; these people cause their own kind of sensationalist news that I don’t think the issue needs. And TransCanada…..save the effort, you are not earth friendly, you are dangerous and reckless, ingredients for disaster.

 

What we need here is low toned fact based conversation about the possibility of creating a 2,000 mile pipeline to transport a sand and tar, or technically, bituminous sands, the reserves of which, in Canada amount to an astounding 176.8 billion barrels…..more than half of the world’s supply, mostly in Alberta, Canada.

 

This type of oil is a brand new threat, one that few advocates understand…..on either side, and for sure…..I’m not qualified to expound on. But there better be somebody really quickly that can come forward and speak intelligently on this oil sand, or tar sand, or whatever it is that people will eventually call this gorilla in the bathroom, the ramifications are way too important.

 

Nobody, and I mean nobody, can be trusted with regards to this product, how it is eventually mined, transported and refined. Of course there are obvious drawbacks to bituminous sand extraction, and how humans can incorporate its use into everyday life. Mining wet gooey sand can pose huge problems that the industry is tackling as they expand operations.

 

Before anybody jumps on board with regards to the mining, transporting, and refining for the use in combustion engines, cooler heads absolutely need to come to the table…..and yes, money should be the last motivator.

 

A WHOLE NEW INDUSTRY AND NEW HORIZONES

Life can be so easy, like the man said, “the truth shall set you free,” TransCanada already is coming to the table with their guns drawn, and their bag of tricks. The United States and its political maneuverings and trade-offs is ready, willing and able as hell to wheel and deal with the Canadian company.

 

Sweetheart deals are just around the corner on either side of the question, some people are going to get very, very rich, and conversely, some rich people are going to get…..well you know, richererer. It always moves mountains as well as heaven and earth…..its money.

 

Sure, down at the bottom of the effort, a useful product will be created…..gasoline for use in cars, trucks and in our everyday lives around the home, and in the business community. However, how petroleum products are derived from the beginning of the process…..Oil Sand or Tar Sand, we as a world population need to know what it is we’re dealing with.

 

I would assume huge amounts of water, energy and technology will be necessary before we get really good at extracting petroleum products from this thick dirty gooey stuff. As I’ve mentioned many times in the past, “I do not care what I leave behind, I’ve had to deal with what the generation left me, let the next generation deal with what I’ve left.

 

But here we have a chance to make things right…..to do the right thing, and in the process make the world a safer and better place to live. Now all we have to do is monitor those oil people with money, they sure can be a greedy bunch.

 

I can’t believe that I’m blogging this way, anybody who reads my blog regularly knows that I’m a part owner in a petroleum well in Michigan, and I pray every night for it to start producing…..with any kind of technology possible, the environment be damned. Guess all I can say is (read between the lines) there is a subliminal meaning somewhere in there.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!

JUST ANOTHER DAY IN PARIDISE!

(USA TODAY, YAHOO! NEWS, Federation of American Scientists)

(BBC News, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Frazer Chronicle)

 

FLASH…..President Obama seeks nuclear arms reduction; Director of FBI tells Congress it uses drone surveillance in United States, and finally bipartisan support for immigration bill. Sounds more like a flush to me. How long have people, people in authority been trying to reduce the number of nuclear devises in the world…..FOREVER! Is it surprising that the Federal Bureau of Investigation SPYS on its own people, and IMMIGRATIONS, are you serious, we don’t enforce the immigration laws already on the books.

 

Thursdays seem to always be a day in newspaperdom when the proverbial crap hits the fan; news stories seem to need two or three days to reach their crescendo. And this week seems to be no different; of course the immigration question as well as the nuclear reduction subject have both made the rounds on Capitol Hill.

 

Spying on Americans is…..well…..kind of like just deserts, could the admission of the agency using spy drones on its own people be a shocking admission, or just simply another case of a SPOOK agency getting SPOOKIER?

 

And guess what, I haven’t read a single line in any of the articles written by Kathleen Hennessey and Paul Richter regarding nuclear reductions, William Douglas and Kevin Thibodeaux reporting on the drone incident, and Thomas Ferraro and Richard Cowan discussing the immigrations bill.

 

I am taking nothing away from these reporters, just the opposite, I think their reporting is concise, informative and relevant to today’s issues and I appreciate the effort. However, none is earth shaking, or new news.

 

THE QUESTION IS UNARMED MILITARY

Nuclear disarmament refers to both the act of reducing or eliminating nuclear weapons and to the end state of a nuclear-free-world, in which nuclear weapons are completely eliminated. Eventually if this does not happen, we will be fighting World War 4 with sticks and stones, that is nothing more than a simple fact.

 

Since August 6^th, 1945 when the A bomb was dropped in Japan, calmer heads have decried the elevating use of what they had devised. Military had one opinion, scientists another, and by far the most dangerous of opinions was that held by the politicians who had absolutely no comprehension of what had been unleashed in Hiroshima and Nagasaki some 68 years ago.

 

Exotic names like Trinity, (first nuclear weapons test), Little Boy, Fat Man, Operation Crossroads, Lucky Dragon, Manhattan Project, the Federation of Atomic Scientists and the Pubwash Conference which discussed the…..as yet little known effects of what actually had been unleashed onto an unsuspecting world.

 

The full meaning of nuclear radioactive fallout from the Japanese bombing, and weapons testing took until 1954 before the general public became informed…..and exactly how much could the average person really understand about what was being aired to the public?

 

 

Peace movements emerged in Japan in 1954 converging to form a unified council against atomic and hydrogen bombs. There were rallies, demonstrations, an estimated 35 million signatures in a petition calling for a ban on all nuclear weapons and tests. Thousands marched in the four days from Trafalgar Square, London, to the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment near Aldermaston in Berkshire, England to voice their objection to nuclear weapons.

 

Linus Pauling and his wife presented the United Nations with petitions signed by more than 11,000 scientists calling for an end to nuclear weapons testing. A scientific survey headed by a Doctor Louise Reiss demonstrated conclusively that above ground nuclear testing posed significant public health risks to human beings.

 

SURPRISE, SURPRISE

The above protests, both by concerned citizens from around the world, as well as the scientific community were all lodged before…..1960. Seems inconceivable doesn’t it, how in hell could people have become so aware of such powerful weapons and their dangers in less than two decades.

 

Without exception nuclear detonations are the most devastating of the weapons of mass destruction, a perfect illustration a person only needs to view some of the devastation from Hiroshima or the international furor over the accidental but enormous radiation leak from the Chernobyl power plant disaster.

 

That disaster and the ensuing contamination from Chernobyl was larger than would have been expected from a small nuclear war in which a dozen or so weapons of nominal yield were exploded at altitudes intended to maximize blast damage.

 

You see, in NOT technical terms, what you have in a nuclear bomb is a whole bunch of conflicting incidents that happen in milliseconds, the blast, heat and the piston like force that knocks everything down in its path, and of course the accompanying thermal, ionic and residual radiation which…..if the blast, the heat or the piston like force hasn’t obliterated you, will render you dead in a relatively short period of time.

 

Needless to say, for many people who survive a nuclear weapons event, their days are numbered, and they’d better not venture out at night cause they’ll glow like a Christmas tree in December. And don’t worry, nuclear blast injuries and health care issues will be the least of your problems, communications will be almost non-existent, the electromagnetic pulse generated by the detonation of a single nuclear weapon at a high altitude can be a threat to military communications, computer, and intelligence.

 

A smart man once said, “If you’re in a war zone, the safest place to be is in the military,” and it holds true today. Military personally, high ranking personal know troop deployment, and enemy location, and realize the impending movement of those troops.

 

By far the best option is for every nation around the world to come to grips with the fact that everybody loses if nuclear weapons are used. THE bomb, and the accompanying problems that everybody suffers is an undeniable fact not only of physics, but has been graphically illustrated by their use in two Japanese cities. Need further proof, check out the folly that above ground testing has done and the possible underground explosions may have caused.

 

 

 

I KNOW I’M DRONING ON…..BUT

You can really have fun with this one…..of course it’s not funny, the aspects of an eye in the sky, of watching (inadvertently) a person’s movements as the eye spy in the sky tracks a bad guy, and you mistakenly get in the way…..could you be mistaken as a part of whatever, or worse…..get shot?

 

Whether it’s the National Security Agency, (NSA) the C.I.A. or the F.B.I. they operate under the same way of thinking…..as SPOOKS, according to their way of operating, (everybody is guilty until proven innocent,) it’s the way they roll.

 

When in hell are we going to learn…..if you give up a right, it’s usually gone forever, and pretty quick they’ll pluck another right off the freedom tree that has been fought and paid for and established over the past two hundred years.

 

Oh ya I understand that times have changed, things are more complicated, the world is a dangerous place, and that there are people OUT there that don’t like us…..and want to hurt us. Sadly I’m beginning to think that those people OUT there…..ARE RIGHT HERE, and are American citizens who reside in our ever expanding SPOOK industry.

 

By using the most elemental math possible, where one and one equal two, in an ever expanding industry, customers or in this case victims need to be developed. Exactly where do you think that FBI Director Robert Mueller would be if it weren’t for his position at the agency?

 

Actually I’m glad that you ask that question…..because I’ve got the answer for you, a lawyer…..yes that’s right Robert Swan Mueller III was graduated from Princeton University, New York University, and University of Virginia School of Law. He’s a Juris Doctor for God sakes, a professional of law practice…..he’d have been an attorney, but not your garden variety type, (a professional type).

 

Not only does Mueller and his FBI buddies not worry about a secret drone program…..after the fact that want more authority to peek into our private lives. Hold the fricken phone…..they can’t look into my bathroom…..can they, the bedrooms okay, nothing ever happens there…..but not the bathroom, that’s just way to much info for any one organization to have, sadly…..today, the bathroom is where most of my effort for the day carries on, you know, number one and two, it’s a victory when I can do both at the same time.

 

Using drones on American citizens by American citizens is just way out there, it’s stupid and outlandish to even be considered not only by these SPOOK agencies, but any member of Congress that would even consider it. Stop right now…..and go into private practice Mr. Mueller.

 

AND THE ANSWER TO THE QUESTION IS

Okay I understand that you have a job, but this last subject is really easy for everybody (that is an American citizen, to understand. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, really it’s a question…..and here it is, “what part of illegal don’t you understand.” Our government seems to have taken that word, illegal right out of the conversation…..it’s now called the Immigrations Bill!

 

Okay I can stand that, what I can’t stand is some joker, Spanish, Mexican, or American using the phrase “immigration rights”, referring to illegal immigrants…..illegals don’t have rights, they’re like my kids used to be, (they had no rights until into their teen years, and even then their rights were muffled).

 

 

I could care less about taxes paid, or governmental benefits taken by these people, which includes hospital emergency care. The question to me is a very simple one, when in hell are we going to start to enforce the laws that are on the books today?

 

Secure borders…..you must be joking, unless you’re talking a 50’ fence around the United States from California back to California, and border guards stationed ever 100’, it’s the only way, and we’re not prepared to do this.

 

But adding politics to the equation is a typical ploy by both parties to enhance voter backing…..and all the while business, big and small, sit by and smile, smile because the spigot of cheap labor continues. Mexicans who come to the United States illegally aren’t making a living wage and they can’t afford to send money home.

 

The issue really, really is simple, it’s a power struggle between industry that wants’ cheap labor and politicians that want what they preserve as more votes. Nowhere in the dialoged, anyway in a serious light, is the question of a better life talked about. Why you might ask, well, because have you ever seen where these people live, where they work, and the violence that they have to deal with on a daily basis.

 

A better life…..surely you jest…..say, you’re not one of those people who rely on immigrant landscapers are you?

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!

WHEN AN ADUIT IS AN INVESTIGATION!

(Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, A.R. Bradley, J.M. Wood)

(Catholic League, T.D. Tomlinson, D.E. Huber)

(William O’Donohue, Olga Cirlugea, B.A. Lorraine)

(Department of Psychology, University of Nevada, Reno)

(R.J. McNally, Remembering Trauma, Frazer Chronicle)

 

First we need to know and understand the difference between an audit and an investigation, to me, both simple and understandable words used on a daily basis in the business world, and law enforcement. There is no mystery with what the words are used for, and their meaning…..that is however until they are used in connection with a sexual scandal that has been talked about for decades.

 

An audit in almost every instance in the United States today is a word used in examination of records or financial accounts to check their ACCURACY! Without exception an audit when mentioned during the course of a conversation would lead the listener to surmise a financial situation.

 

An investigation can mean a multitude of different types of activity, from law enforcement, and an accompanying taskforce to unearth truths regarding all sorts of issues. There can be investigation research, investigation into a family genealogy, or why there isn’t more apple pie. My point is simple; the word investigation has a wide range of meanings…..while an audit always seems to be about numbers, and where those numbers went.

 

It seems detached, and smacks of a seeming lack of understanding to refer to examining the veracity of child molestation cases and history as an audit. Although each case of molestation most probably is issued numbers…..to audit the numbers and to refer to the cases as the same is…..well, not the smartest way to issue statements and quotes to the media and the victims, in my opinion.

 

Another thing that seems to be a short sighted issue by the church, possibly for the sake of expediency is the fact that the auditing body is made up of Catholic officials, especially after a sub-headline in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel story reads, “Catholic order issues voluntary audit, concedes cover-ups and mishandled cases.”

 

Are you serious, I’m not Catholic, my dad was, but not me, my mother was a Methodist and for whatever reason we went to church as Methodists. My father actually was excommunicated from his church because his family did not convert to Catholicism. I actually felt his excommunication was an unjust act, and crushed my father’s belief…..in later years he converted to Methodism, and was buried the same.

 

Religion to me has always been kind of hard to understand, like some Christians think Jews are heathens, that Muslims are going straight to hell because of their beliefs, and people that don’t believe in the Bible are…..well, the devils disciples. Seems awful judgmental to me, even when these Christians who read the Bible know that the good book talks about not being judgmental!

 

YOU’RE GONNA GET YOUR’S

I remember when I was about 13 or 14 being told that the Fathers would get the Sisters knocked-up, and an abortion would be preformed, and the fetus was buried in a flower garden next to the church rectory. I believed it, I wasn’t sure what all of the talk was about, but it didn’t matter, a Priest had gotten a Nun pregnant, and the church took care of the problem.

 

 

I’ve done all sorts of bad crap in my life, for whatever reason my wife saw the good in me, stuck around, and waited for me to grow-the-hell-up. For that reason alone, I consider myself as one of the most fortunate men on the face of the earth.

 

I’m better now, a reward to my wife for sticking around with me for all of these years, in hind-sight, I always knew when I was doing something that was tainted, or just plain wrong, and I always worried about going to hell for transgressing…..honest I did.

 

But when you talk about priests transgressing, you’re talking about people that profess to live their faith on a daily basis. These people, both the fathers and the sisters, work 365 days by 24 hours a day professing their faith and belief in the spirit of God and the teachings of Jesus, how could they stumble over their frock and molest adolescent boys or girls.

 

I guess it would illustrate to me that believing, and witnessing for God and Jesus is a farce, a folly of man towards a false spirit, and you know what…..I don’t want to believe in that…..that God is a false spirit. I need something that is on a higher plateau…..I think that we all do.

 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not gonna go all soft and mushy, I’m one of those people who feel that his faith is a private matter, one between me and my maker. It’s how my mother brought me and my sisters up, at least that’s what I got out of her faith…..”the old bat.”

 

I WILL SAY THIS

For me, the proof is in the pudding, people are what they eat, some feel the need to profess their faith on the highest of mountains, others compose, and others sing his praises. I can’t play an instrument, have a terrible voice, and am afraid of high places.

 

I simply try and live the best life that I can, to not hurt anybody, and to be fair with people, I think being fair and truthful is by far the greatest gift that we can give to another person. I think a majority of us just try and keep our heads above water, and treat people the way we want people to us. It isn’t complicated; it’s how we collectively are made…..pretty decent, plain people.

 

For the Catholic Church to have dealt with the problem of child molestation for hundreds of years, (oh ya, it’s been going on since the beginning…..and we all know that) to simply pull an audit and admit to 40, 50, or 60 cases is the height of stupidity. Exactly who do they think that they are dealing with, a bunch of imbeciles, I’m not Catholic, and I’m pissed off.

 

And the law, those laws that are put into place to protect us, one from another, it doesn’t seem to be working…..and I’m pissed off because of that too. Let’s be perfectly clear here, the acts of sexual molesting a boy are some of the most vile and disgusting of sexual acts. Without exception each act requires fondling the genitals, or the insertion of the adult male organ into the young person. It makes my skin crawl just thinking about the act.

 

There are always going to be people out there who for whatever reason, mentally ill, emotionally challenged, or their mommy or daddy were unkind to them and they feel the need to get even, are going to be attempting to fuss around with young people, or going to take advantage of situation…..like that pervert coach at Penn State.

 

 

 

However the institution that these kinds of people are attached to need to have a weathered eye, to be taught how to identify and deal with these despicable people. I have next to no tolerance for these people, pretty much because they are always a threat to repeat the crime. It’s one of the reasons that I’m mystified by the action, and reaction of the Catholic Church.

 

To discover that a member of their order is so far off his rocker that he’ll go after the most venerable of our species….and simply move this person around from location to location reminds me of the guy who had an eating disorder, and his doctor kept giving him a free pass to a smorgasbord for treatment.

 

Sadly this seems to be just another example of what is going on in our world today…..illustrating once again why we need help.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!