Thirty one years ago, Roman Polanski was facing sentencing for drugging and raping a 13 year old girl. He was 31 years older than the girl. Like a coward, the pervert fled the country and has been considered a fugitive for the past three decades.
He was arrested in Switzerland over the weekend and is facing possible extradition back to the US. Sadly, France, Poland, and the Hollywood elite are all coming to his defense. They feel that Polanski is being treated unfairly and should not have to face punishment for his crime. They and other progressives believe he has suffered enough for his crime.
BULL SHIT! I know that our Constitution guarantees that there shall be no cruel and unusual punishments. For drugging and raping a 13 year old girl, I believe there is no such thing as cruel and unusual punishment. You see, I believe that anybody that does something like that should suffer. My idea of the ideal punishment for this type of crime is to hang him upside down by his testicles. Then, he should be shot. Extreme? Maybe, but I guess I am just not as enlightened as the French. I have no mercy for pedophiles.
I probably should have picked this song for Music Monday a couple weeks ago when it would have been closer to the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks since it is Trace's response to those attacks. The song is a conversation Satan has with some new residents of Hell. Yeah, the lyrics could be considered controversial, I guess, but to quote Trace, "If that song offended you...I really don't give a shit."
Come join Music Monday and share your songs with us. One simple rule, leave ONLY the actual post link here. You can grab this code at LJL Please note these links are STRICTLY for Music Monday participants only. All others will be deleted without prejudice.
PS: Because of spamming purposes, the linky will be closed on Thursday of each week at midnight, Malaysian Time. Thank you!
Last night was one of those nights that make me wonder why I continue to deliver pizzas on the weekend. First off, you never know from one week to the next how much money you will make each week. Some nights are busier than others. Then there are those nights when you get a bunch of good tippers and others, not so much.
Anyway, back to yesterday. It was a cool, rainy night, and the rain was steady for most of the night. Now I am not crazy about driving in the rain at night but I was looking forward to the evening. Usually on a night like last night the people are a little more generous with the tips, and I would expect to get $4-$5 per delivery. Yesterday, most of my deliveries averaged half that, and at one point I had three straight deliveries where the combined total of the three runs was under $3. Very frustrating.
For now, though, I will continue delivering fresh hot pizza on the weekends, at least as long as I need the extra cash coming in. Then there is always the thought in the back of your mind that you might knock on the door of a house like the one in the video below. :-)
Let's face it. Nobody likes taxes, except politicians. Obviously, the Federal Government needs to raise capital for its legitimate purposes. Our tax system is so complex that even the people who write the code have difficulty, just ask Charlie Rangel. There are a number of different ideas out there for reforming the tax code, but the one I support is the FairTax.
Later this year, "An Inconvenient Tax," a new document on the history of the income tax will be release. The film discusses the problems with the current system and explores options for reform.
An Inconvenient Tax - Official Trailer from Life Is My Movie Entertainment on Vimeo. An Inconvenient Tax sheds light on one of America’s messiest problems — a fundamentally broken tax code that affects every part of people’s lives. With the U.S. Congress making over 16,000 changes to the tax code in the last two decades alone, many Americans want something better, but few know where to start. This feature-length documentary film reveals the many ways Congress uses the tax code to achieve political goals that have nothing to do with raising revenue. It also tackles the controversial issue of tax reform through a non-partisan presentation of U.S. tax history and current proposals to fix the code. In a time when America faces fiscal crisis, An Inconvenient Tax brings a crucial exploration of the tax code to the big screen.
My brother in law sent this to me this morning. Yes, my sister is married to a proud right wing extremist. I think this song pretty much sums things up.
If there was ever any doubt that the true intentions of the environmentalist movement was more about controlling our lifestyles, how about this little nugget. Environmental groups are pushing for the elimination of ultra plush toilet tissue. It is their desire that everyone use toilet paper made from recycled paper fibers.
In order to achieve the softness in toilet paper, longer wood fibers are required. These fibers can be found in trees that are decades old. The shorter the wood fibers, the rougher and scratchier the paper. Of course the shortest fibers are in the recycled paper that the environazis want us all to use.
Toilet paper accounts for 5% of the forests products industry. In contrast, the packaging industry uses 26% of the crop. The 5% upsets the environmentalists because they say that our need for softer tissue is just another example of the excesses of our lifestyles and that we do not need old growth trees to wipe our butts. See, I told you it was all about controlling us. Oh, and they also call the softer toilet paper the Hummer of the paper products industry.
Now, I am all for conservation and recycling. I have never owned a gas guzzler. I have even started using the compact fluorescent light bulbs instead of the old incandescent bulbs. However, nobody is going to come between my backside and my toilet paper. I am the person who has to sit on my butt all day at the office, so if I have to choose between a soft comfy paper or a rough scratchy paper, then I am going to choose the comfort.
I make no bones about the fact that my beliefs tend to lean a little right of center. While the majority of the time, my beliefs will be in conflict with Democrats, it is my desire to be fair. My disagreements with President Obama and his fellow Democrats are strictly ideological in nature.
Unfortunately, too many on the left are quick to find racism as the cause for anybody who disagrees with Barack Obama. During the election, I took offense at folks on the left who would claim that anybody who would not vote for Obama was clearly a racist. It didn't matter that I had previously voted for Michael Steele when he ran for the Senate in the state of Maryland. I guess an African American candidate that is a Republican doesn't actually count.
So I took great offense at Jimmy Carter's comments in an interview with NBC News where he said "I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he's African-American. I live in the South, and I've seen the South come a long way, and I've seen the rest of the country that shares the South's attitude toward minority groups at that time, particularly African-Americans."
During my commute in the morning, I listen to talk radio. In the morning that is usually Grandy and Andy with former Congressman Fred Grandy. In the evening, that is usually the tail end of Sean Hannity's show and maybe a bit of Mark Levin. Yesterday, I had an early appointment and went into work a little later than usual and was listening to the Joe Scarbourough. He played a clip of former President Bill Clinton commenting on Carter's comments, "There's no question racism exists in some outbursts in recent months. If he were not an African-American, all of the people who were against him on health care would still be against him. They were against me, too."
On my commute home, I was catching the tail end of Hannity's radio program. Hannity also played the Clinton clip. Unfortunately, he only played the portion of the clip where Clinton says racism exists. He also repeated the same thing on his Fox television show that night. To put Clinton's comments in the same class as Carter's is irresponsible at best. Don't get me wrong, the main stream media does the same or worse looking for the extreme examples to perpetuate their biases.
Personally I think that Jimmy Carter is a doddering old fool who should just go away. I am not naive enough to think that racism is extinct in this country. Clinton is spot on when he says that there are some Obama opponents that are racist, but the vast majority are not. Comments like Carter's, however, do nothing but diminish the real cases of racism that still exist.
There is something about this story that makes me laugh, and makes me glad that I don't live in Cairo, Egypt. Earlier this month, I posted about how I felt that the government seems to operate in a vacuum and they do not fully think through all of the consequences of the laws they pass. It's good to see that is not something that is unique to the US experience.
Currently in Cairo they have a major garbage problem. The roads in Cairo have never been considered clean, especially compared to our suburbia, but the problem is taking on epic proportions. The garbage in the streets continues to pile up and is rotting in the streets.
The problem came about earlier this year when the Egyptian government tried to take some proactive action to head off the potential swine flu pandemic. Their solution was to kill all of the pigs in the country. Oops, the swine flu isn't transmitted by pigs.
This error has led to the current garbage crisis. The pigs, along with goats, used to eat the organic garbage in the streets of Cairo. The goats are still out there working, but they just can't keep up without the assistance of the pigs.
The main reason I am posting this song for Music Monday is for the following verse:
In my next thirty years, I'm gonna watch my weight
Eat a few more salads and not stay out so late
Drink a little lemonade and not so many beers
Maybe I'll remember my next thirty years
For a while now, I have known that I need to lose some weight. A couple things happened recently to get me to finally start working on it. Last week I weighed myself and was about four pounds shy of my heaviest weight. I finally decided I was tired of feeling shitty overall. Then one day at work, I tore the seat of my pants. I am pretty sure that I caught my pants on something, but the idea that it could have been just my fat ass also entered my brain.
Come join Music Monday and share your songs with us. One simple rule, leave ONLY the actual post link here. You can grab this code at LJL Please note these links are STRICTLY for Music Monday participants only. All others will be deleted without prejudice.
PS: Because of spamming purposes, the linky will be closed on Thursday of each week at midnight, Malaysian Time. Thank you!
One of my previous positions was the category manager of frozen food for the local division of a national supermarket chain. One of my responsibilities was to decide what products the stores in my area would carry. Over the years I got to see a lot of cool products, no pun intended. Even though I have not been involved in frozen food professionally for some time, I still like to see the wide variety of new items available. Frozen foods have come a long way.
When both my wife and I worked full time jobs, we had an agreement that I would cook on the weekends. For some reason that I can not understand, that tradition continues on Sundays in my house, even though I work two jobs and my wife doesn't work. No matter.
Today was my day to cook. At first I was going to do something fairly simple like soup and salad, but I had a coupon for $2.50 off of any variety of Stouffer's new Anytime Gourmet kits. I decided on the Chicken & Asparagus Carbonara. The box describes the dish as "Chicken breasts seasoned with Italian-style spices and served in a smoky bacon cream sauce with linguine, peas, and asparagus." As you can see in the picture, it comes as a kit with each part of the meal in individual pouches.
When I opened the pouch containing the two boneless chicken breasts, I could really smell the seasoning. The first step is to saute the chicken until it is done. You then remove the chicken and set it aside under aluminum foil to keep it warm. Next you heat up the sauce briefly and add the pasta and vegetable pouch. Pretty simple really. All in all, the total cooking time was about 15 minutes.
I have to say that the flavor was fantastic. The pieces of asparagus were a pretty nice size and very tender. The seasoning on the chicken and the flavor of the sauce were spot on, not too mild and not too overpowering. That was the good. Now for the not so good. I did not feel that the kit came with enough sauce. There was no additional sauce to pour on the chicken breasts or pasta. The only other complaint that I might have is that there really wasn't enough food for a stand alone meal. Next time, I will have to add a salad or something.
I believe in the goal to be energy independent and to end or reduce our dependence on foreign oil. I am all for developing new clean energy sources, but until the infrastructure is there, we need to use every available domestic source. It is folly to rely on oil from Middle Eastern countries that hate us and our way of life. Below is an email I received from American Solutions encouraging people to let the Department of Interior know your opinion about our energy policies. The link in the letter takes you to their page where you can submit a pre-written message to the Department of Interior or you can edit to send your own message. Please take a few minutes to let them know that you support domestic production of oil and natural gas.
Dear Dick,
If you care about making sure we're not dependent on foreign countries for our energy, we have a very timely call to action that will take you less than 1 minute.
The Department of Interior, which decides when and where we drill for oil and gas, has been holding a "notice and comment" period. This is when they solicit input from the public as to whether we should drill or not.
This is one way that the anti-energy interest groups have been able to successfully block any common sense development for decades.
Well the deadline for submissions is on Monday, and we need your help to overwhelm the Interior Department with comments in favor of drilling.
I remember when the story of Florida biology teacher Tiffany Shepherd was first reported last year. For those that don't know the story, she was fired from her position as a teacher when pictures of her in a bikini surfaced from her part time job as a hostess on Smokin Em Fishing Charters. When she lost the job, she claimed it was because of those pictures.
At the time, I thought who cares what she does in her own time, so long as it does not interfere with her full time vocation. However, according to the school board, they cited excessive absenses as the reason for her termination. The firing was determined to be of merit because she never did return to teaching. As you can see, she is an attractive woman and with the publicity of her termination she drew offers from Playboy magazine. She turned those offers down because she was afraid that it would hurt her chances of ever teaching again.
A lot can change in a year. Despite her efforts to return to teaching, she has been unable to land a teaching job. Not only has she been unable to find work, but she went through a divorce and lost custody of two of her three children. Desperate to earn an income, Tiffany Sheppard has started a new career, in the porn industry under the name Leah Lust. In a bit of an ironic twist, one of her first films was under the title of "My First Sex Teacher."
According to an article on the NY Daily News website, Tiffany is quoted as saying,"I'm not particularly proud of it. To be honest, I hate it," Shepherd told Page2live.com. "I'm an educated woman, but I never thought it would come to this. No one gets brought up thinking they'll be a floozy."
It doesn't sound like she is particularly happy with her new vocation. Or it could be she is just saying what she thinks people would want to hear. Personally, I do not have a problem with her new job, so long as she is involved in it willingly. I hope for her sake that she can be satisfied in whatever path she takes. If she truly hates the porn industry, she should get out and take any job she can get.
Here is a government program that I can get behind. Last year, the Republican governor of Utah implemented the "Working 4 Utah Initiative" that put the majority of the state government employees on a four day, ten hour per day, work week. The program has been in place for a year now and has had a number of benefits for the state.
Budget Benefit-By closing office buildings on Friday's the state has benefited in reducing energy expenses by $1.8 million in the first nine months. They expect to improve those savings even more with more efficient energy consumption.
Traffic Congestion-The longer work day has spread out the "rush hour" reducing the number of cars on the roads at any particular time, making commute times shorter.
Reduced Emissions-With fewer cars on the roads and less energy used in buildings, the state has reduced their "carbon footprint" by some 12000 metric tons. They also project to reduce gasoline consumption by 744,000 gallons annually.
Happier Workers-Let's face it, who doesn't like a three day weekend, and the thought of having one every weekend would thrill me to no end. Plus they end up with extra cash to spend by reducing their commuting expenses by 20% per week.
In an economy that is struggling, businesses and governments are always looking for areas to cut expenses. Most of the time it ends up being employees. Here is a plan that could save money and jobs, not to mention all of the other benefits that the state of Utah has enjoyed so far.
I was going to post yesterday about the Kanye West/Taylor Swift incident yesterday, but the news of Patrick Swayze's death led me to post a tribute to him instead. As it turns out, audio was released of Barack Obama commenting on the incident. In one of those rare twists of fate, I actually find myself in 100% agreement with the president.
Actually, I was going to be a little stronger in my sentiments and say that Kanye was a fucking asshole, but the president sums it up pretty well.
I am not going to embed the video of the actual incident, but I do want to give major credit to Beyonce who showed unbelievable grace. She is a class act, not to mention totally Bootilicious.
Sadly, Viacom disabled the embedding on the original video I posted so I will give it another shot.
Last year, Patrick Swayze was diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer. Survival rates for this form of cancer are poor, and despite a valiant fight, Swayze lost his battle passing away yesterday at the age of 57. He continued to work, starring in an A&E Television series called "The Beast" which ran through June of this year.
I think the first movie that I ever saw that featured Swayze was "Red Dawn," a film in which the Soviet Union had invaded the USA. That film followed his appearance in "Uncommon Valor" and Swayze seemed poised to be an action movie star. He gained worldwide popularity in 1987 when he appeared in the romantic film "Dirty Dancing" with Jennifer Gray, who coincidentally also appeared in "Red Dawn." As a side note, "Dirty Dancing" is one of Mrs. Dickster's favorite movies. His biggest hit came in 1990 in another romance, when he starred with Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg in "Ghost."
While my movie tastes tend to lean towards action and juvenile comedy (I am a guy after all), I must confess that I did enjoy Swayze's performances in "Dirty Dancing" and "Ghost." They were great "date" movies.
Patrick, may you rest in peace, and I wish comfort to your wife and family. In what could be considered a bonus Music Monday, a day later, I have embedded Swayze singing his hit song "She's Like the Wind."
After Barack Obama's speech the other night, and Joe Wilson's little boo boo, I could not resist making this my choice for Music Monday. I was hoping to find an edited version that showed Obama's picture whenever they were singing the chorus if for no other reason than to aggravate liberals.
Come join Music Monday and share your songs with us. One simple rule, leave ONLY the actual post link here. You can grab this code at LJL Please note these links are STRICTLY for Music Monday participants only. All others will be deleted without prejudice.
PS: Because of spamming purposes, the linky will be closed on Thursday of each week at midnight, Malaysian Time. Thank you!
Today marks the start of the NFL season. Yeah, I know that the first game of the season took place Thursday night but it doesn't count. In my mind, the "official" start of the season is the Sunday that the majority of teams play their first game of the season.
In year's past, I started looking forward to this day about 10 minutes after the Super Bowl ended. Not so this year. Usually, I will have watched every Redskins preseason game from beginning to end. Even the first one where most of the people who are playing don't even make the team. This year I may have seen a half of a game.
For the first time in about 15-20 years, I will not be participating in a fantasy football league. Usually by this time, I have devoured two or three fantasy football magazines and participated in at least two fantasy football drafts. I would be visiting multiple websites daily to find the least bit of information to plan my lineup. Then as the games progressed, I would sit at the computer checking the progress of my teams.
My wife has known not to make any plans that would include me on a Sunday afternoon during the season. This year, I have actually considered planning activities other than sitting here watching the games. Sure I plan to watch the game this afternoon, but if something else comes up, I would consider it where in the past that was never an option.
I am not sure what has led to this apathy towards a sport that I once felt so passionate about. I suppose that I could chalk it up to maturity and that other interests are more important now. Then again, perhaps it could just be a little bit of depression and the stress of the real world. Since I am a white man and politically conservative, the liberals would probably say it's due to racism (oh wait that's opposition to health care reform). The only question is, does this mean I have to turn in my "man card?"
When I think of New York City, I think of entertainment. OK, first I think about how much I hate the New York Yankees, but after that, I think of entertainment. In particular, I think of the theater.
Without a doubt, New York is the capital of the theater world. Even President Obama took the first lady out to see a Broadway show shortly after he took office. If you are a fan of musical theater, then there is no better time to head to New York than the end of the month for the New York Musical Theater Festival. The Obama's probably don't have to worry about booking lodging, but if you were to head up for the festival you can get a great deal at Vacation Rental Deals.
The festival is the largest of its kind and its goal is to introduce contemporary musical theater to a diverse audience. They also promote, support, and discover new performer, producers, and projects. Their website has a great search engine that allows you to search by the type of show you want to see. One thing for certain, they have programs for everybody. I was particularly intrigued by one new musical called "Fantasy Football: The Musical?"
If you happen to have some unplanned vacation time coming up and you are a theater fan, you owe it to yourself to check out the New York Musical Theater Festival.
Sometimes I wonder if politicians operate in a vacuum. They pass legislation with one particular goal in mind with little to no regard of the potential consequences of what that legislation brings.
Let's take, for instance, the idea of sin taxes. Governments pass taxes on things like alcohol, cigarettes, and now, more and more, candy and sodas. The goals of such taxes are usually twofold. One, to try to discourage consumers from using the products that government has determined are harmful. Second, the government uses these taxes as revenue to fund various projects. Unfortunately, these taxes are regressive in nature, impacting lower income consumers disproportionately.
Not only does the federal government pass these taxes, but also the state governments. Each state has their own tax rates for tobacco. No surprise, but those states that have tobacco as a major crop, have lower taxes on cigarettes. In July, the state of Florida increased their tax on cigarettes by $1 per pack. The results of this tax has led to a decrease in cigarette sales of 28% from last year. So in one respect, the goal of reducing tobacco consumption would appear to be successful.
Unfortunately, like most legislation, there are consequences that were not considered when the legislation was passed. First, for those folks that live on state borders where there are lower taxes, some are buying their smokes across state lines. That actually increases the revenues of the neighboring states and decreases the revenue for your own state.
More importantly, is the consequences for those businesses that rely on cigarette sales for their profit. In the state of Florida, most cigarettes are sold in convenience stores and account for up to 34% of sales. Those sales help pay the salaries of the store's employees. When you lose that large a percentage of your sales, you can no longer afford to pay the same salaries you were previously. Those businesses will either be forced to lay off employees or reduce the number of hours those employees work. Neither are good for those employees or the economy in general.
I debated about whether or not to post anything regarding President Obama’s health care speech last night. In fact, I actually had another posting scheduled for this morning, but I have rescheduled it for another day.
There were a few things he spoke about that I could find some agreement. Some of the horror stories he told of people losing their insurance are disgraceful. To think that a man could lose insurance because he did not report gallstones that he did not know he had is absurd. I also like the idea of doing something about deductibles and out of pocket expenses. Right now, I am looking at going to a better plan when open enrollment rolls around next month because of deductibles. Currently, I am putting off visits to the doctor because I can not afford the deductible if the doctor decides to order tests.
There are a couple of things he said, though, that bother me. He stated that if you have health care through your employer that there is nothing in the plan to require you to change what you have. While technically that is true, I wonder about the practicality. I had mentioned before that they were talking about an 8% payroll tax for employers that do not offer health insurance. Studies have shown that employers, on average, are spending 10-12% of payroll on health insurance. If the cost of the tax is less than the cost of the benefit, I can see businesses opting to pay the tax.
Another issue is the president’s attack on the partisanship that exists in this debate. You get the feeling, that it is the Republicans he is singling out on this issue. He claims he wants the best ideas from both sides of the debate. His Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate continue to block and vote down any suggestions brought forth by the Republicans. My question is who is being partisan? The left is being just as partisan as those on the right.
On a side note, I have to wonder what thoughts immediately went through the mind of Congressman Joe Wilson of South Carolina after he yelled out, “You lie” when the president talked about illegal immigrants during the speech. I can’t help but think it went something like this. “Oh shit! Did I really say that out loud? I guess I forgot to turn on that little filter that keeps me from blurting things out. I really fucked up this time.”
There are a number of reasons why I am against the unprecedented expansion of the federal government and the massive debt we are accumulating. First and foremost, there is so much that the government has no business being involved in. As if I needed another reason, here it is.
The Institute of Economic Affairs has released a pamphlet stating that Barack Obama is repeating the same mistakes that FDR made in handling the Great Depression. The study has been endorsed by economist James Buchanan who won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1986. The paper was written by economists Charles Rowley of George Mason University and Nathanael Smith of the Locke Institute.
The authors argue that FDR's interventionist policies and tax increases delayed the recovery by several years. They see "troubling similarities" between FDR's policies and Obama's. They believe that the large deficit spending and government involvement will hamper long term economic growth and may delay full economic recovery by several years. Furthermore, they fear that the US could face the same fate as Argentina which slid from First to a Third World status.
I have been blogging here for a little more than a year now. In my efforts to build traffic to this blog I have tried a few different methods. The first blogging community that I joined to build traffic was Entrecard. I also signed up for BlogExplosion. I was able to build some additional traffic using these communities, but nothing consistent.
After seeing their ad groups on several blogs, along with some reviews, I decided to sign up for Adgitize in July. When I first signed up, I started out by just displaying ads on my blog. After a week and took the plunge and decided to advertise with Adgitize. My traffic has improved dramatically. August was my first full month of advertising on Adgitize, and my traffic was 3-4 times my monthly average prior to advertising. So far, in the first week of September, I have had as much traffic as I had been averaging for an entire month.
The best thing about Adgitize, is that you build points for different blogging activities in their network, such as writing posts, advertising, and visiting other sites in the network. Each day those points are calculated and you earn money depending on how many points you earn. I received notice this morning for my first payment in the amount of $23.77 through paypal. Part of that payment included July when I first joined, but my earnings for August was $16.22, more than enough to pay for another month of advertising with a little leftover.
So, if you are looking for a relatively inexpensive method of building traffic that can pay for itself, I highly recommend giving Adgitize a shot. It has worked well for me so far. The other good thing about Adgitize is that you do not have to advertise to reap some of the benefits. You can still earn points, and money, by displaying ads, writing posts, and visiting other blogs.
In honor of Labor Day and all of us working stiffs, my Music Monday choice is Johnny Paycheck and "Take This Job and Shove It."
Come join Music Monday and share your songs with us. One simple rule, leave ONLY the actual post link here. You can grab this code at LJL Please note these links are STRICTLY for Music Monday participants only. All others will be deleted without prejudice.
PS: Because of spamming purposes, the linky will be closed on Thursday of each week at midnight, Malaysian Time. Thank you!
Since Bowie Living posted about Al Franken & Health Care Reform, I have decided to post about something I saw today while driving through Bowie.
This morning, I was driving around Bowie running a few errands before we head off to the Bowie Baysox game this afternoon. I was driving past the Sacred Heart Catholic Church where they had two signs out on the side of the road promoting their Labor Day Festival tomorrow. Nothing unusual there. Most churches have signs outside announcing events that are taking place.
The thing about the signs that I thought was unusual, and bothered me, is that one sign had a Budweiser logo and the other a Bud Light logo. Now I like a cold Bud as much as the next guy, maybe more, and I realize that not all religious denominations believe that drinking alcohol is a sin. I am definitely not a prude, but it seemed an odd and inappropriate juxtaposition of a church activity essentially being sponsored by a brand of beer.
I think it is safe to say that I am not a fan of President Barack Obama. From a policy standpoint, there has been very little, if anything, that I have agreed with. However, I am not one to find fault with everything he does. For instance, I thought it refreshing that Obama wore jeans for his first pitch at the baseball all star game, though some criticized his "mom jeans." I also gave him props for his quick reflexes in disposing of a fly during an interview.
I am all for criticizing the president on substantive issues like health care, cap and trade, and the ever increasing budget deficit. The recent broohaha over the president's decision to address students next week to encourage them to study hard and do well in school is a bit too much for me. This type of hyper partisanship is one reason I can not identify myself as a Republican. (As a matter of full disclosure, I consider myself a Libertarian, though I am still officially registered as a Republican.)
Other presidents have addressed America's students in the past. In reality, this should be a rather benign opportunity for the president to encourage our youth. The fact that it has become a subject of intense national debate is ludicrous to me. Don't get me wrong, I do understand why conservatives have this distrust of Obama. He is far from the moderate he portrayed himself to be during the election.
In my opinion, this really does distract from the truly important issues at hand. The constant harping over everything the president does really lessens the impact of the arguments against things like health care or cap & trade. This hyper partisanship on both sides of the aisle is one of the reason the majority of Americans would like to throw all of the son of a bitches out on their asses and start over again. And to the parents out there that fear that the president is trying to "indoctrinate" their kids, if you think your kids are that susceptible to indoctrination you must not be doing a very good job with them.
President Obama has decided to address a joint session of Congress next week to lay out what he wants to see in a health care bill. I can hardly wait. During the State of the Union Speech in January during the last address to both houses of Congress, we were treated to this display from Speaker Pelosi.
The city council of Honolulu is considering passing a law that would make it illegal to board city buses if the person in bringing on the bus any "odor" that would unreasonably disturb other or interfere with their use of the transit system. It does not matter whether the odor comes from the person, their clothes, or anything they may have in their possession.
Councilman Rod Tam, one of the co-sponsors of the bill is quoted in the USA Today with the reason the bill is necessary. "As we become more inundated with people from all over the world, their way of taking care of their health is different. Some people, quite frankly, do not take a bath every day and therefore they may be offensive in terms of their odor."
The question becomes, how do you determine what the standard is before someone's earthy aroma is offensive enough to be declared "illegal?" Likewise, what odors shall be deemed offensive? Aside from body odor, there are other odors that could be offensive inside the close quarters of a bus. Things like foods, cologne, or a baby with a full diaper.
Some people, myself included, are more sensitive to some odors than others. For instance, I used to work with a couple people who would put on some much cologne/perfume that you could walk down an empty hallway and smell their perfume. Or worse yet, they would leave their scent in the elevator. That always made my eyes water. One time, a supervisor who wore excessive amounts of cologne, slapped me on the back and I smelled like him for hours.
I know that I would not want to be sitting next to somebody who stunk to high heaven. I can understand how people would complain about the bad smell on public transit. What I don't get is how you could realistically enforce such legislation. I could see it opening the door for all sorts of litigation.
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