USPS Wasted Our Money On Armstrong

We’ve all heard more than enough of Lance Armstrong and his doping scandal. What we haven’t heard enough of, or much at all, is the scandal behind the scandal. It’s right there up front on Lance’s shirt, but nobody seems to notice. I’m talking about the fact that the United States Postal Service lost $15.9 billion in 2012 yet still found millions of dollars to sponsor Armstrong’s cycling team. Now THAT is scandalous when the price of postage keeps rising, post offices are closing, and Saturday delivery is on the chopping block. The Postmaster General, Patrick R. Donahoe, even went to Congress with hat in hand begging for a bailout, while the USPS was already squandering taxpayer dollars on such frivolity.

It’s impossible to tell how much of a return the USPS gained from all that expensive advertising, but my guess would be zero. Everybody already knows the postal service, and those that need its services will use them. Having the logo displayed during the Tour de France would not cause anyone who doesn’t need such services to use them. Such waste is reminiscent of Bank of America squandering millions for the naming rights of the Carolina Panthers’ stadium in Charlotte while their stock values were plummeting and they were increasing fees on customers.

Much of the advertising dollars spent by big companies might as well be flushed down the toilet for all the good they do. Take Coca Cola for example. Coke spent $2.9 billion on advertising in 2012. Everyone knows the brand and what the product tastes like. I wouldn’t drink Coke unless they paid me. Their ads certainly won’t make me like Coke any better or make me switch from Dr. Pepper.

While the Lance Armstrong doping scandal is insidious, I’m more upset by the money the USPS wasted in sponsoring the bum to begin with.

The Poster Boy For Gun Control

James Yeager, the wild-eyed, tattooed, skin-headed CEO of Tactical Response, a Tennessee company that trains people in weapon and tactical skills, claimed in a video posted on YouTube and Facebook that he would “start killing people” if President Barack Obama decides to take executive action to pass further gun control policies, Raw Story reports.

In an expletive-laced, frenetic address to the camera, Yeager puts a call out to other gun rights advocates to “load your damn mags” and “get ready to fight” in what he claims will turn into a “civil war” if gun control measures in the country get any stricter.

This guy is representative of the militant, white-supremacist wing of the republican party who, in my opinion, are all mentally ill and shouldn’t be allowed to own guns. Yet Yeager is armed to the teeth, thinks killing people is the way to protect our second amendment rights, and trains others of his ilk to become warriors in an insane civil war over the “right” to bear assault weapons.

I’m a gun owner and haven’t ever wanted to kill anybody, except the drunken, belligerent, redneck idiot that ran over my dog. I don’t have any desire to own an assault weapon. The only reason to have one would be to protect myself from the likes of this guy who obviously has me outgunned. Mr. Yeager, in his tirade against any gun control legislation, shows us why we need more gun control legislation.

Go to Huffpost to see the video.

What Was Miley Thinking???

There’s an old saying that “Clothes make the man”. Conversely, I’d say that “Hair makes the woman”. With that in mind, what in the holy hell was Miley Cirus thinking when she cut off her gorgeous hair? She WAS smokin’ hot, but now she looks like some kind of punk-ass wraith who’s about to devour your soul. The sight of her new look makes me want to puke. The only thing that would make her more disgusting would be a smattering of tats.

The first time I saw the new Miley was when she appeared on Two-and-a-Half Men. She did a great acting job as Jake’s ditzy, motor-mouthed love interest. Her new look was the equivalent of the time that Britney Spears shaved her head. I just can’t understand why good-looking young women who are in the public eye want to undergo a drastic change that makes them so unattractive. Some psychiatrist needs to look into this. Is it just a phase or an indication of some underlying psychosis?

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but when I behold the new Miley, all my eye sees is ugliness! Maybe it’s just me, but I wonder if any young men her age find this new look sexy? Britney came to her senses and maybe Miley will too. We can only hope.

We’ve Been Punk’d, But Not By The Mayans

If you’re reading this, the world did not end on December 21st. Don’t blame the Mayans because we punk’d ourselves. Recent archaeological discoveries have proven that when the Mayan “long calendar” (5,126 years long) ends on 12-21-2012, a new long calendar begins. This is like when our current calendar ends on 12-31-2012, a new calendar begins on 01-01-2013. Another analogy would be when your car’s odometer rolls over from 999,999 miles to 000001. The car (if it made it that far) doesn’t necessarily cease to exist, it just begins another cycle.

There’s something intrinsic within the human psyche that causes us to want to believe in doomsday theories and, when they don’t come true, we somehow feel a little disappointed. Be of good cheer, however. Just because the end of the world didn’t coincide with the end of the current Mayan long calendar doesn’t mean that the end is not coming soon. Considering the disastrous condition of the 21st century world, the end could come anytime now… probably slowly with a whimper, rather than mercifully with a bang. Happy New Year!

Christmas Has Been Cancelled

Newtown Massacre – Blame The Shooter Not The Guns

Last Thursday, most of us had never heard of Newtown, Connecticut. And now, due to the acts of one disturbed young man, Newtown will be remembered forever as (we hope) the worst mass shooting in our history. As we grieve for the senseless loss of twenty first-grade children and six of their mentors, several questions keep rising to the surface. Why would someone target an elementary school full of innocent children? Who was that shooter? How could he be so deranged and no one saw this coming? What were the obstacles in his life that steered him so far off course? Eventually we may know the answers to these questions.

Others are calling for stricter gun control laws to prevent this from happening again. You can’t blame the guns, although the types of guns available nowadays did have something to do with it. A gun is just a tool, a piece of hardware, until a crazy person picks it up and turns it into a deadly weapon. If it is a pistol, a revolver must be manually reloaded after firing six bullets and a semi-automatic after 9 bullets. Jarod Loughner, the Gabby Giffords shooter, was tackled when he stopped to reload. The carnage would be lessened if these pistols were all we had to deal with. The trouble today is the semi-automatic assault rifles with extended clips. They were originally intended only for the military and their reason for existing is to kill people. But, since the assault weapons ban was repealed in 2004, they are available at every gun shop and gun show. The weapons possessed by the criminals on the street are far deadlier than those carried by the average cop. There is no reason why any homeowner or hunter would need such a gun.

I’d like to see the assault weapons ban reinstated and all of them confiscated, but the NRA will never let that happen. No matter how many laws are passed, there are so many guns in this country that, if someone wants one – for whatever purpose – they can get one without much trouble. This shooter simply took his mother’s guns that she bought legally in the state with the strictest gun laws, shot her in the face and went on a rampage. Do you think that anyone who premeditatedly plans to commit mass murder cares about gun laws? Guns don’t kill people, mean, evil people kill people. The lawmakers should concentrate their efforts on identifying the wackos, degenerates and gang bangers and getting them off the streets before they harm innocent people.

I’d like to thank the Newtown shooter, Adam Lanza, for having the decency to shoot himself before being captured. That saves us all a lot of time and money, and we can now be sure that he will never do something like that again. It’s just too bad he didn’t do it before the fact. There will probably be others, though, unless we find a way to stop them before they start. My thoughts are with the families of the victims of the Newtown massacre whose hearts are broken and their lives have been destroyed. May time heal their wounds and may the memories of their lost loved ones be of some comfort.

Holiday Greetings From SA

Well, here we are again. The idiots are clogging the roads and stores spending money they don’t have on a buttload of overpriced technology for a bunch of whiny, snot-nosed, ungrateful kids who don’t deserve anything more than a lump of coal. The only kid in my house is ME, so I went online on Cyber Monday and ordered the cheapest 32″ flat-screen TV I could find. Eight days later, Santa rolled up in his big, brown van and handed me my new toy that replaced my 20-year-old, 19″ CRT television.

I don’t buy presents for other people and they don’t buy me any. It’s a workable arrangement. I don’t have to go into debt and fight the crowds, and they don’t have to waste money buying me something I don’t want. Any money I spend is for my favorite recipient… ME. That money will be for something I really want and desperately need. They’re happy and I’m happy. I love my new TV and the only other thing I want is one of those Orgreenic frying pans. Maybe I can get that next month.

May all of you know the joy that self-gift-giving can bring. If not, please enjoy the holidays as best you can and pay for it later.

The Geometry of Party Politics

A square is a four-sided geometrical figure existing in only two dimensions. It has no depth. The same can be said for conservatives. In the 1960’s, republicans adopted the four sides of conservatism which are:
1] FC = Fiscal Conservatives champion balanced budgets, less government and fewer regulations.
2] DC = Defense Conservatives support strong borders, a foreign policy through strength, and a strong national defense.
3] CC = Constitutional Conservatives want strict adherence to the Constitution and the original intent of our Founding Fathers, with an emphasis on states rights.
4] SC = Social Conservatives favor defense of marriage, anti-abortion, and Judeo-Christian ethics.

Put another way, conservatives believe in personal responsibility, limited government, free unregulated markets, individual liberty (when it suits them), traditional American values and a strong national defense.  They believe the role of government should be to provide people the freedom necessary to pursue their own goals. Conservative policies generally emphasize empowerment of the individual to solve problems.

Fast-forward 50 years. In 2012, republicans would have fared better as a triangle without the fourth side of social conservatism (SC) and with some tweaks to the remaining three sides. America is a drastically different country than it was in 1960. The world we live in has changed, demographics have changed and values have changed. Conservatives have not changed and are going to go the way of the dinosaur if they don’t.

A sphere is a three-dimensional, geometrical object that contains all the space within it. It has no sides but does have depth. It is unified. This is a good analogy of the progressive Democratic party that tries to encompass not only the more liberal constituency that Americans have become, but ALL Americans that are contained within that sphere – including the conservatives. Progressive Liberals believe in government action to achieve equal opportunity and equality for all. It is the duty of the government to alleviate social ills and to protect civil liberties and individual and human rights. They believe the role of the government should be to guarantee that no one is in need. Liberal policies generally emphasize the need for the government to solve problems.

Defense Conservatives tend to be bullies on the world stage because of their preference for military force over rational diplomatic solutions.

Fiscal Conservatives need to realize that unrestrained capitalism is what brought about the Great Recession, and that regulations are absolutely necessary to prevent the abuses of greedy capitalists run amok. There is nothing wrong with expecting the government to live within its means and eliminate deficits.

Constitutional Conservatives don’t take into account that the original constitution was not perfect. That’s why we have 27 amendments to it so far. Even with the amendments, it’s still not perfect and strict adherence to every word is a narrow-minded endeavor.

The biggest problem is with Social Conservatives who want to impose their own tightly-wound, extremist Christian values on the rest of the country. Imagine if Muslims became the base of a major political party in America and tried to impose Sharia law on all our citizens. Republicans would join forces with Democrats to make sure that didn’t come to pass. The same should go for any religion. Americans represent all religions so no one religion or value system should have any preference in politics. This is the side of the conservative square that must be eliminated. The remaining triangle needs to become more rational and open-minded if it wants to exist in the all-inclusive sphere with the rest of us.

Redesigning the Election Process

Have you ever wondered why we vote on Tuesday, rather than on the weekends when more people are off work or out of school?

Beginning in 1792 states were allowed to hold their presidential elections any day within the 34-day period before the first Wednesday in December. That first Wednesday was the day when all of the electors in each state would convene and choose a President and Vice-President. That sounds reasonable, but Congress wanted to establish an “election day”. Antebellum America was primarily an agrarian and strictly religious society and only wealthy, white, landowning males were allowed to vote. Sunday was a day for church and rest. Since it could take a man an entire day to travel by horseback to the county seat to cast his vote, Monday was not realistic. So, in 1845, Congress decided to allow the first Monday of November for travel, voting on Tuesday, and the plantation owners could be back to their farms by Wednesday.

So, to this day, we continue the idiotic and archaic practice of voting on the first Tuesday in November. In 1845, the U.S. population was only 19.7 million and there were only 27 states in the union. Today we have 313 million people and 50 states. Expecting so many more voters to cast a ballot on a single day is ridiculous, and Tuesday is an inconvenient day. Early voting goes a long way to overcome this, but I think it’s time to go back to something that more closely resembles the 1792 method. Congress needs to declare an “election MONTH”. That month should be October when the weather is typically better than November. Polling precincts should be open at least 8 hours a day and 7 days a week throughout election month.

The process should be overseen by the Federal Government so that the rules are the same throughout the country. Poll workers should be properly compensated for their time. With the increasing use of electronic voting machines, every voter should be given a paper printout of their choices and another paper copy should be kept by the precinct to assure the machine’s tally is correct. Anything that smells like voter suppression, such as photo I.D. and amendments to the Voting Rights Act, should be struck down. The goal should be free, fair, efficient and convenient elections where every vote is properly counted.

Obama and America Won Last Night

Barack Obama has won a second term with a large majority (303 to 206) of electoral votes.  The popular vote was somewhat tighter. His re-election is only part of the good news,  though. Anti-abortion wackos, Mourdock in Indiana and Akin in Missouri were defeated.  George “Macaca” Allen was defeated. Rabid teabaggers, Allen West and Joe Walsh, lost re-election to the house after one term. Elizabeth Warren defeated one-term senator Scott Brown, returning Ted Kennedy’s seat to Democratic hands.

A huge piece of good news is that Colorado and Washington voted to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana consumption for adults. This could be the beginning of a wave that results in the intelligent overhaul of the failed federal drug policies. Anyone who claims they want the federal government out of their lives should be thrilled by these two results and press for nationwide legalization.

The bad news from last night is that there are still too many right-wing, extremist obstructionists in Congress. Michelle Bachmann, for example, won re-election . Other obstructionists like “Mr. Gridlock” – Mitch McConnell – weren’t up for re-election and remain in power. Because he spent the last four years trying to make Obama a one-term president, I say to him: “neener neener neener”.

The senate remains in the hands of Democrats but without a super-majority, and the house remains in republican control. So, after nearly $3-billion spent on all the races, the balance of power in Washington hasn’t really changed. This is a huge victory for our political system over the obscene spending that resulted from the Citizens United decision that made corporations “people” and unlimited, anonymous contributions “free speech”. Our country is faced with some serious problems to overcome that can’t be solved unless the republicans disavow their Grover Norquist No-tax Pledge and come to realize that “compromise” is NOT a dirty word.

I stayed up until 2:00 AM to watch Mitt Romney’s delayed concession speech and Barack Obama’s victory speech and I’m tired but invigorated today. I’m sure I’m not alone. My faith in humans was somewhat restored last night. The election returns provided a long night of nail-biting that culminated in glorious vindication of the intelligence of the majority of American voters. They saw through the lies and dirty tactics of the republican party in general and Romney in particular. They decided that they wanted better than that from their president. Despite what Obama said in his speech, we are sadly still a nation of red and blue states – deeply divided on many levels. My hope is that the next four years will go a long way toward the realization of Obama’s dream of a truly “United” States of America. We’ll see.

A Pleasant Voting Experience

I went to the polling place this morning prepared for the worst. After all the horror stories of long lines and 8 hour wait times, I went prepared. I dressed in layers because it was cloudy, breezy and 43 degrees outside. I took a bottle of water, the newspaper, gloves, a knit cap, and some kleenex to wipe a possible runny nose. When I arrived, there was no line outside the church where I vote. I went in the door marked “Vote Here” and all I saw were the smiling and friendly poll workers. I asked: “Where are all the people?” I was told that they were in the sanctuary and to go in there.

All the voters were seated in comfortable, padded seats in the warm sanctuary. The officials pointed me to the row where I was to sit and wait. I went with my next-door neighbor who had her i-pad. I played a game while the workers called a row at a time. Before I knew it our row was called. We walked out to the table where we were asked for our voter registration card -No photo I.D. We waited in a line for about five minutes until a voting machine freed up. Another five minutes to cast my vote, and we were out of there. 50 minutes total!

I must say that, while I was in a church sanctuary, I took advantage of that to call upon a higher power. I asked that God allow the candidate that most closely resembles his son Jesus to win the election. We all know who that is. But, alas, I live in the reddest state in the union so I know who will win my state. I almost didn’t vote for that reason, but I had to exercise my right to make my voice heard. If you don’t vote you can’t bitch, and you know how I like to bitch about that “other party”.

I didn’t see any evidence of voter suppression groups hanging around. The whole experience was smooth, pleasant and quick. Now my only concern is whether my vote will be properly counted by that infernal electronic voting machine. There is no paper trail, so I will never know.

Employees Are Threatened: “Vote Romney Or You’re Fired”

Mitt Romney and his cohorts, the evil Koch Brothers, are demanding that all employees of Koch-owned companies vote for Mitt Romney or lose their jobs. It’s horrible, shameful and contemptible… but not surprising. This vulture capitalist who claims he knows how to create jobs certaintly knows how to create fear among those who have jobs. Prepare to puke while you read this report in the Huffington Post.

SA’s Closing Statement Before the Election

Every four years (or maybe two) I feel like my head is going to explode from the insane republican lies and stupidity. While I applaud the theory of American democracy, the two-party system leaves much to be desired. Ideally there would be more parties or no parties at all. But as long as you insist on having two major parties, why is the republican party even allowed to exist? On my home planet, beings as stupid and corrupt as your republicans would be raised as feed stock. One would expect politicians to stretch the truth to an extent, but practically every word from republican politicians is either an outright lie or is founded on some wacky right-wing belief that has no basis in fact. Their modus operandi is that if they repeat their lies enough times, they start to sound like the truth.

That seems to work quite well because their constituents gobble it up as truth and regurgitate it, as such, every chance they get. Because republicans are the party of the rich, and because of the disastrous Citizens United decision, they are able to afford the largest and loudest megaphone and are therefore able to drown out any truth put forth by the Democrats. Republicans are like the loudmouth drunks at a keg party. It doesn’t matter that they don’t know what they’re talking about, they just know that if they keep talking loud enough, no one else can get a word in edgewise.

You don’t need a PHD to be an intelligent voter. You only need to pay attention and seek out the real truth – not the lies of Romney, Ryan, Limbaugh, Palin, Bachmann, etc., etc. America is doomed as long as half of the electorate votes as if they only have a second-grade education. And, speaking of second-graders, what Romney and his superpacs have taught our children is that, when you have nothing else going for you, lie your ass off and you will go far in life. His entire campaign has been shameful, but republicans have no shame.

Well, the campaigning is coming to an end (hallelujah) and Tuesday night we may know the outcome. If Romney wins and/or the senate falls to the republicans we will know that this old adage is true: Lies can travel around the world while truth is still tying its shoes. I’m tired of trying to educate the ineducable, enlighten the dimwits, and unbeguile the gullible. So here is my brief closing statement:

Given what President Obama was handed when he took office and all that has happened in the world since, it is a miracle that the economy is rebounding as well as it is. We are clearly on the mend from the Great Recession that was caused by republican policies that Romney wants to reinstate – the results of which have plagued us for the last five years. Changing course now would be a huge mistake. Obama has been steadfast, honest and empathetic. His policies are working despite the bitter opposition from the right wing. He deserves a second term and we need to give it to him. If you are a multimillionaire, vote for Romney. He will make you even wealthier to the detriment of everyone else. However, if you are in the 47% or the 99% of average Americans, Obama cares about you while Romney couldn’t care less. Voting for Romney would be like shooting yourself in the head. Romney will decimate Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and Food Stamps. If you’re a single-issue voter and your issue is abortion, remember that Romney was adamantly pro-choice just five years ago. If your issue is the national debt, remember that Romney sheltered his wealth offshore to avoid paying taxes that could have gone toward paying off the debt. If your issue is the economy, Romney says he has a plan but won’t tell us what it is. Ditto if your issue is taxes. We’re just supposed to trust him. If your issue is jobs, all Romney knows about that is how to ship them overseas. If your issue is national security or foreign affairs, the third debate should have made it clear that Obama is the one to trust while Romney hasn’t a clue. And finally, if you’re voting for “anyone other than Obama” because he’s black, then screw you. You’re a hopeless, racist, anti-American asshole.

So there!