Currently Reading Well , Duh ! : Our Stupid World, and Welcome to It By Bob Fenster see related

Current events!

If you believe one of the following please stop voting and reproducing (I will cover the cost of getting you fixed if you are not sure how to keep from polluting the gene pool).  Also you are not allowed to read the rest of the post!

"They hate us because of our freedoms"  "We found WMD in Iraq"  "HMOs and insurance companies have the best interests of the public at heart."  "Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy. Providing health care to all Americans is socialism."  "If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents won't have sex." "The United States should get out of the United Nations, and our highest priority is enforcing UN regulations in Iraq"  "A good way to fight terrorism is to belittle our longtime allies, then demand their cooperation and money"  "Jesus hates homosexuals" That Bin Laden met with Saddam more times that Donald Rumsfeld did"

 

Anyway I wanted to weed our any of the people that believe one of the above so the mouth breathers won't post some stupid comments on the subject of immigration.  After reading some extremely ignorant blogs on immigration I will put in my $0.02.  Some people's comments must sound like some of the Germans of the late 30's when they were duped into thinking the Jews were the cause of their problems.  I am amazed that 6 months ago nobody gave a crap about this issue now we have people ready to arm themselves and guard the border all 2200 miles.  I agree we need a sensible immigration reform but the lets round them up bit is so unrealistic.  First of all if you put them all on buses there would be a solid line of buses from the Mexico border all the way to Alaska.  I have seen people say "They don't pay taxes"  So when major American Corporations set up a mail box in the Cayman Islands so they don't have to pay taxes would this be considered "Un American"?  The new shopping area in LS is a good example of screwing the people out of tax revenue.  The developers pushed to build the shopping mall and just wanted the approval and what they got out of the deal was a 28 year property tax abatement while charging you an extra $.01 sales tax on everything purchased at that location.  Too bad the govt doesn't reward people the same way, make improvements to a house and you are now taxed more.  I know that this is a little off topic but for the "they don't pay taxes" crowd you can see that major corporations get the most help skirting taxes.  PS.  MOST ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS PAY TAXES just under a false social security number.  So they pay into a system they won't be able to use.  If we are worried about the immigrants doing day labor (small jobs for a day or two and paid in cash) does that mean we should try to shake down every kid that mows a few lawns and doesn't pay taxes on it.  I know many legal Americans that haven't paid taxes on income, mostly strippers that I know.   I have seen others say that illegal are not welcome in America.  HELLO have you not been to wall-mart, mcdonalds, any other place paying a non-live able wage.  It is big business that is supplying the jobs for many of the people to come here.  If we really want to fix the problem we have to fine and punish the business that exploited these peoples status.  Listening to NPR I heard many immigrants that were told they would be paid a certain amount to only be stiffed buy their employers because they knew there was nothing the worker could do.   Trying to deal with illegal's and not the reason they come here is like trying to stop drugs but putting all the users in jail.  If you stop the suppliers of jobs/drugs you might make a dent in the problem.  Think about it for a second and ponder this.  If you were accustom to hiring illegal's for $4.00 an hr and making big profits would you risk your business if there were stiff fines for using illegal's?  Lets make the people that employee the them responsible. Lets make knowingly using illegal labor a felony.  I know one congressmen wanted to make assisting an illegal a felony, that is just great so lets lock up Jesus because he helped people and usually the poor. 

I know that something must be done in this country about immigration but the stupid ideas I have seen expressed worry me.  As Easter approaches please think about WWJD and try to come up with some real thoughtful and realistic ideas that will work.  Remember that most everyone in the world has the same goals.  Live at a decent standard of living and take care of their families.   Mexico needs to fix their own country but there Govt. is much worse than ours when it come to corruption.  Remember you can be a Mexican American and never have had an ancestor come over the US border; vast portions of the United States of today USED TO BE MEXICO or SPAIN. If you failed to learn this in high school, your teachers should be fired.  Also this is not just a Mexican problem as there are tens of thousands of illegal immigrants from Africa, Asia, and Europe. 

Please be careful when you discuss these issues not to stereotype or overgeneralize. The anti-Latino frenzy you're creating is leading to a racist backlash against tens of millions of native-born Americans who happen to have Spanish names. 

The US has TWO international borders, not ONE. To date, not a single terrorist has gotten to the US through Mexico; to date, at least two suspected terrorists have arrived here through Canada. In fact, I would not be surprised if, while the media and xenophobes are focused on the Mexican border, terrorists figure out that it might be a good idea to walk over from Vancouver to Seattle for a latte. Oh, and all international anti-American terrorists who have come to the U.S. so far have been *smart* enough to come with passports and other documents supplied to them by the deep pockets of their organizations. Do you really think a terrorist from Saudi Arabia is going to think it's a good idea to swim over the border to Texas or Arizona with a bunch of Mexicans? How stupid is that?!? Finally, please remember that the anti-American terrorist Timothy McVeigh was not a foreigner or an illegal immigrant.  I still think we should bomb the shit out of Kansas for that attack and to prevent another attack from a Kansas resident.  Wow when you think about it one third of all terrorist attacks in the US have been committed by Kansas residents I don't feel safe in Missouri anymore living so close to a state that supports terrorist.  I will be building a bomb shelter in the back yard.  Enough with irrational fears now. 

I have my Easter egg basked and I have been gleefully training so I can get more eggs then the rest of the kids this year. 

Currently Reading Unusually Stupid Americans : A Compendium of All-American Stupidity By Ross Petras, Kathryn Petras see related

Dear Humans

I always knew you were pretty stupid, even from an early age. But lately I have come across a statistic that just puts the whole thing into perspective. Try this one on for size. Less than half of American adults understand that the Earth orbits the sun yearly, according to a basic science survey by the national science foundation.  http://www.mdcbowen.org/p2/rm/stupidit.htm  I didn't believe the results then I started asking people a very simple question and was shocked to find out how many people didn't know!  If you really want to confuse them ask them (after you tell the dumb ones that the earth goes around the sun) if the moon goes around the earth or the Earth goes around the moon?

I can see how you would be confused with the whole rising and the setting thing. When I was four it was a little hard to visualize. These are adults mind you. But here’s a newsflash for you America, we've been to space, and we've seen satellite pictures of the earth from afar. It’s pretty evident that the earth rotates around the sun. That is why we have these things called SEASONS. But I guess we are getting pretty advanced here.

This is what politics, watered down media, and intolerant religious wackos that have yet to read the Bible have done to this country.  The Bible doesn't say anything about the Devil using science to make us stray.  No amount of science will prove or disprove the existence of God.  We are so worried about teaching kids about evolution or creationism, don't worry they are not learning science any way so just don't even bring it up.  If only half of the people can understand the earth and sun deal how can we expect them to grasp 2 theories.  I am tired of bad Christians speaking for the whole group.  God does not hate _______  fill in the blank with what ever someone on TV is screaming at the moment.  Remember what Jesus said and lets not make stuff up like people that use Christianity as a club to put people down.  I think the beatitudes http://www.biblepath.com/beatitudes.html should be put up in public places instead of the 10 commandments. 

One more thing about the watered down media from above.  Why do we know who Natalee Holloway is and we can't even point to the Darfur region on a map where hundreds of thousands of people have been slaughtered in the past few years.  This is where a real war on Christianity is being waged not Walmart or Target.  Put Terri Shivo, Scott Peterson, Brad, Jen, & Vince in that same category distractions of what is really happing around our flat world.  Maybe if we say the the Sudanese Government and the Janjaweed militia were the ones that kidnapped the Holloway girl and were also the ones 15 years ago that starved Terry Shivo into the coma we can finally fix a real problem in the world.

On another note I have been researching the single payer health care plan lately. It's easy to find all sorts of websites using facts and statistics along with Doctor's testimony to support its adoption.

What I couldn't find was any reasons for why it is bad other than people saying stuff like "Do you want socialized medicine?" Basically, the only arguments I saw against the single payer universal health care plan were based solely on using the words socialism and communism as opposed to any real facts defining why it would hurt the nation.  As I see it now we have a socialized system.  NOBODY is denied health care in this country so those of us who have it pay for those who don't. 

My question is this: Why is a single payer universal health care plan a bad idea? 

Sorry for the long rant as you all know once I get on a roll I can't help myself.

With spring gleefully approaching I hope to see lots of butterflies on my butterfly bush.

Currently Reading The Gift of Fear By Gavin De Becker see related

Sorry for not posting in a long time.   My torrid love affair with Naomi has taken up most of my time I found out she as hot after all.  One thing lately has really got me fired up and it is Asian bird flu. I mean really. Can we stop with the media fear already. Oprah ran a series and nearly sold the country out of the current vaccine used to treat it. That is just great. You just caused it to mutate years sooner than it would have naturally. Pat yourself on the back Oprah.
Our countries obsession with the disease of the week is to the point of Ad nauseam like everything else in this country. Remeber SARS, of course you don't. Well let me refresh. Severe acute respiratory syndrome, better known by its acronym SARS, is an atypical form of pneumonia. There were a total of 8437 cases of disease, with 813 deaths. Wow, that was something to get worried about wasn't it.  South Park even made fun of how ridiculous it was to be worried about SARS. How about there are around 600,000 deaths due to heart disease every year (in the US).
Remember Monkey Pox. Yes, it was called Monkey Pox and you were all scared shitless for a couple of months. As of June 11, a total of 54 persons with suspected monkeypox had been reported in Wisconsin (20), Illinois (10), Indiana (23), and New Jersey (1). Monkeypox had been confirmed by laboratory tests in nine persons. At least 14 of the people with suspected monkeypox had been hospitalized for their illness; there have been no deaths related to the outbreak. NO DEATHS.
West Nile, still ongoing every year. Some old lady dies from west nile in the midwest and its a epidemic.  MAD COW is another favoret of the media and it must be killing tens of thousands of people world wide by the way they talk about it.  I reality only 148 people have died from MAD COW in the 10 years between 1994-2004. KILLER BEES (Africanized Honey Bee) where also supposed to take over North America in the last few years and remember they attacked in swarms of thousands of bees at once and could kill people on a whim.  Not to worry you alarmists killer bees have been living quietly in the US for over 30 years.(sorry for the .......ists words i have come to love these words Saddamists, obstructionists, extremists, islamofascists, fascists, fundamentalists)
Oh and my favorite, the anthrax scare. The 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States occurred over the course of several weeks beginning on September 18, 2001 (after the September 11, 2001 attacks). Letters containing anthrax bacteria were mailed to several news media offices and two US Senators, killing five people. FIVE PEOPLE!!! I killed five people just now, while writing this blog.
For a comparative analysis, In 2001, there were 30,242 suicides, hell if you look at that number for 2001 you are 10X more likely to kill you self that year than having a terrorist kill you much less than any other panic inducing pandemic.  If you shot your kid in an accident it wouldn't get near the press coverage than if he got anthrax. All I am asking is that you worthless baby factory fat body mothers who have nothing else in your life to do but watch TV and eat bon bons, look at the statistics every once in a while. You are not going to get Asian bird flu. You don't even know where Asia is. So stop worrying about it and put down the cheesecake which is responsible for the way you are actually going to die. Heart disease, morbid obesity, and TYPE II diabetes.... just like your idol Oprah. You are not going to die in a terrorist attack either. No one is going to bomb Carpet World, The Yarn Store, or Boarders. And if they did, It would be a lot less painless than severe coronary failure. You should be so lucky to go out in such a memorable way. Also the media needs to stop referring to a 7 person TB outbreak as an epidemic. The Black Plague was an epidemic. A TB outbreak is an after dinner mint. Just for fun I would love to see what you all can come up with as far as pseudo epidemics. 

I did see a rainbow the other day and that made me gleeful. 

Later Ryan

Currently Reading The First Amendment By Louis M. Seidman, Cass R. Sunstein, Mark V. Tushnet, Pamela S. Karlan see related

Well my good friend Naomi(still not sure who you are) said I should update and I have been busy lately and just not had the chance. I am still recovering from last Saturday night when I drank too much and lost my pants. If you have my pants please return them to me ASAP and for all of you that saw me in my tighty whiteys I am sorry for that.   Also if you have a damage claim from my actions please contact me.

You know one thing that has bothered my a lot lately is this Constitution, free speech hating politician Matt Bartle a state senator from Lee's Summit. He wants to close legal business down because he is pandering to some nut jobs. This is the same type of guy that would be excited about burning books he deemed bad for the public. Well I don't believe we need the morality police (espessialy lawyers) telling us how to live, it just seems un-American to me to tell people what they can and can't do if doesn't effect anyone. By Bartle's logic we should shut down the Catholic Church or the Boy Scouts because it produces molesters. We can also shut down the Lutheran Church because the BTK killer was a member. If we keep electing politicians that want to take away our right we will be hoping that the newly "democratic" Iraq can come free us from the over burdening government we will have in place. How great is that while we are attempting to give freedom to others we are having it taken away right here in the heartland of America. Not only does Bartle want to erode your freedoms he also has supported bills to cut foster families aid to care for kids that they have taken into their homes. These are families that sacrifice a great deal to help others and the money the state provides helps pay for these kids needs, often phsycal and mental disorders. I guess he is just pro-life up to the day they are born and then they are on their own. No nobody likes to pay for some lazy bum to sit around on welfare while others work but to cut benefits from kids(often disabled)takes a real callous human. The only positive thing about this guy is we get to vote him out of office in 2006! I for one, am not going to stand here and let him bad-mouth the United States of America!!!! I know most of my rants end in glee but after talking about Bartle I just can't bring my self to be gleeful! Sorry maybe next time.

Currently Watching Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Special Edition) By Peter Sellers, George C. Scott see related

I have been attempting new things in my life lately and I have alwayse wanted to try my hand at web based skits.  I have created a short little film and I found a place to host if for me.  http://www.tekzoned.com/instest/

Please take a look and let me know what you think.