personal stuff

Other than talk about games and the initial post of personal views way back in the day, I haven't really said anything about me as a person. And what a fun situation I'm in. So here goes.

I had bought a new car in 2004 after I attained a managerial job for a retail company- this becomes significant later. More recently, I was unemployed for about 2 years after being let go from a different retail company as a store manager. I lived in an area without much industry at all- the area has a company that produces RVs and mobile homes, but that's about it- and the vast majority of everything else in the area was service sector. In the economy we had 2 years ago, that means the job market in the area was nonexistent. I looked and looked and looked, and the only positions I was able to find available were part time, minimum wage jobs. Doing the math, I needed to find a company that paid almost $12 an hour on a full time basis to simply equal what I was getting on unemployment, so I wasn't about to take a pay cut when I already had a hard time making ends meet, paying for my car payment, insurance, rent, etc etc.

Towards the end of those two years (the beginning of this year) I had fallen very behind on everything. My car was up for repossession, my registration was very expired and I had 3 parking tickets because of it. So if the repo squad didn't nab it, the police were about to. I'm piggybacking on a friend's cell phone plan, or the internet would be my only means of contacting the outside world. In short, my world was a shambles and hanging by a thread, on the edge of crumbling to ashes.

I finally took a job- it was minimum wage like all the rest of them, but it was full time, so it was at least something. I fell even further behind after accepting "gainful" employment, since I was making less money than I was getting even on unemployment. I worked it for a couple months, all the while fearing for my vehicle, double threatened by the legal owners of the car and by law enforcement just doing their job. My car was/is everything; without it, I lose my job because there are no other options to travel to work- cabs too expensive, much too far to walk or ride a bicycle, and the labyrinthine schedule and routes of buses in three or four different cities would not get the job done. And if I lose my job, I might as well go commit a crime that will put me in jail so I can have a roof over my head and not go hungry, and then receive all sorts of benefits given to convicts after they get out of prison- such as job training and placement assistance.

Things started to look up in June when I moved away from the tiny little hell hole of a desert town I was in to a place much closer to the coast- moved in with an old high school friend of mine who not only needed a roommate to help pay rent, but his company had positions they needed filled. And it paid better than minimum wage. Not much better, but anything helps. So in a time span of about two weeks I interviewed for the new position and was hired, and moved down there. It happened so fast, I worked the last night at my old job on a Sunday night (technically Monday morning, as the shift lasted until 12:30AM) and started training with my new company Monday morning at 9AM, with the final load of my belongings in the back of my car.

With the increase in pay from the new job from June to now, my car is no longer up for repossession, though I am again a month behind on the payment. I still owe the Department of Motor Vehicles for my registration, to include three times the value of the three parking tickets that were issued to me because I did not update my registration in a 30 day period from time of issuance of the ticket. My car will still likely be towed by the police if I get pulled over or leave it parked in a public area, and I will then, again, be helpless to prevent the destruction of my life due to not having a vehicle to drive to my work to earn income.

And don't tell me "just pay the ticket and get your car back", because that is not the way it works. I'll have to pay off all the tickets just to be able to update my registration, and then pay for the late registration, and then pay a fine to the law enforcement agency for their "troubles" in calling a company to tow my car away, and then, on top of all of that, I'll have the opportunity to pay the towing company a $200+ per day storage fee to have them release my car to me.

With less than $70 in my bank account, with all my money flying away from me faster than I can earn it just to pay off my debts, getting my car back after it gets towed will not happen.

To put icing on the cake, my car developed a wiring problem where my brake lights will not turn on when I depress the pedal. I still work until after sunset, so my lack of brake lights is readily apparent on my drive home from work. Its like having a giant, bright (dim?) sign for the entire local police force affixed to my car.

Thats my financial life as it stands right now.

Things could always be worse, I know, but it makes your life seem a little brighter by hearing about mine, doesn't it? :)

wow...

I looked at my page today and found that I've been linked to by Concealed Carry News, and even though this is the kind of thing I've been hoping for, I'm still surprised.

Thanks, CCN, I appreciate it!

as part of my effort to post more...

... I'm going to try to post more personal topics than political topics. Politics is exceptionally irritating and draining, for me.

Politics is such a torment that I advise everyone I love not to mix with it. -Thomas Jefferson

The system is so broken, and intentionally so, and yet most people don't see that they're simply being divisive (I do NOT use the word in the traditional media usage) to maintain power.

But today is a political topic. Unfortunately- in more than one sense.

Firearm ownership in America has become highly politicized, and it really shouldn't be. All of this talk of "interpreting the Second Amendment" and how pro-firearm people are interpreting it incorrectly is just bunk. There are no interpretations possible other than the plain text that is written, especially if you take any time to read anything that the founding fathers of the nation wrote about it. No free citizen of the United States of America shall be prevented from owning a firearm.

The key word there is "free". If you're a criminal, sorry, your right to arm yourself is gone. Mentally ill and hospitalized? No longer "free".

And, really, that's what this "debate" centers on. One side cries out, "Violent crime is on the rise!" While I reply, "And you've helped quite enough, thank you." By demonizing and stereotyping gun owners and anyone who is pro-second amendment as violent nutballs (and they've done a damn good job of it), it has become commonplace in my experience for many people to react negatively to anyone who owns a firearm and so much as mentions it in passing. This leads to a reduced amount of firearm owners and leads to increased crime.

Proof? The seven lowest crime states in America are Right To Carry states, meaning that their state laws provide for what I stated above- free citizens have the right to arm themselves. 24 states have adopted "shall issue" laws for gun permits for citizens since the violent crime peak of 1991. About 90 million more legally owned firearms are in civilian hands today than in 1991, and America's murder rate has dropped to a 43 year low- dropping by 46%. The total violent crime rate in America has decreased 41%, to a 35 year low. I took a look at the preliminary UCR from the FBI, and the statistics there show that crime has dropped again from 2008-2009, across the board. As determined by John Lott and David Mustard, when concealed carry laws went into effect, murders fell by 8.5%, rapes fell by 5%, and assaults fell by 7%.

National surveys of police officers show that they support concealed handgun laws by 3 to 1.

Florida has issued more than 1.7 million permits, more than any other state, and has revoked only 167, or 0.01% due to firearms related crimes by the citizens carrying permits.

Catch that? 0.01% of people who receive gun carry permits (in Florida, at least) commit crimes relating to their firearms. 0.01%. 0.01%! One hundreth of one percent!

Firearms used in crimes are used by criminals who obtain them illegally, not by law-abiding citizens who exercise their constitutional right to arm themselves and protect themselves from criminals.

Anti-gun laws only restrict the rights of law-abiding citizens; the supposed targets of the anti-gun laws, violent criminals, are already living outside the law anyway... what makes anyone think they'll obey this one law when they ignore the rest of them?

I think I'll cut this one short today. I could fill a book with my frustrations on this one topic alone.

In any case, I'll close with this message to the politicians:

DON'T TREAD ON ME.

Sites I borrowed from to write the post:

http://www.nraila.org/
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm
http://www.cdnshootingsports.org/

I haven't posted in awhile. But I was right.

One of the last things I said was that my hope for positive change with this administration died. That's still absolutely true.

But I've read and listened and learned a lot of things in the more than year and a half that I haven't been posting and if anything I'm even less hopeful.

Let me start with Obamacare for the Obamanation from the Obamination.

I was given a lesson in the realities of this "universal healthcare" system from one of the people at my company who has worked directly with the official information given to our company.

Here's how it works: any company that fails to provide healthcare for each of its employees will be fined $2,000 per employee, per year. Any company that provides healthcare for its employees will, firstly, pay for said healthcare. And then the government will tax the company about $2,000 per covered employee, per year.

Do the math: the Obama administration is making it more expensive for your employer to provide healthcare for you than not providing healthcare.

Why? ... We should all be asking that. Shouldn't companies that provide healthcare for their employees be spared the $2,000 fine? Of course they should, in a reasonable country. But this country's legislators are anything but reasonable. So to find out why, let's examine what the consequences will be.

Let's pick an imaginary company that currently provides healthcare for its employees, ABC Industries. Medical costs are rising, and typical companies share the cost in some fashion with the employees by taking a portion of the expense out of the employees' checks. ABC Industries is one of those companies, though the company is a little on the less-generous side and pays a smaller portion of the medical costs than the employee does. When Obamacare goes into effect, ABC Industries' cost per employee will rise by $2,000 annually.
ABC Industries' board of executives gets together in a meeting and looks at the numbers- their cost for supplying healthcare for their employees will now be the cost of healthcare plus $2,000. One of the executives interjects into the discussion that the fine for not providing coverage is only $2,000. There's a moment of silence as that sinks in, and then they start to discuss the possibility of simply soaking up the "fine" while they save money from not needing to provide healthcare.

The decision gets made- from a business' bottom line standpoint, not providing healthcare is the cheaper and therefore smarter way to go. The employees are provided six months notice that their company provided health coverage is coming to an end, and behind this letter comes the informative packet to help them all sign up for Obamacare.

Oh... so that must be the reason why Obamacare's impact on employers is structured like it is- companies are being prodded to put their employees on the government healthcare system. When you get right down to it, its a government incentive- "we'll give you a break on costs if you turn your employees over to our care".

The government wants more people on the governmental system? I shouldn't be surprised. It seems to be a pretty continuous idea. Jerry Brown, one of the candidates for governor of California and a California politician for a number of years now, had a radio show in the 1990's. A direct quote from one of his shows: "We need more welfare and less jobs."

So that's the kind of government we're getting- socialistic. Just like I said in December 2008, when I lost motivation to continue preaching about this.

My biggest mistake to date.

I won't go into details- not because you don't want to hear them but because I don't want to go into them. But I've made the biggest mistake of my life, even greater than leaving USAFA and giving up my free, guaranteed education and place in the military. I had to think about that for a few minutes to make sure about my position on that thought, but its true.

I finally cried today. I kinda feel relieved now.

Hopefully the way to go is up now.

Welcome to the Socialist States of Amerika, Comrade!

Here it comes.

This is the beginning of the end of American freedom.

This post is really aimed at the masses of people who voted for Obama, but I don't mind if everyone else who has a head on their shoulders listens in.

Have you ever wondered why America is the economic powerhouse of the world? Why American consumers are the ones who drive the world's economy? (And by extension, when our economy suffers, the whole world's economy suffers?)

Because we let our people keep the money they make. America has one of the lowest income taxes in the world- and according to the Tax Foundation, 32% of Americans don't even pay an income tax- they likely pay it, of course, but get it all back when they file their tax forms.



Think about it. When people get to keep more of their money, they get to spend more of their money how they want to. And we do. Let's face it, American consumerism drives our economy, and it's the exact reason why our economy is so powerful worldwide. It's why people from all over the world want to come to America to start their own businesses, to live the American dream- because the rest of the world taxes their people and businesses up to 70%. Imagine how hard it would be to live on your $20,000 a year income if you were only able to keep $6,000 of it. (The above income figure is not meant as an insult; at the moment, I'm making less than you.)

Obama has been quoted as wanting to "redistribute the wealth". He wants to take money from the people who have lots of it, and put it into governmental programs for the poor of America. The problem with redistributing wealth, ie, giving money and programs to poor people, is that it locks them into dependency on those programs- and they make no effort to better themselves, because, lets face it, they don't have to. They're getting taken care of and paid to be poor.

African American economist Thomas Sowell stated in 2004, "The black family, which had survived centuries of slavery and discrimination, began rapidly disintegrating in the liberal welfare state that subsidized unwed pregnancy and changed welfare from an emergency rescue to a way of life."

America spends more than one trillion dollars every year on total benefits to the poorest one-fifth of America. To quote Right Truth:

"To put a trillion dollars in perspective, it’s more than twice our total spending on national defense.

It’s larger than the total revenue collected by the federal individual income tax.

It’s about ten times as much as we spent on redistributive policies in the 1950s (in inflation-adjusted dollars).

It’s equal to the total before-tax cash income of middle-income households. That’s right, we transfer to the low-income population an amount equal to the entire income of middle-income households, that is, households in the middle fifth (40th to 60th percentile) of the American income distribution.

If a trillion dollars were simply given to those counted as poor by the federal government (37 million in 2005), it would amount to $27,000 per person. That’s $81,000 for a family of three, higher than the median income of all American families, and far greater than the poverty threshold of $15,577."

Here's another eye-opener. When rich people have money to spend, they spend it in order to make more money. Translation: They conduct business, which means they open new businesses, create jobs, create wealth, drive the economy, make things better for everyone. And, conversely, when we try to take money away from rich people, they find ways to hold onto it, to hide it. And that also means they're not using it to create more wealth... which means they're not out there conducting business and creating jobs.

To put it all together: America leads the world economy because we're not Socialists. We don't tax our people up to 70% like the Socialists in Europe. And don't come crying to me when your income tax shoots up, and you watch it pay for a whole host of new programs for the poor in America, and our economy suffers due to high-end companies leaving America to other places in the world where they're not taxed as much- leaving little but minimum-wage service sector jobs in America.

Dirty spiral.

I hope the Democrats who'll be in control of the Senate, and, possibly, the House, aren't nearly as left-leaning as our President-elect. I hope they'll have the intelligence to know where that Socialistic road will take them.

But, as for me, my hope for a positive change has died.

Check this site out. They've got a story about the Empire State building, newly the tallest building in New York (after the two tallest were destroyed 7 years ago), being bathed in the color of the religion that made sure the Empire State Building would be the tallest building.