Drugs (The ones that remain illegal, of course) and Prostitution

Yup.  Drugs.  AMERICA'S DEADLY SIN.  Prostitution.  Another such sin.

Wait though...Hold the phone.  Are these actual sins America, or are they sins because we continue to illegalize them, despite our unsuccessful efforts to elmininate them both?  Before you pidgeon-hole me as a perverted drug-addict trying to vie to get these indulgences legalized, read and consider this post, and the contents thereof.  Our sin, America might just be the centuries-old war that we wage with these issues, rather than the issues themselves.

With the legalization of Marijuana for medicinal purposes here in my state, I feel its time to address this issue as a whole.  And while we're at it, let's talk about prostitution as well.  I feel it's very important that we discuss both of these things together, mostly because, not only do they tend to overlap each other in a lot of ways, but also because I believe that the same solution to both issues would work miracles.

I'd like to begin with prostitution, only because it's the oldest profession, and therefore deserves the "Pole Position".  Prostitution has been around since the dinosaurs, yet it's one of those things we continue to fight, against all reason, and the problem continues to be heavily debated, morally shunned, and yet it's as rampant as ever, regardless of the law, and how much we try to do away with it.

Let's be clear that I'm not a big fan of money for sex, play for pay, or any of the other wonderful expressions we've come to associate with this.  I don't foresee a need for a "Chicken Ranch" in every state, nor do I believe that women should ever get to the point where they feel they have to degrade themselves to pay the bills.  If we actually had a decent economy and a good number of jobs available at reasonable, as well as current pay wages for living on, I'm sure the lure of easy money from prostitution (or drugs for that matter) wouldn't nearly be as bright.

As long as we're talking about prostitution itself, let's stir in the "professions" of escorts, strippers, and massage parlor "therapists".  Oh, and let's not forget about certain dating sites; all international in nature. Sites like Russian Brides, Indonesian Cupid, and Latinamerican Cupid.  I mention these in the same breath as prostitution, because these sites seem to only serve a single purpose.  After looking around for a bit, these sites more resemble international brothels, more than international dating sites. Each of the girls portrayed in these sites look like supermodels dressed in very nice, sexually appealing clothes to boot.  Strangely enough, these women all speak English very well, and all like to start their conversations out with things like "Hey, you like to have sex?  or "Do you enjoy a woman who knows how to give oral?"  Regardless of their ages, they all appear to be perfect, and begin almost immediately (figuratively) batting their eyes and bombarding you with their sexy phrases, which sound oh so rehearsed and fake and are typed in very perfect English.

And so they CON American men into believing that they can, eseentially, "purchase", for a nominal fee, a prostitute of their very own, upon paying first to have them shipped out and over to us from over the seas and oceans.  Because of our neglect and absense of worldwide internet regulation or law, this happens on a good portion of international dating sites.  See my article on Internet Regulation, also in this Blog.

And what happens, once these perfectlly portrayed prostitutes arrive here?  Let's see if you can guess, just based on this picture:

I really like this particular sign, because if you Google the exact phrases "Russian Brides", "Oriental Brides" and "Latino Brides?"  The first words you see each time are "Mail Order Russian Brides", etc.  If this picture doesn't beat you over the head as to what happened here, or isn't very obvious to you, let me explain.

This picture actually came to me as a polaroid, where over and under it, a woman had written on it what a powerful message this was.  She felt empathy with these women, and applauded their words.

What this woman, and, I'm sure, other women don't realize, is that this is part of a very elaborate hoax, aimed at American men for the purpose of bringing them out of their poverty and joblessness over to America, where they can marry, then divorce American men and then live out their changed situations as our citizens.

Picture this scenario.  I'm sure that each of these women, all presented on the same Russian, Oriental, or Latina sites, probably are all friends, or at the very least all know about each other.  Quite possibly, the management of these sites hire these girls using the lure of such key phrases of "Our bad economy" and "lack of jobs", along with others like "Foolish/Gullible/Sex-starved American Men" and "Fat Wallets" or "Big Money", then telling them that once they get there, and play the part for a time, they can call each other, band together, and get out of the situations they're in by tricking equally gullible American women into believing that they're suffering at the hands of men who thought they were buying sex slaves.  Shame on our American men for thinking such a thing!!  C'mon ladies, the only reason they believed this is because they were beguiled into believing this was what they were getting!!

So, essentially, this is the way of things.  First, they seduce and con the men to bring them over to our country and marry them.  Then, after giving their men what they want for a while, they find or contact others of their "company" that they were shipped over with, and band together to make themselves look like victims, befriending American women and presentings themselves as wronged and abused, to gain their sympathy, and get our help to free themselves from the very thing they presented themselves to be to begin with.  Oh, and as long as they're already here, and married; therefore already American citizens per se, they get a better life HERE instead of where they were, where there was only misery and poverty, and they were forced to marry rich men who made them into their slaves; third world countries like Indonesia; South American Latino areas like Columbia; Russian economic ruins such as the Ukraine.  This is where a majority of these women come from on these sites.  They now can proceed, unfettered, as independent American citizens, to take more of our jobs, money, and welfare away from us.

Strip clubs are becoming the elite clubs of "as legal as you can ride the the line of, get as close to having sex as you are legally able, and get as much if not more money than prostitution".  The timeline of Burlesque, to Go-Go, to Strip clubs has seen the complete disappearance of ALL required clothing to work in these places.  Now, you can get NO CLOTHES, but only if the club you enter doesn't sell alcohol.  They get around that law by allowing their customers to bring in their own.  Nice.  Have you ladies heard what these women are getting for private dances and Gold card club sessions?  Even in Iowa, where I live, it costs you $300 to take these women into a non-interrupted area of the club...for 30 minutes of dancing for your men, totally nude.  After 30 minutes of the way they grind against you back in these rooms, if you didn't have sex, you sure as hell felt like you did.

Massage parlors, although not as prominent where I'm from, often take you as far as you decide to take the conversation.  Often, after the introduction of sex from the client, girls will reluctantly "give-in" and go where you want to.  If they don't, there's a ton of Craigslist ads where girls who are "message professionals" are more than plentiful, and they make house calls.

OK, that's probably more than enough.  Let's not roll over on escorts, which we all know are just very highly paid prostitutes anyway.

To flip the coin here, I do, however, emphasize with the plight of women as part of our economic instability, America.  Because of the continuing downslide of the number of jobs available, and at totally un-livable minimum wages, that $100-$300 or more dollars possible to be raked in daily can look pretty darn tempting. I realize that, given the flashy show of easy money, that women tend to believe, with the proper men giving out this kind of crap, that all they have going for them is their bodies, either as seductive dancers, or as great lays.  There are men out there that specialize in talking to these girls, not-withstanding a fair number of full grown women, into being strippers or prostitutes, willingly.

And if that doesn't work? There's always kidnapping and drugging them when they're young, making them into sexual zombies, hooked on what they're introduced to, and made to believe, through rehearsed propaganda and regular beatings, that in this life this is all they'll ever be good for.

I have also a special place in my heart for the woman that says "I gotta do what I gotta do", usually because she's a single mother with three kids...she'll take up prostitution or stripping to take care of business, or pay for her education, because she realizes that, because of the way her body looks, or because they feel about their strength in the bedroom, that this might just be the best thing they got going for them.  You've seen them.  I know I've seen a lot of them.  They look just like another one of the crowd.  The difference though, is that they either have a picture of their kids hanging on the mirror they use backstage at the club they work in, or when you really take a minute to talk to the prostitute you just picked up, she has a paperback copy of the Grapes of Wrath in her purse, and instead of talking about what sexual thing you'd like to do, talks instead about news headlines and the weather.  It's because of THESE women that I implore you, America, to consider the following.

When I was in Europe, back in the last of the 70's and the beginning of the 80's, I was impressed by not only how open the Europeans were about sex, but that they had catered to prostitution as a legal and respectable profession.  This really only makes sense.  Just like marijuana, which I feel has been long overdue to be legal, the benefits of legal prostitution long outweigh the negative implications.

Just like our budding medical marijuana business, prostitution is handled pretty much the same way in Europe.  It's government regulated, and protection used to deter VD is MANDATORY, as are regular health check-ups etc.  And, just like the marijuana business, the government makes their cut off of it.  Disease is almost non-existent because of this, and the male population is allowed, morally, to get their "ya-yas" out without condemnation.

It's been argued, (as well as statistically proven in many cases), that the legalization of prostitution cuts down massively on sex crimes of all natures:  rape, incest, child abuse, etc.  Down too goes the cost of the unbelievable amount of manpower required to suppress it in urban neighborhoods.

I believe this suppression of drug-related crime because of legalization, to be true of the marijuana industry as well...and of ALL drugs.  I say legalize 'em all.  Do a Paraguay.  The numbers over the last 10 years speak for themselves.  Offer help instead of punishment.  What's more, you take all the fun out of it for people as well, meaning less people will take it up, let alone get addicted to them.  When they adopted the law back in 2001, there were 2000 new cases of HIV every...single...year.  That figure is down 17%, a rather significant reduction, I'd say.  The number of people seeking assistance with their drug problem has more than tripled.  The use of any kind of drug among 13-15 yr. olds has decreased, as has the court load for drug-related crimes.

Crime would decrease big time.  The drug lords would no longer rely on America to make their biggest payloads, thereby cutting down on their presence here.  Users, at the least the ones that have the biggest problems and refuse to get treatment for it, would eventually die out, and a smarter generation would take their place.  I can't express enough how making all drugs legal would take all the fun out of drugs..the thrill of going against the grain would be gone.  I know that the only reason I'm as hooked on cigarettes like I am, is because smoking was rebellious...it totally went against what your parents had in mind for you, so makes it look like the thing to do if you want to show them what for.  This makes it something to put on the list when you're young...and then it hooks you in the process.  If you make these things legal, even for teens, they wouldn't be so hard-pressed to try them.  Same thing applies to all addictive substances.  And like prostitution, look at all of the money we spend on drug enforcement.  Money better spent on other things, believe that.

My stand on this is simple.  Marijuana and cocaine aren't drugs.  They're plants.  Opiates emanate from the poppy plant.  Original "trips" were taken and derived from mushrooms and peyote. These things were nature's offerings, long before we ever knew what they were or what they would do to our minds.  It's humans that turn them into, and then abuse these gifts of nature.  Then, for whatever reason, we turn them into something humiliating, all because we observe the users of these drugs having way too good of a time with them.  If, one day, we made drugs legal?  Then we made chocolate illegal?  There'd be a huge market in selling illegal chocolate that would easily equal drugs.  If you make it illegal, you're going to have a national epidemic of it in the black market and on the streets.  And everyone would be shooting up chocolate and filling up recovery units for the same stupid reasons we do drugs now.  Give everyone the option to do things freely, concerning drugs and prostitution, and it wouldn't differ greatly from the old and time-honored "kid in a candy store" theory.  They'll go crazy for a while, then it will taper off.  Like anything made with sugar, everything gets old fast if you keep the store open 24/7.  And finally, of course, think of all the revenue you bring in to the state.  If you can't surpress it or get rid of it? Choose instead to regulate it, get money from it, and get our country out of debt!!...Worked for Gambling, didn't it?  'nuff said.

The American Consumer, Part III - Company Credit/Debit Card Refunding

OK America...I was going to write a little blog on something else, but I decided that, not only was it waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay over my head controversally, it was a really horrid little subject, and it's really nothing that I care to voice my opinion on at this particular time, thank you!  Heck, thanks to the fact that it caused the loss of 9 followers, I can probably confidently say that I may just never write about that subject, as well as anything like it...EVER...again!!  So tell ya what, we're just gonna chalk that one up to the ages and forget the whole thing....whaddya say?  So no, we're not going to do the something else, the something else instead, is coming over here from another blog that I've been trying clean out of late.  Heck, just to make up for the stupidity of today's from scratch blog (which, after hours of tuning and re-tuning it, just decided it was best off in the garbage can), I may just clean out the rest of that folder today, mainly so I can get my plate the rest of the way emptied and start fresh with all new American Deadly Sins that are tons lighter on the controversal scale.  :D

Oh, and, if by chance, you managed to eek in a few minutes with the stupid post of the day?  That wasn't really me that wrote it.  It was my evil twin....Carl.  Not to be confused, of course, with my other evil twin, Chuck.  Doesn't matter, you'll never be able to prove that it was even there anyway.  That is, of course, unless you printed it while I wasn't paying attention...then I'd be kinda screwed, wouldn't I?  But really, moving right along...

So the lucky subject of the day is on something slightly paltry...you know, one of those Peter Griffin deals, you remember..."You know what really grinds my gears?".  It's about purchasing things...whether on the internet, in a store, paying say, a parking ticket at the state offices...that sort of thing.  Anyway, so you pay for something, using your debit card...and then let's just say there's another bill you forgot to pay, so you say, "You know, I think we'll just cancel that sale.  I'll take the money back."  When you purchased or paid for whatever that something is, that money is GONE!!  It's not there for you to spend any longer.  No different than if you had the money and handed it to the clerk instead.  The difference, however, is that, if in that split second that you change your mind, you decide to not purchase the item, they give you your money right there where you stand.  But, however, if you use your debit card...and decide against it, it takes as much as 3 business days for that money to be available to you again!!  WHY????

This problem tends to rank right on up there with you, the customer, having to keep a ledger at a bank.  I myself, have had a bank account since 1979, yet I just recently....well, maybe not so recently, more like 4 years ago, got rid of it, then swore on my life (as well as the lives of everyone employed by this major pain in the rear corporation) that I would NOT, from this day own another banking account for as long as my heart pumped blood to my brain and kept it from making stupid mistakes (I sure wish it would have been on the fritz today...maybe it would have stopped me long ago from posting that dumb post from earlier). My point to all that drivel was, that keeping a ledger for your checking account, should, by all feasible rights, be an outdated and pain in the tushy that should have been shucked eons ago.  Come on, that's been what?  35 years ago?  You'd think we woulda come up with a way to change that stuff by now.  I mean really, why should I have to stop what I'm doing, upon doing business with someone, have to pull out my antique and dusty ol' ledger/calculator, and add, subtract, multiply and divide for?  Oh, I forgot all about the best part, trying to come up with  a pen that works!  That's my favorite.  The figures should math themselves and beam the total to my brain by now!!  No, I hate to tell you bank mongers, but for those of you that weren't quite sure, the ledger?  Still alive.  Still kickin'.  In business for over 35 years and still going strong.

Now where was I?  Oh yeah, so when you make a deposit, you have to do it before 2 o'clock in the afternoon, or it goes on the next days business.  And if you withdraw anything from anywhere but your bank, or make a purchase someplace, it can take as long as it takes the merchant to run it through, which could be days.  If you screw up your math on your ledger even a little, or forget to put a figure in it, or forget to carry the one...you could be in a world of hurt.  I know all about this one, because the last bank account I had, with WELLS FARGO...(and for those of you that didn't hear that, I'll repeat it, a little louder...WELLLLLLS FAAAAARGO!!!!), that very thing happened.  Want to know just how many times they ran one payment through in three days?  14.  At $38.00 a crack.  That's (32, down with the 2, carry the three, 4 times 3 is 12 plus the 3, that's 17, next line, add a zero, one times 8 is 8, and one times 3 is 3, that's 380 plus 172, total is zero plus two is two, 7 plus 8 is 15, so bring down the five, carry the one, 3 plus 1 plus 1 is five, total OF:  552...I'm sorry, did I figure that out outloud??...how embarrassing!)  $552...in overdraft fees for one withdrawal of $20 I made that put my account 5 dollars in the red. So I go down to my bank, and I talk to a banker I don't know...my regular one had gone to lunch...and after getting barely anywhere with her sympathy (or rather, non-sympathy), I asked for a supervisor.  She said that since I had been such a great customer for several years, that she could help me out by taking off two overdraft fees.  Yes, you heard me.  TWO.  And the kicker?  within the hour, they had added them both back on again, and added two additional as well.  I called them back up, asked for the supervisor and told her just where she could get her $628.00, cause it wouldn't be paid by this horse.  They're still trying to get that money outta me.  Unbelievable.

So, back to the debit card dealy.  Granted, there is the fact that, if someone you didn't authorize to do so is using your card to buy something...then return it so they can get money out of your account without needing the pin number (this is easy to do...you just tell the clerk you'd like to run the card as credit...and why is that???  Doesn't this essentially make it worth it for someone to just steal or find your card, then use it instead of calling you up to return it??  There, then, is something ELSE that grinds my gears...)  OK, so that won't happen.  This makes sense.  But why, if the money's there...and the bank sees this, authorizes it, then, through the miracle of computers and the internet, flags it so it won't be spent in any other fashion, can't that same flag be immediately reversed??  If you were to buy it with money (which is, in a sense, what you're doing with a debit card anyway), they would immediately just hand it back...so why is it that the same computer, which immediately flagged that money as "Non-spendable", when the sale is cancelled, and no money has transferred, can't it just "Undo" that same flag, and make the money re-available to you again?

This doesn't just happen there either.  This happens with everything now.  Let's say I go in to my home county's licence plate distribution office, and pay for my plates, WITH CASH (or with a debit card, it really doesn't matter), then my brother Joe, who's been jumping up and down with excitement for 3 days, decides he wants to buy my newly acquired vehicle, and offers me $1000 more than what I paid.  I hastily tell the clerk I'm dealing with..."My brother decided he'd like to have the car I just bought...can I get a refund on these plates I just paid for 5 seconds ago?"  They can't.  Worse yet, if you just paid IN CASH, and they ran it through the computer?  You have to 1)  Cancel the sale, then 2) you have to wait a minimum of, get this, 30 days to get a check from them for the money you paid in.  Oh, but when you bought those plates, the money was gone out of your account in 2.23 seconds if you used a card...or you just gave them cash 5 seconds ago!!  And you can't just open the drawer and give it right back to me?  Oh yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

Online purchases fare no better.  I purchased something from a major respectable firm in Canada (that I still use, by the way.  Just because they have a problem refunding my money to me doesn't mean they don't still have a great product) with a Visa Gift Card.  I didn't realize it at the time of purchase, but I purchased the product twice on the same card.  When I was done with the amount on the card, I tossed the card.  I had no intentions on refilling it, so why keep the damn thing?  Anyway, it was soon after that that I realized my error.  I called them to get my money refunded.  I even gave them the receipt (I sent it to them via email).  When they looked it up, their exact words were "Yes sir, you purchased the program twice, I can see that right here, and you have indeed provided everything we need from you...for the most part".  Then they proceeded to inform me that this, instead, was a Visa issue, and that I would a.) need to call them, with the full card number, b.) send them a copy of the receipt, as well as copies of my ID, etc., and c.) wait God knows how many days, to get the money back...on the card that I purchased it on.  This card, remember, is now in the garbage, with no possible hope of recovery.  Visa, then, has to reissue me the gift card so that I can have my $200 back, on yet another Visa Gift card that I'll never keep or use after I re-spend it.  You know what I did?  I shrugged it off and let it go.  Who wants to go through all that grief to get their money back?  And why is it that they had to refund it back to that card?  When I bought it, the bank earmarked the money for the company, then transferred the funds to the company's bank account, making that cash available to that company to spend.  Why then, can't the company refund me the money?  Why does it have to go back through the card that I purchased it on, especially at this point, several weeks after the purchase?  It doesn't.  The reason it's done this way, is because this is how their corporate offices have mandated, for whatever reason, that any refunds of sales made by debit or credit card be handled...so essentially, it's on the company you purchased the product from.  In layman's terms, "We want to be a big pain in your ass, and we figure if we make it hard for you to get the money back for the item(s) that you purchased from us, then you'll either a.) say it's too much trouble to do all this, so I might as well just keep it, or b.) say it's too much trouble to do all of this, so screw the money.  Sounds like a big "win-win" for the company selling you their product.

Either this sort of behavior is the law, company policy, bank policy, it's hard to say, but however it's covered, it's RIDICULOUS.  If you pay for it with a debit card, you're essentially paying with cash...so give the cash back.  Whether it's you, or a thief, you're responsible for it either way, right?  If your buddy George, because he's lost all sense and reason, takes your debit card off of the kitchen table and goes out and buys a 50" big screen he's wanted for a long time, then disappears off of the face of the earth, the money comes out of your account to pay the store for the the item and you're responsible for it, regardless.  Oh sure, if you can prove there was no negligence at all on your part...which it would be tough to do in this case, you could claim the card was stolen and used without your permission, then the bank might cover it via their insurance...but this is generally rare.  If George paid for the TV with green money that he stole out of your cookie jar, the same would apply.  You're just plain out of luck.  But I think I'd be truly hostile, if George stole my card...bought the TV, I catch him doing this...return the TV to the store it was purchased at...then was told I would have to wait three business days for the amount to be available again, making me late paying my rent.  Then, because I'm late paying my rent, I then incur a late fee to my landlord.  I believe I'd have to make a special trip back into the same store, pick out something comparable to the price of the late fee, then take it outside of the store and dash it onto the sidewalk.

Whether this way of doing business today is covered by law, policy...whatever...once again, Americans, in the way they're trained, just roll over and take it.  Long gone are the days of service with a smile, refunds always given (circumstances be damned, receipt or no), and quick, easy solutions to every problem or issue that may arise because of said product.  Part of this, of course, lies with us:  this is because of our initial training to be good boys and girls and roll over for government, let them pass whatever law we either don't understand or are duped into thinking is a good thing without reading the small print, whatever the case, producing economic issues in the process, which in turn dish out the makings of a poor economy, and inspire our newly hatched generation of thieves and con artists to steal things, walk right up to the courtesy counter, item in hand, demanding a cash refund.  The company loses money to theft, then produces, to make things tough for these thieves (as well as everyone else, legit or not), to get money out of the company selling these items, so easily.  Do you now understand how the lines of responsibility are drawn now?  If not, give me a buzz and I'll draw you a diagram.

Now that we've pretty much destroyed that subject....(ahhhh)...I'd like to take just a moment to say that I looked in my following circles today, and noticed that the U.S. Navy is now one of my blog followers.  I'd like to, then, thank the U.S. Navy for joining my circle and following my blog.  Bonus!  Free Advertising!  This is definitely something I can proudly brag about!  (Please see the fine print immediately following this post, please.)

NOTE:  Help!!  I didn't want to say this in the previous paragraph, because I was really nervous about why the U.S. Navy of all people, would be in my list of followers so early in the life of my blog, which I only started just 2 weeks ago.  Oh sure, if I was carrying Google AdSense or something, I could see why I would be noticed, but I have none of that.   If by chance this blog should cease it's regularity of appearance, please inform my wife that I have been abducted, interrogated, and am more than likely being tortured to find out just what my political standing in this country really is and what my intentions are, and that I am probably being blackmailed to cease and desist all opinion immediately, or I will be labeled an extreme right-winger with intentions on causing a revolution against the current establishment, and it's likely that I'll be put to death for treason.  Or, more likely, those days of doing all that acid when I was younger have probably come back to haunt me and I"m having severe paranoid dillusions...I haven;'t decided yet.  Only time will tell.

Well that's it on that subject kids.  Now you make sure and come right back now, because I'll be following this post directly up with yet another wunnerful installment.  Toodles!

Internet Regulation

Where do I start with this one??

I think we'll begin with what the internet started out as...and what it still SHOULD be.  A world-wide source of information.  A collection of data that we, instead of having to go to a library to look it up, or have to have a special program installed to have this data at our fingertips, can now search on a world scale and probably find out all that I'd like to know on the subject...and more that I didn't really need to know as well.

This is where the internet should have stopped.  I don't know about the rest of the earth, but pretty much everything that follows, I can, without question, live without.  At the very least?  Regulation on what is posted freely as well as is what is accessible to whom, should have very quickly been implemented to protect the privacy of American citizens.

Now, 1st Amendment supporters will scream out "FREEDOM OF SPEECH/EXPRESSION!!", waving their little banners, and say everything should be left as is.  No regulation whatsoever.  Oh, there's no bigger supporter of free speech than myself, trust me.  I'm the type of person who, when his mouth is open, just about anything could come out, and I could care less who's feelings I hurt in the interim.  But come on, ARDENT RIGHT DEFENDERS, do you really mean for all of this as well?  Let's be real here.

Let's start with a very obvious concern, the safety of our children.  Before the internet, your average pervert had to really work to figure out how he was going to catch that 14 yr. old girl he's had his eye on for some time now.  Once he's figured out how to accomplish this, getting her to talk to or trust him was another big job altogether.  Thank God for the internet!!  In one fell swoop, the internet has managed to make easy all the tasks previously difficult at best!  Thanks to a collection of computers stretching the globe, and no world regulation, anyone can now know everything there is to know about anyone, given the price is right, right down to the color of their panties, if so needed.  Then, when he know all their personal data, including relatives, friends, etc., he can then talk to her, via social media, and get to know even more about her!  Then meeting her is as simple as posting a picture of a gorgeous 17 yr. old male who "Would really like to get to know you", and if somehow he manages to avoid the slight possibility of a television news reporter from MSNBC who's attempting to expose perverts from being the person he's really meeting up with, he can accomplish his goal in a whole lot less time, with a lot more info than he really needs.  Now, defenders? Close your eyes...now imagine, it's YOUR 14 yr. old he's after...How's a little regulation looking now eh, dad?

Then there's scams and cons, which, previously, were limited to local phone use and snail mail, and to the occasional door to door vacuum salesman.  Thanks to the internet, no world regulation and lax foreign policy, scams and cons are now done on Americans from every corner of the universe...and beyond!!  Regulars now include Nigeria, the Philipines, anyone in the third world...the possibilities are endless!  They started in normal places...email, messenger, but have since moved on to Craigslist...Facebook...and now, they've totally infested the world of internet dating.  They pose as available attractive women or men, with pictures of normal American models (although they're now catching on to us not being fooled by that, and are now switching to more normal pictures), either for straight dating or for sex, with the intent of stealing your heart, or playing on your sympathies, then cleaning out your bank accounts.

I have a friend who, after joining a facebook group, was hit on by an Egyptian who promised to send her money...in the rather large amound of $1500, then, because he needed her bank account numbers to "wire her the money", almost had her talked into it before I very quickly intervened.  Oh, but he was good.  He backed off all of that, still promising the money, and told her he would send it to her instead, no bank account needed.  In the mail it came, a week later, in the form of a cashier's check, in an envelope 3 times too big for it, delivered by FedEx, drawn on a bank account of some average Joe in America somewhere, with a nice big fat check number on it, I'm sure, for proof of legitimacy.  They had indeed gotten a lot better with the scam.  I told her to immediately call the bank it was drawn on, and, sure enough, it was stolen.  When I had experienced a different source of a similar scam, a couple of years prior to this one, I was sent a hand-written company check from the American Bar Association.  Much stupider.  Sure.  Some guy in Washington was buying my bed, in Iowa, wanting it shipped to him, also in Washington...with a check drawn on a major U.S. establishment...in Washington D.C.  This one was a legitimate-looking, finely typed Cashier's Check.

They're getting a whole lot smarter...and will probably get smarter yet, with every passing day we don't appeal to that country's (as well as ours, of course) government to stop the madness, or find a way we can uphold a sort of world regulation.  If you won't regulate?  Then you are banned from using or being a presence on the network.  Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if the government of whatever poor country we're talking about didn't dream up and implement the scam themselves!!  "We can't take care of our poor, and we're running out of funds...so let's take advantage of rich Americans!  That'll give our people hope!!  And just think of the prestige we'll enjoy when the people of the world recognize that we single-handedly scammed those naive and trusting Americans out of their wealth!"  Well defenders?  Argue this one, will ya?

Let's move right on to identity theft, shall we?  Thank the internet for this epidemic as well.  Before the internet, criminal intent to steal a person's identity had to be done in the underground black market, or with the shady guy standing in the dark corner of an alley.  The common way to handle the conversation was "I know this guy's brother's girlfriend...for $5000 and a little time, we can make you fake ID's, a social security card, passport..."  These ID's and passports often sported the picture of a man/woman who looked nothing like you, and hopefully, if the conditions were right, whoever was scoping you out didn't notice the obvious differences.

Then came the internet to the rescue.  Now, with a few minutes research and infinite possibilities right down to a man/woman who looks just like you, you can produce all of these documents yourself, right in your own home.  What's more, you can apply for numerous credit cards in just about anyone's name, steal all the money from their bank or bank accounts without even going to the bank, and transfer all their money to some bank in the Carribean or Switzerland, somewhere where it can't be touched by the already too long arm of American law.  And just in case someone gets the bright idea of tracing my computer, location, or my cell phone records, I can easily download or purchase countless masking programs that can project me as being in a farmhouse in the mountains of Arkansas, or on an Island on the Black Sea.  As for the cell phone, I can get something that'll bounce my signal off of every cell tower in a five state radius.  No problemmo muchacho.  You'd have to be pretty stupid to get caught these days, heck, we practically hand you the keys to the kingdom and give you a playful wink, while out of the other corner of our mouths we might slap you on the hand and say "Bad Hacker!"  How many people are actually caught and jailed for this?  Very few, comparatively.  A lot more get away, scott-free, believe that.  HEY DEFENDERS...YOUR OPINION....PLEASE!!!!!

I think we've taken this far enough.  You can't convince me that we haven't been practically begging for some law to cover our asses on these and other matters already.  We have, I guarantee it.  I'm afraid I have some bad news for you, however.  Left up to our Government, I can pretty much say good luck with that.  The defenders of our very outdated Constitution (and the absolute vagueness of its language) would have you believe we are trying to infringe on their rights to freedom of speech.  I guarantee the owner of the wildly popular and very lucrative teen porn site he started last year is the loudest yeller in that group.  Let me know how that works out for you.

I can honestly and truthfully say that I believe any attempt to try and get the government to implement regulation at this point would be a more than futile attempt.  Why do I say that?  Because I believe the Government...ours as well as others, plotted it out like this.  Put the internet in place, under the pretense of what it was to start with, knowing full well we'd love it and take to it; no matter for what original stated reasons it might have been sold to us, to eventually be used for what I guarantee it's being used for freely and commonly today, and for what we've feared it would be used for for some time now:  A way to keep tabs on us Americans (and/or other citizens in other countries), and to be used to take away the only right we have that's yet to be violated...those of our much-deserved and constantly infringed upon PRIVACY!!  Put in both hands, weighing them up, I'm sorry kids.  Freedom of speech vs. An Expectation of Privacy?  Gotta go with privacy here.

Why do you think it is that every laptop has a web-cam, and every phone a camera, front and rear?  And they're all hooked to, world-wide, the very thing I don't believe we Americans could, to this day, live without.  The Internet.  Pretty soon, you won't be able to say you love your wife without someone somewhere knowing about it.  Bet on it.

Who said the mark of the beast had to be physically put in place?  The invention of the digital tattoo probably isn't too far off.  'Nuff Said.  G'nite.  Sleep tight.  Let the bedbugs bite.

The Right to Privacy (Sorry....The Expectation thereof)

Hmm....what to talk about today I wonder...

Let's talk about a wonderful subject, one I know is growing in popularity as the digital age progresses.  And the lucky subject of the day IS:  Your Right of Privacy.

Now, let's start with the fact that most Americans consider themselves private people.  Didn't used to that way, mind you.  Back a little more than a century ago, we depended on each other massively, just to survive.  In the 20th century, our doors and windows were wide open, and it was a neighbor's duty to keep an eye out for the neighborhood.  Now we pull out the pistol or let the dog loose every time we hear our doorknobs rattle.  Keep the cookies and the apple pie, we don't wanna know who you are.  You stay on your side of the fence and we'll stay on ours.  Don't bother us, we won't bother you.  Doors are constantly locked and rechecked, windows stay latched, and our fences get higher and higher as the years continue on.

It's all about privacy.  Or, more than likely, privacy is wanted because of rising paranoia.  The news is, and has more prominently been, quite simply, all bad.  Usually worse than it really is.  And what's more, we can't just let it go after we tell it once, we repeat those bad segments over and over again.  No wonder privacy is such a big deal.  We're scared to death to even walk out onto our porches.  Walk outside your door and pay attention to the way you act when you do.  I'll bet your first instinct is to look around.  You're checking out the houses in your neighborhood.  Noticing everything.  Looking for strange people walking along your sidewalks.  Long gone are those days when you whistled a tune as you hopped out to the car, hollering over to your favorite neighbor and asking how the wife and kids are doing.  Now you slant your eyes, noticing things that would never have been really all that strange 40 years ago, and whispering to the wife, asking what she thinks those people are REALLY doing over there.  Unless they're 100 years old and obviously not a risk.  Then it's OK to holler.

So, privacy.  That's what we're after, that's what we expect to have, and to receive.  Heck, it's our right as Americans.  The Right to Privacy.  Uh, but wait.  Here's the deal.  There is no such thing.  There is no sentence in the Constitution, or its Amendments that address your right to privacy.  It's a myth!  It doesn't exist.  "But the 4th Amendment, what's that all about?" you ask.

All there really is, over the course of our existence is the EXPECTATION of privacy.  That one's in the rule books.  Not your right to have privacy.  Only your expectation of that right.  It's your right to expect that, either law enforcement, or the government, can't just waltz into your home and say "Ah-HAH!!  So the rumors are true!  You really ARE a child molester, and here's our proof!  You have a child here!"  This means that, whether it's law enforcement or the government, they can't walk into your home for NO reason whatsoever, and take whatever they like to make a case against you.  This doesn't say, exactly, that they can't just make up reasons or produce false evidence, or SAY they have witnesses or enough OTHER proof to get the job done.  I'm sure, given enough strong feelings that you are most definitely guilty, that anyone who feels they have enough reason couldn't convince a judge to give out a warrant.  It's called "taking your chances."  I'm sure it's done, and it's done a lot more than we think it is.

Then, there's martial law.  Martial law states that the government, either on a state or federal level, may suspend your rights mentioned by the Fourth Amendment.  Your expectation of privacy doesn't even exist then.  I love that.  If they feel you, as Americans or state residents are getting out of hand, then all your rights concerning...well, ANYTHING are OUT THE WINDOW.

Really, your "expectation of privacy" holds true in only one place.  Your home, or residence, whether temporary or permanent.  And, that's not really the truth either.  If you're in your home, and you're doing something illegal, and the neighbor, who happened to be mowing his lawn at the time, notices that there's one little hole that you forgot to cover, looks in and sees you beating up a friend of his.  He calls the police, and you get arrested.  Because you forgot to cover that hole, your expectation of privacy is OUT THE WINDOW.  Your intent might have been for no one to look into that hole, but it was there, and they did.  You now have no expectation of privacy.  You didn't cover every inch of every window.  It's your problem.

Or better yet, let's say you're in your home, and you're printing up money, or are just suspected to be doing so.  Because you've been noted as someone that may be passing off counterfeit money, your home can be immediately invaded by law enforcement, with no warning needed whatsoever.  Oh sure, they have to have probable cause to do so, and proof, or a witness, as well as a court issued warrant, but what it really means is, they only need these things, and your right to what little privacy you have is OUT THE WINDOW.

Also, by home or residence, that only applies to home or property that you own free and clear.  If you're renting?  There is none.  The landlord or title owner has the right, whenever they feel like it, pretty much, to invade your space.  There is individual state law that protects you somewhat, like ours, where the landlord is required to notify you of his possible presence at your apartment door in 24 hours or more, but mostly, there's no privacy there.  And if you're buying your home, either on contract, or in the normal fashion, and you either default on your home loan, or miss a payment covered by the contract you signed?  Your belongings and your home can be seized by either the bank that gave you the loan, or the person you're buying from on contract.  Your "expectation of privacy?"....OUT THE WINDOW.

OK, so what about out in the world?  Well, there's really only an "expectation of privacy" in certain places out there as well.  Bathrooms.  Dressing Rooms.  Voter's booths.  Church confessionals.  Enclosed offices, either with your attorney, your priest, or your psychiatrist.  Granted.  However, if someone goes to the courtesy counter to report that you might be smoking pot in the bathroom stall, or that you may be stuffing store items in your pants in the dressing room, that privacy is also OUT THE WINDOW.  You're on someone else's property, possibly doing wrong.  You have no real expectation of privacy out in public.

Invasion of privacy is a hard thing to prove.  It all depends on case law.  Obviously, the folks that drew up our Constitution had no idea we would have phones to call each other, let alone that we would one day have wireless phones we could take with us wherever we went.  They knew nothing of automobiles or campers.  State or Federal case law has done a lot to help us with our expectation of privacy, but it still has a long way to go in my opinion.  I remember studying evidence, and there was a case about someone's tennis shoe pattern that looked like one that might be connected to a crime.  An officer asked the person, while they were being interviewed concerning a particular crime, to lift up their shoes so that the officer could inspect his shoe pattern.  He showed them, but he was intoxicated at the time, so he sued to suppress that evidence, stating that if he had not been intoxicated at the time, he would never have agreed to do so (by the way, the pattern did indeed match).  It was ruled that, since, when walking down the street, that shoe pattern could be easily seen anyway by anyone, the wearer had no expectation of privacy.  The shoes, which were the entire reason for a search and seizure at the man's home, were considered a good reason to issue the warrant resulting in the man's arrest, and the shoes were "seized" for evidence.  I'd have to say it would all depend on the way the guy walked, myself, if you really want to nitpick at it.

The one I really enjoy though, is the expectation of privacy where cell phones and the internet are concerned.  If you're in your home, and you're on a land-line, there are privacy laws that cover this.  Phone tapping case law is all over the books.  However, if you're using a cell phone, your expectation of privacy is OUT THE WINDOW.  You're talking or texting wirelessly, and your conversations are able to be picked right out of the air at any time.  If you're using a laptop, or on your cellphone using the internet, the same thing applies.  OUT THE WINDOW.  If you're hard-wired to the internet, then it's like a land-line phone in that case.  You have some expectation of privacy there.  Internet is WIRED to your phone line, or through your installed cable wires.

Ok, so what about your email?  The same rules apply.  It might be your mail, but if you're checking it on your phone or your wireless connection, again, you have no expectation of privacy.  If you're checking your mail on a company owned or a library computer?  Again, you have no right to privacy.  The email account might belong to you, but the computer you're using does NOT.  Your expectation of privacy is OUT THE WINDOW.

Are things becoming clear to you now?  Just because you have a 10 ft. fence around your yard doesn't mean you have a right to privacy, any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.  If someone can look through any part of the boarding or the bricks you built it with, or can see over it in any way, your expectation of privacy does not apply.

Finally, we have the camera.  There are cameras everywhere - In the store, in the street, on buildings, in your computers and on your phones, and in the sky above us.  These cameras have recently acquired the ability to see through walls, and can even see you as if you were standing outside.  Satellites can be used to zoom in on you at street level, and there are ways to identify you, though you may be completely disguised, just by the way you walk.  Your phones are just like your laptops, and with the right programs you can hack into the cameras in these devices and spy on the user.  You've seen those programs where they tell you how to completely disappear?  I'd have to say that those shows are completely obsolete.  There is NO way to do so, unless you dig a hole a mile and a half down into the earth's surface, leaving all your devices behind forever...and even then I have to wonder.  Your expectation of privacy may someday be a thing of the past.  I see it coming with every camera they put up, or put on your phone or computer.  Do yourself a favor.  If you really value your privacy, you'll put a piece of black electrical tape on every webcam and phone camera you own.

Until next time y'all.  Enjoy your lives.  Live in pieces.  Live by the sword and die by the sword.

Education, Government and the Law

Today's subject? Education

In case the majority of you have forgotten?  I'm an old dude.  I'm a product of the 60's and early 70's; and this is when most of my education happened.

And as I remember, I didn't enjoy a whole lot of it.

During my first years, I attended a private baptist school, in Los Angeles, I imagine somewhere around Inglewood, CA, where we lived.  I remember it very well.  I remember what the classrooms looked like even.  I also remember being whooped a lot by a ping pong paddle in the principal's office.  This went on for quite a while, until one day I went home with some serious welts on my butt, and my mother freaked out and removed me from that school.  I believe from there, we went to Iowa.

I won't go into the number of schools I attended back then, but it was quite a few.  Some were public, and some were private Christian schools.  The Christian ones were pretty nice.  I didn't fare so very well in the public types. In High School, I attended at Theodore Roosevelt High School in Des Moines, Iowa.  I went for a year and a half there, then dropped out in the middle of my junior year, because I decided to move out of my mother's place and take care of myself.  Note:  Rules about kids and jobs and how many hours they were allowed to work didn't exist at this time.  I remember not doing well at all in high school.  I got grades from B to D, and a lot of them in 10th and 11th grade were more towards the lower C to lower D category.

Anyhow, I didn't finish high school.  I did return to a drop-in type school for a while, and then I quit that too.  No one was too terribly upset about that, with the obvious exception of my mother.  I didn't return to school again until 1984.  I wanted to get my GED.  I hadn't stepped into a classroom in 7 years.  I tested out without attending any refresher classes.  I passed with flying colors.  I remember the math portion of the test the most.  I remember freaking about whether I would be able to handle the algebraic portion.  I think there were all of 2 questions about it.

Years later, my wife graduated the same high school in 1998.  She got C's and B's all through high school.  In 2010, her and I decided to attend college together, to improve our situations.  For me it was to just get a diploma of some kind.  For her, it was all about getting a better job and better pay.  I went for an associates in Liberal Arts.  She did the same.  I was able to take whatever classes I wished to.  Her counselor however, decided my wife would have to take some college preparatory classes before she moved on to getting a degree.  I finished my semester with some A's B's and C's.  My wife, however, managed to get a .34 grade average.  Don't judge...she does have a learning disability.

Oh, but wait.  Didn't she have B's and C's in high school?  Plus she graduated....right?  OK, then how did she manage that .34 grade average??

Here's what I truly love though.  I remember stuff they taught me in 2nd grade.  Math comes easy for me.  I can usually add numbers up in my head.  I'm no genius, mind you.  I believe my IQ is somewhere around the average. My wife?  She has trouble with 3x3.  5-20.  4 divided by 2.  If you ask her for change for a dollar, and there's no register to tell her how?  Count that drawer as short.  How then, did this woman graduate high school?

I got just short of the associates I was after, then returned again to study law for a paralegal degree.  I zipped through the first semester only having to drop one course, and got an incomplete (which translated to a C-) in another.  The second semester presented no issues for me whatsoever.  The third semester however, brought trouble to me.  I had to re-take the one course I had gotten a C- in (I was supposed to keep a 2.0 or better grade point, or I would lose my financial aid, and I had to have a C or better in all of my law classes, or I wouldn't get the certificate or the degree I was trying for at the time).  I had a female instructor in my Intro to Law class, in which I received a C.  She was easily the most inane person, and the lousiest instructor I had had to that date.  I learned pretty much nothing.  In my 3rd semester, I had her for 2 more classes (the selection of instructors for this program were extremely limited.)  I learned a lot less.  I was so stressed out about having her as an instructor for half of the classes I chose to take, that I systematically re-failed the C- class, and totally failed the fourth course.  The 2 that I took with that same instructor that I was so stressed over?  She passed me with a C...for both.  WHAT???  I was certain I had managed to fail all four.  And this female instructor?  She was the head of the department of the paralegal program.  Wow.

The thing I remember most about school when I was attending was that there were an awful lot of Civics, Government, and Law classes, as well as references to our infrastructure, and the way government and the law worked.  These days?  There's almost none.  Remember when I stated, in my blogs about The Law Itself, that if you asked people how our hierarchy of the courts was, or how the law works, or what the Constitution says, that a lot of people wouldn't be able to tell you?  This is why.  We have lessened, almost to extinction, anything to do with how our systems work, where the law and government are concerned.  Why?  As I mentioned before, the need to keep Americans in the dark as far as government is concerned:  What they're doing up there on Capital Hill, as well as how the law works, how laws are passed, and what you can do about it...these things are not considered important to teach any more, because if we know what's going on, then we might want to bring about change, something our Government does NOT WANT.  No, the only way you'll get that kind of Education is if you attend college, or take Law.  But it seems pretty obvious to me that they don't care too much for you learning much there either, especially with the head of the legal department shoving you through with passing grades, when you know damn good and well you learned NOTHING, failed all your tests, and didn't complete or did very poorly on any of the assignments given to you.

It's sad enough that we have a poor education system anyway...but when the national averages dropped and people began to complain that the standards in the education of our children were not sufficient, we changed a few things...but obviously those things are not helping.  Children currently graduating can't read, can't write, and can't speak.  And math?  Fahget about it.  If there's no calculator or cell phone or computer available, they'll be lucky to get the multiplication tables right.  Somewhere along the line, children that weren't able to pass grades were pushed through.  No child left behind.  I remember when that one came into existence.  Does that mean we pass them regardless of the grades they get, or if they really didn't understand a thing they just learned, just so we can up the averages and continue to get grants and funding available?  Is anyone really monitoring what our children are ACTUALLY learning?

If any of you actually know how, I would suggest, strongly, looking up what our national standards are, and what happens if someone doesn't quite meet those standards.  Find out what your college tuition, which is currently getting more and more expensive, really pays for.  Most of all, I'd really want to know, if my child decided to not attend college, and I take away all the technology that they have now, could they still survive in the world, say, if the internet went down?  Scary thought, right?

Going to Work...If You'e Lucky

Bringing home the bacon.  Getting the job done.  Busting your butt to survive in today's world, whatever you'd like to refer to it as.  We all need to do it...no, we all HAVE to do it...there isn't a choice, is there?However, there's something relatively new out there (about 11 years I believe it's been around now) that's tripping up some really good, talented, well-educated, productive and decent people from getting work, and there appears to be no time limit on how long it can haunt you, now, thanks to the onward march of technology.

I'd like to start right out by throwing this directly into your faces.  I've been hearing an awful lot of complaints about people on welfare, Section 8, SNAP (food stamps), FIP, etc., of late, easily twice as much as I used to.  I hate to tell you fine, law abiding, hard-working people this, but whereas there are some who really do take advantage of the system, there are ten times that amount who really have to be or need to be on it. Even worse yet, it's YOUR fault they get and need this assistance!  Even more horrifying than this, the numbers are only going to go up from here.  And I'm afraid that the blame for it rests on all of us.

UPDATE:  I may have been misinformed, America.  It would appear that our President, Mr. Obama, may be the REAL reason for increased handouts.  It seems this was a preamble to something that's upcoming on our horizon:  Mr. Obama is going to ask for a third term as president, and, by giving away more and more, is attempting to be come so wildly  popular that we'll overlook Article 2 of the constitution and re-elect him for yet ANOTHER term as president.  It's said, also, that WE'RE going to push him and beg him to do it!!

Let's start with the biggest offender, the King of all our problems...capitalism.  Capitalism, as defined in Mirriam-Webster's Dictionary, says this:  An economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market.  Capitalism was a good thing back in the day, of this there was no doubt.  There was one ingredient however that would come along that none of us counted on as a spoiler in the mix.  Back in the day, competition was friendly, prices were reasonable, and no one was given to hoarding business or money over another.  Local businesses were everywhere, and the barter system (a system that is now in danger of extinction) was in effect where money wasn't.

What's that sour-tasting ingredient you ask?  Why greed, of course.  For Americans in our day and age, enough is never enough.  We are easily the most unsatisfied generation of people that have ever occupied the planet, right along with the rest of the generations in this last century.  Almost exactly 100 years ago, to be exact.  And whom do we have as our most shining example in greed, our tutor whether we want the teaching or not?  Our government started us on our destructive path down the road to greed and corruption, in 1913, when they greedily passed and put into affect the 16th Amendment, mandating that all U.S. citizens pay income tax.  This we can firmly plant our finger on as the defining time that greed crept into our lives as U.S. citizens.

The other half of the problem lies in our propensity to roll over and go with the flow, roll over and take it, and roll over and swallow it.  We have been trained of late to be a nation of sheep, also by government, mostly, and by the media, more than likely as they are influenced by government to keep fear forever instilled in us.  What's more, we don't have TIME to fight things anymore...hell, we barely have time to drop off the kids at daycare, let alone fight some stupid fine or nuance of law we don't agree with.  Not only are we in constant fear of our very lives, we're afraid for our children, our retirement, our money, our safety, our jobs, and our homes.

A good, small example of this would be a simple vehicular misdemeanor.  Let's use the seat-belt law and ticketing for the same.  I've mentioned this before, I'm sure you remember.  When seat belts were not always required, they tried to instill fear to make us use them.  Commercials showing people getting into accidents, and while they used seat belts and didn't use them were plentiful.  When that didn't work, the cry went up to government to do something about it.  The Mandatory Seat Belt Law for all states was born.  When the law was to go into effect, we all said "This is a good thing...it'll do a lot more good than not"...we rolled over.  Don't lower the speed limits, don't crack down on drunk drivers, don't demand that car makers make their cars safer or come up with other ways to make it more safe to drive, take the easy way out...put in on us.  Why?  Because we won't fight it, as a people.  We don't have the balls.  We created a monster in our government and gave them the power, and in order to stay in business, they keep us in fear of everything, thereby creating a nation of roll-overs.  Anyway, the day came and I just happened to be out when it went into effect, at midnight, and I got one of the first tickets.  $21 for the infraction.  Today?  $85.  Why?  Because we raised it to $30, issued it to some lucky citizen, and they rolled over and it.  Then $40.  Then $50.  Then $60.  Then $65.  You get the picture.  As is the way with all fining, if you roll over and pay instead of stand and fight, well then you have to expect that eventually the "government" will say "OK, so what can we do to bring in MORE revenue?  Hey, I know!", and your parking tickets go up from $5 to $20.

The roll-over effect seems to trickle over to every facet of our lives.  They raise taxes?  We roll over.  They reduce deductions?  We roll over.  They pass law?  We roll over.  They beat down the wage hike?  We wait till they bring it back again, some three to ten years too late.  They raise insurance premiums?  We roll.  Am I wrong?  Oh, sure, some fight.  Some, a lot fewer, I'm sure, even win on occasion.  Mostly though?  We're trained from an early age to keep our mouths shut and just pay up.  Shut our eyes, and deal.  Muddle through.  Get over it.  Uh-Uh.  Not this horse. No longer.

So as the insurance, medical and legal fees continue to skyrocket, and the consumer price index continues to out-pace our rate of pay increases, minimum wage increases and greed?  Well, greed just continues to be allowed to win out.  Because of this, we sell out our citizens in favor of cheap labor employee imports that are allowed into our borders daily, and also by exporting jobs overseas.  All of this contributes to the extinction of the middle class.  Turn that finger around America.  As hard as it might be to swallow, it's all on you.  You continue to roll over and let government have their way, so welfare is up and jobs to be had are down.

Still not convinced?  Let's now move on to the fact that the way we do business, the work that we do, the products that are most important to us, the products we use, and the way we use them are 200% different then they were even 20 years ago.  Think about 30.  40.  50.  Let's stop there.  50 years ago, we drove everywhere we wanted to go.  Oh sure, there was a good crowd for airports, but we didn't need to go too far, our business was here.  Our shop fronts were here, our companies were here, our workers were here, and our products were here.  If they weren't here, we brought them here.  Telephone use was restricted to millions of pay phones, or office/company/personal home phones.  Cars maybe got 12 mph, but we didn't care.  The insurance business had yet to become abused, so rates went for a song.  A nice new home was around 35,000. Gas was 39 cents a gallon.  Federal spending was around 235 billion, and the national debt was at 466 billion.  The consumer price index was 44.4, and inflation happened at around 7.6%.  Today, your cars can do upwards of 50 mpg...but then a gallon of gas is around $3.51 on the average today, so they had best.  An airline schedule is your bread and butter, if you don't know that, you're screwed.  All your business, everyone you do business with, everyone who wants to do business with you is overseas...thank God for the cell phone and the PC, or you'd be broke just getting around at today's airline ticket prices.  Today's consumer price index is a whopping 234.6, even though our current inflation rate is only 1.7%.  A new home will net you around $270,000.  And oh my God, the spending, and our debt?  3.4 and 3.8 trillion dollars...and quickly growing.  In 1913, you could buy as much with the dollar as you can today with $23.63.  Today you can buy...a dollar's worth.  Our dollar today is worth just that, although I seriously believe that it's really worth a lot less than that.  If I paid $20.00 for an item 50 years ago?  That item today would be $105.00.  Our cumulative inflation rate in 50 years was 426%.  And the whopper, a new car, which averaged $3,650 back 50 years ago has leaped nearly ten times that amount to $31,500.

But here is the stuff that's really killing us.  Product quality has been replaced with "How much can I get for this product today while it's hot, before people start realizing that it's a piece of crap and will fall apart on you in about a quarter of the time it used to?"  Companies that once thrived because of customer service are now sending their jobs overseas in favor of employees who barely speak English, but are dedicated hard workers and who'll take half of the pay we do.

Also, since the American dream began disappearing for most folks in the 70's, a whole new race of thieves, grifters, con-artists, scammers and system abusers have risen from the ashes to drive up the prices of everything; from health and general insurance rates to large product price hikes.  Our love of the lawsuit has produced a nation of dog-eat-dog citizens.  Any way we can make an extra dollar has long overshadowed most of our moral compasses, as is apparent when leaders of companies totally destroy people's lives, retirements, and clean out their customer's bank accounts, just so they can spend a few weeks living it up for just a little while at full speed before they're jailed for life.  People who used to respect us, now hate us.  Countries that went out of their way to just rub shoulders with us, with the hope that some of it would rub off on them, are now conspiring together to destroy us.  Gun control is totally out of hand, and our arrogance in thinking we're still number one in everything is truly going to bite us back in the ass one day, and you can't convince me it won't be soon.  God and our base religious beliefs have been pushed completely out of our educational and personal lives, and I'm sure he long ago turned his back on us accordingly.

Why are things the way they are today?  I bet I can draw a line from each and every one of us.  We're the most selfish, arrogant, non-feeling, non-caring introverts as can be fashioned from a piece of human flesh.

What happened to the theme of this post you ask?  Oh yeah.  I almost forgot that little pebble in the middle of the avalanche of rocks I kick-started, didn't I?

Here, then, is an example of great American business thinking.  11 years ago, I stole something from Sears, at around $20.  It was the only thing ever to be on my record.  It was an awful time in my life, and the state of Iowa promised me a good future if, in my moment of unemployment, I would sacrifice 7 months out of my life to educate myself in a massively needed profession at DMACC.  I jumped on it.  It was in the field of IT, something I was already big on, so yes, of course I did.  Unfortunately, while you're attending school full time, it was the kind of study that required an awful lot of study time, and working part time was even strenuous.  One day, the instructor informed us that we would need to purchase writable DVD's for the class at a time when these were just hitting the market, and very expensive.  Since I had no job, I chose the dark path of retail theft for a whole 69 seconds...and got caught.  Managing to survive this minor infraction, I graduated my course, and attempted to get a job in my newly learned profession.  At this time, a new standard at a lot of American companies had begun to be a rule of thumb.  If you had ANY kind of theft charge on your record, you would be unable to be hired for a time of 7 years.

Okaaaay...I decided, after many frustrating interviews, to diversify my talents (which were many by this age) and start my own business.  I limped along doing this for quite some time, but knew in my heart of hearts that I would get a career that suited me once that damned 7 years was behind me.  Oh contrair.  Like my experience with the drinking age (when I turned 18 they raised it to 19...and just before I hit that, they raised it to 21), they upped the ante to a period of 10 years.  I finally reached that 10 years around 2 years ago.  When I once again tried to get employment, I began to hear the word "Unhirable".  Except this time?  It was LIFETIME.  Are you serious??

Now look here America.  We're not talking about a career criminal here.  We're talking about a human being, who was weak for a brief moment, and made 1 mistake.  Not murder.  Not Enron.  $20 worth of DVD's.  Not only that, but I was so adamant that I would never experience that shame again that I made do for ten very long years waiting for a job that would never...EVER come.

I remember, when I first heard the 7 year standard, my first interviewer told me the tale of someone who has to be in a lot worse shape than I am.  A friend of his attended one of the most prestigious law schools in the U.S.  In the usual frat fashion, his brothers and he decided to jokingly deprive their competitive neighbors of their prized frat rug.  The rival frat, when asked by the police who could have been responsible, pointed their fingers squarely at the neighboring hoodlums.  When the police confronted the offending fraternity, they admitted their guilt and offered a standard apology, and returned the rug.  Not satisfied with this, the leader of the frat insisted that some kind of charges be pressed, and slapped the friend with 5th degree theft, a shoplifting charge in most states, along with others besides the friend believed to have masterminded the prank.  Having graduated law school, this friend (and others of that group, surely) had tried to get jobs in a great many fields and has suffered a similar fate.  If nothing else, I feel for this young professional, if for naught else, for the tens of thousands of dollars in tuition he can't pay back, and for the loss of a lifetime career he had obviously worked very hard for at his young age.

Here's what I truly dislike about this.  If I were to go down to the state/county agency that handles my crime record, and ask for my record, there's nothing.  I get a blank piece of paper.  Thanks to technology, however, this stuff can remain on databases AROUND THE EARTH for eternity!!  It will show up when national companies, whose only purpose is to dig up dirt on people, are paid to find that information.  So then, it would appear that the wrong-doers of the world...about 99% of us, at one time in our lives or another, will be blamed and judged by what they did, even once, forever.  It sounds like I'm bitter, and yes, I am.  It sounds like I'm exaggerating with that 99% maybe?  I don't think so.  People can SAY they've never done a wrong thing in their life, but we all know better, I would hope.  The thing that makes me angriest about this, is that you practically eliminate the possibility of reformation with things like this.  Criminals, even one-time caught types, will be forced to return to a life of crime by things like this.

This, of course, is what it all boils down to.  This "standard", if you can call this a reasonable standard, was implemented, I'm sure, simply as a consolidated effort to curb retail theft.  Up the ante to what it is today, 11 years later?  You're now doing just the opposite.  Say it wasn't someone as talented and innovative as I am, a fella with real survival skills and a good head on his shoulders.  Say instead we're talking about a career shoplifter scared straight.  He gets caught, and the theft charges on his record cause a constant deferment, and pigeon-hole him as undesirable for employment.  What do you think that person is going to think of first?  Wait for 7 years, 10 years or even his whole life to go down the drain before he can work again?  I don't think so.  If it were me?  Not only would I go directly back to that life, I would do it with vengeance on the brain.  I'd probably double my efforts.  You have to support yourself, and most likely a family too.  You have narrowed this person's options to crime or crime.  If he won't steal again, it's ALL GOOD, there's other avenues.  Identity theft, prostitution, drug dealer...pick a life of crime, any life of crime.  And hey, if you're affluent enough, you might someday manage to start your own multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme and clean naive investors out of their life savings!

Video Ticketing

Have you been told that video ticketing...you know, the tickets you get in the mail for when you blow through a stop light doing 80 miles an hour in a school zone without your seat belt on without properly signaling to drive your car NW into the river without the proper license to do so while your DL is suspended...is legal, even though it can't be accurately pinned on you or your driving record?  I've heard that these cameras, which only take photos of your license plate by the way, or of your car (from behind, where you can't really make out who's driving it), are not the property of the city, they're more than likely the property of some camera making company that has contracted for the city to make them and put them where you can see them.  The city then hopes that the combination of their presence, as well as the photos sent to you in the mail by the company that produces them, will not only deter you from breaking the law, they will also serve to generate some revenue for the city.  I imagine that the added bonus here will be the fact that they can be used to spy on you, although they wouldn't say that, what they would say instead is that they are for the intended added bonus of being there for when a real crime occurs as an extra "witness" to said crime.

Here's what I have found about about the letters that you receive in the mail, stating that you have done the unthinkable...you have sinned against the city, and here's a snapshot of your driver's license plate as proof. What you probably read almost immediately, is that you need to remove the portion below the dotted line, sign it, and send in your payment for the infraction without delay, or further non-wanted actions may occur. This is, of course, only marginally true, thanks to the "No bench warrants" portion of Iowa law.  All this can possibly mean is pretty much the same thing it means on an actual speeding ticket...which, by the way, you do NOT have to sign either.  By signing anything like this, what you're saying is "Hi, my name is Chris Bruce, and I'm guilty of what you've said I am, and I will be no longer able to fight this...I have already admitted it, and even if I do go to court for it, the judge WILL find me guilty, because I signed the line that says I am, and that I freely agreed that I did wrong, right in front of an enforcer of the law."  Oh, when the officer says you'll be arrested if you don't sign on the dotted line on that ticket?  Bullshit.  Not gonna happen.  You are the victim of law enforcement bullying there.

These driving enforcement camera pictures are said to be collected by the state.  Well here's what really happens.  First you're issued the ticket.  Then if you don't sign it, you're considered to be a plea of not guilty, and it gives you a court date to appear by.  Then if you don't appear, it's sent to a city collections agency.  Also if it's not paid (and I'm sorry, but I think this is as unconstitutional as it can possibly get) the money is then taken out of your Iowa tax return money.  And you wanna know why?  Because we let it happen...AGAIN!!  The government goes there, and we roll over, just like always.  Remember when the seat belt law first came out?  I do, because I was one of the unlucky people out driving the night they started dishing them out.  They were what, $21?  Now they're like $100.  Why?  Because we Americans, like the trained rats we are, just roll over, pay it, then it becomes a standard and later a law.  STAND UP FOR YOURSELVES!!!  Ask that the damn things come down.  They are, have been, and will be even more so, an INVASION OF YOUR PRIVACY!!!  Write your state reps and senators.  Get the damn things banned.  It's not right America, you're being held responsible for what some crook that stole your plates did, or for your son's/daughter's actions, or for your friend or relative who borrowed your car did while he had it...etc.  And if you sign it and pay it, it goes on YOUR driving record!!, and your insurance rates go up!  Pretty soon each family member will be forced to have their own cars, and the smog and ecology problems will skyrocket...sounds just like a Direct TV commercial doesn't it?  SO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!  Stop this camera crap soon, or you'll have no more "expectation of privacy" either someday.

NOTE:  Since the writing of this article, I refer you to this link:

http://www.copblock.org/33390/how-to-beat-a-photo-enforced-speeding-ticket-or-red-light-ticket/

Here you'll find some interesting articles relating to our law enforcement's occasional abuse of power (See?  Here's where I could have used that "dripping sarcasm" effect on the word "occasional" in that last sentence.  I really need to look up the patent on that one.), including a very interesting article about a man who received a video ticket in Washington D.C., and what he did to beat it.

Child Support Enforcement

Yes America, this is an actual picture of an actual cover from an
actual manual used in an actual Child Support Recovery Unit's training class.

I'm sorry America.  I'm afraid I can't empathize with a mother, where she was madly in love with the father, and allowed herself to have his baby, but where he chose to deny his blood, and therefore also chose to be a deadbeat, where stepping up and taking responsibility for the cost of raising his child is concerned, and is now, and has been for many years, impossible to locate.

I'm also not a perfect dad myself.  I signed the rights of my firstborn away to his mother, who didn't want any more to do with me, and, because of that, didn't want me to be a part of the kid's life, so quickly put herself in a situation where she could insist that I do it.  I was then literally BULLIED into marrying wife #1, who, when I asked for an annulment, raped me when I wasn't awake (yes, I slept that hard), got pregnant, then disappeared on me, showing up some 10 months later for divorce proceedings with a child I then had to pay for.  I avoided paying for that child at every opportunity, mostly to torture the mother back for what she had done.  Child #3's mother took off with our son on the day he was born, because she was angry that my job had not informed me that she was in the hospital having my son, and I was late getting to the hospital.  I had no idea where she or the baby were until he was almost 2, and when I found him, the family she had hastily dumped him into refused to let me be a part of his life.  Child #4 came some 20 years later with wife #2. Since I was pretty much over having kids, and since she didn't want any, I gave her the option of keeping it or putting it up for adoption (I don't believe in abortion, so this was not an option).  She chose adoption.

I did, however, because of Wife #1 and child number two (Wife #1's son), get to fully experience the raw power of the Iowa Child Support Recovery Unit for over 18 years.  I later found out, through my study of the law protecting families here, that each state was mandated, once upon a time, by our government in order to better enforce child support payments owed by "delinquent" parents.  Each state is allowed to creatively enact their own laws and punishments to enforce this, and the number of delinquent parents had better wane, or that state wouldn't be receiving the federal benefits it once enjoyed.

Iowa, I feel, is a prime example in utter stupidity where our laws of handling the delinquent parent are concerned.  Oh, I can't really say none of them work, because I'm sure they do.  But the extent...well, I plan to cover each and every way I've come across and shred its logic into little itty bits.

Before I can do this, however, it may make sense for me to cover the amount taken out of your check for this first.  Now I don't know about most of you, but I've come to find that the standard amount that can be taken out of your pay for your child support is up to 50%.  Isn't it tough enough to live on the meager salaries we have now?  How can one anything or anybody be expected to live on 50% of that wage?  This, of course, is not their problem.  And this isn't just for a year or two, this is for eight....teen....years.  Oh, and that's if he/she doesn't plan to attend college...it could be even longer than that!!  This amount, as I understand it, goes to the parent raising the child with full custody.  So I'm giving up half of my already meager living wage to support my child, who isn't living with me...to my other half who is getting a full wage themselves and half of mine to support the child.

So what you're saying is, because we have chosen not to be together, the person who makes the most money suffers at half of their living wage and the person with the child gets a wage and a half.  No, no, I still don't see it.  Could you put that into a mathematical format for me please?

1 1/2 @ $1000 = 1 @ $500 (where one and a half equals the parent and the child, and the payer's salary equals $1000 a month, in case you didn't understand that).

I'm sorry America, I'm afraid I'm still shaking my head.  And we accepted this when?  And have never tried to change it?  Oh, but of course, we ARE trained to be good sheep.  Roll over, open the wallet, and just pay it already, right?

Ok, now that this is FULLY understood, let's move on to this state's methods of recovery.

Method one:  Jail Time.  First, 30 days.  Then 60.  Then 90.  Then 180.  Then a year, etc.  Ok, first of all, this benefits the state of Iowa (or any other state, for that matter) not one bit.  Prisons are no longer state of federally run, they are, for lack of a more apropo word, a business.  This does, for argument's sake, create more jobs and help the economy of Iowa, I'm sure.  What I WOULD like to know though, is how this helps the non-paid parent.  Now, in addition to a delinquent child support payment, we now have a thoroughly pissed off delinquent parent with not only a back-child support payment, but also a jail bill.  Do you believe he's going to rush to the bank to retrieve the money for her; with a new outlook on the error of his ways?  I doubt it.  The percentage of jailed parents to date?  1.7% of the population.  That doesn't sound like a lot, but I'm betting if you threw in the number of parents they can't find, it'd be more than that.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm sure this has improved our numbers where delinquency is concerned.  Or maybe it hasn't.  These numbers, like a lot of numbers we deal with in our lives as Americans are doctored for the appropriate authorities, and for the law-pro public that supports it.  When we're talking about the father that's been in jail 5 times for this, I'm sure it's not helping a whole lot.  His ability to get a job, especially in this economy, can't be helped by this, surely.  No job = no payments, past or present.

Here's the thing I really like about this law though.  Let's say the checks are coming in like gang-busters, then all of a sudden they stop.  The paying parent lost his job.  The courts, through the power of the ICSRU, can then IMMEDIATELY put out a warrant for the non-paying parent.  Shouldn't there be a small buffer to allow this parent to find another job, especially with the shortage of jobs we have these days??  No, let's piss them off some more and put them back in jail for non-payment again, that'll help!!

Here's my favorite - The taking away of the Iowa Driver's License.  For real?  I myself don't consider an Iowa Driver's License much of a privilege to begin with, let alone the cost of owning and repairing a car these days, or putting gas in and insuring said car.  I can hear that parent now:  "TAKE my driver's license please!!  It saves me MASSIVELY to take the bus.  And if it's revoked for non-payment of child support, even better!!  Now I save by taking the bus AND I don't have to pay my child support!!  How's THAT punishment workin' out for ya?" Or, let's take the delinquent parent who isn't paying and gets his driver's license revoked.  I once got away with driving a car without a driver's licence for 5 years.  I'm sure this will happen.  The best of this though, is take away the driver's license of the more law abiding parent, and you aren't either helping him find work, nor are you helping him/her get to work either.  This is a dumb way to recover your child support, from either perspective.

I'm most certainly not saying let's go back to the way things were, since it's pretty darned obvious that didn't work at ALL, but surely we can discover some better ways to fix the dead-beat parent.