Child Shooters

Why are school children in Mexico, Canada, England not shooting teachers and students?

It takes 3 things for these shootings to occur:

1. A person to pull the trigger,
2. Victims,
3. A gun.

Many argue that better mental health treatment would solve the problem. Many argue that armed victims can prevent these shootings. Is there better mental health care in Mexico? Are potential victims and teachers armed in Mexico? What could be the reason that they have virtually no students shooting students and teachers in Mexico? What could be the reason? Better parenting? Better metal detectors?

Gun owners will respond that they have cartels in Mexico because of the average citizen does not own a gun. I guess organized crime, the mafia, the Crips, the Bloods, and a dozen other gangs that infest every city in America are all in our imaginations because the average citizen can own a gun. Doesn't it seem like we read about a good citizen fighting it out with the Crips?

As for politicians and the government, they certainly have no fear because we own guns. They own tanks, fighter jets, and have a military that is more powerful than the next 20-countries combined military power. The only fear politicians have concerning gun ownership is the powerful gun lobby.

I wonder why there are almost no school shootings in so many other countries? I guess they all have better mental health care, no violent society, better security at the schools. Just like Mexico.

Bloodsucking Ticks

With the help of taxpayers’ dollars in the forms of grants, many medical products, procedures and drugs are developed.  Many of the products and procedures can save and dramatically improve the lives of men, women and children with severe and heartbreaking conditions. Now comes the pricing.

Although tax dollars made these breakthroughs and devices possible, no part of the profits will be paid to the American taxpayers. We are forced investors and are promised that should the company make a profit we will receive no return on our investment. Instead, the companies will keep all of the profits. Pricing? These items will be priced at the highest level paid by Medicare, Medicaid and insurance companies.

You’ve seen the ads on TV. “No cost to you and we will work directly with Medicare.” These leeches get paid by the taxpayer coming and going! No cost to you? It is a cost to every taxpayer.

The most tragic result is that children with sever disabilities around the world cannot afford the cost of life-changing equipment.

Some of these companies refuse to post their prices or to even provide their prices unless you visit them. The prices are so unfair that they are ashamed to post them.

Let’s talk medicine. Have you noticed that many times a pharmacy will not tell you the cost of a prescription drug? You must tell them if you have insurance, Medicaid, etc.  Try asking, “Can you just tell me the cost without insurance?” and then present them with a Medicaid card. They will hit the roof! They price to the max and suck out as many tax dollars as possible. The cost of medicine should not change. The cost of my co-pay is not the issue. They raise the actual price to whatever the insurance or Medicaid will pay. Then we wonder why taxes and insurance premiums are so high.

The people in other industrialized countries pay 50% less for health care than Americans and they are outliving us.

Supply and demand in the world of medicine is sinful. For example, there is less demand for drugs that suppress HIV in most industrialized countries than in Africa. So the Swiss can purchase these life saving drugs at a small percentage of the cost for the exact same drugs in any African nation, where AIDS is wiping out nations.

Hospitals cannot (will not) explain how they determine prices. There are huge differences in cost for identical procedures in Texas and Baltimore and Miami. Why? Why should the cost of a CAT scan differ by such huge amounts?

The bloodsucking ticks involved in health-care are the problem. Costs of health-care are the problem. Why should we pay 50% more for health-care than people in other nations? Obama got it wrong. We should be attacking the cost of health care instead of arguing about who pays. I am tired of paying, especially at both ends. I pay to create the miracle drug and then pay a fortune for the drug.  If congress wants to reduce the cost of health care (not simply subsidize it) I am first in line to vote.

Invest

As everyone else panics because of the debt ceiling/continuing resolution/government shutdown - use common sense. Watch the good stocks and as they temporarily go down - buy, buy buy. In a few weeks you can sell as those perfectly good stocks return to their value.

I was Wrong

I consistently predicted that an immigration reform bill was coming. I based my belief on several truths.

1. Democrats and Republicans understood that the Hispanic vote in the near and distant future was critical.
2. Reform is needed to fix our immigration system.
3. Until we have a just immigration policy that allows the poor to enter the country legally, we will continue to have illegal immigration.

Now, it appears possible that the Republican Party will commit political suicide and prevent a just (but far from perfect) law be enacted. It is remotely possible that the party of Lincoln will survive the next few elections. However, as more Hispanics reach voting age the pendulum will swing so hard the other way that being a Republican candidate may be a waste of time and money.

Billions will be spent on a fence. Scandals will emerge as contractors, lobbyists and politicians try to lay hands on that money. Farmers and many other corporations dependent on cheap labor will continue to encourage and employ illegal immigrants.

The mass hiring of Border Patrol Agents and the pressure put upon the recruiting of those men and women will undoubtably result in many people wearing badges that should never have been hired. Many large city police agencies experienced the same situation when forced to 'hurry up and get recurits' to fill positions. Border Patrol Agents perform a tedious and dangerous job. Most of their time is spent staring at bushes, trees, rocks and dirt. It is hot and tiresome work. Put another way, we have an army with badges, guns and an unbelievable amount of power. Most of the time they are tired, hot and bored.

Meanwhile the farmers, ranchers and other Americans that actually live on the border do not want it militarized or fenced. 

I may have been wrong.  Perhaps nothing will be done to help the situation.

Civics 2013 How a Bill becomes Law

1. A corporation, individual or group with deep pockets write a bill that provides them benefits at the expense of tax payers.
2. Lobbyists are hired to find one or more people in congress to present the bill.
3. Campaign money, etc. is promised from multiple groups and entities that all receive money from the originator of the bill.
4. As money is spread around and 'meetings' are held on golf courses and at resorts around the globe, more politicians jump on the band-wagon.
5. Key committee members are promised more campaign money.
6. Congressmen and congresswomen attach completely unrelated amendments to the bill to bring home the pork (my next blog).
7. The news media cranks our stories about the bill, but avoid actually providing the public with the actual bill.
8. The bill is voted on by both Houses and the President signs it into law.

Next I will write a little about how the gravy and pork keeps flowing and then explain how to keep the public at bay.

Soon I will write about the necessity of keeping the blood of our brave military flowing so that the rich get richer.

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Social Security

Social Security is not difficult to understand. There is not and never has been a Social Security Account where our Social Security taxes are held until we retire. The money used to pay each person receiving a check from Social Security is provided by contributions of today’s workers. With the exception of the first year of this program, that is the way it has always worked.

Today’s workers pay social security taxes that are used to pay today’s retirees. So why is there a crisis? There are several reasons, but it still boils down to fewer workers and more people receiving Social Security checks. Today, it takes three workers to support one person receiving a Social Security check.

Each year we have fewer babies in America and as generations pass, there are fewer workers. Between 1973 and 2011 there were 54,559,615 abortions in the United States and birth control further reduced our birth rate. Americans had fewer babies in 2011 than in any year before, according to an annual summary of vital statistics.

The problems caused by low birth rates are not limited to Social Security. Many retirees will not pay very much in the form of income tax and they will be such a strong voting block that politicians may grant them many tax-savings.

More workers can be solved by higher birth rates or more young immigrants that tend to have large families. Our choices are simple. Have more children or increase the number of immigrants from groups that are likely to have more children.

Debts for our Children: What happened to the Conservative Concerns?

Conservatives have piled on the demands for more border security to defeat any type of immigration reform. The idea was to demand so many outrageously expensive ‘security’ demands that there would be no hope of any immigration reform. Now it seems that it has all backfired. We may again double the size of the Border Patrol, add 700 more miles of a fence and add/upgrade millions of dollars of electronic equipment and pretend that the cost will come from some fantasy about the amount of money we will see increase because of immigration reform.

First, if the politicians believe they are spending money that will actually come as a result of immigration reform, limit any dollars spent to that money. In other words, everything must be paid with the money that this immigration reform saves or generates. The one study that predicts this new tax money/savings explains where and how this magic money will appear. The politicians say they believe it. Simply include the ‘source’ of this money as the only source to fund everything in this bill. Why not? If the politicians truly believe the money will come from the sources in this study (taxes from the ‘new’ legal workers, savings in emergency room visits, etc.) then write it all into the law.

The truth is that many are so afraid of the cultural changes (not jobs, not crime, not welfare expenses) that the conservatives added so many repugnant requirements that they were certain the bill would fail. Now they are really in trouble.

However, all my worry is for nothing. All of the bills require that a plan to secure the border include certain items. 

America

Americans love a good debate and loudly disagree. However, our freedom to disagree seems to have devolved into hate for fellow Americans. We seem to have lost our ability for civility. Instead of arguing facts, we argue emotion.

The Internet has the potential for national debate, discussion and communication. The Internet could diminish the influence of the handful of people that control the media. However, the handful of people use the tried and true method of controlling us. They identify a group that can be blamed for all of our troubles and we eat it up like manna from heaven.

We can’t wait to blame everything on the present administration, political parties, political groups, welfare queens, illegal immigrants, liberals, conservatives and welfare programs. Reading the comments on many blog sites is educational. 95% of what I read on blogs is simply anger and hate. Few comments are fact based. The blogs have become a feeding frenzy for anger and prejudice. Many are really text messages where one person directs a comment (usually something nasty) to another person that made a comment.
Trillions of dollars were stolen from the hard-working American taxpayer to bail out banks, corporations and Wall Street gamblers. Yet we follow the lead of the media and focus on blaming some minority group for high taxes, the national debt and unemployment.

President Van Buren took office as a national depression set in and he said, “It is not the objective of government to make men rich – nor repair their losses.”

Anyone that invests in the stock market, real estate market or a business does so in hopes of a profit. Win or lose (just like in Las Vegas) the profit or loss belongs to the investor. The idea that tax dollars can be used to cover losses is insane.

While Americans blame minority groups and fuel hate-based debates without facts, the super-rich continue to rape the American taxpayer.

·      90 percent of ‘farm subsidies’ go to the super rich mega-farms

·      Foreign aid requires that food be purchased from these super-rich mega-farms and shipped around the world and the result is that local farmers in starving nations cannot sell their crops. It would be cheaper and far more effective to help the farmers in those starving nations. At least one major food distributor has refused food from the USA for that very reason. We are only helping the rich American farmers and crushing the local framers

·      Foreign aid also requires that weapons must be purchased from the American arms industry. For two decades (do the math) the Egyptian military received 3-billion dollars of such aid – and our leaders cheered during the Arab Spring.

·      Russia and China receive foreign aid.

·      Wal-Mart and many big box stores receive huge tax breaks that helps these large companies to put small retailers out of business

·      Forcing motorists to use Ethanol is a huge boon to farmers

·      Using tax dollars to keep military bases open because these bases provide jobs to civilians is a huge waste of tax dollars.

·      After the military begged Congress to discontinue purchasing more tanks, our Congress ordered more tanks because the creation of tanks that are not needed or wanted by our military creates jobs.

·      War has become our number one business as a nation.

·      While we argue about who should pay for health care and who must be insured, the pharmaceutical and medical industries laugh all the way to the bank! We spend 50% more on health-care than England, Germany, France and a host of other countries while people in those countries outlive us!

Debate can be healthy. However, communication and debate require two things; talking and listening. A few facts might also be nice.