About Me

Name: John Andrea
Email: jtandb@bellsouth.net
Loading...

Create Your Own Blog Find Other Townhall Blogs

Comments

Archives

Blog Roll

 

Michael Jackson Different Not By Choice

   Since Michael Jackson was knee-high to a duck, his eyes have seen nothing but a gawking and often delirious world.
 
   I've tried to imagine what it would be like for me to enter any crowded venue and see the throngs instantly turn, scream, point -- then rush towards me for an upclose glance. Imagine all I might, but I really have no idea what that is like -- only a few people in history have ever experienced it. Michael Jackson has been living it since ABC.
 
   Michael Jackson was not famous because he could sing, dance and entertain -- many have done that (including his brothers) -- Michael Jackson was world famous because he could: SING, DANCE AND ENTERTAIN!!! Only a rare few have ever done that. And I imagine that the world through their eyes, because of their immense popularity and magnetism, must have seemed a blurred collage of contorted human freaks -- screaming, yelling, crying and hypnotic -- all at the same time. And so we might imagine from that which we know of Michael from afar, that he was, well, a bit odd. But try and imagine what he saw in us -- up close.
 
   Yes, Michael Jackson was - different. How could he not have been? I mean, even Elvis had the chance to live a normal life until he was a young man, but Michael Jackson never really had that chance. Michael Jackson was performing -- almost as a way of life -- since he was a little boy. A little boy. He must have thought it neat, cool and whatever other feelings and emotions a young kid could have at that time in his life; pleasing the crowds; being cheered and applauded; having more than a quarter in his pocket like most little kids in that day -- it must have been fun and exciting, if not terribly confusing. And I highly suspect it was confusing, terribly.
 
   As a young man, Michael Jackson must have felt that he was on top of the world with all the fame and fortune imaginable. He had his music atop the charts; selling-out concerts all over the world and so much going on, it must have been like a five year-old on Christmas morning -- not knowing which presents to open first.
 
   What happens to someone though, when they get to a point where they have so much that they have nothing left to dream about? I certainly haven't the foggiest clue as to what that would be like, but I suspect that Michael Jackson may have understood it all too well. If it is just that you are a gazillionaire and have seen and done it all, maybe you move to the mountains and start planting gardens; making your own bread, or just going fishing or something -- things that maybe normal folks do. In order to do that though, you would have to have an idea as to just what normal is. Most folks do of course, because they started-out that way. It would help as well, if even though you were a gazillionaire, you didn't have the kind of fame that required your every move to be secluded, guarded and protected. I would suggest that the little boy that first appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show never knew what "normal" was, nor could he have ever just 'blended-in', so to speak.
 
   The repeated line from Michael's song Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough, goes: "Keep On With The Force Don't Stop, Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough..." What happens though, when the force won't let you stop? What happens to you when the force that you have created, is no longer what you want and you can't go back because there's no back to go to because it's been this way from the start? You can't go forward because you have already been there and too -- you're not going to get any younger. So what is left for you? Maybe it's the dark road that you take because that's the only place left to go. Maybe it's the drugs you turn to, or "pain-killers" -- if we want to be nice about it. Maybe it's the weird hobbies, associations and 'arrangements' that you take part in. It could be any and everything that is new and different and you want to experience it because it's to you -- better than living dead.
 
   Some have called Michael Jackson'd death: tragic. No, tragic, is starving to death in Ethiopia or an eight year-old with leukemia who probably won't see his next birthday cake. Michael Jackson lived a different life. A different life that maybe he didn't have much of a choice about for the most part.
 
   I remember hearing someone say that when John Lennon was asked to comment on the death of Elvis, he stated something along the lines of:  Elvis died when he went into the Army. Of course referring to the performer -- not the person. The person that most of us never knew, died on 25 June 2009 and will never return. But the Michael Jackson that was, is still here. In fact, I am listening to him now.
 
Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

Browsing for Pedophiles

Gentlemen...start your search engines! Just another busy day for law enforcement officials...browsing the Internet in search of pedophiles. And while a pervert is caught every now and then - and that's a good thing - there's always been something a bit strange about looking on the Internet for pedophiles to me.
 
No doubt there's alot of "weirdness" out on the Internet. No doubt there's a good bit of "ugliness" out there. But when you consider what would be the best use of manpower and resources that are available to us in hunting-down child predators, is the Internet really the best place to focus those resources?
 
If we were looking for gamblers, we would generally look in those areas where games of chance were likely to take place. And while we might be able to find a couple knuckleheads with a Bingo side-bet at church, church is probably not where we would focus our efforts. Drug deals could go down in a library as well, but stake-outs and other surveillance could probably be put to better use elsewhere.
 
Like hunters taking to the woods and fishermen taking to the water, pedophiles would probably be found where most children are: schools.
 
I don't know what goes through the mind of a pervert that makes them sexually attracted to children. Wouldn't even venture a guess. But I think we could imagine a similar scenario. Suppose you went to your average young male and asked him to consider a job teaching. Nothing unusual about that, but suppose you werern't talking about your average teaching job. Suppose the teaching position that you describe, involves him teaching a class full of beautiful and shapely women. Think you might get his attention? Now that you have his attention, tell him that because he would be the teacher, all these beautiful women would look up to him, obey him and they could be easily convinced to do whatever the "teacher" says.
 
Are our schools not the perfect place for pedophiles? And not only would pedophiles be in the perfect location for their sexual desires, they also have cover in the schools. Academia has become the haven for the genuinely close-minded to pretend open-mindedness and be "accepting" of everyone and not being "judgemental" toward others. As such, the schools have become supportive of any and every form of decadence. So it's not as if the pedophile is going to stick-out like a sore thumb there.
 
Seemingly every other day, we hear of yet another teacher somewhere...having sex with a student. And we learn that these relationships have been going on for months, even years. How does this happen, how does this go un-noticed? How do these relationships even get started? I mean, it's not as if a teacher taps a 13 year-old boy on the back and the next minute...she's in the back of a Hummer, giving him a Chevrolet! Do other teachers not notice these relationships developing? I don't see how they could not.
 
How many of these pedophiles in schools are unknown? Not everyone who steals, or otherwise breaks the law...gets caught. And when one is found, isn't it normally from parents discovering the relationships, spouses of the teachers finding-out, or other kids in school that report it? We have no law enforcement efforts being made to catch pedophiles in schools that I know of, yet they keep turning-up every time we turn around.
 
And while I do know that schools are on sacred and hallowed grounds, where we worship the Religion of Education, fill the offering plate and praise, adore and adorn the high priests; teachers, we might want to spare a few of the Internet Surfers to take a gander into just exactly what is going on in the natural haven for pedophiles.
 
I'm just sayin'.
 
 
Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (2) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

Lilly Ledbetter Act

Not a lot has been mentioned about the provisions in the Lilly Ledbetter Act that President Obama signed in his first week in office. I guess we've been a little busy trying to figure out how to best use a trillion dollars to stimulate a depression and making the world love us again, to pay any attention to how the Ledbetter Act will play-out.
 
Obama's signing of the Ledbetter Act was another "historical moment" in our history. We had the first Black President coming to the rescue of working women and seeing to it that they get the mythical .22 cents on the dollar that they have been denied for so long. It is said that women have for so long been doing the same jobs, for only .78 cents on the dollar compared to men. Which should make us wonder why anyone would ever hire a man if that were the case. But we don't generally apply alot of common sense in these "historical moments", rather we opt for the feel-good cliches about "equality" and such...to give us the Chris Matthews tingle up our leg.
 
The Trial Lawyers Stimulus Act (aka - Ledbetter Act), will have a real impact though on businesses that survive the trillion dollar Depression Bill of 2009. Anyone who is foolish enough to stay in business, or is the insane dare-devil who will go in to business with the massive tax increases just around the corner (God bless'em), might need to understand how this is all going to work.
 
Let's suppose you're an "Equal Opportunity Employer". Of course everyone is...that is the purpose for going into business, right? And let's suppose that you have been contracted to build one of the new schools in Milwaukee that already has fifteen empty ones. So you go out and hire your crew. Among many other positions, you have a need for ten carpenters. You hire five White men, three Black men and two women (any color will do). Your diverse crew all start the same day at the same pay. They all have the same job title: Carpenter. And they all have the same benefits: Medical, Dental, 401(k), Sick Days, Personal Time Off, Vacation Days, Day Care, Family Emergency Medical Leave and reduced hours for any of the women who are doing the same job as men...if they get pregnant.
 
After a few weeks on the job...getting all the paperwork caught-up for Equal Opportunity Employment, non-discrimination practices in the workplace, Sexual Harrassment Awareness, Offensive Language and Conduct in the Working Environment, Safety and have scheduled all the briefings, paper-signings, lectures, adjusted your work schedule to accomodate your employees doctor's appointments, meetings at the school, whose dog constantly needs to be taken to the Vet, who bought one of those alarm clocks that never go off, etc. and have a good feel for who normally gets sick on Friday or Monday...you start to notice the performance of your employees.
 
You start to notice that one or two of your carpenters are better than the others. You notice that their electricity doesn't regularly go out, they don't have alot of "car problems" or come down with "that thing that is going around". They normally don't "get stuck in traffic"
 and show for work and on time. They do a better job and you can depend on them to get the job done...without having to stand over the shoulder. And so you're beginning to get a good feel for who among these carpenters "who are doing the same job"...is more valuable to you.
 
After about six months into the job, your best carpenter comes to you to let you know he has another job offer. He is of course being offered another job that pays more at another of the "infrastructure" projects that are getting underway. And so what do you do? Well, normally the employer would simply consider matching the pay of the job he is being offered, in order to keep him. But as College Game Day's Lee Corso is fond of saying: "Not so fast my friend!". Should you consider giving him a raise to keep him, you now have to give your other carpenters a raise too! Or at a minimum...the three Blacks and the two women. The four other White guys are irrelevant in all of this. You don't think you have to offer a raise to the others? Aren't they doing the same job as Carpenters? They certainly have the some job title. And didn't they all start on the same day at the same pay? So unless you want to wind-up in court with a lawsuit on your hands, you'd better show that valuable employee the door!
 
Some folks might be thinking that it would be worth the chance to raise his pay and hope no suit comes about from the others who are "doing the same job". After all, you'll just have to pay them back-pay that would be owed, right? Oh no. Our legal system is always in need of good lawsuits being lined-up in order to handout "justice" wherever possible. So not only will the back-pay be in order, there will be hefty damages being awarded as well. There will be untold "emotional stress" and other side-effects that will have occured, demanding large settlements. If it were just the back-pay, that probably wouldn't be enough to cover the attorney's fees. If they would even be interested in fighting discrimination in the workplace and "leveling the playing field"...without just compensation for their noble efforts.
 
So you business folks out there, stay on your toes. There's another anvil just waiting to drop
 
 
 
 
 
 
Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

Defining "Stimulus"

We've got a stimulus package on the way, so maybe we should understand what "stimulus" is. When we hear about the stimulus package, we hear words and phrases like "jolting the economy", "kick-starting the economy" or "shocking the economy back to life". And so for a visual of what a "stimulus" would be, imagine a doctor with a defib on someone whose heart has stopped, shocking him back to life. And if that is the idea of what this stimulus package is supposed to do...it will do nothing of the sort.
 
Let's just pick a number, say four million. I think that number is pretty close to the number of jobs that the stimulus package is estimated to create. And let's pick a day of say, 01 June of this year. If on 01 June of this year, four million new jobs began, that might be a stimulus or a shock of sorts to jolt the economy. But under the stimulus package, four million jobs would not be created on 01 June.
 
The supposed four million jobs are going to be staggered over several years. And not only are they going to be staggered, they are also going to be temporary jobs - projects and the like. So let's pick a number again and say that 250,000 new jobs will be created in the first year. How would 250,000 new jobs spread-out over the country, shock our economy? It wouldn't. And not only would the 250,000 new jobs not shock our economy, I would predict that in the upcoming year far more than 250,000 jobs will be lost. So how could we possibly shock our economy into recovery, when in fact we would be losing more jobs than what the so-called "stimulus package" is creating?
 
And in the next year after that the stimulus package might add several hundred thousand more and so on the following years. But by the time the jobs from the stimulus package got created in the out-years, many of the ones created early on would be finished. Remember, most of these jobs in the package are projects...not long-standing business opportunities. And as convoluted as it may sound, by the time we were to make it into the third and fourth years of this package, more stimulus jobs would be LOST...than will be created!
 
Staggering the job creation over an extended period of time, is like the doctor administering small amounts of shock to a heart attack victim...througout the day. Both the economy and the patient is going to die, despite the efforts to revive them.
 
But hang on...we still haven't gotten to the worst part.
 
If you are a business person today...what are you thinking? You've got to be thinking that this huge spending deficit we're amassing is going to have to be paid for. And you are probably thinking that you are going to be taxed into oblivion here in the next couple of years and many more beyond that. So what do you do now? Well, if you are a smart business man, you are probably going realize that you need to make as much money as you can NOW...before the heavy taxation hits. And so you start restructuring and downsizing. And downsizing generally means: layoffs. You start laying-off employees and restructuring your workforce to maximize your profits. And when businesses are doing this all over the country, unemployment will, as some are fond of saying: skyrocket. And our states are really in a great position to handle that, right? Of course, I believe this is already happening and I believe it started late last summer when Obama; leading in the polls, announced that he was going to confiscate the wealth of anyone making over $250,000.00. But that is for another discussion.
 
The way to turn this economy around, is to put something forth that will give businesses some confidence. And what better way for businesses to have confidence, than to put TAX CUTS into law! Now is the time not only for tax cuts, but for SIGNIFICANT tax cuts. Make these tax cuts guaranteed for the next several years out, make them guaranteed by writing them into law and our economy will recover. It will recover because businesses will now have confidence in their future. This will make all the difference in the world. The reason it will, is because business is not just crunching a bunch of numbers, figuring-in a gain here, a loss there, etc. Business, like most things, is about 90% human nature. And it is the human nature aspect of this that will determine what the final numbers will be...not the other way around. Think of it this way. When the economy is on a heavy decline, what does the average American worker do? The average worker spends less, holds on to what he has because he is uncertain about the future and in particular...the future of his own job. And so the American workers will recoil and spend far less. Well, the business community will do the same thing, they will recoil as well. They will try and hold on to more of their money and will contract rather than expanding. And with both the American workers and the business community both contracting, they're locked in a stalemate, the economy continues to spiral downward and more jobs are lost, which means spending decreases even more, causing more jobs to be lost, causing a further decrease in spending, causing more job loss...on and on it goes.
 
So we should be able to withstand all of this, right? I mean, we have had hard times in the past, recessions and such and so we should be able to recover from this. But as Lee Corso is fond of saying on ESPN's College Gameday: "Not so fast my friend!". In the past, we have never had such a huge expenditure of "printed money" being dumped on us. This spending of money that we do not have, will eventually cause inflation to kick-in. When the inflation kicks-in, the money we do have will of course have less buying power. For those unfamiliar with inflation, it's simply this: What you could buy in the past for $500.00, may now cost you, say, for example: $575.00. So your money is not going to go as far. Then we bring in the taxes as I mentioned earlier. An upcoming confiscatory tax-rate is not a possibility, but rather an inevitability. We're going to have a tremendously huge deficit that will have to be paid. Who is going to have to pay this, will it be the poor, the unemployed or the lower-middle class? No, the taxes will be paid by the upper and middle class. Forget about this nonsense of no one making less than $250,000.00 will have their taxes raised, that was simply campaign rhetoric for votes. The upper and middle classes will have their taxes raised significantly. And just as an aside...don't forget about "Universal Health Care" that is right around the corner.
 
 
Let's now frame this picture so that we can take a glance into the future. Just down the road we're going to have high unemployment, high inflation and high taxes. Now, who in their right mind today, is going to want to run out there and start a business? Who in their right mind today; who is in business already, is going to be thinking about expanding their business? Well, no one...in their right mind! Hell, with that gloomy picture, making money is not even going to be in the equation...holding on to what you have and trying to survive all of this will be the challenge. And so where is the job creation going to come from...ACORN, makers of hybrid golf carts, folks filling potholes, painting schools, building a Frisbee course or tending to one-eyed tadpoles on a fish farm?
 
This so-called "stimulus package" is worse than anything a bunch of children could come up with. In fact and in all sincerity, we'd be far better off taking our economic problems to the nearest elementary school for a solution. And I mean that!
 
Forget about comparing what might happen to the Great Depression...this thing could wipe us out entirely! The Grapes of Wrath might look comfortable from where we'll be sitting if this thing passes.
 
Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

Magic Dust Energy Plan

So we're now running full speed to halt all forms of energy production in the country. And we're doing this because we have a dream of one day having alternative energy sources. We're not sure what these sources of energy will be, whether it will be corn in our gas tanks, windmills in our backyards, or magic dust we carry around in our pockets for instant clean and green energy. But we're not going to wait and find out what these magical sources of energy will be before we stop producing what we currently use. This type of thinking might be OK if we were talking about throwing away old underwear, but we're talking about the world's busiest and most prosperous nation coming to a screeching halt if we do not have suficient energy sources to power it.
 
President Obama had mentioned in the campaign that we would have alternative energy sources in ten years. Now, because neither he nor I have the slightest clue as to what these sources of energy might be, let's just say that carrot juice will be found to be the magical elixir that we're dreaming of. Add some turpentine and sugar to carrot juice and maybe we've found it...works like a charm!
 
How long will it take engineers to develop car engines that run off of carrot juice? And how long would it take for us to transition our automobiles over to those powered by CJ5? Would the airlines be able to convert to this overnight? What about all the ships in use, manufacturing plants, construction equipment, tractor-trailers and everything all the way down to riding lawnmowers? And what about all the gazillion products that are made with oil, will carrot juice be a suitable substitute? So regardless of whether we would have these alternative energy sources in ten years, we would still be a very long way away from transitioning away from what we currently use.
 
Why the rush then to stop the production of our current energy sources? Oh I know...the environment! And so let me possibly be the first person in the United States to declare: I don't give a damn about the environment! Not that it matters whether I care about the environment or not, because I doubt Mother Nature gives a rat's behind whether I "care" about the planet or not...she'll do as she pleases. As she always has. For billions of years. Without our help. And if all six billion on the planet made a concerted effort to destroy the planet, it would effect Mother Nature about as much as a gnat on an elephant's butt! So no, I don't care a bit about the "environment".
 
This energy position is a terrifying disaster in the making. The world has an abundant supply of the energy sources that we need. Yet we are restricting our own use and putting our country in peril because of a hoax that would make Jake and the Beanstalk seem reasonable.
Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive
« Previous1Next »