And that’s why they pay off the peasants

Capitalism: A Love Story

I finished up watching Capitalism: A Love Story last night.  It is a decent flick,  assuming you consider Michael Moore movies good.  I dislike the man, but I love his work.   He is too far into a socialist philosophy for me,  but his tactics and hatred for the bullshit that is the Government of the USA and major corporations is right on mark.

The movie is flawed, like all of his movies.  It lies, it simplifies and it is a work of propaganda.  He takes on Wal-Mart for using peasant insurance and does not include the fact that they quit the practice in the early 2000′s, before this movie was made.  I think it illustrated the point wonderfully though.  Many people that see the movie cannot identify with a family or person that sits in an office all day,  but most people know someone that has worked for a Wal-Mart or similar store.

The thing this movie did best though was to place the blame on both sides of the Two Party Dictatorship.  It showed how both sides are owned by the banks and corporations.  This was the part of the movie that should have been expanded.  There are few things in the world that interest and depress me as much as this.  How the fuck did we get to this point?  We have a government lead by corporations and foreign powers.  Fuck William Gibson for being right.

There is one quote from the movie I really liked,  and I hope to get it right.  When talking about the backlash of the bailout money,  “.. when it gets to the point where all people have to do it protest, that’s called revolution.”  I think that is the key and that is what the money in this nation fears.  I also think that is why checks were written to the people and  benefits keep getting extended.  I just hope people are not fooled for much longer.  (Wait.. maybe that song by the Who means something)

Counting Jobs

On the 440 beltline around Raleigh,  on about mile stretch from Yonkers Road to New Bern Ave, there are by my count 3 billboards advertising jobs for the Census.  Two of these billboards face the same way and are within a quarter mile,  if I get a chance I will take a picture of it this weekend.

This demonstrates two things to me.  The $45 (probably more) that each citizen is charged for the Census is not being spent well and that people in need of jobs and on unemployment need to step up.  There is not a reason in the world these two things should not be tied together.

The government feels it needs to keep extending unemployment benefits.  I will not get into the insanity of those extensions except to say that anyone accepting them should be drafted into the Census.  They don’t have to do it,  but if they want to get paid, they will.  I would guess that this would cut down on the need for these billboards and give people a break from job hunting and watching The Wendy Williams show,  hell they might learn something or stumble across a job they might not have known about.

To me the advertising for census jobs is a useless expense when so many people are out of jobs.  I will not say it is as big of a waste as the millions of dollars worth of signs telling us that a project is funded by TARP money,  but it is close.

Wicky, wicky Wild West

Starbucks is somehow in the center of the gun debate,  and they don’t want to be.  It is refreshing to see a company say “leave us the fuck alone” instead of bowing to one side of an issue or another.  This time the issue is the ability to carry a gun in plain sight.

Currently it is legal in most states,  in North Carolina only Cary and Chapel Hill have restrictions on this.  This is not surprising to me as these places like to flex their muscles, and by that I mean suck the fun and freedom out of everything.  I really fucking hate those places and avoid them at all costs.  I went to Cary last year and I am still recovering from that.

I am not a gun nut.  I do not own a gun and have no plans to ever own one.  I feel that the only reason to have a handgun is if you want to knock over a liquor store or shoot someone.  This does not mean I think they should be made illegal,  people like them,  you can technically hunt with them and they give you street cred.

Larger arms I understand,  when I was looking at something for home defense I thought about getting a shotgun modified for home defense (and for taking to Transmitter sites in the middle of the night).  In the end I decided I did not need it.  I 100% support people hunting,  I am not a hunter but support peoples right to provide revenue to the state in the form of licenses to go out and kill Bambi.  Bambi by the way is mighty tastey.

I am all for people being able to carry their penis replacements in the open in public.  The people that have licenses, are mentally stable and respect the gun laws are the ones you are going to see carrying them.  Most people about to commit a crime are not going to have a gun in a holster or visible,  it kind of takes the surprise out of the moment for the people you are going to rob or kill.

The only reason I oppose getting rid of the open carry law is because it would not do anything.  People will go out and get concealed weapons permits.  Guns will still be in the hands of people that use them to commit crimes.  I really see no positive to this, instead I see the waste.  If the people fighting these laws spent their time doing useful things (like writing blogs read by a dozen people) they might get something done with real meaning.

Just call me an asshole

I have been reading about this health care crap that is running through the government lately.  Mainly I pay attention to how they are going to pay for this clusterfuck of a plan.  First they were planning on taxing those of us that paid for our health insurance.  Now they plan on taxing those that make more than $200K a year ($250K for a couple) along with employers that do not offer a health care benefit.  The number I am hearing is $600 billion.

This is where you should call me an asshole, get ready.  I don’t support, nor will I ever support a socialized medicine plan.  There I said it.  Call me a cocksucking right wing douchebag asshole.  There are a lot of things in this world that I think everyone has a right to,  but being able to go to the doctor is not one of them.  When you allow this to happen people that already pollute the gene pool will live longer and have an easier time reproducing and having offspring that further endanger the survival of the species.

Ok so I have a screwed up outlook on evolution and life in general but lets be logical.  Why do I have to pay for my neighbors health care?  They had every chance I had in life to get a job that had healthcare as a benefit.  I already pay a shit load in taxes for things I do not use (your kids daycare public education for one).  Do I think society has an obligation to look after it’s people?  Yes.  Do I think society should be forced to look after it’s people? No.

The current plan is not socialized medicine.  It is filler insurance for people that do not have insurance.  So basically any money spent on this benefits one part of the population while taking money from another.  I am fairly certain you could refuse to use the coverage, but I am almost certain that you could not opt out of paying the taxes.  Seems a bit unbalanced to me.  Of course I felt this was the case when the stimulus plans:

1. Provided money to people that did not pay taxes
2. Provided money to help private banks
3. Provided money to help private auto maker

The idea of penalizing those that make above a certain amount of money will never be understood by me.  Because some guy/gal decides to bust ass building a business, employing people and trying to be a good citizen he gets fucked over by having to pay more of his hard earned money to the government to pay for something he does not benefit from.  Who is going to benefit from it?  Probably someone that pays too much tax for booze and cigarettes, got abused by a large manufacturing plant in bum fuck NC,  got laid off because the plant closed as the government allowed unskilled jobs to be outsourced to four year olds in a sweat shop in Madagascar.  In this case two hard working Americans got fucked by government,  therefore I say they are the holes of ass, not me.

Dear Obama, Just rip the fucking bandaid off already!

I have been reading and listening to a lot of things about the coming GM bankruptcy.  I really don’t get it,  and I don’t think a lot of people get it, otherwise the Federal Government would not be pouring more taxpayer money into the pot.  You, me, and your neighbor will own a part of the new GM.  We will not get the employee discount,  your neighbor that works for GM,  well his job is not safe either.  Oh the dealership down the road,  the one where you bought your Hummer so you could haul things to your McMansion, they are closing.  On the upside, GM will still be a brand.

Sixty percent of GM will be owned by our government.  People that currently own common stock will have nothing.  The unions will have an ownership stake in the new GM.  Secured bond holders,  well they get something, but not much, because you see the people holding bonds did not vote for Obama, but the unions did, that will teach you ya rich fuckers that invest in private corporations.  Wait a second… I own owned a small amount of GM stock.  I don’t remember getting a vote in any of this.  Fuck me.

In other news, there is a new study out about  all of those people that could not afford their sub-prime mortgages that got refinanced.  The new study finds that about 40-60% of them will probably still go into default.  Somehow, all of the money we threw at the banks to fix that problem did not work.  All of that pressure we put on the banks to help these people did not work.  I am talking about “We The people” via our representatives in the Federal Government,  the ones that now “control” the banks and that will be making the new Camaro.

This is just not working.  Bad ideas are just getting worse.  At some point you have to say fuck it and let the weak die and the strong survive.  The band aid needs ripped off, feel the pain of a few missing hairs and some irritated skin and more the fuck on.  This is just getting stupid.  The Government with limited regulatory powers did not detect this happening and by some accounts is responsible for letting it happen.  The government cannot run itself, I do not trust it to run a business.