The Burning Questions

  How many times a day do you hear about someone getting shot?  Probably at least once if you watch the news on television.  It is quite alarming to hear that this person got shot or that person shot this person for whatever reason.  It is a fact of life, though.  People get shot every day.  EVERY DAY.

The thing that gets me is when somebody shoots their self.  Not like a suicide…just a dumb or freak accident.  It is hard to fathom that someone could disrespect such a thing as a loaded gun enough to unload it upon them self.  I mean…what about this ?  How does that happen?  I don’t know for sure what that guy was thinking.  There was even little children in the room!

Now, this next one could happen to anyone.  Glad this has never happened to me!  Anyone ever had any thing like that happen?  I hope not.

What about this …Is it really that funny?  I would want to learn gun safety or etiquette from this group.

This is just a small portion of the ridiculous video footage of people who shoot guns that obviously need a refresher course in safety with weapons.  It is not recommended that anyone follow by these examples.  However, I believe that everyone is entitled to own a weapon and without the terrible restrictions that our government is attempting to place upon one of our most important freedoms.

There is legislation soon to be acted upon namely HR1388 and HR 45 that will limit our rights as citizens of the U.S. to bear arms.  There is too much information to simply scan through to understand it all, but I do believe that this legislation is detrimental to our way of living and our freedom.  You may want to check into this and send a message to all representatives that you can contact to voice your opinion.

  Our economy appears to be at the bottoms, or close to it.  The nation’s confidence in Barrack Obama is shaken.  Our industries have taken a huge hit as well as our nation’s image in the world’s eye.  Rattles and clangs have appeared in America’s ideologies. Not since the 1970’s has our great country seen such a shock as our current situation.  It seems as if the light at the end of the tunnel has been shot out and removed.

The real deal is that things are not as bad as they could be.  What will it take for American’s to realize that drastic changes have to be made around here.  For our childrens’ America to be the glorious nation that we have claimed to be for so long, we need to prove once again to the world that we are supreme in our essence, the key to the future of the world, and the strongest/smartest nation on earth.  I watch everyday as people whine and cry, “Don’t spend up all the money!,  Don’t take money from me!, Don’t let them do that, it will cost me too much.”  Don’t, don’t, don’t!  This nation was founded by people who gave up everything for the dream.  How many of them said, “Don’t do that!”?

I think we have this huge problem with change.  Such a huge problem that it has become more an issue than many of the problems we deal with nowadays.  Noone wants to give up anything for their “beloved” country.  They want to keep everything the way it is unless they are of the minority-the unemployed, those with no healthcare coverage, those impoverished by lack of education and lack of resources with which to fix said problems.  So keep on keeping all that you have.  While you have it.  When you no longer have a job, or a car, or a family doctor, or a roof over your head, and noone cares, maybe you will understand what it is to give up something for the greater good.  Until then good luck for your bad Karma;)

Keep buying cheap foreign-made things, keep hoarding anything we can, keep on bitchin’ about anything rather than taking action, keep making more rules to protect the feeble-minded, keep doing things the way we have always done them.  Keep doing things this way and we will no longer be able to say we are Americans who are Free.

What will it take to again make America the nation that all others aspire to become?  Remember the fact that your neighbor may not be as well off as you.  Just because your pockets are lined, doesn’t mean that the person living next to you even has money with which to eat.  Quit being so greedy.  Oh, and calling the President a socialist because he wants your neighbor to have the things that you have is not the way to go about affecting change.  I am not saying that the things he is doing are all right, but he has a mountain of trash to dig through in order to find any solutions at all.  I can not believe that we are so set in the old ways of processions that new, life altering, society changing, social bar bending ideas can be so quickly dismissed.  Personally, I feel the “cash for clunkers” deal is raw.  That money should ahve to be spent on American made products and only American made products.  Why give other countries the opportunity to profit from us while we are in a down economy?  However, there is a method to the madness and pure math is the root of the deal.  Fixing the math in the equation of the moment may help to clear out paths for solutions to other problems we face.  The only thing it will take to truly fix our current economic rut is to buy American, be American, love your fellow Americans! But, hey, what the hell do I know anyway?

Credit card companies are some of the most powerful lobbyists in our nation.  They have used their financial power to destroy the hard-working individual.  They offer these great introductory rates to consumers to lure them into a contract which makes a loan shark look like a good option upon close investigation.  Read the fine print.  Hell, the fine print is so laden with jargon that no one can understand it anyway.  The problem is that people generally do not understand what the rules really are.  They have no idea that they can lose that wonderful rate if they fail to pay some other completely unrelated bill on time.  If one has a card that is close to the limit, and some other card company reports that the individual made some sort of payment mistake, then the one close to the limit can jack up the rate sending the account over the limit, accruing massive fees.  Once the account is over the limit, they can adjust the rate to the maximum allowed by law.  All other companies can then follow suit!  This makes it nearly impossible to ever pay the accounts back down to a respectable level (if there is such a thing) and the account will never return to the original deal’s interest rate.

That is a pretty powerful position.  The original interest rate on an account may be 10 percent, but the limit is something over 30 percent!  For a person with a 5000 dollar balance, this is a huge increase in the monthly payment.  The individual may have been paying somewhere between fifty  and one hundred dollars a month, but is then side-swiped by a two-hundred or three-hundred dollar minimum per month.  This simple detail sends many into a financial downward spiral that they can not recover from.

Now legislators are giving billions to corporations in order to keep them (hopefully) from going under and are taking that money from the individuals who are looking at bankruptcy themselves.  This has to stop.  The companies are reaping the rewards of faceless immunity of the law and something has to be done about it. What happens when the corporations that sent these individuals into bankruptcy, give out the big bonuses and file themselves?  I think they should suffer as we do.  They should be held responsible for their actions.  Yes, the government has thrown money at the problem to stall the situation, Now they need to begin holding these individuals responsible rather than let them hide behind the title of the corporate entities they create to avoid such responsibility.  Credit card companies are at the top of this list with others such as insurance, banking(which are often the keystones of the credit card companies), and industrial corporations.

  Sounds like something a single guy gets when on vacation in Asia rather than the truth of today’s possibilities.  GM is rumored to be pondering selling their Hummer division to a Chinese buyer.  This just doesn’t seem to be a reasonable thing to do at all.  Maybe its a forecast of the American future.

The news has taken to the rumor mill that General Motors will sell their gas guzzling Hummer brand to a Chinese company and I am wondering if this is a national security issue? Hasn’t our military has become accustomed to driving the rough terrain in a Hummer?  These radical automobiles have been outfitted with armor and weapons in order to protect and defend our troops.  What vehicle will take this “tough trucks” place?

I never even liked the gargantuan gas guzzling machine, but with the way vehicles are made nowadays, the monster of the auto industry, HUMMER, will be sorely missed.  Saturn is on the chopping block as well, but I don’t think that the plastic car will be as much of a loss to the American way as the Hummer.  The only way that this could be a good thing for America is if some homegrown company begins to make some sort of vehicle to replace this unique staple.  Leave a comment tell us what you think.

In an update I received, I found out that Hummer is merely a name bought by GM.  AM General is the actual producer of the military version of the Hummer.  Still, I like to think of the machine as an American machine and it is a thorn in my side that the Chinese could take yet another pride from us.  Thanks to HatedNation for lookin’ out!

Recently, there has been an onslaught of articles recommending that we take away the right to possess, talk on, or text on cell phones at given times. I am tired of people trying to revoke my rights as a United States citizen. I know cell phones weren’t listed in the Constitution, but: Police officers have been using communications devices while driving for quite a few years now, as well as utility workers and others. They are hardly ever found at fault for a device-related crash. They are commended for driving at high speeds while doing their job, part of which is properly communicating their position over the air! So tell me that a police officer that can drive over 100 mph is a better human than I, therefore giving him the right to talk while driving without judgment and without distraction. Tell me that education of use of the equipment as well as stricter rules for passing the driver’s course and test, along with using proper equipment aren’t a better way rather than take more of our civil liberties away from us. You can’t have trans fat, you can’t have a smoke, you can’t have a phone in your car…Next thing they will be telling us that we can’t do what we want within our own homes….OH, THEY ALREADY DO THAT! Give the rights reductions a break people or we won’t have any left!

  Chrysler recently announced it’s closing of nearly 800 dealerships across the United States.  This is part of the plan to save the manufacturer from closing its doors.  They seem to be in the worst shape of “The Big Three” as they have also been working with Fiat to salvage their struggling company.  GM intends on releasing their list of dealerships that they intend on closing on May 16.  Ford has already come to terms with the reductions necessary, but are not obligated by government monies to give details.

The deal with closing all these stores is that this will mean that many more jobs lost to this destructive economic situation.  Thousands of salesman and office personnel will soon be out on the street with the millions of others searching for a new job.  This will lead to even less people able to purchase such things as new automobiles.  Chrysler will be giving jobs to Fiat employees as well if things go the way they plan.  The government is forcing cuts by GM and Chrysler in return for the loans they need to continue operating.

Will closing dealerships keep Chrysler and GM from shutting down?  Will they stay operational long enough to survive this drought?  Will the government’s money save them or simply prolong the agony which they are currently enduring?  Stay tuned…

  The Emerald Ash Borer is a foreign predator to a variety of trees here in North America.  It was imported to the United States in the recent past (rumored to have come here in infested packaging from Asia)  and has become a destroyer of one of the nation’s finest natural resources-our Ash trees.  There are billions of trees at stake.  This beautiful metallic-green bug has no natural enemies here in North America and is breeding at an alarming rate.  Soon, there not be a single state that has not been infected by this flying, tree-killing menace.

Image Source

What are we going to do about this problem?  So far it seems as though our nation has given up the fight and has resigned to fact that all of the stock of Ash trees in our National Forests is doomed.  The campaign that is prevalent amongst Ash Borer projects is one against the transportation of firewood.  That is what we are currently doing to deal with a problem that should be taken on as a war on our own soil.

Even the searches that I have done to find out about the bug at our government’s websites haven’t been much more productive than what I can find out by reading the flyer at the local gas station.  I could leave the links here to pictures and information, but I would like my readers to try to find out more about this problem.  What are we going to do about this problem?  Is there more on the table than a bunch of signs posted at localities to warn people not to move wood?  I would like to know all that I can about this topic.

I do know that the invader has infected the following states per information from the Forestry Service :

Michigan-2002

Maryland-2003

Ohio-2003

Virginia-2003…The pests were eradicated.  The EAB was reconfirmed to have infested the forests of Virginia in 2008.

Indiana-2004

Illinois-2006

Pennsylvania-2007

West Virginia-2007

Missouri-2008

Wisconsin-2008

That is ten states in six years!  This nuisance has also infected parts of Canada.  At this rate, we will be seeing this pest completely infecting the U.S. soon.  Maybe as soon as ten or fifteen years.  That is my personal opinion, of course, but how could I be wrong as fast as these things are spreading?  Simply stopping the transport of firewood will no longer be an option if our nation is to save this tree population.  There is a seed collection program, but I believe that is a cop-out.  We are far more capable as a nation of great minds than that.

  Why is the sky blue?  Why is the earth round?  Why is one breast bigger than the other?  The question “Why?’ plagues the human race day after day.  If the question “Why?” did not exist, we would still be living in the stone ages.  This question has probably led to nearly every revolution, every scientific discovery, technological breakthrough, advancement in civilization, just about every last little mentionable topic has risen from this simple question.

So why don’t more people stand up and ask questions like why are we a “free” nation but are forced to wear our safety belts?  Why do we pay taxes for other people to use that money for things that are not necessary or do not even exist?  Why do we drive on the parkway, but park in the driveway?  Why does everything cause cancer?  Why do only the good die young?  Why do we even care?

Because without that tiny powerful word, I couldn’t ask this question:  WHY can scientists figure out what elements the sun is composed of, but can’t figure out how to create a feasible vehicle that doesn’t pollute the environment?  Just wanted to throw that out there…

  It has been stated that our economy is in a recession for a while now.  The housing, credit, auto, stock, and banking markets have all posted staggering losses of profit in the recent past.  Unemployment rates have risen drastically.  Morale has declined swiftly.  President Obama has raised many eyebrows with the drastic measures he has taken to stall the economy’s decline.  People are worried.

Today, there is good news.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average, NASDAQ, and the S&P 500 will all begin the day with gains between two and four percent.  Analysts stated that the housing market made some gains as well.  It seems as though things may be looking up.  Or are they?

We still have to deal with the current national unemployment rate of 8.5%.  This is as high as it has been since November 1983.  With the industries in the United States still reeling from the failing marketplace, we will more than likely see a higher unemployment rate to come.  We are still hearing news of job losses and cutbacks across the board.  The trends of the past thirty years show the bottom coming soon, though.

Graph chart of the National Unemployment Rate for the last thirty years

Image via:Bureau of Labor Statistics

So…is the economy making a comeback?  I believe it is showing the signs.  There are seasonal variables to calculate into the equation, but we are nearing the bottom of the barrel.  Many companies have fallen to this tough period and a lot of fat has been cut.  Soon,  we will begin a new phase of our restructuring: rebuilding.  There will be new prosperity to come.  This is all simply my opinion , of course, but a look into our history shows undeniable details that relate to our situation today.  We will soon be getting “back on our feet” and growing again.  This is what we do.  This is what America the beautiful has done since the beginning.

  The Credit Card Holders’ Bill of Rights was born yesterday.  A “key panel” gave the go ahead with the legislation from the House of Representatives.  Today, President Obama met with 13 of the greedy card issuers to let them in on a little secret.  He isn’t going to let them abuse the American public the way they have been allowed in the past.  Since 2006, and even before that,  card holders have been at the mercy of the card companies and their ridiculous rates, fees, and penalties.  January of 2006 set the benchmark for the greed that has consumed the industry.

The  top executives whined that they would be negatively affected by any action from the Obama administration.  Of course they would be negatively affected!  They will lose a portion of their “tiny” profits they get from taking advantage of the “Average Joe”in any way they can.  There is no reason for these companies to be able to write their own ticket as they have in the past.  I said a few days ago in a post that mysteriously disappeared (comments similar to the response at HatedNation’s Page yesterday morning 12:29am)  that we needed to make a stand on this subject and the line in the sand has been drawn.  I just have to say that it’s about time we have a President that will stand against the corporate “fatcats” and take our nation back from the greedy, money-lusting criminals that have taken hold of it!

Pirates are on the attack.  In recent past, they have even managed to take an American ship.  What do these goons think they are doing?  The trend to take merchant ships and cargo vessels is one that must be dealt with before the “fad” becomes a daily reality.

Pirates are getting more and more bold.  They recently absconded the first American ship to succumb to pirates since the 1800’s.  They usually demand ransom for the vessels and the prisoners they take with them.  The nautical thieves are gaining the financial means to grow as a group.  If the world doesn’t begin to take notice and action, they will own the civilian high seas.  If you have ideas how to deal with these criminals, leave a comment.  I will gladly notify the necessary channels of any ideas that I believe will work.

Does anyone know if our President goes mushroom hunting?  I would like to think so.  All dressed up in his suit and tie, rummaging through the forest!  He’d probably have to have the Secret Service interview each and every fungus to make sure they are what they appear to be and not some impostor dressed up as a morel.  He’d probably use his powers of persuasion to talk them right out of their hiding spots before bagging them up and taking them home to Michelle.  I would invite him to go with me, even show him a couple of my secret spots.  Would you?  I would like to know.  Leave me a comment to let me know what you think!