He'll Want Some Milk

Americans are loosing control. Call me crazy, call me a conspiracy theorist, but for the love of God, WAKE UP! America is such an unique nation. We are such a young nation, with so much potential. We have the advantage. We read and study History constantly, we have an entire cable channel dedicated to nothing but 27/7 History. So why don't we learn from it? Is it that every nation has a natural cycle to go through before they learn?

It's very similar to having older siblings. I'm sure many times my older sister's just wanted to stop and shake the living day light out of me. Hell, they probably still do. They have been around longer than me, they can see things coming when I can't. They have made mistakes, learned from them, and would like to prevent me from making the same ones.

Today on my way to work I drive by four Lewisville Police Officers, standing in the middle of the street, looking into peoples cars to see if they have seat belts on. Please go back and read that first line again...IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET. Ya I know, I know, "but Emily, seat belts save lives. If you get in a wreck and get thrown from your car, a seat belt could have stopped you and blah blah blah..." I DON'T CARE. Does me getting thrown out of my car and dying harm anyone else? Show me the stats on people getting thrown out of their car in a wreck and landing and killing someone else.

If they are really that concerned, I mean genuinely cared about the safety of the citizens, then cars wouldn't start without the seat belt being clicked. Simple. Just like someone who cannot start their car without blowing into a breathalyzer. Well let's think why they wouldn't do that.

First, they would loose all that money from giving seat belt tickets. How would they "protect and serve" without their new PT Cruiser squad cars? It just wouldn't be very becoming. Not only that, once they get you for no seat belt, they get a chance to check:

Your license plates

Your inspection

Your registration

Your drivers license

Your insurance

They even get to scan around your backseat and make sure you don't have anything they might be morally opposed to. Heaven forbid you don't have your insurance card on you. They tow your car on the spot. No, they can't call the insurance company and verify you on record, that wastes valuable time they could be harassing other people. They will just have your car towed for you and leave you stranded. Then you can't get to work, loose your job, and can't pay your fines. Oh they love when this happens. Then they get to issue a warrant, and make you come in for court. Then you get a whole new set of fees and some sort of probation so they can keep an eye on you and be there if ever you should screw up. Then if you do....well you can see where this is going. All for absolutely nothing criminal.

It's just the beginning. Government was not established for this. There are things in place that are supposed to actually prevent government intrusion on our personal lives. The main one being The Constitution of the United States of America. It was written by extremely wise people who greatly feared their Government getting too large and wanted to prevent it.

However,

If you give a mouse a cookie.

And yes Mom and Dad, I do wear my seatbelt.

The Not so Trash Men

Apparently I am behind the times on this trash business. When I was a kid, not too long ago really, you took the trash out to the curb the night before pickup, and the trash men took it. Seems easy enough. Apparently not, because now we have these city marked bins we are required to use. Not only are you required to use them, but anything that will not fit in these bins it disregarded, and left on your curb. Excuse me? Do I not pay for this service? Is it rocket science? Have the trash men become too good to swing off the back of the truck and pick up a box that wouldn't fit in the city provided trashcan?



It's possible the hanging trash man guy is no longer a part of the trash service, in which case, my city taxes should have gone down, right? The waste department should have fired about half their employees, replaced them with a mechanical arm, and now the service is cheaper. No, the government doesn't work that way. Why? Well, mainly because there is no accountability. With any other service I contract, if they don't do their job, a. I fire them, or b. I don't pay them. Not the government though. Nope. They are aloud to do a lousy job and not only get paid for it, but get raises year after year. What a great business model. I guarantee if you opened it up to the private sector to compete with the government waste management, every little piece of trash would be picked off my curb, and I wouldn't be so bitter about being forced to pay for a service that doesn't serve.



Same thing with the post office. The USPS lost 2.8 billion dollars last year. They are considering cutting a delivery day, yet the Postmaster General John Potter's salary went from $186,000 to $265,000 and he received a performance bonus of 135,000. With salary, bonuses, benefits and"other perks" that puts his salary at $850,000. FOR WHAT?! Name me one business from the private sector that gets a raise and a bonus when their business looses millions of dollars. AIG does not count, as they are no longer the private sector.



I feel if the city can't manage to pick up an extra box from my curb, how in the world are they qualified to run this county? And people want to give them health care? I can't imagine a scarier scenario. I can just see it now, "Oh, I'm sorry Sir, you filled out your form in a blue pen, we can't work on you until you find a black pen, which we are out of right now, so I guess you will have to sit there and die until they come in the mail. Except the mail on longer delivers on Thursdays, so....ummm....sorry we just closed for the day, come back tomorrow, before 3, we close early on Fridays."

No Soup for You

I'm sure any seasoned blogger would give the advice not to blog when emotions are high. Similar to not drunk dialing, texting, or smoke signalling. That last one will get you in big trouble. It's probably good advice, but where is the fun in writing with no emotion? I always found writing to be therapeutic. When emotions are high, my fingers can barely keep up with all the thoughts racing through my head.

Today the emotion is anger. I'm not frustrated, not annoyed, not mad...I'm angry. Why? Well, for several reasons.

First, I am angry at the people at Obama's inauguration. These people are an embarrassment to America and make me feel ashamed to call myself a proud American. Booing a President on his way out of serving and protecting our country for 8 years is not only uncivilized, it tells a lot about the kind of people who are blindly supporting Obama.

You don't like Bush, fine. Think he did a horrible job, fine. It's a free country (sort of), think and say what you want, but have some class and respect for the most important position IN THE WORLD.

By the way, it is proven Bush saved our asses from at least 19 potential terrorist attacks. So if nothing else, be thankful to have your life.

http://www.heritage.org/research/HomelandDefense/bg2085.cfm

Now that that rant is over, onto what I am really angry about.

I just got scheduled for a meeting at 2:30 this afternoon in which they will tell our entire division that we will not be receiving raises this year. I know because my friends in other divisions had this meeting yesterday, and news spreads fast in this little town of the JcPenney home office.

I'm not angry at JcPenney. Hell I'm lucky to still have a job considering they laid people off last week.

I knew we were in a recession, at least I knew that's what the media kept telling us. I guess I did not expect it to personally hit me. Don't I get a "get out of jail free" card since it's my first year in the company, and my first job strait out of college? No, I drew the "do not pass go, do not collect 200 dollars" card.

I do feel a little better now though, and I think my fingers kept up.

A Start to a Start

To this day I cannot watch a re-run of Saturday Night Live's "Deep Thoughts with Jack Handy" without thinking of my Dad. No matter what thoughts Jack was planning to give us, Dad always wanted to start Jack's thought with, "Did you ever wonder...". I'm not sure if Jack ever started his thought that way, but I always wanted him to so that we would be right, and then people would think we were psychic.

I guess you could say that is the inspiration for this blog. There are many things in the world that I find curious. Many things that happen on a daily basis that most I'm sure do not give a second thought. It will be current events, politics, sports, or just why the lady sitting across from me at work thinks it is OK to be wearing a Christmas sweater 3 weeks after Christmas.

I do consider myself a very observant person. Not much gets moved, built, or broken without my notice. That would also come from my Dad.

So I will set out to do a little research, and possibly answer some of these quandaries. Maybe you already know all the answers, or maybe you just think my answers are plain wrong. Some might make you mad because you disagree and can't believe I would even say these absurd things! In which case you can start your own blog and we can blog fight it out.

Either way, I can assure you some entertainment, as I also consider myself a bit of a smart ass, and can be rather cynical at times.

I realize I rival Turkish newlyweds and labradoodle, so I will try to be on my "A" game.

Oh, and I like quotes.

" The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people insist on coming along and trying to put things in it"

-Terry Pratchett

-Terry Pratchett