Healthcare Reform

So after years of Democrats and Republicans fighting over what to do about health care, it finally appears something will happen. Liberals are probably upset because it doesn't promise everything in the world to everyone in the world. Republicans are upset because they see government expansion. That said, government has to step into certain situations. Capitalism does not lead to a free market, it leads to monopolies. Sometimes the government has to break up these monopolies to ensure its citizens are not taken advantage of. Healthcare is out of control. The costs continue to rise at record pace. Something needed to be done to regulate these costs. Some people see this bill as a handout to those who don't contribute to this society; however, I have seen the healthcare issue from another angle. It is understandable why insurance companies don't want to have clients with preexisting conditions and would charge extra for their care. But these are the people who need healthcare the most. The cost of healthcare becomes so high that it is cheaper to not work and go on medicare. This seems like a counter productive system to me. Now the person can not work or contribute to society and the bill gets put back on the American public. Yes, there is a system to catch people in trouble, but it is hardly ideal. In addition, my health insurance bill was not paid by my employer. I received no notice of its cancellation and found out when I was denied coverage in person. As an individual who has no union to protect me, what can I possibly do without putting my job at risk? It sounds like I have a legitimate beef with my employer, but as the law stands there is no contract stating that he has to pay my health insurance. The laws in this country favor employers over employees, plain and simple. Capitalism 101. This new bill will change the employers obligation to healthcare. And to any business owners who are saying it is not your responsibility to provide healthcare, I run my own business as well so I know all of the tax tricks that you get away with writing off everything you can. That includes healthcare. If you can't pay your employees do it yourself or sell the business. 

I can't say that I am happy with the way the government has functioned this past year. I don't agree with the methods in which this bill being passed. It angers me to the core that Republicans and Democrats are more interested in campaigning for future elections rather than doing their jobs. By passing this bill maybe some people will lose their jobs, but the American people voted for this when they elected a Democratic congress and President. The new healthcare bill may not be ideal, but at least the American people finally got what they were voting for. Now all of the republicans can get voted back into office before the democrats try to take their guns away!

Economy has recovered, by firing everyone!

I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have mattered who was president this past year. It could have been McCain or the fat pill head Limbaugh. It could have been Al Franken. So don't think I credit Obama with turning the economy around. But the Fortune 500 have officially bounced back to where we were before the recession. How did they do it? By firing a whole bunch of people. We talk of health care reform. But the problem is that if we reform health care, people mooching off the system would lose their jobs. How dare we try to make things more simple to reduce costs? Some people are making a living pushing a paper over a desk with a signature and getting paid way too much to do it. But hey everyone has to get paid. The problem is that just like matter or energy that cannot be destroyed, only changed in form, economic issues cannot be eliminated, just refocused. If America is not producing goods for export, the increasing population cannot possibly support economic growth. Rather, it will mean America will no longer be the super power it once was. This can be avoided. We could go blow up a country with natural resources to exploit. Canada seems like a good target. They wouldn't expect it. Plus they have land we could dig up that isn't protected by Teddy Roosevelt. And we could also air drop lots of free crap into Mexico infected with various plagues to thin out the population. Or we can accept that America isn't the young country that it once was. The opportunities are still there, but there is more competition for them. 

Overall I think that jobs will start coming back soon. Companies have recovered their stock value and can now start returning to normal business practices. People will get hired. Demand will rise. Production will rise. More people will get hired. Advertising budgets will go up. Sales will increase. And thus the cycle will repeat itself until it gets to big again. What I have written above can be used to describe everything before or in the future. So I won't be writing much anymore. I will only write to say I am happy to hear that Rush Fattybaugh won't be trying to turn every NFL player on his team into a oxy junkie. Punta.

Who Should We Fight?

For years American soldiers have been fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq under the premise that there are terrorists and weapons of mass destruction. But if that is true, why the hell haven't we bombed North Korea and Iran back into the stone age? Pakistan has terrorist running all around and they have nuclear weapons. Wouldn't it make more sense to send troops there? No. Pakistan won't allow it, not to mention it would make relations awkward with India. People keep trying to tell me that we found things that weren't supposed to be in Iraq and that it legitimizes our invasion. But I am sure if you tore through our entire country people would have some pretty messed up stuff hidden as well. The fact is the US made Saddam Hussein who he was. We made him because of a growing danger in Iran. Yet now Iran is dangerously close to having its own nuclear weapons and North Korea is blowing stuff up underground and threatening nuclear war. Our efforts to protect America from terrorists have left us in a more precarious situation than we were in before. We have allowed two nations to reach an unacceptable level of threat. We have soldiers in over 160 different countries, yet we are closing bases here at home. It is not America's duty to be world police. Trying to do so is weakening the country from the inside out. There is far more danger to our country from Iran and North Korea than Iraq or Afghanistan. However, what actions can be taken? South Korea would not support a first strike on the North, but it will be too late if the North strikes first. Iraq and Afghanistan would be destabilized if actions were taken against Iran. So what is the answer? Talk a bunch of crap and do nothing basically. It seems political posturing is more important than actions. But at some point our inability to do anything to stop these countries from developing nuclear weapons will boil over into larger problems and an even greater terrorism threat. What has the war in Iraq or Afghanistan done? Nothing really. Terrorists will never try to hijack a plane and use it as a flying bomb again. Passengers will fight back. Iraq didn't have the weapons that were alleged, yet Iran developed their own while we were visiting next door. In the end, the US isn't any safer than before. In fact, we have only pissed off more people and encouraged them to do more damage. This is why I like dogs. Normally they listen, but if they don't I have no problem putting them in time-out. End of line...

Has the Market Really Bottomed Out?

If one takes a look at the overall performance of the market, the recent low in the market was roughly equal to the low point of the recession of 2001-2002. This could be a signal that the market has reached its bottom and may turn upward. Other numbers such as the unemployment rate suggest that we are still in a recession; however, much like the seasons there is a time lag for economic recovery. Hopefully we have reached the natural bottom of our market and can begin to rebuild our economy. It will take at least a year before consumer confidence will be restored. An interesting question to ask is if this truly is the bottom of the market, isn't it a great time to invest. Obviously there is risk. The market could plunge to levels before the 90's which would be a disaster. However, the possible reward if the market returned to its previous high would be outstanding. I'd also like to point out that I don't believe any of the "bailouts" were responsible for stopping the downward turn in our economy. I believe we hit the low point naturally due to balance. So we'll see if I'm right in a year and I'll write another article that declares me a prophet! If I'm wrong no one will remember and I will prove my status as a no talent ass clown:)

The Challenges of Obama's New Administration

The Obama administration hit the ground running attacking the issues he promised to address in his campaign. His policies have been ambitious and wide ranging. He has promoted stem cell research, changed military policy honoring those who have died and returned to Dover, shut down the unconstitutional prison at Gitmo and ceased cross state raids into states that support medical marijuana. I agree with all of these policies and each could support a full article on their own. Obama has also passed a stimulus plan, that included many of the things the American people wanted, but failed to stop financial institutions from taking advantage of bail out funds. But those who don't support Obama would like to blame everything that is happening now squarely on him. Rush Limbaugh has been the most outspoken critic; however, he is so biased that his opinion is only hurting his cause. He publicly stated that he wants the Obama administration to fail, after telling people they should forget about Al Gore winning an election that Bush stole and support their president. Rush Limbaugh called Americans "angry peasants" rising up in regards to AIG bonuses and our government "communists" for threatening to tax those bonuses. Rush can keep alienating the American population all he wants. He can also hide in his windowless studio sucking back pain pills and pretending he has a finger on the pulse of America. He is a lost and very sad man driven by his sponsors without any sense of who he is because he will always be in the closet. I support Obama's attempts to bring America's government back to the people. I believe the programs that will build a new infrastructure for this country are vital to our recovery. I disagree with bailing out failed businesses. AIG should have been broken up just like they did with WaMu. The AIG business model failed and should not be supported.
In addition to battling greedy business people and moronic talk radio show hosts, Obama's administration has much more pressing problems in the world theater. Afghanistan is becoming a larger problem on a daily basis, and it is a conflict that has no foreseeable resolution. Russia has bribed neighboring countries to shut down American bases and terminate our leases. Essentially forcing us to deal with the Russins themselves. In addition, Russia has publicly stated that they are going to undergo a massive rearming. North Korea has joined in by reopening their nuclear program and threatening to test launch advanced missles. Iran was quick to test Obama as well and just had a spy drone shot down over Iraq. Iran has been testing missles and reportedly has the materials to make a nuclear bomb. These are the most important tasks for Obama. This is his true job. Bin Laden is still out there and recently called for the overthrow of the Somalian president. My biggest crticism of Obama at this point is that he may be biting off more than he can chew all at once. I truly hope that we as a nation can overcome the challenges that are here and on the horizon.

Release the Hounds!

Officials in California have ordered that the prison system reduce its population by 58,000 inmates over the next few years. Of course, the governator Arnold protests this move because of the danger being released back onto the streets. That said, Arnold has been crying about the economic problems in California ever since he took office and he has only allowed things to get worse. The California prison system has an estimated 175,000 inmates. It costs the state about $35,000 per year to take care of each one of these prisoners. So lets forget about the overcrowding and health issues to the prisoners. Instead lets do the math. 58,000 less prisoners would decrease state spending by over 2 billion dollars. Instead, Arnold is going to cut state workers to save that money. Lets see how he explains his rationalization for keeping a pot dealer in prison rather than paying the police officer on the street. I'm not saying that releasing a bunch of murderers is a good idea, but if you can save thousands of jobs by letting a few petty criminals go, suck it up and do it. California is such a joke. Only there can an illegal immigrant get a freaking driving license. No offense, as soon as an illegal immigrant came through a government door they should get shipped right back over the border. California sucks. Say what you will about Philly, but the national average is 1 in about 650 homes are being foreclosed on nationwide. That number is about 1 in every 1100 homes in the Philadelphia region. Califonians and New Yorkers are transient populations. They come and go with no sense of pride or community. But people from Philly tend to stay here. We have pride in our home. So we may act like assholes with attitudes, but that is just because we are better than everybody else. Philly rules, the governator is a joke. I think we should send all prisoners to California. We'll make it just like Australia for the Brits. We'll keep the nice parts of North Cali. Let the criminals have LA and the desert! Actually, we can give away most of Texas as well. I just have to figure out how to move the entire city of Austin to a cooler state. P rules!

Congrats Washington, Now Everyone Wants A Bailout!

Larry Flynt (the publisher of Hustler) and Steve Francis (the creator of Girls Gone Wild) are asking Washington for a 5 Billion dollar bailout for the porn industry. Awesome. They claim that the slumping economy has reduced DVD sales. I'm sorry dirt bags, people aren't buying your DVDs because they can get all the porn they want online, on demand and they can do so privately. The music industry had to adapt, so should porn. Steve Francis should not be granted this kind of publicity or have an audience with congress after seducing underage girls with drugs and alcohol. I mean, if you have all that money, don't you think you might hold yourself to a higher standard. This guy shoots crappy video of girls dancing and masterbating. It doesn't even qualify as a porno because typically they at least have some plot. Pornos have characters like the candy striper chick and the pizza delivery guy. Even magazines tell you a story or let you know what the girls likes or something. Girls Gone Wild sucks. Washington needs to put an end to the parade of industries seeking bailouts. Handing money to failed businesses is not capitalism and its not communism or socialism either, its stupidity. Larry Flynt should be happy he made as much money as he has. If you want to help out of work porn stars, start an escort service. Its not like the industry has a plan. There is only so much you can do with the penis and vagina and I'm pretty sure that all the possibilities have been explored and filmed. So why do we need to spend 5 billion dollars to hear a girl fake an orgasm. Not to mention porn is cruel. At first you have a girl sitting by herself. She starts to play downstairs and she becomes your girlfriend for a minute. Then some cable guy comes in and fucks your girlfriend.