Lets talk Trayvon

It's been a while since I have put my thoughts on this blog. I am about to give out my opinion, so beware. Someone ones told me, opinions are like butt-holes. We all have them, and they all stink. So here goes my stinky opinion, feel free to comment and tell me your opinion.

So, Trayvon Martin... lets talk about this whole case. Mr. Zimmerman is an overzealous wanna-be police officer. That's cool, we need all kinds of different people to make the world go round. Trayvon Martin, a typical teen that occasionally smokes pot, and gets in trouble with the law/school. Trust me, two-thirds of the people reading this were teens just like Trayvon. I know I was.

The tragic night. Well, it was very sad that the two of them got into a confrontation. If either of them would have just walked away, or moved on, there would not have been a problem. Zimmerman was clearly in the wrong to try and push and prod and find out what Trayvon was doing there. Trayvon was clearly in the wrong for trying to bash Zimmerman's head into the ground. Unfortunately, Zimmerman was not wrong in shooting Trayvon. When your life is in danger of being taken, you are allowed to defend yourself. This is what happened that night, and anyone who thinks there was so huge injustice done, please inform me what the injustice was.

Gun Control

I don't post on here very often, but every now and then I just need somewhere to vent. I have spoken on this topic once before about 6-7 months ago, and here I go again, because its all over in the media.

First off, everyone in the world is in favor of gun control. It's such a generic term and its annoying to associate it with what going on by the current White House administration. Nobody thinks that a known criminal should have weapons. So "gun control" is taking weapons out of the hands of known criminals. Like I said everyone is in favor of that.

Yesterday, as I heard Barack Obama speaking about how we needed to protect the kids in Newtown, (which unfortunately is too late), and protect kids in other places, I took a deep look into what he was proposing. Lets assume that every single measure that he wants is passed. Let's assume there are universal background checks. Lets assume there is a limit of 10 bullets per clip. Let's assume that assault rifles are banned and that you cant have armor piercing ammo, and everything else Mr. Obama wants to do.

All these new laws are now in effect in my pretend world. Now, lets take Adam Lanza getting ready to shot up Sandy Hook in our new world with all the news laws put in place by Obama. Let's even assume that the AR-15 and the 30 ammo clips that he used were taken away from his mother by the government. Instead Adam has a simple .22 gun with 10 clips that hold 10 bullets each. Adam takes the weapon from his mothers gun safe, goes to the school, and shoots and kills 20 students in this pretend world.

NOT A SINGLE THING THAT OBAMA IS PROPOSING WOULD HAVE CHANGED WHAT HAPPENED THERE. EVEN IF HE WERE TO GET EVERY SINGLE PROPOSAL HE SUGGESTS.

Now it doesn't bother me so much that he wants to make it so you can only get a 10 ammo clip, or that you can't have the grip on the front of the AR. But none of these will change anything. It's been proven time and again that the 1994 ban on Assault Rifles made no difference on gun violence in this country.

Just stating some facts today. Please feel free to comment.

New Lakers TV deal screws over Las Vegas Lakers fans.

The new Lakers deal with Time Warner Cable is great for the Lakers, but not for Las Vegas Laker fans. Here is the scenario. Time Warner Cable is not even in Las Vegas, we only have Cox cable. So that means there is no Lakers coverage. So you might think, no big deal, get the NBA League Pass and you can watch all the Lakers games. Well, guess what... Las Vegas is considered as having the local broadcast rights to the Lakers, and all Lakers games are blacked out on NBA League Pass. So, not only can I not even sign up for cable service to get the Lakers, my subscription with NBA League Pass will not allow me to watch Lakers games. This really sucks for all the Las Vegas Lakers fans.

COX CABLE, please make a deal with Time Warner to carry the Lakers channel.

NBA League Pass, please remove the Lakers from being blacked-out in the Vegas market!

Welfare Reform

I was reading today about Paul Ryan, the new vice-presidential candidate for the republican party. He seems to be very high on reforming the existing entitlement programs. There is obviously many changes that need to be done, but I am not 100% confident he is the man to do it. As I was reading about welfare, I came up with some ideas.

Here is my idea: In order for someone to receive welfare, the government should require them to perform 20 hours of community service each week. They would be required to volunteer at any non-profit organization or other community organizations. If they want to go and volunteer at the animal shelter, cleaning up dog poop, that's fine. If they want to volunteer to serve lunches at their local elementary, fine. If they wanted to volunteer their time at the local food shelter, handing out food to other, or working in a soup kitchen, fine. If they are disabled and can't move around, set up a phone bank, where they can talk on the phone with lonely senior citizens. Or those that are at home disabled, give them information to read over the phone to people that call. Maybe give those that can't do manual labor, some supplies to learn how to knit or make things for troops overseas, or children in hospitals. There is even a webpage called onlinevolunteering.com where you can match your skills with organizations that need help.

Each place you volunteer would have a bar code scanning device. In order for your welfare to work, you need to have your barcode on your welfare card scanned for 80 hours a week.

Allow people the chance to make a positive change in our society to 'earn' their welfare.

Here we go with another political complaint

So here goes. Today I read about Harry Reid claiming that Mitt Romney didn't pay taxes for the last ten years. Reid claims that he is certain that this is true. My response would be that if Mr. Reid is so certain about this issue, that he should back up his assertion. Mr. Romney should tell Mr. Reid, if he shows his tax returns and they show that he has paid taxes in the past 10 years, the Mr. Reid will have to step down immediately. Since Mr. Reid is so certain about it, he would gladly accept this challenge. It would be interesting if more people in politics had the guts to call someone's bluff.

Update to my post about gun control

Today I am reading in the San Francisco Gate about how neither Romney nor Obama will address gun control. The author of the article state, "A reasonable country would have taken steps to curb these tragedies years ago. Strong federal gun-control laws wouldn't stop every murder in the United States, but they surely would make it far more difficult to have a world in which a 24-year-old easily can purchase assault-style rifles and shotguns and walk into a dark, crowded theater." http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/editorials/article/Tragedy-shows-need-for-gun-control-3723694.php

First off, you can't pass gun laws that will take away simple shotguns and pistols as used in this awful tragedy. Secondly, you should take a look into what an AR-15 is. Just because you call something an assault rifle, you automatically assume that its something very dangerous. It's a rifle that is fired semi-automatically. This means in order to shoot it you must pull the trigger each time you want it to fire. As opposed to a fully-automatic weapon, where you pull the trigger and the gun fires on its own as many times as it can until you let go of the trigger or it runs out of bullets.

These weapons are standard weapons in most peoples gun safe's. Trying to take away these guns would never work because so many people own them and would not allow the government to do this.

Remember the awful assailant also used a chemical weapon as well. Should we ban all plastics from being sold? Should we ban all chemicals from being sold? Where do you draw the line? Next time if someone goes on a rampage with a knife, should we ban knives? Are we going to take the steak knife out of your kitchen so that you don't use it?

Gun laws will not be changed, and should not be changed after this tragic event. What we need to discover is what caused this guy to go nuts, and how we can solve that problem in the future.

"The Dark Knight Rises" will endure a dark night.

Today, I read the sad news about a shooting in Colorado during the first showing of, "The Dark Knight Rises." Unfortunately for me, I am busy and will be seeing this movie sometime next week. But my inability to see the movie is nothing as to the pain that the families must be going through. I wish the best to those families that are affected by this incident.

My gripe today is somewhat of a serious one in nature. It's about gun control. Immediately after this awful event, I read about Mayor Bloomberg, of New York complaining that this wouldn't have occurred if Obama would do something about the gun problem. The gun is not what killed those people. It was the man behind the gun pulling the trigger. Making laws that make it more difficult for people to get guns would not have prevented this from happening.

Many people in America are Christian. I am sure that most Christian recognize that Jesus died on the cross. Is there a single Christian out there that blames crosses and says we should not allow people to buy crosses? No, in fact, for some strange reason, (one I don't understand) Christians have crosses on top of their churches, around their necks, etc.

Gun's don't kill people. Taking guns away from people will not stop people from killing. We need to find out what made this guy go crazy and kill people and try and help people behaviors.

Weather does not need to be reported on Facebook

Okay, here is today's gripe. I cannot stand Facebook for about 50 reasons, but let me share with you, just one of them.

People giving weather reports. I can't even count how many times I have seen people take pictures of the temperature gauge in their vehicle. Yes, it's hot. Yes, it's cold. Yes, its fair. The weather is always changing. People, I could care less about the weather where you are at. Why do you have to update me every single day on whether it's going to be hot, whether its going to rain? Everyone now-a-day's has a smartphone. Guess what? We can use our smart phones to look up the weather. Its already annoying enough to have to listen to the weatherman on the radio, the TV, etc. Now when I log on facebook, I get to see the weather given to me by 102 weatherpersons across the country. Well, I am sick of it. From now on, when someone posts that they think its going to rain, or they think its going to be hot, I will be unfriending you. That's right, unfriending. People probably don't care if I am their friend or not, but I no longer want the weather updated by facebook people.

Assistant coach?

It's time for my NBA basketball complaints. This will probably be one of many to come. So, I just read that the New Jersey Nets signed Jerry Stackhouse to a 1 year deal. The dude was drafted in 1995, and hasn't been relevant in the NBA since about 2006. The reason they signed him was so that he could be a "veteran stabilizing voice in the locker room." And also so he can be a mentor to the younger players.

I have been watching NBA basketball my whole life. First off, I have never seen an older player that comes in and mentor's a younger player and the younger player later takes over. It's never happened. Jerry has no skills to show to younger guys, but he can probably explain things. Okay, so why do we need to sign Jerry as a player? Why not sign Jerry as an assistant coach? You can pay an assistant coach 300k, save a lot of money and still get the same "veteran stabilizing voice in the locker room." Not only are you wasting money, but you are wasting a good roster spot. Some young player could come in and try and make themselves better. Shame on Jerry for signing this contract, and shame on the Nets for offering him this contract.

Should Detroit go bankrupt? Oh wait, they did.

I don't get too involved with Politics because it's just all a game. People do and say whatever they can to get elected, and if they are already elected, they do and say whatever they can to get re-elected. But here, if my beef for today.

"When the American auto industry was on the brink of collapse, and more than 1 million American jobs were on the line, Gov. Romney said we should just let Detroit go bankrupt," he said. "I refused to turn my back on communities like this one. I was betting on the American worker and I was betting on American industry. And three years later, the American auto industry is coming roaring back." 
 http://thehill.com/blogs/transportation-report/automobiles/236313-obama-knocks-romney-on-auto-bailout-in-ohio

 But didn't Obama turn his back on that community and allow Detroit to declare bankruptcy?

 Then there is this article that I read where the President of the N.A.A.C.P. said, "people had heard Mr. Romney’s message on jobs and the economy and “it is not resonating with our base,” in part because talk of deregulation brings to mind Wall Street bailouts and how General Motors might have gone bankrupt if Mr. Romney had been in the White House."
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/11/us/politics/romney-courts-black-vote-an-obama-strength-in-08.html

 Might General Motors have gone bankrupt if Mr. Obama had been President? Oh wait, Mr. Obama was president, and GM did go bankrupt.

I am tired of hearing Obama brag about how he saved the auto industry. Do people not know that both GM and Chrysler declared bankruptcy? What fixed the car industry, was the car companies screwing over suppliers, bondholders, and other entities that were owed money. Through bankruptcy, GM and Chrysler cleared all their debt and were able to be profitable again. Exactly as Mr. Romney said they should do. It makes me angry every time I read an article that pretends like GM and Chrysler never declared bankruptcy.

Lakers are good.

Why do fans of NBA teams complain when another team makes a good move? The LA Lakers  recently made a trade for NBA veteran Steve Nash. Many see this as a trade that will put the Lakers over the top and back into contention for the title. So then suddenly everyone in the league gets mad. Every other team had the same options to get Steve Nash, they all just failed to do so. Did I complain when Miami got Lebron and Bosh? I was jealous and angry, but never complained, because they made a smart move and put together the right pieces to get a good team. Get over it Suns fans. You lost your superstar for nothing.

Barter Kings Crap

So the other day, I got my first view of this show called 'Barter Kings.' This show is another fake, scripted, and overrated shows. So here is the scenario that happens on the show. The bald guy on the show starts out with an ipod touch. He takes the ipod touch and trades it for a lighting up beer sign. The ipod is valued at $100 and the lighting up sign is valued at $300. I can totally understand that type of trade and its not too far fetched for me. Of course the guy who gave the sign is his buddy. So next they find a guy who has this piece of crap freezer that he offers for the sign. When they show up, they ask him if he has anything else. Suddenly the guy remembers that he has an $800 Nippon Gakki guitar that he would be willing to trade. This is ridiculous that he would trade an $800 guitar for the sign, but I will go ahead and keep seeing what will happen next. I looked on ebay at the Nippon Gakki guitar that they were looking at, and it was anywhere from $100-$400 to buy the exact same guitar. Their valuation is quite high, but lets continue. So they take the guitar and trade it for a vinyl record signed by the Eagles that is supposed to be worth $1500. I have no idea how much the value of the record is, so I won't comment here. So here is where the show gets completely ridiculous. They walk into some type of pawn shop. The owner of the shop has a diamond ring that is worth $7500. So after they look online and try and verify the authenticity of the record, they agree to make the trade. Why in the HELL would he give him a $7500 ring for a $1500 record? Can you please explain that to me? He obviously owns his own shop and can sell the ring for himself. Even lets say, he sells it for half price at $3,750. He could then use $1500 of the cash to buy the record and still have $2,250 to blow on whatever he wants. That's even selling the ring at a discount of half-off. This show is so stupid, when they are arguing about the authenticity of the record, you can see them both laughing under their voices. They were obviously friends or something. The show is a fraud.


I do believe its possible to make money at bartering and trading up. But its usually a slow and steady process. There was a kid a few years ago that had an ipod at 14, and it took him 2 years of trading up until finally he had a used Porsche. Its possible, but this show is fake and lame. I will not be watching any more of it.

Please feel free to comment below about if you enjoyed the show, or if you too think its filled with crap.

Pre-existing Health Coverage

Today's gripe is about the new pre-existing conditions and health coverage in the Obamacare. First off, lets talk about what exactly this provision covers.

Imagine, you have no insurance and work at a dead end job at Burger King. You make $10.00 an hour and its just enough to pay rent and food to survive. Suddenly you discover that you have cancer in your leg bone. You need an immediate surgery to remove the cancer and it will cost about 1 million dollars. You ask your rich uncle for the money, but unfortunately he doesn't have the full million.

You decide to go to an insurance company in order to try and get coverage for this expense. You walk into the insurance companies office and tell them you need to sign up for insurance. Normally it would cost $200 per month, but because you are a smoker and heavy drinker, it's going to cost you $350 per month. You figure you will pay the $350 for 3 months and then get the surgery and stop paying for the insurance policy. Basically you want the insurance company to pay out 1 million dollars because you gave them $1,050. As soon as the insurance company finds out about your pre-existing condition, they will immediately deny your request for insurance. An insurance company would not be able to stay in business if people could sign up whenever they want.

So you can see an example of why an insurance company would deny a pre-existing condition. Obamacare wants to force everyone to have insurance and as a result they promise to cover Mr. Burger King. The reasoning is that if Mr. Burger King and all his co-workers are forced to pay $100 a month for their entire life, it will cover the million dollars of surgery that Mr. Burger King wants. Makes sense because it help Mr. Burger King to live, but it forces millions of people to buy something they don't want.

Its looking like Obamacare is going to be struck down due to its forcing people to buy a product. Never before has the government forced every individual to purchase a product. The attorney for Obamacare asked the Supreme Court to also get rid of the pre-existing condition, because obviously if everyone is not paying in, you can't cover pre-existing conditions.

It will be interesting to see what the Supreme Court does.

Reality

I dedicated a blog to complaining about things in life. But in reality, I don't complain because I am disatisfied, but because its fun to do. I have recently been thinking about words from a Christian hymn that goes as follows:
       Because I have been given much I too must give...
       Because I have been sheltered, fed by thy good care…
       I cannot see another’s lack and I not share-
      my glowing fire, my loaf of bread-my roof’s safe shelter over head,
      that he too may be comforted.
Truly for almost all of us that live in the United States, we have it great. People complain about the economy and jobs and whatever else. It's true that things are not as good as they could be, or not as good as they were. But tell me someone who goes hungry at night? Tell me someone who does not have shelter over their head?

We have so much in this country and expect to get so much. We need to accept that we have things great and give it to our neighbors.

Lastly, I am tired of hearing about rich people that want to be taxed. George Clooney and all his hollywood friends had a fundraiser for Barack Obama and raised some 15 million dollars. Please, take that money and help out someone. Randomly give out your money. I know for myself, I could live the rest of my life in comfort with just 5 million dollars. I would take every penny above and beyond that 5 million and give it to people.

My beef with Politics.

This is a real easy topic to complain about. Here I go, I can't stand politics. Obama has failed at creating jobs. Obama blames GOP for not passing jobs bill. Romney's Bain Capital responsible for job loss. These are some of the headlines I am sick of hearing about. Here is why.

First, the President of the United States has very small power in job creation or job destruction. They can adjust some regulations and move some money from one place to another, but in the end that doesn't change things very much. If the President had a clear way of making jobs, don't you think that Obama would have done it to make sure he is re-elected?

Second point, don't spend more then what you have. Everyone knows if you don't have the money, you don't buy it.

Another point on politics, that makes me sick. No one in politics actually mean what they say. They are all so full of themselves, and will say whatever it takes to get elected. Romney will do anything to get elected. Same thing for Obama. I just wish there was actual people saying what they truly believe. I mean, there are those type of people out there, but no one takes them seriously enough. (Ron Paul).

Lastly, there is no reason that someone should be in politics for longer then 8 years. All the senators and all the congress people should be limited. This will never happen, because in order for it to happen, you would need congress and the senate to pass a bill. Are they really go to pass a bill that gets rid of their own jobs? If I ever become a billionaire, I will take that money and get a petition started by the entire nation to make term limits for all elected officials.

Zack Out.

P.S. I am too lazy to proofread, so what you get is what you get.

Participation Awards

Here is one of the growing problems in the world. Every single kid in America is playing soccer during the summer. No matter how your team does, you are going to win an award. What kind of message is that sending to our kids? Does every business that begins get an award or a bailout? Does every job interview you go to accept everyone and give everyone a job? NO. We need to teach kids that there are winners and losers in this world. Not everyone is going to be successful. Some people are always going to be Janitors. Some people are always going to be dumb and work at Burger King. Maybe a few special ones can become managers at Burger King. Regardless, participation trophy's or awards should never be given. We need to start teaching this at a young age.

This gets me to another topic. Why in the world does everyones kids play soccer? It seems like half of the country has their kids in soccer, and yet how popular in soccer in the U.S.? How many people here can name one professional soccer player? I dare you to name a current U.S. soccer player that is doing well for themselves. We push and push and push our kids into playing soccer, and they absolutely hate it. Look at Europe, or South America or other countries where soccer is big. It will never be big here. Can we start putting our kids in basketball or football?

Participation Trophy!

I am back on the saddle.

Here we go. Its been a little while, and I am going to set a goal to post on here once a week. So yesterday I hear about this new program called airtime.com. Basically you can video chat, or send live videos or other things to your facebook friends. I have a dislike for facebook and it's desire to be in everything. Airtime is started by the guys that worked on Napster and were founders of facebook. This is just an attempt by facebook to expand their reach. Facebook's advertising scheme will not last very long. People don't click on ads when they are on facebook. The only way facebook can make money is if outside programs use facebook and then facebook can charge them money. This happens already with all the games and other things people play on facebook. Airtime is trying to be successful and then try and get other people to get on board. I have decided that at the end of the month, I will cancel my facebook account. I don't need facebook, and their privacy laws are giving way to much power to facebook.

Puking

There is nothing worse in the world then the build-up to puking. I don't mind the puking part. It is when your mouth gets watery, your eyes are twinging, your stomach hurts real bad, you are sitting in front of the toilet, and nothing happens. I hate it. I spend 10 minutes last night just sitting there and nothing happens. I went to bed, and it wasn't until the morning when I finally blew chunks. Why can your body not just puke when its time to puke? After puking, I feel 10 times better, so I wish it would just come.

Local News

I never watch the local news, and I will tell you why. It's a money making business and is not there to report events going on in the world. I don't even care about biases or other things like that. One of the phrases that drive me crazy is this: "Coming up tomorrow night on the 11pm news." If you are reporting the news, how do you know what is going to happen tomorrow so you can report tomorrow night? If you already have the story completed, why are you not reporting it to me tonight instead of tomorrow? The other thing that drives me crazy, is how there is almost always a story on how to avoid cancer. Or some study on what to do to lower your risk of cancer. All the time on the previews of the news they will say, "Coming up next, a new development that will effect millions of people to lower their risk of cancer." Please end all the money making local news.

Complaint Time

So here goes. I am going to be typing this as I think, and I am too lazy to edit, so there might be many spelling errors. It's very sad that Trayvon Martin was shot and killed, but it drives me crazy that we become fascinated over certain cases and not others. Literally tens of thousands of kids are killed each year, but the American public pick out 2-3 cases to make personal. This year is the year of Trayvon Martin. We take the very few facts we know and we spot issues, we analyze, we judge, we assume, we fill in holes in the facts with what we want to believe, and then finally we come up with a conclusion. Then we run with that conclusion. Then we can go and protest. Either we take the stand that this young boy was killed because of some overzealous neighborhood watch wanna-be cop that racially profiled and then chased down Trayvon. Or we look at the boy as a demon child that smoked marijuana and was suspended from school and was on top of Mr. Zimmerman and beating him up and Mr. Zimmerman needed his shoot Trayvon to protect his life or to protect himself from extreme danger. I personally don't care what side you pick, but just pick a side and then move on with your life and go mow your neighbors lawn.