Archive for the 'News' Category

Are Modern Day Charities Thinly Disguised Crooks?

Monday, December 8th, 2008

I regularly get calls from organizations representing this charity and that asking for donations.  Now, I don’t mind donating to what I feel are worthy causes, and nowadays I usually do so directly to whatever charity I choose rather than going through one of these fund raising companies.

I am not saying that every front end to a charity is bad, but that vast majority of the ones that I have dealt with or been called by qualify as crooks and scam artists in my opinion.  Oh?  How can that be?  How can I be so cold?  I am going to explain, and you might be shocked by what you find out.

First thing, when someone calls you from one of these companies like the State Police fund, or the Fireman’s Charity League or even the one I received just tonight, the Sheriff’s Department taking donations for “Puppy Patrol” which is taking money for programs that teach kids to say no to drugs in school.  These all sound great, don’t they?  Yes they do, and that’s what they are counting on.

You see, it’s not the charities themselves that are the problem, at least not in most cases (there are some fraud charities out there, but they are rare).  No, the problem normally rests in these front end companies that do the soliciting and collection.  That problem is the amount of money, the percentage that gets passed on to the charity.  This is where it gets criminal in my opinion.

This “Puppy Patrol” charity that called me tonight, one thing I asked early in the phone call was how much actually got to the charity?  Most callers don’t like to answer that one.  In this case, it was 15% … yep, that’s it, only 15%.  For every dollar they collect from people, they keep $0.85 and give $0.15 to the charity.  OMG!!!  For every $100 they take in, they keep $85 and pass on $15, that’s it!  If they collect one million dollars ($1,000,000) in a year, they keep eight hundred fifty thousand ($850,000) and give only one hundred fifty thousand ($150,000).  Does it start to make sense now?

That’s right; these companies keep most of the money and only send bare minimums to the charity.  Now, they’ll claim that they have light bills to pay and employees to pay and more and that’s all true.  However, why can reputable charities accomplish all of this and keep only 20%?  They pass on 80% and not 15%, so what’s the big difference between these two types of companies other than one is legit and the other is run by greedy bastards that are exploiting people’s good nature for profit.

So, what’s my point in all this?  Before you give your hard earned money to some charity, make sure you ask them how much actually makes it to the charity.  If they only give 10% or 15% or something silly like that, don’t give them your money.  Instead give it to a local charity or directly to another to make sure that your entire donation goes where it should.  Personally, I don’t give to any company that passes on less than 70%, but that’s just me.

Obama Wants To Bankrupt The Coal Industry

Wednesday, November 5th, 2008

It’s rather unbelievable that the man that just became our new president told the San Francisco Chronicle he wants to put Coal plants, and any other non-carbon friendly (what a joke) industry out of business.  What’s even more telling is that the SF Chronicle did this interview in January of 2008, but didn’t report it!  No doubt because they knew it would damage Obama’s chances in the election.  Still think there is no liberal media bias?  Guess again skippy, this is one of many examples that are right in front of your face.  I wonder what else Hussein is gonna destroy in the name of green?

Read about it …

Obama’s Aunt Is An Illegal Alien

Sunday, November 2nd, 2008

So, let us take a look at this, shall we?  Here is a man, who is portrayed by the media to be all but the second coming (and maybe even that too).  This man wants to be in charge of the most powerful nation in the free world.  This man, Barack Hussein Obama, who has less time in office than Sarah Palin who gets attacked left and right for her “inexperience”, wants us to trust him with everything that is America.  He claims to be knowlegable enough, and smart enough to handle the job of running a super power, but he doesn’t know that his own aunt is in this country illegally.  He knows that she is from Kenya, but claims he didn’t know that she was in fact not a citizen and that she had been ordered back to her home country some time ago.  Something doesn’t add up here.  Either he is hiding something and lied about it, or he is just that freakin’ clueless.  Either way, I don’t think I want him in my white house.

On another note, according to this article, she was living in public housing.  OK, there is nothing wrong with that, but does that mean that he cared so little for his own family that he couldn’t take some of his piles of cash and help her out by getting her into a better place?  Again, not the kind of thing that makes me want him deciding the future of the country I call home.  This whole thing sounds pretty darn lame if you ask me, and don’t get the impression I am just bashing Obama, cause I am not.  I don’t like McCain either, but this story about Obama’s aunt just had me flabbergasted, so I felt I had to share.

Read more …

Illegal Aliens and Fraudulent Mortgages

Friday, October 10th, 2008

The mainstream media has yet to report this, so I thought I would break the news. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reports that five million fraudulent home mortgages are in the hands of illegal aliens. That’s right, five million criminals (illegal aliens) have fraudulent mortgages.  Five freakin’ million.  Whoah!

I wonder how much that has contributed to the subprime mortgage meltdown.

Crackhead Comic Disses Bush

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008
Crackhead Comic Disses Bush

Crackhead Comic Disses Bush

Crackhead Comic and self described “sex addict” British so-called comedian Russell Brand got picked to host the MTV Video Music Awards (VMA).  While doing so, as part of his “act” referred to our President as a “retard” and later a “retarded cowboy”.  It appears that even with Bush’s low numbers, someone coming here from another country and slamming ours along with our President, the remarks didn’t sit well with the celebrities in attendance.  At this time, Natalie Maines is not available for comment, although sources close to her have reported that she is outraged that Brand is stealing material from her.

In another part of his “act”, he made fun of the Jonas Brothers band for wanting to remain virgins until they get married, and for wearing promise rings.  Well, not everyone can be a crack smoking sex addict like you Brand, maybe your kids can get hooked, diseased and hated even quicker than you have.

From the picture posted with this article, I would think that Brand is the last person who should call anyone a retard.  It doesn’t sound like he is a good comedian, and he obviously needs to quit taking fashion advice from Pauly Shore.  I think we can now see why he is popular in Briton, and an unknown in the U.S.  Why don’t you go back to Briton Brand, and think about how you screwed up a great opportunity with the MTV awards show.  Let’s hope you don’t come back.  Retard.

Boycott Red China Olympics

Saturday, August 9th, 2008
Boycott Red China 2008

Boycott Red China 2008

Boycott Red China 2008

First and foremost, don’t get me wrong, I love the Olympcs; I hold the tradition in the highest regard; as well as the athletes that partake in them. I have nothing but respect for human beings that can reach that level of competence. What I DO despise is communist countries who treat humans like slaves and livestock buying their way into hosting the Olympic games. I am sure that the IOC (International Olympic Committee) got some mega kickbacks from the Chinese Government in return for a spot hosting the games. This is big press for Red China. Tibet? Who cares, we’re goin’ for the gold man! Tiananmen Square? What was that? Pfft, it’s all good right? American Idol said so.

We are already in a disadvantage when it comes to China. Everything you can think of is made in China already, I don’t think there is hardly anything at all made in the US anymore. All of that technology and infrastructure to produce things has shifted away from home because big business can leverage a country that treats its citizens like slaves and can save an almighty dollar. If China decides to stop making all teh cheap plastic crap we feel we must by from the local Wal-Mart, it is my personal opinion that we are going to be hurting real bad. Why? Because we won’t have any way to pick up and run with making it ourselves.

I don’t mean to be down on China, the people are wonderful from what I have observed, and the culture is amazing in some ways. I admire many things that come from China, martial arts (the stlye that I studied) being one of them that is near and dear to my heart. But the Government it seems to me, ruins a lot of what is good and wonderful there. And to feed that by hosting the Olympics there, like this Communist country has no blood on its hands, just bugs the heck out of me. Maybe it’s me, what do you think?

Are all politicians just plain stupid?

Friday, January 25th, 2008

There is “bipartisan” support for a new “economic stimulus” package coming out, big surprise.  But if you look at the details, it doesn’t make sense.  They are going to give “tax rebate” checks to all manner of people, couples get more and people with kids even more.  Nice huh?  I am all about helping people, but let’s use some brain matter if we have any left and call a spade a spade.  They are giving tax rebate checks to people who don’t pay taxes on one hand (how can it be a tax rebate when you don’t … pay … taxes …?), and on the other they are giving these “rebates” to people that make upwards of $150,000 and more.  WHAT!?  If you are making $150,000 … you aren’t going to break the bank over a couple hundred, and frankly you don’t need to get an economic stimuli, you are stimulated!

Probably worse yet, this package that is supposed to save the economy and stop the dreaded downturn everyone is predicting, is going to cost all of us taxpayers $150 billion or more dollars.  YIKES!  And they complain about the Iraq war funding.  This is going to drain the resources we already don’t have that much more, and make the economy worse!  Sure, in the short term you’ll have lots of people going to Wal-Mart to buy TV’s and fishing rods, but you will still end up with a huge chunk of money gone from the government’s pockets, or should I say our (the taxpayers) pockets.

The real problem here folks, is that the government can’t figure out how to work a budget and control their own darn spending.  Well, that’s not true.  They can figure out a budget, but they don’t want to.  If they did really use a budget they’d have to explain where all the money went.  Every year our government spends more money that it did the year before.  They pull neat tricks like inflating the budget by 50%, only to then cut it by 30% so they can go on CNN and tell the world they cut the budget by 30% when really it went up by 20%.  There is no economic stimulus package in the world that will fix the economy, the only thing that will fix the economy will be the government officials caring for the people more than money and power.  And friends, that ain’t gonna happen.  Republican, Democrat, Independent, Green, whatever … they are all still politicians.

Let me leave you with this little tidbit, Nancy Pelosi says that if this stimulus package isn’t enough, there “will be more”.  So she just told people to not worry about doing anything for themselves, if they wait a little while, they will get another check.  Unreal.

More …

Gun Control Increases Crime

Wednesday, January 9th, 2008

This is for all you Second Amendment protesters. Six years ago, Michigan made it much easier to get a license to carry a concealed weapon. Since then, the number of Michigan residents carrying legal concealed weapons has increased more than six-fold. The usual anti-gun rhetoric would tell us that there much be a lot of increased violence in Michigan. We’re sure that every morning the police are busy picking up the bodies that are scattered about … victims of gun-wielding citizens.

Sorry .. .the typical anti-gun rhetoric would be wrong.

According to law enforcement officials, the incidence of violent crime in Michigan since the law went into effect has been below the rate of the previous six years. In other words, there was less crime once citizens were able to arm themselves. The overall incidence of death from firearms has also gone down. The police chief says that the general consensus is that things were not as bad as they expected.

Well that’s not surprising. After all, studies of concealed weapons laws show that crime rates reduce when citizens are allowed easier access to concealed weapons. What does the gun control lobby have to say about those statistics?

Assault Weapons

Saturday, September 15th, 2007

I found an article today that carries the headline: “Assault-Weapon Attacks on Rise in Miami”.  I have no doubt that “assault weapons” are being used more and more all over the country.  When I first saw the article, I rolled my eyes and almost didn’t read it.  Then I thought I had better take a look at what they were classifying as “assault weapons”.  In this case, they are talking about AK-47’s, and OK, to me, those qualify as assault weapons.  I have seen articles that categorize them so loosely, that my little .22 revolver would have been included.

In this article, one of the main gripes was that police need higher powered weapons.  I agree, let them carry damn near whatever they want to save their own necks and the people they are defending (you and me), as long as they are held accountable like the rest of us when someone abuses that power.  Not that I think police officers are bad, but let’s face it, they are human too and you’ll find a bad one that will abuse their low yield tactical nuke.

What I was surprised not to see, was a call for more gun control.  Maybe I missed it in there, but I didn’t see anything about it.  I am sure though, that there will be plenty of politicians and protesters alike that will use articles like this to do just that.  The point they never seem to see is that these guns that I would call “assault weapons” are already illegal, and making them more illegal isn’t going to help, now is it?  To be fair, the AK-47 is legal if you get the semi-auto version, but so are a myriad of other rifles that are in that same class of power.  Add to that, if everyone else were carrying a gun and could fight back, those punks with the AK’s might think twice before they throw down.  My main point is that criminals will always ignore the law, hence the reason we call them criminals.  So making more gun control laws doesn’t affect them one bit, it only serves to restrict law abiding citizens like me, and maybe you. :)

Am I the only one that can see this?  What say you?

Muslims get preferential treatment in schools?

Friday, July 27th, 2007

Why is it that as a Christian, when I was going to school, I wasn’t allowed to carry a bible with me. In current days, they have gone so far as to outlaw Christmas and Easter, it’s “winter break” now with Easter being … what was it, spring break? All other religions get their beliefs and freedom to worship squashed and hidden, while it seems that everyone, everywhere makes all manner of allowances for muslims?

Take this article from USA Today, where “public schools and universities are granting Muslim requests for prayer times, prayer rooms and ritual foot baths”, and “An elementary school in San Diego created an extra recess period for Muslim pupils to pray”! Whoah, that sure does sound a lot different from the way I was treated in school. I couldn’t mention God, much less pray in school unless I could keep it to myself so no one noticed.

I don’t want to get into a big debate over who is right, or what is better because I think we all should be grateful that we have the freedom to do as we feel is best for us. However, when you trample one group of people and then accommodate another on the very same subject, well isn’t that akin to all of the racist things that people did in the past that was so bad? I’ll get flames now for even making the comparison, but haven’t we as a society learned yet to quit judging and giving favors to special interests? Hasn’t anyone learned yet to treat everyone equal?

Everyone tells me I have to change my practices when it comes to my religious beliefs, lest I offend someone who believes differently. Well, why then to they not have to worry about the same damn thing? As long as I am not doing anything to force my views on them, what does it matter if I am in public and have a bible? Or if I have a manger scene in my front yard? I am told I have to take it down so muslims or atheists don’t see it, because they might get offended. Well, I am offended that I have to do that just for them. Especially when they don’t have to do the same.

It’s time to wake up people. It’s time to stop all of the Politically Correct nonsense and realize that we are all human beings, we are all different from one another and we all need to be tolerant of one another in order to survive. Sure, if someone goes over the line, we stop it. But why can’t we let each other be ourselves? This kind of stuff just isn’t fair at all. Of course I remember my mother telling me that life isn’t fair and boy how right she was. The thing is, if this were the other way around, there would be so many lawsuits flying by muslims out there, it would make your head spin. Read some of the statements by CAIR and how they want Islam to be the National religion in the United States.