These are actual police photos and it seems like this is all the rage in mug shots now!
OK, think about this for a second:
Have you ever seen anyone arrested wearing a Bush T-shirt (either one), or for you older folk an Eisenhower, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole or even Nixon shirt?
There MUST be a message here, but I can’t quite grasp it … or maybe I am afraid to. Anyway, I guess this is just more ‘change’ we can believe in … 
I predicted that it wouldn’t take long for Michael Phelps Olympic induced super stardom to go to his head, and I was hoping that he would stay the “nice guy” that he seemed to be. I hate being right so often. It appears that Phelps was caught at a party recently acting like a total jerk and even got his picture taken while it looks like he is toking from a bong. Oh boy. If that’s true and he tests positive, that will kill any Olympic plans he might have for 2012. Ouch, that would hurt. Wake up Mike and quit being stupid!
Anyone that reads much of what I have to say knows already that I despise our current tax system. This system that punishes people for getting somewhere in life, and rewards those who choose to live off the system. That being said, with all of the new tax cuts promised, you can bet there will be fun a creative ways that the government will get their money back. You see, not only is the government not going to cut their income (what we pay them in taxes), but they are going to do all they can to get more. So keep a close eye on the times, because as they are cutting taxes up front very much publicly, in order to gain the approval of the people, they’ll be find news ways to very quietly and discreetly raise taxes on the back end.
The folks at Right Wing News have a good breakdown of what I am talking about, check it out.
Preach it loud brotha Neal: “I’m hearing
this more and more often these days. The ever-present wealth envy has
settled (for the time being) on the idea that evil, nasty, putrid,
scummy, disgusting, horrible, noxious rich people just don’t pay taxes,
and it’s about time someone come along and make them pony up. I’ve
already read for you several emails from people complaining that they
know for an absolute fact that rich people are rich because they don’t
pay their taxes … and they know this because they know a CPA
somewhere and their CPA friend told them so.
Just a question: If
the evil rich aren’t paying their taxes, then just how is it that the
Imperial Federal Government is collecting about 40% of all income taxes
paid from the top 1% of income earners? Somebody ’splain that to me
please.”
Take a look at the article here.
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.
Yo, I have not only added a couple new links, but I have completely re-vamped the Links page to make it easier to maintain (for me) and use (for you). That’s like some kind of win-win-win? thing there for all of us. I’ll be adding more this weekend so stay tuned. Enjoy!
One thing that I hate in this world is hypocrisy. Especially from those people that hold influential positions or places, who then abuse their status while attempting to be high and mighty. In the end they fall fast and hard if anyone with a brain or any common sense actually listens to what they have to say, rather than lapping up the idle vitriol that comes forth without question.
In this case, I must focus my ire upon Oprah. Now, I have never really been a big fan of Oprah or her show. However, she has done some good things and I have always thought that though her views were slanted, she tried to do some good for people.
Now she has crossed a line in my opinion. Actually, she crossed it once a while back and has kept on going. This is where the hypocrisy comes in. Keep in mind that Oprah has the eyes and ears of millions of people in the world; I mean literally millions of people that watch her show and are heavily influenced by whatever she says and does. A great many of those people that follow her show aren’t even influenced, they live their lives by her. Whatever she says to eat, read, do or otherwise is exactly what they eat, read, do and so on.
The first thing she did is not something I take issue with, but it sets up what I do take issue with. First thing, she publicly endorsed Presidential Candidate Barack Hussein Obama. That in and of itself I don’t have a problem with, she is free to support anyone she wants. She even made it known on her show that she supported Presidential Candidate Barack Hussein Obama. That’s OK too, although I have a small issue with that because I think that her entertainment show ought to be separate from her personal political affiliations. That’s just my personal opinion, but since she doesn’t have a politically themed show, I don’t think it’s appropriate.
Now, the next thing is what really got my goat, especially with what comes later. A large portion of her audience (the majority of which are women) wanted her to interview Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin. I thought this would be a good idea, she is after all the first female Republican Vice Presidential Nominee ever. What ticked me off was that Oprah declined the interview, much to the anger of her fans, saying that she would not use her show as a platform for politics or endorsing politicians.
OK, we are talking about an interview based on a historical moment (first potential female Republican VP), not an endorsement. Plus, she had previously come out with her support for Barack Hussein Obama. To me, if you are going to do one, you should do the other. Especially when your reason for the other flies in the face of the first thing you already did.
That was bad enough, but now I read that Oprah is going to move her show to Washington during inauguration week. Still, not bad by itself, but it just goes to further show what a hypocrite Oprah is. She supports Obama on her show, snubs Palin on her show, then moves her show to Washington for Obama’s inauguration. Wow. I mean, I can understand liking and/or supporting one candidate and not the other, but doing so publicly on such a large scale while claiming it was in the name being fair? One word comes to mind, hypocrite.
One last thing, this isn’t about my own preference for one candidate or another. I am not some “right wing” blogger with an axe to grind. This was about blatant hypocrisy by a very powerful and influential woman. Truth be told, I didn’t like either candidate, but since Barack Hussein Obama won, I hope he does all the stuff he said. He talks a good game, but he is still a politician and I don’t know that I believe it.
This came to me via email by my family, it is so profound I had to post it. I don’t know who the original author is, but they have my vote. I did some clarity editing but it is for the most part as I found it.
On to Bailout Plan B:
Simply put, I am against the $85,000,000,000.00 bailout of AIG. Instead, I’m in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to all Americans as a “Dividend”. To make the math simple, let us assume there are 200,000,000 bonafide U.S. Citizens 18 and over. Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and child. So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up.
Divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billion, and that gets you to a hefty $425,000.
My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a “Dividend”. Of course, it would not be tax free, so let’s assume a tax rate of 30%. Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500 in taxes. That sends $25.5 Billion right back to Uncle Sam. Neat, huh?
It also means that every adult 18+ has $297,500 in their pocket, so a husband and wife have $595,000.
What would you and your family do with between $297,500 to $595,000?
Let’s see:
Remember, this is for every U.S. Citizen 18 and over, including the folks who lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers, Enron, and every other company that crushed their employees. If we’re going to re-distribute wealth let’s really do it instead of trickling it out.
If we’re going to do an $85 billion bailout, let’s bail out every adult U.S. Citizen.
As for AIG – liquidate it and sell off its parts. Sell off the real estate and let the private sector bargain hunters cut it up and clean up. Where is the bailout for Small Business America when we fall on hard times? Why should AIG get preferential treatment just because they are a “big” company?
Here’s my rationale, we deserve it and AIG does not. We were never invited to the last 10 years of party time bonuses. And remember, in reality, this plan truly only costs $59.5 Billion because $25.5 Billion is returned instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam.
A Japanese company (Toyota) and an American company (GM) decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River. Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race.
On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile.
The Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat. A management team made up of senior management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action.
Their conclusion was the Japanese had 8 people rowing and 1 person steering while the American team had 8 people steering and 1 person rowing.
Feeling a deeper study was in order, American management h ired a consulting company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion.
They advised, of course, that too many people were steering the boat, while not enough people were rowing.
Not sure of how to utilize that information, but wanting to prevent another loss to the Japanese, the rowing team’s management structure was totally reorganized to 4 steering supervisors, 3 area steering superintendents, and 1 assistant superintendent steering manager.
They also implemented a new performance system that would give the 1 person rowing the boat greater incentive to work harder. It was called the Rowing Team Quality First Program,’ with meetings, dinners, and free pens for the rower.. There was discussion of getting new paddles, canoes, and other equipment, extra vacation days for practices and bonuses.
The next year the Japanese won by two miles.
Humiliated, the American management laid off the rower for poor performance halted development of a new canoe, sold the paddles, and canceled all capital investments for new equipment. The money saved was distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses and the next year’s racing team was out-sourced to India .
Sadly, this is The End.
Here’s something else to think about:
GM has spent the last thirty years moving all its factories out of the US claiming they can’t make money paying American wages.
Toyota has spent the last thirty years building more than a dozen plants inside the US . The last quarter’s results:
Toyota makes 4 billion in profits while GM racked up 9 billion in losses.
GM folks are still scratching their heads.
If this weren’t true, it might be funny.
Yo, how y’all doing? I wanted to step up and say something about the recent election we just had, and the fact that everyone keeps asking me what I think about the first black president being elected. Like I should be some type of authority on the subject. Well, I decided to tell all of you, what I tell them, they ain’t no black president. WHAT?! You gasp? That’s right, you heard me. Has anyone looked at Obama? He and Joe Biden are like the two whitest people on earth … except maybe for Bob Saget. Yeah, OK, his skin has a darker shade to it than Biden, but look at how he acts and talks, and look at how much money he has. He ain’t no brother, he’s as black as the Huxtables, get outta here. He may be a good president, I don’t know, but stop beating up the color of his skin man. That just don’t make any difference. I’m out, peace.
