A few things I'd like to get on my soapbox about...

With the MS150 fully behind me, it’s time to get back in the saddle and on the trails.

I’ll probably be riding and running in the park tomorrow.  The goal will be 6 miles by bike and 3 miles by foot, but I’m going to keep that loose just to see how things shake out.

In just a few days I’ll begin the swimming half of my routine.  What fun.

 

 

That said, it’s time to climb up on my soapbox.  If you don’t want a crazy rant today, please turn the page.

 

 

1.If you haven’t noticed, the news media sucks.  ESPECIALLY the local mouth breathers who desperately attempt to create news.

Case in point #1—A few days back one of the idiot locals was slumming around attempting to invent the story that gas prices are “SO HIGH” that people are pawning their stuff to buy gas.  The idiot even went so far as to go to a pawn shop and interview the owner who said (not surprisingly) that NOBODY has pawned anything to pay for gas.  Here’s a hint, people, GAS PRICES ARE NOT HIGH.  WE ARE EASILY $2 AWAY FROM GAS BEING EXPENSIVE.  You are simply paying for your choice to live in McMansions on the outskirts of town so that you can drive you 12mpg SUV (that you couldn’t afford and are still making payments on so you can’t sell it to get a sensible car) 80 miles to and from work every day.  Enjoy.  You made you bed, now sleep tight.  Maybe you’ll begin to prepare to consider to start thinking about not crapping on our planet every day.  My personal vote is for $10/gallon gas.  Then maybe we’ll start getting realistic about alternative fuels and REAL fuel economy in cars.  The American Auto Industry is not in trouble.  GM and Ford are in trouble because they build cars that not only suck but also suck gas.  Toyota and Honda don’t.  They build good cars that people (gasp) want to buy and that get pretty decent fuel economy.  Surprise of all surprises, they’re also expanding their plants and their sales each year.  Get a clue, live with your decisions, and quit your bitching.

Case in point #2—Hurricane Rita last year.  You could almost hear the disappointment in the voice of the weather-reader when the storm veered off.  Hell, when it was circling around New Jersey he was still trying to convince us that we might get some weather from it.  Don’t be stupid and quit rooting for the hurricane.

Case in point #3—Last night Channel 11 Defenders gave a butcher job of a story on the City of Houston’s housing department.  Apparently a whopping $100,000 was given out as bonuses and the director (who they were certain to inform you made $94,000 annually) “gave himself” a $23,000 bonus while employees that made 1/3 of what he made “only” got $2000 bonuses (that all had to be approved by the board, mind you).  “Money that could have gone to help the homeless”, allegedly.  Then they interviewed a “victim of the fury of Katrina” who was in Houston and still homeless—nearly a full year after the storm, mind you (and conveniently wandering the streets on a day when thousands of illegal immigrants were volunteering to not work, apparently construction work or landscaping or kitchen work is too demeaning for someone who is scrounging around dumpsters and begging for food).  In summary, a rich fat cat gave himself more of your tax dollars than he really needed/deserved at the expense of the poor and (not at all lazy) homeless.  What wasn’t mentioned is what portion of the budget that actually goes to services versus the portion that goes to payroll or administrative expenses.  What wasn’t mentioned is the number of houses/apartments built during the last fiscal year.  What wasn’t mentioned is the revenue that these facilities brought in versus what was budgeted.  What wasn’t mentioned was the expenses actually paid versus what was budgeted.  What wasn’t mentioned was the profit that this department made versus what was budgeted.  No, the only thing that was mentioned was “so and so gave himself a bonus that could have gone to the poor” in the high and mighty tone that the Channel 11 defenders likes to use.  No, don’t worry about the facts, channel 11.  No, don’t worry about those at all.  Just try and foment class warfare.  You don’t have an agenda at all.

 

2.Something I’ve heard a lot lately is “the immigration debate” and the sides being labeled as “pro immigration” and “anti immigration”.  This is a flat out lie.  Sure, there are “anti immigrant” folks, but they are few and far between and they’re generally labeled as kooks and their rants answered with a “yea…  um, anyway”.  No, the debate is “pro ILLEGAL immigration” and “anti ILLEGAL immigration”.  The question isn’t whether or not foreigners are welcome in this country.  The question is whether or not they should follow the same rules and regulations that EVERYBODY ELSE SHOULD FOLLOW.  Get a freakin’ grip, people.  Mad respect to Mr. Sanchez who walked across a desert in the middle of the summer in order to mow my yard in August.  That’s a helluva physical feat.  And to think, you did all that just so you can be exploited because you can’t talk back or get sick or you’ll get your ass deported or dead.  Yippee do for you.  In fact, if you’d have crossed the border legally and gotten a job legally you’d be afforded all the rights in the workplace as I am—minimum wage, 40 hour weeks, overtime, workers’ comp, protection under harassment and discrimination laws, the full 9.  But no, you had to go cross the desert and then get crapped on by every employer trying to save a buck.  Sure, they could drive their white truck to the Texas Workforce Commission and hire some unemployed people (who aren’t too lazy to work), but no, they’d rather pay you slave wages because you can’t talk back.  Congratulations, stupid.  Enjoy getting exploited.  And no, I’m not going to pay you more to mow my yard or paint my house.  If you raise your prices past what I want to pay you I’ll find someone else to exploit—either a teenager, or a homeless guy, or I’ll do it myself.  In a few years I’ll even be able to force my kid to do it.  You made your bed, now sleep in it.

 

Now, the right way to solve the problem, of course, is to come up with a 3^rd option.  You’re not going to deport all these people.  You’re not going to stop them from coming over here.  The problem is that they’re coming over here and getting exploited and harassed and generally treated like crap by unscrupulous employers.  So, the right thing to do is figure out a way to have them documented so that they can be protected by the same laws that protect you and me.  Maybe accept Mexico’s version of the driver’s license or social security number as valid employment documentation.  Simply get the NAFTA folks together and say “Any citizen of a NAFTA country, with legal home documentation, is hereby allowed to legally work in any NAFTA country and will be subject to whatever domestic employment laws and benefits are present.”  Without the free flow of labor free trade is not truly equitable.  Done and done.  That won’t help the day laborer who gets paid at the end of the day in cash and finds a new job tomorrow, but it’ll help the kitchen worker, the nanny, and scores of other workers who are employed long-term.  Hell, even throw in a “transient/foreign worker wage” to compliment the other 2 minimum wages we have—tipped and regular worker.  But as it is the whole debate is sound and fury signifying nothing—nothing will be accomplished and nothing will come of it except more noise.

 

3.Speaking of the immigration debate, something else I’ve heard too much of recently is “this is a nation of immigrants” and “the first Americans were illegal immigrants”.  Wrong and wrong.  I’m a native born US citizen.  I was born in Ohio and have lived nearly all my life in Texas.  My parents were born in Louisiana AFTER it was made a state by the US.  Their parents were born in Louisiana AFTER it was a state.  Their parents were born in Louisiana AFTER it was a state.  Not ‘till you get back to THEIR parents do you find someone who is an actual immigrant—who CAME HERE LEGALLY!!!  So don’t give me this crap about “we’re all immigrants”.  I’m as native to this land as the Apaches and I didn’t steal any land from anyone else.  If you want to feel guilty for some historical misdeed, feel free.  I’ve got better things to do with my time.  If you seriously don’t think you “belong” here, then sigh-oh-nora.  Enjoy your new life in a nation you’re really not welcome in, whatever nation that might be.  And if you go there illegally, maybe you’ll get a real appreciation for what kind of exploitation our fine fair friends from the south have to deal with.  And the first Americans weren’t illegal immigrants—there were no immigration laws to break.  Sure, they weren’t welcome, but they weren’t illegal.  Maybe if the injuns had better control of their borders, blah, blah…  hm?

 

Ok, that’s about all for now.  Rand mode is off and the soapbox is safely stowed away.