I'm Proud To Be An American (CEO)

If tomorrow all the jobs were gone,
I’d achieve my goal in life.
I'd give away my shares,
To just my children and my wife.

I’d thank my lucky stars,
to be livin here today.
‘ Cause the flag still stands for freedom,
and they can’t take that away.

And I’m proud to be an American,
where at least I know I’m free.
And I wont forget the unemployed,
who gave that right to me.

And I gladly stand up,
next to you and defend her still today.
‘ Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land,
God bless the USA.

From the factories of Africa,
to our friends the Chinese.
Across the plains of India,
From sea to shining sea.

From tech support to textiles,
To production and offshore banks.
We've cut our costs in taxes
and its time you stand and say.


That you're proud not to be an American,
where at least you know you're free.
And you wont forget that you're employed,
And you got that job from me.

And you'll gladly stand up,
Next to me, and defend her still today.
‘ Cause there ain’t no doubt we love this land,
God bless the USA.

And I’m proud to be and American,
where at least I know I’m free.
And I wont forget the unemployed ,
who gave that right to me.

And I gladly stand up,
next to you and defend her still today.
‘ Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land,
God bless the USA.
- Jake

GOP Party Time!

It's party time again, for the Grand Old.  I don't see so much "grand" as I do "old" this time around, though. How many of you out there on the interwebs have watched at least one of these debates?  What a show, I tell you.  If you're into reality TV crap, this is your Mecca.  The stuff on so called "reality" TV isn't real.  Take Jersey Shore for example.  A group of guys and girls who do not have jobs, do not have responsibility (well, to their credit, they do laundry once a day, which is more than sufficient to keep clothes clean, but hey! they're being proactive about something, right?) or accountability, spend nearly every day and night drunk out of their minds, and buy stuff with an unseemly never ending bank account.  That's not reality.  You know what is?  Watching these candidates display the worst of human nature. Oh sure, you can see that on The Real Housewives, Survivor, and any other reality show where contestants "throw each other under the bus."  While I'm on that subject, I think I'll tackle it. 

Another way to poke holes in the "reality show" bubble is to examine the cliches that are used each season.  Everyone says them, so it has to be scripted.  Another one I hate to hear is "for the right reasons".  They always say that, and how are we as an audience supposed to interpret the phrase when everyone on the show says it?  See how confusing this could be in my example: Tammy says, "Freddie went to the kitchen, but I don't think he went for the right reason."  So why did Freddie go to the kitchen?  Well, you might say, he was hungry.  But if he was hungry, and someone thought he wasn't going to the kitchen for the right reason, then that means he went to the kitchen with ulterior motives.  Maybe  Freddie finally snapped, and the voice in his head said he needed to kill Janice after all.  Tammy would be right, because you would think the right reason to go to the kitchen is to make yourself a ham and cheese sammich with light mayo, lettuce, and tomato on a croissant.  But!  Then again, that might not be the "right reason" either, because maybe to Freddie, the "right reason" was to extract his revenge on Janice for "throwing him under the bus".  So Tammy is incorrect in the assumption that he went for the "right reason".  Confused?  Me too.  Let's talk politics.

Politics.  I'll break that word down to its roots so that we can fully understand what the situation is (haha, Jersey Shore, get it?).  Politics comes from two words "poly" and "ticks".  "Poly" meanining many, and "ticks", meaning blood sucking ectoparasites that can infect their victim with bacteria, viruses, and protozoa while engaging in a predatory relationship.  

So let's look at some highlights of the recent debate between the parasites who want to suck your vote for President:

• Nearly every time the Bachmann speaks, she throws in and emphasizes Obama or Obamacare, whether or not it's relative to the question asked.  
• Perry calls Cain "brother".  Wow, you've got some nerve doing that, Texan.
• Cain confuses everyone (including himself) by talking about fruit.
• Romney reaches out and grabs Perry to ask him to shut his pie hole.
• Perry exercises restraint and does not punch out Romney the way we know he would like to. 
• The audience boos Perry repeatedly for comments he makes.
• Ron Paul philosophizes about how great a Utopian society would be as long as it is definitely not a Utopia,  Ronald Regean is dictator (but not called a dictator), health care doesn't exist for those who can't afford it so they die off and natural selection dominates.
• Cain reemphasizes that if you're poor it's your own fault.  Not to mention 9.1% unemployment, outsourcing, corporate greed, machines taking humans' jobs, graduate students who are more than qualified for work but no one will hire them, unbalanced budgets...
• Santorum refuses to make eye contact with anyone as he responds to questions.
• Romney is attacked brutally for cutting his lawn.
• Perry is attacked brutally for being Rick Perry.
• Cain takes heat for his 9-9-9 plan that none of the candidates have read, but know that it has to be awful because they have yet to write a plan of their own.
• Bachmann says, ""Anderson! Ander- Anderson! A- And- Anderson! Anderson! A- Anders- And- And- Anderson! Anderson!" And Anderson Cooper disappoints by not responding with "WHAAAAAAAT?"
• Newt Gingrich throws in his two cents before each commercial break to remind us that he's been there all along.
• Each candidate tells us how far superior they are from everyone else.
• Each candidate belittles at least two others with sub-belt punches.

Another successful party has come to an end.  Can I take some guacamole home with me in an air tight container?

Water

So, out of curiosity, I started tracking how much water I drink during a day.  The average person is supposed to drink 8 cups a day.  I just started keeping track of how much I drink, and turns out, I was only drinking about ONE CUP A DAY.  I would get a sip from the drinking fountain when I was thirsty, but that was all.  I might have one cup of milk, or a 32 oz cup of soda every now and then, but that is no substitute for water.  You do get some water from the food that you eat during the day, but that doesn't make up for pure liquid either.
So, I figured that you need to be drinking water constantly throughout the day. That means you have to drink even when you're not thirsty.  Now that I've been drinking a minimum of 8 cups of water per day, I feel much better.  And not only do I feel better, I have less of an apetite as well.  I had to eat more to get the water I needed since I wasn't drinking it, but now that I'm drinking it, my body doesn't need as much food.  How do you like them apples?

Serenity Now!

One of my favorite lines in a TV sitcom ever is when Frank Costanza screams, "Serenity now!" in an episode of Seinfield.  Ever felt like shouting that?  I've been reading the news a lot the last little while.  Every day I read what is going on in our country. For the first time I've been absorbed in keeping up with current events, understanding economics, finance, and political bathwater.  I've never before been so engaged, involved, and dissatisfied.

I heard about the tragedy in Afghanistan with the American troops that were shot down, and so I wanted to read about what happened.  It was actually not that easy to track down.  It wasn't a big headline or on breaking news, so I wondered if maybe it had been too long between the incident and when I tried to find it.  But when is too long?  If it happened Saturday, and Sunday morning I go to read about it and I have to dig around to find it, has the media already forgotten about it?  Have they already forgotten about the families affected?

Guess what's on the front page of CNN right now?  A huge story about a convention where hackers from across America get together to learn tricks of the trade.  8 year olds are learning how to hack computers and pick locks.  There are several stories about the national debt and the foul play in Washington.  A crazy sect leader who raped his nephew.  Robberies, shoot outs, and a story about people who lit cars on fire because of a murder.  And guess what also shares that same page?  An article about how Ashton Kutcher filmed his first episode of Two and a Half Men.  That's worthy of sharing the same page as Americans shot down in Afghanistan?

It makes me sick.  I'm sick of the media feeding us such depressing material.  I'm sick of the awful people creating depressing material to be shared by the media.   I'm sick of headlines. I'm sick of politicians.

What an awful place we live in.

I read an article on Friday entitled, "Are the Millennials Cut Out For this Job Market?" which at first glance leads you to believe that its another article publishing the stories of recent college grads destined for greatness that are parking cars and waiting tables.  It is, however, not about that at all.  The misleading title lures you into a slanderous and condescending article written by a Baby Boomer who believes that my generation is annoying, demanding, self-centered, and lazy.  There are members of my generation who fit that description, but there are also a great deal who fit that description who span other generations as well.

Apparently my generation is being deemed as a failure by many, and it's predicted that we don't have what it takes to carry this country in the future.  Well, we're being handed a very difficult burden to shoulder, and who's fault is that?

I was proud to be an American.  I think I'll be apathetically complacent to be a Canadian.

Serenity now.

National Crises

"Most Americans, regardless of political party, don't understand how we can ask a senior citizen to pay more for her Medicare before we ask corporate jet owners and oil companies to give up tax breaks that other companies don't get. How can we ask a student to pay more for college before we ask hedge fund managers to stop paying taxes at a lower rate than their secretaries? How can we slash funding for education and clean energy before we ask people like me to give up tax breaks we don't need and didn't ask for?" - Obama


"We can't allow the American people to become collateral damage to Washington's political warfare." - Obama


"This debate isn't about President Obama and House Republicans ... it isn't about Congress and the White House ... it's about what's standing between the American people and the future we seek for ourselves and our families.You know, I've always believed, the bigger government, the smaller the people. And right now, we have a government so big and so expensive it's sapping the drive of our people and keeping our economy from running at full capacity." - Boehner


If Medicare and social security disappear, what will happen?  What will happen to me and my family next week if things aren't resolved in the White House?  Senior citizens won't be able to get prescriptions, college kids won't be able to afford school, cars, families can't buy a house.  How will young couples get monetary support to start families of their own?  I fit into a large chunk of those categories right now.


Why do the working families of America have to shoulder the debt, while the wealthiest get more wealthy?  How in the world does our government "by the people, for the people" allow this to happen?  If things don't get better, I may seriously consider moving to another country.  I'm really questioning my patriotic feelings for my country.  I've been very disappointed.  Why can't our elected officials play nicely?  This shouldn't be an ego feast or a battle for a dominant party.  This should be about keeping the quality of life for every American the best that it can be.  It's about providing an environment where people can grow and flourish,and have the pursuit of happiness.  It is difficult to do so when taxes are high, unemployment is high, interest rates are high, and it's all caused by those who hold the keys to our financial freedom.  


Washington, don't screw this up.  We were counting on you.  Now we're pleading you to listen to reason. Ease our burdens, don't increase them.

At The Scene of the Crime

Last night I went with my wife Hannah and her sister Carolyn to see Harry Potter while in Provo.  We were very excited, having done a Harry Potter movie marathon leading up to the event.  We were in the movie for about an hour and a half, when some lights started flashing in the theater, and a recorded message repeated something like, "an emergency has been reported.  Please move towards the stairs and take the closest exit".  As we were walking out we asked a staff member who said she thought there was a minor fire.  When we got to the parking lot though, the general manager announced that there was a man who entered the theater with a bomb.  Soon enough, several policemen, ambulances, and fire trucks arrived at the scene.  They walked all over the theater, including the roof, and then asked us if we had seen him.  He more than likely left with the crowd.  We didn't get to see the end of the movie, for the which we were rather peeved.

"Man uses homemade bomb to rob Provo theater"

So...Whodunnit?

A lot of people are really bent out of shape about the ruling of a recent court case in which a woman accused of murdering her child was found not guilty. I've got two points that I want to address: the role of the media, and the effectiveness of our court system.

1) The role of the media.
The media with all it's wiles and attention grabbing has to dip it's hand in the cookie jar at every opportunity. And what keeps watchers coming back more than the story of a cold hearted killer? Look at the Amanda Knox case in Italy. Because of the role of the news and media, the jury was swayed by non-existent evidence and slander from the media, and a gentle push from the the prosecution. There was a severe lack of substantial evidence to pin the crime on any one person or various people. The news pulled out all the stops on Casey Anthony exposing all the dirt there is on her to paint her as a killer, despite the severe lack of evidence presented in the court room. Which leads me to my next point.

2) Effectiveness of our justice system.
Unlike Amanda Knox, the jury was not seduced by the enticements of the media. The jury could not convict Casey Anthony because they were not shown evidence "beyond a reasonable doubt". There was plenty of doubt. And they couldn't live with themselves if they convicted someone for life (or death) for something they could not say they knew was true. She may have done it. She may have not. But according to the evidence, there wasn't enough to tell.

So. Go ahead and blow up, get upset, rant and rave, but the truth is our system works. She was given a fair trial from our court system, and unjustly harassed by the media. Thank goodness for the good people of America who saw the facts and lack thereof for what they were, and did not get bullied into a decision by networks.