MY WISHES...

These are the things that don't seem totally unrealistic to think I might someday own...the unrealistic thing is thinking I might be able to use them three years from now, with all the fiscal cliff & debt default predictions going around...


1)

2)

3)

4) I would put speakers here, but I already have some...

MY DREAMS

1) No going over the fiscal cliff
2) USA pays its debt
3) Everything is fine

4)



5)



6)





7)

Life is hard...

I seriously can't believe people defend music and movies by saying "it's hard".  So freakin' what?  That ought to be where the movie studio comes in and says "you failed, we're not going to show this to movie goers".  People pay $10 for a movie ticket, and then get duped into paying at least $10 more for additional accessories once they get through the door, i.e.: popcorn and soda, and people go on sites like Amazon and IMDB and give these movies a perfect 5 star rating b/c it's just too much to expect someone to realize their weaknesses and thus not mess with a profoundly epic idea like PROMETHEUS.  You cannot tell me that there's NOBODY in this planet who could have made that film a little more interesting.  Forgot the similarities or differences between 1979's ALIEN and PROMETHEUS; forget the fact that the movie's first half hour was either confusing or illogical.  The simple fact that said first half hour had very little of any value to the audience is just a classic example of a screenwriter with no talent.  Obviously they had to set-up the story, explain what was going on etc, but the fact that it was all so freakin' boring is just theft.  It's theft from whoever could have taken that idea and made something bold and unique with it.  Because even if whoever owns the copyright for PROMETHEUS were to give x person/people his/her permission to re-make it, the audience has "been there, done that" and is also feeling a little jaded b/c not only did PROMETHEUS fail to deliver, but sooo many other films have suffered the same fate.  Ultimately it's theft of the audience, their time, their money, and their good will toward men, perhaps even their will to bother getting out of bed.

The language of the left...with feeling...

I think society has more leeches than it used to.  I think everybody has grown to expect way more than they ought to.  But the Republican idea that rich people should pay LESS taxes than people who teach our young, collect the garbage, keep tabs on the cash registers, keep the peace, serve our food...is just plain rediculous. They act like it's "punishing" success to think the opposite and that is totally warped.  I think expecting everyone to either get rich or pay taxes is just savage.  What's really mind boggling is when people like Neil Bortz push the idea that the rich pay MORE in taxes than the poor & middle class.  Huh?  If only the tax code were that cut and dry.  "Oh, I make $250,000 each year, so I pay 25% of that to Uncle Sam?  Great! I'll just mail in the check"  Of course, everybody has deductions they either do or can qualify for.  But WalMart remodels their stores every 6 months or so, even though their customers are always cranky about having to re-locate everything.  Why do they do that?  Because even though it may cost a few hundred dollars x however many stores they remodel in a 12 month period, WalMart's 25% tax rate is dropped down to maybe 1%.  I'm probably exaggerating and I don't know if $250K = 25%, it may be 55% before these virtual handouts are factored into the equation.  But the fact that Neil Bortz doesn't even mention this in his radio show when he's ranting out the rich and how they DO pay their fare share is beyond poor journalism, although The Neil Bortz Show probably isn't technically journalism...I don't even know if most of the people that listen to his show take him seriously.  Anyone who isn't living the dream wouldn't help but want to punch him in the face for talking down to the little people, expecting them to believe the bull he says when they see he's wrong every sixth month they shop at Wal-Mart.

But it ceases to be stupid fun and annoying games when The Lies Of Neil become The Death Of Democracy  The American People voted for Barack Obama - TWICE!  The American People have been surveyed - NEVER have they supported the idea that the rich be rewarded by the gov't for being so awesome.  If you're going to insist that taxes are "legalized theft", then maybe we should just remove the gov't altogether, forget police protection, military service, forget welfare, forget the whole thing b/c without taxes, who the heck has the time, decency and intellect to operate The U.S. gov't without a paycheck?  Maybe 70 years ago, back when people had a better understanding of what it meant to have a community, and a family...and don't give me that b.s. logic that says racism and the violence that often resulted from it takes away from the love that people DID have.  The fact that divorce is so common, even among so-called "religious folk" ought to tell people SOMETHING ISN'T RIGHT HERE!  Yeah, we have less racial violence; we've traded one evil for another.  Now we don't even know our neighbors a lot of the time.  What difference would it make if their black white chinese or mexican?  The closest one could come to knowing their neighbors is a casual "hi" every now and again.  Back in the 'day, people looked out for each other.  Some strange vehicle prowling by would likely draw attention and the sicko would be arrested or be on the run to another neighborhood or town, or maybe another state...

Man, I've gotten sooooo off topic, haven't I?  The MAIN point, of this article at least, is that the rich do not pay their fare share and I don't get why it needs to stay that way.  It may not be a "capitalist" concept, but neither is welfare.  So freakin' what?  Just b/c the Democrats, or at least Obama, have adopted most of the Republican ideology...why not throw in the towel and just make it a 0 party system?  B/c when you get right down to it, no two candidates are exactly alike and the current division between Republicans and Democrats is basically a matter of Ebinezer Scrooge BEFORE vs. AFTER the ghost of Christmas future visited him.

The Oracle Speaks!

For the last month apprx my computer has had serious trouble streaming on demand music from the 'net.  I kept wondering "is it just these freebie sites" [such as Grooveshark and MySpace]?  I wondered "would these problems exist if I paid for Rdio?"
  Today I found my answer.  I took a gamble and it has paid off.  I am now listening to Emerson Lake And Palmer's "Welcome Back My Friends To The Show That Never Ends, Ladies and Gentleman" (a double live album, formerly a triple live album before the rise of compact digital audio discs).
  So far it's been just that and New Order's "Low-Life", the 2008 remastered version.  I was surfing through Big Crumbs' list of stores in the music/books/etc. dept and noticed CD Connection on there, who, I thought, had MP3s as part of their offering.  What really sealed me buying from them was A) I had not bought from there before and B) the cash back rate was comparatively higher than other BC offerings - 5.6% - !!!  The suky thing is the version of "Low-Life" I ended up downloading was not the 2008 remastered edition, which means it's kinda flat sounding, the opening song doesn't have the drum-boom-kick that the remaster has.  And now I'm left with $1.60 for the rest of the month.  I already got most of my Xmas shopping done.  I am expecting an Amazon gift card in the amount of $19.68 and another in the amount of $5 and I'll use that to buy my mom's xmas gift.  With Rdio and the public library just down the street from where I live, I really don't need anything else...$1.60 is fine by me.  I also ended up with a $3.85 refund from a CD that arrived in not-as-described condition, although I had hacked my account down to $1.60 before I knew to expect the refund.  Mail didn't arrive 'til after 3pm.  It was a substitute mailman, not sure what's going on with the one that normally delivers to my address.  I noticed the same thing would happen at my old apt, but I figured that was b/c he was approaching retirement age and they were giving him an easier time with hours.  Now that I think of it, they probably don't want their mail carriers to be working even 4 days a week, since their shift sometimes ends after 3pm and they clock in before 7am normally.  I think it's actually closer to 5am, so that's 10 hours a day x 6 which is a lot of over time for the USPS to be putting in considering they're in debt anywayz...they'd probably give him 3-4 days off a week if they had enough employees to go around.  Last  I heard, which was about 5 years ago and may no longer apply, but, last I heard, the USPS has/had a serious shortage of mail carriers, at least in this area, southeast MO.
  I would stop tying now, but for the sake of sounding less crazy, I'll instead stop typing - now.