Yes! I own a gun.

FOUND ON THE INTERNET

 

By Fides111  |  Posted July 25, 2012

CNN PRODUCER NOTE     Gun owner Fides111 says she can’t predict or influence the actions of others, but she does have control over how prepared she would be if placed in a vulnerable situation. “I own a gun out of a sense of personal responsibility,” she says. Although Fides111 says firearms shouldn’t be authorized to those with criminal records or histories of mental illness, she doesn’t believe reinforcing government intervention would preempt tragedies such as the shooting in Colorado. “Government agencies can only provide the illusion of control. The only way to affect the kind of control that keeps people who shouldn’t have guns from owning them is martial law and complete lock down with loss of basic rights for everybody. Nobody wants that.”
– stein0726, CNN iReport producer

In the aftermath of the mass murder in an Aurora, CO movie theater this past week the debate over gun control in the US has been reignited. The political machines on both sides of the issue are at full tilt with each side trying to garner more Americans to their point of view. The fact is most Americans are already decided on where they stand with regard to this issue. Myself included.

I am a gun owner. I am also decidedly not political or religious. I don’t own a gun because I have a constitutional right to do so. I don’t own a gun because it makes me cooler in some way. I don’t even own a gun because I ever plan on using it on another human being. I own one for a singular, simple reason. It is my responsibility to take care of, and defend myself and my children. Just as it is my responsibility to feed, clothe and provide for myself and my children. I am an adult female, 38 years of age and the proverbial buck stops with me when it comes to the health and well being of my family. I have a responsibility as a mother to make sure that I can adequately provide safety and basic necessities in a world where fewer and fewer people take responsibility for their own thoughts, words and actions. We live in a world where people think that their circumstances are not their own fault and that somebody or something else is to blame or should be responsible.

I could veer off the course here and start playing that same blame game. I could say that our moral compass and sense of self respect as a Nation has been undermined by video games, social programs, Republicans, Democrats, the breakdown of the nuclear family, social media, a sense of entitlement, so on and so forth, literally ad nauseum. However, I believe the truth lies much closer to home. It lies within the self. If one takes responsibility for everything they say and do, even if it was wrong, all the “causes” of our ills listed above disappear. They simply cease to matter.

I am not a fool. I understand that most of the population will not take responsibility for themselves. I understand that to believe such a thing is possible is to believe in a utopian society that is the stuff of fantasy. But that wasn’t the question was it? The question was, “Do you own a gun? Why?” The answer, simply put, is personal responsibility. Perhaps if enough of us try it, we can make a difference.

I would never step into a theater full of innocent movie goers and use my gun to wreak death and havoc but I also understand that not everybody is like me. Not everybody plays by the rules or with a full deck. I will however, take responsibility for my own protection because though I cannot control the thoughts, words and actions of others, I can certainly control my own.

Evil NCAA Kills Penn State Football Program

Over reacting beyond belief, the NCAA destroyed the Penn State Football program.

Some people think college sports should be eliminated, but that is a discussion for a different time.

The NCAA’s actions are nothing but evil posturing.  The actions do not accomplish anything good: they punish the wrong people; the students, past and present, whether they are athletes or not.

The NCAA is out of control; it needs a total overhaul.

It hands out sanctions like an evil dictator.  Past time for a revolution.  Get rid of the scum.

Universities need to remove the NCAA from the control of their athletic programs NOW.

 

The facts no one wants to read.

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The Problem Of Evil

S.E. Cupp wrote an article in the Daily News with the same title.

She asked how the tragedies of Aurora, Colorado and Pennsylvania State University could have been prevented.  Her article stated that institutions respond in an institutional manner after the fact, but this will not prevent similar tragedies from occurring in the future.

The answer is simple.

Hundreds of people had a chance to prevent each tragedy, but did nothing.

Why?   Why do people react this way?

Again simple.  No one wants to rock the boat.  No one wants to get involved.  If just one person had done something, gone to some authority and not stopped until the authority took action.

This is what it will take to end these tragedies.  Everyone must get involved; all the time, everytime, no exceptions.

Will people do this?

NO!

Expect more senseless tragedies.

 

The facts no one wants to read.

Comments and referrals to this blog would be greatly appreciated.

“Can Women Have It All?”

Yes, women have the same choices as men.

Past time for women to stop whining and crying about it.

The real problems are that women unfairly want more than men have and refuse to pay the price of what having it all entails.

Women want it THEIR way.  Women expect society and the business world to change to accommodate their wants.  Never going to happen, nor should it.  Women are being totally unfair about this issue.  Or it may be a lack of maturity.

Women need to deal with the FACTS not their emotions.  It works if women make smart, realistic choices.

As the issue is being discussed, nothing is going to improve.  The discussion should revolve around women being realistic.  The reality(truth/fact) is that women have ALL the same options/choices as men, but are NOT satisfied with that; they want a better deal.

 

The facts no one wants to read.

Comments and referrals to this blog would be greatly appreciated.

Colorado Shooting — A Non-Event

The shooting in Colorado was a tragedy and brought sorrow to many.

But it is a non-event;  it is NOT important.

The media is putting a massive focus on this non-event; hours and hours of programming on NOTHING.  Everything is re-hashed over and over again, coupled with continuous speculation.  What a waste.  Except for those involved, who cares.

There are much more important things for the media to cover and better things for people to do than watch this.

No intelligent person should be watching even one minute of it.

 

The facts no one wants to read.

Comments and referrals to this blog would be greatly appreciated.

Individual Freedom

“There can be no real individual freedom in the presence of economic insecurity.”

Chester Bowles

 

Today, there is little economic security for many Americans.  There have been two major causes of this:  actions of the federal government and the failure of people to adapt to the evolution of the structure of the economy.

Instead of increasing economic security for Americans, the federal government has been destroying it.  The current policies of the federal government are harming the economy instead of helping it.

Why is the federal government moving in the wrong direction, why is it not doing its job?

One factor is politicians.  Politicians are incompetent;  they have no abilities other than to get elected and look out for themselves.

Another factor is the individual.  The people are stupid, selfish and lazy:

-stupid in that they believe what they want instead of what is true as in believing the politicians from their party know best.

-selfish because they want policies that benefit only segment of society.

-lazy to expect the government to provide for them.

The voters keep wanting the wrong things and electing the wrong people.

Then there is the people not adapting to the evolved economy.  The structure of the economy is continuously changing.  What worked in the past, does not work now.  Business adapts, government and the worker do not.  The message is clear:  those that do not adapt, lose.

 

The facts no one wants to read.

Comments and referrals to this blog would be greatly appreciated.

Censorship Thy Name Is Reuters

Yep, it finally happened.

We have been censored by the Reuters.  They will no longer allow us to post comments to their opinion articles by their tame columnists.

The comments did not contain foul language, hateful name calling, or rants.

What the comments did contain was tough criticism of the ideas and contents of the articles.  The columnists may be thought of talented and knowledgeable, some are even Pulitzer Prize winner(s).

This just shows how low the standards of journalism have fallen and/or how biased the media has become.

This is just the beginning of the media censorship.  Can governmental censorship be far behind?

What ever happened to free speech?

The evil losers are starting their takeover of the world.

 

The facts no one wants to read.

Comments and referrals to this blog would be greatly appreciated.

Self-Righteous Ideologues

Came across this, not sure where from.

Thought-Provoker.

Andy Rooney said on 60 minutes a few weeks back: (for those of you that don’t know Andy Rooney, he is an 82-year old US TV commentator.)

I like big cars, big boats, big motorcycles, big houses and big campfires.

I believe the money I make belongs to me and my family, not some governmental stooge with a bad comb-over who wants to give it away to crack addicts for squirting out babies.

Guns do not make you a killer.  I think killing makes you a killer. You can kill someone with a baseball bat or a car, but no one is trying to ban you from driving to the ball game.

I believe a self-righteous liberal or conservative with a cause is more dangerous than a Hell’s Angel with an attitude.

The facts no one wants to read.

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Penn State Sex Scandal

Jerry Sandusky killed Pennsylvania State University.

He committed heinously crimes.  He worked for the University and committed the crimes on the campus.

University employees did not exercise proper supervision, nor did they take appropriate action.

All of the individuals from the board of directors, to the president, the administration and everybody else involved should go to prison for at least five years, undergo counseling, and publically apologize to the victims and their families.

The University should be put on probation until it shows that it can properly supervise its personnel.  The University and the criminals pay ALL costs of the matter.

Harsh?

You betcha, but that is what the University deserves.

It sends a message to ALL universities what could happen to them if they do not act responsibly.

 

The facts no one wants to read.

Comments and referrals to this blog would be greatly appreciated.

The Real Unemployment Number

The following is from a reference in a tweet by S.E. Cupp.

 

The U.S. economy is worse than it looks

Posted By Clyde Prestowitz Monday, July 9, 2012 – 11:03 AM

So the headlines said June jobs were up by about 80,000 and unemployment stayed at 8.2 percent. Not great, but not a disaster. At least things are not getting worse. Right?

Well, you could be forgiven if that was the meaning you drew from the headlines and the latest Labor Department releases on job creation. That was how it looked to me at first glance. But having been through this many times before, I took a second glance — and quickly lost my appetite.

The headline unemployment numbers are the so called U-3 government numbers that count just current jobs held, gained, and lost. Because of seasonal factors it is easily subject to distortion that makes it more or less meaningless as was the case in June. A broader, more meaningful measure is U-6 which takes into consideration short term discouraged workers who have only recently stopped looking for work as well as those working part time who really want full time work. U-6 unemployment is 14.9 percent and up about two tenths of a percent in June.  Then there are the numbers of the consulting firm Shadow Government Statistics (SGS) which hark back to 1994. Until that time, the U.S. government kept track of long term discouraged workers as well as short term discouraged workers. In 1994, the method of collecting and calculating the unemployment data was changed and the workers who said they would like to work but were so discouraged that they hadn’t been looking for work for a long time were defined out of the calculation. But SGS still does the calculation, and it’s a shocker — 22.9 percent. Yes, that’s the percent of Americans who say they would like to work but for one reason or another can’t find work, are working only part time when they want to work full time, or have become so discouraged that they have given up looking for work. That number means that the U.S. full time work force ought to be a quarter larger than it currently is. Can you imagine what that would do to U.S. GDP growth, to local, state, and federal government tax collections and budget deficits, to savings and investment, and to long term retirement prospects?

The fact is that the U.S. economy is operating far below its potential productive capacity. Estimates of how far below vary, but a good guess is about 5-8 percent of GDP or close to $1 trillion. Remember when Senator Everett Dirksen used to say: “a billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you’re talking about real money?” Well a trillion dollars is real money, and it’s money America isn’t making. Why is the big question.

A significant piece of the answer can be glimpsed in a recent report by U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk. In a recent press statement about the Global System of Preferences  he said:

“GSP is a valuable tool for advancing the Administration’s goals to boost trade and to advance international economic development. The GSP program helps developing countries to grow their economies while also helping U.S. businesses, workers, and consumers by lowering the costs of imported goods, including those used as inputs for U.S. manufacturing. The annual review allows the Administration to ensure that the program is working as intended.”

Got that? The focus is on promoting cheap imports. Looking at the U.S. trade deficit, I’d say the program is working fully as intended. But if the U.S. government spent a fraction of the effort it spends on promoting cheap imports on promoting domestic American production, the U.S. unemployment numbers would look a lot better and the economy would be much closer to operating at its full potential capacity. For the United States to achieve growth without increasing debt, it must substantially cut its trade deficit.

 

The facts no one wants to read.

Comments and referrals to this blog would be greatly appreciated.