The World is Ending

I can only refrain from blogging so long. Especially when the powers that be in this world managed to undermine the credibility of a prestigious award in a matter of minutes (Oh, I forgot...they nominated Hitler for a Nobel Peace Prize right before he started burning Jews. Did they get a mulligan on that?)

From a CNN report

Less than nine months into his presidency, Barack Obama has been awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee said it honored Obama for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."

The president had not been mentioned as among front-runners for the prize, and the roomful of reporters gasped when Thorbjorn Jagland, chairman of the Nobel committee, uttered Obama's name.

Gasped. GASPED. Even the reporters in the room familiar with this award gasped...and this was published on the Communist News Network's (CNN) homepage. How do you think the rest of us are going to respond? I'm going to respond by reinstating my blog that has been dormant for several months and writing a soliloquy on "Why President Obama sucks and why the people who support him are mindless sheep."

Let's just get this Nobel Peace Prize bullshit out of they way. Extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples? What?

You mean by closing Guantanamo Bay to free terrorists? Oh, wait, he hasn't done that.

Oh, you mean by going to China and successfully negotiating the release of American tourists? Oh never mind, that was Clinton.

I know! He's successfully allowed terrorists to have free reign in Afghanistan by not sending in more troops (despite calling it a war of necessity), is allowing Ahmadinejad to slowly execute his plan to make Isreal Iran's swimming pool, and made an 11th hour appearance on behalf of the City of Chicago in a failed attempt to get the summer games in the U.S.! WHEW! I thought I was almost headed for strike 3!

I hope some You Tube video surfaces with Obama and Al Gore circle jerking on their medals (or whatever the fuck they give you) screaming for joy.

Gore: HA! Never could we imagine that the sympathy card would make us rich and famous!!! All I wanted was some government grants to fund my travel around the world now that I'm retired!

Obama: I don't even give a shit about the environment. I mean, have you seen the limo I ride in? It makes an H2 look fuel efficient. I don't even know why they gave me this award...I do know that I'm really good at pulling the wool over people's eyes though!

Then when the video becomes viral the two of them are shamed into hiding as their phony agendas are revealed, I will rejoice as newspapers around the world have headlines saying "Inventor of the Internet is Humiliated by his own Invention".

But a (now) stupid award aside, it really does no harm. Well, other than inflate the Shepard's image in the minds of the sheep...that could be a problem. Do you remember all of the news coverage of Charles Manson on the anniversary of his killing spree? Do you remember reading about it and watching the video and thinking to yourself "how in God's name does anyone fall into such a trance that they would blindly follow around this guy?"

I ask myself the same questions about Obama voters. Normally when asking myself this question, I get reminded of the answer when I see the ACORN bus driving around town picking up homeless people and registering them to vote.

Sad but true. I vote at Lakeside Apartments. This is the polling location closest to where I live. Lakeside Apartments is also CMHA housing (section 8 for those of you not in Cleveland). We moved into our condo in time for the November 2007 general election. No lines that year at the polls. I even wondered if CMHA was going to close the facility. I mean, several hundred people probably live in the apartments alone, not to mention anyone else who might live in Ward 13, yet not may people were ther voting that day.

The 2008 general election? Packed. I don't know if any of these people could read - their grasp of the English language was suspect - but they all knew how to spell "Obama". The power of ACORN! Where we can mask your prostitution ring as a legitimate small business and get you tax credits!

OK, so maybe giving him the award is a problem after all. Next topic.

Let's talk about this health care debacle. First, the problem with health care is cost. Everything else is just a symptom of cost: the large number of uninsured, families getting into financial trouble due to crazy health care bills, etc. These are just symptoms associated with the problem (cost - I'll say it again). All health care "reform" proposals on the table don't address cost, they only address the symptoms. This would be like having a dislocated shoulder and suddenly you can't throw a football. So instead of setting your shoulder back into place, you just learn to throw with your other arm...so now you can throw a football...symptom alleviated!

Anyway, the last CBO report about the latest version of Obamacare (the Senate Finance Committee version, Max Baucus Chairman) came back with an $81 billion deficit reduction. Wow! Pretty good! A health care plan that covers everyone AND reduces the deficit! I think Olberman and Maddow were taking turns giving each other fellatio during commercial breaks they were so excited (BTW, I can't watch the Sunday Night Football show on NBC I hate Olberman so much).

So just one question...how do we get to a net $81 billion reduction in the deficit with a health care plan that costs $518 billion?

Here's what the CBO report said.

The $518 billion cost is offset by revenues, fees, taxes, and savings (roughly totaling $599 billion).

$311 billion of the $599 billion comes from 4 sources:

- $201 billion in revenues (i.e., tax) from high premium insurance plans
High premium does not mean "high quality" or "for the rich". This is typically the health coverage individuals with many health needs choose - regular prescription drugs, known surgeries coming up, chronic conditions, etc. Basically that plan that takes more out of your paycheck but less out of pocket because you know you have high health needs and that option is cheaper for you in the long run. Well, now those people will be taxed for choosing that plan - taxed to the extent of $201 billion. Freaking awesome.

- $4 billion in penalty payments by uninsured individuals

They're obviously counting on people not participating. What, can't ACRON bus people down to the health bazaar and sign them up for health insurance like they did with voters? Regardless, how are those penalty payments helping those who are still not electing to get converge, and likely poor? It's a rhetorical question...the answer is it's not helping them. Freaking awesome.

- $23 billion in penalty payments by employers whose workers received coverage via the proposed health exchanges.

Basically, if you're a small business with more than 50 people, you have to offer health care insurance to everyone. That's a great way to boost the economy! Give added costs to businesses! Freaking awesome.

- $83 billion increase in tax revenues associated with expanding federal subsidized insurance.
Many health care expenses are currently tax deductible. In the future, $83 billion worth will not be. For example, today you can deduct any medical expenses over 7.5% of your income. The proposal will raise it to 10% if you are under 65. I'm sure if you are poor enough and/or sick enough where that much of your income is going to health care, I'm sure you'd like to start deducting that expense from your taxes starting at 7.5% rather than 10%. The report expects this change alone to pull in $20 billion. They are literally hoping to raise $20 billion over ten years by taxing sick people. And all of this about "moral obligation"....gotcha. Freaking awesome.

So we see this is off to a good start.

What about the rest of the $288 billion? There was a lot of discussion in the report of "Specifications affecting Medicare and Medicaid". This could also be titled "How we are scaling back the already costly government run health care program to make room for a more expensive government run health care program".

Here are some savings examples from Medicare:

- $45 billion in a reduction of payments by Medicare and Medicaid to Doctors and Hospitals.

This isn't a result of less people being on Medicare and Medicaid, this is a result of health care professionals simply getting paid less. Congratulations health care professionals...here's a pay cut! (Say it with me) Freaking awesome.

- $162 billion in a permanent reduction in the annual updates to Medicare’s payment rates for most services in the fee-for-service sector.

No more walk in clinics for the elderly. I bet all the snowbirds who might only have one Doctor back home are going to love that.

Freaking awesome.

So yeah...this lovely piece of legislature results in an $81 billion reduction to the federal deficit over 10 years. It accomplishes this by increasing the costs of health care to everyone - health care providers included. At least more people will be covered!

I have news for you. Government is not designed to run businesses. The purpose of the United States government is to protect the rights of the people. This is what the country is founded on. If you forget what rights you have, go read the Bill of Rights. Read the Constitution. Read the Declaration of Independence. Let me know when you get to the part where it says you have the right to health care. In fact, in the Declaration of Independence, one of the "crimes" the King is:

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

You mean like creating a health care czar and fining you if you don't participate? All hail King Obama!

The singular purpose of the Constitution was to avoid tyranny from a central government. The country was founded on the principle that "Government is bad, People are good". It was created in an effort to establish a civil society and ensure that those who decided to not partake in a civil society were treated accordingly. 233 years later, we seem to have forgotton. Wake up people!

Ugh. I'm tired. That was too much thinking for a Friday.

Blog Closed :(

Over the past month, I've been getting a lot of "you need to blog more" or "what is going on with your blog". So I'll answer some of that.

First, I've become disenchanted with blogging. It stems from a combination of things, mostly having to do with the incident with The Chode. On some levels, I am very selfish. Blogging was never about you, it was about me...a creative outlet for me to express myself. This is why there were no actually names or vague references to people and places; it was just something for me to do creatively; it wasn't about any one person or character. I enjoyed people reading and interacting, but once someone got all bent of shape about being anonymously called a chode and started threatening me, it got a little carried away. After that I started censoring myself and at that point, it lost it's luster.

Second, after years of not having to do much at work, I am finding myself working while at work. So that gets in the way.

On that note, I won't be shutting down the link, but don't expect frequent posts.

Um, bye :) Teets

Hey Pittsburgh...

Here is my salute to Heinz Field:



And here is my salute to PNC Park - great stadium! They really did a nice job in designing it. It feels small (well, it is small - smallest in MLB) and I don't think there is bad seat in the house. We were in the upper deck behind home plate and had a great view of the city, river, and Roberto Clemente bridge. There are a lot of food options within the stadium and I saw Yeungling everywhere, although since I had to drive back to Cleveland I didn't have any. But definitely well done. The only thing missing was cup holders at your seats...and I guess they could of had more concession stands upstairs because it took forever to get nachos, but then again the Pirates sucks so they probably aren't used to having that many people there...same thing happens at Progressive Field. Of course the other bad thing was the Indians blew another great start by Cliff Lee and lost the game. But that was kind of expected.

Also, what's up with all of the hadicapped people in Pittsburgh? I literally saw dozens of people independent from each other in some kind of motorized wheelchair. At least it was easy to get around the stadium.

So...anything else happen lately?

This week: Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcet, and Michael Jackson die. Subway in DC crashes. Governor of S.C. admits to having an affair (isn't he lucky the spotlight just zoomed off him), Iran and North Korea are about to explode, and Obama is attempting to stick a giant cattle prod directly up our ass with his national health care plan (basic economics: supply and demand. Immediate, sudden increase in patients. No increase in physicians or doctors. Go figure that out...not to mention, who exactly is going to pay for this? Actually, even a potential decrease in physicians as Hitler plans on cutting medicare wages to doctors...i.e., pay them less.)

So is less than 24 hours too soon for any Michael Jackson jokes? The way I see it, the guy everyone loved died a long time ago. Hopefully a generation away he'll only be remembered for his music and not for the last 15 years of bizarro world.

Happy Friday!!!

I won the job lottery!

So I get to still have a job! Not the same job, but a similar job...with the same (sort of) company. And my salary is going to be reviewed for potential "market adjustment". HR basically told me that means it's either staying the same or possibly going up depending on your value to both the company as well as to other companies in other sectors. I can't imagine how valuable I have been to this company historically, but apparently I look good enough on paper that I made the cut (I think that's how Angry Johnny has been fooling business executives his entire life).

Anyway, the even better news is I am now reporting to people who don't work in Cleveland. So I am going to get a laptop and will be basically be able to work anywhere I can get an internet connection. I also dug around and found our phone system manual to figure out how to re-route calls from my office phone to my cell phone. So in the near future, I could be sitting on the crapper at home and people would think I am at my desk. Or on PIB. Or in the Bahamas. Or in Florida. I will most likely be working downtown everyday, but it's nice to have that flexibility when needed. It's also great because that means I won't have to drive anywhere for work anymore. I can now realize my dream of exclusively taking the RTA to work everyday!!!! Or walk if it's nice out.

So it seems this has worked out rather well. Only thing is I might actually have to work now, but that's OK - 3 years off has been good enough :)

Story by Mrs. Teets

Well, I'm sick of blogging frankly but there have been many stories that have occurred lately that people want to get published. So Mrs. Teets typed this one up from Saturday night:

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I dont even think anyone opens my blog anymore (maybe bc I don't even open my blog anymore) but this was a story people HAD to know about. I am going to retell it from my perspective- I might get some details wrong, but you'll get the gist....

LEIC weekend on Put-in-Bay, Ohio
Saturday night


First, I need to preface this story by telling you that our group spent a majority of the afternoon at the Winery. We weren't casually sampling wines, we were guzzling wines. It was very hot out. That made us thirsty and dehydrated, so we chugged more wine. Wine with champagne toppers. Most of us were a bit, compromised, so we headed to the fishbowl to "sober up"....

Then we parted way for a bit for dinner and met up again at the Fishbowl later than night. The fishbowl had it's usual cast of characters. LEIC, friends of the LEIC, and a whole bunch of losers...

Anyhow, Mrs. Capt D and I went out for a bit and when we came back inside- you could feel the tension in the air. As we made our way to the back of the bar, I could see that a circle had formed and the guys were dancing in the middle of it. I looked for Teets. He was leaning up against the wall looking REALLY PISSED off...
I looked around to see what was going on and saw that Rob Deer and 80sBand were also very angry but Capt. D, Angry Johnny and some more LEIC friends were laughing.

Mrs. Teets: "Bill T. what happened?"

(I am going to try and type this exactly as I remember it, without laughing)

Teets: "Those stupid fucks! They started dancing and then Rob Deer and I tried to dance and those assbags started yelling at us to stop dancing! So I said, look it's an open dance floor, we can dance if we want to!"

Mrs. Teets: (in my head, OMG, my husband is getting involved in an actual DANCE-OFF!!!)

But Teets wasn't done. (ok I am laughing as I write this, I can't help it, who doesn't love a dance-off?!)

Teets: "so then those punks started saying that Rob Deer and I just did the same moves over and over again, so I said to him- then show us what you got!!" (I know, this sounds exactly like a great script from some movie from the 1980s)

At that point, I had to move bc Rob Deer was back in the circle and everyone knows you can't be too close to him when he dances bc you could get hurt. (sidenote, the next night, an LEIC friend "Rock" pronounced that Rob Deer was the "sweatiest kid on PIB" that night- it's true, he got really sweaty).

I moved over to talk to "Rock's brother" and he filled me in a bit on what happened before I came back inside. Apparently there was a bachelor party and they formed the circle- Rock's brother said to his friends: "I give this 2 minutes before Rob Deer and Teets get involved and there is a fight". true.

Other highlights:
Rob Deer standing off to the side of the circle with a raised fist while one of the tools from the bachelor party was dancing.
Rob Deer telling that same kid, "look you can be friends with us, or we'll kill you".
80sBand getting in some kid's face and screaming (as the song starting playing)" "Welcome to the Jungle, now you're going to die!!!!!!"
80sBand falling into a coma (before we went to the fishbowl) and then magically coming back to life. (there may or may not still be dried vomit in the Boardwalk parking lot)