My Blog

I was reading on the bill that just passed the House. Someone put a few blurbs together about what some of the bill says. Please, please, call and write your Senators and tell them not to support this complete overhaul of our health care system. We don’t need a complete overhaul. We need change, but not that costs $1.2 trillion over 10 years. It’s full of pork!! And it gives too much power to the government. Which article of the Constitution says that the government can MAKE me buy something or tax me and throw me in jail if I don’t? Where is the liberty and freedom that we used to have going? We should be outraged, but most of us just sit back and take it. WAKE UP, AMERICA!!

This bill reduces medicare funding by an estimated $500 billion, the bill fundamentally changes how Medicare pays doctors and hospitals permitting the government to dictate treatment decisions. SEE SEC 1302 (pp 672-692).
Sec 1114 (pp 391 – 393) replaces physicians with PAs in overseeing care for hospice patients.
Sec 1158 – 1160 (pp 499-520) initiates programs to reduce payments for patient care to what IT COSTS IN THE LOWEST COST REGIONS OF THE COUNTRY.
Sec 1161 (pp 520 – 545) cuts payments to MEDICARE ADVANTAGE Plans (used by 20% of seniors).
Sec 399V (pg 1422) Provides for grants to community “entities” ACORN
Sec 222 (pg 617) Provides reimbursement for culturally & linguistically appropriate service.

Some things I didn’t know! Enjoy the 4th!

Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men
who signed the Declaration of Independence ?
Five signers were captured by the British as traitors,
and tortured before they died.
Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.
Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army;
another had two sons captured.
Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or
hardships of the Revolutionary War.
They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes,
and their sacred honor.
Read more…

This is just another reason every person should own a gun. One might say that this could never happen. That I’m paranoid. OK. Don’t buy a gun then. But if this comes to pass and you need to defend yourself or, better still, need to have someone else defend you, I may or may not help you.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,496309,00.html

I’ll tell you what’s wrong.  No one assumes any ownership or accountability for anything.  I shouldn’t say no one.  There are some people who do.  However, I get so frustrated by those that just sit by and expect everyone to do for them.  A couple of examples.

I was at the gas station and a young woman drives up in a nice looking, probaby not new, but good looking F150 truck.  She pulled up as I was approaching my truck to get in and leave.  She got my attention and asked a question that I couldn’t hear.  I excused myself and asked her to repeat it.  But then I cut her off in the middle of her question as I knew where it was going.  I said, “Let me guess.  You need gas money.”  To which she said yes.  She has her kids in the vehicle and has no money for gas.  She said I could go look at the vehicle if I didn’t believe her.  Now, why would she say that?  I’m not going to go check up on her story.  While she was talking I gave her a quick once over.  She was probably 20-23 years old.  Her hair was pulled up nicely and she had a scarf around her head.  Kind of a 70s thing going on.  Her sunglasses we also perched on her head.  She was nicely dressed in a skirt and a top.  They were nice; somewhat conservative.  She wasn’t flaunting anything.  Her nails were manicured (fake nails).  I asked her why she was driving around with no gas.  She said she was just praying that she’d make a gas station.  I told her I didn’t want to look at her vehicle and I wasn’t going to help her (give her money or gas).  I told her she needed to plan better.  I got in my truck and drove off.  Now, what in the world is she doing driving around with her kids in the car if she knows she has no gas and no money to buy gas?  When this happens, you stay home!  Or you walk!  Or you call a friend or family member.  Why on earth would you walk up to a total stranger and ask for money.  I’ll tell you why.  Because in today’s society, it’s acceptable to beg.  In fact, I’ve had some panhandlers get mad and insult me when I tell them I’m not going to help them.  They’ve got a lot of nerve!  Actually, they think they don’t.  They think I’m the one with a lot of nerve.  You see, they think they are entitled to my money.  If you talk to them, they tell you they’ve tried to find a job.  No one is hiring.  Or the job was too far away.  Or it doesn’t pay enough.  Doesn’t pay enough?!  Compared to what?!  Compared to the money that they hustle from people that give them money just to make them go away.  (Most people don’t want the confrontation and pay to get rid of them.)

I actually was approached once in the supermarket parking lot by a guy that said his daughter was just admitted to the hospital in Flagstaff and he needed gas money to get there to be with her.  I told him no.  I was actually approached by the same guy about a month later, in the same parking lot, with the same story.  I just looked at him and told him his daughter must be the most unlucky person to have to be admitted twice in as many months.  He just looked at  me.  I stared right back and told him he approached me last month and he should probably change his story every once in awhile.  He turned without a word and walked away.  I got in my truck.  I saw him approach a woman and talk to her.  She started to get in her purse.  I drove over.  I got to them just before she handed the money over.  She actually had it in her hand.  I stopped right next to them and told her not to give him money as I had heard the story just the past month.  She retracted the money.  I stayed there until she was safely in her car while I watched him walk away.

But I digress.  That wasn’t the second example.  This is.  I was in Sportsman’s Warehouse again today.  They have a computer there that you can use to print out topographical maps.  I walked up and it had an out of order sign on it.  I said softly, out loud, “you gotta be kidding me” and I just stood there for a couple of seconds.  While I walked up and while I was standing there, two employees were standing close by.  One was behind the optics counter and the other was leaning against an end cap.  I started to look around and I saw one of those magazine carousels.  It had topos of CA, NV, AK.  I started to walk toward it.  The kid leaning against the end cap says, “There’s no AZ maps there.  We don’t have any.”  I half jokingly said, “Well what good are you then”.  He shrugged his shoulder’s.  The guy behind the optics counter says, “Hey, don’t blame us.  We just work here.”  I looked at him and said, “That’s a great sense of ownership you’ve got there” and walked out.  Now, I bet he doesn’t even know what I meant by that.  He probably thought to himself, “I don’t own this place.”  While he’s right.  He’s technically wrong.  Every employee of every company owns the success of that company.  I see this so much in our young people today.  No ownership.  They don’t step up.  It’s not their problem.  But they get mad because they didn’t get the promotion that they feel (wrongly so) they should get because they have merely shown up to work on time every day and do everything they’re told to do, but do nothing to show initiative and excel.  But then they still don’t see that as caused by them.  Should the store management make sure they don’t run out of maps?  Sure.  But those two employees could go see the manager and tell them that they are losing business because they don’t have maps.  Maybe then the manager could get some from another store, or call and expedite the current replenishment order.  Something.   But instead, “Hey, don’t blame us.  We just work here.”  Really?  You look like you just take up space and put a drain on your company.

We need to fight against the victim mentality that exists in our society today.  We also need to fight against our government supporting the victim mentality.  Victims are not born, they are made.  They are made by society coddling the populace.  It seems everyone wants a handout.  Not just the guy/gal in the lot.  Not just the “I hold up the end cap” employee.  But our big corporations too.  Unless we can do something about this mentality, we are doomed.

In the days leading up the the presidential election and in the time since Obama has been elected, there has been a serious increase in gun purchases as well as ammo sales. I don’t have any hard numbers to back me up on this, but I do have a personal experience. I went to a local Sportsman’s Warehouse store. Whenever I go there, being someone who likes guns and believes the 2nd Amendment is a RIGHT, not a priveledge, I always walk by the gun counter. This day, I was totally surprised by what I saw. There were hardly any handguns on display. In fact, there was probably well over 50% less handguns maybe as much as 75% less on display than the last time I had been there which was a couple of months before. I was astonished. So much so that I just stood there and stared in awe. I thought to myself, “They must be not going to carry handguns anymore” as I’ve seen other stores take this stand (Walmart and Sports Authority) for fear of being sued if a wack job uses a handgun that was purchased in their store to do harm to someone illegally. I stood there so long, and I must of had a strange look on my face, because one of the salesmen behind the counter who was actually helping a customer interrupted his conversation with that customer to ask me if I was OK. I told him I was fine, but I took the opportunity to ask him if they were not going to carry handguns anymore. His reply? “No, we’re still carrying them. There’s just been a huge run on them.” 

I have also been watching the run on ammo and the price increases that have gone along with it.  5.56 Nato ammunition used to be available for about $.35/round.  I received an advertisement the other day that was touting military grade 5.56 ammo at $.97/round.  Unbelievable!

But this is what happens when people believe that their right to own a firearm or even just ammunition is about to be taken away.  We saw the same thing happen when Congress put the assault gun ban in place in the 90s.  As there was a time lag between when it was passed and when it went in effect, people went crazy buying guns that were going to be on the banned list.  By the way, an assault rifle is a rifle that fires fully automatic.  Those are already heavily regulated.  The ban that was in place was a ban on assault “looking” rifles.  If it looked mean, they banned it.

Is this run on guns and ammo justified?  I guess time will tell.  What each person needs to do is take heed to what Obama says and make a personal judgement as to whether he can be believed and trusted.  He has been saying all along that he won’t take anyone’s guns away.  But, by the same token, he has NEVER supported pro-gun legislation and has in fact supported every piece of anti-gun legislation that he’s seen, both at the state and federal level.   He’s also loading up his administration with a bunch of anti-gunners.  Here’s a good read on it.  http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,479367,00.html

Personally, I bought a bunch of ammo almost a year ago.  Anybody want to buy some?  I’ll sell it to you cheap.

I keep hearing in the MSM that the entire world seems to be against Israel in their prosecution of the conflict in Gaza. People are screaming about how bad Israel is and how Israel is the problem in the whole mess that is the Middle East. What really gets me is the fact that everyone seems to think that Israel is a bully in this current conflict in Gaza and they are using a sledge hammer to swat a fly.  They call how Israel is fighting a “disproportionate” response to Hamas’ firing rockets into southern Israel. I think they’re right. Instead of Israel making phone calls to the buildings they are going to bomb or shell and the neighboring homes as well, I think, to be fair, Israel should just launch unguided missiles into the Gaza strip. That would be an equal response, right? That’d be better.  Yeah.  So, instead of making those calls or dropping leaflets informing of the impending destruction of a specific target, they should just indiscriminately lob some ordnance in there. Brilliant. Who cares about the Palestinian men, women and children who are not Hamas, but will be blown to bits anyway. By the way, if the rockets stop flying out of Gaza, the Israelis say there can be some measure of cease fire, maybe even a peace accord somewhere down the line. But I’m thinking that it would be better to buckle to international pressure and take the Israeli soldiers out of harm’s way.  That way Israel can provide that equal and appropriate response and fire off some unguided missiles.  That will help stop this conflict, right?

Sometimes controversial, sometimes opinionated, always a straight shooter, he tells it like it is… and 100% made in America!