lost in America – Page 2

Budget and Taxes

February, 2018

I was listening to NPR on the way to work today. NPR, you may think means National Public Radio, but it doesn’t. It means National Platform for Ridiculousness.

I listen because I want to know what the enemy is doing.

So, it was about all these liberals complaining about the excessively high budget and taxes Congress and Trump were passing. I know, I know. Who’d of thought liberals would complain about high taxes and a big budget, but they were. They interviewed this “expert” about what the American people thought about such abuses. He said something to the effect,

“When our country was beginning there was a Boston Tea Party to protest the excessive taxes coming out of Washington.”

No pause, that might have indicated that he realized that Washington (or America for that matter) didn’t exist at that time or that the beef was with the King of England.

Why do physicians get sued even when they did the right thing correctly, and idiots like this are allowed to spew stupid gibberish like this?

Your grumpy Uncle/Brother Dave. All childish invectives used in this post are appropriate and true.

https://www.npr.org/2018/02/09/584640265/bipartisan-budget-agreement-spends-too-much-money-for-most-conservative-republic

Weary

Stoned and Stupid

January, 2018

Do you know why California legalized recreational use of marijuana? No, stop. Don’t answer that question. At this point it is a rhetorical question.

Did you know that California is one of the highest state income tax states in the US. Yeah well, they just instituted a new Gift Tax Relief Program. Here is how it works. For every dollar you earn, California normally takes about 13.3 cents. But under the new Gift Tax Relief Program, if you give that dollar to the state, California will not tax that dollar. What a deal!

The 2018 California state tax rate table shows that for a single head of household earning $0, the effective tax rate is 1%. (Yup, California is right up there with the Common Core Math Method that is driving everyone crazy with it’s stupidity.) And the top California state tax rate is supposedly 13.3%.

Oh yeah, and something else you probably didn’t know. The spokesman for the new Gift Tax Relief Program mentioned above commented that what is good for California is good for the US, because California is the driving force for the US economy.

Now we can revisit the original question. Do you know why California legalized recreational use of marijuana? Well yes, the sanctioned sales of all that weed does generate more tax dollars, but…

To enforce this madness, California needs to keep it’s population stoned and stupid.

Just your grumpy Uncle/Brother Dave’s opinion.

Team Dream Busters

December, 2017

A street dose of heroin or carfentenyl might costs $5-100. Good for 1-2 good times. Unless…

It’s too strong. Since this stuff isn’t regulated by the FDA, DEA, CDC, or Pharmaceutical Industry standards and what not, it might be anything. If it’s too weak, the next dose might be too strong. Because you might try to compensate for the strength of an unregulated drug and shoot up more the next time, bam, you’re out to lunch. Comatose. Soon to be dead meat and no longer a chain around society’s neck. Unless…

You come to see me, where I and my hot-shot team of nurses and techs, quickly establish an IV and shoot you with a dose of Narcan (naloxone, an opioid antagonist, and in layman’s terms the antidote to opioid overdose) and you lose all the wondrous effects of the drug you worked so hard to purchase and carefully use. Unless…

You go into withdrawal, just the opposite of your desired effect.

Team Dream Busters.

From your grumpy Uncle/Brother Dave.

Our Cars, and Our Guns

December, 2017

They are coming after your guns, but did you know they got your car first?

Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th President of the US (1963-69), was responsible. He felt that there was a need to fix something, as all Presidents do. Not only did he bring us the “War on Poverty” (which we are loosing/have lost) but he brought us the “War on Highway Disease.”

Betcha ya haven’t heard of that one, have you? But, you probably are very aware of the effects of this major government boondoggle.

I doubt that ‘ol Lyndon was even aware that highway fatalities were a significant issue and I believe that a staffer told him something like, “Hey Pres, here is something that you can use as a legacy and endear yourself in the liberal heart for evermore.” Or something to that effect.

He/they felt that there were entirely too many deaths occurring on our nations highways and started a campaign to correct the problem. Things like raising the drinking age to 21y instead of 18y, seat belts, padded dashboards instead of metal, collapsible steering columns, break-away/collapsible plastic bumpers, head rests and a host of other expensive improvements. And, crash dummies to test these innovations.

Believe it or not, LBJ started the FARS (sounding very close to farce, but its real). Fatal Accident Reporting System.

The concept was that cars cause injury and death, not accidents. Heard anything like that before? Its kind of like, “Cars don’t kill people, people kill people” was a phrase that just didn’t make sense to them. The problem was not that cars were being used inappropriately, such as under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or that poor judgment/skill was a factor in the accidents and injuries. The problem was that cars were unsafe. Cars were the inherent problem.

Slowly, very slowly, the effects of this campaign became more noticeable to the masses. For instance, the crash-test dummies became public figures. Caricatures of these inanimate objects were used more and more in advertising campaigns in wildly satirical manners. They became the joke. People began to realize that there was a price to pay for all these “improvements” in the safeness of their cars. The masses came to realize that while nice to have, some of these improvements were not worth the increase cost of the vehicle. These “improvements” became the joke.

Not to change the topic, but a pickle suit or an anti-suicide smock, Ferguson, turtle suit, Bam Bam suit, or suicide gown is a tear-resistant single-piece outer garment that is generally used to prevent a hospitalized, incarcerated, or otherwise detained individual from forming a noose with the garment to commit suicide. Read straight jacket.

Back to the “War on Highway Disease”, we will soon have the NERF car, the highway version of a pickle suit. NERF being the trade name owned by Hasbro of the foam impact toys that can be used by children (or children-like adults) unsupervised without risk of harm. Then our cars won’t be dangerous and traffic fatalities will plummet.

So, when you hear, “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people,” you’ll understand why I get a little nervous.

From your crash-dummy, grumpy Uncle/Brother Dave.

The Boston Tea/Alcohol Party

November, 2017

Some will say that I might be just a little prejudiced on this issue, but I think the government is a little on the wrong side here. I’m not saying that I’m an anti-oil company, big government liberal or anything. You be the judge.

I noticed a sign at a gas station on the way to work tonight. Unleaded gasoline was $2.29 per gallon and E-85 was $1.99 per gallon. Of course, we’ve all been through the analysis that the only reason for ethanol to be cheaper than gasoline is government subsidies.

But that’s not the issue.

The quantitative analysis.

E-85 is 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline. The ethanol is distilled from grain products grown right here in the good ‘ol US of A. So, people who purchase the ethanol pay 30 cents for the gasoline in the mixture and $1.69 for the ethanol. So, if the gallon was pure ethanol, they would be paying $2.34 for a gallon.

Do you see where I’m going with this, yet? No?

Well, let’s look at the cheapest liquor in the US. For Example, McCormick Vodka. At about $36 per gallon, it is 80 proof, or 40% ethanol. It is made from distilled grains grown right here in the good ‘ol US of A, mind you. So, still speaking of the cheap stuff, one pays $90 for one gallon of pure ethanol. I’ll leave it up to the reader to work out the price of higher quality Oban scotch, for instance.

The qualitative analysis.

Our government is subsidizing an industry that takes domestically produced grain and makes fuel so that a small minority of consumers can feel good while a sister industry uses the same grains in the same process to make the same product that a majority of consumers use to feel good.

But for a hugely different price.

This, in my humble opinion, deserves the same actions as the Boston Tea Party.

From your grumpy Uncle/Brother Dave. For those interested, it’s all algebra.