Is it all coming apart?

I've been in a mood the last few days.  It may be work, or bills, or the heat, but I'm feeling more and more like it's all coming apart.  Things I thought were rock solid don't seem to be anymore.  Social mores seem to drift farther and farther away from what I think is right.  And many friends rejoice in it rather than worry about it.  These folks seem so sure that the changes they are advocating are right and just and that everything will be better once we make them.  I wish I was so sure.

It seems like cause and effect are no longer studied anymore.  That unintended consequences can't possibly happen any more.  But when I look at things, I see people just cruising toward oblivion and celebrating it.

Some of this has to do with the fact that many of my liberal friends have cast me in some unholy light - that I'm the same as the bible thumping, chest banging Republicans that I used to be.  They know, but seem to have forgotten that I'm not a member of a party anymore... I'm unaffiliated.  Doesn't mean I'm not conservative.  I am.  But they forget things like I'm a conservative who is, as defined by Republicans, a pro-choice, pro-gay marriage guy.  Conservatives don't want me anymore than the liberals do.

And yet their facebook pages are filled to the brim with scathing commentary about stupid conservatives who seemingly don't have a clue.  They don't question whether the "affordable care act" will actually create quality affordable care.  They just say "it's constitutional" and take on faith the promises made will be kept.

They excoriate Mitt Romney, who I won't vote for, and call him a toady, a greedy, profiteering menace that will lead us to ruin.  They have no worries about their own candidate, who has not:

• closed Guantanamo
• reduced our deficit
• stopped bombing supposed allies with drones
• gotten us out of the two wars we were in 4 years later
• fixed our ailing economy
• worried about killing an American citizen
• or questioned his own Attorney General about why we handed thousands of untraceable automatic weapons to Mexican drug lords.

Nope... just gotta re-elect the guy who will leave everyone else's taxes alone, but will raise tax rates on the rich, without any hope of collecting any additional tax revenue from the rich.  Instead, they'll invest in tax exempt government bonds rather than industry, as they did when the tax rates were high, which will only serve to slow job growth in the private sector.

Meanwhile, I look at who pays income taxes and find that half the country doesn't.  Which half?  Well, it's not the senior citizens.  If they have a pension, they still pay income taxes.  Certainly not the middle class, we pay lots of taxes.  And the rich, contrary to popular belief, pay most of the income taxes in this country.  So who's not paying?

I'll tell you who.  It's the people on Judge Judy!  Ever watch this show?  "Mariah is suing ex-boyfriend Earl for unpaid loans for his bail money, and a ring she gave him before he started cheating on her"  Mariah is 23, lives with her mom, is trying to get custody of her kids back (born out of wedlock) because she lost custody while she served 30 days for disorderly conduct.  Earl, 28, borrowed money from Mariah to pay for his probation after doing a 3 year hitch in the pen.  He has 3 out of wedlock children from another mother, for whom he pays no child support.  He's currently dating Monisha, who has 1 child from a previous relationship, and receives no child support from that deadbeat dad either.  She lives with her grandmother, and is dating Earl, who is currently living with his cousin Randy, who has a room in the Hooker Hotel downtown...

Every case is like this.  There are the disabled who come in.  Judy always asks them what the nature of their disability is.  It's always either back pain, or nerves.  They're suing their neighbor for loud parties and the fact that every morning, the 13 year old kid cops a squat in their backyard and leaves a steaming pile.  The neighbor tells Judy that its only fair since the disabled people's 4 dogs crap in their backyard, and they have to pick it up.  Frankly, I'm on the 13 year old's side on this one.

Meanwhile, none of my liberal friends seems to have figured out that all these criminals and disabled people are collecting SSDI or Welfare, have cable tv and air conditioning, and have enough free time to sue people and get on Judge Judy.  It's like the Roman Games, but instead of feeding slaves to the lions, we have them the slaves come on TV and air their dirty laundry for us.  And I watch this crap!  Shame on me!

The only thing I have going for me is the fact that with all this party bickering, and discontent on both sides, they can't get anything done.  Which is perfect.  You know what I want the federal government to do?  Nothing!  Sure, pay the army, make sure that the Social Security checks go out, and sure, let's have'm take care of healthcare too.  Whatever.  It passed, so get on with it.  Can't wait to get to pay for all this free healthcare.  I just hope the lines aren't too long.  Oh yeah - make sure I can get a student loan for my daughter, so I can go another 100 large into debt.  What's another 100 grand between friends right?

Other than that, I don't want a new jobs bill, or a new stimulus, or a new federal restriction on abortion, or a new consumer protection service, or a new energy plan, or even an old energy plan.  Let me buy my natural gas.  Let me fill up my minivan's tank with dino juice and tow my new travel trailer into the woods, where I can hear the birds chirp, and the brook bubble, and I don't have to listen to the next aggrieved person with some damn ax to grind about how it's awful, just awful that a business blocked in a bunch of cars illegally parking on their private property, and how they should have more community spirit than that and how dare they, and what have they ever done for the community anyway, and let's boycott them, only to find out that the entire thread on Facebook was deleted because the asshat who first posted it is now PISSED at the discussion, so no one talk dammit or I'll slice your belly open...

AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!

Odd or Interesting Things

• There seems to be a push on to tax or ban sugary sodas.  The rationale is that they are bad for you and make you fat.  So Mayor Bloomberg wants to ban sodas larger than 16 ounces.  But lets face it, beer is bad for you too.  Perhaps we should outlaw pints of beer and only sell 12 ounce sizes?  Pitchers of beer should be outlawed to.  What would beer drinkers think of that?
• High School Seniors have an entitlement never before articulated.  Had I known, I would have demanded much more during my senior year.
• Wisconsin voters keep their governor.  The majority didn't think there should be a recall at all.  What to make of it all?  People think their votes should matter.  People will vote as many times as needed to explain that to those who don't like the result of the first election.
• The numerical value 0.999... is EXACTLY EQUAL to 1.  Not close to one, not approaching one, exactly equal to one.  Here is the proof.
• Headlines proclaim that women only make 77% of what men get paid.  Studies showing this don't correct for the fact that women take more time off from their careers to raise children, sometimes don't work at all outside the home, and choose professions that historically pay less than the ones men choose. Clearly, this shows that men hate women.
• My computer was locked out this morning at work.  I called our helpdesk and I ended up asking them to do a password reset.  They ask me what my phone number is so they can call me and leave me a voicemail with the temporary password.  No... they can't just tell it to me.  I hang up.  My phone rings.  I don't answer it.  It goes to voicemail.  The message light comes on.  I check my voicemail and listen to the same guy I was talking to tell me the temporary password.  Anyway, it turns out that they have to put my password back to my old password, so they call me and ask me for it.  I pause and ask, "Is there a number I can call you at to leave it on your voicemail?" 

Repeal the Death Penalty?

I read in the paper this evening that a young man plead guilty to first degree murder.  2 years ago, he killed his ex-girlfriend.  As murders go, it was pretty typical, he stabbed her to death.  But he was skilled as a medic, so he first cut her carotid artery and then finished the job by stabbing most of her vital organs like lungs, heart, liver, etc.

Why did he plead guilty?  Well, that is interesting.  By pleading guilty and confessing to the crime, he essentially ensures himself the minimum sentence.

25 years in prison.

I don't know if he can get time off for good behavior, but let's consider for a moment that he can't - that he has to serve the full 25 years.  (I doubt it but lets go with that for now)  He is currently 20 years old.  He'll be 45 when he gets out of prison.  Just a couple of years younger than me.

During that time, he'll have his "room and board" paid for by me.  At great cost. 

Now, let's suppose that instead of repealing our death penalty, we kept it.  Made it better.  We could sentence any convicted first degree murder to it.  And we would carry out those sentences with a minimum number of appeal attempts. 

Would our murder above have pleaded guilty for a life in prison without possibility of parole sentence?  I don't know... there is no way to know.  But with no effective Death Penalty in Connecticut, the next highest thing becomes what you bargain against.  So life without parole becomes the worst punishment, and our murderer will be due in your neighborhood sometime in 2037.

But I'm sure he'll be rehabilitated by then.