How Bill Became a Law

Good reader, I have an answer to the question you didn't ask. Yes..., uh, well it depends. If you're like me and were wondering how a bill is made into law I have the answer for you via Schoolhouse Rock. For the non-Americans among you, Schoolhouse Rock was a type of infomercial that was put in between Saturday morning cartoons for us children back in the 70's and 80's. I don't know if they continue this awesome practice or if they've changed the infomercials into Orwellian brainwash. I'm just that far out of touch. So for your viewing pleasure I give you the following...

It's really a simplified version of how things in Washington DC work. There's a lot of earmarks and glad-handing, kickbacks, skimming off the top, and all sorts of tomfoolery. Of course, this is the kind of thing that pisses off most people, and from listening to my German brother-in-law, you'd think this sort of thing ONLY happens in America and 3rd word countries. When I listen to him talk about the Bundestag, it sounds like they have improved on Britain's parliamentary system added a few American and Soviet tweaks and came out with a rainbow strudel!

To be honest, I did like the idea that all candidates, no matter how small the party, (so long as it was registered, certified, notarized, taxed, co-signed, verified, codified, vilified, analyzed, and generally subject to Deutch engineering) received equal air-time on television and radio. Wow, talk about a game changer in the states!

But before I stray too far off topic, this recent health care bill was not pushed through very cleanly. The President used Executive Orders to adjust the bill and make deals. And various congressional procedures were overlooked or attempted to be bypassed. All very shady, coming from an administration that advertised itself for its desire for transparency. This behavior is nothing better than the previous administration. Let's hear it from Bill again, this time revamped for the year '10...

I see that the tea parties, coffee parties, and other independent-minded folks are finally mobilizing and are going to do something. Obama is a great disappointment to a lot of those folks, so I can only hope that we will find a new leader (not Palin) to take back the government.

Blah - Attack of the Yellow Dust

I'm feeling pretty blah today. My head feels like it's swimming slowly and I have little motivation to do much, except perhaps to sit on my couch and write on the blog. Hey, at least it's productive, no?  I woke up around 6 this morning, and decided I'd clean the bathrooms today. It's been a little while since I did that, and I don't want the wife to do that kind of cleaning. She's carrying my second daughter and I don't want to take any chances. So I watered everything up, scrubbed the important bits and double scrubbed the parts where skin has to touch. You figure it out. After a good cleaning that's when I felt this sickness come on. It can't be attributed to cleaning the bathroom, I must have caught something it the past couple days. Maybe it was the yellow dust from yesterday..very possible.



 So, here I am watching Animal Farm on Korean TV, drinking water in order to flush this low-grade fever I have. I hope things get better by tomorrow morning because it will suck working while feeling like run-over poop.What's that? Why don't I stay home? To hell with that. I'd gotten sick from other people at work and I'm not one to hold back when I can share something like this. Besides, I'd rather spend my days off doing something I like rather than lying around being half-productive. Water, water, water, flush the dust out of my system.

So...Obamacare

aslkfl;dln;asd;ncxi4w3p0yh4398PO239PHQEWP9B12Kl;ncvpoiwn3erwipuh!!!

What happens when you get a bunch of politicians together that can't figure out how to follow the rules, or worse, blatantly disregard them? You get government run health care, you get stimulus packages, you get bailouts. These MOFO's constantly crap all over the American people and we continue to let them do it! Why? Am I asking the wrong question? Should I ask how or for what purpose? I hope that these people aren't simply trying to line their pockets in some corrupt attempt to get richer while making the rest of us poorer. That's just too simple. It must be part of a greater scheme or someone must be pulling the strings. At least that might make sense. I know I must sound like a lunatic, but that's the only thing that makes sense. There's some greater power behind the scenes putting a gun to these peoples' heads and telling them to do this or that or something bad will happen to them.

Could it really be as simple as them trying to do something for the good of the people? Something with good intentions, but through politics, it was just twisted into this horror? I find it hard to believe. Perhaps there are a few politicians with the purest of intentions...statistically, there must be at least one. But for the rest of them...there's got to be something in it for them. I mean Obamacare is NOT going to affect Congress or the President or the Judiciary one bit. They're exempt. Oh, you didn't know? 

Update: Don't take if from me, take it from Politico:

"...The bill requires 'congressional staff' to buy insurance from the exchanges - with a stipend from the Office of Personnel Management But page 158 of the bill defines 'congressional staff' narrowly, as "employees employed by the official office of a member of congress, whether in the district office or in Washington."
The Congressional Research Service believes a court could rule that the legislation 'would exclude professional committee staff, joint committee staff, some shared staff, as well as potentially those staff employed by leadership offices.'
If that's so, staffers who work for Nancy Pelosi in her capacity as representative from California would go into the exchange program, while staffers who work for her in her capacity as speaker would stay on the government's plan. Other Capitol employees, like those who work for the Clerk of the House or the House Historian, would be similarly exempted."

No, good reader, they don't have to queue up or pay out of pocket for insurance or pay a penalty if they don't want it. THEY have special care accorded to them. F--- YOU, you --samf;amdsfoijsdhdfoihf;;lnf;oijdfgzfxpoijsdf[ppw03947-08yh;lzn!!! 

You know what. I'm going to start smoking, get as fat as Rush Limbaugh and just to bat-shyte crazy. F--- it. I mean, you're paying my bills and I'm paying your bills, so who cares, right? Don't forget, we'll also be paying for the illegal immigrants too. That's right the criminals get benefits too, AND they also get the benefit of not paying taxes!  asdponw3r4823ncpnm23qwe-0j3p09nsfdv9pn23r9drf78y.  Look, I'm in Korea, legally, and I'm not asking for any handouts. If I get sick, I'll pay the doctors. If I want my children to go to school, I'm paying for their tuitions. WHY, WHY, WHY am I paying for these illegals? The classical answer is that the Constitution does not distinguish between citizen and non-citizen when it comes to applying rights. Fine, I'm ok with that, but the moment an immigrant comes in illegally, then they just put themselves in the criminal class and as such should be treated as such. Come to my country legally, even as a tourist, and I have no problems, but break our laws and then have the balls to protest in my face....OHHHHHHHH BOY! I don't think there should be consequences for people that react when they see something that ballsy.

You know there is so much to say, but let me pause and give you Peter Schiff. He's a candidate that I support from Connecticut. I hope he gets to the Senate and with Rand Paul, begins fixing the problems there. I agree that Obamacare will not decrease costs, it will increase them and in doing so will make us all poorer. The government is out of control and needs to be brought under control. It's needed this since FDR and perhaps even sooner, but until then I strongly recommend that the lot in Washington gets cast out and a bunch of common sense thinkers gets in to straighten things out before it's too late.

The Constitution guarantees the God-given, not government-given rights of life, liberty, and property. The individual is responsible for their health and if they want poor health or if they have poor health and need help, there are ways to get help. It may not be pretty or financially viable, but that is NOT MY PROBLEM. If I am your friend I will give what I can to help. If I don't know you, why should I lift a finger? Now, through force of government, you will take from me to pay your bills. You have just deprived me of my property. Does anyone see a moral dilemma here?  Ugh!

Well, it's still early to see what the fallout and unintended consequences are, so I'll just have to wait. Hopefully with a few court cases pending in the states we'll have some protections given back. In my opinion, I think that the states that disagree should simply nullify the law. They don't have to sue, just ignore it, and if someone files suit, then they have the choice to leave the state. No one is denying them their feeling to entitlement. AND if the voters of that stat decide to launch a voter's initiative to get their federal health care, that's fine too. I'll just leave that state. Personal choice and personal responsibility, two concepts that are dying in my beloved country.

The Simple Truth Between Conservative and Liberals

I received this in email from a friend of mine and I thought it'd be nice to share it with the rest of you. Now I don't ascribe myself to only left or right but also up and down. Left is liberal, right is conservative, up is libertarian, and down is statist. If you're still confused about what a libertarian, then think about it this way: A libertarian is either a liberal with a smart sense of economics or a conservative that got beat up by a cop. I'll talk about that more later, but for now, a few simple truths...


If a conservative doesn't like guns, he doesn`t buy one.
If a liberal doesn't like guns, he wants all guns outlawed.
 
If a conservative is a vegetarian, he doesn`t eat meat.
If a liberal is a vegetarian, he wants all meat products banned for
everyone.
 
If a conservative is homosexual, he quietly leads his life..
If a liberal is homosexual, he demands legislated respect.
 
If a conservative is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his
situation.
A liberal wonders who is going to take care of him.
 
If a conservative doesn't like a talk show host, he switches channels.
Liberals demand that those they don't like be shut down.
 
If a conservative is a non-believer, he doesn't go to church.
A liberal non-believer wants any mention of God and religion silenced.
(Unless it's a foreign religion, of course!)
 
If a conservative decides he needs health care, he goes about shopping for
it, or may choose a job that provides it.
A liberal demands that the rest of us pay for his.

Car Washes and Oil Changes

 In keeping with Korean tradition, I had my car washed by Russians and went to a "sexy" car wash.

 
I went to the car wash today. After several days of rain, yellow dust and crappy weather I decided my ride needed a little bit o' the suds. She's a good car and I'm proud of her. She's a present to myself after spending some time in the desert doing security jobs there. I usually take her to this place where everyone queues up and goes through several stages where the final product is a sparkling vehicle. The carpets are washed, the windows are windexed, the outside is waxed and the tires are coated, all for the darling price of 25,000 Won. Now, I know what you're thinking reader, you're thinking, that I'm a lazy turd. I could do all of these things, and it would take me a couple of hours to get everything done, but for the price, I usually don't have to wait longer than 30 min. I think that's a fair trade of time for money, no?

After getting her cleaned up, it was time for a check-up. I brought her to the shop to get an oil change and checked out. The last time I had done this was last year. I know! I'm a regular maintenance kind of guy. I rarely go too late from my maintenance schedule, but considering that I only put about 3000km on the car for the entire year, I think, I'm ok. My normal mode of transportation is a scooter, but that's for another post. This was my first time going to this particular place, because the last place I went to had their contract canceled by my dealer.

Well, this new place is my car make's dealer (sorry I can't tell you the make of my car) in Daegu. That explains a lot! My wife had made the appointment and when I arrived, they greeted me, explained a few details and brought me upstairs to wait. The dealership is brand new, so everything is set out perfectly. It felt like an airport lounge with the coffee machines and polished bathrooms. There were leather couches to sit and watch the maintenance bays, and there were computers set-up for internet. It was all well done. When they were finished, they escorted me back down, gave me a few freebees and sent me on my way with a recommendation to come back at so-and-so kilometers. Excellent! This was the best oil-change experience I've had, and  I felt so good, I went home the long way.