I am very irritated with media companies such as yours constantly battling with Satellite providers like DISH Network. It’s no better than the idiotic union thuggery that is occurring in Wisconsin and other places across the country. You should be happy that you are able to extort any money from companies such as DISH and DirectTV, much less always wanting more at contract time.

Frankly, in this day and age, we are able to get much of our programming free on the Internet through sources both legal and quasi-legal. I suspect that more people will begin to seek out these alternatives to constantly rising Satellite and Cable bills that are caused by companies like yours always wanting more in the name of “fair market value”, which is just a euphemism for ever-increasing greed.

Much of the programming on network stations isn’t worth watching with the exception of scripted crime and legal dramas. Even those are beginning to become a bit much with the constant spin-offs. Reality television is dead, overdone and boring…but it dominates your network airwaves because it’s cheap to produce and easy to feed to the fools who don’t know any better.

Start creating more original programming and maybe we, the consumers, will start seeing the need to supply you with more “fair market value”.

and here is the comment I posted on DISH Network’s Facebook Fan Page:

Continue taking your stand, DISH. LIN shouldn’t charge for what they air for free everywhere else. You might remind them that if we all decided to unsubscribe and switch to watching and downloading our shows for free (which I am seriously considering) they would get NOTHING. Every show is available for free on the Internet and there will never be anything they can do to stop it. Also, stop paying for crap like OWN and passing the additional fees onto your customers. Channels like that should be optional-subscriber-based like HBO & Starz. If people want it, let them pay for it…not those of us who don’t want it.

I seriously hope for a day that everyone stops paying their cable and satellite bills and starts watching television online. Screw the assmops who keep playing with our money! If you want to read the propaganda from both sides, see the links below:

http://www.fairsatellite.com

http://www.linmedia.com/attention-dish-network-subscribers/

You cannot “reform” Fannie & Freddie. These must be dismantled and the properties immediately sold to private investors who admittedly will have to live with the terms of the original contracts signed by the buyers.

There can’t be a “repeal & replace” solution to Obamacare. It needs to be repealed, plain and simple. There are some great ideas, like striking down the laws that don’t allow competition between insurance companies across state lines but don’t be fooled into thinking that one master’s whip is going to feel better than another’s. I read a quote the other day that said that at this point it doesn’t matter who is in power, Democrats or Republicans. Both want to drive us into the abyss, it just depends on how quickly you want to get there. We need to break out of this paradigm of Red vs. Blue in order to create true change. Everyone needs to stop voting for people who want to control you.

Another point that I have been beating my head against the wall about is the affirmation that somehow the federal government has any business declaring what a marriage is. Isn’t marriage a religious construct? If you even allow that it’s a social contract, why does the federal government need to regulate it? Isn’t that an issue that could be better handled by the states?

Social Security & Medicare should not be held up as sacred cows. There needs to be a plan to phase these programs out while honoring the agreement made between our country and those who have paid into the system. We can help the poor, but why is it the duty of the federal government to manage someone’s retirement plan? It’s the greatest pyramid scheme in history, and by government fiat a wrong is called right. Another important question to ask: why is a federal government more able to help the poor than a local government or charity?

This is really the litmus test that should be applied to ALL proposed bills, is it the job of a federal government or can it be handled better locally? Ahh, but the career politicians can’t have that! They have bills to pay. It’s expensive to live like royalty and jaunt to another country on a whim, for the “greater good” and all that stuff. Who would bribe them to vote one way or another if they were only voting on important things?

The real solution is much more frightening to the American people. This country has been infected by a powerful virus. It’s time to reformat and find a new operating system. This will require REAL changes that will anger the establishment politicians, the “ruling class”, who will stop at nothing to convince you that they are only doing what is best for you. Can you swallow the bitter pill and begin to walk the path to freedom? Or will you just get back on your knees and look up at your Overlords with your doe eyes, hoping they won’t hurt you again?

I posted this as a comment on another blog…it’s in moderation and I’m reasonably sure it’ll get approved since I wasn’t a total asshole, but here’s the basics so that you silly libs will automatically know what my stock response will be when you bring up old copypasta about public schools and public transportation.

Public Schools? Yeah, those are working great! We have the smartest kids in the world being generated from the halls of our public schools. Okay, so not really…but the answer is always to throw more money at it. Too bad it’s being stolen by the administrators. Hmmm. Socialism is great!

Public Transportation? Now there’s the greatest thing socialism ever brought us…too bad they’re always a breath away from bankruptcy. Can you say, Amtrak?

Social Security & Medicare. Are you serious? Here’s a system that has stolen a percentage of every working man’s paycheck for all of his career…only to be given a pittance at retirement. It’s structured so that you will NEVER live long enough to get all of that money back. Wanna know why? Oh, so sorry. Mr. Kennedy needed a jewel-encrusted coffin…bought and paid for by you and me. Thanks, Socialism! We love you!

I hope that didn’t come across as too mean.Well…maybe just a little.

You know you’re getting old when you get upset at the news every time it’s on, but it’s inescapable these days with news at your fingertips and in side-bars while checking your email. It has been awhile since I’ve posted, so I figured that the Healthcare debate was a good enough reason.

I wonder if the fools in Washington realize how transparent they are, though? Democrat Ben Nelson spent a week grandstanding to his conservative constituents that he’s not going to vote for a healthcare proposal that includes abortion. All it took was a wheelbarrow full of money to grease those evil paws and a little re-arranging of the legal-speak to change his mind. The same could be said about Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu who was hedging her bets until she could get her piece of the bribery pie.

All to appease Obama in his political desire to have a healthcare bill…ANY healthcare bill on his desk before Christmas so he can say, “I did it”. It doesn’t matter if it’s as worthless as the paper it’s written on, he just needs to be able to say he did something. It’s a lot like the Copenhagen Debacle. Words…just meaningless words that aren’t legally binding because he has no power to sign treaties without Congress’ approval…which isn’t that hard these days with the idiots we have in power.

It doesn’t really matter though. It doesn’t matter if this idiotic “healthcare” bill passes because Democrats are truly damned if they do and damned if they don’t.

Obama has seriously undermined his efforts at re-election in 2012 because members of his own arm-twisters, Organizing For America, are defecting in droves in revolt over how whimsical the current healthcare plan is, feeling “duped” and describing their messiah as “weak” and “duplicitous”. I couldn’t have said it better and there is even palpable fear of the same type of backlash that happened in 1994 and are already picking their whipping boy in Rahm Emmanuel. I can’t describe my glee as I watch the infighting.

The Democratic Congress & Senate are also in serious danger during the mid-term election cycle. If this bill passes, and it’s very likely, conservatives will have been given the best campaign tool ever because the bill in it’s current form does very little but raise taxes and forces every single American to buy insurance. So, next year you can expect a whole boatload of extremely angry Americans to be at the polls, voting these turkeys out. If the bill somehow manages NOT to pass…then it’s still a great campaign tool because it will reinforce how feckless Obama and his Congress & Senate truly is.

It’s sad that it has come to this, though. I stated in a blog last year that if Obama won, it would serve a single purpose: to ensure the demise of Democrats because the younger generation would finally know the suffering and learn the lessons that some of us older ones remember from the days of Jimmy Carter. We didn’t need to learn, we already knew our history. If only this were taught in History Class at the local public school, we might have avoided these horrible times.

Another sticking point for me is these AP news stories that always say, “the measure is designed to spread coverage to tens of millions who lack it” After reading several of these over the last month or so, I always wonder how much of the story is copypasta from Obama’s Press Orifice. In debates with friends (and a few enemies) I always hear the mantra, “People need insurance so they can go to the doctor and get well”, and thus springs the immediate facepalm.

“Insurance” is not supposed to be a colloquial term for “Discount Card“, but it has creeped into the lexicon and politicians and fools have all spread the lie that if you have “insurance”, you’re entitled to pay less to your doctor. Okay, it’s a half-lie because as the end user, you only have to make your co-payment…but there is the rub: co-payment. By it’s very definition, it implies that somebody else is covering the rest of the fees. Could it be Santa? Nope. Is Obama or House & Senate Democrats opening up their personal checkbooks to help pay the rest? Not a chance.

So let’s get back to definitions. “Insurance” by it’s very definition is supposed to be like playing a game of chance. The insurance companies are betting that you won’t get sick and need them to pay part of your healthcare. You are betting that someday you might get sick and need them. That’s what “insurance” really is. Hedging your bets just in case, just like in blackjack.

So why does everyone think that by virtue of giving someone “insurance” that they are more likely to survive? It’s yet another lie perpetuated by the slick talkers in Washington. If you have insurance but lack the money to make the copayments, you’re going to be just as sick. At least today hospitals have to treat you. If you go to the right hospital, and can prove you cannot afford the bill, you can even get all of your healthcare for free (well, free to you but paid by the generosity of others) or at least at a very nice discount that would rival “insurance”. That’s the real “insurance” for the poor and needy. If you are really sick all you need to do is get to a hospital because they have to treat you.

I know, I know…but you live in a place like New York City or Seattle or San Francisco. If you aren’t thriving there, why stay? Is it so important to tell all your friends that you’re so cool because you live in a cardboard box in Manhattan and pay $600 a month to live in it? These days, there is no reason to feel compelled to live in squalor in a big city.

But by now I’m talking to myself….

"If I could only lose another 10 pounds..."

Hell has no fury like a woman scorned…unless it’s the internet that was scorned. Originally posted at photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com this photo was met with a DMCA threat by Ralph Lauren’s foolish attorneys. Fortunately, Canada still has Freedom of Speech, so it’s now posted at www.boingboing.net/2009/10/06/the-criticism-that-r.html.

Copyright Infringment? Welcome to the real world Mr. Lauren. In this country (and several others) we have the “Fair Use” exception to copyright law because we are ALL publicly mocking you and this photo for being so silly.

I guess what sickens me about it is that this is what Ralph Lauren expects the world to embrace as beautiful. A woman so emaciated that someone commented “Dude, her head’s bigger than her pelvis”. Seriously, she looks like a poster child for the “feed the starving models of the world foundation”.

Maybe my wife should hurry up and send her a few helpings of her famous lasagna. That would nourish the poor skeleton real quick!

I thought it was funny because if you look at some of the richest people in Congress and Senate today…and even one who is now dead who’s family is among the richest…they’re all Democrats. Sure, there are plenty of “rich white guys” who are Republicans and Conservative…but none with the power that the “richer white guys” who happen to be Liberals.

So let’s go down the list. I’ll start with some very rich pasty white guys who belong to the party that supposedly represents the middle-class and poor minorities. These are Democrat moneybags.

Bill Gates, Ted Turner, George Soros…

Then we have the pasty, rich, white members of Congress who happen to be Democrats. Most of the information I use here was found at rollcall.com and it should be noted that I put the words “at least” because these numbers are based on the financial disclosure documents that they are required to file…but these have been historically cagey documents that don’t always show their true financial worth.

Ted Kennedy, white guy supreme…very rich, thankfully dead and hopefully the Kennedy Dynasty died with him. He was worth at least $47.62 million dollars.

John Kerry, frankenstein never looked so white…and rich? To the tune of at least $230.98 million dollars. He holds the position of “richest member of Congress”.

Al Gore…who’s father actively fought against the Civil Rights Act…pasty and white. Worth at least $100 million.

Bill Clinton. Hillary Clinton. Nancy Pelosi. Chris Dodd. All very rich and all very white.

Even Barack Obama…half-white…is worth at least $1.75 million dollars.

So why do people continue to believe that only rich people gravitate to the Republican Party or Conservatism in general? I imagine it’s because the Democrats have been very successful at spreading that particular lie. It’s convenient to ignore that they were the party of the KKK. It’s convenient to ignore that they fought against the rights of black people to vote…unless of course, they promise to vote for their candidate. History is rife with examples of how the Democratic Party has exploited so-called minorities and working people across the country…selling the lie that they actually represent them…and that even though they’re rich that they’re somehow different, all the while promising “change” without getting into those pesky details of how “change” is just another word for the soft slavery of big government. It’s appealing to “fight the man”, even if it’s “the man” who is secretly running the revolution. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, young Democrat.

So now we hear the unprecedented news that Obama will be speaking to the nation’s children, encouraging them to stay in school. That sounds nice. I have no problem with any President speaking to school kids. If only the White House wouldn’t have sent learning plans to schools that seems to cajole our kids into agreeing with everything this guy says. I wonder what would have happened if Bush had done the same thing? The ACLU and other liberal whiners would have most certainly raised an uproar and filed injunctions stopping those lesson plans from being implemented. It would have been a black eye on the scale of reading about a pet goat while the towers fell.

Not for this guy, though. Everything he does is so cool….

This wonderful government program has had a few unintended consequences, or maybe this was the plan all along.

The price of used cars is skyrocketing since there aren’t very many left around to sell. I could agree that some true “clunkers” should be taken off the road but did anyone drive by some of the car dealers after the first week of the program? You could see perfectly viable cars that could have been put back into the market cheaply for the very people our Democratic administration claims to want to help the most: the poor. It could also have helped the ailing car industry by creating a true influx of cash for those who couldn’t afford the more expensive vehicles on the lot.

I know that when I was very poor (and I’m not exactly swimming in cash these days) I was glad to be able to find a decent car for about $500. Now the cars that go for that same price today are true “clunkers”. The people selling them think that you’ll buy from them and take it to a dealer to get a $4500 credit for it. I even got a letter from a local dealer asking me to trade my newer vehicle in because of the lack of used vehicles available at auction. I was offered well over book value, but I like my car.

Car dealers across the country also witnessed what happens when you put the government in charge of anything. As of this date, only SEVEN PERCENT of all transactions have been approved and paid. That’s a staggering number when you consider that the dealers have more or less put themselves into hock to put people in the cars after 13 pages of government documentation hell and the time it takes to enter the info into the government website which invariably denies every application until it goes through appeals processes.

How long will it take to get these dealers paid? Oh, I imagine that they will understand how those who apply for Social Security Insurance or Disability or ANY government money program feel. Those who have been through that process know that a whole legal industry has been fed by the policy of “deny everyone at the initial application level” so that they will be forced to go through appeals processes that take forever. The great unsaid hope is that most will eventually get tired of the length of time it takes and give up. What these people don’t understand is that the government wants you to kiss their ring. They want you to get down on your knees and beg at the feet of a bureaucrat. You will be dependent on them, so get used to it.

What of the purported premise of the program, to rid ourselves of vehicles that are “inefficient”? Most were traded in for SUV’s. They met the requirements of the program as long as they got a better gas mileage than the traded vehicle. It was a small way of thumbing the nose at the nanny-state that wants us all driving golf carts. Many people have families that they need to cart around. Many people have jobs that require a truck to haul gear in. I guess it’s a good thing the auto industry didn’t cave to the government’s demands to make tiny cars that nobody wants to buy.

We’ll see the true results and whether or not this program was a real success in the months and probably years to come. Another important question to ask is what will happen when all the people who bought new cars they couldn’t afford default on their loans? In my opinion, this program has done nothing but create yet another government bubble ready to burst in the faces of the people. Get your gas-masks ready.

PETA SUCKS!

Just when you thought PETA couldn’t sink any lower, here’s their new billboard. Funny…I know many fat vegans and vegetarians.

United States Senator

THE TIME IS NOW TO STAND UP or GTFO of our way…