Wrong Destination

On this site I found all these funny comments and events:

Wrong destination

Having a common name like "Smith" must cause some difficulties at times, especially when you also have a popular Christian name. In one street there were two Smith families where the husband was named "Bill". The Rev.Bill Smith had just passed away. The businessman Bill Smith, however, went on a business trip to India. His plane was diverted to a different airport. He sent a telegram to his wife, but it was delivered to the wrong Mrs. Smith. It read:

Arrived safely, but not where I thought I was going. Terribly hot here. All my love, Bill.

Homelessness Soaring this Year

Nationwide, families are suffering. In New York the number of homeless people on the streets has risen to 34%. An all time high for this state. Many people have no resorted to staying in subway stations, train stations, under the overpasses, on the streets; it seems like everywhere we walk there is a homeless person. Men, women, children; all of these people are affected. I don't think the public understands that it's not only the people we see asking for money by the freeways; so many more people are suffering, so many people in worse off conditions.

So many people are homeless now, the hospitals are filling up, the police stations are full, the shelters are full too

It just says that we have to keep up our efforts and intensify them,” Mr. Marx said. “The more people we have on the streets, the more they are making demands of our emergency shelter system, emergency rooms, detox centers and jails.”

With all these efforts being put forth, it seems like conditions should be lightening a little. Instead it just seems like conditions are growing worse and more and more people are homeless. Every time I get on the freeway in Walnut Creek, there is a person begging for money, its hard to drive by in my 2008 car with my designer sunglasses and music blaring, and not feel like I have so much and he/she has so little. I don't know what to do in cases like this, I give money sometimes, but I can't give money every time I stumble upon a homeless person. If I did I would be out there next to them pretty quickly.

Tea Party Activists Give Bad Name to Right Wing, But there are those Democrats who are also an Embarrassment

Now that the health care bill has passed, the Tea Party Activists are going crazy. We already know that in front of the health care bill signing, an activist was outside with a confederate flag. On this radio blog, the host definitely has some points where he makes sense about the absurdity of the activists, but on some levels, assuming he's a left wing, he is just embarrassing his party. He is saying that the tea party activists are going to kill everyone and their families. We all know that is a lie, there might be some violent acts, but I don't think it's correct to spread the slander about murder attempts. He also makes a connection between John McCain and the activists, saying they are in cohoots, saying that they are racists. How is any of this better than what Glen Beck on Fox News lies about. I am calling this radio host out, he is allowed to bash the right wing, but he should at least have accurate facts.

I don't think the left wing democrats are able to be taken seriously if they are unable to call out the slander that occurs on the "fringe" as we like to call it.

At one point he even states that we need to get rid of "these republicans..because they are, they are nothing but destruction". Maybe this man does not realize this, but if were to eliminate the right wing, which is impossible, the morals and values of the democrats would just morph and split into right wing and left wing all over again.

Realty Rates: Affordable?

This chart seems to explain that even though the nation's deficit is at an all-time high and that the unemployment rates are continually rising, buying a house is affordable. I find this confusing; I know that at this point some families are able to buy homes, but many families, most families, are struggling to make the bills and buy school supplies. This chart is saying that the best time to buy a house is definitely in the last year. I'm not sure I believe this, but I can definitely take this into consideration. My community service is helping people who have been evicted from their homes, it's hard to hear that now is the best time to buy a home when the people I am around don't have any home to go to, much less the money to buy one.

Health Care and It's Personal Effects

This past weekend an old mentor, and friend of mine passed away due to an unknown cause (as of now). She was struggling to find a job for the past two years; without a job she did not have any health insurance. At one point she became ill and went to the county hospital to look for help. Unfortunately, county was unable to help her, eventually she started to internally bleeding and county was forced by the hand of the law to operate on her. Six days after she came home from the hospital she passed away in her home.

The ordeal that I am tortured by is that went she went for help, she did not receive the care her body obviously needed. This was a day before the health care vote was taken and I immediately understood why the left wing people are so adamant about passing this bill. Now that the bill has passed, I can take a small token of relief because I cannot stand to let this healthy, strong woman just perish.

With the new health care bill, I hope that people will be able to walk into a hospital and receive the care they need when they feel need it.

The Latest Graphics Show No Improvement

It seems that many different stories of the bouncing, or decreasing, unemployment rates. These valid graphs seem to display the sad, yet true truths. It helps to see how much our unemployment rates have increased on a visual scale.

Jon Stewart Never Fails to Get His Man

Although everyone loves to see Jon Stewert eviscerate a conservative on air, I must admit, Mr. Kristol must either misunderstand Mr. Stewert's question or he just made a nation full of enemies.

Unemployment Collapse 2010

The unemployment issue should be coming up from the slums, but apparently some in this country believe that our country will quite literally continue to be devoured by unemployment. In California, we feel the effects, but when a model of the country is shown, it's tragic to watch which other states are in the same, or worse, condition as we are.

Megan McArdle: View on the Current Health Care Situation

As of now the health care issue and it resolve seems to be up in the air. Many people believe that Ms. Pelosi has the votes in the bag and that the bill will indeed pass. The controversy between the Democrats and the Republicans is still heated however. If the bill does pass, as many people it will, the Democrats will be satisfied but the Republicans will "go into the meltdown mode" (Megan McArdle).

Ms. McArdle's point is that she also does not know where the chips will fall in the health care matter and that if the bill is passed hell will break loose on the Republicans side of the Senate. She does however have an interesting take on what will happen if the bill does pass.

Assume this passes; what happens afterward? I don't think that many people believe that the answer is "Nothing: the bill becomes law, and we sing happy smurf songs all the way to the longest life expectancy in the Western world!" Even the bill's proponents expect it will need some follow-up work. But what will that follow-up work look like?

Although I, personally, hope the health care bill passes for personal reasons, Ms. McArdle does prove a valid point. What will happen in the long-term sense if the bill passes? Yes, it will immediately help those in need of health care, but the long-term effects seem to be ominously unknown.

Go to the Prom with the Opposite Gender or We Will Just Cancel It: Not Flying with Sullivan

Andrew Sullivan replies in quite the defensive matter when he is informed about the two girls in Mississippi who wanted to go to their prom in tuxedos. The school district decided that it would be easier to cancel the whole prom than to let two girls in tuxedos escort each other. I agree with Mr. Sullivan, I believe that since it seems that parts of California appear to be ashamed of diversity, we should shove diversity right back.

Why are they so afraid of how cute girls look in menswear?...We have a feeling, even though we are old, that some girls are bringing girls to homecoming/prom/fancy-wear day dances these days...Are you one of those girls/boys? Well let’s celebrate those photos everyone is so f*cking afraid of!

This nation needs to take the whole sexuality thing under its wing and not only protect the differences but also flaunt them. Since when do we shun difference, when did being unique become taboo?

Bad News for California

Recently the unemployment rates for the nation are remaining at around 9.7%, this is good news considering the last two years of progressive downfall. Unfortunately, for California, the rates are still sinking. As of January 2010 the unemployment rates rose to a startling 12.5 %; this sets a new unemployment record for the state of California. The jobs that were let go in these few short months were: profession and personal business industries. The unemployment rate in California in December of 2009 was 12.3 %; at the rate of this unemployment rise we will have more unemployed people than employed in just a couple years. Our country has to fix itself; how to do it is the question on everyone's lips.

Good news for California, like the light at the end of a very long road; there are jobs opening everyday.

Despite the increase in unemployment in January, the state added 32,500 jobs. The construction industry saw the largest increase with an additional 16,200 jobs.

Unemployment Holds Steady

First of all the negative parts are clearly affecting the U.S. and all the residents that are without jobs. The positive edge for March of 2010 is that unemployment seems to be holding steady. The current rate seems to be holding around 9.7% although not great for the country, at least it's no longer falling. The main losses in jobs around this time of year are in construction so the only dips around that area. Fortunately there were 2.7 million job openings on the last day of January 2010. This opening in jobs has been the highest since the previous February. It doesn't seem like much, but hopefully, these job openings will begin to help the stress of the unemployment rates a little. At this stage, any help and relief is needed.

A Mother's Take On Medicinal Marijuana

Out of Denver, Colorado a mother and a son run a medicinal marijuana business together. Prior to the business the son was first a serious marijuana smoker and then a dealer. His mother does not deny that she knew about her son's illegal dealings. In fact she states, "we tell each other everything, we are very close". It is pleasing to hear that a mother, a guardian is well aware of her son's illegal activities and at most giving him a stern look.

To this day they both have medicinal marijuana cards that allow them to smoke every single day, in fact sometimes they get high together. Apparently, the new family activity is to be under the influence of drugs together.

There are some new parenting techniques that are a little unconventional, but the allowance of the use of drugs seems like its pushing the line a bit. In fact it was stated that "he feels good about coming out of the closet, the illegal drug closet. I feel like we've set a good model".

Well, under no circumstances I do not think selling drugs illegally and then selling drugs legally, while all the time high, is setting a good example.

Interesting bit.

Psychological Disorders are a Part of Health Care Too

As this country is well aware of, we are suffering from a major crisis: the cost of health care. Many people have been struggling with just being able to pay for health care, many have no coverage at all. Just because the cost of coverage is high does not mean that less illnesses, disorders and accidents don't happen everyday. Because of this problem, most lower class families are unable to see a physician.
Carlos, a second grade boy living in Los Angeles, suffers from ADHD and anxiety. Both of these are treatable problems, yet their family is unable to get Carlos the care he needs because the free clinic they were previously attending cut there psychiatric funding.
Many people without health care only visit the doctor's office when they have a major emergency and they have a small sum of money they can use. Most of these families still owe money after these visits. Unfortunately, Carlos would need to visit the doctor's office more than once and their family is just unable to scrape up that sum of money.
Fortunately, Carlos will get the medications he needs.

Carlos’ therapist says taxpayers will pay the price for Carlos either now while he's is in treatment or later on if he doesn't get help.

The Enlightening Excuse from Sarah Palin

Sometimes the things that Sarah Palin has to say just really make my day.

Obama Keeping the Peace

The health care issue for President Obama must be an incredibly stressful experience. Not only is he trying to satisfy both political parties, neither party seems willing to make any exceptions. Instead of understanding that the President is trying to lessen the problem of health care by lowering premiums and blocking insurance rip offs, it seems as though America wishes for the health care issue to add more problems to our already suffering country. President Obama even obliged to give the Republicans 4 of their own initiatives. It seems as though the conservative party was ungrateful towards the Presidents gesture as they seem to want it their way or the high way. Of course the more liberal party is not the easiest to deal with either. They seem to be able to be a little more loose with their demands, but the attitude towards the Republican's ideas is unsettled. Hopefully at the conference the two sides will be able to come to some sort of conclusion and the probability of reconciliation is likely.

A New Take On Helping Deal with Health Care

Barbara Kiviat recently wrote a blog post about the cost of health care and and what she thinks could help us deal with the debate. She has the idea that if everything, (x-ray scans, doctor visits, MRI scans, etc.) had a price tag on it then the public can know how much everything is costing and if there is a cheaper way to deal with the problem.

My colleague Kate Pickert tells me that some 30% of health-care costs are attributable to waste. I am happy to know I am now doing my part to cut down on that.

If the public were able to price everything on the spot and decide whether or not their issue is worth it, the cost of health care could possibly be helped, at least for every individual. This idea formed when Ms. Kiviat had a change in her health insurance, prior to the change she paid a flat fee every time for any type of visit; with her new plan, she now pays 10% of whatever the treatment costs. Although she now pays more for her visits, she decides what is truly an urgent matter, and what can simply be fixed with a little ice and rest.

Of course, this is a controversial view, on one hand this can be useful and certainly money-wise; but what about the people who have serious issues, such as internal bleeding, and make the decision to forgo the X-ray because of the cost but in reality need medical assistance? It seems to me that either decision is going to be easily debatable and hopefully President Obama will help to alleviate the health care stress.