My Soap Box

We are the superior species.  Really?

Sorry this has NOTHING to do with Toner Boy and his adventures, but I just had to get this off of my chest.

On my drive in this morning I was witnessing some of the most hellacious driving ever seen by man.  These visions of idiocy began fueling my fire for a new blog post concerning the other 4 hours of my day that take me from my home, to the special needs clinic, and back home each day.  As these thoughts begin going through my head as how I can best capture what it is I am seeing my mind goes into CHUCK mode!  Electro pulses are shooting across my brain triggering repressed thoughts and feelings on mankind and I start to have flashes of things that have baffled me my entire life.

That, in turn, has brought us to this.  My Soap Box.  That is right… I am going to get up on my soap box and rant like Little Johnny pointing out how obviously stupid we all are!  This is going to be a whirlwind of thoughts that are going to shoot out in every direction like having a talk with Hunny. (Me: So how was your day?  Hunny: It was good.  How about yours?  Me: It was OK, but… Hunny: Did you hear about what happened to The Fuzz at work today?  Me: Ahhh no.  What hap... Hunny: Gas is down to $2.81 at Chevron, and I got some chicken for dinner.)  Yeah.... I know.

I am going to use this page for just as it says… I am going to stand here and do what people say you shouldn't, because like almost every word that comes out of Mr. Obvious’s mouth, it shouldn’t have to be said.  These are things that we are to afraid to address, or too blind to notice that are going on around us every day.  We treat these things in a polar opposite manner than we should.  If you don’t stand up and point these things out to people they just continue to walk straight ahead like lemmings into oblivion because, “That is what everyone else is doing.”

So you better strap in, tighten your belts, and hold on because this is going to be a bumpy ride!

Let’s start with what got me fired up and going this morning and then we will move to all of the crap rolling around in my head right now that I am unable to control.  I swear it is like herding kittens!  Monday through Friday every morning, for some strange reason, there are a bunch of people that travel west from the central valley area toward the Bay between the hours of 5 and let’s say about 8.  Odd I know.  There is only one primary thoroughfare that will take you in that general direction and it supports about 528 cars per mile of road traveling in one direction. (Normal driving conditions would state that traveling at a posted rate of speed each car will require 40 feet of road space for safe driving conditions.  That is 128 cars per mile, 4 lanes… you do the math.  Onward.) Now anyone who makes this trek 5 days a week, or even has a pulse, knows that there are closer to 1,423,865 cars packed into each mile of road during that time of the day.  We are all going the same direction and we all have a place that we are trying to get to by a specific time.  Right?  So why in the fuck are there the same (Yes you travel these roads enough at the same time everyday you see the same people.  Go figure.) handful of mouth breathers that think that they are the only ones on this road and all of the cars around them are just figments of their imagination?  Let’s look at each of these types people shall we? (Again these are all just driving styles.  There are these idiots everywhere, and different forms of these drivers in your town.  I just happen to drive with the same group everyday!)

• Mr. I know a shortcut to get through this and you don’t! – This is the guy in bumper to bumper traffic that is shooting from the fast lane to the slow lane and back in less than 200 feet to move up one car in line.  Figuring that driving his car up your as is going to make you go faster even though there are 10,000 other cars nose to tail in front of you.  The one you see speeding down the shoulder or making lane changes every chance he gets because his spotter in the tower told him it was clear!  The guy you pass 17 times on the way to work because he thinks that the lanes on the right are for side drafting, not the big rigs crawling along in those lanes, and moves forward by 10 feet only to move back by 30 feet from where he was.  Yes... I love these guys!  Had a lady just last night in a high end Benz that decided that 80 was not fast enough for her and finally got off my ass in the fast lane and shot straight across all lanes to the slow lane.  In the process she cut off a redneck in a 4x4 truck who was not overly impressed with her Kyle Busch driving style and he proceeded to follow her at well over 100 miles an hour down the freeway and got off on the same off ramp as she did. (I am sure this was only to get an autograph or something.) I bet she shit her dress full!  Hmmm... wonder if she will try that move again.

• Mrs. I have to see what Sandy posted on Facebook at 5 in the morning because her pearls of wisdom are going to change my day! – We all know this lady.  iPhone shoved in her face, 4 inches in front of her eyes so she had no possible way of seeing around it, while driving 75 on the freeway.  She must have got one of those new clear, see-through iPhones they have talked about making.  Lucky bitch.  Oh wait.  There she is with her car trying to mount that poor Jetta that was in front of her that came to a stop in traffic.  How cute.  Wonder if her car at least bought it roses?

• Is this the way to Albuquerque? – I am not talking about someone who is actually out of town or even looking for some place in particular.  It is commute time and only us crazy fuckers are usually on the road at this God forsaken time of the morning!  I am talking about the ones who once traffic has broken up and started to move they are still going 20 mph just cruising along with 2 1/2 miles of open road in front of them.  You can see the Golden Gate through their windshield from Livermore if you look close enough!  You know I don't think that you should be following the guy in front of you like you are attached to his trailer hitch, and if you leave a little room so you are not on and off the breaks it helps traffic flow, (Try explaining that theory to the dumb ones and watch the drool start running as their eyes glaze over!) but at least keep up with the flow of traffic so the rest of us can get where we are going.

• Yes.  I drive like everyone else in my race, sex or age. – Once again let me state... this is not a jab, just pointing out the facts here!  Over half of the time you do not even have to look who is driving a car, but just by the way it is being driven you can tell the age, race or sex of the person driving it?  It is very simple to break out.  Here we go.  If it is being driven like it is a giant game of Pole Position and the rest of us are the drone cars that get in the way.  The driver is usually a teenager with minutes of driving experience, a woman eating a muffin, drinking a soda, talking to Jill about her bad date last night, texting her mother telling her how good the date went and how he might be the one to get her off of her backseat, putting on her makeup and changing every CD in her 12 disk CD changer with ones on the floor in the backseat, or their black.  If the car is traveling 20 mph under the posted speed limit in the fast lane you can be rest assured the person driving the car is so old the speeds that they are traveling is the top speed of the first horse and buggy they owned, and there is no other reason to go faster or switch lanes because, damn it, they like the view from over there!  They are Mexican and the car only goes this fast without the exhaust manifold falling off, or it is a woman with her car packed full of crap from a sale, or she has so many stuffed animals in her back window, that she can't see behind her to even know she is holding anyone up.  Not to mention that she does not want to have her Big Gulp of Diet Coke spill that she just bought!  The same car, in any lane, making lane changes to the left even though there are no cars in front of them to impede their progress... Asian.  Turn signal on, breaking at every single off ramp, (From every lane!) listening to Barry Manilow and wearing Ray Bans and a sweater around their neck... White male.  Same car, listening to P Diddy and putting the top to the convertible down while going 70 mph... Blonde female. (Unless it is the Diet Coke story above, then it is Ednolb!)

• This is my space, and you can’t see me in my space. – This is the best driver for people to watch in the world!  These are the people who think that just because they are in their car, and they are the only ones that are in there with them, that no one else can see what they are doing!  After all, they are all alone right?  You can see out glass and not in.  I love looking over to find a person wrist deep in their nose trying to find buggers that are not even there.  I mean there is no way there is a bugger as deep as they are in their noses, and if there were how bad can the thing really be bothering you?  Do you need to get it out right then and there with nothing else to clean you hand off with when you are done but your pants or car's door panel?  It is like a bee flew up their nose doing 110 mph and they are trying to retrieve the little bastard before he can do any harm and becomes a medical emergency!  But that is nothing... the all time winner of this category has to be the panic breaker.  I am driving along in stop and go traffic on the way home one Friday night and the woman to my left is in her late 40's or early 50's driving a small SUV.  We are going 1,000 feet at a time from 0 to 35 and then back to 0 again.  Nothing major.  She is over there just moving along with traffic with one hand on the wheel.  Well she must have taken her eyes off the road and traffic backed up faster than she had anticipated because she broke late, with sort of that panic break, and placed her other hand on the wheel to brace herself.  In doing this she shows the worked around her that she has a woman's bullet massager strapped to her index finger with a cord running out of it, to what must have been the well spring of life inside her car at that time!  In terms of distance I am physically close enough that we could be in the same bed!  She looks right over at me and sees me sitting there with the biggest shit eating grin on my face as she turns every shade of red there is.  Whatever rough week she was having that led up to this event would have only compacted ten fold if while in the throws of pleasure she would have hit the car in front of her and had to explain herself to a cop!  I can just see her there pleading her case to the officer as she points out how the sun had gotten into her eyes as she points to the East where the sun rises and her finger going, "Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!"

There should a law that allows people to carry a firearm (gun, RPG or whatever) and treat these people like you were playing Grand Theft Auto! (Oh I will be bringing this game up again later, but for a different reason!)  It should be every HUMAN’S right to shoot to kill anyone who fits into the more egregious categories above, as long as you have complete video footage to prove that it was a clean kill!  I mean come on… we can’t just have the thinning of the herd done willy-nilly.  We will need some proof and maybe some paperwork filed to keep it all on the up-and-up. (Plus maybe some cool pictures for your wall like when you bag a big ass buck or something!)  We would have to keep it sportsman like.  Maybe limit everyone to three rounds per attempt.  If you take out any collateral damage you have to have proof they were deserving or you lose your license to hunt for a year, or something.  Come on only clean kills to.  You can’t just wing a guy for fun and call it an attempt.  Then again that would be a lesson learned on his part huh?  OK… maiming is allowed with good intention.

But no, really… I mean it is getting SO out of hand out there, and the roads are just one place where you can point these acts of stupidity out.  Let’s take a handful of headlines from that wonderful source of truth, the Internet.  These are just a few headlines that I have seen over the last few days.  I find it amusing that no one sees enough of a problem to take action in a more severe manner to make people think twice before moving forward it such an ignorant manner.  I am not saying that we take up the Spanish Inquisition methods of punishment, but really there a happy medium here someplace!  Take a look –    

• From the Contra Costa Times – The Fed unveils $38 Million plan to quickly dispose of 25 obsolete war ships in Susuin Bay.  *These points are taken straight from the article – This will dispose of 25 of the 57 BADLY decaying ships that sit in the Bay over the next 2 ½ years.  17 of the ships have had 120 tons of toxic materials already stripped from them and the rest will have their paint and other toxic items removed in the next 120 days.  The ships will be pulled from the Bay to the Texas gulf and then they will be sunk.  The 27 reaming ships will be disposed of by the year 2017 IF a judge approves it and they will be cleaned every three months until they are disposed of.

Hmmm.  OK.  Trying to clean things up both aesthetically and environmentally for people living in that area.  Cheers.  BUT…. Let’s look at this brain fart a little closer.  $38 Million dollars?  Are you shitting me?  Oh wait the ships are covered in toxic paint and that has to be stripped first.  Gotcha.  But, I don’t know…. maybe you should have been fucking smart enough to think that covering an object, floating in our waters for the past 40 years may not be a very bright idea in the first place!  If they had sunk during a battle at sea were you going to send down Phil in  scuba gear with a paint scraper and a garbage bag to get the crap off all of them then?  Maybe we can play that grabber game with a big ass claw attached to a ship to try and pick the TOXIC weapons that were on board off each of them from the ocean floor?  Hand out stuffed animals to everyone who got one!  But wait… there’s more.  These ships that cost us tax payers, I don’t know… $200 Billion dollars each (That alone is just mind numbing to me!  We can afford that for toy boats in our big ass game of war, but yet our wartime service Vet’s got treated to soup lines when they came home?) in the first place to build is now going to cost us a mere $38 Million dollars to get rid of all of them.  What a deal!  Why are we dragging these things all the way to the Gulf?  Is the Pacific to shallow to get rid of a boat?  I don’t know.. call me silly but it seems to me that there is plenty of space out there for a few ships and it is about 4,000 miles less traveled, for each, to dump them in that big puddle of water to our left!  Oh wait.  That is clean water out there.  Yeah there is not waste pumped out to that thing by the truck load every second of the day.  No.  No plastic wad of trash the size of Texas is floating out there already.  No oil tankers have dumped millions of gallons of crude oil in her already, and the California coast is clear as a bell.  Come on, Toner Boy.  Get it together.  Why would you strip ships of the toxic paint that has been sitting in the water for the last 40 years already, to have the ship rust and create an entirely different toxic waste that would require a crew to clean it every three months for the next 5 years until you sink it? (Damn that was a long ass run-on sentence to get that thought out!) For my last bitch about this topic… why in the hell is it going to take a judge’s OK, and 5 additional years to get these already stripped and cleaned festering eyesores out of the Bay and down to the abyss if the funds are already given?  Is there possibly someone out there looking to buy one of them as a party boat for their weekends on the Delta, and they are just waiting for the market to correct so they can find a buyer?

• From the Associated Press – Violent offenders part of California’s early release program.  *These points are taken straight from the article – Despite lawmakers promises that this program would exclude dangerous prisoners and sex offenders, data shows that those released were convicted of these various crimes: assault with a deadly weapon, battery, domestic violence and attacks on children and the elderly.  This program prohibits the release of people convicted of rape or murder. (Gosh I feel much better knowing that.) Alameda County released 87 inmates that were convicted of crimes such as; assault, battery, corporal injury to a spouse, inflicting injury on a child, domestic violence, cruelty to a child, resisting arrest, possession of a switchblade, carrying a concealed weapon, loaded guns, attempting to take a gun from a police officer and displaying a gun in a threatening manner. (Like there is another way to display a gun?)

Does anything even need to be said?  Obviously it does.  This is how just soft and fat we are as a society.  That is right.  We are supposed to be an evolved society, that has advanced to the point of perfection in our own eyes.  Yes we are so perfect that we are willing to “catch and release” criminals that are unwilling to conform in this civilized world of ours, back into the wild like they are some harmless undersized fish.  These are not people who cheated on their taxes or selling food without a permit and gave the town the shits.  We are talking about people who think that crime and not respecting his fellow man are the way the world goes round.  I talked of thinning the herd before and that rings no truer than in this example of how sheepish we are, and how do we let these anarchy driven people rule the world we live in.  These are people who would rather watch the world burn rather than conform and be a part of it.  So just like in the wild it is time that we stand up and make people think twice before they decide that they want to play by their own rules.  Stop slapping them on the wrists and start treating those who do wrong, there is a recourse for their actions.  The justice system as a whole is like playing a game of craps, even when the facts are known.  They have the legal gall to let a person free on technicalities instead of administering justice for the victims.  Hell in other countries you throw a show and they give you 10 lashes and send you to jail for 20 years.  For a shoe!!!  We have people that beat their kid getting out of jail because they are running out of money.  How in the hell do you run out of money?  Are they staying at the Ritz at a weekend rate?  Four walls, barbed wire, middle of the dessert, some attack dogs, rednecks with guns and beer, and all the rotten table scraps from hard working American’s who want to live a better life, that they can eat!  I am not looking for a new reality show of, “Extreme Sentencing with your Judge Simon Cowell” but come on.  At least make people at least regret to high hell that they did what they did so they would never consider it again in the future!  Better yet… thin the herd.

• From the Associated Press – Cal State East Bay professor now faces federal child porn indictment.  *These points are taken straight from the article – A Cal East Bay University professor and a woman in St. Louis had been arrested for having sex with the woman’s 13 month old daughter in March.  Both have been charged with promoting child pornography, statutory rape and sodomy.  The mother has also been charged with incest.  Since his arrest police have found hundreds of pictures on his home computer of child porn.  Both have been jailed on $2 Million dollar bonds.

Someone please tell me why there is even a need for a trial here?  There is fucking pictures showing them committing the acts!  What defense can they have?  That’s not me.  What the fuck?  I say eye for an eye.  Let them feel what it was like and let elephants have their way with them.  Full on body cavity exploration that splits them from stem to stern!  Oh no… let’s give them a fair trial and allow them to tell their side of the story.  I am sure there was an illegal search and seizure that they can be released for, or after 5 weeks of good behavior a judge can decide that they have been reborn as model citizens and live amongst us once again.  To top that all off let’s give them the chance of getting out on a bond.  This is not like a case of he said, she said.  These are pictures that they were smart enough to take during this deviant act and posted on the Internet where they can be found.  With their fucking faces on them!  That just shows you how fucking stupid they are!  In the animal kingdom the weak ones, or dumb in this case, are left behind for food to the stronger species.  Not us.  We place them in storage like they may be worth something one day and give them second chances.  I have a better idea.  Thin the herd and spend $2 and solve this right now.  Get some other dirt bag in jail for taking an old ladies purse to go out in the field, dig a ditch, (Free) put a $1.00 hollow point bullet in your gun, (I know… why even spend that much on the bastard, right?  Just because it is going to make a big ass mess behind him and I want the purse snatcher to have to clean it up with his prison issue toothbrush!) place it 6 inches from his forehead, pull the trigger, have it misfire on purpose so he can shit his pants, (Something else the purse snatcher can clean with his toothbrush before this is over!) and then blow his brains across the room.  What about the other dollar you ask?  A $.50 piece to fill the hole in his head (Well the front at least.  You are going to need a punchbowl to cover the hole in the back!) and two quarters to cover his eyes.  They are pieces of shit dirtballs who do not deserve to walk among the rest of us, so why waste a penny more on them?  People like this, who think these kinds of actions are OK, need to get off my commute route and stop breathing the oxygen that we have left.  So much good comes from less than you would spend on a Happy Meal!  On that last note… are you going to trust a judicial system that found it fair for a moron who was burned when they spilled a cup of HOT coffee on their lap that they had bought at McDonald’s and was awarded Millions because it was too hot!  Too hot?  Fucking really?  It’s COFFEE!  Or the people who have won a lawsuit against the tobacco companies because they got cancer from smoking?  Are you for real?  You are smoking asshole what did you expect was going to happen?  Butterflies were going to start flying out of your ass?  Was this warning label really even needed on the package?  I applaud the tobacco companies for doing what needs to be done, (Just wish they would find a faster way to get this done!) because they are thinning the herd for the rest of us.  If you know what it can do to you and you choose to do it anyway… whose fault is that?

• From Foxsports.com – Report: Tiger paid mistress to keep quite.  *These points are taken straight from the article – Tiger Woods paid his first reported mistress, Rachel Uchitel, $10 Million to prevent her from talking to the press about their affair publicly.  Tiger was concerned the depth and detail of their relationship would hurt his public image.

What does this have to do with anything?  Well like I said.  This is pointing out the overall stupidity of us all and the pointless things that we covet in this day and age.  First and foremost, what in the hell business is it of ours what this man did, paid to do, paid to stop having it done, has done to atone for his transgressions, how his wife feels, how other golfers feel, what sponsors are still paying him and which ones left?  Who gives a crap?  All I ever cared about, after learning the jaded truth behind everything, is did Elin get all of it and hit it on the screws when she hit him with the 2-iron?  Or was it a chili dipper that she peeled into the rough?  That care was only for my entertainment.  Entertainment.  Wait… that is right.  None of us know this guy or his family on a personal level.  He is here to entertain us the 14 weeks out of the year that he walks onto a golf course and hits the shit out of a little, white, motionless ball better than any of us could dream of doing.  He is not here to raise our kids, fight cancer, protect us from dirt bags or hand us our next paycheck.  The truth is he does not mean a damn thing to us other than give us something to watch when we want a break from our own realities.  Just like every other spoiled piece of shit entertainer out there who we pay through the nose to watch, so they can fill theirs! (OK, that was an 80’s sort of thing, but still, you get my point!)  Since when did our entertainment value rise to a point where the average person cannot afford to be entertained?  After all we are talking about a family of 4 spending close to $400 to go watch a NFL football game cheaply!  How many single income families where a man is making $50 Thousand a year can afford that kind of entertainment budget? (About $3,000 a month bring home, $1,200 rent for an apartment, $350 for a commuter car, $250 utilities, $300 food, $200 for gas and insurance…. I mean that alone is $2,300 a month if they need no clothes, medical, home or school supplies, or anything!  And that is living DAMN thin!) Are you going to tell me that family can swing over half of their remaining monthly nut to go to that football game?  Yet if you listen to players, owners, sponsors, vendors, networks and the league… yes.  They expect just that, and they cannot understand why their numbers are down?  After all these people all have more zeros in their checking account than the rest of ours combined! (Except at the end of the month when all of ours are at zero because we live hand to mouth making sure we have spent every penny we have to line their pockets.)  Maybe because you have priced everyone out and we pay more for our entertainment than we do for our medical each month.  We buy all the magazines, video games, clothes, cars and fake bling just so we can read about their world, pretend we are an electronic version of them, sport their logo, drive a $300 car sitting on $7,000 wheels cause they do, (The wheels, not the car!) or dress like they do only in a Kmart version.  Lemmings.

• From MSNBC.com – Vatican: Pope has immunity in sex abuse trials.  *These points are taken straight from the article – Lawyers for the victims of sexual abuse as children by priests say that Pope Benedict is ultimately responsible for the actions of priests and that the Vatican has covered up these abuses for years.  Legally the Pope can not be called to testify on the matter as he is considered a head of state and has diplomatic immunity from trials in foreign courts. (US) The Vatican has issued a statement that, "The Church is not a multi-national corporation, the Pope has (spiritual) primacy over the Church ... but every bishop is legally responsible for running a diocese."

OK. OK.  I know the two golden rules of thumb.  Never talk to others about religion or politics.  I believe that wholeheartedly because what one person believes in not for others to judge.  Everyone has the right to their own beliefs and no one else should have the right to tell them any different.  There are different religious groups with their own sets of beliefs, and different political groups with their own views on how policy should be handled.  All well and good.  But they are just that.  Your own.  So do us all a favor and follow that golden rule of thumb and keep them to yourself!  Everyone will always tell you that they are right and you are wrong.  Shut the hell up you are both wrong and you need to let the most endanger species of all prevail in these matters.  Common sense.  Were any of you there to witness these things that we believe as fact?  Is there a YouTube video out there that I missed confirming these holy miracles?  Would you be on "that wing" of politics if it did not benefit you personally?  What ever happened doing things for the greater good of all man, and not doing them just to fulfill your own personal agenda?  Sorry... got off on a tangent there for a sec.  But this leads to what I am getting at with this story, and this has nothing to do with poking fun at any one's political, or religious belief.  I can care less where you stand when it comes to that, but I think the true moral of this story is being missed.  The Pope who is supposed to be our last true beacon of hope and stand for all that good in a world of greed and sin.  This man is using a political power to avoid protecting our children from those who have abused their power to manipulate those who looked up to them and believed in them for their own personal agenda.  Where have a heard this before?  What makes anyone better than the next man and allows them to play by their own set of rules and the world turns their heads to let it happen?  Is it their pointy hats?  Sounds like if you want to get away with things and have your personal greed's fulfilled these are the places you can run and hide in and still have people look at you in a clear light.  So let me make sure I have all of this right.  The Pope is going to refuse to help children in the world who have had their trust and bodies violated by those in his charge so it won't cast a black eye on the church.  Is that not a bigger black eye then doing what is right and exposing the problems in the system, and then taking the steps to punish the wrong doers to ensure this never happens again?  This is not a bash on religion.  This is just a simple question.  By all means I think that people should have a light that guides them and if they get that light through prayer and their church that is great.  I just think that those who want to practice their religion and pray should be able to do it without having to watch their ass.  Literally!  I know this is supposed to be a place for comfort, but I don't think that spooning is what they had in mind when the church was built!  If that were the case the Motel 6 in town offers comfort by the hour.  Oh wait... this was a political tool used with the head of state loophole you say.  OK.  Sorry.  That makes it all better.  So then the Queen of England should not stand up and punish those in her charge that go to Haiti bringing relief and sexually violate a group of orphaned kids that they met at a shelter England has built to protect them from the outside world?  This never happened, but is there any difference in the two?  Thought not.  Again... a common sense thing, not a politically or religiously motivated thing. Anyone who would use their position of power to manipulate the young mind who look up to them are not souls that can ever be saved.  They are deviant pieces of shit and if you left them alone with the parents whose children they have hurt... they should have the right to thin the herd.  If there truly is a God... justice and satisfaction would be served for these victims, and what are still just people like you and I, should not be allowed to hide behind or use a loophole for their own agenda's.


OK.  Time to step off of my box for now.  I am sure many of you wish that there was a rope around my neck, and the box was being kicked out instead!  Sorry about your bad luck.  Next time out I am going to give you my insights and pearls of wisdom in regards to the following topics -

• Politics
• Parenting
• Medical costs
• Stock market
• Big business (Auto makers, insurance and so on.)
• Media, Movies and Music
• Dugard case and others like it

I am sure they will be received just as well as a flaming bag of poop on your front porch.

The point of all of this is just to point out to everyone that we are not as special as we think we are, and if it was not for our opposable thumbs and the ability to walk upright many would see us as one of the lessor species on the planet.  After all how many rhino's do you know with shaky credit?  Lionesses that would not tear the head off of an animal who touched or hurt their young?  A gazelle pay to watch a tiger eat another gazelle?  Possums that walk around in Roos because it supports their distant cousin in the South?  Or a jackal that was allowed to belittle and degrade a bear cub without the poppa bear ripping off its head and shitting the hole full?  Hell at least they eat the weak or non conforming animals, in or around the herd, to keep their herd strong.

For those of you who still can't wrap your minds around the fact that this has nothing to do with what you believe in, support, cheer for, do as a hobby, color of your skin, where you came from, drive like, crimes you commit or do behind closed doors.  (OK it is a little about the last two.) This is all about looking at these topics to see the thought process that went into making these decisions to allow these types of people we know will have no positive affects in our society, but yet we keep placing them back amongst decent hard working people and think that everything is going to be just peachy.  In one of my all time favorite quotes Albert Einstein said, "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."  Never have truer words been spoken.  We all want change, but are unwilling to change.  If someone does something different from our forefathers to try and make change for the better, we label them as a fool.  Who is the fool?  The ones who got us here in the first place, or the ones who are willing to try something different to fix someone else's mistake?  If it does not work are we any worse off then we were before?  If you can't grasp that... go back to playing with your food.
  
Face facts, and not live by assumptions people.  Look at the things we place value on and covet.  Now really, are we as smart and advanced as we think we are?  We look pretty damn stupid if you ask me.  But hey, you decide.


Toner Boy
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Yes..... I am back.  Oh shit, I know.


Sorry I am just about bored to tears today, so I figured why not do my part to bring utter joy to the rest of you.  No articles this time.  Just some of my views on the remaining topics that I just find it hard to believe we have overlooked.


Let's begin this love fest talking about the stock market since it is a source of joy and happiness for so many of us.  My apologies to the Enron investors.  Let's take a stroll down memory lane, shall we.


The day is October 1, 1928 and the DOW is born.  The US population is around 120 million folks and the DOW opens with a value of 300 based on America's brick and mortar businesses.  The ability for Americans to invest into American based businesses, and products is born.  This was soon followed by the Great Depression and the DOW slide to its all time low of 42.84 on April 1st, 1932.  That is a drop of 86% in value of the publicly held American business industry.  The population at this time was just under 125 million people.  Obviously during this time period most Americans pulled their investments out of the stock market to try and survive these times with what little they had remaining from their initial investment.


Let's fast forward now to January 4, 1954.  This is the first point in time where the stock market recovered to the point of eclipsing the initial opening day bell for the DOW is it was valued at 303.51.  The US population is just over 163 million at this time.  The auto industry is booming and overall financial growth abound.  It took over 20 years to get back to square one.  By January 2, 1959 the DOW has just about doubled in value to 601.71, and the population had grown to almost 178 million people.  That is a huge growth in the number of Americans and the values of these publicly traded company's in such a short period.  American companies such as Zenith have begun producing televisions for the American consumer during this time.


It takes almost 35 years from this point for the DOW to double in value again.  April 4, 1983 the DOW has reached 1,221.96 and the growth of the population had climbed to just under 233 million people.  That is almost double what it was in 1928.  The world is still brick and mortar business, but technology is on the rise.  More and more goods are being imported during this time as American business sees a quick buck for turning these products.  People begin investing it these "middle man" businesses more and more that have no real "hand" in the product themselves.  The consumer's infatuation for products, that we are not able to produce ourselves, greatly outweighs the basis of investors approach to investing is stable American businesses as they did in the past.


In less then 4 years the influx on non-US based companies has become a large part of Wall Street.  The DOW has climbed to 2304.69 by January 2, 1987, and the population has risen to about 242 million people.  With all of this innovation and growth in the US and world markets the DOW has increased whooping 668% since its inception almost 60 years ago.  That is an average growth of 11% a year.  Not bad at all.  Even with all of the growth in industry and business around the US, and now abroad, markets that seems like a fairly rapid pace.  I bet you if the investment process had been simplified for the average American and they were told that if they invested in publicly traded, American based companies that they would see a return, on average, of 11% a year they would have done so in a heart beat!  What would there have been a need for a 401K at that point?  We are talking about 11% a year return.


Let's look at this.  If the average Joe were making $30,000 a year during this time and he were to invest 10% of his checks to a "Reinvest in American Business" fund for 20 years, his return on his money would have been $242,096.18!  That is a profit of $182,000+ if he were to pull it all out in exactly 20 years!  If he no longer invests and leaves the money sitting there, and only withdraws the interest earned each year, he would have a personally built retirement fund that pays him $25,938.88 each and every year.  Now that is not a ton of money, but combined with other retirement funds that you would receive... that is nothing to turn your nose up at.  Not to mention.... this is only over 20 years here.  How long will most of us work in our lives?  45? 50? 55 years?  Let's just look at 40 years... your bankroll at the end of 40 years.... just over $2.3 million, and a yearly return of $276,152.90.  Think you could live on that yearly after 40 years of work?  You would have only invested $3,000 a year from your $30,000 a year job.  That is a total investment of $120,000.


Hmmmm... think America would be in the same boat as we are today if someone would have stopped to think how to get the average American involved to re-invest in American business?  Would we still be footing the bill for others to retire?  No because more people would have retired early and there would be less strain on the workforce as more jobs would become available.  Would we really be trying to figure out how to pay for medical coverage for all Americans, when all of our tax dollars could have been put to better use?  I know we are covering a 60 year period of American history here, and there has been a ton of growth, so 11% a year is a pretty solid foundation to build a country on moving forward, and worth investing in.  Up until this time, for the most part, these were still American based companies that everyone would have been investing in.  I mean if you look at it in this perspective anyone with an ounce of foresight in government back in the 50's would have pushed for such programs and no American would be in the boat we are in today.  Oh wait... there's more.  We are only up to 1987 at this point.  It gets much worse.  Hell at least we were talking about tangible, consumer goods driven business to this point in time.  Wait until we get to this virtual and foreign shit!


Flash forward to April 3, 1995.  In the past 8 years we have seen the birth of a new industry and the Internet has taken off.  Millions of jobs have been created due to this, and they haven't even scratched the surface in marketing with the Internet.  The DOW has jumped 4,556.10 and the population now sits at more than 262 million.  Brick and mortar US based company's are depending more and more on foreign labor so they are able to increase profit margins and meet now ballooning investor expectations.  Foreign based company's are now starting to gobble up foundation US businesses such as Zenith.  Zenith?  A foundation company of the US?  I thought they went the way of the Dodo?  Nope.  They were bought by a little Korean electronics firm called LG for their technology.  Ever heard of them?  Yeah.


Hardware and software manufacturers begin to spring up everywhere due to the demand for instantaneous growth within the computer industry.  Companies now look for a way to use the Internet for marketing campaigns and e-commerce to increase revenues.  Those "middle man" business models are now considered gold in the eyes of investors and the bulk of investor money has been moved out of America's brick and mortar business to these for a quick buck.  The foundation of commerce that America has been built on over the past 70 years has changed in the blink of an eye.  The investment world, and the world as a whole, has become a place of instant information, gratification and services.  No more long term investing for Americans.  It is all about, "Show me the money!"


The DOW leaps to 9,786.16 on January 4, 1999, and continues to 11,497.12 just a few short months later on October 1, 1999.  That is an increase of 252% in less than 5 years!  Stocks such as Yahoo! hit the Street in '96 around $25 a share, and had highs over $450 a share.  This was even after several 2:1 and 3:2 stock splits trying to keep the share prices down.  So when you own a Yahoo! stock... what is it you really own?  What is it that Yahoo! manufactures again?  How do you measure their company's long term sales?  Oh they don't?  You can't?  Hmmm... sounds like a great investment to me.  Oh they have click sales and advertising money from clients that pave their halls with gold you say?  So when some pissed off 14 year old Russian kid decides that he has had enough, and he is going to unleash a virus that he has created that will steal everyone's information and permanently corrupt the Internet... how is that investment in an electronic marketing and search engine looking now?  Impossible you say?  Yeah OK.  I had left this business back in 2000 because automation and hackers were prevalent back then.  When 90% of all daily email is SPAM, what does that tell you?  The Internet is a cool place to stay informed... not shop, bank, or devote your life. (Hence my blog, huh? AHAHAHAHA) Sorry... back on topic.  Yahoo! caps out at over $500 a share in early 2000, has a few more 2:1 splits and the population has now risen to over 272 million people in the US as of 1999.


The advent of technology begins to flatten out and terrorist attacks have corrected the stock market through the early 2000's.  By July 1, 2002 the DOW has settled in at 7,591.93 and the population has continued to growth to almost 289 million people.  Now pound for pound, or people to value, this is probably the most well adjusted the numbers have been since 1987.  I will show you an example of these numbers shortly.  With an onslaught of creative financing and doctored books the DOW takes off again with peoples aspirations of getting rich quick.  The new/old fad of real estate has picked up where technology has left off and has created the latest boon for would be entrepreneurs.


At the height of the market, both real estate and the DOW, the DOW tops out on October 9, 2007 at 14,164.61.  The population is now sitting at 301.5 million.  Literally the next day the market begins to fall from these absurd inflated values as the financial markets get a taste of reality, ahhh... learn the truth behind the idea of creative marketing brought on by Greenspan. (That fucking genius!) The DOW begins to fall and banks begin to fail day in, and day out.  Just showing you how on the edge the American financial system is as everyone from the White House on down is robbing Peter to pay Paul. (Or as I like to call it... An advanced case of diarrhea of the wallet syndrome!)  Everyone just assumed that the free money was just going to keep on pouring in like rain water through a leaking roof.  I am sorry but I have said to anyone who will listen for many years at this point that this was all a mirage and at some point we were going to see that we have left our stable little village for an oasis that we saw off in the distance.


Americans were using their houses as open checkbooks to buy every toy imaginable and in turn consumer and durable goods orders were going through the roof.  But once they peeked.... they were falling off the high wire with no safety net!  No one was going to buy homes during a declining market when they had no idea when the prices were going to stop falling.  Nor should they.  Banks were unable, or willing to lend as no one had equity left in their homes after living like pleasure whores for the past 5 years.  Credit companies bit everyone in the ass as they began to reduce credit lines to consumers.  Why is that bad?  They are just saving themselves from further damage.  Wrong!  What they did in turn was lower the credit scores of millions of Americans who were still in good standing with them.  How?  Credit scores are a calculation of credit history and available credit to percentage of credit used.  Once you lower the available credit to a consumer, their ratio of credit used increases.  This will then lower your credit score.  OK, well that is only one bank.  How much can that matter.  A lot!  Once one bank does this, and your other banks get their monthly, or quarterly score alert updates they see that your score has dropped due to decreased credit available to you.  They don't know why, and they don't care.  All they know is it looks like you went out and used a boat load of your credit so they are going to reduce your account with them as well.  This just snowballs until a person's credit scores have dropped to junk levels.  Oh did I mention that they had done nothing wrong and are still in good standings with all of their banks?  Well if they have paid everything and are in good standing, then they still have good credit.  Wrong again McFly!  A person with a perfect credit history for 15 years, and no available credit to them, can have scores in the lower 500's!  That is a BIG credit risk in the eyes of lenders.  Once again... did I mention that you STILL have done nothing wrong?  Yeah... that is a true story for many people out there.  Yeah... I am one of them.  741 mid score, to the low 500's in less than 3 months and had over $135,000 worth of credit removed because one bank started having troubles and reduced my credit line down to the balance on the account.  Told you I was going to go every direction on this page!  Back to my point....


It appeared that in 08-09 that common sense may have finally kicked in as the DOW was in the 7,500 to 9,000 range.  A nice foothold, even though it is still quite a bit ballooned in the overall scheme of things.  But no can do.  In the age of instant information and day traders the market continues to bounce around like a porn star jogging without a bra! (And once again... not to mention over inflated!)  No tangible companies are still holding high values by investors waiting for the next quick buck.  They will jump around 15 times a day with daily trade volumes reaching as high as, get this, 6.53 billion!!!!  Let me give you an example of how the market is overflowed with nothing more than guys named Chip sitting at home in their undies trying to be the next Warren Buffett.  Back in the stoneage, you know... 2000.  There were less than 1 billion trades a day...  EVER!  Take it back to pre-Internet and there were never more than 300 million trades in a day.  Yeah... that is going to be great for the stability of the market and our country.  Hey let's let them speculate of commodity futures as well!  Dumb fucks.


Today the market sits at 11,045.27 and the population is around 307 million at the beginning of the year.  So why in the hell have I kept updating these little facts along the way.  No reason.  Just wanted to waste your time.  Just kidding.  Let me break this out in a value to person ratio with every (known or legal) citizen in the US during each of those time periods.

• In 1928 each person in the US had a value, compared to the value of the DOW of .00000250.  Are you with me so far?  In 1959 that value increased to .00000338.  Nothing to sneeze at as that is a 35% increase over a 31 year period.  After all as Americans we are contributing to the value of our market and each and every one of us holds and intrinsic value whether we invest in the stock market or not.  So this is a fair comparison.  Looking at it that means that our individual value to our country increases on average of just over 1% per year, per person.  For the initial foundation we built this country on that is pretty stable growth I feel.  If you look at 1987 our individual value has shot up to .00000952.  That is an increase of 281% from 1928.  You have heard the old adage give it 100%?  How do you give it 281%?  What about in 1995 when it increases to 596%?  Or 2000 and 1,591%?  Or 2007 and 1,779%?  If this 2007 figure were to hold true it would mean the value of each American would have to have increased 25% per year!  This takes into account the population growth at each point in time as well.  That is a whole lot of damn growth of a countries basic core value considering that we don't produce more than, well... produce these days! (Even that shit is questionable.  E coli anybody?)  I don't know about you, but I see a lot of fat, lazy, good for nothing, cheaters of the system out there in this world today and you can bet your sweet ass that they are not improving their value 25% per year!  Hell most of them fuckers depreciate more in value than a second hand condom!

I am sure most of you are overwhelmed and going "WTF?"  But if you can replace the thoughts of who has the best tactics on Survivor with these scary little things, that are staring us right in the face, you will see how we once had a strong stable system that was pretty fail safe turned into shit by greed and a tricky accountants pencil!  Can the market really be too good to be true?  What do you think?

Until we speak again.


Toner Boy