MS. FLUKE AND FUNDING BIRTH CONTROL

In my opinion, this is not an issue about Ms. Fluke. Nor is it an issue about sex and abstinence. It is a social issue unlike many other social issues. For most social issues, such as helping poor people, giving food stamps, providing low cost housing, providing medical treatment, we ask ourselves if we are our brother's keeper? We have seen the Republican candidates all take the position that they conclude that we are not our brother's keeper and they would like to do away with or minimize the help to the disadvantaged. I am from the other side and believe that we are our brother's keeper and would like to see all of these programs flourish, but monitored to remove abuse.

Still, the concept of paying for birth control falls outside of the normal social issue of helping the disadvantaged. There is no question that unwanted births in this country cost hundreds of times more than would be the cost of free contraception. The Republicans want to make this a moral issue, however, it is a social and economic one. For every birth that could have been prevented with free birth control, we save on pre-natal care, doctors and hospital costs for giving birth, and all of the years the mother will probably be on welfare and funding pediatric care. The cost of free birth control is peanuts compared to the savings.

The savings are greater if you add to it having less abortions, the extra cost of the foster parent program, the lower productivity of the single parent, the lower productivity potential of the married parent, the overpopulation cost to the planet, the higher propensity of being high school dropouts fostering even more people on welfare in the next generation. I don't know if there has been quantification, but I assume the savings are enormous.

Politicians have to couch this program as being a medical issue because it is not politically correct to discuss it from the view that people should be more responsible, avoid outside of marriage child birth and avoiding children one can ill afford. It is necessary that there be birth control, a sort of social engineering, to the economic and social well being of the country.

The Cheerleaders of LeRoy, N.Y.

I am sure I’m not the only one who caught the news about mass hysteria befalling the Cheerleaders in this small town. For those of you who are news challenged, the darlings all developed a tic or twitch that seemed involuntary. It was well documented on T.V.

There was a number of environmentalists who were blaming poisons in the school food, poisons in other places in LeRoy, and other possibilities, but none of these would render the hysteria limited to only the cheerleaders. Notably, there was no neurological damage after exhaustive tests and both Dr. Freud and his mentor’s body-of-work were cited as documenting “a neurological condition without neurological damage”.

What is personally surprising is why they did not solicit my thinking on this subject?

I believe that the Cheerleaders were previously given a lecture on the benefits of “faking It” as a precursor in preparing themselves for their inevitable marriages. Then, they started Emailing each other and texting with such a frenzy going well beyond carpal tunnel syndrome into a hissy fit stage and hence the physical manifestations.

It is simply The Relentless Pursuit of Perfection going awry.

PROP 8 UNCONSTITUTIONAL

I never thought gloating over an opponents loss was laudatory, but in this case, my message to all of the anti-gay marriage organized religions, in particular the Mormon Church, the ministers, everywhere, who poison the minds of their flocks with bigotry and hatred, the homophobic throngs who have bastardized straight marriage and left an army of single parents and high school drop-outs, and the double digit I.Q. minions who just hate anyone not like themselves.... I take the rest of my life to watch you squirm.

To all LGBT folks in California who felt the pain of Prop. 8, may you set the example of love for all who follow. And, to protect the youth from bullies, the gays from assault, and any semblance of LGBT bashing be it physical or just discriminatory, fight with an iron fist.

THE ECONOMY.....I HAVE SEEN THE ENEMY

AND IT IS US.............................

America was at its strongest when we manufactured the products we used and when we all paid our fair share of taxes, when everyone served in the armed forces, when laws controlled the abuses of business and the Supreme Court was more balanced .

We blame the Chinese, the Russians, Middle Easterners, Wall Street, Insurance Companies, Oil Companies, Big Pharma, Illegal immigrants and everyone except ourselves.

But the enemy is us. We allowed our great manufacturing base to go overseas, we have a voluntary armed force stretched to the limit, we have less and weaker controls on business abuses, our businesses are not hiring when we need them to, the government is deadlocked, and everyone wants their rewards now caring less, or not at all, about our fellow brethren. We sing songs like a flock of sheep about loving America, and we feel nothing for or fellow Americans. The i phone, I pod, in my opinion, panders to our myopic culture.

One can argue that I'm wrong, but I point out simply that a group of citizens occupied streets and parks, and the police broke them up and abused many, and we the people stood by and did nothing. Our fellow Americans were dragged, beaten, sprayed, and arrested and we watch it on TV like dummies. Many of us vote based on religious and ideological premises making me believe that we are not simply our own enemy, we are also borderline morons.

PROTESTORS IN THE U.S.AND MIDDLE EAST

I remember the Administration railing about protecting the protestors and citizens all throughout the Arab Spring movement. When the ruling Middle East government moved against the marchers, screams from our Administration resounded loudly on all TV channels that their leader must go. Even though the Arab Spring Protestors carried and used weapons, the U.S. position was that there really should not be a crack down. Am I wrong?

It seem so disingenuous that police can break up U.S. Citizens Constitutional right to gather, to march, to protest and drag these citizens off to jail and manhandle them. This is left up to the local police department so if the mayor is a Republican, he will use a flimsy excuse like tents, garbage, noise to turn an army of police with clubs on our own citizens.

I think it is an outrage. I remember in the old western movies, the Indian Chief not wanting to make peace because the white man speak with forked tongue.

The Brilliance of Bank of America

BofA bought out a bank's credit card portfolio and I received their card. I bought about $500 a month and paid it always on time so, I guess, to punish me, they wanted to charge a monthly fee. As a result I cancelled their card and reported this practice to the Better Business Bureau. I received a phone call from someone who sounded like they worked for the capo de capo who was indignant telling me my account was not profitable. I told her that BofA did not have to worry about my accounts profitability any longer.

Since they came out with a cash-back card which I believe allows them to charge a higher fee for every credit transaction bleeding the merchant.

Now they want to charge a monthly fee for all those who use debit cards.

The conclusion dear reader, if that BofA who advertises about all the wonderful things they do in communities, the wonderful loans to build America, really looks to me, like a bank hungry for fees from all of their customers and banking associates. Yes, a fee hungry bank. If the shoe fits.........

Maybe everyone in the world who owns one of their credit or debit cards should cut it up and cancel the account. Perhaps the governing board will vote in a kinder and gentler capo.

ATTITUDE AT THE U.S. OPEN

The woman's finals at the 2011 U.S. Open Tennis Championships saw Serena Williams hit a strong forehand. If I recall, it was an inside-out shot from the approximate middle of the court to Samantha Sosur's backhand. After she hit the shot, she screamed just before Sosur was to attempt racket contact. The chair umpire ruled interference with play and awarded the point to Samantha.

Serena cursed at the umpire, called her ugly, inferred that this is America to a foreigner, said she didn't want to look at her, said that the umpire should not look at Serena, and I thought that Williams was generally obnoxious and belligerent. If I remember John McEnroe repeated several times that it should be called a let and the point replayed.

It turns out that the chair umpire was right and Samantha said nothing because she mentioned that she understood the rule, and Serena and McEnroe were wrong.

Serena later said that Samantha would have won anyway (it did not effect the outcome) but she did not apologize to the audience, to the umpire or to the TV audience. If she did, I am mistaken. McEnroe seemed to say that some other curly haired guy also argued with umpires as if to say that Serena's behavior was OK.

Now, I love Serena's game but I think her comments to the umpire was so out of line that she should have been fined. Maybe the only balls in tennis are the optic yellow ones on the court. The umpire was not the ugly person on this 9-11. Two were.